Film Production

The Idea

this is the first part of a film that comes together. ideas can be original or taken from something already made like a reboot, sequel, prequel, based on a book, etc. (well, technically nothing is original because everything comes from some sort of inspiration, but as long as it's inspiration and not out-right copying then it is considered to be an original idea). The idea initially comes from the writer, who puts their idea down in to word form to show to a producer. the producer then decides if they like the idea and if they do they agree to make the idea into a reality. the next recruitment is the director, who will visualise the idea in film form and direct everything in the practical sense of the film, this includes stage directions, CGI, camera angles and positions, etc. then a treatment is written by the writer. the treatment is a one page description/summary of the film and the characters.then the pitch is made, this is all the information that the producer uses to pitch the film to financiers to commission a script.

Some examples of original ideas are Donnie Darko, Pulp Fiction.

A reboot is a remake of a film which already exists e.g. The Amazing Spider-Man, Friday 13th.

An adaptation is a film which has it's ideas taken from another form of media like a book or a comic e.g. Harry Potter, The Avengers.




Development Finance

for a film to get money to be produced, a producer must approach production companies (i.e. Warner Bros) for money to produce it. The producer needs to pitch the film idea and persuade the company to fund production of the film. this can be hard for certain films, for example, the director and producer of The Human Centipede had to lie to the company for them to fund it because of how sick and twisted the plot was. the producer can also give rights of the film to the company for further funding to develop the script a little more. the producer can also apply for public funding from places such as the UK film council for a development grant. the producer can also pitch to private investors for support in the project.

A UK example is the Harry Potter series.



Script Development

first of all, the writer produces a synopsis of the film, which includes stuff like the key scenes and events in the film. the writer and the producer have to agree on the synopsis. most writers create a step outline which they use to plan the script. part of the writers pay is conditional to the quality and delivery of the first draft, this can be seen as the hardest part of screen writing. once both the writer and producer are happy with the first draft, they send the draft to financiers who will all have their own ideas. when everyone is happy with the finalised script, it becomes "locked off" and the writer gets paid. despite the lock off, there is one more stage in the process, which is the creation of a sales treatment (another synopsis created to sell the idea to potential financiers.



Packaging

the producer and the director now have to get the script into a full commercial package ready for financing. a common way of getting the package more commercial is to attach well known stars to it. respected and successful HODs (heads of department) can help considerably with the financing of the film. the producer also needs to know how much it will actually cost to make the film to make a proper business proposition. potential investors will want to know how the producer will raise the money to make the film, and how the producer will pay them back.



Financing

financiers can be all over the world, so the producer has to be prepared to travel to secure the investments. the producer will have a lawyer to draw up contracts to seal deals from the investors. the producer can also raise money for "pre-sales" which means selling rights of the film before it has even been made. departments of banks can specialise in funding films, so that can be another way of raising money for the film. most financiers insist that a completion bond is in place before the film gets made (a completion bond is when, if the films budget runs over and out of money, the insurer will pay the necessary funds to complete it. once all the financing is done, the film gets the "green light".



Pre-Production

 once all the HODs are hired, pre-production begins. the casting director, director and producer will begin a long process of casting the actors of the script. storyboards are created by hired story board artists, they work with the director and the director of photography to create the blueprints of the film in advance of shooting. the production designer plans and designs the aesthetic aspects of the film and how each scene will look and also hires people like costume designers and location managers to help with it all. effects shots revolve around the special effects of the film, these get planned in  much more detail than normal shots and can take months to fully develop. the 1st AD, Line Producer and Production Manager handle all the logistics as a 3, also known as the key logistic triangle.


The Shoot

this is the most key moment in the film. as the shooting begins the funding is released. this is where the real delivery of the film comes from. the camera department are responsible for getting all the footage that the director and editor need to tell the story and bring it all together. once the light and sound are set up and the make-up is finished then the shoot can begin. in all of this, it is the actors' jobs to create an emotional and believable performance to draw the audience in to enjoying the film. every special effect is carefully done and made to ensure minimal injury risk to cast and crew, sometimes stunt-men are used but not if the actor has signed responsibility of injury to themselves if they wish to do the stunts i.e. in Skyfall, Daniel Craig himself did the scene on top of the train in which he is shot off it on a real moving train. film sets are run with tight precision, if they fall behind schedule then the financiers and insurers may step in.



Post-Production

as the processed footage comes in, the editor will assemble it together into scenes and create a narrative sequence for the film. editors are extremely important to the making of the film, they essentially remake what has been shot in raw footage in to something of cinematic quality, there are a lot of important peoples approvals riding on what the editor does. once the picture is locked, the sound department go about working on the audio track laying, remaking, editing and creating every sound, from an orchestral suite for background music to making the sound of a horses hooves hitting ground. digital effects are added by specialist effects compositors. titles and credits are edited in a compositing suite. the final editing of the film is for the colourist to establish the final aesthetic of the film to make sure the films scenes look like they all belong in the same film. after picture lock, the rough sound mix goes off to a dubbing theatre where the sound mix gets the final levels. the film reaches "full lock" after the final cut. unfortunately in most cases, the director doesnt get much of a see in the final cut, which has been spoken out against as unfair by famous directors, like Milos Forman, because of the hard work and sweat a director puts into making the film. the investors and distributors see most of the final cut. they see this as a business necessity in case the movie becomes a financial flop.



