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Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood (2019)

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Relives a golden age of Hollywood.

Once Upon A Time in Hollywood is a movie set in 1969 Los Angeles is the story of an aging actor and his loyal stunt double, as they strive to achieve fame and success in the film industry during the final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

The aging actor was played by Leonardo DiCaprio and his loyal stunt double by Brad Pitt.

A Quentin Tarantino signature, the movie started as a novel, the plot worked backwards from the ending to the first plot point.

Tarantino wanted the movie to feel retro but wanted it to be contemporary. He wanted to turn Los Angeles of 2018 into Los Angeles of 1969 without computer graphics. This required months of collaboration with city planners, business owners, set decorators, and construction crews.

One fine example is the reconstruction of the now extinct Van Nuys Theater at the Paramount Theater – the camera rises up over the theater, the shot transitions to a miniature set with toy cars. For some of the driving scenes, Los Angeles freeways were shut down for hours in order to fill them with vintage cars.

The movie highlights are the pleasures of watching history of Hollywood through the eyes of an actor. The sensitive details depicted in the movie reflect the intense respects Tarantino pays to the time period that shaped him into a great director.

Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood received ten nominations in Academy Awards 2020:

  • Best Motion Picture: David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh, and Quentin Tarantino
  • Best Directing: Quentin Tarantino
  • Best Cinematography: Robert Richardson
  • Best Production Design: Barbara Ling; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
  • Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino
  • Best Actor in A Leading Role: Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton
  • Best Sound Editing: Wylie Stateman
  • Best Sound Mixing: Michael Minkler, Christian P. Minkler, and Mark Ulano
  • Best Actor in A Supporting Role: Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth
  • Best Costume Design: Arianne Phillips

Ford vs Ferrari (2019)

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The story of most bitter rivalry in auto racing.

Ford vs Ferrari tells the story of the well-known rivalry between Ford and Ferrari for the dominance at the Le Mans endurance race. Business deal gone wrong, stubborn, egotistical automotive titan who is willing to spend millions to avenge his pride bring out the human faces of automobile business rivalries.

Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles, the car designer and driver played by Matt Damon and Christian Bale are risk-hungry free spirits gambling with someone else’s money, unruly individuals who nonetheless depend on the good will of a large corporation.

Screenwriters John-Henry Butterworth, Jez Butterworth, and Jason Keller took some creative license with the real story to make it a spell-binding race story.

The movie attracted worldwide appreciation for performances and thrilling racing sequences. Its narrative rhythm, dynamic mix of grease and noise, excellent racing sets keep the viewer caring for who will win the race at the end of two and a half hours.

All in all, Ford vs Ferrari is not just another sports story but a nail-biting auto action as well as gripping human drama to satisfy both the racing as well as non-racing enthusiasts.

Ford vs Ferrari is nominated for four Academy Award Categories:

  • Best Motion Picture: Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, and James Mangold
  • Best Film Editing: Andrew Buckland and Michael McCusker
  • Best Sound Editing: Donald Sylvester
  • Best Sound Mixing: Paul Massey, David Giammarco, and Steven A. Morrow

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

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It is the third installment of the Star Warssequel trilogy, following The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017), and the final episode of the nine-part” SKywalker saga.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a riveting conclusion of the Skywalker saga of Star Wars series, in which new legends are born and the final battle is yet to come. This action, adventure, fantasy, sci-fi is directed, co-produced, and co-scripted by J. J. Abrams. He is known for directing science fiction and action-drama movies like Star Trek and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The movie follows Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron as they lead the Resistance’s final stand against Kylo Ren and the First Order who are growing aggressive by the return of the dead galactic emperor, Palpatine.

The Rise of the Skywalker attempts to wrap up a story that spans three trilogies. Stylistically, this sequel returns to the aesthetics of The Force Awakens with rocket-fueled action sequences, dogfights, desert chases and saber-battles with straight-forward dark vs light standoffs, retaining a touch of humor.

