Case Study Research: The Wolf of Wall Street 2013

Institution: 

The film was produced by Paramount Pictures and also Red Granite Pictures. It was distributed within the UK by Universal Pictures International. 

No Brand Loyalty:

The Wolf of Wall Street is about Jordan Belfort and how he became a stock broker. It also shows his addiction to money, drugs and alcohol which led to his life to taking unexpected turn. As this is based on events that occurred within his life the movie would come under the biography genre.

Also from the trailer we can tell that the movie will be quite comical and have quite a lot of humour within it. The phrase "you have my money taped to you, I think you do work for me" has been included within the trailer so that the audience which enjoy the comedy genre will be able to enjoy this movie.

It's all a matter of timing:

The release date of this movie in the UK was January 14th 2014. The first trailer that was released for this movie is the one embedded at the top of the post which was released on June 16th 2013 which was around 7 months before the movie was released. Interviews with some of the cast such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie were also done before the release of the movie.

It's a social thing:

IMDB gave The Wolf Of Wall Street a rating of 8.2/10.

Rotten Tomatoes gave The Wolf Of Wall Street a rating of 77/100.

Audience Reviews:

"Man, does this movie have a savage bite." - Betsy Sharkey (LA Times)

"The wages of greed and excess portrayed in grand, operatic, often very funny style." - Todd McCarthy

"Martin Scorsese's finest in more than a decade."- Shane Danielsen

Risky Business:

Original Budget: $100,000,000.

Opening Weekend: $18,361,578.

Worldwide Gross: $392,000,694.

In order to be considered a successful movie The Wolf Of Wall Street had to make at least $250,000,000 which they overpassed by $142,000,000. This means that The Wolf Of Wall Street was in fact a successful movie.

Stars in their eyes:

The trailer includes the names of both actors and directors. The director of The Wolf on Wall Street -Martin Scorsese has directed many other movies one of them being The Goodfellas. Also the main character (Jordan Belfort) was played by Leonardo DiCaprio who is known for his work in movies such as Titanic, The Great Gatsby and also Django Unchained.

Independance Day Case Study

Institutional Background:
The main production companies behind Independence Day were: 20th Century Fox Flim Corporation and Centrapolis Entertainment. Also in the UK the movie was distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Genre:
The sub-genre of this film is alien invasion and we can tell this by what this movie is based around. The narrative is based around an alien invasion where the main character Captain Steven Hiller (played by Will Smith) fights off the aliens where towards the end they blow up the mothership. This is quite a common theme within many sci-fi movies where there is a Good vs Evil. We can also tell this is a science fiction film due to the mise-en-scene. The costumes worn by the soldiers and also the alien costumes tell us straight away that its a science fiction film as you wouldn't find aliens in any other genres apart from sci-fi.

Release Date and Marketing Campaign:



The trailer of the movie shows many scenes of Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith). This will increase the amount of talk going around as there may be many fans of Will Smith and the could be very excited about his new film. This will lead to a lot of people talking about it and then eventually most people will end up watching the movie and increasing the films revenue.

Critical Reception

60%- Rotten Tomatoes

6.9/10- IMDB

59%- Metacritic

"Independence Day - outstanding work of the cinematic art"

"A Great Blockbuster!"

(Source - IMDb Review Section)

Box Office: 

Budget: $75 Million

Opening Weekend: $50 million

Total Gross: $306 Million

From this we can see that Independence Day was extremely successful by almost quadrupling their budget resulting in over a $225 million profit.

Cast and Director:

Director: Ronald Emmerich (Director of White House Down)

Main stars: Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum both of which have starred in previous movies.

Assignment 2: Genre and NCIS

The Maze Runner (2014)

Genre: Adventure and Sci-fi

Narrative: From the trailer we can see that the group is placed within a maze where they must survive. We can also see that the lead character and others are attempting to escape the maze to safety.

Character: The characters are shows as adventurous and also very curious characters. When the woman came up the elevator many of the characters were surprised which shows that women weren't very common and to see one came as a shock to them. As a whole the group was presented as strong, confident and ready to take on challenges.

Iconography: Within the trailer there are many things that link back to the adventure and sci-fi for example; the robots named grievers; the dystopian environment they live in and also going on an adventure to escape the maze. All of these things tend to appear within other adventure or sci-fi movies.

Setting: From the trailer and the name of the movie we can infer that the movie is going to be set within a maze and a small community built by the people that live there. We haven't been given any information as to whereabouts in the world it is.

Batman v Superman (2016)  

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi / Fantasy 

Narrative: From the trailer you can tell that the narrative is about conflict, fight between Batman and Superman for power. There could be a story twist since the trailer doesn't show or give a lot of detail about the movie.

Character: The main characters is Batman and Superman. Superman is a out of this world human, containing over powered strength and god like powers... in the trailer he is shown as a threat to Batman and someone who is a threat to this world. Batman is shown as a hero, strong, powerful mastermind and relied on  to save us.

Iconography: There is plenty of iconography typical of the action / fantasy genres: gunshots, violence, god like humans with super powers, technology, explosions and smashing glass. All of these are typical of the action fantasy genres.

