Comparing American Beauty and Truman show.

Character
similarities

Main male character, who lives for a change in there life. We see there life's change within the film. Both are protagonist.

Meryl and Carlyon are both old fashion house wives who are career obsess and both are materialistic.

The men both have similar jobs and are both the perfect the American dream jobs.

Both searching for something.

Differences

Truman is the only character, Lesters family in American Beauty.

Lester dies, truman gets to carry on with a new life.

Truman postive, Lester negative

Searching for something different.

Setting
similarities.

Both have American suburb hose bright coloures and picket fences. Flowers. Both classed as middle class Americans.

Work in depressive jobs.

Differences

Truman is made to fit American dream Lester is.

Truman has boundaries he cannot escape the studio set.

Controlled society by Christoph

Truman show opening and ending

OPENING
The first person we are introduced to is Christoph, the Creator of "the Truman show". This shows his importance to the film, he look artist, daring and eccentric. Then mini clips of Meryl and Marylon talking about the character within Truman life. Eventually we are shown Truman in his bathroom, through a TV screen to reinforce the idea that he is a TV star. When Truman is outside he house we see it as a perfect American small time place with picket fencing and big houses nicely lit.

Truman world is fake and is in style of a documentary, However Truman is real and he is a cheery character who is blurred in his own world. He represents and American Dream man who works, has a wife and has a nice house and possessions.

ENDING
We see Christoph as a god like figure again he say "I'm a creator..." with a long pause playing on the bible words. Christoph character has change as he is a father figure to Truman he wants to nurture for him in his make belief world. He has genuine affection for Truman. Truman also changes as he has grown up into a real person no more a character.

Christoph ask him to stay but Truman breaks out of the American Dream, which question the American Dream. Is it just freedom that American are searching for rather than Pursuit of Happiness etc.

American Beauty the opening and ending.

OPENING

The American Beauty opening begins with an ariel shot over the town, while zooming in to a certain street. Lester Burnham voice is placed over, like a narrator, to set the scene and the story. The American Beauty tune plays all throughout the opening.
The camera then brings us into the house and a close up of Lester in bed, this communicates that he is the main character. Lester Burnham say "ill be dead this time next year" this is telling the story and we know the ending, so now we will be watching it to see how and why he dies.

A close up of the red rose shows the importance and symbolism of it. The rose shows perfection and reflects the title as a red rose is called "American Beauty". He introduces other characters with a voice over and imagery. His wife, Carolyn Burnham, is shown cutting the roses in her garden. The voice over says that her shoes and gardening gloves are no mistake that they don't match, this sets up her character as we understand that she is in control and likes everything to perfection. Then introduced to the gay neighbours and Carolyn talks to them, while in the background we see Lester in the background peering through the window. Each elements of the opening are foreshadowing events that follow, for example the roses are throughout the film and are there when he dies. Also the gay characters which are bought into later, and Lester peering through reflects Ricki actions. Jane, Lester daughter, is introduced again through Lester's voice over, explaining that she is a typical teenager.

When we see them all walk out of the house we can see the big house, the tidy garden that tells the viewer that they are rich and a family. The house is symmetrical with fresh white walls, with a white picket fences which shows that they own the land and there property. When they are in the car Lester sits in the back show that he has no power within the family. On the surface everything seems to live up the The American Dream, nice house, Mum, Dad and daughter. However the voice over dosent agree with the "perfect" family life. All this scene is lightly lite, like a sunny day.

"Its never to late to get it back" this indicates that the introduction is now finished and the film will now begin. We will be following Lester in his fight "to get it back".

ENDING

In comparsionto the beginning the the lighting is very dark lit and light is just on characters face etc. When we see Lester and and Angela in the kitchen agian the lightening is dark and filmed in mid-shots. Angela asked Lester "how are you" where Lester replies " im great". This completes the beginning and we can see the journey he has been through the film and he has achieved his goal. He reminises while looking at a old photo of his family and sit down in front of the roses. This shot is like dominos where it is the gun /Lester Burnham /photo of family /the roses, shown throughout the film/ the camera then pans to white tiles , once the gun shots blood then goes on the wall. Although the audience know that he is going to die it is still a shock and sad has we know he has reached his goals and just when he is enjoying life he dies.

Like the beginning of the film there a voice over we return back to the Lester Voice. While we see where every character was when the shot went off. In between is a montage of old memories Lester is having. He realises that his life was good when they didnt have everything and how luckly he was to have a wife and Jane. The last scene, the ariel shot, he says "someday you will" then a black screen. Personally i think its a bit scary and depressing but it makes you reflect on the film and question your own life.

Truman show.

The Truman show and the American dream.
To me it represents the American dream by having Truman in this perfect aspirational life, where he has a wife a good job etc. However the ending shows that it dosent bring happiness and is not always "perfect" as truman breaks out of the life of the American Dream.



