Kill Your Darlings: 10 Quick Questions

Kill Your Darlings - Case Study 4

1. UK release date?
Thursday 19th December 2013

2. Institutions behind the film's production and distribution?
 Sony Pictures Classic

3. What's the film's production budget?
Shoe-string budget

4. Nationality of the film?

United States


5. What kind of production is it?
 Biographical Drama Film

6. Any connection with other films?
No

7. Who's the director?
John Krokidas

8. Any star names in the cast?
Daniel Radcliffe

9. What's the film about?
The relationships of the Beat Poets surrounding the mysterious death of David Kammerer, in paticular Allen Ginsberg and Lucien Carr

10. Who will this film appeal to?
Those with an interest in literature and history. Fans of the drama genre.

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 10 Quick Questions

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug - Case Study 3

1. UK release date?
    December 13th 2013

2. Institutions behind the film's production and distribution?
   
 Production:

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
• New Line Cinema
• WingNut Films

Distribution:

• Cocinsa (2013) Nicaragua 
• Forum Hungary (2013) Hungary
• Warner Bros. Entertainment (2013) Canada
• Warner Bros. (2013) Germany
• Warner Bros. (2014) Japan 
• Warner Bros. (2013) Netherlands
• Warner Bros. (2013) Singapore 
• Warner Bros. (2013) USA)

3. What's the film's production budget?
    $250,000,000, funded by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and New Line Cinema


4.  Nationality of the film?
     American

5. What kind of production is it?
    A big budget Hollywood blockbuster

6. Any connection with other films?
    The prequel to the film - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey as well as the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.


7. Who's the director?
    Peter Jackson

8. Star names in the cast?

• Benedict Cumberbatch 
• Martin Freeman 
• Orlando Bloom 
• Cate Blanchett
• Ian McKellen 
• Stephen Fry 
• Andy Serkis 

9. What's the film about?

The film continues the adventures of the title character Bilbo Baggins as he journeys with the Wizard           Gandalf and thirteen Dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield on an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf            Kingdom of Erebor.

10. Who will this film appeal to?
This film will appeal to fans of the first Hobbit film, Lord Of The Rings fans as well as fans of the books. It will attract families and young people alike, drawing in a wide range of people to watch it at the cinema.

Papa & Sons Case Study - Part 2

Question and Answer Session with Marcus Markou.

As a class we were fortunate enough to have the director of Papa & Sons - Marcus Markou - come into our lesson to hold a Q+A session with us which helped us learn a lot about the independent film industry and self-distribution in particular.

Here are some of the main things that I learnt from this session:

1. Before this lesson I wasn't aware of what a line producer was or what their role on set is and how they differ from a producer. Marcus explained how the line producer - Sarah Butler had a major role in pre-production, figuring out all of the expenses for the film , going through the script line by line and coming up with the final budget. 
2. I also learnt about how a set works and how vital the co-operation of the cast and crew is to making the production run smoothly. By eliminating a hierarchy on set and setting himself as a prime example Marcus created a family-based and friendly working atmosphere which worked in his favor. It meant that cast and crew were much more willing to put more effort and time in to helping make the film whereas before they might not have.
3. I learned from this that it is possible to create a good advertising and marketing scheme on a low budget. Although using posters on the sides of buses and on billboards is a really effective way of reaching a mass market however there is still no better way of advertising than by word of mouth. By deciding his target audience of Greeks in London - he spoke to Greek churches and gave out flyers to spread the word throughout the Greek community and made appearances on Greek radio stations. Although having not spent very much on distribution, the film was very successful in it's first week in cinema. 
4. To get the actors he wanted for the film he had to use methods of persuasion and use his connections in the business to get his script out to the actors he most wanted to play the characters he created. Lots of agents would try to stop an independent film director from giving their script to an actor as it would not likely create a great income and therefore the agent will not earn much money from it either. Marcus Markou wanted to cast Stephen Dillane as the main role in the film - Harry Papadopoulos. At first he liked the script and wanted to play the role of Harry but due to filming clashes with Game Of Thrones he was unable to take the time to be in Papa And Sons. On hearing that Stephen's son was also an actor, Marcus asked his son to audition for the role of James Papadopoulous who was eventually given the part. After Stephen Dillane heard that his son was going to be in the film he called up the producers of Game Of Thrones and persuaded them to change the dates of filming so that he was able to be in Papa And Sons with his own son Frank. Their father and son roles in the film came across so well on screen because of their real relationship in life off-screen.
5. To create such a natural look for the film he got the actors to be more free with the way they went about acting out the scene. It was a much more fresh and creative approach to filming as the actors performed the scene in the way which they would usually act. Working alongside the Director of Photography he would then decide afterwards if there were any extra set-ups that they would like to add to the scene. 

Papadopoulos and Sons Case Study.

Papadopoulos and Sons is a British comedy-drama feature film written and directed by independent filmmaker Marcus Markou and self-distributed in the UK. The film was on a small budget of around £125k yet was a great success and is an even better example of how independent films on a small budget can still prove effective.

The film is about a British-Greek family living in London and is centred around Harry Papadopoulos, - played by Stephen Dillane - a multi-millionaire who at first seems more involved with business than with his own family. Following his downfall in the latest banking crisis, Harry reluctantly reunites with his brother, Spiros - who is played by Georges Coraface - to re-open the fish and chip shop they worked at together in their younger years. Towards the end of the film Harry comes to realise the importance of family and all ends well.

