Tom Hardy divides and conquers as the Krays
Legend review by Mark Kermode
3 / 5 stars
Tom Hardy is bang-on as both Ronnie and Reggie in a cartoonish but entertaining account of the Kray twins’ East End reign.
Any retelling of the over-mythologised Kray twins’ tale walks a thin line between the glamorised cliches of Ronnie and Reggie nostalgia and the pin-sharp parody of Monty Python’s Piranha brothers’ Doug and Dinsdale sketch. A “combination of violence and sarcasm” fuelled the Piranhas’ reign of terror, and the same could be said of these latest screen Krays, with writer-director Brian Helgeland deploying much deadpan humour amid the beatings, stabbings and shootings of East End folklore.
Hinging on the double-barrelled blast of Tom Hardy’s bang-on central performance(s), Legend is a brash, cartoonish affair, happy to bask in the reflected glory of its subjects’ bizarre cultural icon status. With an eye on the international market, Helgeland (who co-wrote the screenplay for LA Confidential) tips his hat to Scarface, White Heat and Sunset Boulevard, investing his British anti-heroes with a stateside pizzazz entirely befitting their Rat Pack aspirations. This may be a British-French co-production, derived from John Pearson’s insider text The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins, but Helgeland’s worldview is more Goodfellas than The Long Good Friday, a portrait of glittering London as artificial as the Krays’ star-struck vision of themselves as the last of the famous international playboys.
We begin with the Krays already ruling their East End roost,
eschewing the traditional traipse through childhood, leaping straight
into their turf war with the Richardson gang, which would come to a head in the Blind Beggar pub in 1966. Frances Shea (Emily Browning)
proves our unlikely narrator, recounting the twins’ glory years through
her relationship with Reggie, of whom she declares “it took a lot of
love to hate him”. As a character, Shea is fragile and understated, but
her voiceover puts the ripe in tripe; it’s a credit to Browning that she
gets through its hackneyed “gangster prince” cliches without laughing.
Meanwhile the screen is a heady swirl of shiny streets and spangly
nightclubs, with Duffy belting out Timi Yuro’s Make the World Go Away
to celeb-packed crowds as flat-footed cops (Christopher Eccleston’s
uptight Leonard “Nipper” Read) and lairy villains (Sam Spruell’s nicely
drawn Jack “the Hat” McVitie) drift in and out of carefully
choreographed frames.
The film’s real sucker punch, however, is Hardy – both of him. Having originally offered Hardy the role of Reggie, Helgeland was persuaded to let the actor wrestle with Ron as well (both on and off screen), a dual role to which he brings the same commitment – physical, intellectual, emotional – as Jeremy Irons essaying both Mantle brothers in David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers. The result is a striking portrait of a single divided self: Reggie, the calculatingly cool charmer, whose sharp suits mirror his businessman’s mind; Ron, the paranoid schizophrenic, whose lust for random violence is matched only by his passion for handsome young men (“I’m homosexual, but I’m not a poof”) and his dear old mum’s tea and cake. With his pursed lip, protruding jaw and bulldog absurdism (he parades a dinner-jacketed donkey through a nightclub), the heavily bespectacled Ron occasionally resembles Matt Lucas doing an unkind impression of Mark Lamarr, with a touch of Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge and Patrick Marber’s Peter O’Hanraha-hanrahan thrown in for good measure. In Hardy’s hands, Ron is a tragicomic character, a madman whom Chazz Palminteri’s Angelo Bruno wants muzzled, but to whom Reggie remains devoted, even as the pair are beating seven bells out of each other.When Gary and Martin Kemp played the leads in Peter Medak’s 1990 film The Krays, both were overshadowed by Billie Whitelaw’s matriarchal Violet, the true focus of Philip Ridley’s script. There’s no chance of anyone overshadowing the mesmerisingly physical Hardy here, not least because the supporting characters remain just that – thumbnail sketches of secondary roles, albeit elegantly filled by the likes of David Thewlis and Paul Bettany. The Krays always longed for the spotlight (David Bailey told the BBC that “their big mistake was posing for me”) and that’s exactly what this faintly ridiculous but undeniably entertaining movie gives them. From the title down, Ron and Reg would have loved Legend. Whether that’s a criticism or a compliment remains a moot point.
