Case Study: Child's Play

Institutional information: Child's Play is a horror movie that was directed by Tom Holland in 1988. Child's Play was one of the first movies to be released from MGM/UA because the rights for the series were sold to Universal Studios in 1990. Child's Play was filmed in Chicago and was produced on a budget of $9,000,000. It was released to 1377 cinemas on November 9th 1988. On box office the film grossed to $33,244,684 and gained a worldwide total of $44,196,684.
The film was revolved around a rumor that it was based on a real life doll called 'My Buddy doll' but AMC claimed that the creator modeled the doll of the Cabbage Patch Kid. In addition the name 'Charles Lee Ray' was made from real life serial killers for example Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray.
A lot of controversy was revolving around this movie. A moral Panic was created due to the fact that a protest from a large crowd was happening in front of MGM because they believed the film would incite violence amongst children. Child's play was a start to a series and a franchise. Child's Play 3 was told that it encouraged two murders of James Bulger and Suzanne Capper. Gang leaders forced Suzanne to listen to recordings of 'I'm Chucky wanna play?'. The killers of Suzanne were affected by the Media affect. Another Moral panic revolved around this film which people believed that the Chucky doll was hiding in their bathroom and was getting ready to kill them, this moral panic affected children at the age of 5 to 6 years.


Narrative: The plot of Child's Play is that a voodoo serial killer called Charles Lee Ray possesses a 'Good Guy doll' also known as a Chucky doll by transferring his soul while being in a police shootout. A child called Andy buys the doll and Charles Lee Ray tries to transfer his soul into the little boy called Andy during this process of trying to catch Andy, the doll killed and ferociously harmed a lot of civilians. He has had small encounters with Andy and Andy tries to tell people who are aound him that a doll is trying to kill him but no one believes him and decides to put him in a mental institution.

Audience: Certificate 18. However a lot children under 10 have watched it at the time it first came out. The socio economic group is E-C which includes unemployed, prisoners and students, they will by interested in this because it gives them excitement plus prisoners may be more intrigued due to the fact that it involves some sort of crime.


Genre: Horror movie

Controversy: A lot of controversy was revolving around this movie. A moral Panic was created due to the fact that a protest from a large crowd was happening in front of MGM because they believed the film would incite violence amongst children. Child's play was a start to a series and a franchise. Child's Play 3 was told that it encouraged two murders of James Bulger and Suzanne Capper. Gang leaders forced Suzanne to listen to recordings of 'I'm Chucky wanna play?'. The killers of Suzanne were affected by the Media affect. Another Moral panic revolved around this film which people believed that the Chucky doll was hiding in their bathroom and was getting ready to kill them, this moral panic affected children at the age of 5 to 6 years.

Case Study: The Woman in Black

Institutional research

Name: The Woman in Black
Genre: Dram, Horror, Thriller
Director: James Goldman
Release: 3 February 2012
Production Company: Hammer Film
Produced by: Richard Jackson, Simon Oaks, Brian Oliver
Distributor: Momentum Pictures (United Kingdom), CBS Films (United States), Alliance Films (Canada)
Star Marketing: Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán Hinds, Janet McTeer, Sophie Stuckey and Liz White
Budget: $17,000,000
Box Office: $127,730,736.

Plot Summary
The plot is based of London solicitor Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is sent to a village to review the personal papers of the deceased Mrs. Drablow. Authur Kipps has had a troubling past grieving over his wife who died giving birth. While working at Marsh manor he soon learns that the house is haunted by the Woman in black and whenever she appears, a child from the village dies.




          

Audience
This film contains strong graphic images even with the age rating for 12A/PG-13. I feel this leaners to a more elder age such as 15+ not only due to its contents but for those who would likely have read the book. I also feel this will lean towards a social economic group of the C1 to E categories mainly because of its sophisticated themes along being based os a book and there star marketing of Daniel Radcliff bring old and young fans.

Genre
As a horror thriller there needs to tension and fear which is key to success and defines its genre. Within the film they include frightening and disturbing images which is the main reason it gained its certificate.

Representation
Throughout the movie includes realistic characters with a realistic plot but includes a hyper-real situation with the antagonist.

