Costumes

In all superhero films costumes are used to separate the superhero from his 'normal' alter ego, examples of this are; Clark Kent and Superman, Bruce Wayne and Batman.

In the case of Bruce Wayne and Batman a classic mask is used to hide his face, thus seperating Bruce from Batman. The seperation is needed for superheros to protect the loved ones of there alter ego, this is why superheros wear costumes that hide their face.

Clark Kent and Superman. In this case we have the alter ego hiding his face instead of the superhero with Clark Kent wearing a pair of glasses where as superman doesn't.

Age classifications for films

The British Board of Film Classification is responsible for giving an age rating to each film shown in british cinema. The areas they look at when deciding what age rating to give a film are; language, physical violence, sexual scenes, drug references.

The average rating for a superhero film is 12/12A.

Films under this category are considered to be unsuitable for very young people. Those aged under 12 years are only admitted if accompanied by an adult, aged at least 18 years. Films under this category can contain mature themes, discrimination, soft drugs, moderate swear words, infrequent strong language and moderate violence, sex references and nudity. Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed. Sexual violence may be implied or briefly indicated.

websites for superhero film

The website design for Superman: man of steel is minimalistic putting all the emphasis on superman him self and his outfit, particularly the most recognisable part of his costume, the S on his chest. The website has links to a facebook page and a twitter in order to spread awareness of the film and gain a larger potential audience, it also increases the chances that current fans of superman finding out about the film.

Posters for superhero films

These pictures of film posters all show the main protagonist of the films and are all instantly recognisable characters which attract fans of the comics books that they come from.This link to the comics allow companies to know which films will sell better by seeing how successful the comic book is.

average ratings for superhero action films

The Dark Knight Rises(2012)

8.6/10

The Dark Knight(2008)

9.0/10

Batman Begins(2005)

8.3/10

Avengers Assemble(2012)

8.3/10

Watchmen(2009)

7.6/10

Superman Returns(2006)

6.3/10

From this we can see that most of the time the average rating of superhero films are normally high, around 7/8, this shows the interest towards superhero films. However it also shows that there is a high standered of superhero films so people will pick up on the smallest issues.

Audience statistics: social media, real audience ( needs finishing)

Audience statistics: IMDb

From these pictures you can see that the main audience for superhero-comic action films are ages 18-29 and in that age range it is mostly men.

Production and Distribution companies

Some of the most common productions companies for Superhero action films are; Legendary Pictures, DC comics, Marvel Studios. It is clear that most have an American edge and therefore automatically have a global appeal through a vast network of successful distribution companies. Therefore it is important to give an overview of who has distributed and produced the most successful superhero movies from the last 5 years.

	Film	Production	Distribution	Life time gross	Opening week gross	Date released
1	Marvel's The Avengers	Marvel	BUENA VISTA	$623,357,910	$207,438,708	5/4/12
2	The Dark Knight	DC comics	WARNER BROS.	$534,858,444	$158,411,483	7/18/08
3	The Dark Knight Rises	DC comics	WARNER BROS.	$448,139,099	$160,887,295	7/20/12
4	Spider-Man	Marvel	SONY / COLUMBIA	$403,706,375	$114,844,116	5/3/02
5	Spider-Man 2	Marvel	SONY / COLUMBIA	$373,585,825	$88,156,227	6/30/04

Opening titles (needs finishing)

Conventions of a, superhero, action film

In the superhero-action genre there are hundreds of conventions that we notice and let us know that is a superhero action film, these include;
Costumes such as masks and capes.


A hero and villian.



Damsel in distress.
 

Superhuman abilities.


Secret identity.

































And several others that we all recognize as being conventions of a superhero action film.

film openings, shot by shot: The Road

This is the first shot in the film 'The Road'. It is a close up of a tree in spring which shows a picturesque scene which gives the idea of the film being romantic and soft.



In the second shot of the film you see a 'family' house which further adds to the idea of this being a romantic film which is contrary to what the film actual is, a post-apocalyptic adventure-drama.

From this close up you can see that the main character of the film portrayed as a caring man who has strong relationships with the things around him.

In this shot the feeling of the film changes due the the low lighting giving a feeling of  darkness approaching compared to the high levels of light used in the previous shots. This allows the audience to know that some thing is going to happen that will change the feeling of the movie.

In this shot a close up of the woman's face is used to show her emotions clearly in order to make the audience feel how she feels in the situation.

Using a close up of the man just waking up helps the audience realize that what caused this apocalypse  happened but not long enough ago for him to not be able to remember, it also shows us how he has changed in appearance compared to close ups in previous shots giving yet more help to the audience in understanding the time jump.

In this shot we can confirm what had already been seen in the start of the film opening that he is a caring character and even in a destroyed world he is still looking after his child by checking on them as soon as he has woken up.

From this shot we can see what has happened to people between now and the apocalypse since at first he was living in a peaceful house but now is resorting to sleeping on the floors of caves, this helps us build a connection with the character and make us try to think about what they are going through. 

From this shot we can are put into the eyes of the main character as he looks out onto the destroyed world around him, yet again building on the relationship between the audience and character.

We yet again get another look into the personality of the man in this shot, comforting his child and they as scared, we also get a further look into how they now are being forced to live with the empty bottles scattered around them.

This is the final scene of the opening and although  it is only the title its connotations are that the man and his child have one single path to follow. 

Film opening briefs

We were given four different movie briefs to choose from; one based on a real event form the last ten years that should appear to be independently funded, a 'sci-fi' film for a british adult audience, a 'rom-com' aimed at young adults and a mainstream action film that appears to be based on a comic book or graphic novel.

I chose to do the mainstream action film opening based on a comic book or a graphic novel due to my love of comic book and fasinations of superheros.

Preliminary: final cut

Now with all the editing finished we have our final version of our preliminary film opening, even though is may be basic, and almost completely lacking in mis en scene, I believe that it a good funny, quirky, film opening.

Preliminary: editing it together

Once the filming had finished it came time to edit it all together and add special effects.

First I used a movie editing program called move plus x5. This allowed me to cut the clips and put them together in a smooth flowing way for continuity editing.

Then to add special effects I used Adobe Premiere Pro.

Preliminary: camera angles

In our preliminary task we decided to use certain camera shots, such as; over the shoulder, and match on action. We also used the editing technique of shot reverse shot.

Over the shoulder:

Match on action:

Shot reverse shot:

Preliminary: story board

For a preliminary task we were put into groups of three and had to film ashort 2 minute film opening.
we started by making a story board to plan out our film opening.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my AS media blog. My name is Liam and I decide to take media studies as an AS level because I am a fan on film, television and video games. My favourite films of all time the Lord of the Rings triology, and the more recent film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.