Is Cinema Dead?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2007/aug/20/comparedtothefirsthalf

http://freakyflicks.proboards54.com/index.cgi?board=rant&action=display&thread=2821

http://blogs.abc.net.au/articulate/2008/02/is-cinema-dead.html

Case study (film reviews)- Slumdog Millionaire

The film review for Slumdog millionaire have been mostly good, however I have found a site where some people disagree- http://www.movietome.com/movie/365018/slumdog-millionaire/reviews/user.html this is a film review site for many new and classic movies, and this site is devised for cinema goers and for fans of the movie. Either that or this site will attract people how want a review from the member of the public. However the site contains many review from critics from The Wall street Journal, New York Post, Chicago Sun Times, Empire Magazine and many more. Here is a positive review form a fan:

Slumdog Millionaire was a very powerful movie that is a must watch for any kind of movie goer. Slumdog manages to show the harsh cruel underworld and life of India but at the same time shows the beauty of it. This movie contains some pretty strong subject matter so let those whom are mature enough to watch it, watch it. The cinematography was very dream-like giving the movie a very appropriate fell to it. Though some may argue that the movie seemed to cliche because of it story, the way that it is told is far from cliche.Overall Slumdog Millionaire is a fantastic movie that is both beautiful and harsh at the same time, with great story telling and superb cinematography, this is definetly one of the best movies yet.

The review below is from the San Fransico Chronicle how only gave the movie a 50/100:

"Slumdog Millionaire" has a problem in its storytelling. The movie unfolds in a start-and-stop way that kills suspense, leans heavily on flashbacks and robs the movie of most of its velocity. The filmmakers' motives are sincere. The story is interesting enough. Yet the whole construction is tied to a gimmicky narrative strategy that keeps "Slumdog Millionaire" from really hitting its stride until the last 30 minutes. By then, it's just a little too late.(Full review-http://www.movietome.com/pages/tracking/index.php?tid=35&ref_id=365018)

There is also a few positive review who gave the moive 100/100. This review is from USA today:

Slumdog is easily Boyle's best film since he rocked the film world with 1996's Trainspotting, his highly original look at a drug subculture in Scotland.
Fanciful, epic and exuberantly paced, Slumdog Millionaire chronicles the life of Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), a dirt-poor orphan who captivates the masses as he wins a fortune on India's most popular quiz show. Told in non-linear style, the movie switches among harrowing stories of Jamal's childhood in the slums of Mumbai to his moments of awkward glory as a contestant on the show to his sudden incarceration and ensuing interrogation. It is this questioning by a police inspector (Irfan Khan) that elicits the compelling flashbacks of his early youth.

In the UK the film seems to be a huge hit, although there are alos crtics in teh UK who disagree. in the guardian film website one of the review is quite4 positive:

Despite the extravagant drama and some demonstrations of the savagery meted out to India's street children, this is a cheerfully undemanding and unreflective film with a vision of India that, if not touristy exactly, is certainly an outsider's view; it depends for its full enjoyment on not being taken too seriously.

In India, where the film was set (Mumbai), reviews were qutie negative for example below http://www.apunkachoice.com/dyn/movies/english/slumdog_millionaire/slumdog_millionaire-review.html-

Saving the answer for the last, let it be said at the outset that Slumdog Millionaire is a kind of movie that is made only once in a while. It requires more than just an accomplished director to tell a story that cuts through cultural barriers while still being rooted in the grime and crime of Mumbai’s netherworld that lies in the shade of the symbols of India Shining – the skyscrapers and malls. It takes more than just a good ensemble cast to make a film like ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ work. Everything has to fall in place – the script, screenplay, direction, acting, music, editing – in sync with each other to have a movie as frisky, stark, shocking and uplifting as ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. It doesn’t happen often. May be it’s the stuff of destiny. Danny Boyle and Beaufoy have stuck to English, rather than Hindi dialogues for the most part of the film, despite the fact that you would hardly find an uneducated slumkid or a chaiwala in India who speaks English fluently. But why Boyle and Beaufoy did so is understandable. They were making a film for the international audience. If not for this cinematic liberty, the movie would not have cut across the cultural fault-lines as it does now.

http://www.apunkachoice.com/movies/- this is an Indian Film site. (where the review above was from).

