HOLIDAY WORK : Film Industry essay

I have studied the film industry and will be talking about how distributors engage different audiences using a variety of platforms, including film websites, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, trailers, film posters. 

Distributors will often advertise on social media as it will help reach a wide audience and help to get a larger social following and gain the attention of the media, meaning that the film will get more sales as the public understand what the movie is about. It is common for films marketed towards children and young adults to be marketed in this way as the majority of the target audience have access to social media and online websites. This also means that they can engage with the audience and they can get feedback on what the public wants out of this film so they can maximise revenue from the film, and create more interest online prior to release.

A prime example of this is the Captain Marvel campaign. It was hugely successful and was able to gain a following of over one million, by showing clips of the film, interviews with actress' and actors and also a countdown to the film's release. They also had a clear target market with people who like superhero films. Unusually the studio also tried to make the campaign appeal mostly to the female market, with a film about a superhero who is a girl. Another promotional technique was fan engagement, this can be illustrated by the massive feedback and huge fan following that it got.

I watch the Marvel films upon release and follow their marketing campaigns, therefore my experiences with the marketing campaign are that it is quite relentless, often bombarding you with posts relating to the movie so you can almost never escape the film. It is often successful as I see the films upon release, but it can feel quite cramped as your social media is often flooded with content relating to the film and it can sometimes put you off as you become alienated by the constant advertising of the film.

Captain Marvel's campaign was heavily reliant of showing off their well-known cast and the film is the first of the Marvel films starring a female lead, meaning they can use it as a forefront of their campaign and get people to watch the film. The cast includes Samuel L Jackson, Brie Larson and Jude Law, who all are accomplished actors and actress' who will get the public's attention due to their fame and successful acting careers to date.

It is also worth noting that Captain Marvel released two websites; one to showcase the film and to update of film developments and the second a retro-style website with the theme of the '90s. It features twist's on classic games such as pinball in addition to showing retro-style posters as well. This is a good way to engage audience and get them interested and involved with the upcoming film.

Roma was a film distributed by Netflix through their streaming service, However, it had a short theatrical run, which is odd for a film created by a streaming service. It was revealed that it was shot on a widescreen camera, meaning that the resolution was best seen on a cinema screen, meaning that they put the film on a short theatrical run. Roma used social media (mainly Facebook and Twitter) to advertise, but it also used their own website to advertise as well. 

Marketing is also achieved through reviews for the film, but can also be deceptive when the marketing department for a film twist word and reviews to their advantage. An example of this would be in the poster for Legend in where a two-star review was spun to make it seem like a four-star review and was labelled 'marketing gold'.

RESEARCH : My Audience Profile

My Audience Profile

I needed to plan how to reach my target audience, which means I needed to know who they are. Factors that may be relevant include age, gender, ethnicity, social class, what their media needs are. I need to research how to meet my target audience needs to ensure I can produce a product that they will want. I need to ensure I know how to reach them and this in turn will inform how I market my film. I will show how my research has influenced my planning. 

From this research I learned that my target audience will have to be older, and more mature, as to not cause the more 'active' viewers to incorporate the violent aspects of the story and minimize risk to immature viewers. However by limiting the age to 15 we will remove the immature viewers and will instead only get viewers who will enjoy the film, but not try to replicate anything they see in the film.

CASE STUDY : Rogue One, A Star Wars story

Rogue One Questions
Kathleen Kennedy, and Allison Shearmur

• Who directed the film?  Gareth Edwards

• What other films have they directed? 
Monsters, Godzilla

• What was the budget? $265 million (gross) $219.5 million (net)

• Who stars in it? Felicity Jones, Forest Whitaker

• What other films have they been in? The Theory of Everything, Black Panther, Inferno

• What technology has been used to make the film? (What cameras did they use? How was the film edited? What CGI was involved?) The film employed usage of CGI to help build the image of outer space and create the planets that the story would be set on, Alexa 65, which is Arri’s top of the line digital cinema camera. It shoots in 6K resolution.

• How was the film marketed? Which different marketing tools were used? It was primarily marketed through posters, trailers, and interviews with the cast. This meant that it would reach a wide range of audiences quickly and efficiently.

