Regional Horror Films: Tree Producers - Assignment Example

3 Producers – Their Autobiography Woody Allen Woody Allen is a distinguished movie director, producer and writer and is known as the “pioneer of classic romantic comedy” in filmmaking. His movies are a trademark of his intelligence, acute thinking and life perceptions that can be well sensed in the story and characters of his most movies. His whole life up till now is a long journey of success, hurdles, fame and a continuous process of converting his artistic dream into reality. Allen Stewart Konigsberg was born in 1935 in the dazzling city of New York, the city that made his dreams come true. His childhood was spent in Brooklyn where he did his pre-high and high schooling. He was one of those famous personalities who dropped out the university due to poor grades! This could be well judged by his saying, “I had a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed teachers”. His writing skills first appeared on the screen when he began writing for stars like Sid Caesar (Woody Allen). This was the time that “Woody Allen” got his true existence. Mentoring relationship is considered as a main entity for famous personalities who make them get a competitive edge. Same with case of film industry, every producer, director etc. needs a mentor. Allen’s mentor is Ingmar Bergman who is always there to offer him support, guidance and inspiration. Woody Allen was personally inspired by famous characters such as Charlie Chaplin, Fellini and Bergman. His most of the movies were the result of his motivation gained through New York City and European cinema. His earlier profession started when he began writing scripts for “the Ed Sullivan show, the tonight show and Caesar’s Hour”. His career as a “stand-up comedian” started in 1960. Through his unique style of writing and acting he soon gain fame as a popular comedian on screen and stage both (Woody Allen). His debut film as director released in 1966 What’s Up Tiger Lily? After that various movies directed by him include Take the money and run, followed by his hit movies Annie Hall, the purple rose of Cairo, Match Point and Hannah and her sisters. These romantic-comedies won academy awards. Later on, 1970s was the era of his personal movies which got extended to dark comedic suspense movies in 1990s. Allen always believed in doing something novel. His ideas often got negative reviews from critics followed by failures of losing American audience sometimes but he always said: “If you are not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you are not doing anything very innovative”. He managed secured funding through various financial support offered through BBC, his filming locations such as New York, United Kingdom and by casting famous rich personalities in his movies like France’s first lady Carla Bruni. Allen’s artistic philosophies had many roots. He always thought about how far we people know, understand what we knew, sure enough of what we know and consider them knowing worthwhile! He always highlighted the facts that people are afraid to share or expose to others. He also focused on the dark secrets of nature and universe that are out of reach of human imagination. He recommends doubting a thing or idea and then perceiving it through imagination, practical approaches and profession. The ideas of after life, soul and immortality drew the patterns of his philosophical ideas. He believed in the beauty of truth, the just, the good and hard core beautiful realities of life. He always feared death. The idea of dying always takes his senses away, as he said, “I am not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens”. And, “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve it through not dying”. Presently, Woody Allen is passing through tough times. Most of the critics have started considering his work less attractive and unique and claim to find repeated emotions and characters as he had been bringing up on the screen (Royal 3). But anyhow Allen is still advancing ahead by releasing movie each year. People still consider him a legend that gave comedy a spark of romance and liveliness that was not found before. It is due to his fame and number less artistic works that he is still considered a life time opportunity to work with. Ang Lee Ang Lee, a Taiwanese director, has had a lot of international fame for his work and is the first Chinese-born to have gathered critical and commercial success on either side of the Pacific. Ang Lee’s birthplace was a town of Chaochou in Pingtung that is located in Taiwan. His family was one that considered education and Chinese classics to be extremely important. Lee’s parents lived in China and had made the move to Taiwan after the Chinese Nationalists were defeated in 1949 war. Lee’s father made sure that his children were taught Chinese culture and art, most particularly calligraphy. Lee’s father was the principal of Provincial Tainan First Senior High School and that’s where Lee got admitted. His father had hopes from him and was highly disappointed when he failed the annual Joint College/University Entrance Examination through which he was supposed to get a university education. And therefore, he ended up in a three-year college, National Arts School, graduating in 1975. Once again he disappointed his father. His father wanted that he become a professor but Lee had a particular interest in drama and arts, and thus he went on to take on the path of performance art. Watching Ingmar Bergmans film, The Virgin Spring (1960), influenced him greatly. Following the completion of the Republic of Chinas mandatory military service, Lee passed his bachelor’s degree in theatre in 1980 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Here he met Jane Lin whom he later married. Right after that he pursued his MFA from the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University. While Lee was in graduate school he completed a 16mm short film by the name Shades of the Lake in 1982 and it won the Best Drama Award in Short Film in Taiwan. For his thesis he made a drama, Fine Line (1984) which won NYUs Wasserman Award for Outstanding Direction. Later on the drama got selected for the Public Broadcasting Service. William Morris Agency spotted Lee’s thesis and later on represented him. In the beginning Lee was more or less jobless and it was later