AUDIENCE: "Legend is a brash, cartoonish affair, happy to bask in the reflected glory of its subjects’ bizarre cultural icon status. With an eye on the international market, Helgeland (who co-wrote the screenplay for LA Confidential) tips his hat to Scarface, White Heat and Sunset Boulevard, investing his British anti-heroes with a stateside pizzazz entirely befitting their Rat Pack aspirations. This may be a British-French co-production, derived from John Pearson’s insider text The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins, but Helgeland’s worldview is more Goodfellas than The Long Good Friday, a portrait of glittering London as artificial as the Krays’ star-struck vision of themselves as the last of the famous international playboys."
Would YOU see it? Many did:
"Now arrives Legend, which lands with a stunning £3.70m plus £1.49m in Wednesday/Thursday previews, for a five-day total of £5.19m. Brian Helgeland’s film certainly benefits from the UK audience’s existing awareness of, and interest in, the film’s subject – the Kray brothers remain the most notorious London gangsters. However, Hardy is also a key selling point: given his reputation as a highly committed actor, his performance in the dual roles of Ronnie and Reggie Kray exerted a powerful curiosity factor.
Any retelling of the over-mythologised Kray twins’ tale walks a thin line between the glamorised cliches of Ronnie and Reggie nostalgia and the pin-sharp parody of Monty Python’s Piranha brothers’ Doug and Dinsdale sketch. A “combination of violence and sarcasm” fuelled the Piranhas’ reign of terror, and the same could be said of these latest screen Krays, with writer-director Brian Helgeland deploying much deadpan humour amid the beatings, stabbings and shootings of East End folklore.
Hinging on the double-barrelled blast of Tom Hardy’s bang-on central performance(s), Legend is a brash, cartoonish affair, happy to bask in the reflected glory of its subjects’ bizarre cultural icon status. With an eye on the international market, Helgeland (who co-wrote the screenplay for LA Confidential) tips his hat to Scarface, White Heat and Sunset Boulevard, investing his British anti-heroes with a stateside pizzazz entirely befitting their Rat Pack aspirations. This may be a British-French co-production, derived from John Pearson’s insider text The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins, but Helgeland’s worldview is more Goodfellas than The Long Good Friday, a portrait of glittering London as artificial as the Krays’ star-struck vision of themselves as the last of the famous international playboys.
 |
| ‘The film’s real sucker punch’: Tom Hardy as Reggie Kray in Legend. |
The film’s real sucker punch, however, is Hardy – both of him. Having originally offered Hardy the role of Reggie, Helgeland was persuaded to let the actor wrestle with Ron as well (both on and off screen), a dual role to which he brings the same commitment – physical, intellectual, emotional – as Jeremy Irons essaying both Mantle brothers in David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers. The result is a striking portrait of a single divided self: Reggie, the calculatingly cool charmer, whose sharp suits mirror his businessman’s mind; Ron, the paranoid schizophrenic, whose lust for random violence is matched only by his passion for handsome young men (“I’m homosexual, but I’m not a poof”) and his dear old mum’s tea and cake. With his pursed lip, protruding jaw and bulldog absurdism (he parades a dinner-jacketed donkey through a nightclub), the heavily bespectacled Ron occasionally resembles Matt Lucas doing an unkind impression of Mark Lamarr, with a touch of Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge and Patrick Marber’s Peter O’Hanraha-hanrahan thrown in for good measure. In Hardy’s hands, Ron is a tragicomic character, a madman whom Chazz Palminteri’s Angelo Bruno wants muzzled, but to whom Reggie remains devoted, even as the pair are beating seven bells out of each other.When Gary and Martin Kemp played the leads in Peter Medak’s 1990 film The Krays, both were overshadowed by Billie Whitelaw’s matriarchal Violet, the true focus of Philip Ridley’s script. There’s no chance of anyone overshadowing the mesmerisingly physical Hardy here, not least because the supporting characters remain just that – thumbnail sketches of secondary roles, albeit elegantly filled by the likes of David Thewlis and Paul Bettany. The Krays always longed for the spotlight (David Bailey told the BBC that “their big mistake was posing for me”) and that’s exactly what this faintly ridiculous but undeniably entertaining movie gives them. From the title down, Ron and Reg would have loved Legend. Whether that’s a criticism or a compliment remains a moot point.