Principal photography was shot at the Pinewood Studios, England. With an estimated budget of 275 million dollars, Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker is one of the most expensive films ever made.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has been nominated for three categories in Academy Awards 2020:

  • Best Sound Editing: Matthew Wood and David Acord
  • Best Visual Effects: Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach, and Dominic Tuohy
  • Best Original Score: John Williams

Marriage Story (2019)

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The sadness of the divorce is love affair ending as well as the nastiness of the process.

Written, directed and produced by Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story is a heartfelt drama of a stage director and his actor wife struggling through a gruelling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal and creative extremes. The screenplay brings out the pain of the divorce process in a drama that is phenomenally well-crafted. 

Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are terrific as the couple facing the awful aftermath of their relationship.

Marriage Story more than chronicles a disintegrating relationship, it depicts how one evolves under severe mental pressures. The narrative uses laugh-out-loud and cry-out-loud portrait of the relationship that is dying.

Distributed by Netflix, Marriage Story was chosen by the Time Magazine as one of the ten best movies of 2019.

Marriage Story is nominated for six categories in Academy Awards 2020:

  • Best Motion Picture: Noah Baumbach and David Heyman
  • Best Original Screenplay: Noah Baumbach
  • Best Actor in Leading Role: Adam Driver as Charlie Barber
  • Best Actress in Leading Role: Scarlett Johansson as Nicole Barber
  • Best Actress in A Supporting Role: Laura Dern as Nora Fanshaw, Nicole’s lawyer
  • Best Original Score: Randy Newman

Parasite (2019)

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Parasite is a non- American movie that received an eight-minute ovation at the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Parasite is a Korean dark comedy thriller story about a poor family driven by greed infiltrate their wealthy employer family posing as unrelated, highly qualified individuals.

The movie is a social satire which plays with the term parasite as to who you identify as parasite and the host between the manipulative rich Parks and the street smart Kims. Staircases were used as the theme of the movie to represent the poor and rich classes of the society.

Directed and co-scripted by Bong Joon-ho the movie generated a worldwide acclaim with many hailing at as one of the best films of the year and one of the best of the decade.

Principal photography was done around Seoul and in Jeonju. An entirely freshly set was built for the employer Parks’ house that is built by a fictional architect in the movie. It was a tough task, determining the sunlight factors constantly checking the sun’s movement, and using sophisticated indirect lighting and warmth from tungsten light sources.

Very rarely a non-America film has attained this kind of universal appreciation. Paradise breaks all the records as it taps the global well of class outrage, appealing to the socially conscious young audiences. This crowd-pleaser received an eight-minute ovation at the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Parasite was nominated for six categories in Academy Awards 2020.

  • Best Motion Picture: Kwak Sin-ae and Bong Joon-ho
  • Best Directing: Bong Joon-ho
  • Best Production Design: Lee Ha-jun; Set Decoration: Cho Won-woo
  • Best Original Screenplay: Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won
  • Best Film Editing: Yang Jin-mo
  • Best International Feature Film: Parasite (South Korea) in Korean – Directed by Bong Joon-ho

Little Women (2019)

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Little Women is the seventh film adaptation of the 1868 novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott.

Little Women is an American coming-of-age period drama with 6 nominations in Academy Awards 2020.

Great Gerwig’s new screen adaptation makes some of tis strongest points about the nature of love, its aches, its sacrifices, its disappointments.

Soairse Ronan play Josephine Jo March, the eldest of the March sisters.

Principal photography was done in Boston, Massachusetts as well as Lancaster, Harvard, and Concord. A visually gorgeous period drama, the film poses a question of eternal relevance – How can a person be unselfish without annihilating herself?

Positive reviews welcomed the movie. Joe Morgenstern of Wall Street Journal said ‘The adaptation is faithful to its historical roots, yet it runs on contemporary energy.’

Little Women is nominated for six categories in Academy Award 2020:

  • Best Motion Picture: Amy Pascal
  • Best Adapted Screenplay: Greta Gerwig, based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott
  • Best Actress in Leading Role: Saoirse Ronan as Josephine “Jo” March
  • Best Actress in A Supporting Role: Florence Pugh as Amy March
  • Best Original Score: Alexandre Desplat
  • Best Costume Design: Jacqueline Durran

OTT saturation – reality or myth?

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  • How much is enough?
  • Does having more platforms ensure better quality?