Certificate
For a more profitable rating, the movie had 3 scenes with a total length of 14 seconds cut in the UK to get the BBFC 12A rating.
This film did not include any major sex, profanity or Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking however the certificate was given due to their violence towards several children deaths. Furthermore there were frightening and disturbing images which is the main reason it gained its certificate.
The Woman in Black gained mixed reviews from critics gaining 3/5 from Rottentomatoes.

Case Study: Orphan

Orphan is a 2009 American psychological horror/thriller film and directed by Jaume Collect-Serra.


Summary:
The film centers around a husband and wife who has recently lost their baby who adopted a 9 year old Russian girl, Esther, at the St. Marina Orphanage, they immediately fall in love with the well-educated orphan. Their young son, Daniel, is hostile to his new sister; but their deaf daughter, little Max, is enchanted with her - at first. Eventually, Kate begins to feel that Esther is manipulative and possibly even psychologically disturbed. John refuses to listen to his wife's misgivings, and the wounds in their marriage reopen. Kate calls Sister Abigail at the orphanage, and the nun informs her that Esther has a troubled and mysterious history. Kate delves further into Esther's past and discovers she is not all she pretends to be. (wikipedia.com) 

Institutional Information: 
Orphan had a budget of 20 million. On opening weekend it peaked at £570,146 and grossing over £41, 573, 740 being a box office success. It was produced by Joel Sliver, Susan Downey, Jennifer Davisson Killoran and Leonardo DiCaprio. Having a celebrity as one of the producers brings pulling power, and more star marketing which is good for the movie because he has an established audience. Warner Brothers was the production company, and it was released in 2009 with a c
ertificate of 15. (www.imdb.com)   


Structure:
Orphan follows the five act structure, with an open ending (we do see her die but we don't see a body so its left with the possibility of a squeal). In my opinion Orphan is a unconventional horror movie but with some conventional aspects for example: the mise - en - scene in the film is very typical for example: the isolated house, the dark forest and scary lake. This is the traditional setting for a scary movie, also having the child being the villain or evil has been done before in previous films e.g.  children of the corn, the ring and the omen.  Children, being the villains in horror movies are a popular choice because they are pure and innocent . However, they had some alternative challenging points from the narrative e.g - Finding her at an orphanage (which did spark some negative reviews) this is not typically done. That being said the concept of the narrative was slightly hyper real.  

Controversy:  
The movie 'Orphan' was due to come out in July but before that their marketing campaign had got a lot of back clash from the adoption community. The internet was filled with outrage because it gave a negative view of adults wanting to adopt a child. People commented underneath the article Particularly offensive, say advocate: "It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own."> Click Here To Read Article  .Warner Brothers company spokesman apologized saying 'We made a mistake', - which is very rare.

Audience: 
Orphan appeals to a global audience. I would say that the target audience would be 15 and 25 so a range between late teens to young adults.  And a social - economic group of people within C2 and E (middle and working class).
I feel that the audience would be an active consumer because people did leave comments and did react to the trailer because they thought that things where inappropriate. 
The audience could be classed in the psycho - graphic group of  'mainstreamers' because 'Orphan' does follow the conventional horror/thriller formula of films.

Why We Picked Our Genre

My group and I decided to pick horror for our genre due to the fact that we had many films we are fund of that is included in that genre. For example the Child's Play series, Amityville Horror, Women in Black, and Insidious. We had a discussion on why we like these films which that we love the story lines because they are intense, intriguing, and scary.
So we did a brainstorm so we can share our movie ideas. Although there was more non horror movies we still wanted to do horror due to the horror having excitement through the story lines and the affectness we can create with the software we have on the computer.

Choosing Our Genre: Horror

Our group chose to do Horror as our genre, we realized that as a group we all liked different type of movie genres: comedy, action, thrillers etc. but we all agreed that collectively we all enjoyed watching horror films from the classics: The Shining (1980), The Exorcist (1973) and Child's Play (1988) right to the new contemporary ones Insidious (2010) and Annabelle (2014). So we all related to the different types of movies.

