Media Industries: The Jungle Book

Media Industries: The Jungle Book

Plot Synopsis

After a threat from the tiger, Shere Khan forces him to flee the jungle, a man-cub named Mowgli embarks on a journey of self-discovery with the help of panther Bagheera and free-spirited bear Baloo.

Total Lifetime Grosses

Domestic: $364,001,123    37.7%

+ Foreign: $602,549,477    62.3%

= Worldwide: $966,550,600  

Domestic Summary

Opening Weekend: $103,261,464

(#1 rank, 4,028 theaters, $25,636 average)

% of Total Gross: 28.4%

Widest Release: 4,144 theaters

Close Date: September 29, 2016

In Release: 168 days / 24 weeks

Production

was produced by Walt Disney Pictures, directed and co-produced by Jon Favreau (), and written by Justin Marks.

It was partly based on Disney’s original version but also drew more on Kipling’s original books, giving a rather darker tone

The Jungle Book exists in a strange limbo-world between live action and animation.

All the animals and landscapes, etc., were computer generated, (mostly) by the British digital effects house MPC. 

Technology

JB16 one of the most technologically advanced movies ever made’; as the director noted, ‘I found myself wrestling with the same things as Walt, who used cutting-edge technology for his day, but with a different set of tools and technologies.’

JB16 is the result of cutting-edge CGI – the animals were created digitally post-production and the one actor in the film (playing Mowgli) acted against a blue screen.

Scenes for The Jungle Book were first filmed using motion capture. ‘We motion-captured the entire movie before we filmed anything and we cut the whole film together,’ says

Favreau. 

Using that footage, the effects team then built the film’s sets virtually, a process known as previsualization (previz). ‘Everything was mapped against the virtual sets. We designed

the sets like you would for a video game.’ (http://www.wired.co.uk/article/jungle-book-jon-favreau-disney-film)

The CGI was mostly created by MPC. 

The VFX won both the BAFTA and Academy Award. The new film opens and closes using analogue techniques, however, referencing the original film.

Production:  The making of the film; pre-production and funding; shoot (format); post-production (SFX).

Distribution: The way the film gets to screens; distribution company.

Marketing: The process of raising awareness; targeting an audience; creating publicity through various methods.
A distributor is responsible for marketing a film

Exhibition: The way we view; getting the film to a paying audience. 

Media Ownership is dominated by the Big 6 Media Corporations.

These exist as conglomerates ( a company which was subsidiary companies…) 

The multiplane camera was a special camera that helped record the movement of multiple layers of artwork that would move past the camera at various speeds and distances. ...
The first vertical multiplane camera was invented in 1933 by Ub Iwerks, the former Walt Disney Studios animator, and director. Disney used this approach to create a 3 – D like effect in several Jungle Book sequences

The Jungle Book (2016), hereafter JB16, was produced by Walt Disney Pictures, directed and co-produced by Jon Favreau.
 It was partly based on Disney’s original version but also drew more on Kipling’s original books, giving a rather darker tone.
‘The Jungle Book exists in a strange limbo-world between live action and animation. Favreau admits he has no idea which category it falls into: ‘I think it’s considered live action because people feel like they’re watching a live-action film,’
All the animals and landscapes etc. were created on computers, mostly by the British digital effects house MPC. 

All the animals and landscapes etc were created on computers, mostly by the British digital effects house MPC. 

The animal characters were deliberately created with a realistic look, and not in a cute and cuddly cartoon-style as with the original animated Jungle Book film 

Favreau drive to create a more believable live-action film dictated how the animals looked/behaved.

‘In Jungle Book, if  we just took everything that was in the ’67 film, that humour would have been too broad for a live action, and also you have to take into account that these look like real animals, so the intensity of it gets really notched up.’ 

Blue screen - Used in movie making, it provides a screen of one colour that can easily be cut out and replaced with superimposed images or backgrounds afterwards.

Motion capture - Motion capture is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics.

Previsualisation - Previsualization is a function to visualize complex scenes in a movie before filming. It is also a concept in still photography

Produced by Walt Disney Company

MPC – independent UK company contracted to do the complex 3 animation effects

Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Synergy - The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects. Cooperative interaction among groups, especially among the acquired subsidiaries or merged parts of a corporation, that creates an enhanced combined effect.

• You will create an essay which discusses the impact of technology on the way large organizations such as Disney create blockbuster films as a means of creating an enhanced viewing experience for consumption within the cinema.

Essay

Technology impacts filmmakers in a very direct way. It generally describes their limitations to what they can't and can do, for example, the detail of the animation and how realistic something looks, depends on the quality of the CGI. In the film, the jungle book the animation and motion capture is extremely detailed. This is because each animal was animated from the ground up, literally with the skeleton first being animated, then the muscle structure, then the skin and finally the fur simulation. Also, the animals were studied beforehand, their behaviours and expressions were looked at, so they could match these expressions to lines of the script without making the animals look human with human expressions. For example, in the scene where Sheer Kahn is demanding the Mowgli be turned over to him during the water truce Raksha tells him to "go back from whence you came from you burned beast". During this line, she is bearing her teeth, which is a common expression that wolves do to show aggression, but also a sign of fear. This fits perfectly with the line as she is threatening the main predator of the jungle, and someone who can easily kill her and her pack.  

The interaction between the animals and the landscape is also key in the Jungle Book. As the animals were animated, it would make sense that the environment was also animated, otherwise when the animals interact with the environment it would not look quite right, and as a result would either be a lot more work or not as good in the long run anyway. This is yet another way in which technology has forwarded the looks and feel of the movie. However, the producers and special effects team had a problem to solve. How would they make Mowgli walk on the same landscape?  Well, less detailed geography they used a general blue screen, not green screen as this would clash with the green of the jungle, to fill in the background and the floor. but with more detailed geography they had to use blue screen props, that was in the shape of trees that Mowgli was walking on.