Followers

Tuesday 16 October 2012


Is it possible for British films to compete with four quadrant US blockbuster?

Kick Ass;

The film Kiss Ass, had a low budget to make the film on, however it didn’t use low costing equipment to make the film e.g. filming equipment, set etc. The film is based on the comics of Marvel Comics, which is written by Mark Millar. There’s a very big difference between the actual film Kiss Ass and the comics Kiss Ass.
The director, Vaughan raised $30 million himself outside of the film industry, to help with the budget and costing of the film. Sony distributed the film. The film was actually filmed and made in London, however its set in Manhattan. They didn’t just film in London, to save money from the budget, as filming gunfire and fight sequences in Manhattan could be quite problematic, so they built a set at Elstree Studios which an enormous green screen. They imported the high resolution plates of Manhattan into a media composer which had amazing motion tracking tools, which also tracked the background. The director, Vaughan insisted of getting the highest quality of recording of the original production sound, even though they had a low budget. When filming with the audio, Vaughn would use multiple of radio and boom mics, and they’d often end up with eight to ten channels of audio work to work with. They use a cocktail of noise-reduction plug-ins from Waves, iZotope and Avid. They used pro Tools and HD, D-Command which allowed them to manage and control more of the project and allowed them to do much more and be more creative.
When writing the script, Millar didn’t want a happy ending, as they’d be a huge difference between the films Kick Ass, and the comics. The difference between them, it’s that in the film there’s almost a happy ending, however in the comics their isn’t. This is where the difference between the film and the comics comes in.
As they had a small budget, they took a usual step of writing the comic book at the same time the film was produced. This would help, as the book would just come out then the movie 6 weeks later, although this didn’t help with financing the film.
Kick Ass box office was $96,188,903. It was a popular film, having its target audience of teenagers. It was given a 15 rating. How to train your dragon was released at the same time of Kick Ass. How to train your Dragon was aimed at younger children, as it’s a children’s film. Although Kick Ass might appeal to a bigger audience, How to train your Dragon did better with a box office of $494,878,759. However, How to train your Dragon had a far bigger budget, giving them more things to work with.
Kick Ass didn’t have any big well known stars in the film, however it had Nicolas Cage, who was in the film due to debt problems. This would affect the sales of the film, as when a film has a big star more people are likely to go watch the film because they are in the film and also most films which have well known stars are in usually are good to watch and do well. The fact that Kick Ass didn’t have big names in the film, was probably due to the budget and saving the money for other things like set, costumes, props, cameras, recording etc. They would of saved a lot of money on the characters as they didn’t have any big known names in the film, which could be a reason why they didn’t do as good as they could of done.
A problem they had was they didn’t know how to market the film. Also the trailer, had humour in it, but it was miles away from anything in the spoof world. Another failure was with the comics which children will read, they wouldn’t be allowed to view the film in the cinemas.
The music is by, John Murphy, Henry Jackman, Marius De Vries and Ilan Eshkeri. These four names worked together on the soundtracks. John Murphy’s work was used on 28 Days Later and Sunshine. The film did better in DVD and Blu-ray sales, as well as the top movie download on iTunes since its release August 3rd. It was number one in the DVD and Blu-ray sales. A reason for so many sales on Itunes and DVDs would be because they children couldn’t watch it at the cinema, and now they can view it on the DVD/iTunes/Blu-Ray at home, without parents.
There were a large number of trailers, videos and other marketing materials prior to the release of the film. The film failed to perform as projected, and the blogosphere jumped at the opportunity to write bunch of snarky articles outlining the films financial shortcomings.
They failed at things like their audience awareness wasn’t big enough. The name Kiss Ass, wasn’t a recognizable name, and didn’t have a bigger brand appeal; it wasn’t representative of the general movie-going audience.
Most of the target audience weren’t old enough to take themselves into the film, and it wasn’t easy to sell to parents. Also the use of the ‘C’ word was something which the Americans didn’t like. People felt that the film was “morally benefit” due to the how the little girl acted. Another thing, people thought that the film lacked a broader social message.