Rolling with the punches

After one to one tutorial.

sterowe21 — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 01:50:45 +0000

After the tutorial, both me and Paolo had a better idea of what we were going to do for the end result at this moment we’re separating the work between the two of us and finding out not only the figures of what the films Spider man and Watchmen, but also the reasons behind their success and failures, the political messages behind them. But also what general public though of them. And what they liked about the films and what they didn’t like about them. I’ll be interviewing both my friend and family about these film, one in particular would be Paul Huxley as he’s currently working his way into the film industry, and is a fan of both the graphic novel and the film adaptation of Watchmen. Also I’d be asking people who haven’t read the graphic novel and to see whether they get the political undertones of film, that are in the graphic novel and if they were noticeable. During the essay we’ll be comparing Spider man and Watchmen for the messages they send to the viewers, such as Spider man’s message of with great power, comes great responsibility, that and how the success differs to that of Watchmen.

Creating the screen cast

sterowe21 — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:48:15 +0000

when creating the diagnostic screen cast it there was a lot of materials that I needed to gather for the end project, me and Paolo worked on the script together, I used Cyberlink director to put the footage together and to put the live footage of films. The week before the hand in for the screen cast was due we watched several examples after this I realised the screen cast we’d done wasn’t to the correct format and needed to be redone, so over the weekend I rewrote the script with the intention of getting a voice recorder and rerecord our voices for the screen cast. However when I went to book a marantz recorder they’d all been booked for the next to weeks as all the sound students had booked them so I had to record all of the sound using my video camera and rip the sound off of that. It came out better than I had hoped but it could’ve been better as it was clear enough to hear, but it could’ve been clearer to understand if I had used the correct equipment.

Underground and mainstream research.

sterowe21 — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:46:46 +0000

Through my research I’ve found that in the case of Graphic novels, over the years there have been adaptations, to list a few, the crow, hell boy, sin city and league of extraordinary gentlemen. Some graphic novels aren’t as mainstream as some comics, in the same breath there are comics that aren’t as mainstream as some graphic novels. In any event with an adaptation of an underground graphic novel, it’s not only reaching out to mainstream audiences, but also not to stray so far from the original storyline to alienate the fans of the graphic novel. As when adapting a graphic novel there are points that are lost in translation, for example the graphic novel Watchmen written by Alan Moore there are a lot of political undertones to the novel, when the film was adapted it lost a lot of these undertones as the novel as a media is needed to portray the undertones that a film just can’t achieve.

Data Script Reseach step 1

sterowe21 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:03:41 +0000

due to the subject i’m research i’ve was unable to find a lot of source to gather information from, the good part is that i’ve been able to find a few sources with lots of information about my chosen subject which is useful to me. thankfully paolo gave me a lot more research material towards the datascript. this helped when it came down to the final creation of the project.

Researching into comic adaptations

sterowe21 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:42:56 +0000

After researching comic adaptations I looked to see what the market was for them, with the increase in popularity of comics through 1990′s, the market for comic adaptations had be delved into, DC comics had had success with the adaptations of batman and superman both had three sequels, and spin off live action and animated TV series, marvel tried and failed to make live action adaptations of their comic book characters, such as the fantastic four, the punisher and Captain America, however these were less of an attempt at making a profit, and more of keeping the film rights as long as possible. With the likes of DC comics the only two comic books that have been adapted were superman and batman, many of the comics have been adapted into animated TV series, DC comics many of the characters are very imaginative, such as the Green lantern, due to the concept of the character a live action adaptation hasn’t been possible due to the technology needed to create the characters powers hasn’t been available until now. Where as the likes of superman and batman are not only the most popular characters, adapting them into comics would be much easier.

Age rating research,

sterowe21 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:44:13 +0000

Since the late 1990′s the rise in the production in comic book adaptations has increased, however it is not just comics that are being adapted, many graphic novel series have been adapted as well. However due to the nature of graphic novels being for a more adult audience, such as frank millers sin city. There have been films based around more adult themed comics such as the blade trilogy, as the first two films were rated 18, and the last rated 15. When comparing blade (first film) made for 45 million and Sin city made for 40 million, in the box office both had made over 120 million. Making a significant success financially. When compared to the most recent 18 rated film adaptation Watchmen with was made for 150 million, and made 185 million in the box office, making more than blade and sin city however in net profit blade and sin city were much higher. With adaptations age restrictions are a defining factor in how successful the film has the potential to be.

