US Blockbuster - Jurassic World

Budget: $150,000,000

Stars:
- Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy)
- Jake Johnson (Let's Be Cops; 21 Jump Street)

Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-fi

Production company: Universal

Age Certificate: TBC

Release Date: 11th June 2015 (UK)

Director: Colin Trevorrow




- Jurassic Park had a budget of $65,000,000 and made $1,000,000,000 so the re-boot Jurassic World is expected to have a huge intake and be a massive success.

- The film has been under development for over 10 years.

- Set and released 22 years after the original, Jurassic Park. 

Marketing

- Two fictional webpages have been designed for Jurassic World, one being a website on the park itself and details of the inhabitants as well as family and holiday packages to the 'Isla Nublar' created in the franchise. Another is that of the Masrani Global Corporation who own the island in the film. Everything has been created and marketed as if Jurassic World were a real place rather than a film.

- Twitter and Instagram pages, @JurassicWorld also pay tribute to this and provide people with news events from the 'park' and updates about exhibits and events.

- Lego are set to release toys based upon the film in May 2015.

- The official trailer on YouTube has over 54 million views.

- A new trailer was introduced halfway through the American SuperBowl.

Lovers on the Lam genre comparisons

Natural Born Killers

Themes typical of the lovers on the lam genre:

- Animalistic nature - scorpion tattoo and animal shots

- Dysfunctional family - Mallory's abusive father and Mickey's background

- Rootlessness - Mickey and Mallory running away from society and always moving

- Media obsession - the way the media manipulates people's views on society and glorifies violence. 

Badlands

Themes typical of lovers on the lam genre: 

- Animalistic nature - Dead animals, including Holly's dog and fish; living like animals

- Dysfunctional family - Holly's mother died, shooting of her father

- Rootlessness - Prairie and on the road

- Modern fairytale - the way Holly and Kit come together

- Fame - Kit wants to be remembered and records his voice

- American Dream - American colours often used through nature imagery

Conventions and messages of the genre

The lovers on the lam genre addresses problems in American society in the times the films were made. Despite 'Badlands' and 'Natural Born Killers' being made years apart, they reflect the same problems in society and while on the surface, society may have changed with the influence of violence, the media and perhaps films and video games, the deep-rooted issues remain the same and these films address them. 

How far do the American films you have studied for this topic express similar messages and values to one another?

• The animalistic nature of the characters is always emphasised. This happens in 'Natural Born Killers' when there are close-ups on the mise-en-scene of animal to represent the characters' nature. This is further accentuated by the mise-en-scene of Mallory's scorpion tattoo and snakeskin bra in the opening sequence. 

US Independent Film - The Way Way Back

IMDb page

Budget: $4,600,000

Stars:

- Steve Carell

- Sam Rockwell 

- Liam James
- Alison Janney
- AnnaSophia Robb

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Box Office: 
- $23,198,652 (worldwide gross)
- opening weekend: $552,788 (USA)

Production Company: Sycamore Pictures

Age Certificate: PG-13 (USA) 12 (UK)

Release Date: 26th July 2013 (USA) 21st January 2013 (Sundance Film Festival)

Plot:

Directed by Nat Faxton and Jim Rash, The Way Way Back tells the story of Duncan, a fourteen year old boy on a trip to his step-father's beach house who struggles to fit in. He makes an unlikely friend in Owen, the owner of the nearby water park who teaches him about life and growing up. The tagline of the film is: We've all been there, relating to the audience by linking a topic which is popular in independent films.

Direction and writing:
Duo Nat Faxton and Jim Rash, directed The Way Way Back after working together on their popular film, The Descendants starring George Clooney, which got fantastic reviews by audience and critics alike. After being so successful working together, they decided to work again together on The Way Way Back.

