WELCOME TO MY BLOG 2019

This is a resubmission blog. I have not made many big changes, so all posts that I have added/improved upon will be below.
Then all posts from the original "Welcome to my blog" and down are all unchanged.

NARRATIVE: Toddorov's 5-part narrative formula

Todorov is a Bulgarian/French historian, literature critic, philosopher and sociologist. In 1996 he created a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film. He was convinced that all films followed the same narrative pattern.

The following where the 5 stages of his theory:

1. A state of equilibrium - where everything is as it should be
2. A disruption of the equilibrium through an event in the film
3. A recognition by the characters that there has been a disruption
4. An attempt to repair the disruption
5. A reinstatement of the equilibrium

NARRATIVE: Proppian Archetypes

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED + WHAT I CAN APPLY

Vladimir Propp was a soviet scholar and folklorist who analysed the basic plot components of fairy tales to identify their basic narrative elements. He did this by breaking the fairy tales into different sections.

Through these sections, Propp was able to define the tales into a series of sequences.

At first he had divided them into 31 different sections. However, he soon realised that those 31 sections could be resolved into 7 broad character functions.

Essentially, these were the seven basic character types also known as archetypes:

1. The villain - The one that struggles against the hero
2. The donor - The one that prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object
3. The magical helper - The one that helps the hero in his quest
4. The princess or prize - The hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of the villain. The story often ends when the hero marries the princess bu beating the villain
5. The dispatcher - The character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off 
6. The hero - Reacts to the donor and marries the princess
7. The false hero - The one that takes the credit for the hero's actions or tries to marry the princess

Analysing Harry Potter in terms of Propp's character archetypes:

In the case of Harry Potter, the Villain would be Voldemort since he is the one always fighting against the Hero Harry Potter. The Dispatcher and Donor would be Dumbledore, since he is the one that always helps Harry by providing him information about the "Horcruxes" and sending him the magical "Gryffindor sword" whenever he needs it. The False Hero, would in this case be Draco Malfoy, since he keeps taking credit for Harry's actions by trying to be better than Harry is at everything. For example, he always wants to be better than harry at "Quidditch".

The Magical Helper's would be Ron and Hermione, since they are supporting and helping Harry in each of the eight Harry Potter movies. For example, they are helping him to find "The Chamber of Secrets", Hermione helps him save his godfather "Syrius Black" and in the end they all fight against Voldemort together.

As we also see in the very last Harry Potter movie, Ginny (Ron's little sister) turns out to have been the Princess all along. This we know since Harry ends up marrying her.

INDUSTRY: Big 6

The Big Six Conglomerates:
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Universal Pictures
Universal is an american film studio owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group of its owned subsidiaryNBCUniversal. Universal owns StudioCanal and Focus Features. Also, Working Title is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal. Universal itself is adistributor while NBC offers exhibition for Universal. NBC is a vertically integrated conglomerate with for example Working Title who is one of their production subsidiaries. Their highest grossing film was Jurassic World which had a box office gross of $1,670,400,637 (1.6bn) worldwide. 
... 

Sony Pictures Entertainment 
(earlier known as Columbia-Tristar Pictures)


Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) operates Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, Screen Gems, Sony pictures Classics and TriStar Pictures. It is an american Entertainment company that produces, acquires and distributes filmed entertainment through multiple platforms. It operates as a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment Inc. (the parent company for both the music and motion picture businesses of Sony Corporation. Sony Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).




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Warner Bros
It is an american film studio and film distributor that is a division of Time Warner and is headquartered in Burbank, California. It is a member of the MPAA and is the third largest film studio in the world after Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios. There were four Warner Brothers who founded this company called Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner. Founded in 1923.

...
Paramount Pictures


It is an american film studio based in Hollywood, California, thats had been a subsidiary of the american conglomerate Viacom since 1994. Paramount pictures is the longest operating major film studio in Hollywood. Founded in 1912.


...
20th Century Fox


20th Century Fox is the world's second largest film studio after Warner Bros. They have distributed various commercially successful films including Avatar, Ice Age, X-Men, Die Hard, Planet of the Apes, Night at the Musuem and Fantastic Four. These films have secured 20th Century Fox's position as one of the Big Six studios of Hollywood. Founded in 1935 by William Fox.

...
Walt Disney Studios 

It is an american film studio and one of the four major business of the Walt Disney Company. The Walt Disney Studios is also a member of the MPAA. Founded in 1923.




...

DISTRIBUTION: Types of distribution

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE:

I may want to distribute my film through self distribution because this suits an unknown director with no stars because distributors are looking for stars in a film because they will only want to release it in the cinema if it will make money or sell. Also distributors will tend to distribute a film that has a high budget, but my film has a micro budget so it would not get very far in the cinema or on DVD shelves.

