Caitlin Semple
Unit 4: Pre Production
Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone
What is Pre-Production?
Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance. There are three parts in a production: pre-production, production, and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the content starts being produced.
Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone is a 2001 fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is based on J. K. Rowling's 1997 novel of the same name. The film is the first instalment of the Harry Potter film series and was written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman. Its story follows Harry Potter's first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as he discovers that he is a famous wizard and begins his education. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, with Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, and Emma Watson as Hermione Granger. Warner Bros. bought the film rights to the book in 1999 for a reported £1 million ($1.65 million in 1999). Pre-production took around 14 months. The film was released to cinemas in the United Kingdom and United States on 16 November 2001. It became a critical and commercial success, grossing $975.1 million at the box office worldwide. The highest-grossing film of 2001, it is the forty-fifth highest-grossing of all-time.
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Design and special effects
Judianna Makovsky designed the costumes. She re-designed the Quidditch robes, having initially planned to use those shown on the cover of the American book, but deemed them "a mess." Instead, she dressed the Quidditch players in "preppie sweaters, 19th century fencing breeches and arm guards." Production designer Stuart Craig built the sets at Leavesden Studios, including Hogwarts Great Hall, basing it on many English cathedrals. Although originally asked to use an existing old street to film the Diagon Alley scenes, Craig decided to build his own set, comprising Tudor, Georgian and Queen Anne architecture. Columbus originally planned to use both animatronics and CGI animation to create the magical creatures, including Fluffy. Nick Dudman, who worked on Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, was given the task of creating the needed prosthetics, with Jim Henson's Creature Shop providing creature effects. John Coppinger stated that the magical creatures that needed to be created had to be designed multiple times. The film features nearly 600 special effects shots, involving numerous companies. Industrial Light & Magic created Lord Voldemort's face on the back of Quirrell, Rhythm & Hues animated Norbert (Hagrid's baby dragon); and Sony Pictures Imageworks produced the Quidditch scenes.
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What is the microwave scheme?
Microwave is Film London’s flagship feature film scheme. It serves to inspire and develop the capital’s best new filmmakers, empowering them to make bold, compelling features that will surprise and inspire global audiences. The scheme was the first low budget feature program in Europe and has been responsible for discovering and developing some of the UK’s most exciting talent.
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Shifty Case Study
Shifty was distributed in the UK by Metrodome. The film was taken to a film festival, there was 4 or 5 companies who wanted to buy the distribution rights. The producers and director chose Metrodome as they liked their ideas for marketing/advertising. Metrodome spent around £50,000 on prints and advertising. They also had a viral advertising campaign. Emails were then sent out, which appeared to be an official letter identifying the recipient as a drug dealer, these emails then had a link to the Shifty website. There was so many complaints that this campaign was banned, however, the publicity increased the profile of the film.
London to brighton
London to Brighton was produced by Paul Andrew Williams and Ken Marshall from the company Steel Mill Pictures. They then went on to make many films such as The Cottage and Filth which is open to many genres. The budget for London to Brighton was £80,000. (their second film cost 2,500,000 (the cottage).The distributor for this film is vertigo. It's a British social realist film
and was filmed in 19 days with a low budget and Guerilla Filmmaking.
What is Guerilla Filmmaking?
Guerilla Filmmaking is when you film on locations without seeking permission you can do this because they don't have to pay insurance to the location.
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The cottage
The producers of The Cottage were Paul Andrew Williams and Ken Marshall. The film cost £2.5 million to make which they funded from their first film they made called London to Brighton. The distributors for The Cottage were the company Pathe. Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipment and production company, as well as a major producer of phonograph records.
Theory Of Everything
The film was produced by James Marsh, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten who are from Working Title Productions. They also produced Cats, Baby Driver, 50 shades, Bridget Jones Franchise, Johnny English Franchise, The kid who would be king and Pacific Rim. It cost them $15 million to make this film and grossed $123.7 million. The company who distributed this film was Universal Pictures
Veronica Mars
The film Veronica Marsa was produced by Rob Thomas, Dan Etheridge and Danielle Stokdyk who are apart of Spondoolie Pictures. The company Spondoolie Pictures only created Veronica Mars. The film cost $2 million originally. However, they raised 6 million (three times their original goal). Subsequently, they could have used that to produce a better film or they could use this money as reserve profit. The distribution company for this film was Warner Bros Pictures.
What does Kickstarter mean?
Kickstarter is a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity and merchandising and bring creative projects to life. The film that's heavily influenced by the TV show was funded on kickstarter by loyal fans . They did this because Warner Bros ( the original creators ) for the show refused to fund a film .
What does synergy mean?
The interaction or cooperation of two or more organisations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. Working title are a synergy with universal.An example of their synergy is that the soundtrack for The Theory of Everything was licensed under universal music operations . Working title had universal take over the music section of The Theory of Everything.Universal finances working title.Working title is essentially owned by universal . Universal is horizontally integrated this shows that they have many companies over a range of items.Universal are also vertically integrated this shows that they are involved in all stages of film making.