Jurassic world

Jurassic World is one of this summers biggest blockbusters, making money faster than any film in Hollywood history. The sci-fi film is on the way to becoming the highest grossing film ever made. To overtake James Cameron's, Avatar, Jurassic World would have to gross in excess of around £1.7 billion pounds. There are numerous reasons as to why Jurassic World was so successful. Firstly, the success of the directors ideas obviously had a significant impact on the overall success of the film. The Director succeeds at letting the film steadily gain momentum over the course of its three-act narrative. Also the cinematography allows the story to unfold like an amusement park ride. Obstructive camera angles and shots are used to build up a sense of intrigue, as details are gradually revealed. High-key lighting is used in scenes showing majestic dinosaurs in motion, brought to life through the use of CGI. These scenes are juxtaposed with the scenes where they used low-key lighting to portray terror and destruction, in action scenes of the Indominus Rex on the Hunt. The director also uses Easter eggs, set pieces and music to link the film to the rest of the Jurassic Park sequel, which was also very successful. Therefore the good ideas and decisions made by the director helped to make the film successful. 

Moreover Jurassic World was due to be released in the summer of 2005, but instead they spent a decade alternating and improving the script. This helped to make the film successful because it got countless positive reviews from various film critics, who commented on how well it had been written. I think the fact that it was announced that the film would be released in 2005 but then got pushed to 2015, made the Film more successful because of how many Jurassic Park fans had to wait to continue their epic adventure on the fictional island of Isla Nublar. As a consequence of this I feel it made people very eager to want to see it by the time the release date came. Also during the development of the script, many famous actors such as Keira Knightley, dropped hints that they may be pursuing a role in the upcoming film, therefore it was already publicised, to Jurassic Park fans, as I 'Must see film'. 

Furthermore the filmmakers spent far too much money on the making and production of the film, to not splash out on the advertisement too. After all how could they expect the film to be a massive hit if no one knew about it? They knew they had to do something big. Universal spent a total of $34.9 million on TV advertisement for the film. Jurassic World teamed up with big companies such as Mercedes-Benz, in an attempt to gain more publicity for the impending release. Universal also took it one step further when they put a dinosaur container, from Jurassic world, in the middle of Waterloo Underground, as a reminder of the sequels upcoming release.

In conclusion, all parties involved in the making and production of this film worked extremely hard to make it a successful Blockbuster and it clearly paid off when it busted Box-Office records, upon its release in May 2015.

Favourite film

The film I have picked is The Lord of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings is my favourite film for many reasons. My first reason is how it was such a big risk to film. New line cinema took a huge gamble when they funded the project because at first the film was seen as unfilmable. People thought that it would be impossible to take such a successful and magical book and turn it into an equally successful and magical film. There was also some worry about Peter Jackson being the director because he was an unproven commodity, famous for directing low budget B-movies, therefore at the time it was seen as a massive risk for all parties involved.

Moreover the film is famous for revolutionizing special effects, winning 3 Oscars for Best visual effects. One of the most publicized effects that they used was the use of motion capture to create the creature Gollum. Serving as Frodo and Sam’s guide to Mount Doom. Gollum was at times sympathetic, malicious and friendly. Struggling with an internal conflict as he plots to take back the ring, his role in the hobbits quest added an extra dose of tension to his scenes in the films. Not only did he keep the viewer on edge, he also portrayed what Frodo could become if he kept possession of the ring. The film would not have been possible without the advancement of CGI, neither would it have been possible without the use of practical effects, for example techniques such as trick photography and miniatures, which helped bring Middle-earth and its inhabitants to life.

