Ex-Machina Research

Ex-Machina is a British-American Sci-Fi produced by DNA Films and Film4, DNA films is most known for creating 28 Days later and the film adaption of the comic book Dredd. Film4 is a British Company most known for producing successful films such as the Inbetweeners; Co-produced 12 years a Slave and 127 Hours. Meaning that they are a successful company in their own right and have made several well received films, however since they co-produced, they only get a cut of the total earnings meaning Budgets for the films they make are smaller than expected. Ex-Machina reflects that with only having a $15.000.000 budget. A small budget when compared to some films. Its director was  Alex Garland, who had been a writer for many films such as the aforementioned 28 days later; Dredd and Even helped write the story for some video games such as The Devil May Cry remake in 2013. However he is most known for Writing novels such as The Beach and The Tesseract. meaning that Ex-Machina was his First film as director.


 It was distributed by Universal Pictures in the UK but was distributed by A24 Films in the US as Universal refused to release it. It was released 3 moths later in April in North America.





Ex-Machina has a small cast, but the main part of the cast consists of: Alicia Vikander as Ava; Domhnall Gleeson as Caleb Smith; Oscar Isaac as Nathan Bateman; Sonoya Mizuno as Kyoko. Ex-machina had a $15.000.000 budget, but at the box office it was able to gross $36.900.000. Meaning it was a success at the box office, along with that it received critical acclaim and was nominated for a lot of awards. in which it won the Academy Award for best Visual effetcs.
Ex-Machina was filmed in pinewood studios and at the Juvet Landascape Hotel in Norway. It was shot in live action. so there was very little special effects such as greenscreen or motion sensors. A lot of Instead a lot if visual effects were used and then Ava was rotoscaped onto the actress digitally. over 800 VFX shots were used.

In its opening weekend in the US, Ex-machina was shown in 1,225 theatres and grossed over $5.000.000 dollars. At its peak, it was shown in over 2000 theatres in the US over 21 weeks. Ex-Machina was only shown at cinemas for 5 days in the UK . Where it grossed $1.600.000 dollars.

Downton Abbey: Stereotypes in Class

Downton Abbey is an Tv drams set during the early 1900 Britain, it follows the Crawley family through historic events during the period such as the sinking of the titanic and world war 1. throughout the show, the stereotype of class is shown throughout and is also shown using several editing, camera and sound techniques.


Firstly, an establishing shot is used to show where the Abbey is placed in the countryside and the size of the Abbey which is huge, this implies that whoever owns the Place is in a position of upper class meaning he would most likely employ people to work at the Abbey.


next, fast paced editing is used to show the frantic nature of the people who work in the manor, showing to be of lower class, this is reinforced when most of them are in a uniform, with some of them not being in uniform signifying that they are higher class than the workers but not higher than the lord of the abbey and his family.


Afterwards, synchronous sound is used to show the power the lord of the manor has woken up, it also shows off that he is of high class, this is reinforced by the fact when he is around, there is also light showing on him which is different to the workers who are always shown to be in the dark.
Also, the use of a panning shot further implies that the person on screen is of a high class and of importance in the Social Hierarchy of the Abbey. Another important note is that those of higher class are usually shown with the lighting around them being very bright and big windows in shot, Whilst the lower class have very little light and windows are not always in shot, they're usually reflected in the dark, signifying their lower status.

Finally, Shallow Focus is used at the end to show the despair in the lord of the manor's face when he must break the news to the people of the Abbey, Demonstrating that he is in charge of the Abbey as he must break the news to the others even if they already know, underlining his overall power and status in the Abbey.

Star wars: The force Awakens

Lucas films:

It is owned by current president Kathleen Kennedy but was founded by George Lucas in 1971. Lucas films is best known for producing the Star wars and the Indiana Jones saga's. In 2012 is was bought by Walt Disney for an estimated £4.06 billion pounds. It was written by Lawrence Kasdan; J.J Abrams and Michael Arnit and was directed by J.J Abrams. J.J Abrams is known for directing well received films such as 1998's Armageddon; Mission impossible 3, Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation And the Star Trek remakes.

Star Wars:

So far there are 7 officially Released Star wars with another 2 being released at a later date. The official released ones are: (all begin with Star wars) The phantom Menace; Attack of the clones; Revenge of the Sith; A new Hope; The empire strikes back; Return of the Jedi and The Force awakens. The 2 to be released at a later date are Star wars: Rogue one which comes outs 16th December 2016 and Episode 8 which is set for a 2017 release.
 Overall Star wars has made $8 billion dollars at the box office, with adjusted inflation over the years this goes up to $21 billion dollars with the original being the highest grossing at over $3 billion dollars followed by The force awakens at over $2 billion dollars   ( link to all Star wars films Gross Table).
The original Star wars was released in 1977 and will have its 40th anniversary in the year episode 8 comes out.

ILM:

ILM was founded in 1975 by George Lucas and stands for industrial light & magic. They are a visual effects studio and were considered to be one of the most advanced during the 1980's working on films such as Star wars; ET; Back To The Future and others. It was founded to create visual effects that had never ben seen before in films.

Production of The Force Awakens:

A casting Director is the person who is responsible for assembling cast members for films during pre-production, they work with the director to go through auditions for roles in films and decide who would be best for that role.

Filming:

Filming began in Abu Dhabi and the whole film was shot on 9mm film which was used for the original trilogy of Star wars films. The film was shot using Panavision lenses to recreate the feel of the originals and utilized Imax lenses and Aerial plates (Arri Alexa). They used Pinewood Studios in London for a large portion of filming as that was also where the original trilogy were filmed. Also the Pinewood Studio is famous for filming several series of films such as: the Bond Films; Carry on Series and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Bond films are linked to Star Wars because Daniel Craig plays a small uncredited cameo in the film when Rey uses a Mind control trick with the force on a Storm-trooper who is holding her prisoner.The final scene of the film was shot at Skellig Michael, an island off the coast of Ireland. When it came to the moment Han Solo and Chewbacca returned to the Millennium falcon. over 200 members of the crew watched it from the monitor in the back. Also J.J Abrams was recorded to be going 'Oh my God!' afterwards.

