/// INDUSTRY2 BBFC + MPAA

This blog post will be surrounding the issues on BBFC + MPAA.

Does the BBFC treat movies distributed by there Big 5 better than indie movies?

Here is a guide to BBFC and MPAA ratings

MPAA

BBFC

A typical theme reoccurring is the BBFC and MPAA seem to favourite movies distributed by the big 5. They are more likely to give a higher rating to an indie movie, and a lower rating to a mainstream movie.

The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008) opens with a very violent and gory scene, where a pencil is put through a mans head. 

Budget: $180m
Box office: $1b
Distributor: Warner Bros.

The parents guide on IMDb considers the violence and gore to be moderate, with the sex and nudity being 'none', profanity to be 'mild', alcohol, drugs... to be 'mild' and the frightening and intense scenes to be 'severe'.  One comment says:

BBFC gave this movie a 12A and MPAA gave it PG-13, "due to intense sequences of violence and some menace"
They claimed it was due to its 'cartoon style'

The World's End (Edgar Wright, 2013) has constant swearing, with 'mother****er' almost becoming a catchphrase for one character.

Budget: $20m
Box office: $46.1m
Distributor: Universal pictures

The parents guide on IMDb considers the profanity as 'severe', the sex and nudity as 'mild', the frightening and intense scenes as 'mild', the alcohol, drugs and smoking as 'moderate' and violence and gore as 'moderate'.

The movie was given the rating of R by MPAA, and it was given a 15 by BBFC. This seems to be quite shocking due to the repeated use of swearing. The distributors will be very happy with this as it means the target audience (Age 15-24) is easier to access.

On the opposite side, we have a Warp film called This is England (Shane Meadows, 2007). This movie was produced with the intention of creating a teenage movie with a target audience of between 15-24. They were given a BBFC rating of 18, meaning their audience was narrowed to mainly above 18 only. This means that the box office is smaller.

Budget: 1.5 m GBP
Box Office: 5m GBP
Distributor: StudioCanal UK

The parents guide considers the violence to be 'severe', the profanity to be 'severe', the alcohol, drugs and smoking to be 'moderate' and the frightening and intense scenes as 'severe'. Although appearing to have a harsh parents guide, the comments don't seem to appear too different to The World's End.

I would agree that the profanity is severe, however it seems to be similar to the profanity in The World's End. You could look at the other side and say that it depends on the context of the swearing, as it is considered more extreme if it is used as an insult and said directly to someone. The World's End is a comedy, therefore most of the swearing done in that is for comedic purposes.

/// FILM OPENING EG9 World War Z

(CREDITS TO TRIHARD PRODUCTIONS FOR THIS BLOG POST)

SYNOPSIS

World War Z is a post-apocalyptic film, which was directed in 2013, by Marc Foster, known for his previous work on Quantum of Solace and The Kiterunner, both films which fall far from the genre of World War Z. He is a BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit Award nominee.

PLOT

The film follows the life of the immediate family of Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), through the end of the world, where a Zombie outbreak occurs. Gerry is a former employee of the UN, who knows people in the military, and goes to them, seeking solace, whilst trying to find the cure for the outbreak, or at least trying to find a way for humans not to be affected by the undead. We see Brad Pitt's character go through many countries, in search of someone who knows something about something. He eventually finds the cure in Cardiff, Wales. Which he finds out is a cure, by injecting himself with it, it's some kind of pathogen which he didn't really know was a pathogen. He could have died or something, but he risked his life to find the cure and from then on he was hailed as an American hero!

IDENTS

World War Z follows an unusual pattern in regards to idents, not following the typical rule of using between 3-4 idents. 

World War Z uses 5 idents, which are as follows (in order): 

Paramount Pictures

Plan B

Skydance Productions

Hemisphere

GK films

SHOT TYPES

In the opening of World War Z, we are presented with a long title sequence, which shows clips of the news presenting multiple natural disasters, as well as strange occurrences. We are also presented by short clips of large groups of people walking.

The first shot, is an establishing shot, focussing on the house of the main protagonist. We then experience narrative enigma, as a door into a bedroom is opened. Two children then run into the bedroom of the main protagonist and his wife, sleeping. The mise-en-scene, contains very dim, and boring colours, with various shades of brown, grey and blue, colours associated with conservative.

CHARACTERS

Brad Pitt's character and his wife, are both wearing blue items of clothing, Brad Pitt, wearing a dark blue v-neck pullover, and holding a light blue mug.
The actress playing his wife is wearing a light blue, wool, sweater. She is holding a turquoise/green mug.

