Magazine ideas

I expanded on my magazine idea changing the place of BBC Cult to the bottom of the page and adding the world in the corner to indicate space. I wrote down font types and colours that i shall be using for future references.

Come friday i shall be starting to design the bus advertisement and the magazine. The bus should be easier than the magazine as it turns 3 dimensional which means i might have to go onto a software called Mayor which i havent used before to create this in order to get it to best quality. It is impossible for me to take pictures of example, the tardis, or the world. So i am going to have to create them in photoshop.

BBC Cult ideas discussion

I started out writing my final ideas and the different aspects around this from colours to use, different fonts and the design.

I found this part of the design process a lot easier as it allowed me to create a entail idea in more detail, helping me when it comes to the actual design. I will now know the fonts and what textures i am hoping to use. 

I started on creating the magazine design this week as well. 

I stuck with the Doctor Who theme as it is recognisable and works well. This design is just entail the Tardis faded into the back of the page, this i thought could then be used for advertisements on doctor who or bbc cult. 

The magazine designs i am finding difficult as its a full page instead of a small bus design which limits you but it helped. I also dont like the magazine design because as stated in a another blog im not the best drawer and struggle with getting my ideas from my head to a drawing so this element isnt my strong point and im not enjoying it as much. 

BBC Cult ideas

I started planning out my design idea for the side of a bus, writing alternative ideas for bus windows, and doors. Defining the definition of Cult, i decided to pick Sci-fi  as the main genre to base my ideas on as i believed this would allow me to develop more creative ideas. Below is a copy of my ideas. I found it difficult to write down what i wanted on the wheels, doors and windows when i didn't have an entail idea and i work better drawing it out than writing it.

I then started sketching out ideas that could be used on the side of a bus, starting out with Pacman and then moving to using the windows and created sci-fi images under them. After drawing some ideas i ended up mixing two together  because i believed this worked best out of all the designs i had done.

Drawing isn't my strong point so i found creating designs a struggle that it took a while to get a design that i was happy with. I also found it difficult not being able to incorporate my ident as the bus advertisement. The fact that we have to create the designs and are not allowed to use images from online meant i had to think realistically on what i could design as well.
I now have to take the doctor who themes idea and write about the different colours, text and elements i am going to use for creating the police box and the darleks.
Although on my ideas sheet i wrote down the idea of stars for the bus wheels i decided not to add anything to the wheels as it was a bit much to the bus. From my bus advertisement research as well nothing was ever included on the wheels so it isn't a necessity.

BBC Cult Advertisement

I am creating a advertisement for the side of busses and in a magazine TV guide to advertise the new channel BBC Cult, using their new branding logo and different recognisable cult objects to target the appropriate audience, sci-fi, horrors and american dramas targeted at age 18-35 year olds.

Above are mood boards for different logos, textures, fonts and bus advertisements to help me get ideas when creating my own advertisements as i can adapt ideas from the bus advertisement and textures to create the advert. The different fonts will help me choose the font of the logo and any text that i will include in the advertisements that suits the BBCs missions and values. 

Footloose

Footloose

This blog post will compare Footloose the original from 1984, and the remake, which was released in 2011. It will look at the production differences and if risking a remake of an already popular film is worth it.

Both the films stick to a similar narrative, with the main narrative strand being that due to the ministers son being in a crash and dying the small town decides to ban dance or loud music. It follows the life of protagonist Ren McCormack, who has moved from a big town such as Chicago in the original and Boston in the remake, to a small country town. He starts a petition to try and get the town to allow them to have a prom and lift the ban on public dancing.

Because of the time difference between the two makes of the film, content and dialogue will be different to fit with the generation that it is targeted at. Technology also plays a big part with remakes, the original includes mise en scene that was up to date for that year with tape cassettes being the main source to listen to music, they were popular till around the late 1990s, meaning that many of the people who will go see the remake either wont remember them or know what they are.  So in the remake, being made in 2011, we have more advanced technology with iPods and Cds. Although it takes away from the ‘old school’ feel you get when watching the original Footloose, remakes are there to adapt the ideas into a more modern setting that new generations can enjoy.

