X IDENTS2 Indie movies

SMOKIN' ACES

• WT2 - psuedo indie
• Total of 32 seconds

Ident 1

• Universal
• Own jingle
• 21 seconds

Ident 2

• Working Title
• Audio Bridge
• 11 seconds

WITHNAIL AND I

• 1987 - typical for older movies
• Total of 9 seconds

Ident 1

• Handmade Films presents
• 9 seconds
• Audio bridge

KIDULTHOOD

• 2006
• Total of 24 seconds

Ident 1

• Revolver Entertainment
• No audio
• 3 seconds

Ident 2

• Hanway Films
• No audio
• 9 seconds

Ident 3

• Stealth Films
• Own jingle
• 7 seconds

Ident 4

• Cipher Films
• Own jingle
• 5 seconds

HALLOWEEN REMAKE

• 2007
• Total of 12 seconds

Ident 1

• Dimension Films
• 12 seconds
• No sound / audio bridge

SEED OF CHUCKY

• No idents
• Titles and animated sequence

'71

• £8m budget 
• Total of 38 seconds

Ident 1

• Studio Canal (formerly Optimum Releasing)
• 19 seconds
• No audio

Ident 2

• Film 4
• 9 seconds
• No audio

Ident 3

• BFI
• 10 seconds
• No audio

SUBMARINE

• Total of 16 seconds

Ident 1

• Film 4
• 9 seconds
• Own jingle

Ident 2

• UK Film Council
• 7 seconds
• No audio

TYRANNOSAUR

• No idents

X INDUSTRY3 Digitisation of the film industry

WARP

• Warp X and Warp Australia are subsidiaries of Warp Films
• Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee (Meadows, 2009)
• £48k budget and 5 day shoot
• Warp X
• Founded 2005
• Digital film studio
• Budgets usually between £400k and £800k
• Filmography

• UK Film Council
• Now BFI (British Film Institute)
• Encourages development in British film
• Uk Film Council and National lottery gave a fund to Warp X to produce digital movies
• A lot cheaper - each movie print was roughly £5k - now blu-ray, hard drive and streaming are practically free
• Benefits indies as it is a lot cheaper
• Usually movies do a US release before the rest of the world - Avatar (Cameron, 2009) challenged this and had a worldwide release at the same time.

X FILM OPENING EG6 28 Days Later

(This post was originally created by Spikey Films)

28 Days Later (Danny Boyle - 2002)

Danny Boyle

Danny Boyle is a renowned film director in the specific zombie genre. He is also well known for directing movies such as Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 hours.

Plot

A group of misguided animal rights activists free a caged chimp infected with the "Rage" virus from a medical research lab. When London bike courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma a month after, he finds his city all but deserted. On the run from the zombie-like victims of the Rage, Jim stumbles upon a group of survivors, including Selena (Naomie Harris) and cab driver Frank (Brendan Gleeson), and joins them on a perilous journey to what he hopes will be safety.

 Budget + Box office                                                                Opening titles

The budget of this movie was £5m

The box office was $82.7m

Stars

Cillian Murphy
Naomie Harris

Genre

Drama, Horror, Sci-fi

Ideas

Decaying title 'presents' fades away
- Blood splatter on main title

- We won't take the style of fast zombies as we would prefer to use the stereotypical style (more practical for filming)

- Security camera style

Idents

UK Film council

DNA films

Fox Searchlight Pictures

X GENRE RESEARCH1 Dawn of the Dead

1978
...

...

• Directed by George A. Romero
• Budget of $500k
• Box office of $55m

SYNOPSIS

• Following the events of Night of the Living Dead (1968), we follow the exploits of four survivors of the expanding zombie apocalypse as they take refuge in an abandoned shopping mall following a horrific SWAT evacuation of an apartment complex. Taking stock of their surroundings, they arm themselves, lock down the mall, and destroy the zombies inside so they can eke out a living--at least for a while. Tensions begin to build as months go on, and they come to realize that they've fallen prey to consumerism. Soon afterward, they have even heavier problems to worry about, as a large gang of bikers discovers the mall and invades it, ruining the survivors' best-laid plans and forcing them to fight off both lethal bandits and flesh-eating zombies. (IMDb)

2004
...

...

• Directed by Zack Snyder
• Budget of $28m
• Box office of $102.3m

SYNOPSIS

• Upon finishing a long shift working as a nurse, Ana goes home for a much needed rest. Not noticing the emergency television broadcasts, seeing the daughter of a neighbor tearing out her husband's throat sends Ana into survival mode. Fleeing from her home, she sees the extent of the carnage that has ensued in the world around her. Ana groups up with other humans who have not been infected in a bid to remain safe. They find a haven in an empty mall, which has the supplies they need for now. Planning ways to keep their numbers up while the zombie population increases dramatically, the group face a number of challenges. Trapped in the mall, they make plans to move on, in hopes of finding an infection free zone in which they can regain some sense of normality. (IMDb)

X VODCAST4: First Shot

VODCAST
The first shot is very important for a movie.  This needs to set the scene for the audience whilst still leaving some narrative enigma.  The exposition can be shown through the mise-en-scene.  The first shot often shows the protagonist in a variety of different ways, for example, the rule of thirds.  I looked at Bridget Jones's Diary (Maguire, 2001), About a Boy (Chris and Paul Weitz, 2002) and Hot Fuzz (Wright, 2007).
...

...

X FILM OPENING EG4 Hot Fuzz

...

...