For your essay:
OWNERSHIP: A Working Title film.AUDIENCE: "Legend is a brash, cartoonish affair, happy to bask in the reflected glory of its subjects’ bizarre cultural icon status. With an eye on the international market, Helgeland (who co-wrote the screenplay for LA Confidential) tips his hat to Scarface, White Heat and Sunset Boulevard, investing his British anti-heroes with a stateside pizzazz entirely befitting their Rat Pack aspirations. This may be a British-French co-production, derived from John Pearson’s insider text The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins, but Helgeland’s worldview is more Goodfellas than The Long Good Friday, a portrait of glittering London as artificial as the Krays’ star-struck vision of themselves as the last of the famous international playboys."
Would YOU see it? Many did:
"Now arrives Legend, which lands with a stunning £3.70m plus £1.49m in Wednesday/Thursday previews, for a five-day total of £5.19m. Brian Helgeland’s film certainly benefits from the UK audience’s existing awareness of, and interest in, the film’s subject – the Kray brothers remain the most notorious London gangsters. However, Hardy is also a key selling point: given his reputation as a highly committed actor, his performance in the dual roles of Ronnie and Reggie Kray exerted a powerful curiosity factor.
Thursday, 30 March 2017
HOLIDAY ESSAYS
Essay 1. (email me by Wednesday 5 April at the latest, please) To what extent does media ownership have an impact on the successful distribution of media products in the area that you have studied? (2015)
Essay 2. (email me by Wednesday 12 April at the latest, please) "Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices." To what extent would you agree with this statement, within the media area you have studied? (2011)
Essay 3. (I will set you as a test on the first day back) The increase in hardware and content in media industries has been significant in recent years. Discuss the effect that this has had on institutions and audiences in the media area you have studied. (2014)
Essay 1 Guidelines
Points that you will cover:
Sentence 1: I have studied the film industry.
Sentence 2: I understand media ownership to refer to the fact that the Hollywood 'Big Six' dominate the film industry. There are increasing levels of consolidation, with many media industries already highly concentrated and dominated by a very small number of firms, such as Disney (The Avengers, director Joss Whedon 2012) and Universal (Jurassic World, director Colin Trevorrow 2015). The job of the distributor is to get films to audiences, to make audiences aware of the texts through publicity and to place the films for consumption.
Point 3: Media ownership and budgets influence how successful distribution is for a text as the larger the budget, the more successful the distribution for a media institution. Additionally, digital technology has lessened the cost of distribution compared to its physical formats. It must also be recognised that some media companies (such as conglomerates) invest most heavily in advertising campaigns (as a business model) which guarantees success.
Point 4: I intend to contrast the distribution strategies of a very low-budget British film Tortoise In Love (director Guy Browning 2012) as well as Working Title's Legend (director Helgeland, 2015) with 'Big Six' productions, Jurassic World and The Avengers.
Case Study 1: I take first Tortoise In Love as a case study as it is an example of a crowd-sourced film whose low budget and lack of big-name stars meant that distributors were not interested. Initially only the film's Facebook page acted as a means of publicity before the BFI became involved through its P&A fund, securing a release at a premiere in Leicester Square in May 2012.
(Below are some extracts but you should go through the PDF yourself to re-familiarize yourself with the case)
TIL was therefore an interesting model of traditional distribution methods with a twist; it shows the tough market place for indie films.
