I chose Zendaya’s character in “The Greatest Showman” because her purple leotard and pink hair was her signature look when performing her trapeze art on stage, however in other scenes outside of performing, she had her natural dark hair. This shows that she portrays the skilful trapeze artist separately from the character “Anne” when she is herself and not a “freak” on stage. I like this portrayal because even though everyone considers the performers all freaks, it shows that they are still people with personal lives.

I chose Mamma Mia as they used a beautiful (real) place for where Donna lived. The iconic hut on the island made a reappearance in the prequel “Mamma Mia – Here We Go Again” however, they used a different island for the second movie. In Mamma Mia, most of the outdoor scenes were filmed on location at the small Greek island of Skopelos, and the seaside hamlet of Damouchari in the Pelion area of Greece. The film’s main location site in Skopelos was Kastani beach on the south west coast but Mamma Mia 2 was filmed on August 12, 2017 in Croatia, including the island of Vis. In October 2017, the cast gathered at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England, to film song and dance numbers with Cher. 

Opinion on Spike Lee’s viewpoint

Spike Lee’s opinion that you cannot create a film properly when trying to reflect the experience of a certain group – gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, or culture if you are not a part of it is something that I agree with to an extent. This is because you can’t capture the essence of what these groups go through in terms of discrimination and fighting for rights unless you have experienced it yourself. Even if you do extreme research including interviews with people from the groups or witnessing a protest/hateful remarks on these groups yourself; that is an experience of a bystander. Plus, every individual person’s story is different, and so making the mistake of basing an entire movie about a specific group on one person’s experience can set the wrong impression on how it truly is – since it’s different for everyone.

Certain groups such as gender and race, the most commonly known groups to have a movie about since they tend to have large audiences, are the most sensitive. These groups should be created by someone who has personal experience with what it’s like; otherwise the context can be taken out of proportion. Life imitates art, therefore movies have a big impact on how the world works, which is why certain subjects should be carefully presented or else the wrong impression can be made and make matters in the real world worse. Plus a large controversy over the film can build up and it would have a low success rate.

However, some of the best films that approach these topics are created by directors outside of these groups. I believe that certain people can direct these films with high levels of maturity and understanding, that it is not disrespectful to the audience and doesn’t send the wrong message. Plus, hateful audience members such as racists and sexists who know it is directed by a member of the group may claim that it is over-exaggerated and sending a completely wrong message. It is known that an outsider’s perspective is usually more accurate than the insider’s perspective. Therefore a movie about issues that groups of people face, created by someone who observes rather than takes part, could be taken more seriously and gain more respect from particular audiences that aren’t apart of the groups. Plus people in these groups may respect the fact that someone who isn’t struggling understands what they go through despite no personal experiences with it.

So in my opinion, it’s a mistake for someone unbeknownst to the struggles to be the ones to present it to the world, as audiences may treat these movies as a learning experience.  So if the wrong idea is shown in these films, a big breakout may happen and the movie’s success rate will plummet. However, certain directors know how to approach these issues respectfully and maturely. Overall, I believe when using a director who is outside of a group that the movie is trying to reflect, choose wisely and make sure they have researched properly and have high levels of respect for people.

My favourite films are usually within the genres of horror, sci-fi and action. Romance, drama and musicals never really interested me as the plots are usually boring or too predictable to get stuck into. However, a movie in the genre of all three really surprised me to be rather enjoyable and that was “The Greatest Showman”. Although a lot of action and stunts were involved in the movie, which i found really impressive, the plot was also very creative and managed to really draw in an audience. Despite being based around the musical theatre production of Barnum, there was a lot of originality included with the characters and i found this movie highly enjoyable and entertaining. I also think the soundtrack for this movie is one of the best by far.

My favourite performance in the movie was “Rewrite the Stars” performed by actors Zac Efron and Zendaya, as the song was not only catchy but the trapeze art was amazing and the way they both worked together in this scwas absolutely stunning. Many impressive moves were shown specifically by Zendaya and the fact she learned trapeze art specifically for the film made the scene even more impressive and it really makes you appreciate the amount of work and passion that goes into a movie.

The Box office top 10 movie includes: Blank Panther ($700,059,566), Avengers: infinity War ($678,815,482), Incredibles 2 ($605,633,025), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($416,282,080), Deadpool 2 ($318,468,882), Mission: Impossible – Fallout ($216,135,337), Ant-Man and the Wasp ($215,410,791), Solo: A Star Wars Story ($213,765,754), A Quiet Place ($188,024,361), Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation ($165,261,099).

All of these films have the genre of action in common. The movie plots in which there is a villain creating a situation for a hero to solve is involved with the majority of these movies. Another thing in common is that these movies have all been adapted to having sequels and some are even franchises such as Avengers. These types of action movies could be popular due to famous stars being casted, CGI and special effects. Special effects also reduce the price it costs to produce these movies due to the explosions being unreal, whereas movies back in the day would cost fortunes to fake a real explosion. Due to the price costing less to produce the films, it means that highly known actors can be made more for their appearance due to the budget expansion.

Due to most of these films being sequels, or belonging to a franchise, it holds a promise to the fans that they will see more of the plot if they stay interested. Many famous actors are involved in the films such as Chris Pratt: in the Jurassic World movies and Chris Hemsworth who stars in Avengers: Infinity War. These actors are capable of attracting a wider audience.

In conclusion, most successful films have wide view ranges due to multiple factors: Actors drawing in certain audiences, impressive special effects, plots that draw you in and belong to a franchise for the audiences to stay involved.