Stars and production:
The Way Way Back comes from the same studio as popular independent films, Little Miss Sunshine and Juno. Popular actors like Steve Carell, (seen in Crazy Stupid Love and The 40 Year Old Virgin) Alison Janney, (The Help) and AnnaSophia Robb (Bridge To Teribithia). Steve Carell, in fact, filmed his entire part in ten days, which left the rest of production to film the remaining scenes he wasn't in. Part of the film was inspired by a real life conversation the screenwriter Jim Rash had with his step-father when he was fourteen. The script was written in 2007 but production didn't begin until 2010. To save money, actors all stayed in a rented house rather than in trailers like in normal film productions.

Critical Response

IMDb gives the film a 7.4/10 based on reviews by critics and audience

The critical review website Rotten Tomatoes collated reviews from 169 critics, giving it an average of 7.3/10 and 85% overall. The film has generally impressive reviews, the only ones deviating from this, criticising the film for its "generic angst in coming of age tales". USA Today's Claudia Puig describes it as 'this summer's Little Miss Sunshine' with its 'subtle wit, engaging story, topnotch ensemble cast and sparkling dialogue'.

Audience Response

Audience's responses were overwhelmingly positive, which makes the film popular via word of mouth. A positive audience response is key in making a film successful. One Rotten Tomatoes 'super reviewer' describes the film as 'A tremendously funny and terrifically entertaining film. It's too much fun to pass up. It's heart-warming, compelling, and utterly irresistible. A slickly written and well character-drawn piece of work that can balance humour and drama very well. It is blessed with such a wonderful and engaging all-star cast.'

Interview from theweek.com with Jim Rash and Nat Faxton

Where did the idea for The Way, Way Back come from? Was it a completely invented concept, or did you have a personal connection to the story?

Rash: There was a personal connection — well, a bit of both. I think we started with two things. One: A fascination and enjoyment for going to these types of water parks while growing up on the East Coast, with all of these eclectic characters. We definitely wanted to enter that world. And the second piece is that the beginning scene, with the whole conversation about ranking Duncan on a scale from one to ten — that actually happened to me.

Really?

Rash: Yeah, that scene was sort of pulled verbatim from my 14-year-old experience going to our summer vacations in Michigan. I grew up in North Carolina and we'd drive up there. My stepfather at the time actually had that conversation with me.

How did you get a personal project like The Way, Way Back off the page and into movie theaters?

Rash: It's been almost an eight-year journey with this movie, from the initial writing to where we are now. With any sort of indie movie — Little Miss Sunshine is a really good example of one, that took almost six years to get made — when we first wrote it [in 2006], it was out of the gates and was going to happen. Shawn Levy was going to direct it — but then Night At The Museum 2 came up faster than he thought it would, and he couldn't do it anymore. Then we went through a studio change, and then the economy took a bad turn and the studio needed another studio to help them back it. Lionsgate came in with Mandate Pictures, but they would only make it with certain stars that didn't feel right to us. So we said, "Let's just take a step back and wait." We didn't want to make it the wrong way. Those were the hurdles along the way, but we ended up shooting it without a studio. We shot it with independent financing, so it wasn't until [The Sundance Film Festival], when Fox Searchlight saw it, that they came aboard.

The Guardian Review
Despite its popular reviews among audiences and critics, The Guardian did not see so much of an appeal to this film and expressed it in one of their articles, saying the film has an 'anticlimactic ending' and is 'rarely laugh-out-loud funny', yet again repeating many elements from the popular Little Miss Sunshine that Steve Carell and Toni Colette also starred in.

The Guardian, being a well-trusted source, would then influence people to not see the film because of the opinion they have of it. Immediately, this reduces its audience and in turn, reduces the amount of money it can make at the Box Office.

Challenges at the Box Office

The Way Way Back's summer release gave it huge competition against other popular films which produced a much larger Box Office due to their existing following and marketing advantages. Films like Despicable Me 2 and Grown Ups 2 already had an audience and were bound to make money due to them being sequels of existing popular films. Pacific Rim, The Conjuring and The Wolverine were also blockbuster films released around the same time which were marketed with large production companies and inevitably drew in an audience due to their large distribution. An independent film like The Way Way Back would struggle to compete with these types of films.

Fox Searchlight found the film at The Sundance Film Festival and helped with distribution which helped the film with promotion. This company is popular among independent films and helping with funding and distribution of them, such as 12 Years a Slave and Slumdog Millionaire.

