The Razzies

This past weekend marked the thirty-second year of The Golden Raspberry Awards also known as The Razzies. The Razzies are a faux award show honoring the worst in film and cinema. For the first time in history one movie has swept the Razzies, winning every award of the night. That movie is Adam Sandler’s Jack And Jill. Adam Sandler also acquired a new record of being the first person to win both the worst male and female role in a film. Rounding out the winnings was Al Pacino winning worst supporting actor, playing himself. Adam Sandler being a co-writer received the award for worst screenplay. Of course the movie also took top honors of the night receiving the award for worst movie of the year.

The reason why Jack And Jill is such an extraordinary movie is due to its reception. Despite the fact that according to The Razzies was the worst film of the year, it did extremely well in theaters. Jack And Jill raked in 74.2 million dollars beating out The Artist which only received 43 million; one small difference is that The artist won 5 Oscars.

Here is a list of some other movies earnings this same year.

Jack And Jill- $74,158,157

The Artist- $43,037,870

The Ides of March- $40,962,534

50/50- $39,187,783

Drive- $35,054,909

It seems that audiences are growing more stagnant with their movie decisions. The common audience wants to see something that they know they are going to like, in this case an Adam Sandler comedy. Audiences are much less willing to invest their ten dollar admission on a movie they are not too sure if they will like. Due to audiences wanting more of the same Hollywood producers will make more of the same movies just to turn around a quick buck instead of striving for something new like 50/50 or Drive.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/02/adam-sandler-razzies-record-sweep_n_1395609.html

Viral

Movies today need something more than just a good storyline to make it in the industry. There is such a big market for movies that they must do something in order to stand out. Some movies decide to come out with viral campaigns in order to boost awareness of their movie. In today’s age of internet and computers a viral campaign is a great way to get the masses excited about a film. The first movie to come out with an elaborate viral campaign was Cloverfield. They decided to create websites and myspace pages for the companies and the main characters of the film. They updated the websites and the myspace pages the day leading up to the movie/monster attack. This type of marketing proved extremely effective. I for one went to go see the movie mainly because of the viral campaign.

The new Spiderman movie coming out decided to use a viral campaign as well. In six cities in the U.S. they scattered backpacks at certain coordinates at certain times. A handful of people discovered these backpacks, turns out they belonged to the films antagonist Peter Parker. The backpacks contained physics texts books, photography gear, and clues to the next event in the viral campaign. The clues turned to a website which revealed new coordinates at a predestined time. People raced to the next clue. It turns out it was people dressed in a Spiderman sweatshirt instructing people to graffiti a stencil of Spiderman’s logo. (All of this graffiti was done legally.) The contestants were then sent home with a Spiderman sweatshirt and a great experience. As of right now no one knows if they will continue with the viral campaign, but with a movie that does not come out for at least six months I can guarantee you that we will see more of this campaign and more like it.

Viral campaigns are a great way to get fans excited in future films. It seems that more and more films are involving their fans with viral campaigns.

The Future of Media

This past week apple released a new app where you can watch all of the latest trailers. It is called Itunes Movie Trailers. You can watch all of the latest trailers on your Iphone, Ipod, or Ipad. Companies are starting to bring more and more entertainment to the palms of your hands. A few months ago HBO unveiled HBO Go. Using their app you could watch all of your HBO programming from your mobile device. This allows you to keep up with your favorite shows while waiting for the bus or even at work. Just recently Showtime debuted an app that is very similar to HBO’s app; allowing you to keep up on your favorite Showtime shows anywhere you want.

This is an obvious sign of the future. Consumers want to be burdened with having to be in their house watching TV at an exact time every week just to keep up with their shows. People are on the go constantly, they want to consume their media on the go as well. Ever since I got an Iphone I have been using that to check the news much more than my computer. Just look at Netflix for instance. Ever since they incorporated streaming video to their service Netflix has increased revenue substantially. It is obvious that people like to watch their media when and where they want. They are tired of cable television; on demand was the original game changer. It gave the ability to be able to watch certain movies and television shows. Other companies have begun to realize all of this. Boxee is a great example, they stream movies and television shows right to your television through an external box on your shelf. Even Apple has a stake in streaming media with the Apple TV. I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for streaming media.

http://www.firstshowing.net/2011/apple-debuts-a-must-download-new-movie-trailer-app-on-ios-devices/
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/the-future-of-streaming-video.html/
http://gigaom.com/video/netflix-the-future-is-streaming/

