How Action Movies Attract their Audience?

Movies attract audiences by looking at their target audience and trying to work the characters and themes around them in order to attract them to watching their movie. This is most evident in action movies that have a male target audience who are normally middle class. This attracts this audience by have strong male characters in their movie. This attracts a male audience and makes the audience want this character to succeed in whatever he is doing in the particular movie.

The James Bond series of films is a prime example of action movie and is a perfect example of how action movies do this. The actor playing James Bond has always been male and in every movie he has been able to overcome every challenge he is put up against. This makes him a strong protagonist for the movie and therefore attracts a strong male following. This creates a fan base which will constantly see every movie in this series therefore creating an audience for the move.

Action movies also have generic conventions (e.g. explosions) that make it fast paced. This also attracts a male audience the storyline of the movie moves forward at a paced that doesn’t drag the movie out. Other genres of movies (e.g. romance) are fairly slow paced and normally attract a different type of audience, for example romance movies tend to attract a female therefore proving the sometimes the pace of the film can have a impact on the type of audience that watch it.

Individual Research – Audience and Genre

Independent Research – Audience and Genre

 

Mainstream and Independent Audiences – Audiences can be split into two categories based on the films and the institutions that made the films they watch. The majority of the audience who enjoy films fall under the mainstream category. This is made up of most of the audience since this includes big budget companies that make the blockbuster films (e.g. The Bond Series). These films tend to be what the majority of audiences watch and makes up most of the film industry.

The independent category is much smaller than the mainstream audience. This is mostly due to the fact that independent film companies have a smaller budget and therefore do not have as many assets to work with. Independent companies also tend to have strange themes for their films therefore attract a fairly small audience. An example of this is the movie “A Field in England”. Film4 produced this movie and they are a fairly small independent company therefore they had a fairly small budget (when compared to a mainstream film) also this movie has themes that would not normally be covered into a mainstream film and therefore in comparison there is a clear difference between the types of film companies.

 

Genre - Film genres tend to help tell the audience what a film is about and each genre has generic conventions linked to it. This helps what the audience understand what the film may be about or contain (e.g. explosions are a generic convention of action films). Examples of genres are...

• Action
• Adventure
• Comedy
• Crime
• Fantasy
• Historical
• Horror
• Mystery
• Romance

Fast and Furious 6 – Opening Credit Timeline (Action Movie Genre)

Fast and Furious 6 – Opening Credit Timeline (Action Movie Genre)

Time	Title
0:08 – 0:10	Universal Pictures Presents
0:13 – 0:15	In Association with Relativity Media
0:19 – 0:21	An Original Film/One Race Films Production
0:28 – 0:30	Vin Diesel
0:30 – 0:32	Paul Walker
0:32 – 0:34	Dwayne Johnson
0:35 – 0:37	Michelle Rodriguez
0:38 – 0:40	Jordana Brewster
0:41 – 0:43	Tyrese Gibson
0:44 – 0:45	Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges
0:46 – 0:47	Sung Kang
0:48 – 0:50	Gal Gadot
0:50 – 0:52	Luke Evans
0:53 – 0:55	Gina Carano
0:56 – 0:57	John Ortiz
0:58 – 1:00	Shea Whigham Elsa Pataky
1:01 – 1:03	David Ajala, Kim Kold
1:09 – 1:11	Thure Lindhardt, Joe Taslim
1:12 – 1:14	Casting By Lucinda Syson C.S.A., C.D.S.
1:17 – 1:19	Music By Lucas Vidal
1:21 – 1:22	Costume Designer Sanja Milkovic Hays
1:24 – 1:26	Visual Effect Supervisors David Vickery, Kelvin McIlwain
1:26 – 1:29	Edited By Christian Wagner, Kelly Matsumotot, Dylan Highsmith
1:32 – 1:33	Production Designer Jan Roelfs
1:35 – 1:36	Director of Photography Stephen F. Windon A.C.S
1:37 – 1:40	Executive Producer Justin Lin, Amanda Lewis
1:40 – 1:42	Executive Producer Samantha Vincent, Chris Morgan
1:44 – 1:46	Produced By Neal H.Moritz P.G.A, Vin Diesel, Clayton Townsend P.G.A
1:51 – 1:52	Based on the Characters Created by Gary Scott Thompson
1:53 – 1:55	Written by Chris Morgan
2:02 – 2:05	Directed by Justin Lin
2:05 -	Furious 6

 

This will help show me how other action movies show their titles. It will give me a clear understanding of both the order of titles and the timeframes they are shown in.

Quantum of Solace – Opening Credit Timeline (Action Movie Genre)

Quantum of Solace – Opening Credit Timeline (Action Movie Genre)