Everything in this world has a saturation point. To be relevant, products need to be reinvented or refurbished to give it a fresh look and feel. Search engine behemoth Google and social media colossus Facebook have never rested on its past laurels but rather pushed for reinvention to stay relevant. It is the same for OTT’s. Major players like Netflix, Hotstar, and Prime Video have to battle not just each other but also the fatigue that a user might feel from using their products.

‘Lucifer’ was a landmark movie in the Malayalam film industry. The film was made available on Prime Video while still running in theaters. Soon other Malayalam movies followed the suit and now the Malayalam section of Prime Video is populated with latest releases. With this one move, Prime Video has stood out from the rest and has attracted more regional users especially from Kerala. With this move it has for the time  being gotten over the issue of saturation with fresh content for its users to keep them interested.

As per various surveys in 2020, the new users for OTT platforms will come from rural India, most specifically from tier-2 and tier-3 cities. While this would indicate a slight saturation point in urban cities, this can also be seen as an opportunity for the OTT platforms to reinvent themselves. With the platforms going into local and regional content, the idea of saturation can be overcome by the platforms.

It is believed that with the right value for money, OTT’s can beat the slowdown. The OTT fatigue narrative has been made irrelevant with subscribers opting for more. The subscribers are not only willing to pay for a subscription, they are willing to pay for multiple services, even premium-priced services, if value is perceived. There are times when the users feel that they are bombarded with too many shows. They would prefer to create their own set of shows from which they would pick and choose what best suits them. The users are always on look-out for something fresh or unique. OTT is not traditional TV as it thrives upon consumer choice, often random interaction, and the convenience of viewing when, where and on what device a consumer chooses. It thrives upon its own ability to iterate in order to respond to the changing conditions.

Rise of local content in OTT platforms in India

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Local and Regional Content
Local and Regional Content
  • Rural India is the new audience
  • OTT platforms to see a rise in local content
  • Regional content catalogues to expand

It is estimated that in 2020, the rural areas of India are going to provide about 75 percent of the new Internet users. These new users are going to opt for data in their local or regional language. With the urban market on the verge of saturation, rural India will provide a huge untapped audience which these OTT players will look for in the next round of growth. The advent of cheaper data is spiking the growth for OTT players in tier-2 and -3 cities. The OTT platforms have realized that there is a market for regional content. There is also a slew of content creators for the regional market or local cable television.

As smartphones with affordable data plans made their way into rural landscapes of India and lifted them from internet blackholes, OTTs faced a new challenge of quelling the thirst of new viewers. The acclaimed international shows on OTTs like ‘Games of Thrones’ on Hotstar, ‘Dark’ on Netflix, and so on found a willing audience in the urban cities. These shows do not resonate much with tier-2 and tier-3 cities in India.

Hoichoi, the Bengali streaming platform owned by SVF Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, took the lead when it launched close to two years ago, a couple of them have just joined in. Viu was one of the first players to move into regional content production. Just because an OTT platform decided to invest or create regional content does not mean that they will gain an audience. To retain users, all major platforms have invested in user experience.

One of the hurdles faced by the platforms is the well-established domestic film and TV market. The average price of pay tv in India is about Rs.270 per month while the basic Netflix subscription is Rs.499 per month. India’s successful domestic film and TV network markets poses a stiff challenge for newcomers.

During the presentation of 2020 Budget, Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed linking 100,000 gram panchayats with fibre-to-home internet connectivity in 2020-21 through telecom infrastructure provider BharatNet. This move would boost regional language content streaming, audio and video, in India’s small towns. Search engine Google claims that 97% of content on its YouTube platform is now consumed in regional languages, and a similar trend is seen across most of the OTT platforms in India.

While Hoichoi streams content specifically in one regional language ie. Bengali, others like Netflix, Prime Video, as well as Hotstar, ZEE5, ALTBalaji and others, are investing in their regional content libraries.

Growing demography for OTT: Kids

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Kids as a OTT Demography
Kids as a OTT Demography
  • OTT platforms target kids
  • Educational content or a lead to addiction?
  • Are outdoor games going out of fashion?

