Film Opening 5: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

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POSSIBLE INFLUENCE

I like the narrative of this film and would like to make a narrative very similar to this. I like the idea of a strong female character getting full on revenge over something so horrible as rape. The main protagonist, Lisabeth Salander, in this film does exactly this, she has been through so much trauma and horrible abuse that when anyone abuses her she wants to get full on revenge on them by abusing them also or killing them. In my film opening, I want to make the killer female just like in this film, so that she can abuse and kill men/women that have abused her. I would also make the victims predominantly male because I disagree with how the character of the ‘scream queen’ in slasher horror films is normally always a female. Also, the fact that the killer would be female, would be countertypical to the slasher horror genre norm of the killer being male.

Director: David Fincher
Production Budget: $90m
Domestic Box Office: $103m
UK Box Office: £19m
Distributors: Sony Pictures Releasing
Production Companies: Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
BBFC Rating: 18
MPAA Rating: R
Genre: Crime, Thriller, Mystery
Actors: 
Daniel Craig
Rooney Mara
Steven Berkoff

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The Opening Shot is an Extreme Long Shot of a big lake and forest area to establish the location to the audience. There is snow connoting that it is winter and that this location is somewhere in the north of the world.  This shot is a fade in. This shot is also a panning shot, this further helps the audience establish the location.




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The second shot is of a house connoting that the shots are cutting closer to finally get to someone as you can see in the next shot. So, there are two shots until we finally get to shot of a character.







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Finally, we get to a character. Being the first character shown would usually connote that this character is the main protagonist, but in this case it isn't like that. 







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This shot of the second character shown is a high angle of a somewhat over the shoulder shot. This type of shot connotes that there is some sort of threat and that this character feels weak/is weak. It makes the audience feel threatened and uncomfortable.




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Over the idents of this film, non-diegetic music starts playing which is very eerie, spooky and child-like. This immediately connotes the genre of the film and sets the atmosphere of the film. This music carries on playing in the film opening until the dialogue has finished between the two characters in the film opening then new non-diegetic music starts playing in the second half of the film opening which is very very different. This new music is in the music genre of rock and is very fast and loud to perhaps connote the action, crime nature of the film.
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Order of Titles
1. Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Present 
2. A Scott-Rudin Yellow Bird Production
3. A David Fincher Film
4. Two Main Actors
5. Main Title: The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo
6. 10 actors names
7. Casting by
8. Costume Designer 
9. Co Producers 
10. Sound Design by
11. Music by 
12. Editors 
13. Production Designer
14. Director of Photography
15. Executive Producers
16. Produced by
17. Based on the book by, Originally Published by
18. Screenplay by 
19. Directed by 
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The Film Cycle

There are 3 stages in the film cycle, these are called:

1. Production
2. Distribution
3. Exhibition

The word for this process/cycle in business scenarios is 'vertical integration'.

In the production stage, this is where the production and creation of idea for a film is. In this process, there needs to be recruitment of actors, editing, filming and screenplay. Before the film is produced the producers have to consider the likely demands of distributors - how will you find investors if your production concept is unlikely to gain distribution. In order to make a success, they need stars. If the film has intellectual property stars are not always needed (e.g. Harry Potter, Spiderman, The Girl On The Train) because the story itself is already very well known to the audience so they will go and see the film anyway. 

In the distribution process, the film that has been produced is now distributed. Each film has it's own distribution plan to be sure it reaches the right audiences. The distributor buys the right to be able to show a movie around the world in different cinemas or shops etc... 

The film 'The Girl On The Train' was distributed by Universal:

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The domestic box office for this film was $75.3m:

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There were no stars in The Girl On the Train:

Actors:

Emily Blunt Rebecca Ferguson Haley Bennett Justin Theroux Luke Evans Allison Janney Edgar Ramirez Lisa Kudrow

The Gant Rule

Charles Gant is a box office analyst. He has argued that a typical transatlantic (a success in both the UK and US markets) hit will make ten times as much in the US ($ dollars) than in the UK (£ pounds).

