The Kings Speech Research

The Kings Speech

The King's Speech is a British film about King George VI who becomes King after his brother having a change in mind of wanting to be on the throne. King George has a stammer and is consider unfit to be King, with the help of an un-certificated speech therapist, Lionel Logue, George is able to find his voice and lead Britain through the Second World War.

Britishness:

What Makes a Film British:

The movie was filmed in the UK; it contained well-known British actors such as: Colin Firth & Helena Bonham Carter. It was also filmed in English language which also contains some old referenced speech such as: Chap, referring to a gentleman. The film reflects British culture of the times it was made about: 1925 – 1939, which includes the announcement of World War 2, there is also the actors wearing costumes from what would have been worn in this time period and the houses Mise en scene is set to fit the time period. The music and effects used in the film were created in the UK which also reflects on the Britishness of the film. The director Tom Hooper is also British, as is the writer of the story David Seidler. Some of the production companies were British such as The UK Film Council, Momentum Pictures, Aegis Film Fund, Molinare Investment, See-Saw Films and Bedlam Productions. But the film did accept money from the further national production companies: Weinstein Company (US) and Film Nation Entertainment (US).

Exhibition

Box Office in the UK:

It exceeded Momentum Picture's expectations when it gained £3.52 million on the opening weekend which is almost double the opening gross of Slumdog Millionaire at £1.83m and the gross profit to date of The King’s Speech was £44,407,313 in box office in the UK.

The Films Reception & Criticism of the film:

Phillip French from the guardian highly rated The King’s Speech and said that “the film is a major achievement, with Firth presenting us with a great profile in courage, a portrait of that recurrent figure, the stammer as hero.” However he did also say that “The film is not without its odd faults, the truly annoying one being the representation of Winston Churchill”. Other more critical reviews have criticised The King's Speech for making errors about the historical accuracy in the film. Other editing errors were pointed out where the king throws his speech and is then shown holding it in his hand in the next scene. The King’s Speech mainly received praise and good reviews.

This is a Canadian member of the audience who outlined the movie as ‘Brilliant’ on the website IMDb. “This is a powerful, hilarious and deeply moving story, told against the backdrop of a critical juncture in modern history, of the emergence of a deep friendship out of a professional relationship between two men who would otherwise never have socially interacted. The screenplay, written by David Seidler (who also wrote Tucker: The Man and his Dream), is excellent.”

Some critical reviews have criticised The King's Speech for making errors about the historical accuracy of some aspects of the film. For example the font used for the text in the BBC broadcasting room not being a font that was available till the 50's. The fact some women were shown wearing seamless stockings when they did not appear until later. Other continuity and editing errors were also pointed out where the King was shown throwing his speech then shown holding it in his hand the next shot.

Award nominations and Oscars:

It received nominations for 12 Oscars including best picture, best director, best supporting actor and actress, best screenplay, best editing, best art direction and costume. It won 4 Oscars for best picture, best director, best Actor (Colin Firth) and best original screenplay. It was also nominated for 14 BAFTAs of which it won 7. Mark Kemode comments that Oscar and BAFTA nominations and awards are often expected when playing a monarch for example with Judy Dench - Shakespeare in Love Helen Mirren - The Queen etc. and especially when the story is about humanising the monarchy.
Web 2.0 and Exchange:

The film itself had its own Facebook that advertised the film, posting posters and trailers as well as director comments and actors comments to attract a wider audience that are available on social networking sites. The film had a number of YouTube clips posted about it like people giving reviews and expectations of the film, for example a YouTube clip by beyond the trailer got 70,102 views. There were reviews and comments on the film in newspapers such as in the guardian by Phillip French and in the telegraph by Sukhdev Sandhu.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GBS1QUOMMU&feature=related

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/8244121/The-Kings-Speech-review.html

Production Issues

The film's origins:

David Seidler the writer read about George VI's life after overcoming a stuttering condition he endured during his youth. He started writing about the relationship between the monarch and his therapist as early as the 1980s, but at the request of the King's widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, postponed work until her death in 2002. He later rewrote his screenplay for the stage to focus on the essential relationship between the two protagonists. Nine weeks before filming began, Logue's notebooks were discovered and quotations from them were incorporated into the script. Therefore this film originated from a true, real life story about an event that happened within the royal family.

The finance:

Prescience saw the film's potential early on and became the key financier of the film. The Weinstein Company and Momentum Pictures were also large investors for the film. The UK Film Council gave See-Saw £1 million for the production. Together they created the budget of $15,000,000

The production companies:

The production companies of the film were Weinstein Company, The UK Film Council, Momentum Pictures, See-Saw Films as well as other companies. See-Saw, a British/Australian company, financed and produced the film but by getting deals with key distribution partners such as The Weinstein Company (USA) Momentum Pictures (UK) Transmission (Australia) and Alliance Film (Canada). This is a good example of a film that can receive a huge global success and without the help of huge Hollywood studios.

