Contagion Podcast Notes

Quinn Janes

Troy Munson

Luca Porzio

Paul Espey

Intro- 1 Minute

Episode Goals- 30 seconds 

Narrative Summary- 2-3 minutes

Cultural background- 10 minutes 

Historical Background- 10 minutes

Production context 8-10 minutes

Close Readings 5 min each x4=20 minutes 

Total Length: 45 min-1 hour 

Intro’s-1 minute 

Episode Goals- 30 sec

Narrative Summary 2-3 min

• A brief summary of contagion is, a novel virus of unknown origins with a high infection rate, infecting more each day and killing more people in the process, we follow key characters and their involvement in trying to stop the disease. The film opens with a black screen “Day 2” and we go to an airport bar with patient zero, Gweneth Paltrow, she is coughing and clearly visually ill. The camera makes a point to focus on the things she has been touching to focus on the spread of the disease she carries. The story unfolds simultaneously as the events of the disease unfold and we track the main events of the disease’s path, we follow the scientists struggling to come up with an effective virus while the public breaks out in anarchy looting and raiding. The film ends with an effective virus in production and slowly being distributed, the final sequence shows precisely how humans came into contact with the disease.  Three most important scenes of the movie are: 1) When the scientist in San Francisco played by Elliot GOuld goes against government protocol and begins testing the new virus in a lower level security testing center for diseases, but his deficiency inevitably helps put the CDC on a fast track to creating a vaccine for the disease, without him getting the vaccine would have taken longer. 2) When the CDC scientist whose soul job in the movie has been to find a vaccine for this virus, in a moment of desperation she self tests one of the many vaccines on herself, and it turns out successful resulting in an effective vaccine to be put in production for the public. 3) When Kate Winslet gets sick Bryan Cranston tells Laurence Fishburne he cannot fly back the doctor that flew out to deal with the virus’s aftermath in the special cdc plane because they are using it on a sick congressman and are closing airports after. May not be the most pivotal to the narrative but this scene tells a lot about how the government operates. Main themes are virus outbreak at an expedient rate due to global reachability and modern technology, shown in first 20 min of movie as Paltrow gets people sick in china, chicago, and minneapolis when she finally gets home.As well as the effect of mass media on events like these, especially unchecked blog sources. Climax is when she self tests the virus on herself. A couple loose endings would be what made Matt Damon immune to a novel disease (not possible), and did Jude Law ever truly have the virus.

Cultural and Historical Background-10 minutes

• The story is set all across the world in 2011. The setting is important in that it’s set 2 years after the H1N1 outbreak. One of the main themes is the influence that the media creates in regard to panic and pandemics.  This is important because many people believed the CDC overreacted to H1N1, which sets up the whole Forsythia storyline.
• The film was released in September of 2011. The director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns were inspired by pandemics such as the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak and the 2009 flu pandemic. All we really need to know about these outbreaks is the widespread panic that they caused when they surfaced and the precautionary measures many people took during those times.
• The film wasn’t specifically targeted to a group of individuals, but rather was made as sort of a warning and a depiction of what is actually possible and how a pandemic could realistically play out.
• As previously stated past historical viruses and pandemics influenced this film and contributed to the accuracy of the events and people depicted in it. The writer of the film, Scott Z. Burns, also states that he had done research on pandemics six months prior to the 2009 flu pandemic and that the outbreak was “really helpful” to his studies, because it provided a glimpse of the societal apparatus following the onset stages of a pandemic. Burns also thought that it was very important to depict how society handles the situation of a pandemic and not just the virus itself.

Production Context-8-10 min

Contagion was not shot in a traditional studio setting due to director Steven Soderbergh’s directions to utilize location shooting to increase realism. Production companies such as Participant Media, Imagenation Abu Dhabi, and Double features Films were involved in the making. Steven Soberbergh wanted to make this film as realistic and convincing as possible, so he opted to shoot at specific locations within multiple different countries as opposed to recreating those places with inadequate sets. Major filming locations ranged across multiple countries such as China, the US, the UK, Switzerland, and Morocco. Specific, noteworthy filming locations include the Jumbo floating restaurant, the Princess Margaret Hospital, the CDC of Atlanta, the Hong Kong International Airport, O’Hare International Airport and Midway Airport in Chicago, Illinois.

The film’s Budget was 60 million dollars,and the production crew was quite large. The main contributors were Zakaria Alaoui as the line producer for the Casablanca location, Chen On Chu the line producer for the Hong Kong location, Jonathan King, Michael Polaire, Jeff Skoll and Ricky Strauss as executive producers. Additional producers such as Gregory Jacobs, Michael Shamberg, and Stacey Sher contributed greatly. Additionally, there were 15 members of the production management crew and many other assistants and technicians to make the production run smoothly, and put less pressure on the actual filmmaker. Also, the director Steven Soderbergh hired many workers for set decoration, costume design, makeup, art, sound, and special and visual effects to ensure the highest quality and ease of shooting.

