Questionnaire

1) What encourages you to watch a fantasy film release? e.g. the trailers, adverts, the books, reviews or word of mouth.

2) Do you believe fantasy films target the younger/teenaged audience? If so or not, explain?

3) What is your favourite fantasy film and why?

4) Do you buy any of the merchandise surrounding the film after watching the release?

5) What do you believe makes a good fantasy film? e.g. the cast, special effects, the plot

6) In your opinion, do the special effects make the fantasy realistic or unrealistic?

7) Do you believe films such as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Narnia can be heavily criticised by being compared to their book forms?

8) Compared to the other genres of film, would you consider fantasy in your top 3?

9) Any further comments or thoughts, which would be useful towards the appeal of fantasy films study would be welcomed.

Visual Similarities clip for Presentation

Whilst on You.Tube, I came across two excellent videos fans have posted. The first one is someone's Top 10 fantasy films and my focus films are in their list. Also, there are clear similarities most of the fantasy films have. But then it gets better, another person has combined Narnia, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter together in one big trailer. This is where you can see the huge similarities the three films have.


Visual similarities

The wanted and unwanted

After having a trip from London, I found a TotalFilm magazine on the train. As I was reading I could see the reason why my brain was telling me to pick it up. There was an interview with David Yates revealing his thoughts about the Harry Potter Franchise suggesting it as some sort of world.

However, there was a section which I could place in the catalogue as unwanted as there was a few pages to do with Lord of the Rings written by Jayne Nelson. This wasn't useful as it was talking about the book and the story behind the Lord of the Rings. It was for the hardcore Lord of the ring fans! But to write about Lord of the rings with deepest and detail takes a serious devoted fan towards the fantasy genre.

Inside the Potter Machine article

I was given this article from The Observer Film Magazine, which was mainly based on the new film 'Harry Potter: The Half Blood Prince', but I managed to find some relevant quotes towards my presentation from the co-producer and director.

There was a number of quotes from David Heyman (co-producer) suggesting Harry Potter as a cult film and the characterisation of Harry, Hermione and Ron to based on real-life people, 'the outsider', 'the swot' and 'the youngest from a big family'. Also, the simple plot 'the battle between good and evil'.

David Yates ( director) said about being lured by CGI and enjoying the 'big train set' blockbuster's infrastructure. He also expresses the Potter films have rocked the film industry and the film being a popular cultutral event.

Electric! magazine article

I received the montly Virgin media magazine called "Electric" and whilst flicking through I came across and interesting article:

We're liking Kids' Adaptations What makes a classic children's move? Simple: A calssic children's book. From JM Barie to JK Rowling, ELECTRIC! Celebrated the great tales behind some of the film world's best plots..... Written by Claire Sargent

The article seems to highlight the importance of the mise en scene due to the epic imaginary worlds- to make the audiences believe the fantasy. There is also the high expectation of the special effects. This article does conclude that the fantasy genre will always be compared to its written verison and therefore acts as a bench mark for the studios to live up to.