Truman Burbank



Chosen out of five unwanted pregnancies and the first child to be legally adopted by a corporotaion. He is unaware that his daily life is broadcast 24-hours-a-day around the world. He has a job in insurance business and a lovely wife, but eventually notices the environment is not what it seems to be.. His parents, his bestfriend Marlon (Noah Emmerich), and even his wife Meryl (Laura Linney) are all actors.





Meryl Burbank

Truman's "wife", who holds a profession as a nurse at the local hospital. Since the show relies on product replacement for revenue, Meryl regularly shows off various items she has recently "purchased," one of the many occurrences that makes Truman curious about his life. Her role is essentially to act the part of Truman's wife and ultimately to have a child by him, despite her reluctance to accomplish either. Linney explained that, "she was a child actress who never made it, and now she's really ambitious. Mostly she's into negotiating her contract. Every time she sleeps with Truman she gets an extra $10,000".Linney heavily studied from the 1950s to develop her character's poses.

Marlon

Truman's best friend since early childhood. Marlon is a vending machine operator for the company Goodies, who promises Truman he would never lie to him, despite the latest events in Truman's life. Emmerich has said "My character is in a lot of pain. He feels really guilty about deceiving Truman. He's had a serious drug addiction for many years. Been in and out of rehab"

Truman Mother and father

Truman's mother. Christof orders that she attempt to convince Truman to have children.

An actor who portrays Truman's father. When Truman was a boy, his character on the show was killed off to instill a fear of water in his son that would prevent Truman from leaving the set; however, he sneaks back into the show when Truman is an adult, whereupon the writers are forced to write a plot in which Kirk had not drowned, but had suffered from amnesia.

American Beauty

Director : Sam Mendes
- Mendes was a 33 year old "rookie" director and the studio was taking a risk. Still, Speilberg was a powerful ally.

Writer: Alan Ball
- He was unsure with the post modern film that he had written with the implosion of "The American Dream" and the middle class disfunctional family. However everyone was taken waway by the script and dreamwork says "The script met the company's goas for producion a challenging film.

Dreamworks
Put up the 15 million dollar budget and the film was almost pulled serval times. In comparision to the 200 million dollars for the blockbuster "Gladiator" released in the US a year later.
It is a modest film with no special effect just the setting of a normal glossy lifestyle , but obviously it is not what it looks.
DreamWorks, LLC, also known as DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks SKG or DreamWorks Studios, is a major American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games, and television programming. It has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses totalling more than $100 million each. Its most successful title to date is Shrek 2.[1].
The sales was 350 million world wide including the UK.

Characters

Lester

Lester in a depressive man, who wakes up one day and releases what he had become and rebels against the conventional American man ideal.

American Dream and The Pursuit of Happyness.

http://wbai.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9437&Itemid=2

While looking at the film on the internet i came across the review which is about the american dream with The Pursuit of Happyness. I found it really interesting on his take of a black poor man becoming a success.

"I met my father for the first time when I was 28 years old. When I had children, my children were going to know who their father was."

"Don't ever let somebody tell you you can't do something. Not even me. All right? You got a dream? You gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they want to tell you you can't do it. You want something, go get it. "

The Pursuit of Happyness also presents the American Dream as an achievable reality. It begins when Chris asks a Dean Witter broker (who he sees getting out of a bright-red Ferrari) what's needed to do the job. The answer he gets back is this: "You've got to be good with numbers and good with people." Chris believes he has those skills and aggressively pursues executives at Dean Witter once he discovers internships are available. As you can see from the quotes above they are the advice he gives to his son, they a centraly about family and believing all in youself.

When watching the film the first feeling i got was an American Raising aspiration film. Everthing has a warmly glow to it ( including the film poster), you have a great suspiction that you know that everything is going to work out well. Anyone cannot watch The Pursuit Of Happyness and try and deny that it hasnt got anything to do with American dream as even the title is to one of the rights to an American.

However going back to the article, which i attached at the beginning of the post. Ok im not totally in agreement with it however seeing that view it made me think more on the characters within the film.

"Black and poor, to dwell in the white man's stock market heaven."

That is completely true, Chris is the only black guy to even be in the stockmarket office, or even outside of where he lives. The only time you see another black guy in the film is Chris friends who own a shop in the glumest place. This surprises me because now days in film, television etc are so careful to be poltical correct and make sure that even within a shot at a school playground there are different ethnic groups to not offend anyone.

But this is my view in the 21st century and now looking at the film i realised it it following a real life story set in the 1980s so i suppose things were different then, and maybe the best jobs did go to white men. Imagine if it was set now it would be completely different, or even a few years time once Barack Obama have been in power for a while?

