UK funded film - We Are the Freaks

We Are the Freaks (2014) is a 15 rated comedy about three misfits that embark on a weekend they will never forget. Written by Justin Edgar, three misfits take a very memorable weekend trip.

Budget: £625,000 (estimated)

Box office: £N/A

Director: Justin Edgar

Produced by: Alex Usborne

Production Company: 104 Films

Released: 22nd April 2014 - Edinburgh Film festival 25th April 2014 - UK

Starring: Jamie Blackley, Sean Teale, Mike Bailey

Jamie Blackley  is a Manx actor who made his acting debut in 2008 in a TV mini-series Apparitions and is well known for his role in If I Stay (2014), and his role as Mark in the film of a true story, U Want Me 2 Kill Him?  He's also won 'Best Performance in a British Feature Film' at the Edinburgh Film Festival 2013 

Sean Teale is a British actor who made his acting debut in the TV series Summer in Transylvania but is most known for his role as Nick Levan in the 5th and 6th series of Skins in 2011-2012

Mike Bailey is a British actor who is most known for his debut role as Sid Jenkins in the 1st and 2nd series of the British teen drama Skins, within his time on skins he sang a musical ensemble of "Wild World" by Cat Stevens.

This film was filmed in Birmingham, West Midlands, England. 


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'Visuals effects are a main attraction for audiences'. How far do you agree with this statement?

Since the first film in 1894 (The Sneeze - Thomas Edison) the production of films has changed drastically, from being silent, sepia films from 1894 to 1927when the first sound film 'The Jazz Singer' was produced to 1973 when Westworld was made which was the first film to use CGI. Since then CGI and varying types of visual effects have become what modern film rely on in order to win over an audience.

Films like "life of Pi" strongly relied on visual effects due to the narrative of film, because of the visual effects used and the way they were used allowed the film to win awards in the categories of Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. However films like The Fault In Our Stars didn't need to rely on visual effects in order to be a success and attract an audience, due to the massive fanbase of the book the film is adapted from. The book by John Green already had a huge following, as well as his other books, because of the storyline and how original it was. Although this film uses the visual effects when the texts between Gus and Hazel appear on screen for the audience to see it is not the focal selling point of the film, the narrative and originality of it is what attracted the audience to the opening weekend in which the film quadrupled its budget of $12,000,000 so in opening weekend alone the film with little visual effects made $48,002,523 with an overall gross of $307,239,013 worldwide and 'The Life of Pi' has an overall gross of $580 million, which is a film that fully relied on visual affects to be a success and attract an audience.

Independent films with a small budget, like 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower with a budget of $13million, have little money to spend during the production of the film meaning visual effects aren't a high priority within spending the budget. Like 'The Fault In Our Stars' 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' was also a book adaptation, although it's pre-existing following wasn't as large as the following for TFIOS. In it's opening weekend 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' made only $228,359 and has made a worldwide gross of $33,384,127. It could be argued that this is due to the lack of visual effects which often attract an audience to watch a film. Others would say it's just a coincidence that the film had little to none visual effects and flopped in the box office; like mentioned in item B 'The Blair Witch Project' used no visual effects but used a different style of filming rather than relying on technology to bring in an audience as it's budget was $37,000 and made $248 million overall, proving that visual effects aren't an overly important factor in attracting an audience. 

The use of stars in films acts as an attraction, 'The perks of Being a Wallflower' uses Logan Lerman and Emma Watson who are both stars in the genre of this film. Emma Watson being known as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, which as a franchise has made over $7 billion. Using a star like Emma Watson in a low budget film like 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' takes off the pressure of need over the top visual effects that are usually sued as a luring technique to attract large audiences, as just the mention her name gets Harry Potter fans interested due to her and the franchises success; this got the film a lot more publicity and interest. Stars can have just as much affect on the overall success and attraction of an audience as visual effects and 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' supports this as although it was a flop in the box office it still got some recognition and praise on the internet which is where it matters as the internet is now just as powerful as the word of mouth.

World Cinema - Blue is the Warmest Colour

Blue is the Warmest Colour is a romance, drama film rated 18, about high school student Adele who is confused about her sexuality until she meets a young blue haired woman who together explore social acceptance, sexuality and the emotional spectrum of their maturing relationship.               

This film is based on a French graphic novel which was originally named "Blue Angel". Two thirds of the film are similar to the film however the ending is different to the book.

Budget: 4,000,000


Director: Abdellatif Kechiche

Opening weekend: $100,316 (USA)    

Gross: $2,199,675 (USA)

                 
Produced by: Abdellatif Kechiche, Brahim Chioua, Vincent Maraval

Production Company : Quat'sous Films Wild Bunch

Released: 22nd May 2013 (Cannes Film Festival), 11th October 2013 (USA), 22nd November 2013 (UK)

Starring: Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos.


Léa Seydoux is a French actress who started her career in French cinema in films like The Last Mistress (2007) and On War (2008) and has also appeared in Hollywood films including Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Robin Hood (2010) and has won 15 awards.


Adèle Exarchopoulos is a French actress who started her career in 2007 with her appearance in Boxes. She is the youngest artist ever to be awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for her leading performance as Adèle in Blue Is the Warmest Colour.She also received a total of 37 other nominations for her performance as a lesbian teenager who plunges into a relationship with a 22-year-old woman.

The majority of this film is filmed in the North of France with a small amount filmed in Brussels, Belgium.

It has won a total of 83 awards whilst being nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.

Lesbian sexuality is one of the strongest themes of the film, as the narrative deals mainly with Adele’s exploration of her identity in this context. However, the film's treatment of lesbian sexuality has been questioned by academics, due to its being directed from a straight, male perspective. Film scholar Sophie Mayer suggests that in Blue is the Warmest Colour, "Like homophobia, the lesbian here melts away. As with many male fantasies of lesbianism, the film centres on the erotic success and affective failures of relations between women". The issue of perspective has also been addressed in a Film Comment  "Emma's supposedly sophisticated friends make eager remarks about art and female sexuality that seem to mirror the director’s problematic approach toward the representation of women".