Final Paper- Gremlins- Dakota Eaton PDF

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Final Paper- Gremlins Understanding Movies ARTH 334 5110 Dakota James Eaton July 9th, 2021

Gremlins Compared to the 1980s, the twenty-first century if full of innovation which is helping movies become more spectacular each year. Every year, there is a new movie that breaks the box office because it has many of the elements needed to make a great film. Elements such as editing, sound and music, cinematography, camera work, optical effects, as well as special effects are all key components to making a film. Some of these elements even receive Oscars because people in the industry know how complicated pulling everything together with small details can be. One movie that was a masterpiece of its time was Gremlins which was released on June 8th, 1984, to the theaters and directed by Joe Dante (Rotten Tomatoes, n.d.). This movie pushed the boundaries of what can be considered age appropriate for children since this movie is more on the scary side. The movie had many famous movie icons on the team such as Steven Spielberg which may have added to its success at the box office. June 8th, 1984 was an unusual day for the movie industry since another popular movie came out the exact same day, the notorious Ghostbusters. Both were released by different major movie production companies such as Warner Bros. (Gremlins) and Columbia (Ghostbusters). However, both movies did amazing when it came down to financials. After the weekend of these movies releasing, Ghostbusters grossed $13.6 million while Gremlins grossed $12.5 million (Brueggeman, 2020). A movie that was targeted for children grossed only close to one million. However, each film had a very different budget to work with to create their blockbusters. Ghostbusters had roughly eighty million for their domestic comedy and Gremlins costed only thirty million (Bruggeman, 2020). While Gremlins was way more of a risk for Warner Bros., both companies managed to create two amazing movies that are still recommended to watch in the twenty-first century. Gremlins may have done better if they had a bigger budget, but the fact

Warner Bros. were able to include many different elements for a great film on a tight budget, is impressive. There are many tough decisions that must be made to create an amazing film that will grasp the audience’s attention. Editing is one-way directors can use technology in this process. When the movie was being produced for the ending scene, there was a change of direction last minute. At the end of the movie, Gizmo, manages to save the day by using sun light to defeat all the gremlins. However, Gizmo was not supposed to be the savior of the film originally. Instead, Billy the dog, was supposed to be the hero that opened the blinds to expose sunlight. Spielberg decided they should change the ending to ensure the audience knows Gizmo saved the day and editing a scene displaying Gizmo driving a car that opens the blinds (Wood, 2019). This scene that probably costed them a couple of extra days, made the ending of the film perfect. It would not have made sense to have a dog be the hero when the dog isn’t a main character to the story. By taking the time to make last minute tweaks cost money and time, but in many cases proves to be money well spent. Adding elements such as music and sound are expected for movies in the twenty-first century since it has shown to grasp the audience’s attention quick. Most people hate when they are watching a scary movie and a loud noise occurs making them terrified. Every note that is added to a movie is meticulously planned by composers. In the movie Gremlins, the composer was Jerry Goldsmith who also scored another popular movie, ‘Twilight Zone: The Movie’ (Jerry Goldsmith – Gremlins, 2021). Throughout the movie, the sounds and music match the scenes perfect such as the scary scenes that has electronic sounds that added a frightening effect. One impressive aspect of the film is that when Gizmo sings in the movie, he is matching the background score of them movie (Jerry Goldsmith – Gremlins, 2021). Which requires a lot of

brain power to pull off as effectively as they did and was not common in the 1980’s movie industry. As the movie continues, the soundtrack takes a dark turn making the audience on edge. Sound effects such as synthesizer was used at the end of the film to make the death sounds of the Gremlins stranger and distorted. Taking the time to maliciously place sound effects can give special effect characters a personality that people can connect with or be afraid of. Without music and sound effects, this movie would not have been nearly as special as it is. The sound effects each Gremlin were given are important to the film’s success since it gave the Gremlins a devilish persona. Another key element for a blockbuster film is cinematography and camera work. The responsibilities for this role in production includes planning and controlling the camera as well as the lighting while filming (Kuhn & Westwell, 2012). Since this is supposed to be a scary film, most of the movie is filmed in a dark environment. This adds to the fear factor of the film keeping the audience engaged. Another reason scary movies are filmed on darker sets is to make the audience twice as scared when an object/person/creature appears out of now where. There is one scene that many people find creeper such as the pool that some of the Gremlins appear out of that uses texture to enhance the scene. Haze, or better known as fog, can be used to create texture to any scary scene making the mood mysterious (Kroll, 2015). Without equipment such as the fog machines, this film might not have had as much thrill or excitement. Camera angles are another key component cinematographers use to make films special. At the end of the film, the gore levels begin to increase with the gremlins melting from the sunlight hitting their skin. Close-up camera angles were used to show the bubbling effect that was occurring on a gremlin back. Also, during this scene a moving shot was used to capture Gizmo’s car scene which included different angles that took the audience with Gizmo for a ride. A bird’s eye shot was used

