In this Blog post I will discussing the relationship that exists between the audience and the films that they like to watch, while using examples to show the relationship.
With the 2011 release of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it already had a pre-exisitng target audience from the previous films, as this is prequel to the popular 1968 film Planet of the Apes. As it is a prequel is has intertextual references to the old film, the most popular reference is the quote 'Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!' This is said by George Taylor ,Charlton Heston, in the 1968 film, when he is caught by the apes after failing to escape from them. In Rise of the Planet of the Apes the quote has altered a little to 'Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!' This is said by Dodge Landon, Tom Felton, when he tries to get Caesar back into his cage. This quote is iconic to the 1968 film because everyone associates this quote with the film. To engage the audience into this film it uses frameworks of interpretation, as it is dealing with the subject of Alzheimers. The character of Will Rodman is trying to find a cure to Alzhiemers as his dad is suffering badly with the disease, the cure that he creates is what makes the chimpanzees smart. This is frameworks of interpetaion as some of the viewers could relate to his predicament of being with an Alzheimers sufferer and wanting to help. 
When this film was first released it was released onto cinema , this allowed the audience to sit comfortably and enjoy this film, my own personal experience of viewing this film was in the cinema, as it allowed me to enjoy it more than I would have done in a home environment the first time watching it.l As their was a big screen to watch it on and the surround sound was excellent. But once this film was taken onto DVD I brought it and I continue to enjoy it where I watch, on a televison or portibal device this is showing that this film can be enjoyed by the audience inside and outside of the cinema screen and it continues to have fans that will watch it again and again. Fandom is a way to show appreciation to the film and after watching the new film I went and brought the box set for the old films of which this is based on. The post viewing experiences of this film can change from watching it. They might have had high expectations of the film and it fell short or it could have exceeded expectations, it all depends on the people watching the film, some people could love the film and rewatch it many times. This film has a 7.6 rating on IMDB , showing that most of the audience enjoyed what they watched and took the time to rate it. This film is an emotional roller coaster for its audiences as they follow Ceasar's journey through the film as they have a emotional bond with him because of Andy Serkis's acting. Ceasar was orphaned after his mother was killed he then found happiness in a home with Will, then his happiness comes crashing down when he has to be sent away to live in a primate shelter for biting his next door neighbour. This is when life becomes hard for Ceasar as he is subjected to abuse by his fellow primates and the staff at the primate shelter. For some viewers they will not like watching these kinds of scenes and it will be emotional for them. At the same time it will be emotional for audiences when Ceasar and the primates escape the shelter and go and live in Muir Woods, as a big fight ensues from humans stopping the primates and some of them die. This is emotional for the audience to watch but also echilerating as it is a fight scene, some viewers enjoy action fight scenes and a reason why they watched this film.
In this film the effects used focuses mainly on motion capture for the apes as they have actors who act out the actions of the apes and it is transferrred on the screen as chimpanzees. This is the first live action filmt that focuses primarily on the lead character who is an animal. But it is Andy Serkis's acting skills that bring the character of Ceasar to life as the motion capture captures all the facial expressions that Andy creates for Ceasar. The same was used in Avatar and King Kong where Andy Serkis also played King Kong, he also did the same with Gollum in the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, he has the acting ability to make a character come to life purely on just facial expressions rather than speech, This film had 6 nominations for best visual effects and special effects, and won 1 from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society. There is a fandom for this film as it's first teaser trailer was shown at comicon 2011, it is usual for comicons to have lots of different teaser trailers for upcoming films, the sequel to this film Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes also had a teaser trailer shown at comicon. There are many ways in which fans can show their appreciation to this film and the most popular one is merhcandice mostly DVD's as it is the easiest piece of merchandice to buy.
To conclude, there is a relationship that exists between the audience and the films they love and this comes from many things that are in the film. With Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, the story captivates peoples imagination as Chimpanzees are intelligent and are our closest living relative and the idea that they could become smarter and take over is an interesting narrative to use. People enjoy these kinds of films as it makes them create an emotional bond with characters and plays on their heartsrings, which is why people enjoyed this film they bonded with Caesar and is why this film was popular when it was released and after, as it won awards and people are still buying the DVD of it and other merhcandice.
No comments:
Post a Comment