1. 1) Discussion of your production company name and logo and the role of such companies in getting films made.
2) What does a production company do?
3) The idea of a distributor and who that might be and why.
4) Where the money might have come from for a film such as yours.
5) Why are the various people named in the titles - which jobs appear in titles and in what order and how have
you reflected this?
6) What your film is similar to 'institutionally' (name some films which would be released in a similar way)
You need to refer to actual company names and processes so you will need to go back to the early posts on film
companies and maybe do a bit more research. This is the trickiest of the evaluations.
1) Our company name is 'Twisted Inc', John thought of this name and we all agreed as it follows the codes and
conventions of a typical production company name, 'Twisted' shows a mysterious side to the villain in our
thriller as you don't know if he is right in the head or not. It just gives a sense of unease to the audience even
before the thriller has started. 'Inc' just stands for incorporated and is quite common after a production company
name. Our logo is a picture of barbed wire in a field with 'Twisted Inc' at the top of the image, we chose the
barbed wire because it has something in common with the villain in our thriller and that is potential danger. The
production company only comes in after the screen play has been written. They are in charge of things like
funding, actor casting, staff hiring etc. This is known as the pre-production phase.
2) A production company is in charge of the creation of the film, consisting of many jobs allowing this to
happen. These jobs consist of; budgeting, marketing, finding/creating the appropriate music, creating a script
and a storyboard etc. There are many popular production companies in existence, some large and some small,
however the highest rated and viewed films tend to use the large companies. Some films are even created using
more than one production company, this is due to popular actors/actresses having their own production company
to have more control over their work.
3) A distributor is responsible for the marketing aspect of the film making process. They appeal to their target
audience through advertising posters, releasing a teaser trailer on tv and also the radio. They make many key
decisions, one of the main being deciding how many copies of the film they should make. This is because if too
many copies are produced they will lose money, and if not enough copies are created then they will lose out on
profit. An example of a distributor is Columbia Pictures, their name will be at the beginning of every film they
distribute.
4) If we were producing our own thriller we would struggle financially due to our low budget. We couldn't get a
bank loan because the bank wouldn't want to lend us money if there was a big chance that they would not get it
back. We also couldn't get a government grant because they only give grants to businesses that are giving back
to the community, this in turn benefits them. One of the only ways we could get money is from our own pockets
and from family and friends.
5) At the very beginning of our thriller we displayed our group name with a title sequence, then once the film
started to begin we added titles over the top including the actors and the camera man. We felt as though we
didn't need to add the editor, producer, costume designer etc, as our whole group done them together meaning
the titles would have been very repetitive and boring to the audience. We introduced the names of the actors first
to distinguish who is taking part in our film. We added the names on different sides of the screen to help the
audience know who the "good" and "bad" guys are. After the names of the actors appeared, we introduced the
camera man on the same side as the "good" guy. This was to show the camera man is neutral however is not
seen as a "bad" person.
6) One film which is similar to ours is "Strangers". This is due to the fact that the series of events occurring in
both films, happen to people that just so happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our thriller is also
similar in the fact that our characters are both masked, meaning the identity of the villains are unknown. Our
film is also quite similar to "Slender", in the fact that the character is always shown in the distance. Little
movement is ever seen by the slender man, which is similar to our film as the villain is only seen close when he
has his victim in a confined space.