Distribution and Marketing Issues:

The trailers used for the UK and US differ, as the UK trailer shows more of Colin Firths character and his personal journey, overcoming his stammer and becoming King. But the US trailer shows more of Geoffrey Rush’s character and how he plays a huge part in helping George overcome his struggle with speech. In the US trailer Helen Bonham Carter’s character refers to her husband as the King rather than the Duke of York which is what she calls him in the UK trailer, which makes the US trailer want to seem more British to attract the American audience that love the British Royals so much. The UK trailer as well uses a well-known British quote from Shakespeare "some men are born great, others have greatness thrust upon them" this adds to the sense of Britishness in the UK trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq2IT299EKo UK Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzI4D6dyp_o  US Trailer

Major Issues Facing British Film Makers:

“It's clear that British cinema has been weathering the global recession well” said UK Film Council chief executive John Woodward. He said the sectors of production, distribution and exhibition were "firing on all cylinders". But he said the marketplace for financing smaller, independently-produced British films has become more difficult. This was partly as a result of the overall economic slowdown and partly down to "the increasingly tough transition from the analogue to the digital age". However, it has been a record of couple of years at the UK box office overall from 2009-2012, with takings of £944m and the highest admissions since 2002 (173.5 million) thanks to films like Kings Speech, Slum dog millionaire and Avatar.

 

Dredd 2012 Presentation Script

Dredd Research Script

 Chloe:

The film was directed by Pete Travis who has directed films such as Vantage Point, Omagh and Endgame. DNA Films (who has done films such as 28 Days Later and the History Boys) produced the film with IM Global (who has done films such as Safe, Insidious and many upcoming films).  Dredd was distributed by Entertainment Film Distributers and Lionsgate. The film got the green light on 20th December 2008.

The cast includes Karl Urban (who plays Dredd) fromm Star Trek and The Bourne Supremacy,  Olivia Thirlby (Anderson) who has been in Juno and No Strings Attached and finally Lena Headley (Ma-ma) who has been in 300 and the Game of Thrones series.

The film received positive reviews from critics. The film had an average rating of 6.5 on the review website Rotten Tomato’s. IGN awarded the film eight out of ten and said, "Dredd is a character study, primarily, one fuelled by violence and action, and we can't think of a better way to re-introduce this character to cinema audiences.” The Guardian's Phelim O'Neill scored the film 4 stars out of 5 and praised Urban's performance, saying, "The essence of Dredd is that he is almost an anti-character—he doesn't change or learn—and Urban nails it in an ego-free performance".

The script for Dredd was written by Alex Garland who began writing in 2006. Garlands draft mainly revolved around one of Dredd’s main enemies called Judge Death. When developing the Judge Dredd character, Garland tried to closely follow what he was like in the comic-books, so he would only have small personality changes over a lengthy period of time.

Will:

A viral advertising site called “Dredd Report” was launched in august 2012. The site consisted of a video showing the use of Slo-Mo and links to news about the film. A tie-in comic book was published on the 5th of September and it is a prequel to the film's narrative and follows Ma-Ma's life as a prostitute. Posters for the film were released shortly after. Reports say that Lionsgate contributed $25 million to advertising and print costs.

Dredd won an Empire Award for best 3D and was nominated for best British film and best science fiction/fantasy film. They also won a Golden Trailer Award for Best Thriller TV Spot for the trailer.

The problem was that the 3D and 2D showings at cinema's were that there wasnt enough showings of them in the UK, so therefore people couldnt find places to watch the film at certain times or even find any showings of the film, as there was report in a review of the film that in some cinemas the film was only showed once so often. I think that Dredd did not have good success because they narrowed down the target audience too much and the sci-fi feel to it would not appeal to a lot of people. I also think that people may have thought that it was too simple and straight forward because the plot was easy to predict.

Jack:

The film was shot digitally and primarily in 3D using RED MX and Phantom Flex high-speed cameras. Some 2D elements were converted to 3D in post-production. Mega-City One’s high rise towers were created in Cape Town Film Studios.

Paul Leonard-Morgan used electronic music and 80’-style synthesisers and modern sounds to create various combinations of music. He said, "I was looking to create a timeless score which couldn't be placed in any particular era. So it's ended up being a cross between a modern dance track and evocative soundscapes." For scenes showing the effect of the Slo-Mo narcotic, he composed new music with real instruments and then slowed the songs down by thousands of percent. The film also includes songs from artists such as Vitalic, Matt Berry and Bobby Womack.

