It is rare that a film comes out of nowhere and shocks audiences, especially with the film industry 's emphasis on advertisements. However, Paranormal Activity did just that. Oren Peli, along with Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat, started a franchise out of a week long project with no script. By capitalizing on realism to provoke fear within viewers, Paranormal Activity grossed over 10,000 times its budget, in part by utilizing fans to promote the film. Considering the success of the film, Paranormal Activity only cost $11,000 to make. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Peli breaks down exactly where every part of the budget went, citing the software and computer he used to edit the film as the largest expense at $4,000. Peli paid for all of these expenses, putting all of the risk involved with the project on him. Although the film would be distributed by Paramount Pictures two years after completion, the success of the film relied on Peli’s execution. Peli uses this risk to his advantage, making sure every detail in the film is relevant and captures his vision. Yet, the final scene of the film strays from this technique, and for good reason. Steven Spielberg, whose company DreamWorks was acquired by Paramount during this time, viewed the film prior to its distribution and worked tirelessly to get it released. In the same interview with Entertainment Weekly, Spielberg is quoted as saying: “I sent more emails and made more phone calls, trying to get everybody to
In the movie Lila And Eve Lila suffers from a number of disorders. All combined is what makes her schizophrenic. What I would like to know is can or did her major depression trigger Lila 's schizophrenia? If so how does schizophrenia and major depression go hand and hand as well as how does one go about treating both.
The Secret of Roan Inish, a John Sayles movie, is a story of a young girl on a quest to find her lost little brother. The movie loosely parallels many fairy tales throughout the story, with three subjects being the strongest. Fiona, the main character, follows the theme of going on a quest to find someone or something important. Her little brother, Jamie, was raised in the wild without any human interaction, similar to Tarzan. Finally, a story of a “selkie” is told. A selkie is a mythical creature that takes seal form in water, and human form on land. This is very similar to mermaids, who have always been popular in fairy tales. The movie borrows themes from fairy tales throughout its telling of the story, leaning on three popular themes the most.
The film Pelo Malo takes place in the city of Caracas, Venezuela and is about a young boy and obsession with straightening his hair. In the movie, the main characters Junior his single mother Marta and baby brother live with in an apartment complex with in the city of Caracas. This movie takes place in 2011, during the time that Hugo Chavez came down with cancer. The film’s primary themes were homophobia, and racism. The movie detailed a young boys struggle for acceptance and love from his mother and his struggle to obtain his desire of straight hair. Throughout the movie, the young child is seen living in an apartment complex that is located within a lower socioeconomic status area. When Marta, was not able to find a baby sitter to watch over her children when she worked she was forced to take the children with her on the bus through the city to her work. One of the places that she was shown to work was in a gated residence where she worked as a security guard for the area. The primary conflict in the movie revolved around the mothers fear that her son was “gay” due to his obsession with straightening his hair and his singing. Due to many of the things that the young boy does in the movie, the mother Marta fears that her child is homosexual and during one particular scene is worried that she was the cause of it. Since during the scene where she is speaking with a doctor about her son, she discussed how it was her fault because she did not ‘touch his thing’ and that she
The client is a 26 year old, single, male, African American. He is an active duty ship’s serviceman seaman serving in the United States Navy, aboard the USS Belleau Wood (LHA-3). Seaman (SN) Fisher is residing on board the USS Belleau Wood (LHA-3) that is permanently stationed at San Diego Naval Base, 32nd Street in California. SN Fisher was given orders to report to Navy Mental Health Services Department on base as Involuntary Command Referral for diagnosis and treatments, to get an evaluation and expert psychiatric recommendation about whether the service member is mentally fit to stay in the United States Navy. SN Fisher is unwilling to begin counseling,
We pay the amount to get into the movie and prepare our minds for the thriller that's ahead. Just as Stephen king says in why we crave horror he says that; When we pay our four or five bucks and seat ourselves at the tenth row center in a theater showing a horror movie, we are daring the nightmare. This proves that we leave for the movies to have that thrill of being scared and feel normal once again. We as humans need something like a creepy movie(thriller) to feel reconnected to life. In some ways horror helps us humans out in many
The studio’s executives were in shock after watch the movie that looked fantastic and it was an epic on a grand scale, but there is no way the studio could commercially release a film that was over five hours long. Frazier being forced to cut the film becomes two hours long. The movie was shortened, but now it made no sense. Characters appeared and disappeared randomly, the plot was impossible to follow, and the dialogue did not make sense at a several key points. The film was disaster. The reviews of the film were terrible, and audience stayed away in droves. On a total outlay of $90 million, the studio recouped less than $9 million. The studio releasing the five and a half hour version of the movie, but it made no difference to the overall financial results.
