STUDENT ID: 19009305
Thick description:
Watershed
The cinema visited was the Watershed which is located on Canon’s Road, Bristol overlooking the water. It is advertised a “buzzing multi-arts venue with an arthouse cinema and café bar in a warehouse overlooking the water” As you first walk into the building, there is a desk where you can purchase tickets and food/drinks to take into the film with you. Above the desk, there are various screens displaying the films that are on offer. The films that are screened are arthouse films and are not usually shown in the mainstream media. Under 24s only and refugees/asylum seekers only have to pay £5 a ticket. This means that usually those who have a special interest in arthouse cinema attend. To get to the screens, there are some steps to the left of the desk. Halfway up the stairs, there is a board on the wall with paper, pencils and pins for people to anonymously give their opinion on three of the films that are currently being screened. This creates discussions between viewers and contributes to the feeling of community. Once you get upstairs the screens are to the left and the café bar area is to the right. There are 3 screens upstairs. Each screen has a different capacity, screen 1 with 200 seats, screen 2 with 42 seats and screen 3 with 100 seats. All screens are available to for hire for lectures, presentations and screenings. The seats are comfortable and spacious and there are extra pillows and blankets available for those who want or need them. Every cinema has state of the art projection and audio-visual equipment. Through the café, there are 3 conference rooms which are also available to hire. The rooms also have different capacities with the highest being 250 standing capacity. In the café, there are two spacious areas for customers to sit. There is also a balcony that you can sit on that has a scenic view of Bristol overlooking the water. The café is open early in the morning to late at night every day of the week. They offer breakfast, lunch and evening meals and a range of hot drinks and alcoholic beverages at the bar. The décor has a natural/industrial aesthetic, for example exposed brick walls, lots of wooden surfaces and plants and a natural colour scheme. There is lots of art on the walls made by local artists. There is a sense of community from their support of local businesses. The food and drink they sell also come from local, trusted sources. The café is often very busy with people using the free Wi-Fi for working and also using the space for socialising. There is a vast age range of customers in the café (young people, families, elderly people). Overall, the Watershed is a great place for those who have a specific interest in arthouse and those who want a nice, relaxed place to socialise.
Showcase
The cinema visited was the Showcase which is located in Cabot Circus. The cinema is inside a large and popular shopping centre, which is busy all days of the week from early in the morning until late at night. As you first walk into the cinema, you are greeted by a an incredibly large lobby which has a bar where you can wait for you film to start and the desk where you can purchase your tickets and food/drinks for you to take into the film with you. In 2008 they introduced Cinema de Lux, which includes in-theatre dining options and bar with seat delivery service. Ticket prices are seen as quite expensive, with tickets being around £10 and £8 for students with valid ID. The prices for the food and drinks are also very expensive, a lot more than if you were to buy the same product in a local supermarket. The lobby is very spacious with high ceilings and has a very sleek design. All surfaces are highly polished and shiny and there is immersive lighting all around the room. The entire trip to the location is advertised as a whole grand experience so that you really get what you are paying for. There are 13 screens in the cinema with a large capacity in each. In the screens, there are comfortable and spacious seats with large leg room and cup holder for customers to hold their snacks and drinks. The films they show are usually mainstream blockbusters with very high budgets, starring famous and relevant celebrities. There is wall to wall immersive screens with ultra-high definition projection and 360 Dolby Atmos sound. A range of “experiences” are also on offer for those who chose to pay for them. For example, the Director’s Hall which is an exclusive screen with extra wide and luxurious leather seating. There is an intimate bar which is exclusive to customers who have chosen to watch a film in the Director’s Hall. This is the most luxurious and exclusive way to watch a film at the Showcase. A wide variety of food is also available and a full bar service which includes an assortment of alcoholic beverages. Another “experience” offered is XLR seating, which include extra large and comfortable seats with extra leg room but, this is only available for certain films. The entire experience whether you pay for the extra perks or not feels very grand and special and many see going to cinemas like these as a special treat for them because of the high tickets and snack prices.