Time	Title
0:03 – 0:06	Albert R Broccoli’s Eon Productions Limited Presents
0:07 – 0:11	Daniel Craig
0:12 – 0:14	As James Bond
0:14 – 0:17	As Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007 in
0:19 – 0:24	Quantum of Solace
0:25 – 0:29	Starring Olga Kurylenko
0:30 – 0:34	Mathieu Amalric
0:35 – 0:39	Giancarlo Giannini
0:40 - 0:45	Gemma Arterton, Anatole Taubman
0:45 – 0:50	Jesper Chrustensen, David Harbour
0:50 – 0:55	Rory Kinnear, Tim Pigott-Smith, Joanquín Cosio
0:56 – 1:00	With Jeffrey Wright
1:05 – 1:08	And Judi Dench as M
1:10 – 1:14	Associate Producer Andrew Noakes, Production Executive David Pope
1:17 – 1:21	Camera Operator George Richmond, Script Supervisor Nikki Clapp, Second Unit Director of Photography Shaun O’Dell, Second Unit Assistant Director Terry Madden, Second Recordist Chris Munro, Electrical Supervisor Eddie Knight
1:22 – 1:28	Production Manager UK Jannie Modder, Makeup Supervisor Paul Engelen, Hairdressing Supervisor Zoe Tahir, Bond Girls’ Makeup and Hair Naomi Donne, Wardrobe Supervisor Lindsay Pugh
1:30 – 1:34	Supervising Art Director Chris Lowe, Set Decorator Anna Pinnock, Property Master Barry Gibbs, Construction Manager Stephen Bohan, Stills Photographer Karen Ballard
1:36 – 1:40	Publicity Marketing Anne Bennett, Promotions Keith Snelgrove, Post Production Supervisor Michael Solinger, Visual Effects Producer Leslie McMinn, Assisitant producer Gregg Wilson
1:42 – 1:45	Casting Debbie Mcwilliams, Man Titles Designed by MK12
1:47 – 1:50	Unit Production Manager Jeremy Johns, Second Unit Production Manager Terry Bamber, First Assistant Director Michael Lerman
1:51 – 1:55	Special Effects Supervisor Chris Corbould, Visual Effects Designer Kevin Tod Haug
1:57 – 2:01	Stunt Coordinator Gary Powell, Second Unit Director Panama Simon Crane
2:04 – 2:07	Second Unit Director Dan Bradley
2:09 – 2:12	Costume Designer Louise Frogley
2:15 – 2:18	Editors Matt Chessé A.C.E, Richard Pearson A.C.E
2:19 – 2:22	Director of Photography Roberto Schaefer A.S.C
2:23 – 2:27	Production Designer Dennis Gassner
2:30 – 2:33	Music by David Arnold
2:38 – 2:41	“Another Way to Die” Performed by Jack White and Alicia Keys, Written and Produced by Jack White
2:43 – 2:47	Executive Producer Anthony Waye, Callum McDougall
2:51 – 2:56	Written by Paul Haggis and Neal Purvis and Robert Wade
3:02 – 3:07	Produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli
3:10 – 3:15	Directed By Marc Forster

 

This opening will help show me how other action movies present their titles and how long each title appears on screen for. I can use this information when making my own re-make.

Research into the Action Genre

Research into the Action Genre

The action genre is one of the most popular kinds of genre and generally involve a male protagonist being put in a situation where they must overcome a physical feat in order to stay alive or save another main characters life. Action films tend to have many generic conventions associated with them such as gun fights, car chases and explosions. Most action films are made by mainstream company aimed at a mainstream audience. Action films tend to be aimed at males since they are designed in such a way that makes it exciting and fast paced. Action films tend to work with both the thriller and adventure genre.

Some people see the James Bond films as being a generic action film since it contains most (if not all) of the generic conventions found in a action movie. This includes car chases, gunfights, explosions and all the main aspects of a action film.

Advancements in CGI have made it easier for companies to make visual effects such as explosions and car chases. These are edited in post-production are critical in making an action movie. However sometimes these action films are seen in a poor light since they the CGI effects may not realistic but very recent advancements make it look very believable. CGI has most recently advanced so it looks almost real, for example in the film "Gravity".

Green screen is also used highly in action movies in order to have a particular location used in a movies. One of the main films that uses green screen is the "Hunger Games". This is done by letting the actors performed in front of a green sheet ands during post the location is added in from other previously filmed footage.

The Back to the Future Opening Re-Make

This is our re-make of the Back to the Future opening.

Why we are doing a re-make?

Why we are doing a re-make?

Our group is doing a re-make of the opening to “Back to the Future” to help us prepare for creating our own re-make. We are doing this since it will demonstrate how other openings are created and how titles as well as credit to actors and crew are presented. As well as this it will help us get practice with equipment and editing software so we know our limitations as well as what we are able to do with the assets available to us.

The Back to the Future opening is a perfect example of a good film opening since it contains most of the important aspects seen in a generic film opening such as…

·         Titles

·         Foley Sound

·         Camera Movement

·         Editing

·         Dialogue (During the news report and radio broadcast)

 

The skills we have learnt (listed above) from this will help us when making our proper re-make and our movie opening since we will be able to learn from the mistakes made when recording/editing this.

The difference between Mainstream and Independent Movie Openings

The difference between Mainstream and Independent Movie Openings

Mainstream movies tend to include high profile actors into their openings. As a result this will bring the fan base of that particular actor/actress and therefore attract audiences to watching their film. They also may have high quality animation openings. This is most evident in the James Bond series of film since they are famous for their unique high budget opening that a whole team are devoted to making. Mainstream films will normally have a high budget and therefore will be able to afford both high profile actors and a crew of producers who can design a good, strong opening that will grab the audience’s attention. Mainstream films also showcase their logos in the opening and mainstream ones always are very big and flashy with bright colours to show them off.

Independent film openings tend to contain fairly unknown actors and therefore this brings only a small fan base to watch their movie. This is due to a much lower budget than mainstream movies. Independent movies also normally have non-integrated titles that tend to be fairly plain since only a limited number of crew members can work on it since crew are needed elsewhere in production. Much like mainstream films independent openings will also showcase their logo at the beginning of the movie. Normally they are fairly plain and use dull colours.