Working Title is an example of a very successful independent film company which operates out of the UK but whose parent company is NBC Universal. It can green-light films up to $US35 million but usually consults with Working Title's parent company NBC Universal. It has the double advantage of artistic independence and financial security. To market Legend (director Helgeland, 2015), the first image of the film was published in June 2014, featuring Hardy as both the Kray twins. A promotional poster attracted publicity because it made a two-star review from The Guardian appear to be a four- or five-star review by placing the two stars between the heads of the Krays. Legend
grossed $41,636,816 worldwide. Helgeland attended the Cannes Film
Festival to promote the film and find buyers, with distribution rights
going to StudioCanal. WT released a teaser trailer on its website,
linked to FB, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram feeds, followed by an
official full UK trailer. All publicity played on the 'legendary'
narrative (hence the film title) of the infamous Kray twins, glamorizing
their stories though the sophisticated night-life settings ("London's
going to be the Las Vegas of Europe"), their romances and the powerful
atmospheric photography. In each case, the puff "From the Academy
Award-winning screenwriter of LA Confidential and Mystic River"
targeted US audiences. The campaign capitalised on Tom Hardy’s dual
roles and the viral Guardian review that was generated by StudioCanal's
clever but deceitful poster in which it placed the poor two-star review
by The Guardian's Benjamin Lee between the heads of the Kray
twins to make it seem like a 5 star review. Lee generated viral
publicity for the film through his article drawing attention to this "How my negative review of Legend was spun into movie marketing gold".
Target Media were successful in handling marketing : 'The Outdoor campaign focused on bringing to life the old Kray
stomping ground as well as exhausting large digital formats in key
cities that would ‘take over’ London, much like the Krays did. While TV
kicked off awareness in cherry picked environments (Manchester V.
Chelsea and Rugby Live Internationals England V. France: as well as the
trial of Jimmy Rose for a more balanced audience), we complemented this
with breakout press formats, such as the Metro Cascade (a new format to
the market) and the Telegraph Archive page. To make sure that we
communicated effectively with the commuter belt, Time Out wraps and
Shortlist DPS’s were used also. Further partnerships with the Telegraph
meant that co-branded content and competitions made Legend more
accessible and excitable for our audience to engage with.
Digital also played a crucial role in starting conversations on
social platforms and allowing sharability. Kicking off with Cinemagraphs
to tease then eventually revealing the full trailer. Partnering up with
Shazam we were able to tie up all media by enabling outdoor, press and
TV to be Shazamable (also brand new to the market)- leading users to
the Legend hub where more content could be unlocked and tickets could be
booked. The display aspects of the campaign were rich formats across
key networks: these also included mobile interstitials and special
builds.Legend opened at number one in the UK box office bringing in a staggering £5.2m in the opening weekend.'
Next point: There are other distribution methods for indie films, such as those made possible by Web 2.0 such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, iTunes, BitTorrent Bundle and Vimeo on Demand. Kickstarter is also a crowd sourced funding website which offers newer
opportunities to fund and distribute film.
Most
of my own film viewing is done online. According to the FDA's 2017
handbook, audiences visit the cinema 2.6 times a year and although
cinema going is still robust, it is a little down on the previous year.
With
Web 2.0., 3D cinema, viewing online, piracy and the future of online
distribution (crowd sourced movies and the role of You Tube), the
industry faces future challenges. There are the rapid changes taking
place in this industry from the traditional ways of distributing film
through to the digital formats used today. Online platforms are now
being used to distribute and market films
(Netflix) and the relative success that different films texts had with
these. For example, Netflix and Amazon were outbidding all the major
movie studios at Sundance in January 2016. Amazon outbid Hollywood
heavyweights Fox and Universal for the rights to distribute Manchester by the Sea—a Sundance debut. Amazon paid $10 million for the film, and gave it a traditional
theatrical run to ensure it qualified for all the major awards. The film then streamed on Amazon Video.
Case study 2: The Avengers
Its distribution depended on digital technology. Disney dismissed all three of Marvel's marketing top men to bring their
functions in-house. The trailer, which debuted exclusively on iTunes Movie Trailers,
was downloaded over 10 million times in its first 24 hours, breaking
the website's record for the most-viewed trailer. A second full-length
trailer was released on iTunes in February 2012, reaching a record
13.7 million downloads in 24 hours.The theatrical trailers of The Avengers appeared with many films, including Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol, 21 Jump Street and The Hunger Games.