ZOMBIES

The Zombie's in World War Z, are not similar to the usual portrayal of the undead, which are typically slow moving and take a while to turn from human to zombie. The zombie's in World War Z are fast moving, and take seconds to turn from human to zombie. They act similarly to Danny Boyle's 28 days later zombies.

/// THEORY5 Male gaze

In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world, in the visual arts and in literature, from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male viewer.


The idea of male gaze was introduced by a film maker named Laura Mulvey, and was introduce in 1970s, when she wrote an essay on visual pleasure and narrative cinema. She claims that most popular movies are filmed in ways to satisfy masculine scopophilia.

It is linked to the Bechdel test (see earlier blog post), as both are done for the pleasure of male viewers.

Here is a video explaining the male gaze theory in detail.

/// IDEAS9 Character - Mia Jones

(credit to Scope Productions for post)

• Love interest
• 18 years old
• Attractive - male gaze - Laura Mulvey

FILMS/TV

• Dear John
• The Vow
• The Notebook
• World War Z
• Dawn of the Dead

GADGETS

• Phone
• Machete
• Pistol
• Pocket knife

ITEM OF CLOTHING

• Leather jacket
• Boots
• Black skinny high waisted jeans
• White vest top, slightly cropped, rip by the neck

PLACES SHE'S BEEN TO

• Los Angeles
• London
• Paris
• Tokyo
• Singapore

FOODS/DRINKS THEY LIKE

• Any kind of salad
• Has a guilty pleasure for chicken wings
• Water with lemon and cucumber 
• Coffee

OUTFIT INSPIRATION

Inspiration from Zombieland

/// MARKETING1 Social Media

In todays lesson, we looked at setting up social medias for marketing our film opening. We decided to set up TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We want to target a primary audience of ages 15-24, and a secondary audience of 25-45. Tiktok focuses on an audience that's relatively young, therefore that would target the younger spectrum. Instagram has a slightly more mixed audience, as there are a lot of young people on it, while also some older. Twitter is also more familiar to younger adults whereas Facebook has an older audience (therefore reaching the secondary audience) as the audience has grown up with the app. We also designated a role to each social media, as we can give more time to social media's that suit each of us better. I am in charge of the Tiktok, as I have experience on the app, Tristan will takeover the Twitter account, Emma will take over Instagram and James will start the facebook account. Here are the links:

- Tiktok

- Facebook

- Instagram

- Twitter

Along with this, we made a gmail account together, so that we can all access each social media. it is donnieofthedead0@gmail.com

/// FILM OPENING EG8 28 Days Later

28 Days Later (Danny Boyle - 2002)

Danny Boyle

Danny Boyle is a renowned film director in the specific zombie genre. He is also well known for directing movies such as Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 hours.

Plot

A group of misguided animal rights activists free a caged chimp infected with the "Rage" virus from a medical research lab. When London bike courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma a month after, he finds his city all but deserted. On the run from the zombie-like victims of the Rage, Jim stumbles upon a group of survivors, including Selena (Naomie Harris) and cab driver Frank (Brendan Gleeson), and joins them on a perilous journey to what he hopes will be safety.



 Budget + Box office  
                                                          

The budget of this movie was £5m

The box office was $82.7m

Stars

Cillian Murphy
Naomie Harris

Genre

Drama, Horror, Sci-fi

Ideas

Decaying title 'presents' fades away
- Blood splatter on main title

- We won't take the style of fast zombies as we would prefer to use the stereotypical style (more practical for filming)

- Security camera style

Idents

UK Film council

DNA films

Fox Searchlight Pictures

/// IDEAS8 Film Opening Inspirations

(THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY CREATED BY SCOPE PRODUCTIONS)

SHAUN OF THE DEAD
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...

Things we liked (ignoring the bar scene):

• Everyone looking like zombies however they're just doing their boring jobs
• When a car would go past and it would cut into next shot
• The continuous panning from left to right 
• The use of titles such as the Shaun of the Dead on the floor
• The narrative enigma of Shaun panning from feet to head and looks like a zombie
• The quick shots of parts of his morning routine

ZOMBIELAND

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Things we liked:

• The video recorder effect
• Point of view shot with the first zombie
• The visuals of Earth (don't know if we could do that)
• The use of titles for the rules
• The funny list of rules
• The slo mo title sequence (however we thought it was too long)
• The moving titles in the title sequence

WARM BODIES

...

...

Things we liked:

• The narrative enigma of the main character then revealing he is a zombie
• The set design
• The internal monologue
• Flashbacks
• Scenes going on behind character 
• The transition back to how it was before and then back to now

...