Wide Release

A wide release is when a film has been shown in a large amount of cinemas across a country. If a film is going to be a success, it will need to have a wide distribution in order for it to make as many screenings as possible. 

The Gant Rule, suggests that if a film is a success in Britain, it will make 10x more money in the US and have 10x more screenings than in the UK. 

Below you can see a table with the box office results for the 29th of January to the 1st of February in the US.

As an example, The Revenant has grossed around £12m in Britain, whereas it has grossed $140m in America. Due to this, we can say that the Gant Rule is quite accurate. 

Theatrical Release:

This is basically the cinematic release of a film, when it is released in cinemas. e.g. Fifty Shades of Grey was released on the 14th of February in cinemas.

IMAX and 3D release:

These drive the four quadrant theory- pushing up the production costs a lot, but are also key to the wider cinema industry's fightback against the rise of high quality home cinema.

- taken from Mr Burrowes' 'British Cinema WORKING TITLE new strategy with top two in UK box office blog post'.

Four Quadrant Theory

Wikipedia's entry

In the Hollywood movie industry, a four-quadrant movie is one which appeals to all four major demographic "quadrants" of the moviegoing audience: both male and female, and both over- and under-25s. Films are generally aimed at at least two such quadrants, and most tent-pole films are four-quadrant movies. A film's budget is often correlated to the number of quadrants the film is expected to reach, and movies are rarely produced which are aimed at fewer than two quadrants. Although four-quadrant movies are generally family-friendly, this is not a requirement. Some other genres meeting this may be romantic (such as Titanic and Meet the Parents) or horror films (The Exorcist), or be crowd-pleasing in nature.Four-quadrant movies often have both adult and child protagonists. They are often built on a "high-concept" premise with well-delineated heroes and villains, with emotion, action and danger present in the story.

Limited Release:

This is a release in a specific region or city.

Straight-to-DVD:

Taken from Wikipedia:

Direct-to-video or straight-to-video (also known as direct-to-VHS, direct-to-DVD, direct-to-Blu-ray, direct-to-digital, etc.) refers to the release of a film to the public immediately on home video formats rather than a theatrical release or television broadcast. Because inferior sequels or prequels of larger-budget films may be released direct to video, references to direct-to-video releases are often pejorative. Direct-to-video release has also become profitable for independent filmmakers and smaller companies. 

Some reasons why companies use straight-to-DVD is because:

• The film has a low budget.
• The film may attract a niche audience.
• Lack of general public interest.
• Due to controversial content in the film.
• The film company thinks the film won't make sales or profit in cinemas.

I would perhaps use this kind of distribution for my film because my film would not make it in/get into theatres/cinemas and my film has a micro budget. 

Direct-To-Itunes:

Taken from Wikipedia:

Direct to iTunes is an online distribution method that avoids all upfront DVD production, marketing and distribution costs as well as upfront cinema distribution and marketing costs. Apple distributes the film for 30% of the revenue, while an additional 10–15% may go to the person who formats the film for iTunes compatibility. The first independently produced feature-length motion picture to pursue the direct-to-iTunes marketing scheme was Ed Burns' Purple Violets, which debuted on iTunes on November 20, 2007. It was the first feature-length film to "premiere exclusively on iTunes". It was distributed exclusively on iTunes at a price of US$14.99 for a month before being made available through other distribution channels. The movie, which was produced at a cost of $4 million, had premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, where it was reviewed positively, but only received modest distribution offers. At the time of the Purple Violets release, most studios were not distributing via iTunes early in the process and only Walt Disney Studios, which was the first movie studio to distribute via iTunes, was distributing at iTunes simultaneously with DVD distribution. It was not very common for consumers to make digital movie purchases at the time. The Polish brothers' 2011 For Lovers Only, which had virtually no production costs and was released to iTunes on July 12, is regarded as the first profitable feature length direct-to-iTunes product. 

The direct-to-iTunes method is also becoming common with both books and music.

Direct-To-Stream:

Taken from Wikipedia:

Due to the growth of YouTube and other video-streaming websites, premieres of long-form films increasingly occur through online streams. Long-form films to premiere on YouTube or other sites include Home (2009), The Cult of Sincerity (2008), Life in a Day (2011), Eyes and Ears of God: Video Surveillance of Sudan (2012) and Zeitgeist: The Movie (2007). In 2010, Striker was the first Indian film to premiere on YouTube on the same day as it was premiered in theatres. Some releases are not only available only from digital services such as Netflix, but are actually produced by them.