However from the same review it gives a mixed opinion even though the article was mostly negative, the review site claims that the main character deserves an oscar and it gives the film four stars. The last paragraph of the review states :
There are some brilliantly executed sequences in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ that prove Boyle’s mettle as a director. The kid Jamaal, locked in a makeshift toilet, jumps into a shit-hole just to get the autograph of his favourite filmstar. Or when the grown up brothers meet again on an under-construction building. Or the exhilarating finale when Jamaal doesn’t know the answer to the question that’s ironically the most personal to him. After all the suspense and drama, the movie leaves you in an ecstatic mood with Rahman’s ‘Jai Ho’ (a dash of Bollywood song and dance in the end) and sends you home with a bounce in your walk and smile on your face.

In India there is also a paper called THE HINDU which is similar to our THE TIMES and there have been a few negative articles about the film and how it has reflected on the Indian public- http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/009200901271451.htm.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/

Mamma Mia- case study

MARKETING
There is so much makerting for this film, and apparently according to records it has been the fastest selling DVD ever. The different types of marketing for this film has been covered by so many aspects such as the offical film websitse and imdb.com, as well as this the british poster which has all of the film's stars names and pictures posted on it.
http://www.mamma-mia.com/movie.asp
This film also had so much marketing because it is a broadway show which alreday had a popular audinece into a movie, which drew in a lot of former fans and people who grew up listening to ABBA.
STAR IMAGES
The film was not only a hit for its quality musical content, but for the massive British and American star icons, such as Meryl Streep (Lemmony snickets a series of unfortuante events, She- Devil etc) Pierce Brosnan ( Bond film star), Colin Firth (Love Actually, Bridget Jones 1 and 2), Julie Walters (All Harry Potter films) and one that appeals to the younger generation for her role in teen hit movie "Mean Girls", Amanda Seyfried.
FILM EXHIBITION
MAMMA MIA TRAILER- http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FKx_14vJNZg
By creating a film aimed at all generations the marketing statistics show that this was one of the biggest box office hits. The film made $9,627,000 in its opening day in the United States and Canada, and $27,605,376 in its opening weekend, ranking #2 at the box office, behind The Dark Knight. In the UK, Mamma Mia! has grossed £69,161,234 as of January 8, 2009, and is the highest grossing film of all time at the UK box office. The film opened at #1 in the U.K, taking £6,594,058 on 496 screens. It has also become on of the most fastest selling DVDs of all time.

Dialogue avec mon jardinier (Conversations with my gardener)

Avalibility of independent low budget films and fogien language films

This French film is about 2 men in different classes of society. One is a parisian painter on the brink of a divorce who goes back to his childhood home he missed so much. He hires a gardener who turns out to be an old school friend, and as the two men tend to the garden their friendship blooms as the garden does, sharing the moments in life whislt growing old. the film ghas dutch subtitles and English subtitles in England.

This film is currently being shown at Harbour lights cinema in Ocean Village Southampton and is not a well known film, in England. However even though this fim is french it was first shown in Germany in feburary 2007 and was released in England 9th March 2008.

The film was marketed in many ways across europe which included the European Film Festival in Germany, in the Czeh republic the film was marketed in the Karlovy Vary Film Festival and on the 9th of march 2007 it was marketed in the French film festival in the UK.

However in the UK, IMDB shows that the popularity of the film is down 1% and also the film has been nominated for Ceaser award in France.

The avalibility for this film has not been widely published, for example before it came to the UK it was marketed at the French film festival, and this particluar film was only shown at Harbour Light cinema, and not many people in the Southampton area know the location of Harbour lights, which makes it difficult for the films to be marketed except people who access the internet reguarly or have visted Harbour lights cinema previously. As well as this since the statisics for cinema going is decreasing rapidly. For the film to become more widely known the film has to be shown in a main mulitplex instead of just a independent cinema. there is a limited amount of independent cinemas in the UK, compared to the amount of Multiplexes and other types of film venues.

Case studies material- Links

CULT FILM WEBSITES
http://www.sepnet.com/
http://www.cultmoviesonline.co.uk/

MARKETING SITES
http://www.play.com/
http://www.amazon.com/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/
http://www.lovefilm.com/
http://www.blockbuster.co.uk/

CINEMATOGRAPHY ACT OF 1952

http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/Cinematographact/cinematograpghact.htm

Case study - The day the earth stood still

This film is a new release as of 12/12/08, this film is a modern day war of the worlds and a remake of the 1951 "the day the the earth stood still".