UK Independent Film- Lilting

IMBb page

Budget: £125,730

Stars:
- Pei-Pei Cheng
- Ben Whishaw
- Andrew Leung

Genre: Drama, Romance

Box Office: £17,215 (worldwide gross)

Production Company: London Film Productions

Age Certificate: 15

                                                       Release Date: 8th August 2014

Plot 

Directed by Hong Khaou, Lilting, takes place in contemporary London, when a Cambodian Chinese mother mourns the untimely death of her son. Her world is further disrupted by the presence of a stranger. We observe their difficulties in trying to connect with one another without a common language, as through a translator they begin to piece together memories of a man they both loved.
Direction and writing

Hong Khaou, is a fairly unknown director and writer, having previously only written and directed other independent films dealing with the controversial topic of homosexuality like, Summer and Boy Crush. These films not being so well known could contribute to the audience of this film as he didn't have a large audience prior to making the film.

Stars and production

Popular actor Ben Whishaw who has also been seen in blockbusters such as Skyfall and the highly anticipated upcoming Paddington stars in this film as the lead protagonist which could draw in the audience of his following, however, by looking at the box office, it's clear he didn't bring in a huge audience as in terms of the industry, the film failed completely, making little more money than its budget. Pei-Pei Cheng also stars, a popular actress from other independent films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The script won third spot in the 2011 Brit List of unproduced screenplays. It is the first bi-lingual film to be made under the Microwave scheme. It also won the 2014 Sundance best cinematography in world cinema award.

Critical Response

Lilting received a mostly positive response of 80% from critics and a 6.5/10 from over 20 critic reviews on the site Rotten Tomatoes, making this a mediocre film in critics' eyes. Maybe its lack of success could be down to what one critic describes as the filmmaker 'not knowing exactly where to go with it', but nonetheless 'there are moments before things get away from him that are captivating to watch and lovely to listen to, lilting'.

Audience Response

Audience response seems relatively mixed and while many enjoy the film for its depth and exploration into such emotional and controversial topics, other people say there simply 'isn't enough going on' to keep them entertained. This suggests the film is too deep for a conventional audience just looking for the next hollywood blockbuster composed of meaningless action and, while visually appealing cinematography, lack of message or moral in the films. 

Interview with director Hong Khaou

Do you think more multicultural stories are finding their way into the mainstream now?

I don’t know if I’ve seen that many. You get the occasional film, like Dirty Pretty Things, but I don’t know how prevalent it is. It should be because it’s what makes London so interesting and vibrant. I definitely would like to see more.

Where was Lilting filmed and why did you choose those locations?

There a lot of café scenes which we filmed in east and south east London. It was a practical thing mainly. We found a place in Dalston — Chase and Sorensen — that suited the way we wanted to film the different time-lines. Then there’s a café called Ombra near Regent’s Canal. And we filmed along the canal and by Broadway Market and found some amazing locations in New Cross.

Lilting is a micro-budget film. What was your experience with Microwave and Film London like?

It was good. They are very hands-on and involved every step of the way. They give you 50% of the budget then we had to find the rest — which my producer Dominic Buchanan managed. And that takes you up to about £120,000.

Could you have done with a bit more money?

God yeah — I kept wondering if only we had a bit more. It’s so expensive finding locations in London, I remember having to go to each place and explain the project myself over and over. But then, it’s all relative — because we had so little money, we also had a lot of people wanting to help us and the actors all worked for minimum wage.

Was the shoot easy to pull off?

Filming in East London was hard. We were under the flight path and we had sirens all the time. So we had to keep stopping and re-taking. So hard. And it rained a lot, which wasn’t a problem because we shot mostly interiors, but even on the days when we filmed outside, it rained.

How has London inspired you as a film maker? Are there any films or a particular director who has made a big impact on you?

I love London with a passion. I just spent seven weeks in the States and I remember how passionate I was talking about London. Clearly, where you live and the things you experience every day must subconsciously feed into the work. One film I love is Wonderland by Michael Winterbottom. I think that showed London in a really interesting way.