• What examples of synergy with other products/merchandise can you find? T-shirts, Figurines, books, graphic novels,lego products etc.

• What examples of cross media convergence can you find?Duracell, Nissan, Gillette, Verizon, General Mills, Uber

• What examples of technological convergence can you find? Snapchat filters which allowed pictures to be taken with members of the cast in the background

• Where and when was this film released (nationwide, worldwide) and in what cinemas? The film was released worldwide and in all cinema's as to maximise profits 

• Who produced the film?  Kathleen Kennedy, and Allison Shearmur

PLANNING : audience questionaires

I created an audience questionnaire on google forms so I could identify the target audience and work out what I need to include in my film as to appeal to the audience. The aim of my questionnaire is to gain information about my target audience so I can create a film that perfectly suits the needs of my audience so as to gain as many viewers as possible.

Due to the usage of Google forms I will be able to get as many respondents as possible and use the information to help with deciding the content of my film. Google forms helped with retrieving the information.

my film questionnaire

The questions I asked were:

1. What is your gender?
2. What is your age?
3. What is your favourite genre?
4. How do you prefer to watch films?
5. Which 3 streaming medium do you find yourself most commonly using?

Then 2 questions asking if the poster selected made the audience want to see the film, and the same, again, but instead of posters I put trailers.

POSTER 1 : infinity war ensemble poster
POSTER 2 : The joker
TRAILER 1 : The Godfather
TRAILER 2 : The Irishman

HEGEMONY

Hegemony

Hegemony is the idea that the media continuously represents certain groups as more dominant and more powerful than other groups. In western society the group that is most commonly shown to be the more dominant and powerful group are the middle-class white men. This is because middle-class white men dominate media production in the news, film, TV and writing industry.

Pluralism is when there are multiple viewpoints, ideas and ethnicities being shown through diverse and different types of media such as film, music and shows. Western media fail to hold an even distribution of various background in media, in the UK, for example the majority of jobs in the journalist proffesion is held by 94% of the journalists being white, and 55% of journalists being male. which is a clear under-representation of the masses. Therefore meaning that it requires people of separate viewpoints rather than continuous representation of the same ideals.

The uses and gratification model states that people will only consume media that reflects their own viewpoints, this means that it can be difficult to persuade someone who adopts a certain viewpoint (whether that be politically, more radical or docile). This can, if the active vs passive model is reflective of contemporary society, influence people's views and in extreme cases their actions. 

Western society is then shown more media consisting of middle-class white men, and less so of other ethnicities, gender and class. This then created the image that middle-class white men are deemed to be more successful and more powerful than other people. Which then forces western society to be ‘controlled’ by a certain group of people and not represented as in control by the whole population. This can then influence people who consume the media which can reflect in their actions and can affect society as a whole.

The writer believes that hegemony helps us to understand the ‘messy’ relationship between the society we live in now and the media we consume daily. This is because it helps us to think about and understand how we as audiences and consumers of media are influenced by the media we consume, for example seeing something online such as a challenge, then attempting to replicate it ourselves.

In the titles of the posters it says ‘if you’re surprised you don’t see enough black people in major roles’ I was surprised. Not at the concept of an black actor playing the roles, but instead that I didn’t recognise the characters being portrayed in massive mainstream film and tv posters. When I saw that the Harry Potter and Doctor Who characters, programmes I have watched before, I was surprised because I hadn’t seen these characters in the story up to that point, not that they were black.

However it is true that black people, Hispanic people and Asian people don’t get as much representation in media as white people. It wouldn’t solve the problem if established characters such as Harry Potter and The Doctor suddenly changed race after a prolonged series of time as they are established characters and people already have an image in their head, of the character’s age, race, ethnicity, gender, and body proportions.

However The Doctor is an exception to this as it is written into the lore of Doctor Who that The Doctor can change ethnicity, gender and body proportions with each reincarnation. It would be better if the scriptwriters changed their stories to better suite the representation they’re going for.

Whilst representation of different ethnicities, genders, ages and sexualities is good, it shouldn’t be forced, as then it wouldn’t feel natural, and would instead make the film, book, show, etc feel flawed and can be off-putting for a viewer to watch or read.

