Film Research: InstitutionsBrick and Avatar

Summary Of Films• Brick is an American neo-noir thriller film written and directed by Rian

Johnson in 2005, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Brick was distributed by Focus Features, opening in New York and Los Angeles on April 7, 2006. The film's narrative centres on a hardboiled detective story that takes place in a Californian suburb. Most of the main characters are high school students. The film draws heavily in plot, characterization, and dialogue from hardboiled classics, especially from Dashiell Hammett. The title refers to a block of heroin, compressed roughly to the size and shape of a brick.

• When his brother is killed in a robbery, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully decides to take his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora. There he learns of greedy corporate figurehead Parker Selfridge's intentions of driving off the native humanoid "Na'vi" in order to mine for the precious material scattered throughout their rich woodland. In exchange for the spinal surgery that will fix his legs, Jake gathers intel for the cooperating military unit spearheaded by gung-ho Colonel Quaritch, while simultaneously attempting to infiltrate the Na'vi people with the use of an "avatar" identity. While Jake begins to bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri, the restless Colonel moves forward with his ruthless extermination tactics, forcing the soldier to take a stand - and fight back in an epic battle for the fate of Pandora.

What are the main institutions used for each of the films?

•Focus Features and Bergman Lustig Productions (Brick) – these companies have made a few famous and successful movies however they are not as well known and popular as the institutions from avatar.

•Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Dune Entertainment, Ingenious Film Partners (Avatar) – these are all well known companies with titles to many other films.

How much money was used to produce each film?

•Budget: $475’000 (estimated) - Brick

•Budget: $237,000,000 (estimated) – Avatar

•As you can see there is a massive gap in the budgets from each film. This has paid off from the income that has come in from each film, therefore the more money put into a film, most of the time, more is come out from it.

How much money was made from each films?•Opening Weekend: $83,574 (USA) (2

April 2006)

•Gross: $2,060,589 (USA) (9 July 2006)

•Opening Weekend: $77,025,481 (USA) (20 December 2009) (3452 Screens)

•Gross: $2,782,275,172 (Worldwide) (25 November 2011)

How popular are the institutions used for both the high-budget and low-budget films?

• The high budget films have a lot more famous a list actors and actresses listed and a lot more nominees for several different awards. They obviously have a much bigger budget therefore a much bigger outcome budget. They are also a lot more well-known, as people would recognise the popular institutions when they hear them however not so much for the low budget institutions . Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is one of 6 of the most famous and popular American Film Studios of 2011. Some other very popular films they have produced are; Star Wars, Alien, Home Alone and many more… It has also made famous TV programs such as Family Guy and American Dad therefore is very famous with the American crowd. Even though Focus Features is part of making low budget films some of them have turned out to be a lot more successful than expecting, including Billy Elliot and The Pianist which have been put up more many awards and had a satisfactory economic outcome.

List the differences between the high-budget film and the low-budget film in terms of the institutions

• Well to start, 20th century fox is a co-operation therefore is a very highly rated, popular company having extremely famous films and making a much bigger profit from each films. Whereas focus features is a small company and therefore some of there films aren't anywhere near as popular or make even half the profit of some of the films produced by 20th century fox productions. A lot of very famous actors and actresses have a higher expected pay therefore 20th century fox institution would be able to afford them and even several of them in one film; this would also advertise the film because of the popularity. And on the other hand, low budget films with not so a-list stars they are not as famous therefore would not be advertised as much.

What other films has the production company made? Were these successful? Why/why not?

• 20th Century Fox company –• Home Alone• Titanic• Ice Age• The Devil Wear’s Prada• John Tucker Must Die• Borat• Taken 2• Night At The Museum• Focus Features• The Pianist• One Day• Beginners• Burn After Reading

• These few movies that I have picked out from each institution are all of their most popular ones. They are all movies that have been nominated for awards and some even winning them. Therefore they are all successful, just at different levels. For example Home Alone was very popular and went on to making 3 sequels. It included famous celebrities and make a very reasonable profit. This was very good for 20th Century Fox as it was a major high for the company. However, the film One Day was a famous film, especially for Focus Features.

What genre of films does the company usually produce? Is this important when considering who could produce the film? Why?

• 20th Century Fox company mainly producers dramas and family movies. Because of there high reputation, I believe they stick to this genre as they know they have done well in it and can carry on producing good films that will continue to make a really good profit. Most institutions are well known more for the genre than anything else. For example Pixar is well known for children animations and Disney films therefore if they bought out a gory horror it would be extremely slagged off and have a bad reputation.

What audiences do each of the institutions aim to appeal to? Is this reflected through their film choice, or does this vary?

• 20th Century Fox seem to aim their films at a wide variety audience. They all range from PG to 15 certificate. However the genre for each film is very well targeted. If its aimed at children, it is also very acceptable for adults to watch, and more so enjoy. E.g. Home Alone.

• Focus Features seem to focus at a more of a mature and intellectual audience. There films are more serious and social drama’s; where an audience can sometimes relate to them. A lot of them are set in the past therefore an older audience would be able to understand a lot more. For example; The Pianist, a film about a Jewish man struggling for life during the war.

Which institution do you feel outperforms the other and could claim to be more successful, considering your research? Explain your reasons

• I believe 20th Century Fox institution defiantly out performs Focus Features, this is because it has produced a lot more films and most of them have become very successful and made a massive profit. Also this company has been around a significant more years than Focus Features. This has given them a head start and also allowed them to have a much further and better reputation. Fortunately they haven't had many hiccups therefore kept up there very good reputation. I still believe Focus Features are a good institution and have made there fair share of successful movies. They haven’t been producing films for that long therefore if they carry on they could further to produce more good movies and become more popular.