Matt Foster's blog

Thursday 13 May 2010

Box office bombs

Film
Year
Total cost (production+marketing) (USD)
Worldwide theater gross (USD)
Net losses (USD)
Net losses inflation adjusted (2008 USD)
Cutthroat Island
1995
115,000,000
10,017,322
-104,982,678
-146,947,958
The Alamo
2004
145,000,000
25,819,961
-119,180,039
-134,784,016
The Adventures of Pluto Nash
2002
120,000,000
7,103,973
-112,896,027
-134,396,524
Sahara
2005
241,000,000
119,269,486
-121,730,514
-133,141,605
The 13th Warrior
1999
160,000,000
61,698,899
-98,301,101
-125,887,312
Town & Country
2001
105,000,000
10,372,291
-94,627,709
-115,352,672
Heaven's Gate
1980
44,000,000*
3,484,331
-40,515,669
-104,542,449
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
2001
167,000,000
85,131,830
-81,868,170
-99,798,592
Inchon
1982
46,000,000*
5,200,986
-40,799,014
-89,870,942
Treasure Planet
2002
180,000,000
109,578,115
-70,421,885
-83,833,389
The Postman
1997
80,000,000*
17,626,234
-62,373,766
-83,346,947
Red Planet
2000
100,000,000
33,463,969
-66,536,031
-82,406,208
Soldier
1998
75,000,000*
15,000,000
-60,000,000
-78,912,404
Gigli
2003
74,000,000
7,266,209
-66,733,791
-77,961,644
Around the World in 80 Days
2004
140,000,000
72,178,895
-67,821,105
-76,700,771
Ishtar
1987
55,000,000*
14,375,181
-40,624,819
-76,015,712
A Sound of Thunder
2005
80,000,000*
11,665,465
-68,334,535
-74,740,255
Hart's War
2002
95,000,000
32,287,044
-62,712,956
-74,656,332
Hudson Hawk
1991
65,000,000*
17,218,080
-47,781,920
-74,619,989
Adventures of Baron Munchausen
1988
46,630,000*
8,083,123
-38,546,877
-69,286,783
Stealth
2005
138,000,000*
76,932,872
-61,067,128
-66,791,597
Rollerball
2002
70,000,000*
18,990,798
-51,009,202
-60,723,655
Catwoman
2004
135,000,000
82,102,379
-52,897,621
-59,823,389
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
2002
70,000,000*
19,924,033
-50,075,967
-59,612,690
The Scarlet Letter
1995
50,000,000
10,382,407
-39,617,593
-55,454,143
Gods and Generals
2003
60,000,000*
12,923,936
-47,076,064
-54,996,536
The Last Castle
2001
72,000,000*
27,642,707
-44,357,293
-54,072,241
Battlefield Earth
2000
73,000,000*
29,725,663
-43,274,337
-53,596,134
The Bonfire of the Vanities
1990
47,000,000*
15,691,192
-31,308,808
-50,947,847
Nothing but Trouble
1991
40,000,000*
8,479,793
-31,520,207
-49,224,424
All the King's Men
2006
55,000,000*
9,450,897
-45,549,103
-48,603,808
The Avengers
1998
60,000,000*
23,384,939
-36,615,061
-48,156,375
Son of the Mask
2005
100,000,000
57,552,641
-42,447,359
-46,426,400
Money Train
1995
68,000,000
35,431,113
-32,568,887
-45,587,820
Windtalkers
2002
115,000,000*
77,628,265
-37,371,735
-44,488,999
Man on the Moon
1999
82,000,000*
47,434,430
-34,565,570
-44,265,696
The Majestic
2001
72,000,000*
37,317,558
-34,682,442
-42,278,444
Timeline
2003
80,000,000*
43,935,763
-36,064,237
-42,131,987
K-19: The Widowmaker
2002
100,000,000*
65,716,126
-34,283,874
-40,813,070
Delgo
2008
40,000,000*
694,782
-39,305,218
-39,305,218

Wednesday 12 May 2010

Dead Ringers - Question of values

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R22QUqy6wM&feature=related

In this video Dead Ringers parodies another BBC programme (Top Gear) which questions the values of the BBC as it seems that creating humour for the audience is more important than their personal pride.