PLANNING : my target audience

I had to find a way to reach my target audience. I also needed to know who my target audience were. I had to research what their age would be, their gender, their ethnicity and their social class. I also needed to research what their media consumes were so that I could produce a product that they will want to watch. Finally, in order to market my film, I had to know how to reach my target audience. I will have to show how my research has influenced my planning by answering the following questions below.

1. Who is my primary target audience?

16-35 year olds who enjoy enigma, mob style films. of both genders

2. What kind of films and television are they likely to prefer?

Mob films such as The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Irishman, The Godfather part 2, Scarface,
Johnny Brasco and Little Caesar

3. What platforms do they choose to watch films and where are they likely to see information
about films?

They most likely use streaming services to watch films and keep up with film information/updates
through social media and film news agents. however there are many different platforms that the film
can be streamed on, as there are a huge number of streaming services, creating a 'stream war'. This
means that the film will be widely accessible however due to the large number of content within all the
services it may not be seen and may be skimmed over, meaning that it could be difficult to get viewers
to watch the film. so we would have to consider which streaming service it could be streamed on, if at
all.

4. What brands do they prefer?

‘cool/trendy’ brands such as Hollister, Pretty Green,etc.

5. What makes my film stand out from the competition?

This film is a modern film, that incorporates themes from classic mob films to create a familiar viewing
experience to films such as The Godfather or Goodfellas with better technology to film it and better
quality visuals.

6 . Why should my audience watch my film?

Audience should watch my film because it will be a very nostalgic feeling when you watch this
due to the themes similar to that of the classic films which is very hard to find in the cinema industry
as it is being saturated by big CGI filled blockbusters such as transformers and the marvel films. It’s
a change of pace fro the average moviegoer and hardcore film fans alike.

RESEARCH : SCOOP.IT

I used scoop.it to make it easier to access my art of the titles if i needed to in the future.

RESEARCH: Titles

Baby Driver (2017)



Production companies: TriStar pictures, Media rights capital, Big Talk productions and Working Title Films

Actor 1: Ansel Elgort
Actor 2: Kevin Spacey
Actor 3: Lily James
Actor 4: Jon Bernthal
Actor 5: Jon Hamm
Actor 6: Jamie Foxx
Actor 7: Elza Gonzalaz Flea
Actor 8: Sky Ferreira
Actor 9: Lanny Joon
Actor 10: R.Marcus Taylor

Casting: Francine Maisler CSA
Choreography: Ryan Heffington
Costume designer: Courtney Hoffman
Music: Steve Prince
Editors: Paul Machliss ACE and Jonathan Amos ACE
Production Designer: Marcus Rowland
Director of Photography: Bill Pope ASC
Executive producers: Edgar Wright, Rachel Prior, James Biddle,Adam Merims,Liza Chasm and Michelle Wright
Produced by: Nira Park,Tim Bevan and Eric Felliner
Written and directed by: Edgar Wright



Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Production companies: Telecinco Cinema, Estudios Picasso, Tequila Gng, Esperanto Filmoj, Sententia Entertainment
Distributed by:Warner Bros. Pictures

Actor 1: Sergi Lopex
Actor 2: Maribel Verdu
Actor 3: Ivana Baqero
Actor 4: Doug Jones
Actor 5: Ariadna Gil
Actor 6: Alex Angulo
Narrated by: Pablo Adan

Casting: Sara Bilbatua
Costume designer: Lala Huete
Music: Javier Navarrete
Set decoration: Laura Musso and Pilar Revuelta
Cinematography: Guillermo Navarro
Editors: Bernat Vilaplana
Production designer: Eugenio Caballero
Executive producers: Belen Atienza, Elena Manrique
Produced by: Guillermo del Toro, Bertha Navarro, Alfonso Cuaron, Frida Torresblanco and Alvaro Augustin
Written and directed by: Guillermo del Toro

PRELIMINARY EXERCISE : Practise title sequence

my film opening

In order for my group to practice a film opening we researched two films; these were  Delicatessen (1991) and To Kill A Mockingbird (1962). I learned that an opening sequence can tell a story and directors can use still life style camerawork to help deliver information to the audience before the main story begins. It can set the scene and the theme for the film. The point of view shots used in Delicatessen were cleverly designed to made you feel like you were actually the victim increasing tension and dramatic impact on the audience from the moment it starts.

