Universal Studios Research

Universal Studios

• Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, and Jules Brulatour 
• American film studio owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal.
• It is the oldest surviving film studio in the United States; the world's fifth oldest after Gaumont, Pathé, Titanus, and Nordisk Film.
• Oldest member of Hollywood's "Big Five" studios in terms of the overall film market.
• Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and was one of the "Little Three" majors during Hollywood's golden age.
• Its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City.

Columbia Pictures Research

Columbia Pictures

• Founded on June 19, 1918 by Harry Cohn, his brother Jack Cohn, and Joe Brandt.
• It adopted the Columbia Pictures name in 1924, went public two years later, and eventually began to use the image of Columbia, the female personification of the United States, as its logo. It was originally known as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales.
• In its early years, Columbia was a minor player in Hollywood, but began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra. With Capra and others, Columbia became one of the primary homes of the screwball comedy.
• Columbia's product line consisted mostly of moderately budgeted features and short subjects including comedies, sports films, various serials, and cartoons. Columbia gradually moved into the production of higher-budget fare, eventually joining the second tier of Hollywood studios along with United Artists and Universal. Like United Artists and Universal, Columbia was a horizontally integrated company. It controlled production and distribution; it did not own any theaters.
• Helping Columbia's climb was the arrival of an ambitious director, Frank Capra. Between 1927 and 1939, Capra constantly pushed Cohn for better material and bigger budgets. A string of hits he directed in the early and mid 1930s solidified Columbia's status as a major studio. In particular, It Happened One Night, which nearly swept the 1934 Oscars, put Columbia on the map. Until then, Columbia's existence had depended on theater owners willing to take its films, since it didn't have a theater network of its own.
• Many theaters relied on westerns to attract big weekend audiences, and Columbia always recognized this market. 
• Employed many comedians.
• In the early 1930s, Columbia distributed Walt Disney's famous Mickey Mouse cartoons and In 1933, the studio established its own animation house. In 1949, Columbia agreed to release animated shorts from United Productions of America; these new shorts were more sophisticated than Columbia's older cartoons, and many won critical praise and industry awards.
• Cohn always placed a high priority on serials. Beginning in 1937, Columbia entered the lucrative serial market, and kept making these episodic adventures until 1956, after other studios had discontinued them. The most famous Columbia serials are based on comic-strip or radio characters: Mandrake the Magician, The Shadow, Terry and the Pirates, Captain Midnight, The Phantom, Batman, and Superman, among many others.
• Columbia also produced musical shorts, sports reels (usually narrated by sportscaster Bill Stern), and travelogues. Its "Screen Snapshots" series, showing behind-the-scenes footage of Hollywood stars, was a Columbia perennial; producer-director Ralph Staub kept this series going through 1958.
• In 1948, the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust decision forced Hollywood motion picture companies to divest themselves of the theatre chains that they owned. Since Columbia did not own any theaters, it was now on equal terms with the largest studios, and soon replaced RKO on the list of the "Big Five" studios.

The Resolution plan

The Resolution

Tagline - There's always enough time

Plot - [name] realises after all this time she's never set herself a new year's resolution, and therefore decides to finally attempt one. The movie takes place in late December, as [name] tries to find something worth doing that isn't simply something like eating less chocolate. Throughout the film she consults friends and family about her resolution but ultimately ends up oblivious to problems around her, like her son's aversion to school or the struggles of her best friend. The film also deals with the imminent feeling of not having enough time or missing out on things that some people from the target audience can relate to.



Main Characters

• Shireen - A 40 year old woman, working at a hospital. Has a son but is divorced. 
• Thomas - Shireen's son, currently in secondary school and expresses an aversion to going to school, due to being bullied.
• Joanne - Shireen's best friend. Struggling with depression and has a hard time keeping down a job. 

What do they look like?

• Shireen - Quite short, tidy. Indian
• Kameron - A little tall and slightly lanky. Indian
• Joanne -

What are they wearing?

