Narnia review

How to make a good blockbuster!

Empire Mag

Film/Genre written by Rick Altman (British Film Institute BFI Publishing, 1999)

Written notes:

*Genre is usually seen as a device.

*Dudley Andres puts it in Concepts in Film Theory 1984, genres serve a precise function in the overall economy of cinema.

*Genre has a multiple meanings:
genre as 'blueprint' as a formula that precedes, programmes and patterns industry production
genre as 'structure' as the formula framework on which individual films are founded
genre as 'label' as the name of a category central to the decisions and communications of distributors and exhibitors
genre as 'contract' as the viewing position required by each genre film of its audience

*people go to genre films to participate in events that somehow seem familiar. they may be looking for strong emotions, exciting scenes, novel situations and fresh dialogue.

*'Name brands', the more expensive products are trademarketed; they are presented in containers displaying distinctive printing and copyrighted designs.Just an idetifying a name and its list of contents.

*when one genre film has been exploited, the producer is faced once again with the necessity to create an audience based solely on audience fidelity to a particular genre. if the exhibitor situation highlights genre, then this may be an acceptable strategy, but even then the producer must compete on equal grouns with all other producers of genre films.

*a studio automatically develops a pre-sold audience for the next film featuring the same in-house star, character or look. instead of starting over again, publicity for the next film need only to point to its continuity with the previous film in order to assure a strong audience.

*disadvantage: most people a hollywood studio as operating like a factory: from a set of standardized molds the studio produces recognizably similar films, labels them according to their similarity and sells them under that label as long as the market subsists.

Spectacular narratives: Hollywood in the age of the blockbuster. Geoff King

Here are some notes I made whilst reading this book: (It will be used in my catalogue as I regard this source as an extremely important!)

From epic landscape to sumptuous interior, from visions of space, aliens and future cityscapes to explosive action and adventure; expansive vistas spread out across the width of the big screen, their presence magnified by the aural impact of multichannel sound. Everything is larger than life; not real but hyper real, leading us into the imaginary worlds of the cinema but also leaving us to sit back and wonder at its creations.

Growing demand for products that can be further exploited in multimedia forms such as computer games and theme park rides.

Narrative and spectacle can work together

Spectacle may disrupt narrative. May take on the character of ‘cinematic excess’ as Kristin Thompson puts it.

Spectacle, the production of images, has long played an important part in the creation of popular entertainment, from contemporary and early cinema to magic lantern shows, theatre and traditions of religious rituals.

Offer a range of pleasures. The enjoyment of larger than life.

Help to move a plot forward

The targeting of different films to different audiences was heightened by the advent of the ratings system in 1968. the blockbuster format was to create a much wider audience for certain films, an industrial strategy to give these attractions a large viewing. Advertising and promotional strategies baseda round the attempt to sel blockbusters as special events that everybody is going to see. To miss them, therefore, is to miss out, to be excluded.

Spectacular is sold on the basis of its sheer size and impact, its physical scale of image and multi channel sound: its function specifically for attraction. The viewer is sold the illusion of being transported into the world on screen and of experiencing the drama with the characters.

The developments of wide screen digital television, dvd and surround sound systems

‘ a series of blows to the consciousness and emotions of the audience’

Barker and Brooks interview action fans and their findings describe as ‘ the joys of being “done to” by a film’:

One whole way of talking about films describes a wish to be physically affected by them: typical wanted experiences are being knocked out of my seat, making me jump, hitting me between the eyes. This is driven by a demand of pace. A bad film is a slow film that sends you to sleep. A good films of this kind doesn’t just keep you awake, it shocks you awake repeatedly”

Theme park attractions claim to take us into the physical and experimental space of movies. Computer games based on films promise an interactive engagement with something like a world on screen. The latest in giant IMAX engulf us in vast encompassing images. These are the trends in contemporary Hollywood cinema

Where I am in this investigation?

The direction that I am taking with this investigation is exploring the elements of the fantasy franchise.

I have discovered the main reason for these type of films to become a success is from the powers of CGI and special effects. From the media magazine article “CGI pest or pesticide?” explores the positives and negatives of CGI. It almost suggests the competition of CGI between films and how much they can benefit as it can be seen as an indictor of a big budget. However, there can be moments where CGI can be used as an extreme or OTT, which I believe happens in Lord of the Rings quite a lot, which can be used as evidence.

I also found that different types of fantasy films, including my focus films, fall under different fantasy categories. It places Lord of the Rings’ in the “High Fantasy” band and Harry Potter and Narnia in the “Contemporary Fantasy” band. So I have explored how my fantasy films have appealed towards different target audiences. Including the work on the Genre theory (from Genre and Hollywood by Steve Neale) the fantasy genre can be seen as a hybrid genre and another term I learnt whilst on the journey was ‘verisimilitude’, this applies to the props to make them seem believeable.