Heroes - Postmodern elements: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroes_(TV_series)

Comparisons with other works
The show's creators have answered criticism over similarities between elements of the show and the X-Men in their live blog, saying "I think there is a shorthand to compare it to X-Men when you have not yet seen the show. However, my guess is that that comparison will go away once you have seen what we are doing."[133][134]
On February 7, 2007, Jeph Loeb, co-executive producer of Heroes and the other creators compared Heroes to 24, stating that, like 24, each season would conclude and the next season would introduce a new plotline. In the same interview, Tim Kring compared Heroes to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Incredibles, stating the characters in Eternal Sunshine were "ordinary...and unexpected," but well responded to; and the characters in Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles were superpowered people who had to deal with the stresses and problems that arose when they attempted to live a normal life.[36][135]
Bob Smithouser at pluggedinonline.com, reviewed the Heroes pilot and compared it as a combination of elements from The 4400, Lost, X-Men, and Stephen King's The Stand.[136] Aron Coleite and Joe Pokaski have stated that "comics have a huge influence on us." Watchmen, "Days of Future Past", Y: The Last Man, The Dark Knight Returns, and The Long Halloween are a few examples that they gave. Other non-comicbook examples included the 9/11 documentary Loose Change and the novel The Fourth K by Mario Puzo.[137]

Critical reception
During the series' first season, the American Film Institute named Heroes one of the ten "best television programs of the year."[87] Doug Elfman of the Chicago Sun-Times stated, "the show's super strengths are its well-developed filmmaking, smooth pacing and a perfect cast. It views like the first hour of a fun, thoughtful movie." Barry Garron at the The Hollywood Reporter also stated, "Heroes is one of TV's most imaginative creations and might, with luck, become this year's Lost."[88] Less favorable reviews included the Philadelphia Inquirer, who commented that although the show had lots of "cool effects," it "lands, splat, in a pile of nonsense and dim dialogue." In response to the first pod of season one episodes, The Chicago Tribune went as far as saying, "you could watch the first few episodes of Heroes, or you could repeatedly hit yourself on the head with a brick. The effect is surprisingly similar."[89] At Metacritic, the Heroes pilot received a 67/100, with generally favorable reviews from critics.[90]
The second season of Heroes was criticized by commentators and fans for a much slower pace, less engaging storyline and lack of focus compared to the first season. Milo Ventimiglia stated that "when there's a little bit of a delay, there's not that instant, rewarding scene or moment or episode… people get impatient, so it has been extremely important for them to strike a balance between giving and getting."
Mythology
Main article: Mythology of Heroes

Activating Evolution
Heroes includes some mysterious fictional recurring elements that have been ascribed to science fiction or supernatural phenomena. Tim Kring and the creators of the series refer to these fictional elements as part of the mythology of the series. Kring confirmed that although the show has a unique mythology, he does not want to sink too deeply into it. Rather, Kring has used volumes to wrap up ongoing plot lines instead of carrying storylines over long periods of time as in Lost.[84] As far as the overall mythology of the series, Kring said, "we have talked about where the show goes up to five seasons."[1][85] As far as the show's ending date, Kring has commented that, "This show doesn't posit an ending…" The show does not have a designated ending point and is "open-ended."[86]
Among the show's mythological elements are the Company, the legend of Takezo Kensei, paintings of the future, superpowers and their origins, the Shanti virus, 9th Wonders! comic book and numerous other elements and mythological themes.

Friday 30 April 2010

Box office flops - Stormbreaker

Budget
$40 million (£25 million)

Gross revenue
$23,937,870

A number of films that are released are flops at the box office. Stormbreaker is a prime example with the film adaptation of the Anthony Horowitz making huge losses at the box office which has halted plans of a film franchise which includes the later Alex Rider books. The Main problem with film adaptations of popular books is the weak protrayals and the absence of key scenes from the book which weakens the film's narrative and appeal to its audience as a result.

Thursday 15 April 2010

Heroes (Postmodern TV) trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMMiqwxFtbc&feature=related

Friday 26 March 2010

Heroes (postmodernist text)

Heroes is a postmodernist text firstly, because it is hyperreal with the use of superhuman abilities which i reality no-one possesses. It is also quite quite self referential as it shows the negatives of having these abilities where a lot of the audience wishes that they had a superpower and wanted to be a hero. Heroes sometimes works on the borderline of reality and hyperreality, because those with the powers are normal individuals who live normal lives and display the human side of their 'identity'. This differs from normal superhero texts where they display the extraordinary side of their personality a lot more often than their normal human side as they try to escape their normal lives and use their powers in order to be someone special. It also plays on the fear factor as one of the characters (called Sylar) begins killing other people with abilities in order to steal their powers. This is evidence of the importance of possessions and the crime that usually is committed is to steal other people's possessions, such as wallets or handbags but in Heroes, Sylar wishes to possess powers and it represents our sometimes hunger for our possessions like our computer and mobile phones and it can be ahunger that we may not be able to control if push came to shove.