Not all marketing was digitally driven; the build-up to The Avengers
drew on retail partnerships, such as product tie-ins and Disney issued
two limited edition comic book series. Synergy is illustrated by its
wide range of retail partnerships. In total Marvel and its
parent-company Disney secured an estimated $100 million in worldwide
marketing support for The Avengers. So not all marketing was digitally driven; the build-up to The Avengers
drew on retail partnerships, such as product tie-ins: set photos of
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) were released driving a new model Acura
car. Marvel partnered with JADS, a fragrance company, to promote The Avengers
with character-based fragrances. The announcement was just ahead of the
Toy Industry Association's annual exhibition, where representatives
held a sampling booth of the products. Other promotional partners
included Dr Pepper, Harley Davidson, Hershey chocolates, Land O'Frost
lunchmeats, Oracle, Red Baron pizza, Symantec, Visa and Wyndham Hotels.
Disney does not generally promote through fast food outlets. Another example of how film distribution uses the synergy possible with digital technology to reach national, international and global audiences is this year's James Bond Skyfall for which Heineken television advertisements were constructed as mini Bond action adventure films packed with spectacle and thrills thanks to CGI. Heineken was of many luxury brands and revenue sources whose association with the film cross-promoted it, such as Aston Martin, Sony and Coca Cola, whilst Sky launched a dedicated TV channel.
Case Study 3 (alternative for you, or additional if you can write a lot quickly) Jurassic World.
Please look at the Prezi made by one of last year's students from material given to me by Gareth Edwards of Universal. Give it a minute to load.
Essay 2 Guidelines
Points that you will cover:
Sentence 1: I have studied the film industry.
Sentence 2:Here, FIRST UNPACK THE TERMS: ‘By production practices, I understand production values, digital distribution and production, CGI, choice of genre, casting, choice of film techniques and so on. I intend to discuss this question with reference to Hollywood blockbusters which target global audiences, British film with national and international target audiences and, finally, micro budget films with niche audiences.
As case studies, I plan to use Jurassic World, Avengers Assemble and Beauty and the Beast and to illustrate the Hollywood 4S mega franchise model and how global audiences are targeted through synergetic distribution methods. I will also refer to how Iron Man 3 used a range of methods to target the Chinese market, the second largest in the world, and why the success of Western production practices looks like slowing down in this market.
Next, I intend to refer to Legend (a Working Title film), Sunset Song and '71 as examples of British production practices and the needs of national cinema to serve national audiences with a diverse range of film genres. I will also cover micro budget films with niche audiences, such as Tortoise In Love. (See the notes for the previous essay above about Legend)
Finally, I will consider what trends indicate about future practices in the film industry, based on my own film viewing preferences and that of my peers, as well as what I have noticed in the press about the platforms like YouTube, Netflix and LoveFilm as well as the interesting reasons given by Peter Jackson for his choice of using 48 fps for The Hobbit to lure younger audiences away from handheld devices and back into cinemas.’
Case studies (to get you started)
I would like to contrast a Disney film Beauty and the Beast and an independent UK film '71.
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
- its website clearly demonstrates how Disney uses horizontal integration in its marketing as the banner shows links to its TV, DVDs, games, merchandising, live events, theme parks, travel company, cruise line, videos, competitions and DisneyLife.
- Beauty took $350 M on its opening weekend. It had the biggest ever opening weekend for a PG-rated film, and notched up the seventh best opening overall. This marks Disney's best opening for a live action remake yet - beating The Jungle Book, Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland.
- Disney can afford to use big names such as Emma Watson , Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor and so on.
- Is the film an example of Dalecki's '4 S' model? Yes: whilst not a sequel, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is a live-action re-telling of the studio’s animated classic which refashions the classic characters from the tale as old as time for a contemporary audience.
- Budget $ 160 M, the most expensive musical ever made
- By contrast, '71 is a low-budget national film but one that aimed at international audiences as its subject (radicalization of young men during the Troubles in Northern Ireland) was of universal interest. Plot summary here.
- Jack O'Connell had previously attracted critical acclaim for Unbroken (2014) appearing as a prisoner of war in a Japanese war camp. Directed by Angelina Jolie, this film made O'Connell known to an American audience.
- 71 won Best Director at the 2014 British Independent Film Awards, after receiving nine nominations. The National Board of Review named '71 one of the top 10 independent films of 2015.