Sales

the producer needs a sales agent to sell the film to distributors. to help selling the film further, a trailer is made to show to film buyers. making a successful trailer is an art in itself, as it's a small amount of time to fit a good plot outline, without giving too much away of course, and hook the audience seeing the trailer. the producer and the sales agent then collect everything together to sell the film to film buyers. the film market is full of films, so the producer and sales agent have to go to great lengths to get the film to be noticed. high-profile screenings can be essential to creating "heat" around a film. the stars of a film are very often used to sell the film too as big names create awareness in the public. once the producer has a hot product, good deals can be made with distributers all over the world.


Marketing

the distribution company will have a marketing team to identify the best way of marketing the film i.e. what will "hook" the audience. the marketing team also run test screenings to see how the trailer goes down with the general public, and if they have to make any changes/improvements. "above the line" marketing is stuff like bus advertisements, it's a way of really letting people know about the film. adverts like these will often include the names of the stars and  ratings from established critics, for example, 5 stars from The Guardian is sure to turn some heads. telivision and radio can also be used to get the film out to the public. the internet is also a brilliant and convenient way of advertisement and marketing films. the distributers also have to negotiate deals with cinemas and exhibitors to screen the films to the public.


Exhibition

high-profile premiers are used to launch the film which usually involves a flood of media attention. after the premier, the film is shown in normal cinemas. the UK has 3,500 of them. distributers supply the exhibitors with prints of the film, the more screens the film is shown on, the more prints are needed. the exhibitors then take their share of the box office receipts. after this, the distributers recouperate their marketing costs. once the distributers have been paid, the financiers get their money back according to the recoupment schedule.



Other Windows

hotel sales and in-flight movies can bring millions in extra revenue. more gets spent on DVDs than cinema tickets, so DVD sales can make up for any lost money in box office failures. TV is the final source of revenue. rights are sold separately to pay TV showings. extra revenue can even come from selling rights to create video games based on the film. once the film has made a profit, the creative people in the film making can get their share of the profits. there is no known final income from the film. for instance, there may be a re-release like Back To The Future had.

Self-Representation

Looking at the UK Tribes website made by channel 4, I can safely say I classify as an emo. Emos get a bad rep because we are often associated with self-harm and depression, but really all emo means is emotional or emotional hardcore (a genre derived from hardcore punk, it has gone on to be used in other genres like pop-punk and post-hardcore). So, emos don't deserve the bad rep because isn't everyone emotional? Emo is actually nothing to do with our emotions directly, it's just an artistic way of expressing emotion through fashion and music. The main colour used in emo is black, but often mixed with other colours to bring them out e.g. red, white, purple, green. Popular emo clothing brands are Criminal Damage, Vans, Drop Dead and band merchandise is also very popular. Popular bands in the emo subculture can vary in genre; it can range from Pop-Punk bands (All Time Low, Good Charlotte) to post-hardcore bands (From First To Last, Escape The Fate) to death-core (Bring Me The Horizon, Chelsea Grin). Personally i like all of them. Emo kids get lumped in with Scene kids when we're really quite different. Scene is like a colourful emo, and actually was derived from emo, the same way Pastel Goth was derived from Goth.

Some examples of emo:

These pictures also show the popular clothing in the emo scene and they're also all bands (top: Bring Me The Horizon. middle: Escape The Fate. bottom: BlessTheFall)

Some examples of the shops:

Notes On The 3 Pictures

Ted Bundy Notes

-Fairly casual suit
-Clean-cut
-Handling small page with a lot of text but distracted by something else
-un-married
-shifty

My idea of the picture of Bundy was teetering towards the idea he was either a criminal or an infamous person at the least. Obviously the reality was a lot more extreme than that, but having never seen Bundy's face before, i came a lot closer than some of the other students.

Anna Piaggi

-Bright/colourful
-Big about fashion
-Ether a fashion enthusiast or a model

I was fairly bang-on-the-mark with Piaggi. She was both a fashion enthusiast and a model, but more on the judging side of things. Piaggi would be on the side of the catwalk, analysing and judging the fashion that came across it. Another interesting thing about her is that she never wore the same outfit twice.

Doug Bihlmaier

-patchy clothing - possibly homeless

-smoker

-un-shaven

-wearing layers

-standing still - probably doesn't have a place to be

-confident composure and posture in public - gives impression he's either not homeless or has been for a long time.