We decided as a group to follow the same theme which was the tabletop theme.  We used a camera panning over different parts of the table top to reveal the items to show a story through the live action and the order we showed them.

We set up a table and we included the following items to tell our story:

A briefcase, a snake, some money, a gun and an alcoholic drink

We chose the film opening music Nostalgia by Emily Barker (2015).We tried to use the music in sync with the movements.

Our story was about an assassination and the opening sequence was focussed around his briefcase and the items he would use which had a picture of the victim and a big red circle around the face to draw attention to the victim, and to make the audience feel that that the man in the picture was going to be killed.

We used movement and live action. We opened the briefcase to show the items inside so they could see the gun and money. We moved the snake to give a sense of realism and to make the audience feel like the snake symbolised the devil and the devil tempts people to do bad things.The gun was taken out and it was loaded and the briefcase was shut as the camera panned away.

The live action helps the audience engage and hook them into the story.

At the end we tried to do a live action sequence which was the actual assassination attempt.We also tried to make the credits reveal through the dynamic aspect for the opening sequence. For example, when the briefcase opened it revealed the name and when the case was closed the name disappeared but this was far too difficult and imovie doesn't have the editing capability so we decided not to do this.

RESEARCH : Art of the Title - Back to the Future

RESEARCH : Art of the Title - Back to the Future

The start of this title sequence consists of a plain black screen with white writing appearing, this is
reflective of the time period in which this film was made as they may not have had the equipment and
the budget to make a more extravagant font for the directors name. as mentioned it states the name
of the director which indicates to the viewer who is responsible for the story and execution.

There is no audio at the start of this sequence, but two seconds into this sequence there is a faint
sound of a clock ticking, which is clearly a reference to the theme of this film, which is time and
traveling through time.

Following this there is more text informing the viewer who is responsible for writing the film, in this
caseit states that it is a ‘Robert Zemeckis film’. This gives the viewers an idea of who is responsible for the
creative decisions and getting this film made.

The title is shown (with no music playing over it), indicating that this perhaps isn’t going to be super
reliant on big action sequences or epic music/sounds to keep the audience engaged.

A slow fade then follows this, showing one clock, and telling the audience that it is about five to eight.

This again is building up the theme of time in this sequence. The camera then pans, to show
yet more clocks of which all show the hands of the clocks are the exact same time.

The sound of the solo clock ticking is then joined by more tickings of the multiple clocks. However,
they are not all in sync yet show the same time, which suggests to the audience that something is
afoot.

There is some text that appears telling us that Michael.J.Fox is starring in this film. The
camera then pans away from the clocks, whilst more text appears titling Christopher Lloyd, and Lea
Thompson, who are yet more actors that are being featured in this film. The audience would expect
this information.The pan continues showing more clocks and shows two other actors name, indicating
more actors that starred in this film. 

The pan then shows sections of a newspaper that have been cut out and framed. One shows that
the Brown's mansion has been destroyed this makes the viewer wonder who the Brown family are
and why it was destroyed. It will also make the audience question how Emmet Brown became bankrupt.

The section of the paper next to it showed that the estate was sold, again this makes the viewer
question who it was sold to. This is clearly trying to inform the viewers of some events that have
happened before the film so we can get some context to the situation the brown family are in before the
film starts.

The camera pans downwards to show two men in frames hanging on the wall and this tells us they
are people of interest and inspiration to Emmet, the inventor. This also tells us that he has an interest
in science and maths for there are lots of technical and mathematical items hanging on the wall and
kept in storage, plus he is described as an inventor.

The camera pans outwards and more text appears, telling the viewer who is responsible for casting.

The pan continues, showing a radio, the radio station is broadcasting that a Toyota car is for sale at a
deal. Making audience sense that Dr Emmett Brown was looking to buy a car. The pan widens and
shows a coffee machine automatically making coffee, this connotes innovative ideas and efficient
behaviour, however there is no mug, so it spills everywhere, which is reflective of Dr Emmett Brown’s
ideas and how they are executed.The audience can probably sense that he isn't your usual scientist.

