Introduction and Initial Task
Write an illustrated 800 word blog entry titled 'Old Films for New' comparing a contemporary remake with the original version, focusing on the films' production contexts. You must comprehensively explain the relationship between films and their production context with elucidated examples, consistently using subject terminology correctly.
Production context
- What is financially available?
- What is popular at the moment in film culture? At the time, were those movies popular? Remember that in 2001, 9/11 made people not want to watch anything related to death.
- Film culture trends at the time (The affect of it on the movie) (Hollywood likes to make 2 movies at the same time)
- Audiences interests - people get bored easily therefore, trends change in order to keep them entertained since pacing is very important.
- How can we Identify trends?
- Directors tend to make films that are in trends at the moment. They tend to gross more money. This includes sequals, remakes and superheros
- Budget - What budget does the film have? What was the impact of the budget? Affect on actors
- Distribution - Effects the sales and successes of the films etc Cinema, VHS, DCD, Stream, Rental - How did it create profit?
- Actors - Famous actors and better quality effects - wider distribution and publicity - Remember to consider the fact around the 19's, there was different star power from 20's - look at their presentations.
- Regulations -The time difference between the two versions meant there would be a change in their general regulations in order to fit the target audience. This includes their use of language + context.
- Cinematography - How is the cinematography different between the films
- Types of equipment - What do they use? How is this effective? The SGI and Stop Motion.
- Sounds used - Diegetic and Non-diegetic sound uses, was it an orchestra, was it tradition, standard?
The films
Film and Directors
- The Thing from Another World - Christian Nyby (1951)
- The Thing (1982) - John Carpenter (1982)
The thing from another world 1951
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Directed by: Christian Nyby
Produced by: Edward Lasker Written by: John W. Campbell Music by: Jimmy McHugh Cinematography: Russell Harlan Production Company: Howard Hawks' Winchester Pictures Corporation. Distributed by: RKO Pictures Release date: April 7th 1951 Country: US Budget: $1,600,000 (estimated) |
When scientist Dr. Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) reports a UFO near his North Pole research base, the Air Force sends in a team under Capt. Patrick Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) to investigate. What they find is a wrecked spaceship and a humanoid creature (James Arness) frozen in the ice. They bring their discovery back to the base, but Carrington and Hendry disagree over what to do with it. Meanwhile, the creature is accidentally thawed and begins wreaking havoc.
Main CASTING:
James Arness -
The Thing |
Kenneth Tobey-
Patrick Hendry |
Robert Cornthwaite -
Dr. Carrington |
Margaret Sheridan - Nikki Nickolson
|
Douglas Spencer -
Ned 'Scotty' |
MISE-EN-SCENE:
- The lighting in the introduction shows us that “the thing” is the main feature of the film while from another world js just added context.
- Everyone in the club is seen wearing army uniform. This may show us how they are part of the military.
- In the plane we have specific lighting used so it shows us that they are flying in broad daylight.
- Back in 1950, there wasn't any colour used to film. This made it difficult for horror movies to effectively use colouring to their advantages as modern films do, which means in order to make the film effectively scary, they have to focus on other elements such as makeup and sound
- The ice is seen to be a darker shade without any cracks in order to establish that it's safe to walk on, but this doesn't stop all the questions left on what that saucer is on the floor.
- Air force magazine is used as a source of research to see if what they did was the right thing to bring the one identified object
- The captain is seen dressing elegantly to impress Nikki. This is significant as he is still trying to seem higher than others even though he is trying to showcase the best side of him
- Shadows make us feel that the thing has been brought to life however we haven't seen it yet which makes us wonder how it looks like
- The men are now not wearing all the same uniform which may mean they aren't ready to work together to fight the thing but this rather is a personal case, out of the military.
- A dead dog is seen falling out of a box. This dogs blood has all been drank which shows that it came for refuge.
- When the man walks in with his shirt a little torn, he talks about how he got attached in the greenhouse as he couldn't see anything until the thing struck him
- The doctor is seen wearing a typical Dr outfit, and he checks the heartbeat of the plants with a stethoscope
- The piece of paper that Nikki shows him is significant as he keeps researching within the thing.