Microwave film productions

Lilting made its budget and handled production with the Microwave filmmaking scheme. It funds films, offers the next generation of filmmakers training-through-production as well as distribution and support. They pay for distribution funding and development based on applications they receive for independent films, choosing the ones they think will be successful and get help from successful workers from the film industry to help to make the film and train other filmmakers in the team project. 

World Cinema Production - The Babadook

IMDb page

Australian

Budget: $30,071

Stars: 
- Essie Davis
- Noah Wiseman

Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller

Box Office: total gross - $4,867,792

Production Company: IFC Films, Causeway Films

Certificate: 15



Release Date: 
- 24th October 2014 (UK) 
- 17th January 2014 (USA Sundance Film Festival)

Plot:
Directed and written by Jennifer Kent, The Babadook explores the relationship between a widowed woman and her son with behavioural difficulties. The story follows them as they find a book about a children's monster who then begins to haunt them and the audience is left to wonder whether the monster is real or if it's purely an figment of her psychologically twisted imagination. The tag line 'if it's in a word, or it's in a look, you can't get rid of The Babadook' promotes the film by creating its own image and makes it memorable when advertising. 

Direction and writing

The Babadook is Jennifer Kent's debut film which she both directed and wrote. She gained experience being an extra in television and film productions and first directed a short titled Monster in 2005. The Babadook was her second attempt at directing and was released in 2014.

Stars and production
The Babadook is from the Causeway Films production company who have four more films in development, but this is their first official release, making them an unknown company. Essie Davis, the leading actress, was also seen in The Matrix Reloaded and Charlotte's Web. Daniel Henshall, a talented young child actor has also been seen in popular films like These Final Hours and Not Suitable For Children. An audience who have seen these films and enjoyed the performance of these actors could then be interested in watching other films including them, which could give it a wider audience. Money for the film was raised with the 'Kickstarter' project which earned director Jennifer Kent the modest budget she needed to make the film.

Critical Response
On the aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, The Babadook received a 97% score based on 68 reviews from critics and an average score of 8/10. Critic from Entertainment Weekly describes it as, 'In an age when horror movies have mostly become lazy and toothless, here's one with ambition and bite.' And Los Angeles Times critic says, '"The Babadook" is a smart, darkly drawn modern-day horror movie of monsters, memories and mothers.'

Audience Response
Although the critical response to this film was phenomenal, the audience response wasn't so striking. With a 73% rating from the audience, it seemed many members of the public missed the depth that this film held, though some did thoroughly enjoy it. One person comments on Rotten Tomatoes, 'It is always a wonderful surprise to see an intelligent horror film with such profound psychological and emotional scope, making use of a rich symbolism to tell the story of a woman who succumbs to her own inner shadow and is forced to confront it as it takes over her sanity.' who seems to understand the film intrinsically.

Interview with director Jennifer Kent

This is your first feature-length film – how hard was it to get this made? We hear a lot of horror stories - no pun intended - from first-time directors.
It feels like I’ve been working towards my first feature for years, but this one didn’t really take long. It took just under three years, which is pretty quick – in Australia anyway; I’m not sure about the UK. It had a flow to it. I certainly wouldn’t say that it was easy, but there were enough leads and we were bolstered by that and we just kept going until finally they gave us the money.

This feels like it’s a horror or a thriller with a good bit more depth than some.
Yeeeaaaah. I think there are many films in every genre that don’t mean anything, but for some reason horror tends to attract a lot of those stories, and also gets a bad rap for being a rubbish genre. I think if people think sensitively and seriously about films in this canon, like The Shining and Let The Right One In, even going back to Vampyr and Nosferatu, there’s a real depth to those films – and the Polanski films as well, the domestic horrors. I guess they were my inspiration. I think the very best horror is more than just jump scares and things appearing out of cupboards and women running around half-naked.

