2. Godzilla - 2014
Director: Gareth Edwards
Produced by: Thomas Tull
Jon Jashni
Mary Parent
Brian Rogers
Music composed by: Alexandre Desplat
Edited by: Bob Ducsay
Production company: Legendary Pictures
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures (Worldwide)
Toho (Japan)
Budget: $160 million
Box Office: $529.1 million.
This adaption is a Hollywood film.
Toho have all the rights to Godzilla as a character and therefore for this film licensed
the character to legendary but only if they meant some conditions. These conditions
were the fact that the character had to be born out a nuclear incident and that it had
to be in some way set within Japan. This was so that it could embody the original
core values of the original film.
3. Production Context
The film was made in 3D with the intention that it would generate a much greater profit, this was also why the film was shown in IMAX. In addition it was
also use as a deterrent to stop people pirating the film, as you can't copy a film in 3D.
The film had an arry of Star Power that would come with your typically Hollywood blockbuster film such as Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron
Taylor-Johnson to name a few. It also helped with distribution and marketing that the cast was international in terms of world wide household names.
Due to this being a Hollywood film the attacks take place within San Francisco rather than Japan as it would appeal more to an American Audience this is
also why the US military are heavily featured throughout the film as well.
In saying this however the film does take place within Japan at the start of the film where the monsters are awoken due to nuclear power which was one
of the terms given by Toho if they were to allow them to license to use Godzilla as a character.
Similar to the 1954 film there was also real life events recreated within the film such as the 2004 Indian Ocean Boxing Day Tsunami disaster in the
Philippines. There is also historical context within this film that could also be argued links to another tsunami three years prior in Tohuku not to also
mention the Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown which happens at the start of the film.
In 2005 Legendary Entertainment came to an agreement to co-produce and co-finance films with Warner Bros and Universal Pictures to distribute their
films.
Produced by Legendary Pictures who are a division of Legendary Entertainment. In 2016 Legendary Entertainment became a subsidiary of the Chinese
conglomerate Wanda Group.
This 2014 adaptation of Godzilla is not only the first American Version in over 15 years but it is also the second version to be created by Hollywood after
the failed 1998 version. The film is the first as part of a franchise linked around Monarch. The films will bring together Godzilla and Legendary’s King
Kong in an ecosystem of other super giant species, both classic and new. While Legendary will maintain its home at Universal Pictures, it will continue
to collaborate with Warner Bros. for the franchise with Godzilla VS Kong scheduled to be released spring of 2020. It is also the 30th Godzilla film to be
made, within the Godzilla Franchise.
The film is a Hollywood Co-production between Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, with Warner Bros distirbuting the film worldwide with the
expect of Japan where it was distributed by Toho.
The film was original meant and intended to be an IMAX short film but was later transferred and picked up by Legendary for the development as a
feature film.
4. Colossal - 2017
Directed: Nacho Vigalondo
Screenplay by : Nacho Vigalondo
Music by : Bear McCreary
Edited by: Ben Baudhuin and Luke Doolan
Budget: $15 Million
Box Office: $4.7 Million
International Co-Production which included; Spain, China, Canada, USA and South
Korea.
Production:
Union Investment – South Korea
Sayaka – Spain
BrightLight – Canada
Route One Entertainment
Voltage Pictures - USA
Distribution:
Neon – China (Colossal was their first film)
Route One Entertainment + Voltage Production. They are independent and therefore
not part of a in house (vertical/horizontal integration) which allows for all these
different countries to contribute towards the film.
5. Production Context
Colossal is a independent film or more specially a multi-national independent film. The
reason being that the film features co-production from five countries; Spain, China, Canada,
South Korea and United States.
In terms of the countries role within the overall production each featured heavily to bring
the film together. For example there was the South Korean investment company (Union
Investment partners) who agreed that they would invest in the film but only if they met
there conditions of having a section of the film set within South Korea. Although they had
gotten investment from Union Investment the film was still very much an independent film,
which meant that it had a small budget. This allowed for the the film to be much more
creative in terms of how it explored and presented the themes present (such as abuse and
alcholism) within the film without them being overshadowed by CGI for example. Although
it has a small budget the film does come with some star power, such as Anne
Hathaway, who signed before funding. This could also be why the film secured funding as
well due to the name already being attached to the said film.
Anne Hathaway alongside Jason Sudeikis were also used to bring people to the cinema to
actually watch the film.
It is believed that due to the fact that Hathaway had signed to be in this film that it was one
of the reasons that Sudeikis agreed to be in the film as well.
