Directors

DAVID LYNCH

Name: David Keith Lynch
Birthday: January 20th 1946 (age 68)
Education: School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Occupation: Film Director, Screenwriter, Producer, Painter, Musician

Does David Lynch stay within a particular genre?
David Lynch has directed a range of genres, including action sci-fi (such as Dune), biographical drama films (such as The Elephant Man and The Straight Story) but the main genre that he particularly sticks to is mystery psychological thrillers, as most of his works tend to be within this category (for example, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire).

What types of film has David Lynch directed?
Although he has directed a few other genres, his preferences include the psychological thriller genre or mystery neo-noir genre, or a particular combination of the two. This is because, as he has revealed through twitter and interviews, in these films he gets incorporate new ideas of his own to represent the world and humanity as a whole, however most of his films in this way contain much deeper hidden meanings which he expects the audience to interpret in their own way, and won't reveal his own interpretation. This creates a sense of mystery about his films, where the main theme that runs through a lot of his films is based on surrealism, with elements of dream/hallucination sequences in a non-linear fashion, and so on the surface all is not as it seems to the audience. This is also shown in the use of unusual cinematography, with many close-ups, hand-held cameras, a variety of lense types, and long editing speeds. This means that David isn't bothered about people actually liking the films, because he expects them to be successful just by being different and a lot of people talking about them and what they mean. This makes him a very different and contraversial type of Hollywood director to other directors who concentrate on big blockbuster, expensive films that aim to please an audience. 
 Lynch uses a mix of famous actors, and non-famous actors for his films, where he doesn't see a 'star' as important, but merely those who fit the roles perfectly, because he doesn't see star power as important, another controversial aspect of his directing career. Some of the big names he has used include Laura Dern, Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Sting, Nicholas Cage, Kyle MacLachlan, Naomi Watts, Justin Theroux and Laura Harring. 

Does David Lynch's reputation establish a fan base?
Lynch's films do show to establish a fan-base simply because of the surreal and controversial nature of some of the films. As Lynch is very different from a lot of other Hollywood directors and creates some unusual films, those who enjoy these types of films will keep coming back to the work of Lynch as there aren't many others who do similar sorts of films. The actors aren't those who particularly establish a fan base because the films tend to focus on themes and underlying story-lines as opposed to the actors; also, the same actors are not necessarily used in all of the films. Lynch is a director who believes Hollywood exploits audiences for their own financial benefit, which is a theme he imposes onto his films and audience, and those who agree with this may also become part of his fan-base. He has 1.7 million followers on Twitter, which also shows how popular he is.

David Lynch and film posters
All of Lynch's films of his preferred and typical genre all feature his name on them, so that firstly the audience can easily identify who the film was made by, and so would search for his films again in the future, or on the other hand, for already-fans of his who are looking for his films, can easily identify which films are his. It is also a technique to get his name known and heard in order to gain popularity. All of his film posters also feature some sort of imagery if the main character(s) so that either the actors can be used as a way of advertising the film, or just used as a way to create mystery about what the film is about. On many of his film posters, the actors names aren't particularly mentioned, because it is his view that actors are not the main priority of the film, however the imagery is also used to show how the films revolve around these characters and what is going on in their minds. His film posters also tend to have a black background and fade-effects to connote the mystery and psychological element to the genre.


      

What Factors Contribute to a Films Success or Failure at the Box Office?

Kill List (2001)

Kill List is a film directed by Ben Wheatley and starring Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring and Michael Smiley. It can be considered an indie British film of the thriller genre.

Trailer - The trailer is edited well to create suspense and mystery with a range of clips showing action, the main characters (star power) and other elements like the creepy girl at the end. It is things like these that create enigma codes, where the trailer does not give away too much of the plot. Generally this would be a good trailer to encourage an audience to view the film, however there was only one trailer and it was shown on TV.

The marketing campaign was not very big, which could be a reason why the film did not do well financially, because not very many people knew much about it in order to go see it. The website didn't have much on it other than the trailer and links to Facebook/Twitter pages.

Financial Success - The budget for the film was $800,000, yet its total at the box office was $462,206, making the film a Box Office failure. The film was released in the UK and USA in cinemas and on DVD, but was only released in other places in Europe at film festivals.

Critical Success - On Rotten Tomatoes 76% was the score given by the critics, however 57% was the score given by the audience, which therefore suggests that the film did well in the way it was filmed, but generally didn't interest people too much. It was nominated for 'best actor', 'best screenplay', and Michael Smiley won an award for 'best supporting actor.'

