Production Case Studies

I will be talking about 2 Film Production case studies, talking a bit about the films, their budget, profit made and why I think the film was produced.


The first film I would like to talk about is Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later. I will talk a bit about the film and included a link to the movie trailer.




Genre: Horror, Sci-fi, Thriller
Directed by Danny Boyle
Written by Alex Garland
Budget (cost to make) £5,000,000
The film is about a highly contagious 'rage' virus which spreads across the United Kingdom rapidly and devastates country. The story follows the characters Jim, Selena, Mark, Frank and his daughter Hannah as they search for safety. However, throughout their path to 'safety', they have many encounters with the 'Infected'.
The opening scene I think is the most powerful part of the film. It shows Jim, one of the main characters, waking up from a coma 28 days later after the initial start of the virus spread, in a deserted hospital in central London. He wanders around on his own, confused, wondering what is happening. Then he walks through the streets of central London, across the famous London bridge and Big Ben. The streets are littered and completely deserted. Everything is dead silent.

The film was a huge success in the UK because it was so well made. however, it wasn't just the fantastic camera work and acting that made the film worth watching, it was the fact that it was filmed on location. The shots of the deserted London streets really shocked the audiences and created a sense of fear amongst them. Just imagine yourself walking through the lonely streets of London just like Jim did in the opening scenes. When people watched the film, they see the locations it is filmed in and they think to themselves, "Hey, I've been there".
Personally when I watched the film, I experience a cold chill down my spine various times throughout the film. I live in the UK myself, so when I watched the film I just imagined "what if this really happened?"
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The Second film I want to talk about is Saving Private Ryan. The film was released in July 1998 and the movie follows the story of a group of soldiers in WW2 Europe on a mission to rescue Pvt. Ryan, the last remaining son of a mother of 4 sons who all died in the invasion of Normandy in June 1944.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Robert Rodat
Main Cast: Matt Damon, Tom Hanks
Genre: War, Drama
Budget: $70,000,000

The movie starts with a view of a cemetery in America. We then see Pvt. Ryan as an old man, walking with his family who are walking a few metres behind him. He arrives at an unknown grave in the war cemetery and he burts into tears of sadness. The movie then flips back to June 1944 and we see the main protagonist played by Tom Hanks. We see the invasion of normandy, thousands of soldiers invading the beaches of German occupied France in small boats. The invasion scene lasts a long 20 minutes, with a lot of blood and gore, a lot of war scenes such as ultra realistic explosions and mass killing.

The film was a huge success when it came and today is a modern classic. I think the movie was such a success because of it's realism and accuracy to the real life events that happened in June 6th, 1944. The camera work directed by Steven Spielberg is fantastic, using the hand-held technique to really put the audience into the action. The film shows exactly what the war was like, the bloody scenes of gore and devastation.