6. Attack The Block - 2011
Directed by: Joe Cornish
Produced by: Nira Park
James Wilson
Screenplay: Joe Cornish
Music by: Basement Jaxx
Steven Price
Edited by: Jonathan Amos
Production Compaines:
• StudioCanal Features
• Film4
• UK Film Council
• Big Talk Pictures
Distributed by: Optimum Releasing
Budget: £8 million
Box Office: £4.1 million.
The title of the film is a homage to the sci-fi South Korean film Attack the Gas Station.
7. Production Context
Due to the fact that this is a British film and not a Hollywood blockbuster you automatically know
that the budget isn't going to be high however comparing the budget given to other British Films the
budget was actually quite high. What was more surprising isn't about the budget of £8 million itself
but the fact that the investors gave the film any money considering the fact that this was Cornish's
first film and the majority of the cast at the time weren't a household name or even just a fairly
recognisable one. Although the film would bring in fans with Nick Frost within the film.
There was no funding from Hollywood studios, the big six, and the film was financed by The UK Film
Council and British companies. (The UK Film Council is a funding body that is set up to aid and help
produce films that promote British culture and tell British Stories an example being The Kings Speech)
On of the ways in which the film cut costs as well as adding some form of authenticity to the film was
to shoot on location in various parts of London. Only Two flats were used for all the flat or apartment
scenes, the designers and the production team just kept redressed the flats over and over again.
The scene in the film where they are underground in the garage they could only afford one BMW so
therefore they could only perform the scene once, this was difficulty considering the scene involved
the BMW being crashed. They also had to cover all the pipes and everything else in plastic while
shooting down there was while underground sewage was dripping down. (On the second day
shooting in the garage, we realized what we thought was water dripping down was actually sewage
from the building. Peoples’ waste was dripping on us. We had to go wrap all the pipes and everything
in plastic. Lots of rats too.”)
8. Technologies of production
The Aliens or creatures present within the film weren't CGI created there
were performed by actors. Interestingly the people playing the aliens
were coached by movement chorographer, Terry Notary who has worked
films such as Planet of the Apes and Avatar. Notary worked alongside with
Spectral Motion to design the aliens suits.
The concept was that the aliens were to take an almost animalistic
violence or imagery that would represent the stereotypes of teenagers and
how they are represented in the British media. Later on the digital effects
that accompanied the suits were added by Digital Negative and Fido. The
first performer (Alien Performer) was Arti Shah and one of the main reasons
that she was cast first was because she fit into the suit.
The Creature was designed by the director, who was inspired by his memory
of Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings ringwraiths and the wolf at the beginning
of 300.
10. HBO
• Home Box Office is an American Premium cable and satellite television network owned by Time Warner, it is often referred and styled as
HBO. Programming featured on the network consists primarily of theatrically released motion pictures as well as original television series not
to mention boxing matches, documentaries, stand-up comedy and concert specials. The network has already developed distribution of their
content on different platforms, for example HBO GO. In 2015 they launched a similar platform called HBO NOW which is identical to HBO Go,
however HBO NOW is a standalone offering the same features and content to that of HBO Go expect that the user doesn't have to
an existing television subscription to use and instead pay a monthly fee, similar to that of Netflix. Where as HBO Go you got to use for free as
part of being a subscriber to the network. The number of HBO Now subscribers reached over 2 million by February 2017.
• Time Warner is the third biggest conglomerate. Time Warner is divided into three divisions. HBO is a part of one of the three divisions, the
other two being Turner Broadcasting System Inc. And Warner Bros. HBO then goes to have a subsidiary company called Cinemax which also
then creates and owns MAX Go (Similar to HBO Go). HBO also has varies other channels as a part of HBO as a whole such as HBO 2,
HBO comedy, HBO Family, and HBO Zone as some of the examples.
• Vertical Integration is where a media institution or media conglomerate in this case Time Warner owns several companies at different stages
of production. For example Warner Bros, is owned by Time Warner. Due to the fact that Time Warner owns companies at each stage of
production as well as having their brand distributed on different platform levels (horizontal integration) means that they can maximize profits
while distributing their product on a much wider and diverse scale which allows for them to access new global markets. Linking this into the
tv channel HBO it not only means that HBO can advertise and promote Warner Bros films on their channel as part of
their advertisement, as part of their advertisement campaign but it also means that once the film is released they can play the film on
the channel either as a one of for HBO's channel only or before any other channel is allowed to distribute the film. It is much cheaper and
easier in some ways as well because it is all in house marketing and distribution, just like at the cinema for a Warner Bros film they can
promote a HBO original series such as Game of Thrones or even just the said channel itself. Not to mention there is also Turner Broadcasting
System which owns channels and news channels such as The CW and CNN. This allows for a much wider platform for not
only distribution and marketing, so this means that the casts are kept down but also in terms of cast, crew and people who work within the
company to be able to much easier mover between each division for work.