- The many layers of clothes worn helps to showcase how cold it is outside. This helps to show why people wouldn't want to live there as they would end up freezing
- The monster is a very tall built man which makes us more scared since even fire didn't kill him.
- The low key lighting makes us also feel like we don't understand the monster since till now, we still haven't gotten to see his face, only his figure.
- The thing walks in and begins breaking all the barriers the men set out carrying a pierce of wood
- The lighting makes a bigger impact on the audience as we really do get to see the monster actually getting electrocuted
CINEMATOGRAPHY:
- The film begins with a close up shot of the iconography stating where we are “Officers Club Anchorage Alaska where we see a man, unidentified walk right in. This may signify he is part of the club.
- We see a full shot of the military men playing cards on the table. This is a traditional game for men, which shows us they are relaxed, enjoying their freetime
- We get to see the view of the officer as he is looking at the main actor, creating a bond from the user to the film
- A long shot is taken once they exit the plain to showcase how skowy the house is. These low climates were very dangerous which may be why there is a limited amount of people who live there
- There is numerous shots of the captain and nikki but of a high angles shot. this helps to signifyin how he is the dominant person
- There is a mid shot of the captain and other people in the plane but its specifically places the captain closer to showcase how he is the main character
- A long shot of an empty piece of land with ice is seen to show that the men are going to land there and explore what is set on that ice
- We see the men walking towards the ice talking about it, exploring their airplane wing which is found under the ice. This leaves us with a lot of questions such as what happened to the plane and why is it sunk under all this ice
- We see a dull shot of the explosion which shows us all the damage that has happened when the engine exploded
- We see a shot of men looking through the ice, this is when they first find the thing
- When they are bringing the thing inside the research lab, we see the men suffering to bring it inside. This showcases how big and heavy the thing really is
- Nikki is seen as a very manly woman even though we see she isn't dominant around the captain. We see her manly as she is seen to take over the paperwork and even smokes with the men. Captain also sometimes lets her be more dominant as he has allowed her to tie him up.
- Lauren has been assigned to watch the thing now. He is so spooked of the thing that he ends up covering il
- We dee a shot of the dogs waking up after a time lapse of seeing the ice melt quicker due to the blanket. This makes us start to panic especially since the dogs begin to howl
- We see a keep the door closed sign however they leave the door open. This may symbolise how careless they are when it comes to following orders.
- This is the first time we see the thing. He ends up trying to attack people with a mod shot which was quite effective
- We see a full on view of the monster who is able to walk inside the entire room even though he was set fully on fire
- The close up shots of Nikki, Scotty and the captain breathing cold air shows how there is no more power to support the heater
- There is multiple shots used to see the men closing up all the doors and running around with axes
- A full shot is seen when the monster gets electrocuted so that we can see the impact that the electricity has on the monster
- North pole November third makes us know what time this happened
SOUND DESIGN:
- The introduction begins with “The city of Prague philharmonic orchestra” playing the theme song. They purposely make it very dramatic in order to increase tension.
- Non diegetic sound used while talking and playing cards. This shows us that when things are normal, no sound effects are needed
- A lot of wind sound is used to make it feel very cold in the area
- With the unknown technology, we hear woa woa soundtrack as it sounds like its a working machine. If it didn't have these sound waves, it wouldn't look as realistic
- Non diegetic plane sounds are used so it helps us into thinking they are in the air. This sound is later mixed with diegetic dialect
- Once they land, dramatic music is played to showcase how far they have to walk while increasing tension since nobody knows what they are going to find or what is going to happen
- When they strapped the thing onto the plane, the music was very calm as if to show that there has not been trouble yet, but they are carrying trouble on board with them.
- Romantic music starts to play minutes before the captains sees Nikki. This helps to spark up the romantic elements between the two of them
- After the doctor says how he wants to learnt the create, dramatic music begins to play making a bang sound as the hand knocks the table
- The clicking from the kip apparatus makes us curious on what's behind the door
- When the dead dog is found, there is a quiet trumpet played which is symbolic sound of death
- While studying the plants, there is a very high pitched woman singing a G note.