-he can afford cigarettes - apparently more valuable than food (gives further impression that he is not homeless)

i was leaning to the idea that Bihlmaier is not actually homeless, but i was way off the fact he works for Ralph Lauren. Some of the things that should have been obvious to me are that his clothes are clean and they fit, they are also patched very carefully. the turn-ups on his trousers are immaculate and ironed through. He's standing on Madison Avenue and his shows are likelyto be Redwing (very expensive designer label).

Although his style is not fashionable, it's still a style. i also wrote down that if he wasn't homeless then he might be a social experimenter, bringing out the fact that people just assume things so quickly. 

recent film coclusion

I saw Hannibal Rising recently. I was browsing Netflix because I was bored and I came across it. A couple of friends of mine gave it good reviews but I had also heard bad reviews. However, because of the trust in my friends and the fact I am a bit of a skeptic unless I've seen it myself, I watched it. Overall, I enjoyed it. Silence Of The Lambs is a lot better but this prequel kept to the original back story and spared no gory details (I like gore). However, it's main downfall was that it was cheesy in parts and also cliche. All in all, I liked it.

5x5

Top 5 Nu-Metal Albums



Infest - Papa Roach
Papa roach were one of the most iconic Nu-Metal bands of the '90's, famously hitting triple platinum on "Last Resort". They are also my favourite band of all time, this album got me in to them.   

Mesmerize - System Of A Down
This is one of SOAD's most loved and respected albums, and with most of the lyrics actually written by guitarist Darren Malakian, it started drawing attention to all band members instead of just singers for years to come.

Iowa - SlipKnot
This is one of the darkest, sickest and most twisted heavy metal album ever written. "I can barely listen to some of the songs" says front-man Corey Taylor. It shaped a new view and love for SlipKnot, which i still have to this day.

L.D. 50 - Mudvayne
Back in the day when Mudvayne were covered in eccentric and controversial face paint and costumes. Mudvayne are another fundamental to Nu-Metal as a whole, this album is their most famous with it's hit single "dig", a raw and aggressive favourite of the Nu-Metal community.   

ANThology - Alien Ant Farm
This album is renowned for it's heavy cover of Michael Jackson's "Annie Are You Okay?". Another favourite of the Nu-Metal community as a whole. 

Top 5 Marvel Comics Characters

Fantomex - Essential X-Men
Fantomex is cocky, a skilled combatant and highly intelligent when it comes to carrying out missions. All the makings of a brilliant superhero (more of an anti-hero).

Deadpool - Wolverine & Deadpool
Deadpool has pretty much the same characteristics as Fantomex. He isn't labelled "The merc with the mouth" for nothing.

Spiderman - The Amazing Spiderman
Spiderman is also very cocky, but less of an anti-hero than the last two. he is also a prime example of how a very un-respected "nerdy" high school kid can so quickly turn into Manhattan's super-powered guardian. 

Wolverine - Essential X-Men
Wolverine is an all round favourite of the Marvel universe for comic book fans everywhere. with non-stop badassery and an anger problem to boot. 

Nightcrawler - Essential X-Men
Nightcrawler has a really cool teleportation power, looks like a cool blue demon, and is part of the coolest comic series' of al of Marvel. definitely deserves to be part of the top 5.

Top 5 Films

Donnie Darko
This is my all time favourite film. It's just amazing. There is a case study further down my blog better describing it.

Scott Pilgrim VS The World
This film is a brilliant and relateable teen film. Enough said really.
Juno
This is also a teen film but it does really well at building bonds with the characters right from the point of meeting them.

Hobo With A Shotgun
This is a ridiculously gory and hilarious horror thriller.

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Un-cut
Also ridiculous and hilarious, as South Park always is. Also, the fact it is in musical form makes all the difference.

Top 5 Post-Hardcore Bands

From First To Last
My favourite of all time, paved the way for most post-hardcore bands today.

Escape The Fate
Very much revived a dying scene when they started back in '06.

Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows (D.R.U.G.S)
More recent than the others but holds ingenious lyrics throughout.

Silverstein
One of the first and most iconic modern post-hardcore bands. Kept up a raw feel throughout their whole career to this day.

Alesana
Bit more on the "emo" side of the music but they have become very artistic with their music over the years.

Top 5 Singers

Patrick Stump
Lead singer for one of the most famous and biggest pop-punk bands in the world. Also a short but fantastic solo career. 

Brendan Urie
Singer for Panic! At The Disco, brilliant and memorable voice and amazing lyricist.

Davey Havok
Singer of AFI and Blaque Audio, recognizable voice and figure in the punk/hardcore scene.

Serj Tankian
Singer for System Of A Down. Renowned for complex lyric writing styles and his voice.

Corey Taylor 
Leading two iconic bands since the 90's, Taylor has shaped the world of both Nu-Metal and Mainstream Rock.