Super 8 Research

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http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=31184

Poster analysis

                       

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=136812

"Not only has he persuaded Steven Spielberg to serve as producer on his latest film — encouragingly neither sequel, prequel, nor attempt to deodorise a stale franchise — but the very film the tenderfoot filmmaker has written and directed is a fan letter to the spirit of early Spielberg. The kind of cinematic telepathy, touching hearts and minds, that gave us Jaws, Close Encounters and E. T.. "

"It’s nowhere close to E. T. — what is? — but amongst the hullabaloo of summer, Super 8 is something to cherish: a beautifully made homage to better times, and better movies."

Reveiw, Empire Magazone– Ian Nathan

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/aug/04/super-8-review

"Everything about the movie has been meticulously created or recreated: the homely suburban setting, whose housing sprawl is set across a valley or plain that can be viewed, all at once, from rising ground."

Peter Bradshaw

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-blog/8565762/Will-Super-8-live-up-to-its-marketing-genius.html

E Media

Viral marketing campaign

"Like Cloverfield, an earlier J. J. Abrams film, Super 8 was promoted through an extensive viral marketing campaign. Fans analyzing the trailer found a hidden message, "Scariest Thing I Ever Saw", contained in the final frames of the trailer. This led to a website, Scariest Thing I Ever Saw, which simulated an old computer and contained various clues to the film's storyline (the computer was eventually revealed to belong to Josh Woodward, the son of Dr. Woodward, who is trying to find out what happened to his father). Another viral website, Rocket Poppeteers was also found, which like Slusho from Cloverfield plays no direct part in the film but is indirectly related."

"The official Super 8 website also contained an "editing room" section, which asked users to find various clips from around the web and piece them together. When completed, the reel makes up the film found by the kids in Dr. Woodward's trailer, showing the ship disintegrating into individual white cubes, and the alien reaching through the window of its cage and snatching Dr. Woodward.The viral campaign generated massive hype for the film long before its release."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_8_(film)#Viral_marketing_campaign

http://filmonic.com/super-8-kicks-viral-marketing-campaign

"After the extensive viral marketing campaign for Cloverfield turned out to be so successful, its no surprise that J.J. Abrams intends to use the same formula to build buzz for his upcoming feature, Super 8. With the new trailer hitting the internet last week, fans of Abrams have already begun to look for clues. And it looks as though the people over at Unfiction forums have already hit on something substantial."

Marketing method, secret websites.messages/trailers.

 Broadcast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpzUCA5i6zY Teaser trailer (1:30)

Super 8 (2011)

Super 8 Website

Paramount Website



Super 8 Facebook

Super 8 Twitter

Super 8 IMDB

Super 8 Wikipedia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmIxLhklXD4

This is the beginning of Tim Burtons Edward Scissorhands (1990). The use of panning shots - especially around the statues - creates a sense of spookiness as it distorts the look of it; creating shadows and highlighting the cobwebs to connote thats its a desolate, old and un-cared for setting. The tilt used on the shot of the stair case creates a sense of mystery as it seems never ending, but yet, leading up to somewhere, however we do not know where at this point. Additionally, there are close ups of the machinery and scissors which makes us focus on them and show significance in them. The use of symbolism in the close us helps us to forshadow events to come. Along with all these shots, there is also music playing in the background which in non-diegitic. It creates a mysterious, spooky and meloncholy feel.

Analysing a Still Image

This still image is from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008). The mise-en-scene of the still creates a very sinister feel. This is due to - firstly - the lighting; top lighting has been used (coming from the top right) which highlights the right hand side of his face. Consequently, this draws our attention to the lift in his right cheek as he his grinning. The fact that his head is tilted downwards makes his grin seem all the more sinister. Additionally, it puts the other side of his face in shadow which reflects mystery and a dark side about him. High key lighting has been used to create a more realistic scene - although still dim - as he is in a prison cell. The colours on this still are dull, washed out and lacks vibrance which connotes an ill-fated and a disconsolate mood for the Joker and reflects his evil personality. This also contributes to the sinister and evil feel of this still.