- The kip apparatus stars to beep and then dramatic music starts to increase in pace which increases tension
- As the monster approaches them, dramatic music tended to become louder
- Once the movie is over, there was a lot of happy drums which showcased the end of the movie
EDITING:
- In the introduction, we see fake effects which match snow being used to represent the title.
- Editing is used to make us feel more cold when talking about the investigation with the captain. This helps to build how cold the area is.
- The snow effect was used to help build on the effect of them being in Alaska
- In the unknown technology used by the doctor, we dee lights flashing inside it which makes us think that the doctor is testing something important especially since at that time, electronics were not as common as it is in the world today
- We see a lot of camera shaking as the explosive explodes on the ice. This type of editing makes us feel like they have caused a lot of commotion
- As Lauren gets assigned to watch the thing, spooky music begins to play which might be the first time the thing comes alive
- There is a lot of dramatic music as they look for the thing. This makes us realise that the thing is nearby attacking whatever it gets its hands on. As the men walk closer to the thing, the music gets loud quicker tempo
- The hand is moving showing us the creature doesn't need to be attached to a body in order to be alive.
- When we see the thing, his hand hit the end of the wood and effects made it look like he scraped the door
- We see an effect of the plants breathing which was something nobody would generally see
- Once the monster get struck by electricity, we see thunder come our of his body which makes ir seem like hes been electrocuted
TECHNOLOGY:
- Typewriter was used by Nikki, this means she was writing something important as not everyone had access to typewriters
- We see the doctor testing out the temperature with a type of technology which is not recognised
- Old fashioned camera is seen as Scotty wants to take pictures pf the saucer for the press but the doctor refuses
- A kip apparatus is used to read reactions
SYMBOLIC ELEMENTS:
- Gambling: Seeing yourself gambling can mean the damage is already done. It is a warning to stop taking so many risks. Gambling on a game like poker or Keno, then the warning is super urgent
- Explosives: The dream simply uses "explosives" as a symbol for "temper." In practice the symbol can be used in many complex and varied ways. So think of the words that link to "explosives" such as "temper", "destructive" and "volatile" and try to use these in any way and any context.
- Ice:It is a symbol of rigidity, frigidity, the waters of the earth as opposed to the fresh and living water of the fountain of Paradise. It is coldness, absence of love, difficult and unexplored territory not conducive to human life and life in general. With winter, the season of death. In Dante, a deep part of Hell.
- Cigarettes:Literary characters smoke because they represent “reality.” People used to smoke, and in some countries (say, Greece, France, japan), people continue to smoke a lot.Smoking may represent: “Relaxation” time, after hard work or after a meal; drinking coffee and smoking are classic combinations.
The thing 1982
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Directed by: John Carpenter
Produced by: David Foster and Lawrence Turman Written by: John W. Campbell Music by: Ennio Morricone Cinematography: Dean Cundey Production Company: Turman - Foster Company Distributed by: Universal Pictures Release date: June 25th 1982 Country: US Budget: $15,000,000 |
In remote Antarctica, a group of American research scientists are disturbed at their base camp by a helicopter shooting at a sled dog. When they take in the dog, it brutally attacks both human beings and canines in the camp and they discover that the beast can assume the shape of its victims. A resourceful helicopter pilot (Kurt Russell) and the camp doctor (Richard Dysart) lead the camp crew in a desperate, gory battle against the vicious creature before it picks them all off, one by one.
Main Casting:
Kurt Russell - MacReady
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Wilford Brimley - Dr. Blaire
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Keith David - Childs
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Donald Moffat - Garry
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Richard Masur - Clark
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Mise-en-scene:
- The man, who has yet to be identified is seen wearing numerous of clothing layers. This helps to signify how cold it is in Antarctica.
- There isn't any high key lighting used as the director is trying to make us feel down. High Key lighting is generally used to make a situation seem more happy.
- The creature who was thought to be burnt has been made very scary but mainly looking red as it creates the effect of it being dead. This makes people wonder what happened to it but most importantly, what it is.
- Opening four minutes shows extreme wide shot of a deep space star field which changes to an extreme close-up of a glass being filled with ice and scotch.
- The use of colour and location scouting helps to narrow our view which is symbolic as it makes us feel that something bad is coming from far away as the movie progresses.
