Thursday 3 May 2012

THEN AND NOW


Answer the questions below in as much detail as possible, on your blog.

1.      Describe Disney’s early film production. What innovations did Disney make use of, and were there any drawbacks to early methods of film production?

      In 1953 Disney made their first film this was called ‘Alice’s Wonderland’ created by Walt Disney. It was black and white and had no sound so used subtitles to show speech. They set up a studio in LA in their uncle’s garage called ‘Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio’ when they started to become a success they moved to a proper studio in 1926 and Ub Iwerks joined them as an animator. The first original Disney character was Oswald the Rabbit. Film makers would make a film Distributors show the film in cinemas, and today, put the film onto DVD/BluRay.Distribution costs money, and many filmmaking companies can’t afford to do both production and distribution (or don’t have the facilities/contacts etc). For example, Snow White (1937) was made by Disney but distributed by RKO Radio Pictures and Enchanted (2007) was made by Disney and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (amongst others). Some films use multiple distributors to show films in different countries. Cartoons were produced in colour in 1932; the success of Steam Boat Willie allowed Walt to flan for their first feature length animation. Snow White won an academy award in 1939 for “a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field”. From the success of Snow White, Disney built a huge new studio in Burbank, California. The vast majority of Disney’s most popular films are adapted from stories that already exist (often fairy tales)

2.      Describe Disney’s modern methods of film production. What options are available for Disney when they are making a film? (e.g. animation or live action, 3D). What are the benefits of some of these methods? What are the drawbacks?



·         After Walt and Roy Disney died Ron Miller took over. He created Touchstone Pictures to allow Disney to create more adult films without it clashing with Disney’s main ideologies. The themes of these movies are much darker plots and have more adult content such as the language used and sex/nudity. Successful films include Pearl Harbour, Good Morning Vietnam and Armageddon. Touchstone Television and ABC studios (owned by Disney) also makes Scrubs, Lost and Desperate Housewives, amongst others. They also own the Disney channel, which shows more stereotypical Disney content. Disney purchased Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 billion. Steve Jobs was Pixar’s CEO and became one of Disney’s senior directors. It became a very successful move. 3D became popular so Disney decided to release Toy Story 3 in 3D. They also re-released the famous film ‘The Lion King’ in 3D.  



3.      How is technological advancement in film production benefitting audiences of Disney films? (i.e. are films better quality now than they used to be? Is this what audiences want?)



·         The first full length CGI movie by Disney was Toy Story which was made in 1995. The advancement in technology has made Disney even more successful than they were before. The films are a much higher quality which makes the audience watch and enjoy the films even more. The picture id more crisp and sharp. Now audiences have a lot more choice in what they want, as they can get films on Blue-Ray and DVD rather than just a crackly video. These methods are still being produced and improved so people will be attracted more and more to films.



4.      Who are Disney’s target audience? (Use your prior target audience profiling knowledge! A, B, C, succeeders, reformers, etc.)



·         Stereotypically Disney aims their movies at children. However more recently with the production of Touchstone Pictures Disney’s target audience has been massively increased and varies a lot more. Disney is mainly aimed at mainstreamers which is 40% of the population. However everyone from succeeders to reformers and class A to B enjoy a good classic Disney movie. Disney relates to a lot of people as the majority can understand and connect with the story lines.



5.      Choose THREE Disney films that show Dyer’s Utopian Solutions Theory. Explain how each film demonstrates the theory, and why this will attract audiences.

·         ‘Cinderella’- This fits the theory because it’s about a girl who has a tragic event in her childhood causing her not to have the best life growing up. However she then meets the man of her dreams ‘Prince Charming’ who fall in love and live happily ever after. This attracts audiences because it portrays a perfect world.

·         ‘Beauty and the Beast’- Once again this fits the general conventions of the theory as it is a happily ever after ending even though the beginning isn’t necessarily of the normal conventions. 

·         ‘Snow White’- This film also portrays the theory because it’s about a girl who is mistreated by her Step Mother however finds love with ‘Prince Charming’ and lives happily ever after. Once again portraying a perfect world.

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