Anyway that was a bit side tracked, The Pursuit of Happyness is a light warming film that is great to show the American Dream actually works.

Case study - Dark Knight

http://www.edmontonsun.com/Entertainment/MovieNews/2009/02/22/8482021-sun.html

Sucess in oscars and other film awards shows ^^^.

Basic film information.

Runtime: 2 hrs 33 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:Jul 18, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $533,184,219

http://www.mymovies.net/news/news_item.asp?s=1&n=6&filmid=5580&nid=5148

As you can see from this article it was a massive hit from the first weekend, outselling all other films. Personally i think it could do with the death of Heath Ledger which made people want to see his last film, admittly thats why i went. However when i sat down in the cinema and watched my first batman film i was impressed with it and it was all what i expected with the effects and the creation of the gothom town.

Continuing case study on The Dark Knight

Warner Brothers( as i said previously) are one of the oldest running film companies. Harry , Sam, Jack, Albert Warner started producing films in World War 1 and in 1918 they opened Warner Bros, in the a studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack Warner produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert Warner were in control of fiance and distribution.

The first important deal for the company was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwood's 1919 Broadway play.

"Warner Bros turned more realistic and gritty story lines, and was said to glorify gangsters and became the "gangster studio".



Warner's cartoon unit had its roots in the independent Harman and Ising studio. From 1930 to 1933, Disney alumni Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising produced a series of musical cartoons for Leon Schlesinger, who sold the shorts to Warner. Harman and Ising introduced their character Bosko in the first Looney Tunes cartoon, Sinkin' in the Bathtub, and created a sister series, Merrie Melodies, in 1931.[103]"

Warner Bros successful films

Selena
Looney Tunes
Superman
Lethal Weapon
Ocean's Eleven
The Matrix Series
Polica Academy
Gremlins
The Wizard of Oz
The Butterfly Effect


"Bought to you by Warner Brothers"

Warner Brothers have adapted the way of life, with there own website...
http://www.warnerbros.co.uk/web/main/movies/movies.jsp?frompage=wb_homepage_uk

Allowing all there films to be in one online shop so you can be spoilt for choice on the amount of films they have produced.

Also they have immersed themselves merchandise for films, including Warner bros logo on tops etc. and toys, games that are connected with certain films.
http://www.wbshop.com/

American Dream and Hollywood

American Dream, what is it?

- Pride

- success

- work hard

- free choice

- freedom

- happiness


"The phrase's meaning has evolved over the course of American history. The Founding Fathers used the phrase, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." it began as the opportunity to achieve greater material prosperity than was possible in their countries of origin. For others it is the opportunity for their children to grow up and receive an education and its consequent career opportunities. It is the opportunity to make individual choices without the restrictions of

Is the American Dream reality now?

Of course Barack Obama becoming president on the United States is a major step forward for Americans, being the first black president shows how far America has moved on since the days of Martin Luther King.

However isn't it about greed?, when i watch American TV programmes like The Hills, where it is meant to be real life teenagers living there lives, to be happy it seems to have loads of money big houses and want they want they get, so is this the American Dream? Americans also seem to have the reputation of being over the top and having to be the best, which i suppose is pride in their country but can also be portrayed as greed and show offs.

OK, so i have talked about the basics of America Dream, but how is the American Dream presented in Hollywood films?

Films are great way of showing the American Dream to the world and it is not completely forced upon and learn about it while being entertained. Films like Forest Gump, where a message that even of your are not the most capable if you try your hardest you can succed in life, Also a stable family can lead to a better future.

Another two films are Of Mice and Men, which was originally a book by John Steinbeck and has been made into a film a few times. This follows to men living in America trying to make themselves a better life, by having the dream to work together on the own land and "live of the fatta the land".

Pursuit of Happiness, with Will Smith, is a really good example of the American Dream. Mainly because "Pursuit of Happiness" is part of the saying of the American dream. It is about "Chris Gardner has big dreams for him and his family but it doesn't seem to come together for him. Chris has an opportunity to be a stock broker but first he has to go through a grueling internship which means no pay. Chris decides to do it but when his wife leaves and he is evicted, he has to take care of his son on his own. So they find themselves sometimes living on the street and struggling to get by. But Chris is determined to make it."

Why so serious?

Ok, well the film I'm going to do a case study on is The Dark Knight. A lot of advertisement, tag lines and images were created to intise the viewers to go and watch The Dark Knight and just in the beginning of this blog entry and i have shown two. However the time and work to create a massive campaign paid of as since been released on the 24th July 2008, has been nomanitated for 8 Oscars and another 21 wins & 37 nominations.

Lets get to the facts on the film.

"Welcome to a world without rules."