Mind Map

Here is a useful mind-map that Rosy and Abby made.

Case Study: Frozen

Production
The film has its origins from 1943, when the idea for a film based on The Snow Queen was first put forward, but it was eventually disregarded because it was unclear how they could adapt it to appeal to a modern audience. The idea was put into practice in the 1990's but then scrapped in 2002, and then it was pitched later to be re-started, and failed. In 2008, the idea was pitched again, and to be traditionally animated, but in 2010, the studios again found it hard to find a way of making it work and stopped the development. However in 2011, following the success of 'Tangled', Disney announced the title of 'Frozen' with a new crew from previous attempts, and the project started in 2012. It was produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures, with Peter Dal Vecho as the main producer, Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee as directors, where Jennifer also did the screenplay, the music by Christophe Beck and editing by Jeff Draheim. Like Tangled, the film was made from a mixture of CGI and hand-drawn imagery from a team of people at Disney Animation Studios, and the songs were written and composed by husband and wife Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.
Kristen Bell was cast as Anna, and Idina Menzel as Elsa, after they had impressed the casting directors with their singing.


Distribution
'Frozen' was widely marketed worldwide through the use of mostly official trailers on television, in cinemas and on the internet, and film posters in cinemas, on buses, on billboards and on the internet. Not much of the overall budget was used for the marketing as most of it was spent on production, considering the budget was nearly twice as less as that of Tangled (even though it then was nearly three times more successful than Tangled), although there was still a considerably high budget for marketing compared to many other recent films. Although Disney Animation Studios aimed the film mostly at children, the advertising branched out into places to attract a wider target audience.


Exhibition
The film was released on 27th November 2013 in the U.S., and continued to be released worldwide across many countries. On 31st January 2014, a sing-along version was also released. Meet-and-Greet opportunities also became available with some of the voice actors following the release.

Financial Success
Frozen has earned $396,356,000 in North America as of March 16, 2014, and $630,200,000 in other countries as of March 16, for a worldwide total of $1,026,556,000, which is a massive hit when in comparison to its $150 million budget. It is the fifteenth highest-grossing film, the second highest-grossing animated film, the second highest-grossing 2013 film, the highest-grossing 2013 animated film, the highest-grossing non-sequel animated film, the sixth highest-grossing film distributed by Disney, and the highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film. The film earned $110.6 million worldwide on its opening weekend. On March 2, 2014, its 101st day of release, it surpassed the $1-billion mark, becoming the eighteenth film in cinematic history, the seventh Disney-distributed film, the fifth non-sequel film, the second Disney-distributed film in 2013 (after Iron Man 3) and the second animated film (after Toy Story 3) to do so. Frozen is the first billion dollar movie to be directed by a woman.

Critical Success
Frozen was massively critically acclaimed with many many positive reviews, comparing the film favourably to other Disney classics such as The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. It was praised a lot on its visuals, screenplay, themes, musical numbers and voice acting. It was particularly positively reviewed on the 'Let It Go' musical sequence, with some critics calling it one of the best film sequences of this year, and 'Let It Go' also won an Oscar for best original song. Rotten Tomatoes showed that 89% of their critics gave Frozen a positive review, with an average score of 7.9/10, and CinemaScore gave it a score of A+ on the A+ to F scale. Other sources have also given the film extremely high ratings. The only thing that the film was really criticised for was sexism following a statement made from the head of the head of animation for Frozen, Lino DiSalvo.

The Cycle of a Film

Production

Pre-production

In the first stages of making a film, 8 important factors need to be taken into account. These are: Story, appeal, Genre, Past Experience, Budget, Cast-ability, Marketability and Pay-ability

The idea gets pitched and if it is accepted, a budget for the film is decided on as well as the finance and distribution budget

The director and the script editor develop the script

The characters are cast and the cinematographers are booked

Production

• Script gets turned into a shot list, and location hunting begins
• The technology is set up and the costumes are made
• the film is shot

Post-production

• The music and the shots are finalized
• The filming is edited and the film is being made
• Trailers and teasers are made for the distribution

Distribution

Distribution is mainly the marketing of the film. The costs for distribution are finalized, for things such as advertisement on print posters, TV Channels, DVD's and internet ads. It is also estimated how many ratings it will get in the opening weekend and how successful the film will be.