Thursday 25 March 2010

Reservoir Dogs

This was Tarantino's debut film and was made in 1992. It had a budget of $1.2million and had a gross revenue of $2.8 million. It is about the events before and after a failed jewel heist. Like a lot of Tarantino's other films such as Inglorious Basterds, Tarantino starred in the film as well. It recieved substantial criticism for the violence and language that were used and censorship was not as big an issue.

Quentin Tarantino film festival

This takes place in Austin, Texas and Tarantino screens some of his favourite films using the prints that he owns. Themes include 80s horror and 70s Italian crime they have all been inspirations for him when he was making his own films. There have been six festivals so far and Tarantino introduces all of the films himself, shows trailers for all film genres and discusses films with the fans who have paid to come to the festival.

Coen Brothers filmography

Year
Film
Director credit
Academy Award Nominations
Academy Award Wins
Golden Globe Nominations
Golden Globe Wins
BAFTA Nominations
BAFTA Wins
1984
Blood Simple
Joel
1987
Raising Arizona
1990
Miller's Crossing
1991
Barton Fink
3
1
1994
The Hudsucker Proxy
1996
Fargo
7
2
4
6
1
1998
The Big Lebowski
2000
O Brother,Where Art Thou?
2
2
1
5
2001
The Man Who Wasn't There
1
3
1
1
2003
Intolerable Cruelty
2004
The Ladykillers
Joel & Ethan
2007
No Country for Old Men
8
4
4
2
9
3
2008
Burn After Reading
2
3
2009
A Serious Man
2
1
1
2010
True Grit
Total
23
6
17
3
20
5

Quentin tarantino stats

Inglrious basterds trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOMKloOEKcU

Inglorious Basterds advertising

Wednesday 24 March 2010

Inglorious Basterds

From watching this film in class I have been able to pick up key elements of the film, such as the audience reaction due to the self refernetial way that it depicts the Nazi hunting of the Jews and the ruthlessness of the Nazi party. Another way that representation works is the way tha Brad Pitt is depicted. He is depcited in the eyes of the American public at least as a hero and do not stop to think whether he is truly the good guy as he and the rest of the inglorious basterds commit violent acts that can be seen as similar to the acts of the Nazi troops. It is also interesting that a number of key themes from previous Quentin Tarantino films remain in this film. The Soundtrack at times sounds similar to Kill Bill and it maintains the heavy violence seens form both Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction. Especially Pulp Fiction as this opened everyones eyes when they first saw it.

Monday 22 March 2010

Trailer for the new series of Doctor Who

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpbmMhNe6aA
I chose to uploa this link as Doctor Who is a good example of a postmodern text and the key concepts of hyppereality which are also featured.

Friday 19 March 2010

The Wire

The Wire uses realism elements, such as filming on location in Baltimore. It tackles several key issues , such as drug abuse and problems with bureaucracy. The target of the show is to show how american cities function and how everyone gets on with each other. It is written around the experiences of co-write Ed Burns who was a former homicide detective such as the frustrations he suffered of the ineffectiveness of the beaureaucracy of the police department so there are a lot of political elements featured in the Wire.
The Wire is postmodern, because it is based around true events which shows that the structure of the narrative is less creative as ideas for the narrative already exist that can be used to construct the plot for the series. It also is postmodern as it hits out at the weaknesses of the police department. This in the past would have been too risky to attempt to do, but nowadays writers of TV programmes aren't for example afraid to break the fourth wall. Also most of characters involved are based on real life Baltimore figures. Also some important events occur off camera and flashbacks are common so another postmodern element is the growing emphasis on technology on media products. This is just like the A2 media projects which now depend more on technology such as recorded evaluations.

Monday 15 March 2010

Last lesson

Last lesson we related soap doc to real media texts like the office. Extras is also a good example. It is designed to be a comedy but has plenty of drama elements as well like you'd find in a soap like coronation street. We also watched a number of films relating to postmodernism such as '500 days of summer' and 'pulp fiction' and dissected those texts and pulled out key elements and themes, such as 500 days of summer's slogan 'its a story about love not a love story' and the very heavy violence of pulp fiction.

