Unit 26: Film studies
Task 2
Production Context
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Django Unchained is produced in Hollywood. Films produced in Hollywood is usually distributed worldwide meaning it is distributed in countries outside of America because Hollywood films want to have their target market to be an as wide range as possible. Other conventions of a Hollywood film would include famous Hollywood celebrities. That's is because Hollywood films have a very high budget and can afford props, effects, actors required for the film, they also have the marketing budget to advertise films through billboards, TV, posters or trailers.
Most of Tarantino’s other films such as The Hateful Eight or The Inglorious Basterds is also produced in the Hollywood production context because both of those films also have a high budget as the budget for The Hateful Eight is $44-54 million, and The Inglorious Basterd is $70 million. Both films also have famous Hollywood celebrities included in the film and earned high box office. However, other Tarantino’s film such as Pulp Fiction is not made on a Hollywood production context. Instead, it is made in an independent production context before it was known and distributed worldwide.
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For Django Unchained, it is a Hollywood film because it has started being distributed worldwide in 2013. The budget for Django Unchained is $100 million because Tarantino has hoped that Django Unchained would be a successful film and each film Tarantino directs, the budget would increase. They would make a profit off their budget, the chart above shows that Django Unchained has made at least $500 million from either box offices or home performance. That is more than what Tarantino expects to make which he expects to make around the budget of the film.
The genre of Django Unchained wouldn’t really meet the genre of spaghetti western because the budget of this film is not low and the film is not filmed overseas. This film was filmed around places in America.
There are merchandises sold based on the film such as posters, action figures and T-shirt that can be distributed worldwide and also through the digital economy (Amazon). Above shows action figures being sold, the action figures features the main character in the film and important characters. However, the action figures has stopped being distributed because there were controversies among the audiences how the action figures seem to target children but it actually targets people 17 years and older which is who Django Unchained actually targets because of the graphical violence included in the film and how Tarantino has to follow the legal aspect when making the film. The box has labelled how it’s not suitable for children below 3 years old due to choking hazard, It also says on the bottom right corner of the package that its suitable for people ages 17 years old or above. The side of the box shows one of the posters of the film.
The film poster shows Django centred in the middle of the character showing us that he is the main character in the film and the two characters next to him (Schultz and Calvin) would also tell audiences that they also play a significant role in this film. Django’s costume would show the audience that this is a western film genre and Calvin wears a formal suit which symbolises the fact that he is a very rich character. The colour of the characters is in the black and white palette, Calvin has a slightly darker colour which tells the audience that he is the antagonist of the film and Schultz has a slightly brighter colour which tells that he is a good character in this film. The red text in the film symbolises that there's blood included in the film and power. There’s blood splat which supports the fact that this film has blood included and shows signs that this is a Tarantino film. Tarantino has included lots of reds in other films.
The film poster shows that Django is standing side by side with Schultz standing in a slightly off centre of the poster. The palette of the poster’s background is mainly greyish dark because the colour black and white makes grey and those colour would represent racism. However, the Hong Kong poster is more contrasted than the English poster. Behind Django and Schultz, it shows Calvin at Candyland where the palette of that part of the poster is red. The palette is red because the colour red associates to blood and the pose of Calvin shows that he is the antagonist from the poster. The text of the title is black in the English version, however in the Hong Kong version, it is black in the Chinese words that say “Django Unchained” but the English word in the Hong Kong film poster says the title in red. There’s more information in the Hong Kong poster whereas the English poster shows information, however, the information is small.
The film poster shows that Django is standing side by side with Schultz standing in a slightly off centre of the poster. The palette of the poster’s background is mainly greyish dark because the colour black and white makes grey and those colour would represent racism. However, the Hong Kong poster is more contrasted than the English poster. Behind Django and Schultz, it shows Calvin at Candyland where the palette of that part of the poster is red. The palette is red because the colour red associates to blood and the pose of Calvin shows that he is the antagonist from the poster. The text of the title is black in the English version, however in the Hong Kong version, it is black in the chinese words that says “Django Unchained” but the english word in the Hong Kong film poster says the title in red. There’s more information in the Hong Kong poster whereas the English poster shows information, however, the information is small.
This poster shows another film poster of Django Unchained. It shows chains in the centre of the poster and the lower middle shows 2 silhouette characters which happen to be Django and Schultz; the protagonist. The background is completely red which can symbolise the blood, like the other 2 posters. It could also show Django and Schultz. Tarantino wanted the silhouette included in the poster because he wanted the audiences to wonder who are those characters and he wanted the chains there because the chain symbolises slavery; how slaves are tied by chains and using chains are more common to use to tie people up. It also makes fun of the fact that this film is called “Django Unchained”. At the beginning and the climax of the film, it shows slaves being tied using chains which is also why chains are included in the film.
Between those posters, only Django, Schultz and Calvin are included in the film poster. I think that Broomhilda should be included in the poster because she also plays a huge role in the film. Rescuing Broomhilda is Django’s main objective in the second half of the film.
The soundtrack of Django Unchained goes together with the film and is released as an album. The album contains 24 songs and it lasts for at least an hour long. The music in the album contains most of the sounds and songs that were used in the film, there were 13 songs that weren’t included in the album but were included in the film, this could be because the budget for creating the soundtrack was too much or the soundtrack was inappropriate. There’s also soundtrack albums that include the soundtrack used in other films directed by Tarantino. The album cover of the soundtrack is like the poster of the film. The back cover of the soundtrack album is the same, except there are no chains and Django and Schultz are moved to the side of the album cover because the album has to show the tracklist of the album. The ratings show that the soundtrack album is high in most charts, the highest chart rating this soundtrack album was the Swiss album within a week of release.
When the merchandises for Django Unchained is being produced, Tarantino and his team would negotiate with manufacturers about the number of merchandises that they want the manufacturers to produce and how will the products going to be distributed around the world.
Because Django Unchained has earned a high box office rating, they would premiere the film in a large cinema house because many audiences would want to watch this film and having cinemas with a large house would have enough space to accommodate enough audiences. Tarantino and his team would negotiate with each cinema to about the distribution; which house they wanted the film to be shown and the duration of how long will the film be shown in the cinema. If the revenue of Django Unchained starts to decline, then the cinema house will have to move this film into a more smaller cinema house, depending on its duration of how long this film will show in the cinema.
Django Unchained has many famous Hollywood actors making audiences want to watch this film because they are a fan of one of the actors in the film. Many of those actors are recurring actors and has appeared in one of Tarantino’s other films before. For example, Samuel Jackson, the actor for Stephan has not only appeared in Django Unchained, but also appeared in Pulp fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Inglorious Bastard, and The hateful eight. Along with Zoe Bell, Samuel Jackson and she has both appeared in the most Tarantino films; a total of 6 Tarantino's film.