Exhibition

Exhibition is when the film is released into the cinemas. It is when the producers look at how well it did in the box office, so they can decide whether the film is a success or a fail judging on whether they break even in the first weekend. This is down to the critics - who they show it to first - to get the hype up for the first weekend. If the film is a success, they can lead onto DVD releases and merchandising. 

Which phase is the most important?

The distribution phase appears to be the most important because this typically is the stage which encourages people to see the film, which therefore determines how successful it will be. The success and money of the film are the most important factors for producers, regardless of how well the film was made. However, typically the better the film is in the production phase, the better it does at the box office, although, the best films tend to have bigger budgets which could cause more financial complications if it is not a success.

Are stars still important?

Angelina Jolie

Has your star 'sold' a film?
Although it hasn't come out yet, 'Maleficent', based on the fairytale 'Sleeping Beauty', is set to be successful because of the casting involving Angelina Jolie as the main character and antagonist, Maleficent. Jolie normally does action based films, such as Salt, Tomb Raider and Wanted, which means that Maleficent, as a fantasy adventure film, wouldn't typically attract the same target audience as Jolie's usual films. However, emphasis has been placed on Angelina Jolie during the advertising process, particularly with the film posters and trailer, as opposed to the film's protagonist Aurora from the fairytale version, to highlight to everyone that she plays a big part in this film. This would encourage her fans to come and watch the film simply because she is in it, despite the fact it probably isn't their usual kind of film, and therefore this widens the market in therms of target audience for the film, making it more likely to be successful.

Are the star's fans loyal?
It is unclear whether Angelina Jolie's fanbase remains a loyal one, as she does not have an official Twitter or Facebook page for her fans to use, however she does have nearly 2 million fans who have 'liked' a fan-run Facebook page who continue to post positive comments about the star, and frequent users of the fan-site 'Team Jolie', which shows how people continue to support her. Furthermore, she is still talked about frequently in the media, which suggests that there are large amounts of people still interested in her. Many of her films have been successful as she continues to get fans coming to see her latest work, purely because she is the star, which further suggests how her fans are probably loyal ones.

Has your star had a 'film flop'?
'Life or Something Like It' was probably one of Jolie's worst films, in terms of ratings, reviews and finance. It was criticised as a 'shallow story' and only made $14.4 million back from its $40 million budget. Not many people saw the film and not many people have even heard of it, even though it had been released just one year after her popular 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'. However, Jolie was still fairly early into her career and still developing a fan-base.

"Beyond the curious miscasting of Jolie, who can't quite turn lazy flirtatiousness into existential longing, Life or Something Like It offers few diversions." -- Mark Holcomb, Village Voice

What is the star's most financially successful film?
Mr and Mrs Smith (2005) was Angelina Jolie's most successful film, grossing $183.6 million in the US and $478,336,279 worldwide - a box office hit. Here she stars alongside Brad Pitt, and this is where she fell in love with him and they have been in a relationship in real-life ever since. Despite its success though, it received mixed reviews both positive and negative.

Why was the film successful?
The reason why the film was so successful was initially down to the casting. Both Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are very famous actors, and so by targeting both of their large fan-bases, the target audience altogether would have been very large. The film also received many positive reviews from critics about both the plot and the performance of the characters before the film was even released, which further would have encouraged people to see it. Another point that could be used is the fact it is near to a hybrid genre of both romantic comedy and action film, which widens the market still because it attracts those who like action films, those who like 'rom-coms', and those who like both. In addition to this, a lot of violence and sex was cut from the film, in order to reduce the certificate rating to a PG-13, which means a wider variety of audiences, due to age, could go and see the film, and therefore more people in general may have gone to see the film.

Where was the film distributed?
The film was distributed widely across America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia, which would open up a wider target audience and generate more money, although its popularity mostly came from its home place, the USA.


What are issues with 'stars'?
The issue with many stars is that they become known for starring in once genre of film, and so after a while all of their films seem to be repetitive and very similar, and so people would get very bored of the star. On the other hand, this could also be true of actors who can do a variety of genres, because after starring in all kinds of things, it is difficult to get any better at their work, and so their career would also come to an end. A good thing about Angelina Jolie is on the surface, she does a lot of action films that appeal to a certain audience to build her fan-base, but then instead of just continuing with this until people get bored of her, she branches out into other genres such as fantasy, love or drama, showing that she can do much more, and so her career has not reached the end yet.