Maz Kanata and Motion capture:

The inspiration for Maz Kanata came from J.J Abrams old english teacher Rose Gilbert which was the main source of inspiration used to create Maz, Maz was created using motion capture which was placed on the actor and CGI. She was played by Lupita Nyong'o Who won the Academy award for best supporting actress in 12 Years a Slave. Supreme Leader Snoke is played by Andy Serkis who is most known for his work with motion capture as shown in films such as Gollum in the lord of the Rings and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Music Score:

The score for Star wars was composed by John Williams who has done all of the Star wars films as well as Jurassic park; The Indiana Jones series and the First Jaws film.

Auditions; BB-8 and SFX

According to J.J Abrams. John Boyega auditioned for the role of Finn 9 times before being picked for the role. Auditions began around November 2013 but the final was not finalized until the 29th April 2014. BB-8 was operated by 2 puppeteers: Dave Chapman and Brian Herring. BB-8 was mainly used with practical effects and puppets however they were robot versions which were remote-controlled.The operator had to wear a green suit as so to blend into the green screen they used so they don't show up on the camera and can be edited out. SFX used in was mostly green screen. however there was more of a reliance on practical effects so SFX were rarely used along with CGI.

Miscellaneous and IMAX:

During the end credits, Simon Pegg is thanked for his role as the rations dealer on jakku who tries to buy BB-8 and then Rey and Finn steal the millennium falcon off. The film received a age rating of PEGI 12 in the UK. The UK taxman also paid out £31 million pounds to help pay for the film's production. Also Harrison Ford was paid £16.7 million to reprise his role as Han Solo for The Force Awakens. Meanwhile Daisy Ridley and John Boyega were paid in between $100-$300k for their roles in the film. IMAX is A technique of widescreen cinematography used in cinemas which produces an image which is roughly 10x bigger than standard 35mm film and was aired in 391 IMAX Theaters.

Hotel Babylon: Stereotypes in Ethnicity

Hotel Babylon is a BBC TV drama set around a 5 star hotel which employs people who are illegally in the country and try top hide them for authorities. Throughout the scene, there are hints in stereotypes of Ethnicity as well as the usage of certain editing techniques and camera shots showing stereotypes in ethnicity.

 Firstly The receptionist asks ben if he has done his job yet to which he responds no, This is a stereotype of ethnicity as ben is black and it paints black people as unintelligent and unable to follow orders. Also Ben is presented as a 'magical negro' as his purpose in this scene is to help the white protagonists save the workers. Another note is that the women who asks Ben if he has done his job is wearing a white dress whereas Ben and other staff are wearing black uniform. This suggests that the Woman in the white dress is of a higher power of them and shows a stereotype in that white people hold the overall power over everything.

 

Secondly, cross-cutting is used during the scene when Ben and another man are running to alert everyone about the immigration squad coming in. This shows the sense of panic the hotel staff when the immigration squad come knocking and the stereotype that non-white people have to be ordered by white people just to be safe from harm, like they're almost pitied for being unintelligent enough to know when to hide.

 Furthermore Fast-Paced editing is used to show the panic the rest of workers when they have to hide from the immigration squad, this is a stereotype of forgein people being very dodgy and untrustworthy even if they're well regarded in their community and again showing the stereotype that they're presented as people who should be pitied as everyday they have to be careful or face deportation. Moreover, the staff speak to the workers in their own language to reinforce the fact they are lower than them in the hierarchy and have to listen to them in order to survive.

  

Next, the staff are shown rushing to a cramped staffroom for their own safety from the immigration staff. This demonstrates that the immigration staff are the antagonists in the situation even though they are usually depicted as the good guys. This is a counter stereotype as is depicts immigrants as sympathetic people who are just trying to avoid going back home where they may be treated poorly or worse. Also it is evident that all of the workers are in matching uniforms expect for the person who is counting that they're all there and safe which shows the difference in status and that those in the matching uniforms are the lowest of the lows in the hierarchy.

  When the staff are safe in the locked room. One of them falls unconsciousness and  one of the black cleaners begins to order the other staff around and get them to help him make sure that the unconscious women is ok. This is a counter to the stereotype that we know of black people as he is shown as being very smart and Academic before becoming a cleaner, he is also shown to have some of the staff's respect as they listen to him and help him. This is reinforced when the cleaner states that he "wasn't always a cleaner", meaning that he is a counter stereotype of forgein people only working in either low-paid jobs or not working at all and having no education.

 Afterwards, A POV shot is used to show A staff worker who isn't in the saferoom being found by the immigration shot before being captured, Again this is a stereotype of forgein people being unintelligent and unable to follow commands, it also shows signs of racial prejudice as its a group of white men taking a black person away as well as being humorous in the fact that before being captured, he trips over a hoover trying to escape making him seem clumsy and almost a pratfall to get the audience to laugh in a serious situation.

 Finally, several establishing shots are used to show the different ethnic groups eating their food with one another, however none of them are interacting with the other ethnicities which implies the stereotype that forgein people don't want to integrate themselves into society and instead opt to stay with their own people similar to them, also shows that most of the workers work in low-paid jobs and eat in the same area, implying that they are of a lower status then the British workers there and do not hold much power or authority in the hotel. because of this some of them may be irrational to others that aren't from their ethnic background.