/// IDEAS7 new Film Opening Pitch

(THIS WAS A BLOG POST MADE BY SCOPE PRODUCTIONS)

SETH OF THE BRAIN DEAD
Working Title at the moment.  Intertextuality with Sean of the Dead

Scene 1 

• Playing movie in protagonists messy living room
• Not showing protagonist immediately (narrative enigma)
• Playing Scream / Halloween / Dawn of the Dead / Shaun of the Dead
• Opening Baked Beans can with pocket knife and eating them cold

Scene2

• Protagonist in shower
• Pans from feet to head (cuts in between)
• Oblivious to zombies in bathroom
• Dropping shampoo bottle knocking out zombie
• Slipping and kicking zombie killing it
• Possible shower singing scene for comedic effect

Scene 3

• Getting ready scene 
• Quick shots like in Shaun of the Dead
• Brushing teeth
• Going to toilet
• Putting on glasses
• Getting dressed 
• Putting on glasses
• Putting on badge for blockbuster store

Scene 4

• Walking out of house with headphones on looking out phone
• Not looking around
• Sees girl ahead (love interest) trying to tell him theres a zombie behind him
• False scare - hand on shoulder 
• Turns out to be the best friend character who pushes him out the way
• Shouts 'get in car'
• Pulls dead body out revealing title on floor

LOCATION

PROTAGONIST

• Male
• 18 years old
• Attractive - female gaze
• Named Seth

FILMS/TV

• Star Wars
• Star Trek
• Indiana Jones
• Sherlock
• Breaking Bad
• Shaun of the Dead

GADGETS

• Watch (casio digital)
• Phone
• Glasses
• Spare glasses
• Pocket knife
• Can opener
• Pens

ITEMS OF CLOTHING

• Graphic tee
• Straight cut blue jeans - thrifted - slightly worn/faded
• Glasses - taking them off and wiping them as nervous tic - helps with not seeing
• Possible button up over tee
• White high tops 
• Possible long black trench coat

PLACES HE'S BEEN TO

• Library
• Diner
• Game Store
• Home

FOODS/DRINKS THEY LIKE

• Slushies
• Milkshakes
• Monsters 
• Hot dogs
• Pizza

RANDOM FURTHER DETAILS

• Only child
• Love interest
• Works at blockbusters
• Really good at darts

EXTRA NOTES

• Impact on comedy to bring BBFC rating down to a 15 from an 18 
• Wears a World's End tee - direct intertextuality
• Plays video games
• Has junk food and empty cartons etc.
• To connote working at Blockbusters - name tag / card
• Blockbuster movies
• CD - possibly use as coaster or plate
• Empty cans
• Cigarettes
• Opening baked beans with pocket knife
• Box TV with playstation 2
• Set in this day and age but has all old gadgets
• DVD player - Dawn of the Dead / George A. Romero DVDs
• Link DVD - in Halloween playing movie at start - Scream played Halloween movie
• Triple hybrid rom-com-zom

SECONDARY CHARACTER

• Female
• Around 18 years old
• Attractive - male gaze
• Named Chloe
• Binary opposition to Seth
• Badass, very dominant and confident
• Doesn't let her guard down in opening
• Wears athletic, tight clothing (like Lara Croft)
• White vest top, slightly cropped, rip by neck
• Black skinny high waisted jeans
• Black leather jacket

/// PRE-PRODUCTION2 Group alterations

In todays lesson, myself and Bright Films, decided to join the other group, as one member of their group has stopped Media Studies. This means that we are now allowed to work as a 4 (as 4 group members is the maximum). We feel they had a very solid plot, so we would go along with their hybrid genre (zom-rom-com). We recorded a short video of our lessons discussion points.

/// PRE-PRODUCTION1 Pre-production schedule

• Central protagonist - Danny Romero
• Love interest - Mia Jones
• Best friend - Eddie Pegg
• 2/3 zombies 
• Intertextualising genre directors (Danny Boyle, George A Romero) - Danny Romero

• Cornetto reference - possibly worms eye view - steps on cornetto wrapper - strawberry flavour - blood
• see zombie in bathroom + outside (chasing him) + zomie eating dead body
• Shallow focus (zombie eating body from far away)
• decaying title
• slow zombie movement type

/// VODCAST3 First Shot

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/// THEORY4 Bechdel Test

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/// FILM OPENING EG7 Bridget Jones's Diary

• Medium Long-shot
• Central Framing
• rule of thirds - central protagonist
• Black taxis - providing exposition in where it is set (London/South England)
• Doesn't have hat or umbrella - provides exposition on her
• Blonde and female - possible dumb blonde stereotype 
• Tracking her - anchors her as protagonist and voice over
• Ellipses to little southern English village - stereotypically nice (now normative)
• Red telephone box to anchor where it's set
• 
  