Director : Christopher Nolan
Writers : Johathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer

Who is Christopher Nolan?
Born in England Chris began making films at the age of seven using his dad camera. He graduated to making films involving real people. Other films in which he was involved are Batman Begins (2005), Memento (2000) and Doodlebug (1997)

Who is Johnathan Nolan?
Born in London and attended Lyola Academy in Wilmette where he graduated in 1994. Apart from The Dark Knight he was also involved in Memento (2000), The Prestige (2006) and is in post production in Terminator Salvation.

So what actors did the writers want, to make their story to come to life?


( below a few character profiles i made with basic information)




Actor : Heath Ledger
Character : The Joker
Outline of Character: The Joker is not insane - he is just too clever for his own good. He gets bored so easily, and therefore makes a sport out of duelling with Batman.


Actor: Christian Bale
Character : Bruce Wayne/ Batman
Character Outline: Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent are forced to deal with the chaos unleashed by an anarchist mastermind known only as the Joker, as it drives each of them to their limits


Actor : Maggie Gyllenhaal
Character : Racheal Dawes
Character outline: In "The Dark Knight", she is now working for DA Harvey Dent. She is a relationship with Dent as well, much to Bruce's dismay. She is eventually tied up in a warehouse full of explosive oil and is killed in an explosion.



Actor : Micheal Caine
Character: Alfred Pennyworth
Character outline: Alfred Pennyworth is the faithful butler to multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne aka The Batman



Actor: Aaron Eckhart
Character: Harvey Dent/ Two-Face
Character outine: Once a high-profile District Attorney for Gotham City, Harvey Dent was horribly disfigured by an attack



Actor : Morgan Freeman
Character : Lucius Fox
Character outline: The man who essentially runs Wayne Enterprises for his employer Bruce Wayne

Actor: Gary Oldman

Character : James Gordan

Character outline: James Gordon is a police lieutenant in the Gotham City Police Department. He has become a friend and ally to the Batman.

Warner Bros...

...is the largest producers of film and entertainment. It was founded in 1918 by Jewish immigrant from Polond. It is the third oldest American movie studio.

Legendary Pictures






Is one of the companies to help produce The Dark Knight. Legendary Pictures is an American motion picture production company based in california. The company is in agreement with to co-produce and co-finace with Warner Bros. Their first full length feature film with Warner Bros was the comic book movie Batman begins, so they have know how in batman film and the comic style to help with The Dark Knight.

Is a film in Hollywood purely a commercial commodity?

Everyone has seen a Hollywood movie and as soon as someone says Hollywood you associate it with huge stars, over the top finale , but have you ever thought of the money it makes or how much it cost.?

After watching a documentary on Hollywood it made me realise the process and the money that goes into a single Hollywood movie , in order to call a Hollywood movie to be successful it has to bring in over 300 million!

A movie first starts with a story, the creators have to sell a good quality pitch to get the money for the writers to come up with a script. 50% of Hollywood movies story lines comes from books and cartoon, this gives more of a chance of success because there is a ready made audience. Shrek is a great example of a hidden book from the library turned into a Hollywood top box office movie. Choosing a story book to base the film it gives the producers a high percentage that it will be a success. Knowing that a good Hollywood films are out numbered by the amount have failed causes the producers not to dare outside the box. With so much money riding on one film they stick to the conventions of a Hollywood film that they know will work. The creators of fight club did dare to go out the box however it was slated that it wasn’t a “Hollywood film” and was very controversial, but isn’t it better to make something different to shock the audience? Well in this case the audience didn’t take to the idea and Fight Club didn’t make a lot of money, however over time I think Fight Club has become more successful.

Actors, they are mainly what persuade a person to a film, and Hollywood films are full of the hottest stars that are out at the time. Many films will get the go ahead if they know that top Actors are in on the film. However new stars will sometimes appear in movies, which will catapult them to success just because they starred in a Hollywood movie, “spotting tomorrow stars for today is part of Hollywood” a quote from the documentary.

Hollywood films no doubt make good quality films, and by the rating they are loved by the public. We can rely on Hollywood to have the actors, gripping story lines and explosions. Also we can all relate in having watched a big Hollywood film. It causes discussion, and appear on shows like “the top 50 film you should see before you die”. So all that hard work does pay off.

In answer to the question I honesty think that Hollywood films are commercial commodity, success is rated on money not on the real, gritty truth of society that British low budget films gives to a film. The money poured into this films to create supposedly world we are living ,but how rarely does something explode in real life and ends too perfect with the triumph music over top? £300 million! Just for it to pass just over the bar of success, it seems they a playing around with massive amount of money putting all the CGI’s effects , just to make a film we have sort of seen before. Too much money causes too much failure, in Hollywood failure and success are millimetres away from each other.