The 1951 version the box office results in rentals of the film was around $1,850,000 in USA alone.
The box office results for the first weekend is a gross to date of $30.5 million in the USA and is now at the top of the chart for box office. These recent results from IMDB.com show that as of the 12/12/08 this film is now beating the Quatum of Solace rating at just $3.72 million at the present time- http://www.imdb.com/chart/ . However the day the earth stood still is still not beating the box office results for the Quatum of Solace in its opening weekend.

However in UK cinemas, Madagascar 2 is at the top and the day the earth stood still is second, according to the guardian film site. The UK box office results for the day the earth stood still is roughly around £ 3 million pounds in its opening weekend. Where as Madagacar 2 is rougly around £10 million - http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2008/dec/16/uk-box-office-analysis

Since the film is a remake the older generatiopn who watched that film is likely to go and see this one. The older generation are not the only ones however who are interested. The younger generation today who are interested in sci fi film are likely to be interested too. The marketing for is coming mostly from trailers and the posters and the internet, mainly through MSN, Bebo, Facebook and other social networking site advertisements and pop ups on the pages.
This film acorrding to a review from the guardian film critic it is a big budget film with big budget stars such as Keanu reeves, Kathy Bates and John Cleese.

Most papers and internet sites have given the film a majority rating of around 6/10 overall.

Film Production and Distrobution Summary

For the power point presentation, I decided to use the new UK bond film Quantum Of Solace and a recent USA film Burn after Reading.



There is so much marketing about the film Quantum of Solace such as trailers, posters, phone and tv adverts etc. The film was directed by Marc Foster who has directed films such as "the kite runner" and "Stranger than fiction". The producer is Babarba Broccoli who has produced the last two Bond films ("Casino royale" and "Die another day").
The younger generation of Bond fans I think are drawn in by the action and the special effects and the marketing scheme of the film (e.g. phones, HD TV advert etc). whereas the older generation of Bond fans are drawn in by the fact that this film was produced by Barbara Broccoli,who has produced the last two Bond films. As well as this the older generation is more interested by the fact that the Bond films have been running and made into films for the past 30-40 years, and the Quantum of Solace may draw in more attention, as according to the reasearch this is the first Bond film not written by Ian Flemming which is what the older genereation grew up reading.

The Bond films are known all over the world and we found that in it's first weekend, it made a gross to date £15,384,217 in it's first weekend! the box office results showed that the film was rated 1st in the top 15 most viewed film in the week of 31st october to the 2nd Novemeber. In America I found that it was shown in 5,900 screens and raked in a gross to date $70.4 million. Even thought Bond orginates from the UK, the US has a wider auidence and population of film fanatics and Bond fans. The reviews from most papers were quite bad however The Times newspaper had a diffrent view-
What makes Marc Forster’s film such an intriguing watch is that this is the first of the 22 Bond movies where the plot flows organically from the last instalment, and Quantum of Solace looks a far stronger picture for this rare continuity.



Burn after reading is a new film made by the US, in the UK the biggest marketing scheme is the facrt that the cast of the film includes many big stars known all over the world, such as George Clooney and Brad Pitt. However in the US, the marketing scheme is slightly wider as the film was directed and written by some of the most famous US directors Joel and Ethan Coen aka "the Coen Brothers". They also made films such as Fargo and O Brother where art thou.
From the reaserech collected, I found that in its 11th week of opening in the US it made a gross to date of $60,029,592 and in the UK it has made a gross to date of $11,167,982 (roughly converted that would be around £ 55, 839,91)
I found that the marketing that appiles mostly to the younger generation is the cast member Brad Pitt as teens and young people have grown up watching his films or appearences on TV. the older generation will be drawn from the fact the George Clooney, Frances MacDormand (who was in the previous Coen Brothers film "Fargo") and John Mallovich (who was recently in Juno, a film aimed mostly at teens).
The film was a success in the US, as it is in the UK as statistics show it was appreciated, however most people did go to see purely because of the Star- studded cast, in british papers it got very good reviews for example-
"THIS comedy begins by zooming in like a satellite camera from outer space down to the corridors of the CIA in Washington.
If that spy camera was to focus on the homes of the Coen brothers instead, it would probably find a mile-long queue of Hollywood stars outside their doors.
Right now there is no other writing and directing team as certain as Joel and Ethan Coen to make an actor hot." - The Sun newspaper.

To conclude, Bond seems to be the most successful film of the two however since Bond has been around alot longer it is understandable. However for a new film Burn after reading is blossoming in box office numbers and still growing much like the Bond film as well.