Contagion was originally premiered on September 3, 2011 at the 68th Venice International Film festival in Venice, Italy. The film was made available to International markets the same week as the American release although revenues were fairly stagnant internationally until it reached multiple additional foreign markets which it became popular in. International grosses totaled $60.8 million, and notable markets were the United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy. In the United States and Canada, Contagion was shown in 3,222 theaters, of which 254 screenings occurred at IMAX venues. On it’s first day in the US, September 9th, it made a tremendous 8 million, and 23.1 million for the entire weekend, in which 2.3 million or 10% came from IMAX screenings, becoming the highest-grossing film of the week. During the second week following release in the US and Canada, Contagion did well, generating 14.5 million box office revenues, but came in second to the re-release of the Lion King. In following weeks sales declined drastically, resulting in the removal of screenings in over 500 theaters nationally. The film completed all theater screenings on December 15, 2011 capping out at $75.6 million domestic gross. This obviously doesn’t include sales of physical and digital copies, merch, streaming service loans, and other related products. In addition to theater revenues, Contagion also did fairly well in selling physical copies. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in North American on January 3, 2012 and in the United Kingdom on March 5, 2012. In the first week following release, the film topped the DVD chart with 411,000 copies sold, bringing in $6.16 million. It also topped the Blu-Ray charts selling 274,000 copies for $4.93 million. Much like the theaters experienced, after the first week sales declined drastically, by over 50%. By July of 2012, Contagion has made $12.01 million from DVD/Blu-ray sales, selling a total of 802,535 copies. Although DVDs are not the mainstream form of media these days, streaming sites such as iTunes, Warner Bros, HBO now and piracy websites have all seen substantial increases in viewing of this film amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. By March of 2020, Contagion was ranked the 7th most popular film on iTunes, Warner Bros had it listed as number two in popularity compared to 270th in December, 2019. HBO now even reported Contagion as their most viewed film for two consecutive weeks recently. Piracy sites have saw increases of daily activity of around 5600% compared the previous month.

Overall, the film received a large majority of positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes said that 85% of critics gave a good review and average score was 7 out of 10. Many film analysts said the film felt “serious, frightening, smart, and spooky.” In the wake of this global COVID-19 pandemic, Contagion has experienced a lot of recent viewings and comments, some even saying that this film predicted the current crisis we are living in today. But regardless of what you believe, the scientists involved in developing the story, along with the similarity of the Covid-19 and the virus depicted in Contagion, is quite coincidental 10 years after the filming took place. Some say scientists predicted this and were trying to warn society, but people do not realize, understand and/or care enough to make change until it directly impacts their lives.

This film falls into the Thriller/Drama genre of movies, although it is action packed and veers away from classical Thriller themes using unrealistic, almost Science fiction elements to over dramatize and get a point across. Specifically, this is a Disaster film, with implicit drama messages and a thrilling soundtrack and acting to make the viewing of it intense but also seem realistic. Additionally, this film is scientifically backed and many film critics are impressed by its blend of reality and disaster.

Individual Close Readings 5 min each, 20 min

• Choose a scene from the film (preferably, each group member chooses a different scene). How does this scene illustrate the main idea of the film? How/Does this scene reflect the social and historical circumstances from which the film was made?
• Based on the historical factors that you identified above – political, economic, religious, social, ideological – how does the film reflect the factor that you identified?
• Does the scene/film attempt to reflect historical events? Does it attempt to promote a particular idea? If so, how does the scene impact the viewer’s understanding of those historical events or that idea?
• What does the film tell us about the historical period with which it deals?
• What does the film tell us about the period in which it was made/released?
• Does this film hold up as a piece of historical analysis?