The Hunger Games and Exploiting the Teenage Market
The Hunger Games was released in 2012 and was based on the popular series of 2008 novels of the same name by Suzanne Collins. The series already had a large teenage cult following because of the success of the books, so those making the movie knew it was to become a huge hit. The film starred young, lesser known actors at the time such as Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutchinson. The first instalment of the four-part series made 694.4 million USD in the box office. All its success was down to the chosen target market, which was mostly young girls, around the ages of 11-16. The story of the young female hero stuck in a dystopian capitalist world appealed to this target market because it was basically the first YA (Young Adult) fiction with a girl as the main character. Dystopian stories such as The Hunger Games are often very popular with young people in particular because the stories can often mirror real life for them and they can relate to some of the core storylines. For example, the difficult mix of academic and peer pressures that they are experiencing and can relate to is being shown in epic adventures and stories. It also mirrors what is awaiting young people once they get into adult-hood; the world that has been created for them by adults is often harsh and disappointing. The stories about young people rebelling against their restrictive and suffocating society appeals to these young people because it’s something that they want to achieve, and they look up to these characters like they are their heroes.
Exploitation cinema is often seen as a genre, but it is actually an industry with a specific mode of production. These kinds of films are often made cheaply and for an easy profit. They are usually very popular and do well in the box office. They are often always replying on the same old formulas because they know it will work and be popular. For example, rebellious teens and typical love stories are often the main storylines. They offer the audiences subjects such as sex, violence and taboo subjects which they would not often experience in films aimed at them. These kinds of topics appealed to the target audience for exploitation films, which were young people ages 15-25. This age range was the largest demographic of movie goers during the 50s, 60s and 70s which is the time period most often associated with exploitation cinema. The films were often located in places associated with teenagers such as high schools. The films were often advertised as shocking and daring which appealed to the target audience because they liked watching teenage rebellion because it was something they strived to do themselves. More recently, exploitation films focus more on following popular trends. They key idea of teenage rebellion is still relevant, but rather than small scale rebellion against teachers or parents for example, it is more about rebelling against society as a whole and the political powers in the characters world. In The Hunger Games, it tackles difficult political issues such as poverty, capitalism and war. It demonises those in power and supports those living in poverty.
Films about rebellion in a dystopian society became incredibly popular in the 21st century and usually were adapted from books. The Hunger Games is an example of this as well as The Maze Runner and Divergent. They are all franchises with at least 4 films in each. The use of franchises has also attracted the teenage audience for many years, so most teen exploitation films are part of one. Forbidden or unexpected love stories are also used very often in films like these. It is usually the two main characters who fall in love but are unable to be together because of a certain situation they are in. This makes the audience root for the characters and create an emotional bond with them; they want them to defeat what is stopping them from being together and live happily ever after.
The Hunger Games focuses on the story of Katniss Everdeen, who volunteers to go into the Hunger Games, which is a yearly event in the fictional nation of Panem the Capitol sends a teenage girl and a teenage boy to compete to the death, in her younger sister’s place. She is shown as a strong, feminist icon who is brave and a role model for young girls. Her character was made for young girls to look up to and relate to. Katniss is also shown as a shy introvert who hates being the centre of attention but is still courageous and brave. She is quick on her feet and calm in the face of danger, which creates a cool character for viewers to want to admire, emulate and enjoy watching. She is also in a love triangle with Gale and Peeta, which hooks the target market of young girls even more because they often desire being in that situation and are eager to find out who she picks. At the time of the film’s release, it was also popular to say whether you were “Team Peeta” or “Team Gale” to show which of the two characters you’d rather she end up with and it created huge discussions within the fan community.