to show the crash Gizmo experienced. The use of these different camera angles made the audience feel as if they were right next to Gizmo trying to save the day. It also made scenes such as the gremlins melting very gruesome showing the different textures used to make the gremlin appear to melt. The last major component of a blockbuster film is special effect since they make a movie spectacular and sometimes appear out of this world. Special effects goes hand in hand with cinematography since they both revolve around the camera. Special effects can be broken into two different categories such as mechanical effects and visual effects. Mechanical effects are produced while the camera is rolling compared to visual effects when can be added in at any time such as post-production (Kuhn & Westwell, 2012). A fog machine is a perfect example of a mechanical effect which was used plenty of times during the filming of Gremlins. One major special effect that is used throughout the entire movie are the Gremlins. These would also be a part of mechanical features since they were puppets. Gremlins much like other puppets used for films can caused irritation since they can be hard to handle and break easily. The first idea to create the gremlins special effects were monkeys. However, after experimenting with the Rhesus monkey for editing, they decided not to go forward with the idea since the money defecated all over the studio (Wakeman, 2015). Thankfully, they were able to come up with another plan which seems to have turned out better than the monkey idea. This film would not have been as much of a blockbuster film if they decided to use monkeys throughout the film. Plus, this could have costed the valuable production time trying to get the perfect shot. Gremlins is an amazing movie that still receives great reviews from people in the twentyfirst century. Joe Diante received the Saturn Award for best director in 1985 because of this film. There was a considerable amount of consideration that went into making this film. Boundaries

were pushed to the limit which may have caused the movie industry to institute the PG-13 warning label on films today (Wood, 2019). While the film may not have been appropriate for children under thirteen, the movie turned out to be very popular by the public. Without films like Gremlins, movies might not have as much excitement or have become a blockbuster. All of the different elements such as editing, sound and music, cinematography, camera work, and special effects were used to show other directors what I possible on a low budget film. After all of the challenges the team faced during production, they managed to pull off one of the best movies in the 1980’s.

References: Rotten Tomatoes. (n.d.). Gremlins. Retrieved on July 9, 2021 from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gremlins Tom Brueggemann. (2020, June 7). At the Amazing 1984 Box Office, Movies like ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Gremlins’ Grew into Blockbusters. Indie Wire. Retrieved on July 9, 2021 from https://www.indiewire.com/2020/06/1984-box-office-ghostbusters-gremlinsblockbusters-1202235781/ Jennifer M. Wood. (2019, February 26). 20 Facts About Gremlins. Mental Floss. Retrieved on July 9, 2021 from https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/57137/21-things-you-might-notknow-about-gremlins Jerry Goldsmith – Gremlins. My Files. Retrieved July 9, 2021 from https://www.mfiles.co.uk/reviews/jerry-goldsmith-gremlins.htm Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2012). Cinematography. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. : Oxford University Press. Retrieved on July 9, 2021, from https://www-oxfordreferencecom.ezproxy.umgc.edu/view/10.1093/acref/9780199587261.001.0001/acref9780199587261-e-0124 Noam Kroll. (2015, June 8). Cinematography Tips for Horror Filmmakers. Premium Beat. Retrieved on July 9, 2021 from https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/cinematographytips-for-horror-filmmakers/ Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2012). Special effects. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. : Oxford University Press. Retrieved 9 Jul. 2021, from https://www-oxfordreferencecom.ezproxy.umgc.edu/view/10.1093/acref/9780199587261.001.0001/acref9780199587261-e-0672. Gregory Wakeman. (2015, June 22). Why Gremlins Didn’t Use Monkey To Create The Special Effects. Cinema Blend. Retrieved on July 9, 2021 from https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Why-Gremlins-Didn-t-Use-Monkeys-Create-SpecialEffects-72178.html...