at least six years after that he actually started earning properly. During this time it was his wife who supported him and their family. It was only due to his wife’s understanding that Lee was able to continue with his film career rather than abandoning it. He came up with new concepts for films and performances and also wrote plenty of screenplays. The Republic of Chinas Government Information Office sponsored a competition in which Lee submitted two entries – screenplays by the name Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet – and both won the first and second award, respectively. Thanks to this competition Li-Kong Hsu noticed Lee and invited him to direct Pushing Hands, a feature film. Hsu was very much interested in the different and fresh style that Lee had to offer. After his debut of Pushing Hands, Lee went on to make The Wedding Banquet and it was released in 1993. Lee became famous internationally and began working on his third film Eat Drink Man Woman. Up till now all the films Lee had made were based on generational differences and this one particularly proved to be the most critically and commercially successfully film. It won a Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination along with Independent Spirit Award and BAFTA nominations. After such a huge success with this film Lee moved forward and made Sense and Sensibility in 1995. Again it turned out to be a big hit. Next film Lee worked upon was The Ice Storm, again an adaptation of a novel. This film, too, won several awards and Lee got categorized in Hollywoods roster of A-list directors. Up till now Lee has directed eleven films (Dilley 45). They all belong to different genres. “After eleven films, and with the possible adaptation of Alain Renais’s musical Au Connait La Chanson and Yann Martel’s Life of Pi to look forward to, there is little doubt that Ang Lee remains ‘the most mysterious talent at large in American cinema’” (Fifty Contemporary Film Directors 248). Oren Peli Oren Peli was born in Israel in 1970 but by the time he turned 19 he shifted to the United States. He studied animation and graphic design. Due to his background Peli is known to be an Israeli American film director. In fact, he does not only direct films but also produces them and is a screenwriter as well. Besides all this Peli is a video game programmer as well. Peli began as a computer software programmer. He released his first film in 2009 by the name Paranormal Activity which was basically inspired from The Blair Witch Project. Peli’s debut film was an extremely low budget one; from a mere $15,000 Peli had been successful at creating a box-office hit (Albright 14). One of the reasons behind such a success was that Peli knew direction and the way that filmmaking technology should be utilized. The idea behind Paranormal Activity had arisen to Peli when he had shifted to his first house and when he was living all alone. He often heard creaks and knocks although there would not have been anyone around. And therefore he made a film out of that idea, that is, the unusual noises that one might hear at home (Sumner 144). He cast unknown people and fortunately there turned out to be a good chemistry between them. Peli spent 10 weeks shooting the film and another 10 months editing it. He used just his home computer for the purpose. Once he was done with the film he took it to several major studios but was rejected every time till he approached Jason Blum, a Hollywood producer. Blum had previously rejected The Blair Witch Project which had been a huge success. Therefore, he jumped at the opportunity when Peli presented Paranormal Activity to him. And this is how the film got screened. Following such a phenomenal success of Paranormal Activity Peli once again started planning on making another and similar low budget horror film that would capture the audience differently. Peli really wanted to make his films in the old-style way. He went to the director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell and told him about his idea. Just five months later Peli started shooting his film, Insidious. Although this one did not have the signature Blair Witch style, it did include certain classic suspense elements that used to be a part of earlier horror films. Peli allowed Wan and Whannell to have complete creative control while he himself was present during the post-production. Once again Peli’s film was a great hit and the audience loved it. Next film by Peli was Chernobyl Diaries which he wrote and produced. This one was based on the Chernobyl disaster and on his story The Diary of Lawson Oxford. May 25, 2012 saw the releasing of this film through Alcon Entertainment. The film followed “a group of friends who, while vacationing in Europe, find themselves stranded in the abandoned city of Prypiat, Ukraine only to discover that they are not alone.” After that came The River and its premiere was shown on ABC in 2012. This was a television series in which some people were trying to look for a missing TV explorer in the Amazon. Peli worked with Michael R. Perry for creating the show. Perry also wrote Paranormal Activity 2 with Peli. Following that Peli worked on The Lords of Salem and Area 51. The former film was directed by Rob Zombie and shot in Salem, MA, while Peli is the screenwriter and director of Area 51. Yet another current project of Peli is Paranormal Activity 5, the fifth of the Paranormal Activity series. The budget Peli worked on has always been less than minimal. He likes to work in a confined space and that must be a good idea as then a person has to work on ideas and concepts and expand their imagination rather than just pouring money in the film. Works Cited Albright, Brian. Regional Horror Films, 1958-1990: A State-By-State Guide with Interviews. McFarland, 2012 . Conard, Mark T. "The Films of Woody Allen: Critical Essays." Post Script Winter-Spring 2012: 118. Dilley, Whitney Crothers. "Globalization and Cultural Identity in the Films of Ang Lee." Style 43.1 (2009): 45-64. "Fifty Contemporary Film Directors." (2010). Jacobowitz, Susan. "Woody Allen: A Life in Film." Post Script (2012): 114. Royal, Derek Parker. "Woody Allen after 1990: Introduction ." Post Script (2012): 3. Sumner, Don. Horror Movie Freak. Krause Publications, 2012 . Thurman, Judith. "Woody Allen." Architectural Digest 65.11 (2008): 224. Read More