Hypodermic needle theory and Gratification model theory

Film: Fast and Furious 7

Target audience: 
The target audience for Fast and Furious 7 was the pre-existing fans from the previous films and mature audiences. The film is about friendship, loyalty and love between close friends and a couple.

Where was it distributed?:
The film was distributed by Universal Pictures all over the United States and Universal Pictures International in the United Kingdom. 

What was the budget and do you believe it had an affect on marketing strategies?
The budget of the film was $190 million and it made $1.516 billion in the box office. I do not believe the budget had an affect on marketing strategies because the film already had a large pre-existing fan base who would have flocked to see the newest installment of the film. People who weren't already apart of the fan base might have gone to see it as well as they might have perceived it to be a little different to the previous ones.

Justify the films gross profit using the Hypodermic Needle Theory & Gratification Model

The film mostly uses the Gratification model theory as it was aimed at the films fan base in the sense that, it was made for them to enjoy and for them to see the latest bit of the journey for the friends and family within the film. The film was aimed to gratify the needs of the audience who wanted to know what life was like for them after the sixth installment for the film, hence the reason the film grossed so much in box office. Fast and Furious 7 was the highest grossing of the films, earning over $1 billion at the box office with the second of the franchise was Fast and Furious 6 with only $629 million at the box office. The hypodermic needle theory can also be applied because the film could have been aimed at people who had seen a couple of the films but stopped watching. This could have been to the re-introduction of a much loved character in the franchise. 

The Mechanic: Resurrection Analysis

The Mechanic: Resurrection Dir. Dennis Gansel (2016)

Mechanic: Resurrection is a action thriller film directed by Dennis Gansel. The films production companies are; Chartoff-Winkler Productions, Davis-Films, Hurwitz Creative, ME2 Productions and Millennium Films. The budget for the film was $40 million and it grossed over $125 million at the box office worldwide. The film was distributed by Summit Entertainment, which is a subsidiary of Lionsgate.

The films director, Dennis Gansel, was born in Hanover, Germany in 1973. He grew up in East Berlin and started making films when he was 17. Gansel worked in the festivals for film and television and with disabled people. During this time, he prepared himself for film school. He studied at Munich Film School HFF where he studied for 5 years. Gansel is best known for directing The Wave and his following project; the vampire film We Are The Night, which starred Karoline Herfurth, Nina Hoss, Jennifer Ulrich, Anna Fischer and Max Riemelt. Other than directing, Gansel has also tried acting. He has had several small roles in his own movies as wells as others. Gansel frequently casts Max Riemelt in his films and frequently works with editor Jochen Retter and composer/musician Heiko Maile. His favourite director is Sydney Pollack.

Gansel uses a wide range of camera shots within the movie. The shots range from close-ups to long-shots. In the film we see several close-ups, these are of the characters in it and different props we see used. For example, we see close-ups of the faces of the actors within the first few scenes of the film. We see Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) and Renee Tran (Rhatha Phongam) sitting at a table in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Gansel uses close-ups of the characters to show their facial expressions while talking to each other. Gansel also uses close-ups and mid-shots of the henchmen that Tran has sitting in various places within the restaurant they are in. We also see several transitions where the screen fades to black at the end of one scene and we get an establishing shot of a new location. For example, we see this when the first scene which is set in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and then we get an establishing shot of a boat in the ocean and we see that it is set in Koh Lipe, Southern Thailand. The use of the transitions helps the audience to know that the film has jumped ahead in time, so instead of saying 'One week later', it connotes the jump in time to the audience in a more subtle way.

Straight Outta Compton Analysis

Straight Outta Compton is a 2015 American biographical film directed by F. Gary Gray. The film depicts the career of gangsta rap group N.W.A as well as being titled after N.W.A's 1988 debut studio album, the film focuses on Eazy-E,Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre. Several members of N.W.A were involved in making the film: Ice Cube and Dr. Dre were among its producers as well as Eazy-E's widow, Tomica Woods-Wright, while MC Ren and DJ Yella served as creative consultants. The film has was nominated for a total of 40 awards winning 25 of them, one of which was Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars. The budget for the film was $50 million, grossing over $200 million at the box office. The films production companies include Universal Pictures, Legendary Entertainment, New Line Cinema and Ice Cube's own production company Cube Vision.