Friday 5 March 2010

How does your project relate to real media texts ?

One of the key existing media conventions that my project relates to is the work of Joseph Campbell. One of the most useful of Campbell’s texts to relate to is the book: ‘Hero of a thousand faces’. It gives a postmodernist twist on the concept of a hero as he structured the journey of the hero around a concept called monomyth. It takes in the trials and tasks that a hero must face. The hero starts in an ordinary world and is called to a strange new world with strange powers and events and also links to the concept of ‘fight or flight’. This refers to whether a hero will step up to the plate and make the effort to reach his target or fail and be doomed to misery and failure. The structure of the narrative that Joseph Campbell uses is postmodern, because there is also a strong presence of mythology which comes with ‘the journey of a hero’. As some myths often differ in the approaches that need to be taken, especially in terms of the order that they need to be taken. These ideas crucially link back to my own project, because the structure of the narrative of my project is one of the main concepts that is aimed at being brought forward as the hero of the film Miles is starting his journey after leaving home and going in search of his hero. He is pictured in my project performing many tasks, such as hitchhiking and looking to others for help and guidance. This shows the structure of the narrative of my project and also the order in which events unfold which is what Joseph Campbell tries to do with the concept of mythology and how a hero completes the tasks and trials and the way he completes them.
There is evidence to show that George Lucas used the ideas of Joseph Campbell and monomyth to create the Star wars films with the structure of the different episodes of the star wars films and the trials and tribulations of Luke Skywalker becoming a Jedi throughout the Star Wars trilogy with the clear order of events of the trilogy of flms.

Tuesday 23 February 2010

Matrix trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtqU57sR0B8)

I have linked this trailer as The Matrix is a very good example of a Postmodernist text and is also a great example to back up the theory of hyperreality with the Matrix plot centred around a world run by computers and machines.

Thursday 11 February 2010

How did you get inspiration from other media products in order to make you own project?

My project was about a boy who leaves behind his turbulent life and goes off in search of his hero in a long and eventful journey. I got the inspiration for my project from existing media products, such as ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ and ‘Home Alone’. These films also involved child actors and Little Miss Sunshine was particularly important in terms of my research as the trials and tribulations and voyage of discovery were some of the themes that featured on my own media project. Home Alone was important in gaining an understanding of a child actor and how it launches the career of a child actor. I needed to understand this before I could start planning the filming of the project. The road trip/journey element was inspired from films, such as Planes, Trains and Automobiles as the journey goes on a long journey there are bound to be highs and lows along the way plus the fact that the journey was central to the film as it is the core of the narrative : ‘ searching for their hero’. I also researched by looking at film trailers from films, such as Spiderman and Planes, Trains and Automobiles in order to gain some understanding on how a film is edited for a trailer and also how long they should be.
Another discovery film that inspired my project was looking for Eric. This is another film where someone gains inspiration in search of their hero, in this case legendary footballer Eric Cantona. So in conclusion my project gained an inspiration from a range of existing media products and tried to extract the themes from them which helps to make my film seem more like a hybrid.

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Comparison of woman clone CD cover and my film poster

The genre between the 2 different texts differs, because the CD cover seems to contain cultural themes, such as feminism and obsession. This is due to the fact that the main image is of a large image of a woman which is strategically positioned under the words woman and clone. The obsession comes from all of the magazine and newspaper extracts that are positioned in and around the woman’s head and also contains a presence of feminism with the titles of the headlines, such as ‘THE QUEEN PALACE DIARY’ and ‘THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED WHEN WOMEN DESIGN A COOKER’. The second one also shows connotations of sexism by the portrayal and stereotype of women designing something that turns out to be a failure. It is also a cry out for independence with all of the cover being based around women.
The film poster by contrast that was part of my practical project is centred a lot more around more general themes, such as ambition and hope. These themes are much less serious than themes shown on the woman clone CD cover as they are more general and are not up for debate in modern society. Ambition is a connotation in both the CD cover and my film poster, but the ambition is aimed two different bigger issues and goals. The CD cover shows the ambition with the feminist themes for women to be given the same rights as men and to be truly equal. The film poster on the other hand has the quotation ‘How far would you go to realise your dreams ?’. This shows the pursuit of happiness and also looks at the bigger picture, but it is the happiness of an individual not of an entire culture though.