Wednesday, 21 September 2016
New research focus
I have decide to switch my focus slightly from lack of real auteurs in Hollywood to the auteurs that are still around and are not appreciated enough. I have chosen Woody Allen as the auteur to focus on as he has been making films for a long time so there is a lot of material to study. Also the fact that he has not stopped making movies his own way after all these years, or changed himself in any way for fame shows his passion for films. The focus film I will discuss is To Rome With Love (2012) which was written and directed by Allen. This is proof that he still aims to make great movies in his unique style today without compromising . My two other films I will research are Manhattan (1979) as this is a romantic film too but quite early in his career, and Midnight in Paris(2011) as it is a modern romantic film written by Allen. It has been compared to To Rome With Love as it follows a young couple in a beautiful romantic city and has tones of neorealism too.
Thursday, 15 September 2016
Context Area - Auteur
My chosen Context area is Auteurs. I chose this because I have always been interested by the people behind the scenes who direct the crew and the cast as I myself am interested in doing this in the future. I believe a movie is not only dependant on the budget or the talent of the cast but also on the dedication and the vision of the director behind. A true auteur should be able to reflect himself and his ideas in all of his work and that is what I want to look into; the people in the industry who are still able to do that.
Research update
My research topic is auteurs, specifically directors as their are the men behind the scene responsible for all the elements of the film coming together: cast, crew and their equipment and the script. The directors are responsible for taking the words off the paper and using all the people involved on set to create the best product for the audience. That is why I'm interested to research whether there are any auteurs left, any directors who still have passion for film and believe that a film should be made for the sake of art and entertainment not for the money.
My focus film is Café Society. This is a newly released film with pretty high profile actors by a very famous director Woody Allen that shows that a movie can be both good and of good taste. Although Woody Allen has been in the business for a long time he has not once given in to the 'blockbuster' conventions and continued to make the movies that he thought had a good story and were good quality. Café society has high profile but talented actors, taking roles suited for them, involved in an original romantic story. The use of real people and simple but amazing events is enough to get good ratings. Additionally, as always the film was first released at Cannes Film Festival followed by the cinematic release. This movie shows Woody Allen is a true auteur as he is still fighting the conventions in 2016.
Different online articles regularly discuss weather there are any auteurs left, or any people in Hollywood who don't just want to make films for money. This year's most cinematic releases could possibly support the idea that there is no more passion and originality in Hollywood but at the same time we cannot ignore some of the best modern auteurs who still release films occasionally.
This can possibly explain why it's sop hard to find their movies even though we are reminded they exist every few years; they are struggling to survive in competition with the major studios who don't take kindly to their extravagant and risky ideas. Directors like Tim Burton would need a pretty big budget to be able to bring to life the weird yet magical stories he has , so this means he and other great auteurs have to rely on the faith and generosity of the studios in order to get their projects in motion.
The last of the auteurs?
http://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/7-modern-directors-and-their-distinctive-visual-styles.html/?a=viewall
Many have realised there is a lack of good movies coming out in the past years and they have blamed it on the lack of talent and skill in Hollywood, but here is a list of modern directors who have proved plenty of talent and passion.
Even though their movies are not at the top of every ShowTime list in the cinemas, these are some of the few modern auteurs that still make films with their unique style and strive to reflect themselves and the themes and ideas in their work.They are recognized by critics and have many dedicated fans but still get ignored by the big producers and pushed aside.
They might the last of the true auteurs of our time if we let them disappear or they might inspire the next generation of film makers to follow in their footsteps. It all depends on whether the big producers realise what a good product is and start making it.
Rationale (June)
The title that I have chosen
for my project blog is ‘Film for film’s
sake’ as my research will be about auteurs and their disappearance from
Hollywood. My focus would be directors as they can choose if the movie will
truly reflect them or they will create whatever the producers demand of them in
order to make the most profit.
My focus film will be Last Action Hero as many critics have
said that the premise of the film was very interesting and should have been a
success but due to the involvement of the wrong people with the wrong
intensions it has been called the biggest flop in cinema history. Interviews form
the people involved in all the stages of the production have agreed that the
involvement of the studio and their obsession with the idea that a big and loud
will make them rich.
Similarly I have chosen John
Carter and Aloha as support films as they have not been received very well even
though their plot was good to begin with.
John Carter
was based on a comic series which means that there was plenty of material to
work with to get the best characterisation. Unfortunately they let the fans
down which created a chain reaction of unsatisfied spectators.
Aloha is
another original film which had a good starting plot, but it upset the audience
as the casting was based on star power. This resulted in controversy as a
partially Chinese character was played by a white American causing it to flop.
These films show that more and
more everyday producers, directors and actor make the wrong decisions in order
to maximise profit and sometimes this backfires costing them a lot of money and
bad representation.
Primary Research:
As evidence I would use scenes
such as the main fight scenes in Last Action Hero full of unnecessary ‘bad-ass’
dialogue, explosions and special effects , all to attract a male audience by
creating excitement . Instead these scenes are hard to follow and not very
interesting to watch.
For John Carter the scene I
chose was the one where we first get introduced to the protagonist as it can be
argues that the characterisation of the main character is unsatisfactory and
not up to the expectations of the fans.
Similarly for Aloha the scene
I chose was the introductory scene for the character of Captain Allison Ng as
she has been the reason for the whitewashing controversy as she was portrayed
by Emma Stone.
Secondary research:
Many magazines such as Empire
magazine or Forbes have mentioned these films alongside comments that they
could have been great if they were not compromised by the greed of the makers.
Additionally, many websites have questioned the intensions of these producers
the same way and wonder whether they care about the product anymore, or just
the money.
Additionally I will look into
interviews directly from the directors on their own work and the responses from
other critics as well as other director expressing their opinions on the
intentions of the makers.
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