Also we agreed that  Horror would be most fun to shot in terms of the technical and symbolic codes. We can also play around with the lights and special effects  making it look realistic and more scary for the audiences watching our trailer . We also like the conventions of the typical Horror movies for example the common iconography: blood, dark lights, the secluded area we thought that theses aspects would be very interesting to play around with and make for our own to get the sense of fear in our trailer.

With choosing we can also play around with filming and the narrative. Its not restricting as another genre would be, we almost have no boundaries when doing anything. This gives us a chance to be more creative and put our spin on it working with the mise - en - scene etc. We going to have a lot of fun working with this genre. 

Introduction: Jamul Wilson

Hi my name is Jamul Wilson

I've been studying Sociology, Media and Product Design in AS and continuing with it for A2. In addition I have made a film awareness with my group which was for the BCCS about children who are in trouble such as bullying, have family issues or common struggles while they are on the streets. I was able to start using MAGIX movie editing and enhanced my knowledge and skills on this platform. 

Through my AS Media I have made a magazine cover promoting the music genre Hip-Hop/Rap, through the process of constructing this magazine I was able to develop skills within computer software such as ADOBE CS4 InDesign and Photoshop. This will come in had for A2 when my group and I are designing a poster to promote our film. If you want to you can see my work on the blog. http://jaywilson1996.blogspot.co.uk/

My sociological theories about media itself can relate to the production of our movie for example moral panic from Stanley Cohen as well as the stereotypes about age, ethnicity, disability, social class, nationality, and religion. These stereotypes can be used during our movie so that the protagonist and the antagonist can relate more to their age, ethnic identity, social class or nationality. 

Through A2 I'm going to working with my group to make a film for Crystal Peak productions and all the knowledge that I have achieved through out MAGIX movie editing, Adobe InDesign and Photoshop will be applied to come out with a positive outcome.
Thank You for reading Jamul Wilson 

Introduction: Rory D. Felix

Greetings, I'm Rory Felix and i'm one of the three members of Crystal Peak Productions. I've done media AS and previously done a BTEC in Yr10-Yr11. Media is something I enjoyed and feel I do relatively well in which was the main reason I continued into AS and A2. I have also used Photoshop, MAGIX Movie edit,  Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects which I feel I can contribute my knowledge of these towards my group.

In my younger years during BTEC we had to make a trailer/teaser which is similar towards A2 however this requires more detail. Since I've done something familiar towards this task I feel more confident and able to support my team even more.

During AS we made a blog and a music magazine cover, contents and double page spread of a genre of our choice. This required Photoshop and the use of Blogger which are skills that will come in handy.

Furthermore not to long ago we done a film awareness for the BCCS charity. This required us to arrange a cast for filming and edit our footage on MAGIX Movie edit. This was also a group task and coincidentally I was working with the same group in Crystal Peak Productions.

I thank you for reading about myself and I hope you check out my team along with the content we post.

Here is a link towards my AS Blog post:
http://roryproductions.blogspot.co.uk/

The BCCS Film awareness:
.........

Introduction: Danielle Edwards

My name is Danielle Edwards I am a Media student. I really enjoy studying and learning about media for the past year.

In the summer I participated in a cinematography class at 'Ravensbourne' where I worked with real 'Hollywood' movie cameras where I used and learned new camera techniques to help with movement, angles and lighting. And at the end showcasing my work to my peers. I also took part in making a charity video for the BCCS where I took part in  highlighting the victims of fear, bullying and neglect. It was really fun working with the editing of the production bringing it all together. It was also nice knowing that this video could help someone in the future who could be going through the same thing. 

Last year for AS, I created a Hip Hop magazine for my coursework I did everything myself from the  photo shoot to the evaluation click here to see my blog - here's the link to my last year magazine. I think I have come a long way last year, with my skills of camera work and with Adobe Photoshop so I think this year I will do much better when it comes to making my trailer and poster. 

In drama I also use my Media skills to help create leaflets and posters for the plays we preform for example: 'when the rain stops falling' and 'the machinal' I also help with the lighting and the sound tracks being played in the background . Also doing drama helps my media skills because I get to put my skills to work outside of the classroom when doing different activities.