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.