- The snow and ice makes us feel the coldness and hostility of the world as its all about survival which is like a deadly threat. Continuing into the movie, we realise how ice will fight against fire.
- When the men walk in with their torchlight, they are seen to be very scared when they find the dead body as they don't know what happened to them.
- We see a cast member wearing glasses when looking at the creature. This is seen to be a barrier between how much the humans thing they are in danger to the actual danger they are about to face
- The black connotes darkness while blue connotes being terrified. The black and blue outfit worn after Dr. Blaire is gone missing showcases how scared they are of the danger.
- We see the same axe filled with blood used to kill the dog. Nobody is aware of who did it however.
- The blood packs were destroyed. This is more evidence on how they are not going to survive through the movie as they have no chances of survival even if the creature doesn't kill them.
- When Childs comes in he is seen to wear a white outfit which helps to showcase the amount of snow that's outside. The fact that he comes in very scared also helps to symbols the reason why hes wearing white as white creates dramatic effects symbolizing how cold he is and how his health is endangered. This is important as the entire team are truing to survive.
- Goey make up effects are used so the monster looks disguising, which makes the audience want to move away from this disturbing imagery.
- Blood seen is used to test out if they are the creature. This is done by sparking it up with electricity.
- The generator closes after child has escaped, the lack of lights makes us confused on whats about to happen.
- We see a flickering of light which portrays the good and bad. As he walks to it he disappears leaving R.J. MacReady alone by himself when suddenly the floorboards pop up from the ground, making the bomb jump out of R.J. MacReadys hands.
Cinematography:
- The film includes a lot of iconography such as ‘’Antarctica, Winter 1982’’
- A plane flies into the middle of Antarctica with dogs running away. This showcases danger arriving.
- A medium shot of a weather beaten sign which says “United States National Science Institute Station 4” tells us we are now coming to an American research station.
- Full shot of the planes damage, shows us how crazy the Norwegian guys is. Whats weird is how nobody could be contacted for the past two weeks - this shows us that even if something as dangerous as the Norwegian guy attacked, nobody could help them.
- We see a close up of the dog looking scared. Generally, animals are known to foreshadow upcoming danger as they realise it before humans which might be why the dog is seen to be scared before humans.
- A close up shot of a burned creature is seen which is weird as it's in the middle of Antarctica which is very cold area which makes it quite hard to burn something in a rush.
- When the dog is locked, he turns into this creature which starts to spray venom onto the other dogs.
- We see a long shot of the plane flying to the area where the previous researchers were searching for something.
- There is a recurrence shot of the iced grave. This makes us think that the creature repeatedly crawls out of the area after attacking the people on that land.
- There is a close up of Dr. Blaire reaching towards the gun which means the doctor is about to kill a potential hazard.
- We move onto a full shot of Dr. Blaire destroys all the technology. The fact he is the only one who knows little about the monster and hasn't shared it, while destroying evidence creates suspicions to what happened to him.
- He then starts shooting his friends and goes completely crazy.
- Numerous of shots are seen of the team working together to lock the outside doors since it has been 45 minutes since they left.
- When Dr. Blaire tries to save the man, his arms are chopped into half as the monster eats him. This results to Mac setting the room in fire since he doesn't want to be attached by the creature next.
- There is a shot where we see the man being killed at exactly 12:30 in the morning. This timing is spiritually seen to bring a powerful and loving energy to your life that will guide you towards making positive changes in your life. This might connote how killing him would be the best option.
- Close up shot of how window draws blood. He draws blood from everyone thumb which shies the lack of trust.
- We then see a shot of the door wide open which shows us that Dr. Blaire has escaped, potentially being the creator. This creates tension as we don't know who will be attacked next.
- We see different shots of the remaining team setting the building on fire in the most dangerous way as they are still in the building which creates a high amount of tension with their survival rates since there don't have anywhere to go ans don't know who is going to be “the thing” next.
- A close up shot of the thing makes the audience at the time feel very unease about the situation but happy that mac killed it.
- A shot of mac alone within the fire is seen until R.J. MacReady saw childs since we thought he couldn't be alive claiming he thought he saw Dr. Blaire.
