Institutional research

Production Companies

20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox is commonly known as one of the 'Big six' major American film studios located in the Century City area of Los Angeles. Founded in 1935 by William Fox, Joseph M. Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck, the group successfully made some of the highest-grossing films in North America. For instance, Avatar, Star Wars, Independence Day and more. From these list of movies, it's clear that the institution has a wide range of themes and genre's to appeal to their mass audience. An example of this is Sci-Fi, thrillers, romance, comedy and more. 

Due to being such a well-known production company, it means they have developed a large and stable audience. This would be extremely useful for our thriller as it means we will be able to attract loyal viewers. Therefore, when considering which film studio we would like to work with, we thought 20th Century Fox would be a good candidate due to it's wide variety of film genres and large audience. We also enjoy the well-known theme song that comes with the studio opening as it creates suspense and is a good build up to the start of the thriller. As well as this, it includes quite dim colours that set a cinematic atmosphere and works well with our crime genre. Additionally, it looks as if there are HollyWood lights shining from the name, which would make a professional start to our opening.

Warner Bros

Another member of the 'Big Six' American film studios is Warner Bros. The company's name originated from the four founding Warner Brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner. The first studio was opened in 1918 on Sunset Boulevard in HollyWood. However, it didn't start becoming known till 1923. Some of their most famous films include American Sniper, Harry Potter and Inception. All three of these movies include thriller aspects, which means their audience will know which type of genre to expect from the company. Warner Bros also has a cartoon unit that has created popular cartoons in 'Looney Tunes'. Characters such as Tweety Bird, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck became central to the company's image in subsequent decades.

Due to the production companies cartoon reputation, we decided that it wouldn't fit our genre. This is because people would associate the Warner Bros pictures with childish-innocent programmes/movies that do not fit in with our genre. Also, It doesn't set the atmosphere for the audience due to its bright colours. Therefore, we will not be using Warner Bros.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures  is an American film studio based in Hollywood, California. It has been an American media conglomerate Viacom since 1994. It's one of the oldest production companies, founded 104 years ago in 1912 by W. W. Hodkinson, Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky, as a famous players film company. In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. Famous for it's movie, Titanic, the company has built a reputation for having suspense filled films. This would be good for our thriller as the audience would be expecting this type of genre.

Another aspect of Paramount Pictures that is effective, is the way it is presented to the audience before the movie starts. It employs dark and mysterious colours which creates an element of suspense. Additionally, Paramount Pictures has been around for a long period of time, meaning they have a large audience which will help us gain viewers.

Film4

Film4 was started in 1982 as Film4 Productions, a film production company owned by channel Four television corporation. It has been responsible for backing a large number of films made in the United Kingdom, and around the world. It started as a subscription-only service available only on Sky platform, digital terrestrial via ITV digital and most UK cable services. It is known for its involvement in The Inbetweeners Movie and Attack the block, both of which are British movies.

When looking at this production company, my group decided it wouldn't be an effective one to use. Due to it having a subscription-only service for a long period of time, it means they most probably didn't develop a large audience, meaning not many people would watch our thriller. A subscription also means that it would most probably only be watched by middle class or upper class individuals, who are able to pay to watch it. Additionally, the movies that Film4 have been responsible for, were not big hits and only British people are likely to watch them. This means we will not have a large audience. Furthermore, the Film4 colours are quite vibrant and colourful, if we was to incorporate it, it means it would ruin the tense atmosphere we are trying to create.

New Line Cinema

New Line Cinema is an American film studio that was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as a film distribution company, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of the Turner Broadcasting System in 1994 before Turner merged with Time Warner in 1996, and was later merged with its larger sister studio Warner Bros. Entertainment in 2008.

Although it isn't one of the oldest film production companies, it has build up a very large audience that respond positively to many of their films. Due to some of our music choices within our crime thriller, we feel that it has aspects of a horror. This is because of our antagonist looking extremely creepy, which is also paired with our use of scary music. We felt that this worked well to create a successful crime thriller as we wanted to exaggerate the dangerousness of our antagonist, which ultimately aided in the increase of suspense. New Line Cinema is known for its movies: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, The Conjuring and The Mask. All of which made a big impact on their loyal audience. As you can see from this research, New Line Cinema are a good candidate for us as they have had experience with a wide range of film genres, all of which have been a  success. Therefore meaning people will want to watch our crime thriller opening. 

As well as this, my group and I found the colour scheme of their introduction quite intriguing. It's dark and is a good way to build suspense for our audience. Through this course we have learned that the lighting (mise-en-scene) plays a key role in making a product have an impact on the audience. E.g. Bright lighting represents happiness, blue is sadness, red is anger, darkness is sinister. 

I feel that this film production company will work very well with our crime thriller opening. 

Production schedule

Production Schedule

This is my group's production schedule. We have decided to create a table as we feel it's an effective and easy way to keep organised, and ensures that everyone knows what dates to keep free so that we can film. Our location will stay consistent throughout the whole thriller, however I have mentioned which rooms we will be filming in to explain it in more detail. I have also included what equipment we will be needing, which will primarily just be a camera, tripod and basic props. In regards to filming times, we will do this between 4pm and 8pm. This is because it will start to get dark and this sets the atmosphere for the audience. 

Test Shots

Test shots:

Our first choice for the role of the protagonist was Kenadi. She is highly fashionable, and this would therefore appeal to our female teenage audience. However, after some consideration, we decided that she did not fit the 'vulnerable' role. One reason for this was Kenadi's height. Because she is tall, it means it looks like she is less likely to be a victim, as she would be able to fight back. this would make our crime thriller un-realistic, as the audience would argue that she had every chance to fight back. But, we did not want her to do this. Additionally, Kenadi has never had any acting experience, and this would mean that she may of got nervous in front of the camera/whilst we was filming, meaning it would effect the outcome of our thriller. Kenadi also lives far away from the location to which we wanted to film, and also has a job. This means she may not always be available to film, which would be difficult for us as we had to film on certain days in order to complete our thriller in time.

Rhiannon was our choice for the antagonist role. Due to Rhiannon's confident personality, we knew that she would be very confident during filming. Rhiannon is also very easy to work with, and suggested some good ideas on what to include and what kind of camera shots to take, Rhiannon is quite tall, and therefore fit the role of being very patronising and over-powering over our vulnerable teenage victim. Additionally, Rhiannon was willing to be costumed in quite stereotypical manly clothing, such as bulky shoes and baggy clothing. Our mask also hid her feminine face, therefore aiding in the illusion that she is a man. Rhiannon was very reliable, available to film at anytime and also lived locally. Overall she was a great candidate for the role of the antagonist.

 Isobel was our second and last candidate for the role of the protagonist. Due to her small height, it meant that she fit the role of a vulnerable character perfectly, and also looked similar to the age group that we are trying to appeal to. Isobel is quite confident in front of the camera, and also used to do drama, meaning she was comfortable with acting. Isobel's style was very similar to what we wanted our victim to wear, so she could use her own wardrobe when filming which was much more convenient due to our low budget. Additionally, she can drive, meaning that this provided us with transportation to and from the location in which we needed to film.