Analysing a Film Extract

This is a pivital scene in Harry Potter and the . A sound bridge has been used at 0:34 to show that although the charcters are not seen in the same place, they are in close proximity and in the same area, and also the fact that Harry Potter and the us - the audience are listening to whats going on up above. Throughout this scene, non-diegetic sound has been used. String instruments give the scene an solumn and meloncholy feel and also helps create suspense. At 3:00 the sound contributes to the sad feel as he falls to his death. The lighting from the begginning is high key although it is dim, we know this because the contast between light and dark isn't highly apparent. This gives us the effect of a realistic setting and also sets the mood: as it's a dimly lit and gloomy scene, we can tell that the events will have a unhappy and greivous outcome.

Super 8 Review

The film Super 8 – written and directed by J.J Abrams - is within the Science Fiction based genre; it has various conventions of this type on genre including; an enemy threat, from outer space/aliens; has many special effects, etc. The director, Abrams has paid homage to the well known director, Stephen Spielberg; as he has used many of the typical conventions included in Spielberg’s films. These are aspects such as; similar visual effects – special effects, explosions, etc – and having children as the main protagonists. There are many different aspects which makes this a brilliant film, such as; the characters, the use of tension and mystery and the special effects.

The basic plot of this film is that a group of friends set out to create a super 8 movie. Whilst doing so, at their location, there is an enormous and catastrophic train crash. The group of friends flee the exploding scene, however, leaving their camera running. When they return after it settling, they discover some obscure and unknown objects, they also realise that the collision was intended and not a coincidental accident. Soon after, a series of unexplained disappearances and calamities occur over town. When they finally realise the cause – it is something no one could have imagined.

The characters in this film are played by young actors such as; Elle Fanning as Alice, Joel Courtney as Joe, Riley Griffiths as Charles, all along side others. The use of children as the main characters makes the whole situation seem more thrilling and exciting, due to them still being quite naive and them not being as rational as adults. This also adds to the mystery of the plot – as they know as much as we do. Additionally, they add to the use of light-hearted humour and banter that we can relate to – as it brings us back to our more youthful and care free years. In effect this helps us to empathise and like the characters much more and we feel the need to root for them to find out the cause of all the mishap.

I especially liked the tension and mystery of this film as it could put us at the edge of our seats at a drop of a hat. This was down to the use of sound/music along with what we were seeing on screen. For example if there was a part where something mysterious and unrevealing was happening – the music would reflect this. Another thing I picked up on was the use of focus during the shots. For instance, on a shot, what was in the background would be focused when there wasn’t much going on, however, when the unknown creature was doing something to a citizen of the town or to a place; it went out of focus and whatever was in the foreground – a person for example – would be in focus. This teases the audience as we can see something is going on but we don’t know exactly what. Consequently, right at the end, we finally find out what the mysterious, unknown creature is and vaguely, what it was doing on earth.

A convention of the Sci-Fi genre is the visual effects such as the explosions. This film did not lack in this field. The train crash – what was pretty much at the beginning of the film – gripped and made the audience pay attention due to what we could see; which were huge, loud, fiery explosions.

The thing I was disappointed with in this film was the ending, to me it seemed rushed. As firstly, we didn’t find out that much about the alien creature, what it actually was and what it wanted. It just flew away after it realised something – which I don’t know exactly what it was it realised... Also, we don’t really know what was going to happen to the group of friends.

Overall, I did quite enjoy this film – even though I didn’t really expect to – which was mainly down to the mystery of it. The only thing I didn’t like was the ending which left me a little baffled. Therefore I would give it a 7/10.

Year 13 Media Production Review

After seeing many media productions at the Media Awards, I believe that the best year 13 production was “The Tweets”. It stood out from the others due to several aspects, such as; the attention to detail, the editing, the plot and its humour.

Firstly, the type of production it was, was a documentary which would have been showed on the channel BBC3. This makes it clear to the audience, their target audience – mainly teenagers/young adults. This links into the attention to detail they had whilst they edited it. At the very beginning, there was a BBC3 intro bit, which made it clear where it would be shown. Also the title credits were typical of BBC3 – with the introduction to the people they would be following, along with current music playing in the background.

Secondly, I thought the plot of the documentary is very relevant and contemporary, as society – especially amongst teenagers – is very celebrity influenced to an extent, as many people look up to them, whether they are good and suitable role models or not. I also liked the play title. “The Tweets”; which is relevant to the huge phenomenon - Twitter.

In addition to this, I thought that humour which was included suited the type of documentary it was. It showed that it wasn’t too serious and it was something the target audience could relate to and laugh at.

Therefore, this is why I believe this was the best year 13 production.