Furthermore, one thing that The Lord of the Rings has in common with most blockbuster franchisers is an iconic music theme. The composer had a terrific grasp on what music was needed for each scene, using a variety of tones throughout the three films. By doing this he was able to create an assortment of tracks that set the mood as ominous, epic, or emotional, for example “The Return of the King” caused viewers to get swept up in a moment of celebration, without this music the films battles and intimate moments between characters would not have had the same feel.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy features some of the strongest characters ever created. Throughout the film we see sufficient character development for each member of the Fellowship. The actors who played these characters were very carefully and well selected and when it came to bringing their characters to life, they went above and beyond to make that happen. Ian Mckellen made Gandalf both authoritative and fatherly. Elijah Wood and Sean Astin developed one of the most famous friendships in cinema, between their characters Frodo and Sam.

All of these aspects and many more make The Lord of the Rings the most enjoyable film that I have seen because it really brought to life the concept of Middle-earth and all the creatures within it, even though it was based on a fictional book.   

Horror

A Horror is a genre of film that aims to create a sense of fear, dread, alarm and panic. The purpose of a horror film is to evoke a negative emotional reaction from the viewers, by playing on their natural fears. Horror films are usually centred on an evil force, event or person. Many horror films include supernatural creatures, such as zombies, ghosts and vampires.  Traditionally, Horror films incorporate a large amount of violence and gore into the plot. Though it is its own genre, horror often overlaps other genres and form sub-genres, for example teen-horror or comedy-horror.

When making a horror film there are curtain camera shots, angles and movements that are used to makes the views feel curtain negative emotions and to portray meaning and emotions.

 Extremely wide/long shots are commonly used to establish the surroundings, convey loneliness and helplessness.

 Close up shots are used to emphasise characters, their emotions and reactions and to create suspense for the views because they do not know what is going on outside the frame. 

Slow pans are used to make the views feel frightened and anxious because they don’t know what is about move into the frame.

Hand held camera shots are used to make the scene(s) more realistic and it makes the viewer feel like they are part of the film and experiencing the horror first hand, which sparks more genuine emotions.

No music/soundtrack noise is used in some scenes, which helps to draw the viewer’s attention to the diegetic sounds featured in the scene. On the other hand loud sinister music is sometimes used to build tension as it suggests that something is about to happened which makes the viewer’s more scared. A good example of when sinister music was used to build tension is the Jaws theme tune.

Low-key lighting creates shadows and harsh contrasts between people, creatures and items on screen. Shadows add depth to the scene and creates a fear of the unknown.

Quick, straight cuts add a sense of urgency and chaos and they are also important because they can portray multiple character’s emotions in one particular moment, which is crucial because it can help manipulate what the viewers are feeling. Slow cuts can create the feeling of tranquility stability, which can create a false sense of security for the viewer’s making the upcoming events more emotionally effective.     

High and low camera angles depict one person’s weakness and insignificance and another person’s dominance.

In conclusion all of these camera shots, camera angles, camera movements, lighting, and editing techniques are all commonly used in the genre of horror to extract many negative emotions and to convey characters emotions and general emotive themes throughout the film.        

The Bourne

The scene opens with an establishing shot, which shows the surroundings and sets the scene. The camera is at a high angle and it is an extreme long shot, this enables them to be able to fit more of the surroundings in the frame. It was filmed on a cold winters day, therefore it creates a tense and gloomy mood. The lighting is naturally quite low key, however the white snow causes it to be slightly high key.

After this opening shot the camera pans from left to right, towards the building where the man descends from. After panning the camera lowers, which is known as a crane shot. The camera lowers to eye line level as the man is walking down the steps.  It then cuts straight to a medium shot of him on the phone, and follows by zooming in to a close up shot using a hand held camera. This could be to show that the phone call is significant. After this scene there is a straight cut to a close up on a woman and then back to the man. This shows that he is suspicious of everyone around him because he knows he is wanted.  After a sequence of tracking shots, we see two pans one after the other of an ambulance which foreshadows that there is dangerous to come. 

When he gets Into the bank there is a sequence of close up shots Switching between the man and the woman at the desk, this built tension because she was delaying him from completing what he wanted to do.