- Budget, £8.1 million. Box office, $3.2 million.
Here is an article that I wrote some time ago that has been reproduced by Haggerston Media (without crediting me).
Monday, 24 April 2017
SUMMER TERM CLASSWORK
Welcome back to the summer term.
Your written exam G322 is in just over 3 weeks time on Thursday 18 May 2017.
Between now and then, classwork will involve consolidating our case studies for Section A (the institutions and audience of the US an UK film industries) and practising essays. We will also revise film language in TV drama. You should time yourself for practice essays done at home.
There is a list of all past papers on the blog as well as examiner's reports and exemplar essays which we will look at.
I will also deliver a revision lesson immediately prior to the exam on Wednesday 17 May. You are all asked to attend this session. I have also asked you to attend all media lessons unless you have study leave for other exams. Revision lessons with me in class are invaluable.
Clinics are also available in lunch break in White Cottage on Mondays.
Between now and the exam, you must ensure that you follow up all emails that I have sent you with advice about your blogs. Some of you have left huge gaps, or done low quality work, such as in the seven Evaluation questions.
All the work that we need to revise from, such as the case studies for the Hollywood film industry (Disney: Star Wars, Rogue One and Legend: Working Title and so on) are on our class blog.
Remember to incorporate your personal consumption and to cover trends, or you won't reach a level 4 mark.
We have done every exam paper set by OCR on television drama so you should feel confident, but do remember to be systematic:
Your written exam G322 is in just over 3 weeks time on Thursday 18 May 2017.
Between now and then, classwork will involve consolidating our case studies for Section A (the institutions and audience of the US an UK film industries) and practising essays. We will also revise film language in TV drama. You should time yourself for practice essays done at home.
There is a list of all past papers on the blog as well as examiner's reports and exemplar essays which we will look at.
I will also deliver a revision lesson immediately prior to the exam on Wednesday 17 May. You are all asked to attend this session. I have also asked you to attend all media lessons unless you have study leave for other exams. Revision lessons with me in class are invaluable.
Clinics are also available in lunch break in White Cottage on Mondays.
Between now and the exam, you must ensure that you follow up all emails that I have sent you with advice about your blogs. Some of you have left huge gaps, or done low quality work, such as in the seven Evaluation questions.
All the work that we need to revise from, such as the case studies for the Hollywood film industry (Disney: Star Wars, Rogue One and Legend: Working Title and so on) are on our class blog.
Remember to incorporate your personal consumption and to cover trends, or you won't reach a level 4 mark.
We have done every exam paper set by OCR on television drama so you should feel confident, but do remember to be systematic:
- TM, EG, EAA (the film language)
- the focus (representations of gender, age, regionality, disability, sexuality, ethnicity)
Monday, 23 January 2017
HOW GLOBAL INSTITUTIONS DOMINATE FILM PRODUCTION
Section B: Institutions and Audiences
Answer the question below, making detailed reference to examples from
your case study material to support the points made in your answer.
2. “Global institutions dominate media production. These institutions
sell their products and services to national audiences.” To what extent
do you agree with this statement? You must choose to focus on one of the
following media areas. You may make reference to other media in your
answer.
• Film
HOW TO PREPARE FOR THIS QUESTION
Agree with the premise, identifying the 'Big Six' and explaining Daleki's 4S megafranchize model. State that you will illustrate this with reference to Disney.
CASE STUDIES
Start with the Hollywood studio and draw contrasts between Disney films and British films.
The Avengers (Disney)
Jurassic World (distribution "selling")
'71(UK independent)
American Honey (US independent)
Sunset Song (UK independent)
Tortoise In Love case study (microbudget)
also the BFI pdf on TIL
Ken Loach calls for diversity
Consumers as producers A Life in the Day
USE EXAMPLES OF PERSONAL CONSUMPTION "As a teenager, I.." "People of my age, such as my friends..." ""My preference is for..." "I usually find out about films from..." "When I go to the cinema..."
REMEMBER TRENDS
What are current trends? Read Review of the year;
Mention 3D, IMAX (do you pick IMAX / 3D for particular screenings?)