Director Felix Gary Gray is an American born FIlm director, Film producer, Music video producer and actor. He began his career in 1989 when he appeared uncredited in the satire comedy film Major League. Three years later, he directed the music video for Ice Cube's "It Was a Good Day". He would go on to direct subsequent videos for Ice Cube, as well as artists such as TLC, Cypress Hill, Outkast, Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, Mary J. Blige, Jay-Z, Stevie Wonder and Queen Latifah. At age 24, Gray directed his first film, the urban comedy Friday with Ice Cube and Chris Tucker. Over the next few years he would go on to direct Set It Off, with Jada Pinkett and Queen Latifah, The Negotiator, which starred Academy Award-winner Kevin Spacey and Academy Award-nominee Samuel L. Jackson, and earned Gray both Best Film and Best Director awards at the 1998 Acapulco Film Festival, The Italian Job with Charlize Theron and Mark Wahlberg, Law Abiding Citizen, starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. 

The film has several themes some of which include conflict, friendship, revenge, death and also has racial undertones. The use of the racial undertones shows to the audience what the rap group had to deal with and go through on their rise to the top. In the movie we see the racism when the group are standing outside the recording studio and the police pull up thinking that they are causing trouble and try to arrest them even though they aren't causing any trouble and are just outside eating and talking. The policeman say that it is because of the way that they are dressed that causes them to think that they are causing trouble and that's why they arrested them, this also has strong links to stereotyping as the police were making assumptions about the black men based on their appearance. We see the theme of friendship throughout the entire movie, from the start of their musical careers before they sign a record deal to the last scene. Despite the feud that goes on between Ice-Cube and the rest of NWA part way through the film, they still come back together as brothers towards the end because they grew up together and see themselves as brothers who are always there for each other. The hospitalisation of one of the members brings the entire group back together despite the fact that they gone through a rough patch and had decided to go separate ways. This connotes to the audience that despite having arguments with close friends over things, nothing can keep you separated if the friendship is strong enough and that they will still always be there when you need them most.

The use of lighting in the movie also helps to emphasise the themes that run throughout the movie. The use of the dark lighting in the scene when Jerry Heller (Played by Paul Giamatti) offers Ice-Cube (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) the contract he has been waiting for and asking about for several months. The use of having O'Shea in a dimly lit room mostly amongst the shadows has connotations of him being in the dark with the contract and not knowing what it involves which is why he declines to sign it. The dark lighting also suggests that there could be a dodgy element to the contract deal and Heller himself. 

Lighting is also used in the film to signify hope and perseverance. We see this in the last part of the movie when Eazy-E is in hospital. He finds out he has an STD and that he doesn't have long left. In one shot we see him in bed with lamp on behind him. The use of the light from the lamp shows that despite being given a short amount of time to live, there is a small chance he could overcome the disease or at least live for longer than the doctor said.

1500 word esay

Favourite film scene

The Godfather Dir. Francis Ford Coppola (1972)

Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola, had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated with a degree in drama from Hofstra University, and did graduate work at UCLA in filmmaking. He was training as assistant with filmmaker Roger Corman, working in such capacities as sound-man, dialogue director, associate producer and, eventually, director of Dementia 13 (1963), Coppola's first feature film. In 1966, Coppola's 2nd film brought him critical acclaim and a Master of Fine Arts degree. In 1969, Coppola and George Lucas established American Zoetrope, an independent film production company based in San Francisco. The company's first project was THX 1138 (1971), produced by Coppola and directed by Lucas. Coppola also produced the second film that Lucas directed, American Graffiti(1973), in 1973. This movie got five Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. In 1971, Coppola's film The Godfather (1972) became one of the highest- grossing movies in history and brought him an Oscar for writing the screenplay with Mario Puzo The film was a Best Picture Academy Award-winner, and also brought Coppola a Best Director Oscar nomination. Following his work on the screenplay for The Great Gatsby (1974), Coppola's next film was The Conversation (1974), which was honoured with the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and brought Coppola Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay Oscar nominations. Also released that year, The Godfather: Part II (1974), rivaled the success of The Godfather (1972), and won six Academy Awards, bringing Coppola Oscars as a producer, director and writer.