The technology behind filming will have improved as cameras have become more advanced over the years making the image quality HD, the scenes have better lighting and shots will be allowed to have more flexibility as we know more about cinematography now than in 1984. With the Budget for the first one being estimated at $8,200,000 and the remakes budget being $24,000,000, the increase will be due to the higher quality cameras and lighting used to make the shots HD. It would also be used on the improved locations. 

The original version of Footloose was released in 1984, around this time sparked a rise in the dance genre for movies, with another classic, Dirty Dancing, being made 3 years after Footloose. In the 80’s dance was a big activity among young people so making movies based around this seemed very popular, with some of the best dance genre films being made in this era; such as Fame and Breaking, considered two of the best dance movies of all time, along with the iconic Saturday night fever, which came out in 1977 and could have sparked this rise in dance films.

As the style of dancing has changed over the years, so have the style of dance films, this is easily seen with the remake of Footloose, the remake to keep it modern adapts a more modern style of dancing for the 2011 era compared to the 1980’s style. In the early 2000’s dance films weren’t that popular, later into 2006 where Step Up came onto the big screen the dance films targeted at young people again started coming back. However with movies such as Footloose which the original and the remake focus more on just general fun of dancing, movies such as Step Up and Make it Happen lean heavily on flashy dance scenes. This seemed to be the theme among the new dance films, until Footloose came back in 2011 it stuck to its roots, with no flashy dance competition or big numbers, but focusing and the general idea of dance itself, to have fun and bringing people together. Because of the rise in 2006 and the new renaissance of dance movies, seeing the success of the new dance films could be the reason why they decided to remake the original footloose

Along with the remake keeping the general idea of dancing the same, a lot of the dialogue in the remake also remains the same, with all the scenes barely being changed, but adapted to the update in technology, and fashion which is important to the audience. The dance moves have changed over the years as well, which we can see from a scene in both movies, which shows the differences between dancing in the 80’s, and dancing in the 21^st century. In the 1984 version the dancing is more freestyle and then turns to a slow dance, however in the 2011 version, the dancing switched from country to what many believed to be sexual and caused some controversy, this could be because in the industry now sex is considered to sell.

Because they don’t change much of the dialogue or any of the overall plot of the movie, is a reason why the remake didn’t get notable bad reviews or not gain as high of revenue. Both movies though are made through Paramount pictures, which could be one of the reasons why it wasn’t drastically different. Even though fashion has changed over the years, they still manage to create similarities. For example as seen below, in the scene on Rens first day, both version include him wearing a leather jacket and shirt and tie, which in both is considered an unusual outfit to be worn to school and includes very similar dialogue regarding the outfit from the character Rusty. It is also important iconography to this character as he wears an outfit which he considers ‘cool’, he also considers himself individual from the rest of them as he’s from the city and thinks he seems to know more than the rest of them. 

With some remakes, such as the popular Total Recall, original made in 1990 and remade In 2012, they completely change the plot of the movie, one being set on Mars, the other London. Footloose is rather a modern updated version than an improved plot version.

In the 1984 version of footloose now popular Kevin Bacon plays the main character, Ren. Back in 1984 Kevin Bacon career was really just getting started, doing a few movies and staring in a TV show, he wasn’t as popularly known as Footloose and later movies would make him. The remake also stars a lead actor who, before footloose, was not very known. Paramount aren’t picking stars to gain popularity for the films, original and remake, rather hoping that the acting and storyline is enough. This also meant that paramount wouldn’t have to deal with the cast costing a high amount. However some use well known actors in remakes such as Charlie and the chocolate factory, Willy Wonka is Johnny Depp a very highly respected actor with his own fan base, because Charlie and the Chocolate factor originally was a very successful and legendary movie, many might not have gone to see it if it wasn’t for Johnny Depp so in a way it has a built in audience and a unique selling point.

The original Footloose was rated R, for restricted meaning that people under 17 cant see it without being accompanied by a parent. The new footloose however is only a PG-13. Both contain hints of alcohol and drugs, however the new footloose contains more sexually explicit content.  The fact that the remake rating is lower suggests that we have become desensitised to the explicit content being shown, maybe reflecting on modern society.

In conclusion, I prefer the original Footloose still to the remake, although the remake is more modern and is filmed with better quality, the old Footloose contains this very unique old school feel which is hard to find in films now, involving tape cassettes and tractor fights.  Also because the storyline and screenplay hasn’t changed much shows that the original was a classic in itself and in reality didn’t really need to be remade.