Case Study for Super 8.

Broadcasting

A Super 8 tease trailer was advertisied during the super bowl which is the american football final which is watched by millions around the world, even people you dont follow NFL or who dont understand NFL watch it. To get a tv spot during the super bowl half time adverts is one of the most expensive television slots in the world. The clip only lasts 00.32 seconds. To advertise during ths super bowl usuually costs millions of dollars, because of the wide appeal of the super bowl and the recored numbers of people that the final pulls in year upon year. The super bowl was shown in 25 countries. Advertsing space during the super bowl started at $3,000,000 US dollars.

Box Office

Super 8 had a budget of $50,000,000. On the opening weekend Super 8 took in $35,451,168. So on the opening weekend it made back over half of their budget. The worldwide gross for the film was $244,000,000. These figures are before the dvd release so we can only assume that the gross figures will grow as the dvd sells.

Super 8 was released on June 9th 2011 in Australia, June 10th 2011 in USA, and August 5th in the UK, in both normal and imax theaters. The DVD and blu ray was released on November 22nd 2011, and it is also available online to stream/rent. The DVD contains the normal DVD, also a digital copy includes nine bonus features and fourteen deleted scenes.

Super 8 was nominated for:
Teen choice awards

• Choice Movie: Sci-Fic/Fantasy (Nominated)
• Choice Movie: Actress Sci/Fi - Elle Fanning (Nominated)
• Choice Movie: Breakout Male - Joel Courtney (Nominated)
• Choice Movie: Scene Stealer Male - Riley Griffiths (Nominated)
• Choice Movie: Chemistry - The Super 8 Crew (Nominated)
• Choice Movie: Hissy Fit - The Alien (Nominated)

 2011 Scream Awards

• The Ultimate Scream (Nominated)
• Best Science Fiction Movie (Won)
• Breakout Performance - Female - Elle Fanning (Nominated)
• Best Director - J. J. Abrams (Nominated)
• Best Scream-Play - J. J. Abrams (Nominated)
• Holy Sh*t Scene Of The Year - The train crash (Nominated)

E-Media


The super 8 film has its own website, http://www.super8-movie.com/#, when the website is first open a trailer opens for the film which lasts roughly 2 and a half minutes, this is the theatrical trailer. Once the pop up video box closes behind it are some quotes from industry people that have made positive comments about the film, these words are on a constant roll, and are in bright white writing that catches the eye of the viewer. As the viewer scrolls further down the page they see the title on the right hand side with information on the producer, writer and director. Also below the title it has information on dvd, blu ray and digital download availability. On the left hand side there is a photo of both the blu ray and DVD cover with the prices and places where the film is available to purchase. Once you scroll over the DVD and blu ray image, an information pop up rises and tells the viewer extra information about the products, listing all of the extra features that they contain. Further below there is information about a Super 8 comic that is also available, only online. There is also a competition towards the center bottom of the page, just below there is information about an app that's available for apple devices. This allows for the film to generate sales revenue from the ever growing app market that has been seen to be very profitable if the app is popular enough. Below the app information there is also social networking information, links to their twitter site #Super8Movie and also their stumbleupon which is also another social networking website. Below the title information which is located just over half way down the page, there are links to other pages which contain, photos, videos, stories, cast and crew and the choice to sign up for updates, which is probably no use now but would of been before the film release and also before the DVD release. Finally at the bottom of the page on each corner it shows photos of the institutions that played a part in the production of the film. The website also allows viewers to edit the film

As previously mentioned super 8 has a twitter page but they also have a facebook page. Their twitter page has 16,042 followers (as of 23/11/11) and their facebook page also has 556,636 likes. This is a way that the people who produced super 8 can interact and provide information to their fans about the film, and to keep them informed about the film.

Print


The guardian newspaper has a very good media section as part of their national newspaper. Here is a link to there website with a review of super 8 by Peter Bradshaw, http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/aug/04/super-8-review.

Film Extracts

This following extract is from the film Citizen Kane (1941)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg7VUk4DjIk

An interesting part of the short extract that I found the most interesting and different from the modern films that are now produce is the fade sequence that takes place towards the start of the extract. The part of the extract I am talking about is from 0.11 seconds into the clip and ends at 0.20/0.21. This transition is a fade in/out, of course this is still used in modern film, but because of advances in technology we don't see it  in this plain and blatant form. This is a slow transition from scene to scene and the man who is positioned on the left hand side of the screen stays in the same place during the slow change, the man doesn't disappear from the transition till it is completed. The change in scene starts with the darkness coming in from the left hand side, the darkness covers up everything apart from the mans face and manages to cast a shadow over his face. Once the darkness is gone the new scene appears.

The 2nd clip comes from the film Higher Learning (1995)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw7qbb44tBE

At 00.35 in the clip, Ice Cube and his crew walk into a house. What I found interesting about this clip is the camera angle that the director John Singleton (who also directed Boyz in the Hood), uses, as the crew walks into the house the camera is beneath them, which means that the camera is looking up at them. This camera angle connotes that the crew are in a position of power. By using this camera angle to connote the power the group has it gives an insight into what is going to happen in the next part of the film.

Lighting Homework

This image is of a man, with half of his face covered in darkness. This is an example of low key lighting. Low key lighting uses only key and back lighting and produces strong contrasts, this is shown on the man's face in the contrast between light and dark, which is an obvious strong contrast. The connotations of this type of lighting is that the character is good but is actually evil, or half good half bad if you will. There is also top lighting, which as its name suggests its light from above which accentuates the features of a character, this is shown on his face by the detail we can see with the eyes, nose, chin dimple and mouth, the half we can see at least.