24 Hour Party People Essay

Compare and contrast 24 Hour Party People's production to that of a Hollywood film.

Having watched the film ‘24 Hour Party People’ (Michael Winterbottom, 2002) which is an independent film, I can compare and contrast the film to a Hollywood film. ’24 Hour Party People’ has several production companies involved, these co-productions are Baby Cow Production, Channel Four Films, Film Council, FilmFour, Revolution Films, and Wave Pictures where as Dead Man Running only had two production companies, which are Next Generation TV and Film, and P&T Productions. As ’24 Hour Party People’ had many production companies involved this indicates that it is an independent film due to this it requires more production companies to spread out the cost, as most companies don’t want to pay a lot of money in an independent film as they feel they wont make the money back, where as in Hollywood film they would only have one to two production companies as the production companies are willing to give more money to a Hollywood film that have a mainstream audience, since they feel that the film will make more money. The film breaks the fourth wall several times, for example at the beginning tony Wilson saying the scene was symbolic of what is to come on many levels. "I don't want to say too much, don't want to spoil it. I'll just say one word: 'Icarus'. If you get it, great. If you don't, that's fine too. But you should probably read more." Also at a concert, The real Devoto, portraying a janitor cleaning the bathroom sink, then turns to the camera and says "I definitely don't remember this happening." Breaking the fourth wall seems to be like something an independent film would do, as they tend to do things opposite to what is expected to do, to make the film different.

The Target audience for ’24 Hour Party People’ is a mature, yet young audience, appealing to both males and females, however the majority would be a male audience, as most of the actors are males. The audience will be between 16-30 as you see many concerts in the film with young people drinking and smoking. They would also be of a working class background.
The main synergy used in ’24 Hour Party People’ is music. Before the film starts, it opens with a song from “Happy Mondays” in the opening credits. Tony Wilson attends a concert at Manchester 1976, by the Sex Pistols, this uses synergy as the film and the band sex pistols are promoting their media product. ’24 Hour Party People’ uses this synergy to promote their film, and the sex pistols uses the synergy to make awareness of their band, both appealing to the same audience at the same time.
‘24 Hour Party People’ used new media technology in the film. The film was filmed with a Sony DSR-PD150, which has an affordable price to it but also a very professional camera, which has XLR audio inputs and produces great picture. The film is a video format, filmed in DV and printed with a 35 mm film format. 35mm film has the highest quality. Evidence of new media technology used within the film is during the scene with the birds, when the birds where falling from the sky, dead. Even though this was not real, it was shown in a very realistic way; this affects the production company in a positive way as it allows them to create a scene with verisimilitude, which helps the audience be affected positively as well, as they see it being real and believe the story. There was also another scene which shows elements of new media technology being used, there was scene where ‘space ships’ were involved, in order to create this scene sound effects for the space ship noise was used and special effects to get the space ship appear in the scene. This had a positive effect for the production company as they were able to do this using the new media technology. on top of this, towards the end of the film there was a scene where special effects were involved, this was the scene where “God” was speaking. Where as in Hollywood films they tend to use the best camera available, usually costing a lot, but due to new media technology it has got cheaper, and also the special effects in a Hollywood film is far more advanced as they use the best editing software’s and best equipment, only because they have the money to do this.
Having FilmFour and Channel four films as one of 24 Hour Party Peoples’ production company, this allows cross-media convergence, as ’24 Hour Party People’ can have trailer adverts on the TV channels, film four and channel 4 to create awareness for the film, also they could use it for home exhibition, as they could have the film played on the channels.
’24 Hour Party People’, gives a representation of Britishness, mainly Manchester, as being negative, as we see guns, drugs which results in having a drug-gang, increasing the likelihood of crime, wee see a drive-by shooting which adds to the film showing British negatively. Also, it shows Manchester as being a musical place, as there are constant concerts shown, which also shows people drinking a lot there. The film as shows huge elements of people who want to go into the music industry and the majority of people who are shown are young people who like to party, this reflects the audience.
To conclude, 24 Hour Party People and a Hollywood film have similar elements that show they use new media technology, cross media convergence, and synergy. 24 hour party people uses new media technology to create verisimilitude in their film, they use synergy and cross media convergence for mainly creating awareness of their film. Cross-media convergence is used mainly for advertising the film on TV and for home exhibition, the movie may be more successful through home exhibition than cinema exhibition, therefore having TV channels such as Film Four and Channel four, home exhibition will be useful for an independent film.