The pan continues showing two more clocks, which again continues building on the theme of time
and innovation. Whilst this is happening text appears on the screen titling a song that was specifically
written for this film and will appear twice throughout the runtime.

The pan then turns to a TV which is on a news channel. The female newsreader states that there is
missing plutonium and the government has denied these rumours. This engages the viewer as we
believe that the plutonium is stolen otherwise it wouldn’t have been mentioned in the opening sequence. 

The camera then pans forward more, showing multiple inventions and text appears which tells the
viewer who wrote the music. The pan continues showing more inventions and then a can rolls
into the machine to which it was then moved and emptied, this shows that the inventions are innovative
and don’t require human interaction.

There is then a hard cut to show a dog bowl with overflowing food, presumably left from days ago in
a dog bowl with the name ‘Einstein’ on it, again suggesting that Dr Emmett Brown has a sense of humour
and respects and admires the famous scientist. The camera then follows the machine with a tracking
shot, following the dog food can as it gets dropped into the overflowing bin full of cans, suggesting the
idea that it hasn’t been touched for a long time and that Emmett Brown is possibly a busy man.

The door then opens with a person dropping the key underneath the mat and calling out ‘Doc?’ A boys
voice is heard and suggests that he knows Dr Emmett Brown and frequently visits him as he is aware of
where the key is. The person is wearing jeans and carrying a skateboard, which indicates his age as being
young.

The boy then steps into the building, suggesting familiarity with this location. Whilst this is happening
the names of the executive producers appear, which tells the viewer who is responsible for the execution
of the film. The boy then steps in and begins talking to himself, which connotes the idea that no-one is
there and he is alone. More text appears indicating to the viewer who wrote the film.

The boy then puts his bag on his skateboard and places it on the ground, kicking it backwards, the
camera then follows the board with a tracking shot until it hits a box. The writing on the box is
shown to the viewer, which tells them ‘plutonium, handle with care’ this pays off the mystery of the
missing plutonium and suggests that the government are lying to their country.

It cuts to an extreme closeup of a boy putting his guitar jack into the amplifier and turning up everything
to full, which indicates that he is a big music fan and that he enjoys playing music. Following
this there is a hard cut to show the boy putting the other end of the cord into his guitar, then turning the
volume all the way up, this shows that he enjoys loud music and he is into rock.

The camera then pans away, with more text showing, telling the viewer who produced the film. The
pan continues, with the boy turning away from the camera, covering his face as it has not been shown
up until this point. Then turning up the volume even more. 

The camera pans into a long shot showing the size of the amplifier and awing the audience with its
size. The producers’ name then appears and the boy is still turned away, so we are again trying to
figure out who he is, then he turns towards the amplifier and strums the guitar sending him flying
backwards and breaking the amplifier.

The final shot of this opening sequence is a long shot of him sitting on a sofa that he has just landed
on thanks to the force of the amp blowing and a series of books falling off the bookshelf onto him, this
connotes that perhaps all is not as it seems with the inventor and his inventions.

RESEARCH : Distribution Collage

I watched a presentation by Keiza Williams and Chris Besseling on the Film Distributor's site, they
work in theatrical distribution at Pathe. They talked about how distributors make successful marketing
campaigns for the films they are working on. It is really important to look at other films that are going
to be released at the same time and try and make the film you are working on unique and different to
other similar films. What is the hook that will make the audience want to watch it?

Film companies use many methods of promotion which include:

• Trailers

• Website advertising

• News articles,interviews and award ceremonies

• Cross Promotions/product tie ins (such as Toyota and Star Wars)

• Posters

• Social media (Facebook, instagram, twitter, Youtube)

I have decided to look at Captain Marvel's marketing campaign.

Trailer

Using trailers to promote your film is a very common yet successful method as you give the public a taste of your upcoming film in the hope to gain customers and viewers,and in turn boost revenue. The trailer for Captain Marvel showcased the famous actors involved in the film (Jude law, Samuel l Jackson and Brie Larson) to help raise hype and gain public awareness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1BCujX3pw8

Social Media

It is often the case that a movie will use obvious media channels like Social media to advertise through. This will mean that lots of people will discover the movie and It helps to raise awareness of the film and it's premise.Captain Marvel posted virtually every day over the course of a few months on Instagram to try and hook the audience.They also used the 'Her hero' campaign to encourage female empowerment and in turn encourage more viewers.