• WT2 - pseudo indie - not indie but low budget
• Conventional first shot being outdoors but not in Hot Fuzz
• Extreme long shot 
• Giving some exposition
• Rule of thirds - not concrete however light part is centered
• Props in mise-en-scene creating verisimilitude - achieving sense of realism
• Sound of sirens giving exposition 
• Straight cut not fade in 
• Boom sound sharply when sliding doors open - comedic genre
• Diegetic sound of doors opening - often exaggerated sounds added in post production - in this case for comedic effect
• Man in first shot walking fast connoting seriousness
• Centred in rule of thirds - central protagonist
• Very long walk and ominous sound in background to connote tension
• Camera tracking in
• In association with StudioCanal - not main distributor
• In association with big talk productions - not main production company
• Opening shot - 31 seconds long
• Close up of serious and stern expression 
• Comical when badge comes out 
• Identical stern expression on badge
• Disguise cut onto next shot

X VODCAST2: Titles

VODCAST

In this vodcast, I speak about the titles in different movies.  I've looked at some Working Title movies as well as Warp movies.  It is clear that a title is very important as it anchors the genre and the preferred reading.  This is shown through the font, colour, size and case.  It is interesting as a few movies don't have any titles at all.  The order is also important to look at as this will help us create our film opening.  I look at Tyrannosaur (Considine, 2011), This is England (Meadows, 2007) and Four Lions (Morris, 2010) from Warp and Bridget Jones's Diary (Maguire, 2001) from Working Title.  I then looked at some zom-rom-com genre specific movies such as, Zombieland (Fleischer, 2009) and Anna and the Apocalypse (McPhail, 2018).
...

...

X INDUSTRY2 Why Working Title is and Warp isn't successful

Working Title

Warp

• Star-power
• BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY (Maguire, 2001)
• Hugh Grant, Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth
• Can afford A-listers (budget of $26m)
• Use for star billing on advertisement (posters)

...

via GIPHY

...

• LE DONK AND SCOR-ZAY-ZEE (Meadows, 2009)
• No A-listers
• Can't afford (budget of only £48k)
• Doesn't appeal to audience as much

• CGI and SFX
• PAUL (Mottola, 2011)
• Sci-fi comedy genre
• Can afford to use CGI and SFX (budget of $40m)
• Appeals to audience

...

via GIPHY

...

• No movie with CGI or SFX

• Product Placement
• ABOUT A BOY (Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz, 2002)
• Product placement of Bang and Olufsen and Phillips 
• Companies use these Big 5 movies to advertise their products

• No movie with product placement
• Their movies don't get a lot of recognition so companies won't bother paying them to include their products

• Tie-ins
• BRIDGET JONES'S BABY (Maguire, 2016)
• Softis toilet role tie-in
• Poster for Bridget Jones's Baby on the packaging

...

via GIPHY

...

• No movie with tie-ins

• Tentpole/Budget
• GREEN ZONE (Greengrass, 2010)
• Starring Matt Damon
• Tentpole (budget of $100m)

• LE DONK AND SCOR-ZAY-ZEE (Meadows, 2009)
• 5 day shoot
• Budget less than 1% of Green Zone (budget of £48k)

• Genre
• SHAUN OF THE DEAD (Wright, 2004)
• Can afford to do any genre they want ($6.1m)
• Even hybrid genres such as the zom-rom-com
• Don't show as many representations

...

via GIPHY

...

• TYRANNOSAUR (Considine, 2011)
• Can't afford to do different genres (£750k)
• Mainly stick to social realism genre
• Show different representations

• Franchise
• BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY (Maguire, 2001)
• BRIDGET JONES'S BABY (Maguire, 2016)
• Franchise with book and second movie

...

via GIPHY

...

• THIS IS ENGLAND (Meadows, 2006)
• Became a short TV show

• Horizontal Integration

• Vertical Integration
• NBC Universal an example of vertical integration
• Working Title being a production company
• Warp does not own distribution and exhibition/exchange companies

• IP
• LES MISÉRABLES (Ly, 2019)
• Originally a novel
• Can afford to pay intellectual property (budget of $61m)

...

via GIPHY

...

• Can't afford to pay IP

• China
• Second biggest film market in the world
• A quota of 34 movies per year 
• Working Title could achieve this
• Warp could never

X ML4 Warp V Working Title Production Crossword

PRACTICE CROSSWORD

X INDUSTRY1 Factors that influence Box Office

WARP

• Why Warp can't produce any genre besides social realism and horror - (and comedy - 4 Lions -'suicide bomber comedy' 

...

...

• Warp X makes lots of horror - similarity between horror and social realism - both lack CGI, IP, stars. Warp X doesn´t have access to a high budget and has to stick to these genres as they have a lack of budget.
• If they were bought by a conglomerate, they would be able to diversify to different genres.

WORKING TITLE

• Working Title have the budget to diversify into different genres. 
• They can use CGI and SFX for Sci-Fi genres such as in Paul

...

...

• They also can afford IP such as the Bridget Jones franchise as it was originally a novel

...

...

BILLIE ELLIOT 

• Outliar for Working Title - WT2 - low budget end - Psuedo Indie 
• Low budget and social realism (around $2m budget)
• Grim setting, accents, working class
• Appealed because of feel good ending - ties in with American Dream
• Warp don't usually have feel good endings

...

...

X My Fave Film

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 (2006)
KENNY ORTEGA
Produced by Walt Disney Pictures & Borden and Rosenbush Entertainment + Distributed by Walt Disney Studios & Motion Pictures
Production Budget: $11m    Global Box Office: $253m
...

...

High School Musical 3 poster

Box Office Mojo

MY OPINION

• I like the songs
• I like the characters
• I like the plot