Today’s universal and undeniable truth: along with learning to walk and speak, kids also learn how to unlock mobile phones and iPads. The OTT platforms have found a new audience for growth. An increasing number of children are attuned to digital devices. It is imperative for content creators and distributors to provide edutainment content tailored specifically for them. While Netflix and Prime Video have had a section dedicated for kids, many OTT apps from India have launched platforms exclusively for kids.

Children are making a sizable audience for OTTs and the platforms know that here is a market that is ripe for plucking. Parents to keep a child quiet will hand over their mobile phones or tablets with a Youtube channel opened. Children don’t care about the name of the brand, they just want entertaining and simple content.

As of December 2019, the YouTube Kids app saw over 100 million installs, while ChuChuTV Pro, ChuChuTV Lite and Voot Kids have been installed by over one million users each on Google Play Store. Voot Kids includes ebooks, audio books and quizzes, besides content from the TV channel Nickelodeon. Voot Kids subscription packages are priced at Rs.99/month (1 week free) and Rs.700/month (one month free). Hungama Kids has 2,000 minutes of video on its platform on topics ranging from general knowledge to science and mathematics. Hungama Kids’ subscription packages are priced at Rs.30 a month and Rs.300 a year, with an initial free trial offer for a day.

One of the major questions that has risen with the rise of ‘for kids OTT-platforms’ is ‘Can this be a cause of addiction?” An attractive content will consume a child’s attention and the child will be engaged with the OTT, at times for hours on end. This usage of platforms for entertainment which is marketed as ‘educational videos’ has blunted the kids’ desire to go out and play. Though concerned people say that it is unsafe or impossible for kids to play in urban cities, the penetration of Internet in small towns has also to some extent stopped kids from going out and playing. One thing that a product creator or a business house for kids can be sure of is the spending nature of Indian parents. High speed of internet connections has also worked in favour of these OTT platforms and with the rise of consumption of content in tier-2 and tier-3 cities 2020 will see a new direction in which these platforms are heading.

What is good content on OTT?

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  • Is creativity a premium in Indian entertainment industry?
  • Quality over quantity should be the way ahead

When Netflix made its first foray to the Indian shores, the OTT platform set off a race that continues till now unabated. OTT platforms are falling over each other in trying to woo viewers into subscribing for them or to retain the existing viewer base. The concept of original content took birth on these platforms to attract users, but the question is, what is a good content?

Of late, Netflix has become a dumping ground for movies that are destined to fail at the box office, case in point, Dharma Productions’ ’Drive.’ Prime Video’s ‘The Family Man’ looked like a promising concept with a power-packed star cast but it seems to be a mixture of Netflix’s ‘Jack Ryan’ inspired central character, with weak screenplay and a scene inspired from ‘Breaking Bad.’ A talented Manoj Bajpai and a fiery Priyamani along with a couple of talented supporting cast managed to make the show watchable. Hotstar decided to give home to the remake versions of ‘Doctor Foster’, ‘The Office’ (US version)’ and ‘Hostages’ (a CBS drama) on their platform with disastrous results.

Shows like ‘Sacred Games’, ‘Mirzapur’, and ‘Made in Heaven’ won critical acclaim and the audience loved it from the word go, though Sacred Games went downhill after the first season. ‘Delhi Crime’ was well-received by the audience but the critics found holes in the screenplay and one critic mentioned in the review that the show was a ‘love letter to the Delhi police.’ Even the light-hearted shows like ‘Little Things’ and ‘Lust Stories’ failed to win over a wider crowd.

The term ‘good content’ is, in fact, very subjective. Some users prefer shows that are gritty, edgy and they would term it as good content, while for some users a feel good story would be good content. The scale of measuring good content can differ as per various users’ taste. The challenge for OTT platforms is creating interesting contents that can cater to the tastes of most of the users. Indian filmmakers have always been known to take the shortcuts for success, replicating a winning formula till the audience tires of it. It is yet to be seen if and how long that formulaic content approaches would sustain on OTT platforms where everything is at a click. More and more original contents are being churned out on OTT platforms or on their digital streaming sites, but more than the quantity it is the quality that will help these platforms retain or gain users.

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