Film 4
This company has a trend for indie films such as Carol, Slow West, and Frank. There is not a specific genre in films that this production company produces a variety of films such as Slow West being a Western and 12 Years a Slave being a biopic. Popular directors they have worked with would be Stevie McQueen and Danny Boyle. They are also not involved with any franchises though have done a handful of adaptations from other sources of media such as Wuthering Heights and Never Let Me Go. Their target audience here would be an older audience though not completely niche as films such as Slow West, The Inbetweeners Movie and Slumdog Millionaire seem intended for a larger audience. Film4 tends to produce low concept films though there are one of two high concept films such as The Inbetweeners Movie.
Village Roadshow Pictures
This company has trend for comedy movies though they have done more serious movies in the past such as In the Heart of the Sea and Mad Max: Fury Road. This production company tends to work with adaptations and franchises such as The Lego and Goosebumps franchise. Mad Max: Fury Road is a sequel to the Mad Max series. There is no directors that they are particularly interested in but they mainly work with directors who have done many family entertainment films in the past. Their target audience would mainly be family entertainment such as The Lego Movie and Goosebumps, but they have done a handful of movies that would be targeted towards adults and teens. This production company produce high concept films as most of them are generally 'what if' screen plays.
Ex Machina
Director - Alex Garland
Producer and Production Company - Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich, Film4
Screen Writer - Alex Garland
Actors - Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson
Budget - $15,000,000
Screens Shown On - ?
Box Office - $38, 200,000
Music - Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow, along with several soundtrack pieces
Marketing - On the dating app Tinder, the main character Ava had her own profile. If tinder users had a match then via text, they would be linked with an Instagram profile promoting the film. The film also included posters and trailers.
SFX - Special effects were used to create the character of Ava but not during filming, green screen and tracking markers were also not used and all special effects were added in post-production. Prosthetics, make-up, and filmings of both a shot with Ava and without Ava were done to create the robot effects. The double filming was done so the background could be captured.
Any Issues - The film did not have enough quality and potential for screenings in Sweden despite starring Swedish actress Alicia Vikander.
Hardware Used - Shot for 4 weeks in 3 locations including Pinewood Studios. Cameras used were F65, F55, and recorded in 4K raw. These are not that good quality cameras which reflects on the money available for this film. Vintage lenses Cooke Xtal Express were used and deliberately chosen for the effect on the movie. He didn't want the movie to have the traditional hard blue effect on most sci-fi movies, so used these lenses to make the picture softer. 15,000 tine pea bulbs were put into the set so the director could control the lighting as much as possible.
Script - The script was 10-12 pages long because of the amount of dialogue in the film, most film scripts are not this long.
Filming - There were over 300 shots of the robot and no green screen or motion tracking was used. Practical effects and double filming was used to create the robot look. All the robot scenes were filmed twice, one with Ava and once without. Distortion and vintage lenses did give them issues.
VFX - Done by Double Negative (DNeg)
Release Date (UK) - 21st January 2015
Other Releases - Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death, Taken 3, American Sniper, Paddington, [REC] 4: Apocalypse
Release Date (USA) - 10th April 2015
Other Releases - Furious 7, Unfriended, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
Format - PAL
Other Content and Fan Based Material - Official Soundtrack, cast interviews,
Double Negative (Ex Machina visual effects team)
Background - First started in 1998 with 30 members of staff, now has 1,000 staff. It's Europe's largest provider of visual effects for film.
Where They're Based - London, Singapore, and Vancouver
Stats - Visual Effects
Effects they Offer - They offer all visual effects from animation, motion tracking, green screen, and practical effects.
Movies in Production - Wonder Woman, Cure for Wellness, Captain America: Civil War, Assassin's Creed, Jason Bourne 5
Movies Completed - Interstellar, Inception, Batman Begins, Harry Potter, Les Miserables
Mad Max: Fury Road
Director - George Miller
Producers and Production Company - Doug Mitchell, George Miller, and P.J.Voeten. Production companies were Kennedy Miller Mitchell, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, and Village Roadshow Pictures.
Screen Writers - George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nico Lathouris.
Actors - Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
Budget - $150,000,000
Screens Shown On - 199,000
Box Office - $377, 600,000
Music - Junkie XL
Marketing - Trailers, posters, cast interviews, billboards, bus advertisements, tv spots.
SFX - Practical effects were mostly used though CGI was used for enhancing landscapes, removing stunt rigging, and to take away Charlize Theron's arm as her character uses a prosthetic hand. The action sequences were filmed with Arri Alexa Pluses, Alexa Ms, Olympus PEN E-P5s, and Canon EOS 5Ds, especially for the crash scenes. Night scenes were also done in daylight and coloured over with lighting effects to make it appear darker.
Any Issues - There was originally supposed to be a fourth original Mad Max film by Warner Bros but due to financial difficulties, the film remained in development hell. But Miller reclaimed the rights to Mad Max and took over. Other issues came with casting Max because the original actor, Mel Gibson, had to be replaced both due to controversy surrounding the actor and also because Miller wanted Max to remain as a young character whereas Gibson would have been too old for such a part. The fourth Mad Max film was then put on hold once more due to the planned release date of 2001 being postponed due to the 9/11 attacks. A new release date scheduled for 2003 but due to security concerns with filming in Nambia, it was once again postponed. The fourth Mad Max film was eventually dropped all together once the Iraq war started and the film was deemed inappropriate with its apocalyptic war-like setting. In the end Miller decided to make the film a reboot. Filming was to begin on 2011 but it was once again postponed as the originally filming location had grown wildflowers due to heavy rainfall and this was inappropriate for the desert-like apocalyptic setting. Filming began 2012 but due to reports of the Nambia desert being vandalised during shooting, endangering wildlife and habitats, it had to be once again put on hold.
Hardware Used - ARRI Alexa cameras and Canon 5Ds, top notch cameras and high tech equipment. Was recorded digitally. Codex Onboard Recorders. The filmed scenes could be filmed in one place and then transmitted to a command vehicle for instant viewing.
Release Date (UK) - 14th May 2015
Release Date (USA) - 7th May
Other Releases - The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Pitch Perfect 2, Slow West, Tomorrowland, Poltergeist, San Andreas