Posters
They released a series of posters with the main character's on them. Marvel even added a cat to one of the posters and this gained media attention because people like animals and it was unusual for Marvel.


Talk Shows
Samuel L Jackson and Brie Larson are actors in the film and went on talk shows before the release of the film in order to promote it. They went on shows such as the late late show with James Corden and the Jimmy Fallen show..This exposure is massive as it hits the TV audience and is a great form of advertising as actors sell films due to their popularity.

Cross Promotions
An example of cross promotion is when Captain Marvel cross promoted with Coca-Cola which lead to the film being seen and heard about everywhere as Coca-Cola is distributed everywhere throughout the world.

RESEARCH : Art of the Title - Lord of War

RESEARCH : Art of the Title - Lord of War

At the beginning of this sequence there is the sound of rushing wind, this builds the image of a
deserted location with nothing going on there, almost reminiscent of old western movie openings and
it helps with building the image of danger, as western movies have often been a story of discovering
themselves through being put in near death situations and coming out of it alive, which forces that
image into the viewer’s mind, almost begging the viewer to start to think of this film in a cliche sense.
Whilst these sounds are playing there is a plain black screen with bold white text indicating to the
viewer the company’s involved in the production of this film. 

A six second plain black screen then follows this is clearly used to build tension in the viewer and
make them think about what is happening and to engage the viewer into the experience. Following
this there is a close up, upwards pan shot over a large field of bullets symbolising the fall in humanity
and democracy, whilst also showing the viewer what kind of movie they are about to watch. After
fifteen seconds of panning over the field of bullets it shows a long shot of a man standing in this field in
a full suit and holding a briefcase, connoting, due to his content in standing in the sea of bullets that
he must be involved in it somehow, causing the viewer to think over and come to a conclusion that he
must have something to do with the production of the bullets and firearms. Whilst the camera zooms
into him there are sounds of gunfire, to which he doesn’t react in the slightest, again reinforcing the
idea that he had something to do with the production of firearms and bullets.

It continues to zoom in, again reinforcing the idea that he has something to do with the bullets, and
gunfire. It then pans to a close up of the man’s shoulders and head, he then turns around, breaking
the fourth wall, telling the audience that he is about to monologue. He then tells the viewer something
shocking : ‘there are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation’, this is a shocking fact and
delivered in a way that is seemingly mimicking charity commercials, making the viewer think that this
will be a movie about stopping production of guns,or informing people about gun crimes. He then
continues to say ‘ that’s one firearm for every twelve people on the planet’, again this makes the
viewer realise that this is a horrific number of guns, and makes them think about the facts and it
makes the viewer think about what they can do to change this. This is followed immediately with this
character asking ‘the only question is’, this engages the audience as they want to know what this
question is, however, he cuts himself off by raising a cigarette to his mouth and inhaling a puff, which
is the thing that ticks the viewer off and makes them question why this man, who is seemingly trying
to be a good Samaritan is doing something that is known to be harmful to himself and others. To
which it is answered ‘how do we arm the other eleven’. This subverts expectations and makes the
viewer question what they thought they knew about this movie and what they thought they knew
about this man.

Following this it cuts to a downwards pan of a factory, this tells the viewer that we are about to
witness the production of something. As it is quite dirty, it connotes that whatever is going on is illegal
and immoral, as the workers are not working in good conditions. The song being played in the
foreground is ‘For what it’s worth’ by Buffalo Springfields, being played in a very cocky manner, this
gives the opening a warm , almost humorous sense that is absent on any aspect of the opening so
ar, contrasting the very cold, lifeless conveyor belt of the weapons manufacturing center, and the cold
delivery of Nicholas Cage’s character’s facts. Also this song became a well-known protest song, which
holds the unease spreading across america in the late sixties , soon becoming an anthem for civil
rights and the Vietnam war.