Setting: Even though its not clear where the setting is. its fair to say its set in America judging by the court scene and the language is spoken. Another place where they could be is in Gotham predicting this by the batman scene. 

Poltergeist (2015)

Genre: Horror

Narrative: A family whose suburban home is haunted by evil forces must come together to rescue their youngest daughter after the apparitions take her captive.

Character: The characters consist of a young girl who has been abducted by supernatural creatures and her family who try to save her. This is seen in a typical horror movie where the young characters are usually the most naive and have the hardest time when dealing with the supernatural.

Iconography: There is plenty of typical iconography of this horror genre. For example, a haunted house, spirits, creepy dolls, rocking chairs, paranormal activity. All these are seen in a typical horror movie and it also links with the narrative, so we can confidently say that this is a horror.

Setting: Majority of this movie is set in a house in a nice neighbourhood where the family move into but then start to experience abnormal things and ends with the family moving out of the house to get away from their bad experience, but they are still trapped.

Assignment 1 Magazine Cover

Camerawork Minority Report Analysis

Camerawork: Minority Report shot-by-shot analysis

Shot 1

Medium Close Up (MCU)

In this scene which is a medium close up (MCU) we can see all the policemen looking at John Anderton (Tom Cruise) who they are targeting right now. We can also see the surprising and very annoyed look on the policemens as he will have to capture his mate (John Anderton) who is a fellow colleague of his. They also look very serious as they are capturing a potential murderer. Due to the number of policemen in this scene it could suggest how powerful John is and how many policemen it takes to take him down. The light is pointing at the policemen to perhaps show that their presence is very noticeable and John should be scared as we can see in shot 3.

Shot 2

Establishing Shot (ES)

In this shot we can see the scene is set where John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is being chased. The gloomy lighting suggests how dodgy and unwelcoming the alleyway is. The dark side of the car could perhaps be a hiding/escape route for John. He may want to run through there to escape into the darkness where he isn't very visible. The bright side of the shot may show where the policemen are coming from as their presence should be noticeable and they want to be seen as very dominant.

Shot 3

Medium Close Up (MCU)

Within this medium close up we can see John Anderton (Tom Cruise) looking up at the futuristic policemen which tells us that he has less power in this situation. The light is pointed onto his face so we can see his facial expressions. The shadow on the other side of his face suggests that he may be wanting escape into the darkness. He also looks like he could be thinking of a way to escape. We can also see that he is slightly nervous or scared. The background isn't very visible so it makes the audience focus on the protagonist (Tom Cruise) so we can feel more connected to him.

Camera Shot Photo Story

Camera Work

This establishing shot sets the scene where the victim can be seen in the corner. It is obvious that it is set in a hallway/corridor. We can see the victim in the corner but we are not able to see what she's doing. However in hindsight the establishing shot could of been taken outside where it sets the scene of where this incident is taking place. A picture of the school building could of set the scene in a more professional way.

               

This long shot shows the bully as a whole. We can see her from head to toe however we can't see her facial expressions. However the shot could of been taken from a lower angle in order to make it clear from the start that she is the bully within this story board.

This medium shot shows the bully pointing towards the victim in the corner. We cant pick up the exact emotions or facial expressions.

This medium close up uses a high angle which shows the expressions on the victims face and also to show she is weaker and inferior to the bully. We can slightly pick up the facial expressions however they aren't as clear as they could be. Also the shot could of been closer to make it more of a medium close up.

This over-the-shoulder shot shows the facial on the bullies face very well, we can see that they are full of anger. Another thing we can see within this shot is that the bully is grabbing onto the blazer of the victim.

This extreme close up shows us the bullies hand thrusting forward in order to strangle the victim. This builds up tension and wants the audience to feel like they are there witnessing 

the strangling.

This high angle close up shows us the victim crying and also showing that she looks and feels powerless. The impacts the audience negatively where they will start to feel sorry for her and begin to show sympathy. However the shot could of been closer to her face to increase the sympathy given towards her from the audience.

This low angle shows the bully walking off after hurting the victim. The low angle tells us that she is much more dominant over the victim and much more powerful. This creates a feeling that the bully is quite tyrannical. 

This unusual perspective shows the worms-eye-view of the bully which once again shows her empowering over everything in her way including the victim. However this shot isn't the greatest as the lighting within the shot. It makes the picture look much more unprofessional and scrappy.

Fruit Bowls

Fruit Bowls.

The fruit bowl inspired by urban graffiti which is the reason to the graffiti theme all over the fruit bowl. The picture used is of a wall of graffiti in an urban area.

This fruit bowl is inspired by the winter season. The colours used are mostly blue with the uncommon brown representing the trees within the season. The light blue and the colours closer to the white represent the skies and snow.

This fruit bowl is inspired by the picture around the border. The bright and vibrant colours make this fruit bowl quite unique. I think the use of purple was overused on the actual fruits within the fruit bowl. However as a whole I think the fruit bowl represents the vibrant theme very well.