Read this Piktochart of changes; Netflix; Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, Vimeo online; distribution;
consumers as producers (bloggers, vloggers, memes - examples of what Henry Jenkins calls 'participatory culture', music videos ; A Life In The Day (crowd sourced). Is the success of the Jurassic World marketing / distribution campaign a trendsetter?
CONTENT (this is taken from elsewhere in the blog, so there may be duplications)
Know your bullet points: what to expect
Write out and learn how to define key terms ("By synergy / cross-media convergence / exchange / media ownership (part 2)/ proliferation /distribution / digitization / production practices / hardware / software, consolidation of ownership / media ownership (part 1), platforms, megafranchize, I understand...")
Know three case studies: Disney megafranchize (Jurassic World, Avengers), British Film medium /low budget (Legend, '71), micro-budget indie (Tortoise In Love)
Audiences: how are they served? Global, international, national, local, mainstream, niche.
Types of film: blockbuster, sequel / prequel, heritage, literary, prestige, arthouse.
Structure your response logically (eg. concept, production values, distribution, exhibition)
Prepare sentences on your own viewing habits & your peers' and family's
What are current trends? Review of the year;
3D
Piktochart of changes; Netflix; Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, Vimeo online ; distribution; consumers as producers (bloggers, vloggers, memes - examples of what Henry Jenkins calls 'partcipatory culture', music videos ; A Life In The Day (crowd sourced). Is the success of the Jurassic World marketing / distribution campaign a trendsetter?
Learn Daleki's 4S megafranchize model by heart
Have a list of other movies, distribution campaign facts, tie-in facts, box office figures to throw into the mix (only films 5 years old or less) The Hunger Games, Skyfall, Sunset Song, Frozen, The Hobbit (scroll down)
CASE STUDIES
Start with the Hollywood studio and draw contrasts between Disney films and British films.
The Avengers (Disney)
Jurassic World (distribution "selling")
'71(UK independent)
American Honey (US independent)
Sunset Song (UK independent)
Tortoise In Love case study (microbudget)
also the BFI pdf on TIL
Ken Loach calls for diversity
Consumers as producers A Life in the Day
USE EXAMPLES OF PERSONAL CONSUMPTION "As a teenager, I.." "People of my age, such as my friends..." ""My preference is for..." "I usually find out about films from..." "When I go to the cinema..."
REMEMBER TRENDS
What are current trends? Read Review of the year;
Mention 3D, IMAX (do you pick IMAX / 3D for particular screenings?)
Read this Piktochart of changes; Netflix; Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, Vimeo online; distribution;
consumers as producers (bloggers, vloggers, memes - examples of what Henry Jenkins calls 'participatory culture', music videos ; A Life In The Day (crowd sourced). Is the success of the Jurassic World marketing / distribution campaign a trendsetter?
CONTENT (this is taken from elsewhere in the blog, so there may be duplications)
Know your bullet points: what to expect
Write out and learn how to define key terms ("By synergy / cross-media convergence / exchange / media ownership (part 2)/ proliferation /distribution / digitization / production practices / hardware / software, consolidation of ownership / media ownership (part 1), platforms, megafranchize, I understand...")
Know three case studies: Disney megafranchize (Jurassic World, Avengers), British Film medium /low budget (Legend, '71), micro-budget indie (Tortoise In Love)
Audiences: how are they served? Global, international, national, local, mainstream, niche.
Types of film: blockbuster, sequel / prequel, heritage, literary, prestige, arthouse.
Structure your response logically (eg. concept, production values, distribution, exhibition)
Prepare sentences on your own viewing habits & your peers' and family's
What are current trends? Review of the year;
3D
Piktochart of changes; Netflix; Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, Vimeo online ; distribution; consumers as producers (bloggers, vloggers, memes - examples of what Henry Jenkins calls 'partcipatory culture', music videos ; A Life In The Day (crowd sourced). Is the success of the Jurassic World marketing / distribution campaign a trendsetter?
Learn Daleki's 4S megafranchize model by heart
Have a list of other movies, distribution campaign facts, tie-in facts, box office figures to throw into the mix (only films 5 years old or less) The Hunger Games, Skyfall, Sunset Song, Frozen, The Hobbit (scroll down)
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