The film gained critical acclaim when it won the Audience Award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2012. The film has also been showcased at other film festivals such as the Dinard British Film Festival (France), the Palm Springs International Film Festival (USA) and the Seattle Film Festival.
The film has an average rating of 6.9/10 on IMDB and received 82% positive feedback on Rotten Tomatoes and received a rating of 3/5 stars from media outlets such as The Gaurdian and and The Telegraph.

Most criticisms of the film were based around the predictable story-line, something that has been seen before. However, the charm and warmth along with the quality of actors made up for this entirely and the feel-good film seemed somewhat irresistible - joining the likes of other famous low-budget British films such as Bend It Like Beckham and East Is East.

Some interesting links related to the film and the director.

• Papa and Sons IMDB page
• Papa & Sons website

Summarise your film idea. Provide a brief synopsis and outline what happens in your film opening.

Our film idea was focused on one particular school boy who suffers from a mental condition called paranoia - hence the film title. The opening scene of the film follows the boy's daily school routine, beginning with his entrance into school, moving on to him at his locker, walking through the corridors and sitting in the assembly hall, among other shots. At the start of the scene our main character comes across as an ordinary school boy, the shot is quite bright and the scene has a positive feel to it. As the scene progresses, the shots get darker and darker as the boy's mental state starts to deteriorate and this is shown with the cracking effect on the screen. The cracks and rough marks on the screen get gradually worse as the scene moves on and by the end of the scene the shot is covered in these rough marks. This shows that the paranoia has completely taken over the character and he is in a different mental state to the one he was in at the start of the scene. The final shot shows the title of the film, very fitting to the scene so far and this brings the opening scene to a nice finish and very clearly shows what the genre of the film is - a psychological thriller.

What kind of information has been included in your film opening?

In our film opening we included the opening credits which showed the names of the actors, the director and the producer, among other important roles in the making of a film. The film opening did not give too much away and left a sense of mystery and suspense to the character and his situation, however we do find out that he is psychologically troubled and is a very lonely boy in a school environment. As well as establishing our main character and the setting of the film, we also discover the genre of the film which was quite clearly shown to be a psychological thriller.

How do the titles link to the main film idea?

The font we chose for the titles was very rough-edged, grungy and cracked which linked in well to the rough crack effect we used on the screen. This emphasised the uneasy and unstable state of mind that our main character is in during the film. The titles were positioned into the scene rather than just stuck in the middle over the top of our shots. The bold font makes our titles much more integrated into the shot in a way that they can be clearly seen but yet do not detract from the action on screen.

Identify three things that you included in your grid that are important in the construction of an opening sequence and explain their role in understanding the film.

1. In our grid we included a wide range of shot types which made the opening scene much more interesting. We used mid shots, long shots, over the shoulder shots, and shots from directly above the character's head. These were all effective for different purposes and reasons; for example the long shots that we used, showed how alone and isolated he was with no one else around him.
2. The titles we used in our opening scene were very bold and they fitted in very well into our shots and they definitely helped to establish the genre of the film which helps the audience understand what type of film they are about to watch.
3. In our grid it was important to introduce the audience to our main character, it was important to do this as he was the only character included in our opening sequence which helps the audience to understand that the film will mainly revolve around him.

How effective is your project as a film opening?

I feel that our grid project was successful as a film opening considering the amount of time we had to come up with an idea, take the shots, edit and finish. The opening establishes the genre, the setting, the general mood to the film, a slight grasp of what sort of character we are dealing with and what sort of story is about to unfold.

Film opening scene- continuity sequence.

 

 

Trainspotting.

 

I have chosen to analyse the opening scene of Trainspotting as it is a very good example of a well constructed continuity sequence. Trainspotting is a British black comedy/drama film which was made in 1996, directed by Danny Boyle.

 

The main focus of the opening scene is our main character running through the town, away from some policemen. It is effectively, a chase scene. It is a scene from later on in the film but it was used in the opening scene to foreshadow what happens later on in the film. We are introduced to the characters with close ups of their faces and their feet, these shots show us that they are running away from someone/something and have probably committed a crime as they have objects flying from their pockets. There is a tracking shot in this scene which makes it clear to us as an audience which character is the main focus and who is talking in the voiceover. As we are introduced to the characters the shot freezes on their profile and their name appears on the frame so we can tell which character is which. This helps a lot with clarifying the main group of characters from the very beginning and assists with the narrative flow.

The setting changes to a football pitch where most of the characters are playing a game which is a good way of introducing a group of characters at the same time. The camera moves to follow the players as they try to play football. The cuts in this scene have been continually fast paced which is then suddenly changes to a panning shot of the main character laying on the floor in the empty apartment. In this scene, the main character (Ewan MacGregor) is very chilled out which creates a very relaxed atmosphere which grows to be a very uneasy and negative atmosphere towards to the end of the scene when it becomes clear to us that his drug habit has lead to him having a wasteful and seemingly pointless existence.

Film Still Analysis.

 

This is a high angle shot of the character looking up at the camera so the audience's eyes are drawn to look at the eyes of the character in the centre of the shot. The character is the main focus of the shot and the background is not overly detailed. We can see she is in a tight space which looks like two storage containers side by side. We cannot see much of the landscape, so our knowledge of the setting is limited; however we do know that she is outside because of the natural light and the debris on the floor. The light hits the character's face and gets darker further away from the centre of the image.

 

She looks desperate to get out of the situation which she seems to be stuck in. Her arm is reached out as if she's waiting to be pulled up and saved. The camera is positioned so it seems that it's from the view of another person who is going to pull her up. Yet we do not know what or who she is escaping from, or why she is in that position in the first place which adds mystery to the still shot.