In the film Toni Erdmann by the German director Maren Ade, there are many interesting techniques which help the viewer gain a better understanding of what’s going on. In using these techniques, Ade is attempting to display something to the viewer that they may not have otherwise caught or understood, such as facial reactions which contain useful information as to what is happening in a given scene. In addition to this, Ade brings back and somewhat recreates the genre known as the screwball comedy, which was very popular in the 1940’s. In Toni Erdmann, Ade alters the genre a bit from what it originally was to recreate a new, updated and modern version of the genre. In watching the film during Harpur Cinema, I was more naturally able to notice different film techniques and the updated genre due to our discussions regarding the topics in class.
Paisan is a revolutionary, documentary-style film, consisting of six separate but seemingly related episodes. Director Roberto Rossellini uses this film to portray the drastic consequences of war on a nation, the people, and overall society. Neorealism was a pivotal movement, and Paisan brought attention to the Fascist influence by showing the harsh economic and social reality of World War II. Rossellini also uses Paisan to allude to regionalism and the importance of a unified nation. Paisan exposes a fundamental truth and emphasizes a need for reconstruction through the use of a complex setting, elements of humanity, and reoccurring themes of revival.
Life is always full of plight, even if we are reluctant to accept it, things happen. Sometimes it can be hard to work it out alone. We need others to help us when we cannot help ourselves. With others to help, those gray and sad memories will eventually turn into golden, pure moments. In the novel The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, when several horrific things happened in a flash, Ponyboy needs to be saved from this life of violence and horror, thankfully, a loyal companion, a dog will pull him out of this swirl of chaos.
In Wolfgang Staudte’s (1951) film, Der Untertan, the main character named Diederich Hessling develops from being a meek and cowardly boy to become a manipulative and self-involved man. The film uses many instances of imagery and subtle moments of foreshadowing to convey the ideals of the people of that time which lead up to the World Wars. Diederich is a typical Prussian citizen who blindly follows, supports the true “German values”, and bows to his superiors while stepping on his subordinates. The film illustrates Diederich’s character development, his shift in personality, and political confrontations through carefully crafted camera techniques that also highlight the time period that the film was set in as well as produced in.
Amores Perros is characterized by a depiction of contemporary urban life dominated by violence, social decay and the corruption of both traditional and modern morality and political values. Yet, according to some critics, the film suggests the possibility of human and social redemption. Discuss.
Ali simply provides the title meaning of the film’s main subject, Muhammad Ali. The title meaning also provides some pride elements as well, due to the fact Ali had to fight to change his name from Cassius Clay.
The rights to the books were originally bought by Steven Spielberg in 1991, before the founding of DreamWorks,
Further profiting as a producer of other directors' its like Poltergeist, Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Spielberg became one of the richest and most powerful players in Hollywood. In 1984, he founded Amblin Entertainment and used the E.T. logo as its trademark. While this was doing well, Spielberg wanted more control over his projects and did not want any other studios interfering with his work. In 1994, along with several other industry hotshots, they created the first new movie studio in Hollywood in over 75 years- Dreamworks. The company covers all its bases and produces live action and animated movies, music, computer games, arcades, television productions, and distribution. Spielberg owns approximately 22% of Dreamworks and he is worth around 1 billions dollars. His average salary is $238 million a year!
Little girls everywhere spend their childhoods watching the princesses portrayed in Disney movies, dreaming about the day they too will meet their prince charming. They see how Sleeping Beauty is woken up by a prince, Cinderella marries a prince, Sleeping Beauty turns a beast into a prince, and countless other instances of a girl just like them meeting their perfect man. Disney is infamous for their outdated illustration of gender roles. Mulan is one of the first Disney princess movies in which, instead of waiting for her prince, the heroine actually saves the day, or in this case, China. Mulan makes a variety of statements about gender roles that can be examined through many