Gravity

Gravity

Gravity was released 7^th November 2013 with a rating of 8.5 that lasts for 91 minutes rated at a 12A. The director was Alfonso Cuaron who also wrote the film alongside Jonas Cuaron. The film starred; Sandra Bullock, George Clooney and Ed Harris.

Gravity is a 3D science fiction thriller with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts who survive the mid-orbit destruction of a Space Shuttle and they attempt to return to Earth.

Alfonso wrote the film with his son Jonas and attempted to develop the film at Universal Studios. However, after the rights to the project were sold, the film was developed with Warner Bros instead.

Making

The making of ‘Gravity’ had huge hurdles to face before it could achieve lift it. With the filming and planning stretched throughout four and a half years developed with Warner Bros. The production did take a rocky start on the first day of shooting when a special camera that was being used by the crew had broken down, the camera would capture the extreme close ups on Bullock and Clooney as it would hurtle closer to their faces just before it stopped inches away from their faces. For this to be solved the technology had to be developed. 

As most of the film unfolds in cold vastness of space, which was clearly a location out of reach, Webber and his company Framestore had to devise into a scheme that would make it appear as though Bullock and Clooney were floating weightlessly hundreds of miles above the earth.

With Alfonso wanting long shots, with the film opening with a shot for 13 minutes and three shots account for 30 minutes on the screen. This was seen as a problem as there was no hiding as most films you can hide behind a cut but with ‘Gravity’ there were no cuts.

The film also aimed to be photo-realistic, ‘Gravity isn’t a fantasy, it unfolds in the present day. A soon as the audience is in a fantasy the audience is more forgiving to what they are watching, whereas if they’re judging realistic events, the accuracy of how the fun rises or what part of the earth they’re passing over at any point becomes so essential. For the technical challenges, Webber relied on a multimedia approach which involves everything from digital effects to wire work. There was also something constructed called the ‘light box’, this was a 10 foot by 10 foot space which had more than 4,000 LED light bulbs and was functioned as a giant television screen. This enabled the team to get any computer graphics image they wanted in order to get the light from the sun and the stars. The box was used to roughly film around 60% of the film.

Around 80% of the film is substantially a visual-effects creation and the other 20% contains a significant amount of effects work. As there was a number of digital enhancements required for each scene Cuaron and Lubezki had an enormous amount of pre-production work. 

All the lighting and most of the shots were mapped out all before the actors ever set foot on the stage, every camera movement was programmed into a two-ton robot before the shooting even began.

Marketing 

As Alfonso hadn’t made a film since 2006, Sue Kroll helped campaign ‘Gravity’. In late July the promotion of Gravity hit off with a key stop at Comic-Con, this was there fan boys were shown around six minutes of the film footage. With this, the film was emphasized on the Big Three late-summer festival where it generated a burst of strong reviews. Sue Kroll says that being promoted at a fan like Comic-Con at the three late-summer festival was very unusual and a rare combination. 

The promotion led the audience to believe and feel they were outer space with Bullock and Clooney after space debris destroys their space shuttle. They also used a tag line, ‘Don’t let go’, this appeared of posters and the trailers. This tag line would bring the audience’s attention in as they will want to understand the storyline of what can’t be let go. 

Warner Bros was targeting a broad audience with the trailers and spots of the film occurring on the run of football games, morning shows and TV season premieres. It is also believe that Bullock is a huge asset as the studio released ‘The Blind Side’ starring Bullock which had over 300 million worldwide views and won her the actress Oscar. 

It is believed that both men and women care about Bullock as an actor and she can attract a wide audience as people care about what happens to her character. Therefore, with trailers and posters leading the audience to believe she is in danger outer space, it’ll attract an audience to ensure Bullock is safe. 

This trailer lets the audience to have an insight to the film's events. 

There was also celebrity reference of ‘Avatar’ director James Cameron who says he is a huge fan of ‘Gravity’. Non-Spoiler marketing was used as trailers didn’t give away the best parts of the film, wherefore it’ll get the audience talking and will attract them in to view it.