Star Theory: Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie (birthname: Angelina Jolie Voight) is an American actress, film director, screenwriter and author who has an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe awards. She was named Hollywood's most highest paid actress in Forbes in 2009, 2011 and 2013. She is typically best known for her roles in 'Original Sin', 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider', 'Mr and Mrs Smith', 'Salt', 'The Tourist', and upcoming film 'Maleficent'. 


Stars as Capital Value
Angelina Jolie is worth $145 million, as one of the most highest paid Hollywood Actresses, which particularly came to light after the release of 'The Cradle of Life', the sequel to the major success 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.'
What Angelina Jolie brings to the studio which is beneficial to the films includes mostly her looks. By many media outlets she has been named the world's most 'beautiful woman', which would therefore attract the audience to the film, if the character role she is playing requires a 'good looking woman' to play the part, particularly reinforcing Mulvey's theory of the Male Gaze. This is related to the idea that a lot of the films she has worked on are action films with a typically male audience, and so she does well at attracting these viewers to watch the films. In addition to this, her martial arts abilities and her physical strength and fitness mean she is well equipped to play many of the protagonist roles in the action films, and continue to appeal to the same audience. Her large fan base allows many of her films to be predicted as successful before they are even released.

Star as a construct
Gledhill wrote that audiences want to know the ‘real’ person, but also the ‘reel’ star. 
Angelina Jolie's life is not particularly private, as she always seems to be confronted with paparazzi, particularly because she is engaged to famous actor Brad Pitt also. This means it would be extremely hard for her personally to present her real self, because the media is constantly constructing her persona in a way which is mediated for us to see in magazines that we would be interested in. However, it would also mean we can get more of an insight into her real life compared to other actors that are not in the media as much, and so we could get a glimpse of what she really might be like. For example, her character's tend to be sexy, independent women with action-packed secret lives, but we know from all of the media attention she is a family woman and caring mother, who lives with Brad and also her 3 biological children and 3 adopted children. Overall, due to media distortions, and her busy life, it is difficult to determine what exactly her real life is like, but what we see is probably not constructed by herself, but constructed by the paparazzi.

Stars as deviant

Angelina Jolie was particularly quiet about any deviance in her life on her way to popularity, but then in interviews she started to reveal about dark parts of her life. She has never been in prison, but she spoke of a time when she was a heavy drug-taker, particularly of cocaine and ecstasy, and also of her 'bad girl' past, such as using knives during sex and wearing a vial of her ex-husband's blood around her neck. Although she spoke to the media about these, these were things that had happened in the past and not the present, so it was concluded that she was not acting deviant as a film star persona construct, but merely because of personal issues. Her actions could be justified by the idea that now she is a successful and happy, caring family woman who does a lot of charity work and is more or less over her deviant times, which could be shown as inspirational to her fans.

Stars as Cultural Value
In some ways, Angelina Jolie goes against ideological social values in her roles in films. In a lot of her action films, such as Tomb Raider, Salt, Mr and Mrs Smith, Wanted, and The Tourist, she always seems to carry guns, act violently, or is escaping from something or someone, which is not the way the film would expect its audience to behave. The purpose of this would be to make the film a form of enjoyment and escapism because it is thrilling for the audience, as it deviates the social norms. However these roles could also portray values about being yourself and how not allowing yourself to be controlled to a certain extent is sometimes a good thing. These are the values portrayed by the producer though, and not the actress herself. Her personal life in the present, which involves charity work and family life, expresses many cultural values of love, compassion, morals and happiness, which are virtues that would inspire her own fans, and not just the fans of her films, which therefore would make her a positive role model.

The benefits of stars for audiences and producers
Using Angelina Jolie as an example, the benefit of her as a star for producers is her popularity. As she becomes more popular through more and more films as the lead role, she creates more of a fan base, and therefore more people will be wanting to see her films. This is useful for producers because it means the films will make more money with more people wanting to see them, if they are interested in the actress in them. In terms of audience, as she becomes more popular the audience will want to see more films of hers, and thus are more likely to watch a wider range of genres and styles from different directors, just because she is cast in them. Also, by watching more and more films with Angelina in them, the more an audience will be inspired by her and use her as a role model to instil values and aspirations into themselves. Ultimately, she is used as a prop to fulfil the needs of producers and audiences for money.