Chloe: 

I throughly enjoyed watching the whole film of Dredd. It was full of action and excitement with a very grown up yet thrilling persecutive to the cartoon comic judge Dredd. The film had a very gripping and understandable storyline that grow on me as it went through the film, but at the start i wasn't too sure how it would end or how it would all come together as it took a while for it to really get into the story line and become full of action. The only fault was that it ended too quickly and quietly, needed more fight and excitement at the ending of killing 'mama' she died to easily and quickly, despite that all in all was a thrilling and brilliant film to watch full of action and excitement despite its low budget and high loss, i enjoyed the film and will be watching it again.

Will: 

Although the film and its helmeted main character are straightforward and simple, it actually works better because it is easier to understand and is more realistic. The day-in-the-life style plotis a good way to introduce Judge Dredd and Mega City One and the film mostly avoids doing anything really annoying or irrelivant. I also liked the fact that Judge Dredd is not given a back story and is instead portrayed as the mysterious man with no name and that he never removes his helmet (just like the comics. I also appreciated that this version of Dredd is more hardcore and extremely violent whereas the 1995 version of Dredd was very feeble and comic.

Jack: 

Sci-Fi movies are not usually in my favor, meaning I don’t really like them. But action films; action films are my biggest interest when it comes to relaxing and watching a good movie. Dredd is a sci-fi and action genre film which means I could love it or hate it. As it happens I loved Dredd, the idea of the slow-mo drug in the film really gives the chance for the producer and directors to show slow, detailed scenes which you don’t get to see in some other films. These scenes are the parts such as gun shots and the detail when it hits the bad guys and you see everything that happens like the skin exploding and blood flying around. This brought a realistic feeling to the film not like in most films where it generally looks like fake killing and blood.

Review of Dredd (2012)

Review of Dredd (2012)

The film Dredd was produced by DNA Films and IM Global and the director was Pete Travis. The main stars of the film were Karl Urban (Who plays ‘Judge Dredd’ in the film) Olivia Thirlby (Who plays ‘Anderson’ in the film) and Lena Headley (Who plays ‘Ma-Ma’ in the film). These are all actors who have played characters in a similar role during other films. The film was released in UK cinemas on the 7^th September 2012. It was then released on DVD later on after being in the cinemas. I watched this film on DVD on the 28^th September 2013.

The film Dredd is an Action/Sci-Fi, the story line is as follows: The future America is an irradiated waste land. On its East Coast, running from Boston to Washington DC, lays Mega City One - a vast, violent metropolis where criminals rule the chaotic streets. The only force of order lies with the urban cops called "Judges" who possess the combined powers of judge, jury and instant executioner. Known and feared throughout the city, Dredd is the ultimate Judge, challenged with ridding the city of its latest scourge - a dangerous drug epidemic that has users of "Slo-Mo" experiencing reality at a fraction of its normal speed. During a routine day on the job, Dredd is assigned to train and evaluate Cassandra Anderson, a rookie with powerful psychic abilities thanks to a genetic mutation. A heinous crime calls them to a neighborhood where fellow Judges rarely dare to venture - a 200 storey vertical slum controlled by prostitute turned drug lord Ma-Ma and her ruthless clan. The Storyline is taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1343727/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 .

How I felt about the film? Sci-Fi movies are not usually in my favor, meaning I don’t really like them. But action films; action films are my biggest interest when it comes to relaxing and watching a good movie. Dredd is a sci-fi and action genre film which means I could love it or hate it. As if happens I loved Dredd, the idea of the slow-mo drug in the film really gives the chance for the producer and directors to show slow, detailed scenes which you don’t get to see in some other films. These scenes are the parts such as gun shots and the detail when it hits the bad guys and you see everything that happens like the skin exploding and blood flying around. This brought a realistic feeling to the film not like in most films where it generally looks like fake killing and blood. The violence also brought a quick solution to what type of person and world Judge Dredd was living in, such as the skinning of people by the villains then throwing these skinned people from massive heights. Currently I don’t feel like I have any negative feelings towards the movie Dredd but can see from other peoples prospective of not liking it due to the violence, but the film was rated an 18, so this automatically means there is disturbing scenes so they shouldn’t watch it.

I would recommend any Sci-Fi fans to watch this movie because it gives an impression of what our future world could look like and I would recommend Action fans to pretend they didn’t notice it was a Sci-Fi and watch it because the Action overpowers what Sci-Fi you’re seeing in the film. I would also advise people who have a fear of blood to watch a different film, not Dredd!

By Jack Green