Kevin Smith- Red State (2011)

 Kevin Smith is a film director from New Jersey and his first movie was Clerks in 1994 which was filmed in the convenience store in which he worked but was only allowed to film there when the shop was closed at night however his film won the highest award at the Sundance Film Festival.

He called himself a “fat stoner” before he started making films, simply implying how if anyone works hard enough then they can do it, if they are determined.

He realised for his films to gain an audience he needed to advertise and distribute them in the correct way, get an exhibitor and just basically find people who know how to pitch a film in the best way possible!

Red State-

Red State is  an American horror action film , written and directed by Kevin Smith himself in 2011 , starring John Goodman, Melissa Leo and Michael Parks.

Smith started off in November and December 2010 distributing teaser posters which were released featuring characters from the movie. He released a teaser trailer for his film on 23rd of December 2010.

With this film Kevin Smith was originally going to auction off his film to a distributor at a controversial event to be held after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, however decided to distribute the film himself by purchasing then distributing it under the SModcast Picture banner with a traveling roadshow in select cities starting on March 5th at Radio City Music Hall, taking the film tour across North America before officially releasing the movie on VOD and DVD in September 2011 through Lionsgate,he also released it in select theaters again for a special one-night only engagement on September 23, 2011.

But was it successful?

Obviously there was mixed reviews in terms of the actual film itself and the plot etc however it seemed a success as it was watched and reviewed by many. In October 2011, Red State won the Best Motion Picture award at the 2011 Sitges Film Festival. Smith stated in his book that foreign gross from his Red State screening tour and millions from Video-on-Demand and Netflix streaming rights helped the film turn a profit from its $4 million budget. This just goes to show how important the distribution of the film is when finding its audience and getting the publicity it deserves.

Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino 2012)

On Friday evening I sat and watched yet another incredible Quentin Tarantino movie. He never fails to impress and even though its quite a long film, at no point did I loose interest!

I noticed that Quentin Tarantino likes to use the same actors in his films, like christoph waltz who is Hanz in Inglorious Basterds. Samuel L Jackson who is also in Pulp Fiction. Leonardo DiCaprio also stars in this movie, ensuring it includes only the best actors.

The film Django is set in Texas in the year 1858 and follows a slave named Django who is set free by an English-speaking, German bounty hunter posing as a traveling dentist (Christoph Waltz), named Dr. Schultz. Dr. Schultz buys Django and promises him a life of freedom if he helps him find and kill three outlaws (hiding in the south, working in the slave trade). Schultz has never seen them therefore he doesn’t know what they look like, however Django has, as he has been subjected to trafficking and the outlaws have been involved in it. Dr schultz also teaches Django bounty hunting and promises to split the bounties with him if he continues to help him through the winter. Django makes one condition and it is that Schultz helps him find his long lost wife who is under cruel custody of Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). Schultz agrees.  The film follows their travels and plans to find the outlaws and kill them, then track down Djangos wife and save her from her cruel owner.

The way Tarantino has filmed this is exceptional, he uses his usual technique of using closeups on certain objects in the room, for example when Schultz and Django are in the bar and Schultz is pouring himself a drink the camera goes in close on the beer pouring from the tap into the beer mug, then foam on the top is wisked away with the wisker. The effect of this is excellent, making it that little bit more real, the use of the camera is supposed to mirror the human eye, and these shots of the things around the characters and the things they are doing capture the scene like you are there yourself. The sound of the running beer, and the tap of the wisker on the side of the glass after its taken the foam off the top, these little details play a big part in making the scene that much more enjoyable to watch.

The gore and blood, which always is included in a Tarantino film, is to an extreme especially in the scene where Django is shooting all of Candies henchmen in Candieland. Again, it wouldn’t be a Tarantino film if it didn’t include blood.

Overall I would like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this film and it kept me on the edge of my seat and completely absorbed into the world of the film. I had never watched any Tarantino films until this year and I must say, I have been missing out, he is a terrific Director and I think anyone who is making films can learn alot from him as his films only seem to be getting better and better!

Kick Ass (2010 directed by Matthew Vaughn)

Kick Ass is an American action superhero movie set in  New York, it was released on the 25th  March 2010 in the United Kingdom and on 16th April 2010 in the United States.

The film is about an ordinary teenager called Dave Lizewski who decides to become a superhero for the city, calling himself Kick Ass. He meets serious superheros Big Daddy and Hit Girl and finds himself involved in a much bigger fight to bring down the drug lord Frank D’Amico.

The whole film is like a comic, with comic strip transitions of shots etc and storyboard like animations displaying the past where Big Daddy explains why Mindy (Hit Girl) has no mother and how he was put in prison.

Here is the trailer for the Movie:

The thing I love about this film is how many twists it involves in it. So much happens along with the main story about Dave becoming Kick Ass. There is also lots of humour included which makes up for the gore. It is quite violent and the film was critiqued for  having generated some controversy for its profanity and violence performed by a child, however received lots of good comments aswell as it is definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat.