AS MEDIA STUDIES COURSEWORK FIRST IDEAS

1. The Diary of a Captive
Genre: Teen Drama / Suspense / Mystery / Thriller

2. What is the film about
•
•
Summary: A girl is kidnapped and is held hostage and the audience listens to the
story of her life which is told from her diary / perspective.
The diary reveals that the antagonist of the story is the girl’s teacher and the
audience is shown flashbacks of the teacher watching the student during school

3. Production Company
We decided to use Film 4 as our production company
because of the influence of our film being a teen drama
/ suspense / thriller genre.
Our film could be compared to “The Lovely Bones”
which was produced by Film4.
Film4 are also known to do teen dramas as well such as
“Inbetweeners Movie”.
Lionsgate is another choice of an production
company to work alongside with ‘Film 4’. This is
because of the genres of films also they have
produced and the high budget they can offer to
make the film. Also the cast of these are a
mixture with some nominated award winning
actors and actresses.
Films they have made are:
• The Hunger Games Series
• Saw Series
• The Possession
• The Cabin in the Woods

4. Box office of our supporting films
Budget
$65,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend
$116,616 (USA) (13 December 2009) (3 Screens)
£1,637,579 (UK) (21 February 2010) (420 Screens)
Gross
£6,193,167 (UK) (21 March 2010)
£5,885,305 (UK) (14 March 2010)
£5,183,763 (UK) (7 March 2010)
£3,848,574 (UK) (28 February 2010)
£1,637,579 (UK) (21 February 2010)
$93,621,340 (Worldwide) (5 January 2013)
Budget
£3,500,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend
$35,955 (USA) (9 September 2012) (10 Screens)
£13,200,000 (UK) (23 August 2011) (475 Screens)
Gross
$35,955 (USA) (9 September 2012)
£41,800,000 (UK) (20 September 2011)
Weekend Gross
$35,955 (USA) (9 September 2012) (10 Screens)

5. Box office for Lionsgate films
Budget
$14,000,000
Gross
$69,899,892 - Worldwide
Budget
$130,000,000
Gross
$371,700,000 –USA (22nd
December 2013)

6. Actors and Actresses in Lionsgate films
These are some of the actors and actresses who have been included in
Lionsgate films and others…
Woody Harrelson
He has featured in a lot
of high budget
Hollywood films such as:
• The Hunger Games
Series
• Zombieland
• 2012
Jennifer Lawrence
She has been the leading role
in many big blockbuster films,
these include:
• The Hunger Games Series
• Silver Linings
• House at the end of the
street
Chris Hemsworth
He has been casted for a variety of
films and he films have always done
well in the Box Office. These are
some of the films:
• Thor
• Rush
• The Avengers

7. Distributor
We decided Universal Studios after another film which has influenced us which is called “A
Beautiful Mind”.
Despite Universal Studios releasing this film which is a big influence to us, it has also released
other films with the same genre.
These include films such as:
• The Bourne Ultimatum
• Safe House
• Mama

8. Budget & Release Date
Budget
Release Date
The budget for the film would be an
extremely high budget because the
one out of the two production
companies we are using for the film
is ‘Lionsgate’. This production
company can pay out millions of
pounds to fund this film, for example
‘The Possession’, had a budget of
$14,000,000 and it can go higher
than that because ‘The Hunger
Games- Catching Fire’, had a budget
of $130,000,000.
The release dates for ‘Lovely Bones’ was 24th
November 2009 and ‘The Hunger GamesCatching Fire’ was 11th November 2013.
These two films are from two different
production and distributor companies but are
working together to produce our film. From this
information we have decided to release ‘The
Diary of a Captive’ on…
The budget for out film will be :
£5,000,000
18th November 2014

9. Kidnap Research

10. Possible Actors (Female)
Emma Watson
• Perks of being a
Wallflower.
• Harry Potter series.
Chloe Moretz
• Kickass
• Carrie
• 500 Days of Summer
Jennifer Lawrence
• Hunger Games
• House end of the
street

11. Possible Actors (Male)
Ethan Hawk
• Sinister
• The Purge
• Total Recall
Robert Jenkins
• Cabin in the woods
• Dear John
Gary Oldman
• Harry Potter series
• The unborn
• Dark Knight trilogy

12. What the film is REALLY about
The girl(main character) is diagnosed with schizophrenia in the
mental asylum and the teacher is not what he has been deceived as.
She has been kept in a mental asylum and has not actually been
abducted y the teacher, the teacher is a doctor trying to help her
with her delusions and mental health problem. However she sees
him as a kidnapper and the audience will not find this out to the very
ending on the last few pages of her diary are read aloud.