The fan-base of The Hunger Games was huge at the time of the film’s release. There was already a large cult following because of the books but the release of the film brought in even more fans. The producers of the film knew that every film they were going to bring out in the franchise was going to do extremely well, so each of the four films only came out within a year of each other, so to not keep the fans waiting and lose interest. The first film was made for around 80 million USD which for a film of its sort, is quite a modest budget and grossed incredibly highly in the box office. Although they were made very quickly so that they could be released in consecutive years, they were made to a very high standard, unlike most teen exploitation films. For the soundtrack, they chose incredibly popular artist Taylor Swift to write and perform one of the songs, when she was at the height of her career and had an established fan-base of young girls. This is considered exploitative because the filmmakers are picking an artist that reaches the desired target audience and promote the movie to her fan base. The love story is particularly emphasised in promotion of the film even though it is quite a small sub plot in the first movie and is only really relevant in the first part of the movie. This is most likely because romantic subplots in teen movies are always known to do incredibly well with the target audience. This is prevalent in other franchises such as Twilight (2008-2012).
The whole idea of the film itself is to rebel against the Capitalist culture and the powerful organisation they live under. This is ironic because the film was made by a multibillion-dollar company who definitely only made the film for profit. The movie encourages the consumers to stand up against exploitative organisations and rebel, but in reality, they are the ones getting exploited as well. Despite this, The Hunger Games was actually hugely progressive with its use of a female lead blockbuster. Especially when aimed at a youth market, the use of a female lead is a risky move, because for so long it had only been male leads that had been popular. There was also representation of strong black characters in the franchise, which was not often seen in blockbuster films at this time.
In conclusion, The Hunger Games is one of the many blockbuster film franchises which exploits its young teenage audience in several ways: the modest budget but incredibly high profit, the use of popular and relevant singers on the soundtrack and its ironic use of its anti-capitalist storyline. Although its progressive use of a female lead and representation of minorities which made it more of a risk to make, these are not the typical characteristics of a teen exploitation film, so it is an exploitation film to an extent, but is also more progressive and meaningful for young audiences.
Group work reflection
Whilst working together in our group, me and my peers have assisted each other in choosing what topics we would like to focus on in our short essay and given advice on the structure and the content of each other’s work as a whole. We would meet up regularly to establish ideas and role in the group. For the most part, we just worked together creating the blog and there weren’t really any specific roles for anyone. If one of us was having difficulty with some of the ideas that we wanted to explain in our work, everyone worked together and helped solve the problem so that our work could be of the highest standard that we could achieve and that we understood the topics we were talking about in great depth. We visited the Watershed together to gather information for our thick description and shared our thoughts and ideas amongst each other. For the thick description for the other cinema, we also shared information we had with each other. For the short essay we worked together so that all of us could establish a topic that we were comfortable writing an essay about. Some of us were unsure about what we wanted to focus on, but after the appropriate research into past topics we have looked about in lectures, we all found something that we enjoyed learning about and knew we could write an essay about. We chose a range of different topics and films between us. For the actual blog itself, we got together over several sessions and created a blog design that we all liked and was easy to navigate. We learnt how to navigate the website WordPress and successfully created a blog. We made sure there were clear sections where each of our work would go and that it would be easy to find. For this we all worked together, so all of us were familiar with how our blog worked and knew how to successfully upload our work into the correct places. Working in this group has improved our teamwork and communication skills. If there were ever any issues with any of our work, we had no problems contacting each other for any help or advice. If we needed to meet up to work on our blog, we would choose the most convenient time for everyone so that all members of the team were there. Working in this group was really beneficial for us and our work as a whole, because there was a support network for those who maybe felt as if they were stuck in their work and needed help and ideas form someone else.
References
Leigh, Danny. How The Hunger Games staged a revolution. The Guardian, 2015.
Roche, David. Exploiting Exploitation Cinema: An Introduction. (no place), 2015.
Neale, Steve. ‘Teenpics’ in Cook, Pam, and Berninik, Mieke, (eds.), The Cinema Book, London: BFI, 1999.
Miller, Cynthia J and Bowdoin Van Riper, A, ‘Marketing, Monsters, and Music,’ The Journal of American Culture, Vol.8, No.2.
The Hunger Games (2012) [DVD] Directed by Gary Ross United States: Lionsgate Films
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