5 Points on Film

Hybrid Films

The old generation of killer car movies shouldn't have existed in the first place; the only thing scary about this movie is the gas mileage

When I speak about Hybrid films I mean Hybrid Films, not the film, Hybrid, (which is utterly stupid in my opinion.)


Hybrid films are films that tell a story, but in an unconventional way. Such as the Lion King (1994)! A combination of music and animation, which isn't too rare by today's standards, but was one of the first of the Hybrid film generation that I feel will never end. Hybrid films do well in the box office, usually, because of their ability to attract at least 2 different types of audiences. As a child, I loved cartoons, and I still do! But musicals, and random bits in movies and shows where the characters would burst into song, and yet it would still be normal, were my most despised enemy besides my vegetables. But by combining both animation and musical tendencies, Disney had the ability to introduce a generation of children and young adults into the "musical world." (Of which, for me, did not work).


Cross-Genre Films

Cross-Genre films are usually what I end up watching when I flip to FX or any sub-channel of HBO. Cross-genre films are easily defined by a few examples, such as "Romantic Comedies" or "Horror-Thriller," etc. Basically a film that can be categorized more than once! Once again, I find  that movies like this have the ability to reach multiple target audiences at once. Say your girlfriend wants to watch "The Notebook," and you want to watch, oh I don't know, "Bad Teacher?" There's a possibility of you both just settling on a Romantic Comedy, like "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," or "I Love You, Man." (I suggested those two because I tried to think of Romantic Comedies I like, it's completely unrelated that Jason Segel stars in 3 of my 4 suggestions....Well not completely unrelated, he's hilarious). Regardless, these cross-genre films are what I always watch, I can never watch a movie that's specifically one genre, (well I could, but honestly I can't even  find those anymore).






Blockbusters

Well, this is exactly how it sounds, and I'm not talking about the video chain that was seemingly extinct during the past 4 years as Netflix rose from the trenches to steal it's spot. Blockbusters are giant productions, with giant budgets. I'm sure whether or not you've seen it, you've heard of Avatar and it's incredible budget. (Spoiler alert: it was an estimated 237 Million dollars) But these blockbusters are expected to do well, very well. Avatar was a good example of that, making approximately $2,782,275,172 (Worldwide). Now if you ask me, that sounds pretty successful. But although financiers sink in huge amounts of money for these films, they don't always turn out as well as Avatar did. The newest Disney movie out, John Carter, didn't do too well. I mean it did, but not well enough. With an estimated production value of $250 Million and a $30 Million opening the first week, it's not starting out too well, and unless everyone's been hiding under a rock since March 11th, it most likely won't make any more than the $30 Million opening week. There's two examples of blockbusters, one failed, one successful, and hopefully you'll be able to see why blockbusters are so important in film. It's basically a huge gamble but, in this case, you can't stop when you're ahead.


Kaiju and Samurai Cinema

I know what you're thinking, it sounds like a type of sushi (Kaiju actually is a type of Sushi), but it refers to Asian monster/strange creature flicks. I would hope you've heard of Godzilla before? If not, Godzilla's a large, fire/laser-breathing dragon/dinosaur/very large reptile that puts almost any other sci-fi/fantasy creatures to shame. There is also Samurai Cinema, warrior films which put your lack of Judo knowledge to shame. I mention these two types of movies because they, no doubt, inspired many American films we have today, and numerous films which are still in production. These films were beneficial in spreading Asian culture through and around America.


Special Effects

Now, I don't know how much of special effects I'll have to explain, and I wouldn't think the average person wouldn't know why special effects are important and how they've advanced cinema as we see it today, but I'll go ahead and explain anyway. Special effects, sometimes just referred to as FX (like the station), are what make men in costumes into 60 story monsters, and in the case of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,(Microkids! in Japan) make men and women smaller than ants. Special effects make movies cooler, there's no doubt about it, but they also help depict accuracy in situations that cannot be recreated physically. For example, in a war movie, I don't care how accurate the director wants to be, actually shooting your actors is masochistic and is no doubt illegal, but using special effects, that same character can get blown up, shot, stabbed, cut up, and reappear in the next scene, granted those four examples don't specifically advertise the accurate depictions I started off describing, but a couple actual examples of accurate depictions are Saving Private Ryan and The Day After Tomorrow. Both can not be recreated, only, physically, they require the assistance of computer generation.




Bibliography;

http://filmsponge.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SUPER-HYBRID-Movie-Poster-Film-Sponge.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7c/Forgetting_sarah_marshall_ver2.jpg/220px-Forgetting_sarah_marshall_ver2.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-04lF8KVeDdE/TeLOxQw_aWI/AAAAAAAARFM/XVUYltF_pQw/s1600/king+kong+vs+godzilla+min+info.jpg

http://content7.flixster.com/movie/10/91/12/10911201_det.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitUTIAwCEyJKdKtAkYqnVCRJBBHmMLBNxqZ57XkL9h9voiPR2NX1D5sNi5al9QRypWIIgrQ991IIKhlLiOND84cnUJp5lrnSjt0XKUucnpQqWtgpbj2N3pNz5z0IG-KFMMyZ7C32q27NM/s1600/The_Day_After_Tomorrow_090006.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/Blockbuster_logo.svg