Francis Ford Coppola IMDb

My favourite scene from The Godfather is one of the opening scene when Vito Corleone, played by Marlon Brando, is sat in his office with three other men. Two of the men are apart of Vito's mob, the other guy is someone asking a for a favour on the wedding day of Vito's daughter. The Godfather, is an American crime film from 1972. It stars Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leaders of a fictional New York crime family. The story, spanning 1945 to 1955, chronicles the family under the patriarch Vito Corleone, focusing on the transformation of Michael Corleone from reluctant family outsider to ruthless Mafia boss.

The lighting this scene is partly bright and dark. The lighting is used to connote the topic of the conversation and it is used to connote Vito and his background. The use of the darkness in the corner and behind Vito, is used to connote the dark matter of the conversation and what Vito, is capable deep down. The darkness represents him hiding his bad and dark-side from everyone, that only appears when it is necessary. The lighting is used to represent Vito's good nature and the kind side to him. The good nature is him kindly agreeing to fulfil the mans favour, the darkness represents the bad side of him which is him agreeing to killed someone for the man. In the opening scene, the lighting shows the audience a lot about the background of Vito and foreshadows his death at the end of the film.

The use of sound in this scene is very important. When the two men are talking, there is no background noise; the only noise we hear throughout the scene is Vito's cat 'Meowing'. The lack of background noise shows that the conversation is very important and we need to pay close attention to it. The exclusion of background noise also connotes that, when Vito goes to kill the person the other man needs killed, there should be no witnesses so no one finds out about it. Also at the start of the scene, we hear a loud dramatic sound that sounds like a trumpet. This is non-diegetic, as the actors in the scene cannot hear it when it is done, it is just for the audience to hear and it is used as an introduction to the movie, to grab the attention of the audience.

The movie starts with a black screen, there is an absence of light, but hear a man start talking, then the black screen fades in and we get a close-up of the mans face. The use of a close-up camera shot shows the mans emotions when he speaks. This helps to give us an idea of what is going on. The absence of light behind him helps to reinforce the matter at hand and what sort of conversation is going on. As the man continues talking, the camera slowly zooms out, and changes from a close-up to a mid-shot, which is also used as an establishing shot. The mid-shot enables us to see more of the man talking and we get to see his body language while he talks to Vito. We see the establishing shot when the camera zooms out from the close-up and when the camera switches to then angle in the picture above. The use of the establishing shot shows us where the conversation is taking place and everything within the shot. The establishing shot from the other camera is also a long shot, we see Vito Corleone siting in his chair behind his desk, his body language, and we see two other men in the room who we assume are Vito's mob members.

In the opening scene, there is a lot to say about the performance. When we first see Vito and hear him speak, he has a fairly raspy voice and is made to look like a vulnerable old man by Coppola, but in actual fact, despite the fact he is old, he is still very powerful, and we see this when he makes the man kiss his hand as a sign of respect. His body expressions and body language connotes to us that he is a very calm and collected person no matter what is happening. The man he is talking to wants him to kill another man, and Vito is calmly sitting there, playing with his cat while talking to him. Also, when he is talking, he talks very softly and quietly, this could connote to us that he is a very relaxed person, and is very warm and loving.  This is contradicted by his behaviour, as he agrees to kill a person he doesn’t know as a gift to somebody the day of his daughter's wedding. We see Vito has a close link to his family, and thinks family is very important when he says "You come into my house, on the day of my daughter's wedding, and ask me to commit a murder, for money". When he says this he uses hand movements to help show that he is annoyed with the man because of what he sees's as disrespect. The two men talk calmly and respectfully towards each other and as they are not friends before the conversation and are complete strangers but become friends once Vito put his arm around the guy, and tells him he will kill the guy for him as a gift on the day of his daughter's wedding.