There have been several productions of the same genre or universe in the past years. Be it superhero movies, the stretched out story of the Hobbit, or the current bombardment of Star Wars films. When does a genre or a story overstep its zenith? How do the financial aspects of the film industry interfere with storytelling (profit vs quality)? What are some of the counterexamples? What makes a franchise become successful in the long run?
There was a brief plague of two part finales: Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight, Divergent. I have to say that having not read any Harry Potter books, watching one of the films felt rushed to me and that there were bits that were underdeveloped or could have been opened up and I would have enjoyed the extra time spent on them. But then the film serves a different purpose to the book. – jackanapes8 years ago
Here is an interesting infographic from Forbes on the highest grossing film franchises. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2015/04/13/the-most-successful-movie-franchises-in-history-infographic/#422c942e5d22 – Hyacinth8 years ago
This might be simplistic, but I think a storyline overshoots when you end up with 3- to 6-hour films covering just one part of the story (i.e., Breaking Dawn, Deathly Hallows). Unless you're a diehard fan--and if you are, that's absolutely fine--you're probably not going to want to sit through that. Case in point: I like LOTR, but I won't sit through the movies because they're so freaking long. – Stephanie M.8 years ago
Write an article about "I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House," a Netflix original. It's format and creative choices in story telling, narration, and cinematics, leaves viewers surprised. It isn't what most expect to find, as many have become accustomed to jump-scare and gore films when it comes to entering a movie with the mentality "this will be scary."
Someone please write an article that not only examine the director's choices and how it differs from other modern films (more resembling the re-telling of an old abstract horror short story) but an article that will also contextualize it. Does it have literary ties to another work or was it made simply to resemble such? How and which literary elements did it adopt and to what effectiveness?
Be it Coca Cola in Jurassic Park or FedEx in Cast Away, product placement is an important component of the advertisement and film industry. It might be interesting to look at the effects such product placement has on the production of a movie. How are the products placed? Does it change the storyline? Has the production team compromise creativity for the product?
This is a really great topic. I would also add that the writer consider some of the ways that product placement has been lampooned by comedic films and satirists e.g. Wayne's World or Colbert and his Doritos. – Jonathan Judd8 years ago
I think it would be interesting to examine realistic vs. unrealistic use of product placement, as well. It seems to me like there are times product placement can make a movie seem more believable, whereas other times it's obviously only being done for the money. – Ben Woollard8 years ago
This is a great topic as I always find it so easy to differentiate between a product being in a shot for pure decoration and being there for product placement. I think it also might be good to make a connection to product placement in music videos, which I found to be so prevalent nowadays. But otherwise, Josie and the Pussycats movie made a lot of accurate and comedic references to product placement and the effects it can have on audiences. – giorginamckay8 years ago
With every new economic downturn, recession, depression, American pop-culture tends to churn out a new slew of cultural products that deal with the impact of these shifting economic conditions. The material reality is what matters here, the impact on everyday life, it also tends to produce interesting film, television and art. The most recent film to do this is out in theaters now, "Going Out in Style." Discuss a few cultural products, from ideally a few different periods of economic strife in America (there are plenty), from the Great Depression (1929-1941) to the Recession of 2008-9, analyzing what they have to say about these periods in American history and the harsh realities they portray.
Examples: basically all of The Grapes of Wrath, maybe a converse example in Gatsby, the homeowner of The Big Short that ends up living in his car, 99 Homes. Just a few that might help narrow this topic! – elroddavid8 years ago
Visualizing terror is no easy task for filmmakers and writers, given the sensitive nature of the topic. Several productions have tackled the subject in various ways with shifting point of views and emphasises. Examples include Air Force One (1997), Bloody Sunday (2002), Omagh (2004), Syriana (2005), Munich (2005), World Trade Center (2006), The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008), Olympus Has Fallen (2013). How is terror visualized? What purpose does it serve to portray it? Where does fiction start?
"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" just serves as a good title. It might be referenced in the article, though it is a fictional event that focuses not on terror but more on coping with it. It might be a good starting point in the article as well, maybe with a quote or Illustration or something. – L.J.8 years ago
This is an interesting topic that could be filled in with a little more shape if you pinpoint the aspects of film-making or writing the author should/could use. Perhaps a suggestion on not only how terror is visualized but also on the politics of representation and the limits of the visual. – Jonathan Judd8 years ago
Analyze how Groundhog Day (1993) has thematic roots in Buddhist and existential philosophy, particularly Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of eternal recurrence, and how it offers a compelling look at the process of change and approaching a more authentic existence.
Bill Murray does a convincing job portraying the various stages of the path, making his transformation from cynical/nihilistic to genuinely kind-hearted believable.
There are many ways the Creature in the 1994 film "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" is different from it's original, classic incarnation from 1931 in "Frankenstein." One example is, obviously, the Creature talks in the remake. What effects do these changes have on the film? Are we more sympathetic to the Creature in the remake or the original film? What relationship does it have to the book?
Hi, I recommend you talk about how much the 1994 version is based on the basic outline and some of the elements of the book by Shelley (which is one of the best books ever created, in my opinion). – SeanGadus8 years ago
Look at the difference between classic and modern gothic and the kinds of thematic shifts that have taken place there. Monsters used to be something used as a scapegoat, pinning our fears onto anything 'Other'. Nowadays, the monsters are often more sympathetic creations, and our fears are turned inwards. – TomWadsworth8 years ago
Consider Park Chan Wook's 'Oldboy' (2003) and Spike Lee's American (2013) remake. What do the differences in these two works reveal about their respective cultures?
I totally forgot about Spike Lee's remake. I have to wonder how he'd handle the ending. – John Wells8 years ago