So apart from those you’ve mentioned, were there other horror films that influenced this in some way, or that you’d recommend?
Apart from the ones I mentioned, I was really influenced by ‘70s and ‘80s horror – I watched a lot of those as a kid, way too young, much to my parents’ horror. It left me terrified but also excited. I think a lot of horror comes from a similar place to fairytales and it deals with myth. Mythical stories run through all of us, and films like The Thing and Halloween are films that I love for their simplicity. Les Yeux Sans Visage, Eyes Without A Face, is a really beautiful film to me. I could rattle off many. But I love films like Texas Chain Saw Massacre as well, because that is a really shocking film, and it has a deeper reach to it than people really give it credit for.

That fairytale aspect is important in this film, with a storybook playing a key role. There seems to be a fine line between fairytale and horror, in films like Pan’s Labyrinth or The Spirit Of The Beehive.
I heard a talk from Guillermo del Toro around the time he made Pan’s Labyrinth, and he was talking about horror and fairytales. He was saying that there are two kinds of fairytales. There are ones that are cautionary tales designed to frighten children into being good. Then there’s the other kind, the ones he likes, that really say to people, ‘The world is chaos. Welcome to it. Accept it!’ For me, the second type is also the kind I love, that embraces chaos and isn’t afraid to look at taboos. In Babadook, it’s a big taboo to question motherhood. When I looked for films or literature that did so, I was shocked at how little there was, so it made sense to put it in a horror context rather than a straight drama context.

Challenges at the Box Office

The Babadook had to compete with big-name films like Fury and Annabelle which were also released in October for the 'Halloween season'. Annabelle, being a sequel to an existing film, already had a large following and would have attracted a large audience. The film also had to compete with Gone Girl which was a popular book adaptation, making it a largely popular film. Competing with such blockbusters is difficult for independent, foreign films. Distribution was also extremely limited and the film wasn't shown in a wide variety of cinemas, inevitably limiting its popularity.

US Blockbuster - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

IMDb page

Budget: $170,000,000

Stars: 
- Andy Serkis
- Jason Clarke
- Gary Oldman
- Keri Russel
- Toby Kebbel
- Kodi Smit-McPhee

Genre: Action, Drama, Sci-fi

Box Office: Overall gross - $708,835,000 

Production Company: 20th Century FOX

Certificate: PG-13

Release date: 11th July 2014

Viral Marketing Campaign

Plot

Matt Reeves' Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes and the prequel to Planet of the Apes telling the story of how the primates come to power in a future Earth where humans have become extinct. This film shows the war between the apes and humans and how the apes secure the planet for themselves, eliminating the last of the humans.

Direction and writing

Matt Reeves is a famous director, popular for directing films like Let Me In and Cloverfield. This gave him a following and raised anticipation for what was expected to be the blockbuster of the year, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The writers working on the film were also famous for writing screenplays for other blockbusters like The Wolverine, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Total Recall. As well as this giving them a following, the fact that the film is a part of a huge franchise makes it an even bigger success as it had already established an audience far prior to production.

Stars and production

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has many stars like Andy Serkis, known for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. It also features Gary Oldman  and Kodi-Smit McPhee, seen in The Dark Knight and Let Me In. Any followers of these actors would then want to see the film to see their performance in it and if it resembled their other works. The film was announced in 2011 and anticipated ever since. The advertisements for the film circulated around the internet and television and the producers even created a viral campaign which gained the film even more popularity.

Critical and Audience review

For this film, critical reviews weren't so necessary because of its already overwhelming popularity. Audience reviewed the film incredibly highly with a 7.9/10 on IMDb and 91% on Rotten Tomatoes with also 7.9/10. The film made a huge profit compared to its budget, making hundreds of million dollars.

I wanted to start off by asking what on the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes DVD and Blu-ray are you most looking forward to fans seeing? 

Well, you know, I think the movie was so bizarre in terms of the way we made it. I'd never made a performance capture movie before and we were shooting under very challenging circumstances in the rainforest and out on location much more than Rise (which was shot mostly on stage). To look behind the curtain at that process is pretty interesting, even for me! We're just starting to work on the story of the next movie, and looking at all of this footage and the documentary and features, it reminded me of how insane the making of the movie was and, how much I loved working on it, and how excited I am to be making another one. It's a pretty interesting thing for us to share and the behind-the-scenes making-of pieces are really cool I also like sharing some of the scenes I really wanted to include in the movie that ultimately I felt didn't work. I'm hoping that people who enjoyed the film will be curious to see how different the process was to other movies. 