Notes to make in presentation

Harry Potter: Teen audience – elements of Action, Romance, High School

Lord of the Rings: Male blockbuster audience- elements of Action, War

Narnia: Child/Family audience- elements of Action and Child road style movie

This route showed me that fantasy films appeal to a wide audience, which makes them very popular within the film industry and therefore the fantasy genre can hold many expectations and pressures.

Sight and Sound article

Here is an important article I found from September's 07 Sight and Sight issue.

How to make a good fantasy film

Interesting article about someone's opion on how to make a Fantasy film:
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Make-a-Fantasy-Film

Even though its not educated, I stil value this person's pov.

Brand Hollywood: selling entertainment in a global media age By Paul Grainge

I have been extremely lucky whilst searching on the internet today.
I have found an excellent book called "Brand Hollywood: selling entertainment in a global media age By Paul Grainge." I have been able to access this book through Google books and will give me some quotes for my presentation as it focuses on the franchise and why they're a success globally.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=WBq3ivgBwDIC&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&dq=The+success+of+the+Harry+Potter+industry+and+its+transnational+marketing+strategies&source=bl&ots=chb47b_p9q&sig=Guf94oWFi3jNAEhdwDhCfq66I94&hl=en&ei=B7GwSq7iM6Oh4gaSjZDcBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#v=onepage&q=The%20success%20of%20the%20Harry%20Potter%20industry%20and%20its%20transnational%20marketing%20strategies&f=false

Websites

Here are websites, which I find useful towards my project:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_film

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7168554.stm


And the not so useful:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/can-fantasy-epics-survive-the-credit-crunch-chronicles-1213848.html

http://www.filmsite.org/fantasyfilms2.html

http://www.thebookseller.com/in-depth/feature/71682-from-fantasy-to-reality.html

HP film notes scene 9

The final battle scene finally builds the climax of the plot. The sound effect of blasting and destroying allows adrenaline to rush through the audience’s veins. The CGI comes to its strength as the fast movement and extreme detail of shapes between the antagonists and protagonists allows the audience to witness who is who. The unsteady camera travelling around the location allows the audience to have eyes everywhere. Also, there is a frame, where colour has a key importance as the protagonist is in white and antagonist is in black. When Sirius dies, there is a sudden silence, which makes his death painful and sad to watch as Harry mourns.
The reason why I believe this film appeals to the teenaged audience is that there a lot of violence towards the end as Voldermort, Dumbledore and Harry battle it out. The heavy CGI continues as glass shards and water flies through the air, which creates the wow factor and causes the plot near to a closure.
There are also many flashback scenes as Harry battles Voldermort mentally and creates a sudden victory towards his battle against the antagonist.

HP film notes scene 8

The firework scene is another big CGI moment as it is entertaining to watch. There are many low angles to create a sense on how explosive this scene is. It also creates awe as the audience can see all the amazing colours and it looks realistic and sounds it too. It makes the impossible possible with CGI.

HP film notes scene 7

CGI plays an important part in this sequence as it introduces its character Grawpy (Hagrid’s half brother). Like in Lord of the rings, Harry Potter uses a troll, but this time it’s a protagonist, who looks a lot friendlier. Grawpy looks like a little boy from his facial features button nose, short hair and he is rather dirty. This scene is fascinating to watch and can be quite comical to watch. Many low angles intensifies his height and show how realistic he is and his surroundings.
The medium eye level shots of Harry, Ron and Hermione indicate his height as they are looking up towards him and their realistic acting towards his characters makes the scene seem believable.




Another creature, which has made an appearance in the Narnia film are the half horse/man creatures. This isn’t a scene I believe is important, but I’m starting to seen the similarities between all three films.

HP film notes scene 5 and 6

The medium shots of the Weasley twins sitting on the bench with the young boys, who are testing their magical sweets is filled with comedy. Comedy mixed within a magical school is the appeal with this film. This is pure mischief and entertains the audience with the effects from the props. CGI plays around with a boy’s chin growing, which becomes fascinating to watch as you witness magic.

Also, the off-screen diegetic sound of Ron and Hermione talking about their O.W.LS causes the cut to the medium long shot of the pair. Indications of romance blossoming can be seen here as Ron jokingly says “I love you Hermione” and their body language suggests there is an attraction, which causes fans and teens to like this film as they can relate.