• Shireen: out of work - smart clothes, usually formal looking shirts or jumpers.
• Kameron: out of school - casual clothes, jeans and t-shirt. at school - uniform. could be messy to reflect a lack of importance for school. 
• Joanne -  plain clothes, slightly messy

Target Audience - People age 30 to 49. Most likely women over men, due to the main character being female. Possibly those with children of their own, who can relate to the main character's relationship with her son. Relatable to divorcees, and especially single parents. Can also target those who work in a hospital setting, regardless of age group.


Colour Themes

• black
•  Some orange/yellows

Locations for Images

• Café, could go to costa with my mum. could be a friend scene
• The park near my house could be good for a scene with the son
• My living room? establishes the time of the year the movie is set in as decorations are visible from Christmas. could also be a scene with the friend
• The main character's workplace? could be at the hospital in a hall or staff room

Director and Actors names

• Director - Olivia Bell
• MC - Christina O' Connor 
• Son - Kameron O' Connor
• Friend - Rosalina Childs

Picture ideas for print products

DVD Cover

Thumbnail images

• Christina getting ready for work, seen in uniform because I can't take photos in the hospital. -BEDROOM
• Kameron on the swing - PARK
• Friend character in the middle of the street at night - SREET
• Ex husband on the phone, face hidden
• Kameron and Christina on the sofa, talking - LIVING ROOM

Front cover

• mc resting head on hand with arms kind of crossed 

Back cover

• could use kameron a picture of kameron  

Portrait Poster

• hands down or on table, mid shot of mc staring out of the window at the cafe

Banner Poster

• leaning on both elbows so that mc looks like she's resting on the base of the poster. 

TOTAL: 9

13.11.19 - So far I have taken photos for the mc scene showing her job through the outfit she is wearing, as well as the pictures with Thomas in the park on the swings. As thumbnails, the one I will probably end up going with either the picture of mum doing up her hair, or the one of her just looking to the right. I could try and reshoot to get a better mirror shot too.
For the park thumbnail, I will probably go with either the close up or the one taken from the front on the swing, rather than the one from the back. As much as I like this photo, it doesn't suit being a thumbnail since being small will make the contents slightly harder to make out. It could honestly work as the main back cover too.

Love Actually (Universal)

Love Actually

Media Language 

The main section of the film poster is split into 10, with each box containing a headshot of the members of the cast. Beneath these images are the names of the actors, with the font and colouring being similar to that of the stylised film title. The colour red is used on the ribbon and title, and connotes love (like in the film title) as well as Christmas itself. The use of sans serif also connotes a lack of seriousness, and could show that the movie is typically more lighthearted. The bow that ties them together causes the entire section to look like a gift box, alluding to it being a Christmas themed film. This is also shown by the snow falling, which accumulates at the bottom of the poster in order to create the white background that houses the film's title and institutional information. Hanging in the middle of the poster is a label typically found on presents, which says states the other movies made by the director, which could encourage viewers of the poster to watch 'Love Actually' if they enjoyed the other ones.

]Representation

The entirety of the cast is white. Furthermore, there isn't an equal split between male and female main cast members, with 6 being men and only 3 being women. Because of this, no minorities are majorly represented within the movie, and representation of white men are prioritised over white women. There appears to be a range in ages of the female main cast, with the youngest and oldest female actors being Knightley and Thompson, at age 28 and 54 when the film was produced respectively. The age range for the male actors was slightly less varied, with the youngest at the time being Firth and Grant at 53, and the oldest being Nighy and Rickman at 63.

Audience

The primary audience for this film appears to be mainstream, and possibly geared more towards women than men. This is because even though there are more men than women in the film, the romcom genre itself is inclined more towards a generally female audience, due to it's focus on love and more lighthearted topics. The male actors can also be seen as there for the enjoyment of the women who watch the film, therefore making sense for them to outnumber the women. Because the majority of the cast is over the age of 35, it could be argued that 'Love Actually' is also aimed at a target audience of ages 30 to 49, and possibly even higher.