/// FILM OPENING EG6 Hot Fuzz

• WT2 - pseudo indie - not indie but low budget
• Conventional first shot being outdoors but not in World's End
• Extreme Long-shot
• Straight cut - no fade in
• Rule of thirds - not concrete however light part is centered
• Giving some exposition
• Verisimilitude - props in mise-en-scene (folders)
• Sound of sirens giving exposition
• Doors opening alongside explosion sound effect (cuts sharply when doors open) - signifier of comedy
• Diegetic sound of doors opening - often exaggerated to create a larger effect
• Rushing character - connotes serious and taking job seriously - possibly central protagonist
• Junior company is represented by 'In association with'
• First cut using disguised cut (effective and something to think about for personal film opening)
• 31 seconds opening long take
• Exposition with close-up to focus on stern, serious expression
• comedic when badge comes out and shows exact same expression
• exaggerated walk links to comedy genre as well
• the long sustained note forces tension
• Camera is also tracking in
• 
  

/// THEORY3 Digitisation, Disruption and Convergence

Digitisation

 The ongoing but advanced process of moving from analogue (eg VHS, 35mm film) to digital production, distribution and exchange, which has reduced costs and led to convergence and disruption

Disruption

 Radical changes to the established methods of distribution, often leading to new competitors arising

Convergence

 The reducing gap between professional and amateur/consumer/prosumer level equipment; the shrinking distinction between audience and producers as old top-down approaches and passive audiences are replaced by active audiences (web 2.0!!!) and a dynamic two-way flow (UGC); the blurring of once clear divides between media industries - film and TV are notable, and think about how both now extend across web and smart devices too, plus VR

E.G

Film4 and the BBC are UK TV channels/producers with limited funds for film production. Where Amazon and Netflix spend billions worldwide, and over $100m just in the UK, the combined TV/film budget of all traditional UK TV channels (and their film wings) is far less than Netflix's UK spend alone. They pay upfront for rights to low budget films like Warp's output. This, combined with non-repayable grants from the likes of the UK Film Council(today that is the BFI) and its regional wings like EM Media and Screen Yorkshire(using government and National Lottery funding), or EU funds. These grants ensure cultural diversity in film production, which would be impossible on raw commercial terms - US movies would simply take up almost all UK screen time otherwise. What box office prospects does She, A Chinese or Tyrannosaur have?!

Warp generally struggle to get UK theatrical distribution for their movies, never mind international (let alone China...). However, you will see Optimem Releasing on several of their movies - a StudioCanal subsidiary that has now been relaunched as StudioCanal UK, forming an unlikely link with WT!

/// FILM OPENING EG5 About a Boy

• Fade up 
• Audio bridge to first scene 
• Diegetic sound from tv 
• Bird's eye view 
• Tracking shot 
• Protagonist - proppian archetypes 
• Rule of thirds 
• Narrative enigma - not showing protagonist's face 
• Intertextuality with tv show 
• Camera movement and zooming connoting tension 
• Anchored with tense music from tv show 
• Show foreshadowing events - most likely to be Jon Bon Jovi character connotes comedic genre 
• Voice over - inner monologue 
• Non-diegetic sound - guitar strings 
• Red Bull signifies youth, not sophisticated 
• Tea cup with saucer - sophistication 
• Cigarettes - negative connotations - complex preferred reading 
• Campbell's hero's journey/monomyth - all narratives center on journey and progression of protagonist 
• Big book - intelligence, sophistication 
• Lower case bubble font block white - connoting comedic genre 
• Navy blue slacks, gry blue crew neck jumper, blue shirt, grey blue monochromatic mise-en-scene - conservative guy 
• Large collection of books and LPs, electric guitar, speakers - rebellious

/// VODCAST2 Titles

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/// VODCAST1 Idents

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• Include information on 'Big 6' instead of 'Big 5'
• When talking about low budget movies, compare them to tentpole movies
• 
  

/// VODCAST: Tutorial

VODCAST

• Always identify what the clip is 
• title and then in brackets (date + directors)
• Exceptions are just as useful as typical examples
• Try use shorter clips (reduces possibility for copyrighting)
• Doesn't always have to be continuous image (can always use a still image)
• For a movie - Name of movie and then in brackets (Wachowski sisters, 1999)
• Come up with a script and consider possible semiotic terms
• + assemble any clips you are intending to use
• Stay focused on the point
• Cover a good level of detail
• Library for conventions research
• If voice is too low, you can double up the audio
• Usually you should have a short bullet point list of what is being covered
• Give short breathing spaces
• Show possible influences