The pan is a long shot, focusing on a man in a full jumpsuit standing in front of a machine, which
shows that he is working class and is possibly forced into this job as the conditions are so bad. This
man is shown to be a victim, but not in the traditional sense, for he is not hurt , but he seems to be
trapped in this job as no-one would want to work here, showing that victims of war spread far from just
those that are hurt, but also those that must work to support the side that they may be helping.

The camera then pans toward the equipment whilst text appears on the screen, stating one of the
actors involved in the film: ‘Nicholas Cage’. His name is shown first and soon after the start of the
title sequence as he is a well known actor, and also because he is the main character. Following this
it pans towards some kind of machinery, representing the beginning of the production of a single bullet,
almost like it has been given birth to, which is ironic as bullets are often used to end lives.

The title then shows, displaying the words ‘Lord of War’ in a Font similar to that used in propaganda
posters, which seems like it could be trying to mimic the style for comedic purposes as there is a war
going on and by using this font it builds this image of propaganda which is usually done to get people
to sign up for the army as a war rages.

There is then another shot with text on the screen, indicating to the viewer another actor involved in
the production of this film. It then falls onto yet another conveyor belt and is then picked up, then
swiftly put down, this represents the efficiency of the bullets production and their efficiency in combat.

It cuts to a shot of the bullets in a crate and being transported to the back of a truck, representing the
idea of sending people to war, and the pointlessness of it, then a crate lid is put on top and hammered
down, mimicking gunfire and as the shadow covers the bullet it clearly represents death, as nothing
is seen, and the bullet is in a dark box.

There is then text displaying who the costume designer is and a flash of light in the slit of the box,
which is clearly representing the common saying ‘i can see the light’, which again is related to the
theme of death and tools of war that the sequence is displaying. Following this it shows a soviet union
soldier, presumably a commander based on the uniform he is wearing, looking at the cargo, and
closing the lid quickly after, suggesting that he cares very little about the cargo and is just doing his
job, which is similar to the theme of the workers and their job.

The text is then illuminated, showing the editor’s name, and shortly after that the production designer’s
name, this tells the viewer who gets credit for these specific aspects of the film. The lid then opens,
illuminating the cargo, and showing the viewer where it has been transported to, and helps to show
the viewer what kind of story it is going to be. Then the crate is hit, which causes the cargo to fall
everywhere, it almost rolls over the edge, symbolising a possible escape from war, and from death,
but is then picked up and thrown back into the crate, symbolising you being the one to die and be cast
into the mass graves.

More text is shown, telling the viewer who the director of photography and the executive line
producer’s were. Then the crate shakes for a moment and leaves, carried towards the battle grounds.
Again clearly representing the soldiers being forced into the battlegrounds. More text then appears,
telling the viewer who co-produced the film. The cargo is then stacked, and a shadow covers over it,
again it indicated the loss of life and the loss of light from a life.

A cut to black is then shown with the executive producer’s names being shown in the same, white
font as before. Then the crate lid is lifted up, and light shines on the crate, illuminating the bullets,
which shows the viewer that they are about to be used and who is about to use them. Followed swiftly
by a fall back into the darkness as a few bullets are taken out of the crate, with the names of the
executive producers being shown as well.

The crate is then lifted back into the light, and then dropped to the floor, similar to bodies when shot,
which is ironic as bullets are tools used to end lives, more text is shown telling us who the producers
were.

The bullet is picked up and placed into the ammunition chamber, which represents the start or entering
a war and the lives that will be taken. The stack of bullets placed on top of this bullet, and almost
pushing it down, can be seen as a representation of the lives being dropped towards the ground after
being shot. Following this there is then a cut to black and it shows more text telling the viewer who the
producers of this film was.

A flash appears on the screen and the bullet makes its way up the magazine chamber, and looks out,
creating tunnel vision that is representative of the people in war and how they feel when they see a
target they must shoot. There is then a long four second shot of the bullet traveling through the air
and into a small boy’s head, again suggesting towards the pointlessness of war and that war spares
no-one, that even kids can be a target and must fight.

It then finishes with a screen of black, telling us who wrote and directed the film, with no more music,
just leaving you to wonder how the kid got involved in this seemingly pointless conflict.