Sound design:
- Non-diegetic sound is used for the introduction as creepy music is played to start off with the mysterious vibe.
- The lack of dialogue shows us visually how he is cut out of connections from the rest of the world as he is located in the vastness of space.
- Diegetic sound is used to showcase how the lifestyle is in the research lab.
- Once the plane starts which max is about to “take up”, we are told he knows what hes doing and non diegetic music begins to play. This creates a lot of curiosity towards the audience.
- When we see all the people injured, the non-digetic sound is very high pitched which increases tension.
- When they bring over the burnt creature, there is more instruments added within the orchestra.
- The fire alarm is pulled. This is to create alertness of upcoming danger.
- Once 'the thing' was burned, the non-diegetic sound is used to recreate that tension which we got when 'the thing' was revealed.
- As the researches climb down the the area, the music even becomes higher pitched than before. This makes us think they will find something.
- While looking for Dr. Blaire in the helicopter, a gunshot effect is used which automatically creates awareness of the environment. This then changed to the doctor destroys all the technology being used
- When walking at night, there was a shadow which passed Fechs. As a result, he follows this high pitched sound to find out what's happening.
- We see R.J. MacReady recording a voice over of him talking about his last few days. This makes the audience member question what will happen to them.
- The sound of the heavy wind makes us feel cold.
- Drums were played and a zoom into the room where Childs was. This shows that Childs has escaped making us wonder where he has gone but most importantly, who he will attack.
- Tension between R.J. MacReady and Childs arises as there is a repeated tone which creates tension as it makes the audience want to know what has happened between them next which makes the audience talk about the movie, improving distribution.
Editing:
- The opening shot zooms into a silvered saucers flying past us, aiming towards a planet. This connotes trouble as we know it will crash on the planet which we later see to be earth.
- A cut shot from the weather beaten sign to the station itself helps to create a sense of where we are within the film.
- We see the dog walk into the bedroom of a man who is portrayed to be a shadow, which we later know is Clark. A shadow connotes a tension between the good and evil. It is known to show the dark side of human nature we later on realise how he walked into the shadow showcasing the dogs evilness.
- We see a shot zoom right into what is seen to be a grave made out of ice.
- Editing from the darkness when 'the thing' is sen is changed to the morning of the Antarctic. This symbolizes how even though there was danger, there is nobody there to help then when they are endangered.
- There is a cut shot from the doctor to a computer which shows research on 'the thing' they talk about “assimilation” which foreshadows how 'the thing' tends to digest its victims. The survive rate is seen to be 25% which is very low.
- Special effects are used on the first victim of the creature as we see it having a hold of him choking him.
- A special effect is used to make Dr. Blaire shows up out of nowhere as he kills Garry by scrunching up his face, turning it into play doh.
Technology:
- Old fashioned computers, which at the time were high tech, are used which helps us identify the fact that they are searching something important.
- We see a black and white television which is used to show pre- recorded footage of what seems to be the north east of the campus.
- There is a research technology which isn't clearly identified but the doctor uses it to see the approximation of survival rate.
- Voice recorder was used so that one day people would understand what happened to them in case they don't make it.
Symbolic elements:
- Gun - The gun control fight is about our deeper need for safety and identity. ]
- Blood covered axe - The axe represents power, thunder, conquest of mistakes and victim. It is also a symbol of inconsiderate, thoughtless and merciless intentions.
- Shadow - From the traditional symbols of light and darkness, the shadow emerges as the embodiment of the dark side of human nature. In many works of fantasy, the choice of a character to act out of selfishness, greed, or arrogance often gives birth to the physical presence of a shadow
- Dog - Dogs were depicted to symbolize guidance, protection, loyalty, fidelity, faithfulness, alertness, and love but in this case, its scared which is negative. We later on see that the fact the dog walked into the shadow portrayed how he walked into evil, which is why he was the first victim of 'The Thing'
- Fire alarm - Ironically, he fire alarm is used to create awareness of fire, but the fire starts after the fire alarm is pulled
- Grave- A grave is the place where a body is buried. Usually, a grave is dug in the ground, and a stone with information about the deceased person marks its location. If a situation is grave, it is serious and sad, like when a loved one is very sick.