American beauty

sterowe21 — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:02:24 +0000

when watching the trailer for American beauty, I noticed how it kept very little about the core of the story, as to why Kevin Spacey’s character is doing what he is. As I’ve seen the film it’s hard for me to comment on just the trailer, however at the start of the trailer it starts off slow giving the feel of conformity this is further done by the music at the beginning as it sets the tone, it’s trying to make set it out as serene, peaceful even beautiful tone. At the start of the trailer there are two men running, all of the houses on the street have white picket fences, the gardens are neatly pruned, nothing out of place giving further evidence of conformity. During this time the trailers keeps telling the viewer to look closer at the characters, and how things aren’t as they seem, and then just as Lester (Kevin Spacey) does something different in this case start exercising everything starts to change, the tone of the trailer is changed automatically by the music which is teenage wasteland by the who things begin to change the trailer appears of the subjects in turn first work with Lester being told that he has to say why he should keep his job, family with the parents going to their daughter Jane’s cheer leading performance which from the appearance she doesn’t enjoy, then to Annette Bening’s character Carolyn, saying “I’m so proud of you, you didn’t screw up once” seeming to give the impression that she was expecting her to, and kinda faking pride as well. Then the title neighbours appear showing that Wes Bentley’s character ricky has burned Jane into the grass beneath her window, and saying that he’s not obsessing over her he’s just curious, it seems that his character breaks free of most conformities of suburban life, and finally change as that’s one of the core theme’s in the film is change and how it’s never too late to start living. After quitting his job after successfully blackmailing his boss for nearly 60 thousand dollars he starts to change his life. Then the scene cuts to Mena Suvari character Angela flirting with Lester and then cuts to a scene with Carolyn with another man at this time unknown, and she states that not unlike Lester she’s frustrated too, this shows that everything in the marriage is far from perfect. Whilst filming Lester working out Ricky is beaten by his father for no reason, his only reasoning for this is saying that there are rules in life, which gives the impression that Ricky’s life is far more restricted than others in the neighbourhood, and that the father is very repressed in his life too. The affair that Carolyn is having is found out by Lester whilst he’s working at a fast food restaurant, with the man we saw her with before, giving the notion that she wants more than what Lester can offer; as the other man is always wearing a suit and Lester is in a fast food uniform. Then follows is Carolyn at a firing range firing a gun with sheer joy on her face whilst she’s firing it. It seems that through out the film the main characters find different ways of being free Lester has quit his job and starts doing what he wants, Carolyn has an affair and goes to a firing range for freedom, and Jane starts dating Ricky and plans to run away with him. In the cut scenes nearing the end of the trailer it shows short segments with something dramatic happening in it, as American Beauty is meant to be a drama.

research task

sterowe21 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:25:35 +0000

After finding the research task on blackboard, after going through several of the pages that were set, i couldn’t really decypher what i needed to do, however i did manage to get the general idea of what was being explained, and that was that for research for this project to use another resource than wikipedia.

Research into film adaptations of comics and graphic novels

sterowe21 — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:39:57 +0000

Whilst researching comic adaptations into films I also had to look the last forty years as some adaptations are as early as 1971. most of the successful adaptations were those based around mainstream comics superman and batman, both of which are DC comics, when marvel comics didn’t really make any headway into the film industry until 1998, though there were previous films made by marvel but these were more of an attempt to keep the film rights for as long as possible. In later years there have been many more successes in film adaptations, in both comic and graphic novels. With graphic novels it can either easy or difficult in adapting them into films, in the case of frank millers work sin city and 300 for example, they’re relatively easy as there isn’t much that needs to be lost due running time restrictions. Where as the adaptation of the graphic novel watchmen, was much more difficult, as it’s not just making it look the same or making sure that the content is there, as there are lot of political undertones to the novels, and a film can’t represent them as well as a graphic novel. So with adaptations it’s not just making it look the same, it’s also getting the political undertones just right.

silent hill analysis

sterowe21 — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:10:36 +0000

the film silent hill seemed more of in the art house film genre than in the horror gemre. the film was i’ve been told faithful to the game, in the sense of the characters in what they wear and how it is worn for example the female police officer, in the game her sleeves are rolled up, and so they are rolled up in the film. in one of the scenes there was evidence that like the game the main character has to find clues as also there are puzzles to solve.