Individual Close Reading – Troy

The scene I chose to analyze was the scene of one of the doctors getting a drink at a bar very early on in the movie (around the 34 minute mark). This scene is relatively short but I think it very effectively illustrates the main idea of this film which is panic and the way a disease can rapidly spread if people aren’t precautious. In this scene the doctor notices all the other people in the bar coughing into their hands and then touching glasses, food, and their faces. This instils an obvious feeling of panic in the doctor before he decides to leave. This scene reflects the social and historical circumstances from which the film was made because it was inspired by previous viruses like SARS and the 2009 Flu Pandemic.This film reflects the social historical factor because this is very similar to how people acted during the SARS outbreak but to a lesser degree. I don’t believe the film tries to specifically reflect historical events rather it tries to make its own story with inspiration from previous events like the aforementioned SARS outbreak. However I do feel like this scene mimics events that are happening right now as people are a lot more apprehensive around people who are coughing. For example one of my friends had to go to a dentist appointment recently and he coughed so they just sent him home and wouldn’t see him at all. I don’t think it necessarily promotes a particular idea because both sides of the arguments are seen in the movie, there are the seemingly overcautious people who don’t want to come in contact with anyone and there’s also the conspiracy theorists who think the virus is a hoax and that the CDC has the cure for it and won’t give it out. This film tells us that the historical period with which it deals a lot of the people in that time didn’t really listen to the warnings about the virus. I thought this had to do with the fact that social media doesn’t really have a presence in the movie and since its set in 2011 social media didn’t really have the reach and impact that it does today. I feel like especially now, social media is one of the biggest ways people get information rather than watching the news so with the absence of that, it isn’t taken as seriously and people are less informed. I think this movie does hold up as a piece of historical analysis because we are even using this movie to compare it to the pandemic we are in currently so it is still relevant.

 

Individual Close reading Quinn-

The ending scene in Contagion shows the origin of the virus for the first time, makes many connections that were not specifically addressed previously and imposes an intrinsic warning to society. Bulldozer sounds are heard destroying trees that are bat habitat. The same bats migrate, continuing to eat and excrete fruit, dropping it into a pig pen, where one of the pigs is then shown eating the fruit. The next shot shows the infected pig being prepared by a chef who does not wash his hands after preparing the pig; the chef is then shown shaking Beth Emhoff’s hand. Beth becomes the first person to contract the virus and consequently dies from it. The scene continues by showing how the virus spreads incredibly quickly throughout the world. This scene encapsulates the major events that take place in the film, but also directly portrays the message of how dangerous and fatal poor human choices can have on the world as a whole. This film makes references to social and historical circumstances such as the Spanish flu, although I think it is more important to look at this scene and movie as a scientifically accurate warning and overdramatized situation in which people can learn from. As coincidental as it may seem, the final scene of this movie reflects how the novel coronavirus is thought to have originated, from bats infecting livestock in Wuhan, China. I think most importantly, this movie is attempting to make a direct connection between ill-advised human activity and major world epidemics. Dr. McNamara, a professor at the Western University of Health Sciences in California, who also helped discover the West Nile virus of 1999, helped in developing the plot to ensure it stayed factually accurate and realistic.  This was something that director Steven Soderbergh was tenacious and adamant upon carrying out for the duration of the film. Dr. McNamara said “‘There have been many Hollywood movies that are so catastrophic, they’re easy to dismiss, but this one is now sticking with people because it really is mirroring what we are seeing now.” In response to the Covid-19 epidemic, and recent popularity of Contagion due to the coronavirus epidemic. This is important because it emphasizes the importance of ethical human choices as well as showcasing the detrimental effects that can arise over time with poor choices. In addition, it also reiterates the idea of how delayed governmental and human action is, especially when they are not directly affected. McNamara also says, “At least in the US, I think that the reason why there hasn’t been change is because we haven’t been personally impacted.” Which is potentially why the US has handled the initial spike of the coronavirus so poorly and the rapid de-civilization and purging that occurs in COntagion. People are finally being affected personally hence, they are looking to find answers to their questions and with this film being so scientifically accurate and relatable to the current situation we are living in, people are realizing the impact this epidemic could have if not dealt with in a reasonable, effective manner. This film will definitely continue to be used as a method of historical analysis. I think the director was able to very effectively portray the result of insecurity and survival as well. This results in the very dramatic, intense portrayals of a collapsed political and social system. I feel as though society needs to be searching for more sustainable daily practices and ways to moderate human activity and decrease the probability of major health crises’ occurring, as well as speaking up and standing against corrupt governmental and political systems. Scientists have been warning society about the probability of global epidemics for over 20 years, but it has reached the point where intervention and change is critical to maintain the health of society and our earth. In conclusion, regarding both the film and today’s epidemic, in addition to the idea of ethics and human activity, we also see the dramatic result of poorly managed political and governmental systems which should serve as a image of what our own society could become if we continue to go about our daily lives without concern for our environment and the longevity of earth. Again, I think this film is most useful as a warning to people that are ignorant towards lockdowns and social distancing, our only solution to preventing the collapse of public health systems.

Works Cited 

https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/09/contagion-scientific-expert-reveals-last-five-minutes-film-crucial-warning-show-easily-viruses-can-spread-12533692/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contagion_(2011_film)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/