For lovers of suspenseful and mysterious horror films, I would recommend the movie “The Boy”. There are minimal levels of gore and violence in this film but it is definitely thrilling and leaves you wanting to find out more as the story develops.

The plot is based around a babysitter, Greta, looking for work in a small town in the UK and is hired as a nanny for an elderly couple with a child. When she arrives to their home she is shown who she is to look after: a porcelain doll named Brahms. This doll, treated as a son by the couple, is said to have “rejected” many babysitters previously.

She is given a set of rules such as speaking loudly when reading to Brahms, leaving food out on the table, and setting up rat traps. Greta ignores these rules and does her own routine while looking after the house. Soon, strange things start happening such as Brahms moving locations, a child’s sobs are heard in the hallways, phone calls are cut off, and the doll seems to move on its own, vanishing and reappearing elsewhere in the house. After receiving a phone call in which a child’s voice urges her to follow the rules, she begins to try and treat the doll as a real boy, until Greta’s abusive ex-boyfriend shows up after months of looking for her and smashes the doll.

There is a big plot twist to the story which links to what we find out about the doll: Brahms was a real boy who died in a fire 20 years ago, and the couple replaced him with the doll. The plot twist is incredibly unexpected and it really makes the movie worth watching.

What makes a good film?

A lot of different micro elements are used when it comes to creating a successful film. This includes the editing, the sound, the cinematography. What other elements are involved with making an enjoyable film? Is it that it has a great story? Great characters? Is it that the cinematography is beautiful? Is it that each actor is giving an impeccable performance? Or maybe even the soundtrack to the film. The answer is yes to all of these.

If you take The Greatest Showman, a highly successful musical film, as an example, it includes all the elements needed. The soundtrack is amazingly popular along with the actors who played the characters. Even each of the performances were incredibly impressive.

All of these elements are important in making a great film, but let’s highlight the one thing that I personally think can make or break your movie: storytelling. Cinema is all about storytelling, and pretty much everything you put into your film, dialog, props, lighting, a song, or even an edit, communicates something to your audience. However, one highly important concept that I believe is one of the most important components within a decent movie — and that’s subtext.

Subtext can be used in just about anything in your film, whether it be in the script, the editing, or the cinematography. Essentially, subtext is all about the subtle messages you’re trying to convey to your audience without explicitly coming out and stating them. When you over-explain your complicated scenes, your story begins to feel too heavy and the audience may get bored or lost. Your audience is being told what’s going on instead of being allowed to explore the story and figure it out themselves. Implications are 100% necessary when it comes to films.

In The Greatest Showman, one of the famous scenes shows, rich and well known, Phillip holding hands with, poor and ill-treated “freak”, Anne. Although finally displaying their first ever on-screen affections for each other and developing their obvious chemistry that has been implied since they met, Phillip notices other rich people eyeing and whispering about them being together and immediately let’s go of her hand. These implications are not outright said to the audience but are rather fed to them through sub-text and creates a plot in the story line between Phillip and Anne.

In conclusion, all aspects to make a great movie are all equally as important. However without subtext and story telling, there is no excitement of figuring out what’s happening in comparison to being outright told. Therefore, I’d say subtext and implications is what makes a great movie.

Activity 2

Historically Significant films: Battleship Potemkin, The Seventh Samurai, Fitzcarraldo, Once Upon a Time in the West.

Art Films:  A Bugs Life, the Shape of Water, the Wizard of Oz, Deadpool 2, Submarine, Alphaville, Toy Story.

Mainstream Films: The Breakfast Club, Love Simon, Manhattan.

• Battleship Potemkin: 1925 Soviet silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein.
• The Seventh Samurai: 954 Japanese epicsamurai drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa.
• Fitzcarraldo: 1982 West German adventure-drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog.
• Once Upon a Time in the West: 968 epic Spaghetti Western film co-written and directed by Sergio Leone.
• A Bugs Life: 1998 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by John Lasseter.
• The Shape of Water: 2017 American romantic dark fantasy drama film directed by Guillermo Del Toro.
• The Wizard of Oz: 1939 American musical fantasy film directed primarily by Victor Fleming.
• Deadpool 2: 2018 American Superhero film directed by David Leitch.
• Submarine:  2010 coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Richard Ayoade.
• Alphaville: 1965 French New Wave science fiction noir film directed by Jean-Luc Godard.
• Toy Story: 1995 American computer-animatedbuddy comedy adventure film directed by John Lasseter.
• The Breakfast Club: 1985 American comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by John Hughes.
• Love Simon: 2018 American romantic teen comedy-drama film directed by Greg Berlanti.
• Manhattan: 1979 American romantic comedy film directed by Woody Allen.

Film plays a big role within setting the standards of society as the concept of a popular film eventually becomes reality due to the population who watched it wanting to imitate the admirable characters. The mainstream films tend to be based around common real life situations in order to relate to an audience and gain popularity. Art films are based around fantasy and commonly used as an escape from reality and require large levels of creativity for one to become popular. Historically Significant films are based around real life events that happened years ago. Most historically significant films have been modernised and are known to be inaccurate, as directors try to make the situation more appealing and interesting for the audience. The reason popular films make a big impact on society is because life imitates art, so eventually mainstream and semi-realistic storylines can become reality. This is also why movies with dark and triggering concepts, such as suicide, tend to get a lot of hate despite being popular. Film makers tend to romanticise certain events to make it entertaining for an audience rather than depressing, to increase popularity. Therefore, people worry that these films will influence society as they do.