The Decline and Rise of Hollywood

It seems that Hollywood is in a major decline these days. Looking at the numbers, it says the exact opposite but, originality wise Hollywood hasn’t just jumped the shark; they jumped the shark then used an old refrigerator to escape a nuclear blast. (It kind of makes sense; all of the nuclear fallout has affected their brains. Just look at the major blockbusters for this summer alone. Scream 4, Thor, Pirates of The Caribbean, The Hangover 2, Kung Fu Panda, Fast Five, Green Lantern, Cars 2, Transformers 3, Harry Potter, Captain America, Cowboys and Aliens, X-Men, Super 8, Rise of The Planet of The Apes, Conan The Barbarian, Final Destination 5, the list goes on and on. That is nine sequels, one prequel, five comic book adaptations, a reboot, and Super 8. (Thank you J.J. Abrams for giving us some kind of original content in the summer.) Hollywood is failing us right now. It is mostly because no one wants to take the risk of coming up with something new and losing money. Just looks at last summer with Inception. No one wanted to put money into it because they thought no one would be interested in watching it, it is obvious that the higher ups in Hollywood have no concern if a movie is original and good at all, they only care if a movie is profitable or not. That is why everything is a reboot, sequel, or adaptation. They figure people are already comfortable with the things they know.

I am very happy to see comic con this year the reason is that there is plenty of original content to go around this year. Let’s start off with a new alien invasion movie called The Darkest Hour starring Emile Hirsch. Apparently they are going to be using a type of alien invasion that has never been seen before. Up next is the Adventures of TinTin, all that is known about it is that it is directed by Spielberg and animated. Finally that brings us to Prometheus. No footage has been seen apart from a few screenshots, but nerds are already wetting their pants. It is supposed to be Alien mixed with 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is directed by the man who brought us Blade Runner and my personal favorite movie True Romance so you know it is going to be good.

Everything is completely ridiculous when it come to comic books and super heroes. From the storylines to the court cases that ensue the entire industry is bonkers. It gets even more bizarre now and within the upcoming few years. This storyline starts in 1938 when Superman first appeared in Action Comics issue number 1. Sometime after Superman was put under the DC entertainment label. Due to that in 2013 parts of Superman will be going to their respected parties. The original creators of Superman Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster will get parts of Superman such as his blue leotard, red cape and boots, and the ability to leap tall building in a single bound. DC will retain the rights to things such as villains like Lex Luthor and Superman’s ability to fly.

The thing that makes this crazy is that a brand new Superman movie is coming out. Warner brothers is hoping what Christopher Nolan did for Batman the same will happen to Superman. None of these rulings will affect the upcoming movie. What it will affect is any movie after that. Lets say the upcoming movie does not do too well, they will make a reboot. The thing that no one knows how will turn out is another origin story. If it is made with DC major parts of the story will not be able to make an appearance.

Sources
http://www.slashfilm.com/legal-red-tape-sever-superman-2013/
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118037679?categoryid=13&cs=1&cmpid=RSS|News|FilmNews
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/hollywood-heist-how-a-burglary-192768?page=2

The future of films

Just Recently James Camng eron sat down for some interviews and discussed the future of film making. After creating Avatar in 3D James Cameron explains that the next big breakthrough technology for cinema is fps. Fps stands for frames per second. It is how many frames are advanced In one second. The naked eye captures 24 frames per second that is why it was set as the standard for filming. Though, humans can tell the difference between 24 fps and 48 fps. The normal person would not be able to tell it would just make all movements on the screen look smoother than they did before. It will also make any slow motion shots seem more natural and life like. “When you author and project a movie at 48 or 60, it becomes a different movie,” he said. “The 3D shows you a window into reality; the higher frame rate takes the glass out of the window.” The only problem is that no theatre has the technology to actually play movies that were shot at 48 fps. James Cameron believes that the projectors that are used to project 3D would only need a software upgrade in order to project films at 48 frames per second.

Sex sells, sometimes

Sex sells there is no doubt about that, but sometimes it hurts a project rather than actually helping it. A great case of this is Miley Cyrus. The second those Vanity Fair pictures came out she was told by millions of people including her own advisors that the pictures were too racy for her Disney image. That has happened to countless young stars. Any young celebrity that is trying to get an audience with pre teens is subject to this. To keep their fans they have to have a squeaky clean image even though they are growing up and out of that stage.

The most recent case of this is with the new Wonder Woman. When it was released over a year ago that they would be making a Wonder Woman television show, fans and feminist groups were very excited to hear the news. Most people were happy that they were just finally doing something with the character. When they released the first images it was an entirely different story. People from all walks of life complained about the outfit of the new Wonder Woman. She is a super hero not a stripper seemed like the biggest concern facing the new television show.

The picture to the left is an early version of the costume. The picture came out months before general production even began, and good thing it did. First everyone complained that the costume was way too shiny. I know she could deflect anything with her bracelets, but just looking at her in the sun is enough to subdue any criminal. Many people say that the outfit looked more like a costume you would fins at a Halloween store. Another major concern was that she is supposedly fighting crime in that outfit. In the real world a normal person would have to stop every five seconds and adjust just so that there is not a wardrobe malfunction. If you look at the picture n the right, which is the revised version of the outfit you will see that she isn’t even wearing lipstick anymore.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Is sex hurting the industry or helping it