Industry

'Love Actually was produced by StudioCanal, Working Title Films and DNA films, and was distributed by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Richard Curtis, who is famous for writing romcoms, and has received multiple awards, one of the most prestigious being the BAFTA Academy
Fellowship Award.

Blurb for DVD Cover

Shireen (Christina O’Connor) is a forty year old divorcee living with her son, Thomas (Kameron
O’Connor). With a job she enjoys and friends that care, Shireen leads a perfectly content life - according
to her at least. However, her view of the world around her begins to change, upon the simple realisation
that she’s never made a new year’s resolution. Before December ends, Shireen decides to find a
worthwhile and meaningful promise for the future, while remaining oblivious to the problems the people
closest to her face in the present. The Resolution explores the idea that there's always the opportunity to
do the things you want in life, even if feels like time is running out.

Print Product Drafts

Print Products Drafts

Radio Script

About 2:07

Barry: Hello and welcome to our film segment here on Radio Sterling,

Jingle for ‘Lights, Camera, Satisfaction!’

Barry: We’re incredibly lucky to have one of the most talented directors of this generation with us
today, so I’d like to welcome Olivia Bell to the studio! Really glad you could make it.

applause/cheering

Olivia: Thanks Barry, I’m happy to be here!

Barry: To start off, could you tell us about your most recent film, ‘The Resolution’? Where’d
you get the inspiration for it from?

Olivia: Ah well you see, the idea actually came around in a pretty roundabout way.

Barry: Oh really?

Olivia: Yeah, one night I couldn’t sleep since there were fireworks going off outside non-stop. The fireworks weren’t even for New Years but it was all that came to mind, and that was when I realised, ‘Oh, I’ve never really cared for New Year’s resolutions before, have I?

Barry: What about the inspiration for the location?

Olivia: Oh, I chose the area because it was where I grew up. The scenes that take place at the school
with Thomas were definitely the most special to me since I was pretty similar to him when I was
younger. The way Kameron portrayed his character was perfect, I couldn’t have asked for more. 

Barry: Huh, I didn’t think the whole process would be so personal.

Olivia: Honestly, I feel that having a personal element to the story and setting lets you connect more to
the directing process.

Barry: Speaking of personal elements, I don’t think ‘The Resolution’ would have been the same
without the decision to cast both Christina and Kameron O’Connor. 

Olivia: Oh, yeah for sure. Without the spark between them both and how well they connected as
actors, I can’t imagine what the film would have been like at all.

Barry: Actually, we can ask about that right now! Over to Elise on the red carpet.

Background noise; some applause, talking.

Elise: Thank you, Barry. I’m currently joined by Christina O’Connor who plays Shireen in ‘The
Resolution’. Tell me, Christina, how did you feel about working with your son throughout the
production of the film?

Christina: Oh, it was definitely a unique experience. I often used to think about being able to act with my son, so when I received the news I was ecstatic. 

Elise: What do you think was the most notable part of acting with Kameron?

Christina: I’d say the way the interactions turned out. The scenes in ‘The Resolution’ where Shireen
talks to Thomas feel so much more real, since I could honestly see myself saying those lines to him in real life!

Elise: Lastly, apart from that, was there any other aspect of 'The Resolution' you felt was relatable? 

Christina: I think the general feeling of not having enough time that Shireen experiences was relatable to not just myself but a lot of the people watching it. Approaching your forties and fifties can be quite daunting, so I believe having a movie where that worry is explored can let people feel better about it, in a way. 

Elise: Thank you for that Christina. Back to you, Barry. 

Barry: Thanks Elise! Today's segment has been fun, but unfortunately we've run out of time. It was a
pleasure to interview both you and Christina, and once again thank you so much for being able to
make it out here. 

Olivia: It's been a great time.