A lot of people are saying motion capture performances should be judged the same way as live-action ones at award ceremonies like the Oscars. What's your take on that? 

Oh yes, there's no question. If you're responding to the emotions you're seeing on camera or for example the contempt you feel from Koba, you're responding to the performances of Andy Serkis and Toby Kebbell. Performance capture is all based around capturing performance, the performance that comes from those actors. I think the reason that there's so much discussion about it is because people are realising where the performance aspect of the character is coming from and it is absolutely from the actors. Their work is incredible, and what I think is also important is how Weta can translate those performances onto a photo real CG ape. 

Talking of the special effects, one moment which really stood out for me was the 360 tank turret scene. Can you tell us about the work which went into that amazing sequence? 

Ironically, the easiest part of doing that shot was the shooting of the shot by putting a camera on the turret and riding it through the set because there were no actors on that set! What was difficult was filling in all of the details in that single shot, and unlike the other scenes where there was a lot of interaction with the human actors and the acting was done on set, that was one of the few shots in the movie where we did all of the acting in the visuals. We set up scaffolding in the shape of the tank and shot all of the elements, and then we had to find all of the different things in the background where the battle was raging, and it took months and months. If you're working on effects shots, you go through certain iterations, and many shots I would finish and I would say, 'This shot is fine for the final movie,' but it would have been taken down a number of paths from blocking to animation to lighting, it might have taken several hundred iterations of a single shot to get to the version that is your final shot. On this particular shot, we did more iterations of it than any other shot in the whole movie, and when I finally said I thought the shot was ready to be final for the film, it was version 1030! So, we had done over 1000 iterations of that shot and when I said, 'Ok, that's it; final!' I was at Weta and they erupted with cheers and applause because it took that long. 

I have to ask...a lot of fans would love to see you direct a superhero movie, so have you been approached for any and do you think it's something you would be interested in one you're finished with this franchise?

There were a couple of things I talked about in the past, but I haven't been approached by anyone recently. There were a few different superhero franchises that I was approached about which just weren't the right fit for me in terms of the emotional weight of it. But obviously, when I was growing up with Superman and Batman, the metaphors of those stories had a lot of resonance with me and I always found them to be very exciting. There's not one I'm waiting for them to message me about. I always evaluate projects on a case by case basis, and if there's one I really connected with emotionally, I guess we'll see. Certainly right now, I'm planning on doing Apes films for a little while. 

Recently, some concept art started doing the rounds online from Rise of the Planet of the Apes showing Caesar standing in the Statue of Liberty. Did you ever consider maybe using that here, and what else can you tell us about your plans for the next movie? 

That was a concept that was shot for the last movie, but they decided it didn't work and I'm really glad they didn't use it actually. It would have really narrowed the focus of this movie, and in a way I think it's a really tired pay off that everyone already knows from Planet of the Apes. I think it took place after the Fall of Man, so why narrow your focus by showing that at the end of the movie when you can tell all of the chapters that add up to that story starting with Dawn and then moving into the next one. I'm glad they cut it. 

I hope to cross an epic landscape that will be expansive and emotional, it's a story that's going to take Caesar and cement his position and transformation into an epic figure almost along the lines of an Ape Moses. We think it's going to be his biggest arc yet, and we'll draw on all of the scenes which have been a basis from the two films by really looking at his existential nature and see him really grappling with the light and dark in a painful way. 

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes stars Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Toby Kebbell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Enrique Murciano, Kirk Acevedo and Judy Greer, and is released tomorrow on DVD and Blu-ray. Many thanks to Matt for taking the time to talk to us!

Coursework Question

How does the use of mise-en-scene and cinematography create suspense in the pale man sequence from Pan's Labyrinth?