This film involves ordinary characters which look realistic from their shirts, jumpers and trousers. They suggest the unbelievable can happen to anyone whether you are a ‘muggle’ or not. However, the slightly low key lighting still indicates the characters are in a magical environment.

In all of my fantasy focus films; there have been massive locations with giant swoops. I was able to witness one in Harry Potter as well.

Massive swoops around Hogwarts School indicate CGI heavily as Hedwig takes the audience on a journey around the area. The sound effect of an owl screeching makes the journey realistic. This is certainly an awe factor as the audience are greeted by a picturesque image as the castle sits proudly on the hills.

The extreme long shot of Harry walking to Hagrid’s hut creates his character to be small, vulnerable and lonely. This creates a sudden mood of sadness. Also, the Harry’s voiceover of the letter to his Godfather reveals why he is so sad and tells the audience what he is feeling.

The composition of this frame is wonderful as Harry is dressed in black and Hedwig being a white owl, suggests Hedwig is Harry’s only sign of hope on delivering that letter to his godfather. The mise en scene looks dry due to the brown grass and tiny bits of greenery can be seen portrays the loneliness and being vulnerable. The long narrow pathway suggests Harry has a long way to go to find happiness and has to face struggles to get there.

The soundtrack supports this mood as the wind instruments echoes the sadness, reflection and longing to be loved. This film is very realistic for the audience to watch as there are many comical moments, but there has to be serious ones as well.

HP film notes scene 3 and 4

As the camera tracks down the centre of dinner table at high angle, the audience immediately recognize the mise en scene of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. The composition of the children dressed in their robes and the amazing colourful food laid out in masses on the table for them. Off and on screen diegetic sound of children chatting encourages a positive vibe and allows the child/teenage audience to relate to the scene. As an extreme long shot of the Great Hall covers the whole mise en scene, fantasy elements can be seen from the floating candles near the ceiling, fire lamps to the old architecture. The light brown so called “brick” building looks realistic and gives an ancient and historical value to the setting. The younger audience may find this scene easy to relate to as Dumbledore calls on an assembly. This could be part of the appeal towards this film as teenagers experience roughly what the characters experience with the teachers, classes, assemblies and rules.



Magic in the classroom is introduced as the camera follows a CGI paper plane. There are a variety of long shots of the students trying to hit the paper plane, which can be amusing to watch, but also allows the audience to depict each character within the classroom. The medium shot of the paper plane flying towards the audience causes the audience to be fascinated with the special effects. Also, the typical classroom mise en scene can be seen from the uniform, desks, quills. This scene is fully dialogue, which gives a sense of realism.
The audience meet Professor Umbridge, who is the antagonist, but does not follow the stereotypical representation of one. She smiles sweetly and is dressed in knitted pink jumper. She shows off her powers with her wand when writing on the chalk board and handing out the books. She states to the students she wishes to use no magic just learning about defensive spells from books. This scene can relate as the teacher from hell, but the audience are made aware that this character isn’t very nice.

HP film notes scene 1 and 2

Warner Brothers and Heyday films Productions
Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Directed by David Yates



The birds eye view shot of characters flying from Privet Drive is a big CGI sequence. The sound effects help to achieve a sense of realism as there is a sense of magic in the air. The sound effects address the sound of the flying broomsticks. Low key lighting is used to allow the lamp posts and home lights to be depicted for realism. Also, the effect achieved by CGI makes the audience think the characters are flying towards you – almost like the 3D impression.
Like Narnia, there is the subjective camerawork through the clouds suggesting this is almost like a dream as it is supported by magical soundtrack.
There are high angled shots of London and it creates the feelings of fascination and experiencing the unbelievable. Being in darkness, allows the audience to wonder with imagination in this scene and to look at London in a completely different way. This scene visualises what you would see and experiencing on a flying broomstick across the Thames. An experience of a lifetime. The locations are known to a worldwide audience such as bridges and boats on the River Thames, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament.

Narnia took an ordinary prop: the cupboard and turned it into a magical port for Narnia. Well, Harry Potter also uses this concept as well. They use a telephone box. The extreme long shot allows the audience to witness the magic of the port to the Ministry of Magic as Mr Weasley and Harry step inside. A comical soundtrack is played as it becomes amusing to watch as it’s extraordinary.

When Mr Weasley and Harry arrives at the Ministry of Magic, there are many extreme long shots at high angle and eye line matches to allow the audience to take in the enormity of wizards and witches’ population. Wizards and witches arriving by floo powder through the fireplaces, which CGI is used with sound effects. Also, the décor within the Ministry of Magic is extremely detailed as there is wooden floor, green and black tiles and golden framed fireplaces. It looks like something out of a dream.