Alex Symons
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780748649587
- eISBN:
- 9780748676484
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748649587.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses how Brooks did not just recycle Hollywood film, but hybridised film content together with a wide range of content from television. It is through hybridising film with ...
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This chapter discusses how Brooks did not just recycle Hollywood film, but hybridised film content together with a wide range of content from television. It is through hybridising film with television that Brooks made his reputation as a director with Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974), and in doing so, contributed towards a cycle of television-film hybrids that continues today. The rise of television-film hybrids has been central to the production of what has come to be understood by critics as the parody film genre. Furthermore, it was, in part, Brooks's own apparent choice not to capitalise on television content to the same extent in his subsequent films Spaceballs (1987), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) that brought about the end of his career as a film director.Less
This chapter discusses how Brooks did not just recycle Hollywood film, but hybridised film content together with a wide range of content from television. It is through hybridising film with television that Brooks made his reputation as a director with Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974), and in doing so, contributed towards a cycle of television-film hybrids that continues today. The rise of television-film hybrids has been central to the production of what has come to be understood by critics as the parody film genre. Furthermore, it was, in part, Brooks's own apparent choice not to capitalise on television content to the same extent in his subsequent films Spaceballs (1987), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) that brought about the end of his career as a film director.
Mark Ramey
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781906733551
- eISBN:
- 9781800342040
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781906733551.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter identifies the key elements of Fight Club's transition from novel to film. Fight Club is in some ways a paradoxical film: both a product and a critique of big business. Fox and Regency, ...
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This chapter identifies the key elements of Fight Club's transition from novel to film. Fight Club is in some ways a paradoxical film: both a product and a critique of big business. Fox and Regency, two big players in Hollywood film production, put 67 million dollars into Fight Club because the talent package was strong. They believed the film would do well — and despite a less-than-hoped-for initial box office run, they have been proved right. Emerging from the world of advertising and music videos, Fight Club's director David Fincher has now established himself as a modern-day auteur. The chapter then considers the performances of the film's cast, including Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. It also comments on the marketing of the film. Fox did not know how to sell Fight Club and so seriously misjudged its marketing and release. Fincher's original and seditious concepts for the marketing were rejected for more conventional action-orientated fare, aimed at a male youth market. This backfired in the post-Columbine climate and failed to connect with the broader youth market, which has now found significance in the film and elevated it to cult status.Less
This chapter identifies the key elements of Fight Club's transition from novel to film. Fight Club is in some ways a paradoxical film: both a product and a critique of big business. Fox and Regency, two big players in Hollywood film production, put 67 million dollars into Fight Club because the talent package was strong. They believed the film would do well — and despite a less-than-hoped-for initial box office run, they have been proved right. Emerging from the world of advertising and music videos, Fight Club's director David Fincher has now established himself as a modern-day auteur. The chapter then considers the performances of the film's cast, including Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. It also comments on the marketing of the film. Fox did not know how to sell Fight Club and so seriously misjudged its marketing and release. Fincher's original and seditious concepts for the marketing were rejected for more conventional action-orientated fare, aimed at a male youth market. This backfired in the post-Columbine climate and failed to connect with the broader youth market, which has now found significance in the film and elevated it to cult status.
Jan-Christopher Horak
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780813147185
- eISBN:
- 9780813154787
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813147185.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Saul Bass defined an era. He designed movie posters, studio publicity, credit sequences for films, and corporate logos from the 1940s to the 1990s, and he was an Academy Award–winning filmmaker. As a ...
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Saul Bass defined an era. He designed movie posters, studio publicity, credit sequences for films, and corporate logos from the 1940s to the 1990s, and he was an Academy Award–winning filmmaker. As a result, Bass changed the look of both film advertising and cinema itself. Bass’s advertising, poster designs, and title sequences for Hollywood feature films were extremely innovative in terms of their formal design, use of iconography, and narrative content. All his film-related work incorporated aesthetic concepts borrowed from European modernist art and avant-garde cinema, creating a new, Americanized commercial mode of address and thereby transforming conventions that had remained relatively stagnant for decades. Inserting himself directly into the Hollywood film production process, Bass necessarily complicated the conception of film authorship, especially because his titles designs were often discussed independently from the films they introduced. Bass influenced not only other studio publicity designers and filmmakers but also a whole generation of young designers, many of whom he personally trained in his studio.Less
Saul Bass defined an era. He designed movie posters, studio publicity, credit sequences for films, and corporate logos from the 1940s to the 1990s, and he was an Academy Award–winning filmmaker. As a result, Bass changed the look of both film advertising and cinema itself. Bass’s advertising, poster designs, and title sequences for Hollywood feature films were extremely innovative in terms of their formal design, use of iconography, and narrative content. All his film-related work incorporated aesthetic concepts borrowed from European modernist art and avant-garde cinema, creating a new, Americanized commercial mode of address and thereby transforming conventions that had remained relatively stagnant for decades. Inserting himself directly into the Hollywood film production process, Bass necessarily complicated the conception of film authorship, especially because his titles designs were often discussed independently from the films they introduced. Bass influenced not only other studio publicity designers and filmmakers but also a whole generation of young designers, many of whom he personally trained in his studio.