So, for a UK/US hit:
UK box office (£) x 10 = US box office ($)

An example of the gant rule applying is:
The Secret Life of Pets, 2016:

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$45m = £33m in the UK
$368m in the US

33 x 10 = $330
So almost the same!

Another example:
Deadpool, 2016:

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$54m = £44m in the UK
$363m in the US

44 x 10 = $440
So, almost the same

Third example:
Ghostbusters, 2016:

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$14m = £11m in the UK
$128m in the US

11 x 10 = $110
So, almost the same.

Wild Child v '71: Institutional Context

WILD CHILD
Worldwide Box Office: $22m
Production Budget: $20m
Production Companies: Universal Pictures, Working Title, StudioCanal, Relativity Media
Distributors: Universal Studios, Walt Disney Pictures, Universal Pictures International
MPAA Film Rating: PG-13
BBFC Film Rating: 12
Release Date: August 15, 2008
Director: Nick Moore
Genre: Romcom
Rotten Tomatoes:
Tomatometer: 42%
Audience Score: 62%

OWNERSHIP
Universal Pictures is one of the big six conglomerates and distributes Working Title's films. Working Title is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal which is a vertically integrated conglomerate with for example Working Title, who is one of their production subsidiaries. Universal itself is a distributor while NBC offers exhibition. This has a huge impact on budgets. Also, there is guaranteed distribution for Working Title because Universal owns StudioCanal and Focus Features. Working Title work with StudioCanal repetitively in all their films. 

BUDGETS 
Green Zone - $100m (tentpole film)
This is an action, drama, thriller film that had a lot higher budget than what Working Title would normally have.  
Wild Child - $20m 
This is a typical Working Title budget. 
Notting Hill - $43m 
This is another typical Working Title budget, the same genre as Wild Child (romcom) with a similar budget. 
Love Actually - $40m
Since Working Title is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, this allows Working Title to produce films with a budget of up to $50m or more. 

3-Part Film Cycle:
Production - Working Title, Universal Pictures 
Distribution - Universal Studios
Exhibition - NBC

The Gant Rule: 
Box office analyst Charles Gant (who has a weekly Guardian column, but whose writing appears in many other publications worldwide) has long argued that a typical transatlantic hit (a success in both the UK and US markets) will make ten times as much in the US as in the UK. It is very unusual for a british film company to be in the top of the box office list. 

Casting
Emma Roberts
Alex Pettyfer
Juno Temple
Kimberley Nixon
Natasha Richardson

There were no A-list stars in Wild Child, there were TV stars and some stars such as Emma Roberts, Alex Pettyfer and Natasha Richardson and Juno Temple in this film.  

Emma Roberts is the main protagonist in Wild Child, she is an american star which helps to attract an american and international audience because american stars market box office films. She has been in:

• Nerve - with Dave Franco (star- brother of James Franco)
• Hotel for Dogs - with TV stars.
• We're The Millers - with Jennifer Anniston (TV star from 'Friends' and Jason Sudeikis- comedian star)

Juno Temple has been in the Working Title film:

• Atonement - with Keira Knightley (who has been in another Working Title Film- Love Actually)
• St Trinians

Alex Pettyfer has been in films such as: 

• I Am Number Four
• In Time - with Justin Timberlake (A list star) and Amanda Seyfried. 

Natasha Richardson has appeared in:

• The Parent Trap - with Lindsay Lohan (A list star)

'71
Worldwide Box Office: $3.2m
Production Budget: $8.1m
Production Companies: Warp Films, Crab Apple Films
Distributors: StudioCanal
Funders: Film4, British Film Institute (BFI), Creative Scotland, Screen Yorkshire
MFAA Film Rating: PG-13
BBFC Film Rating: 15
Release Date: October 10, 2014
Director: Yann Demange
Genre: Social Realism, War, Thriller, Action
Rotten Tomatoes:
Tomatometer: 96%
Audience Score: 81%

3-Part Film Cycle:
Production - Warp Films
Distribution - StudioCanal
Exhibition - Film4

Casting
Jack O'Connell
Richard Dormer
Sean Harris
Sam Reid

There are no A-list stars in this film at all, mainly just TV stars such as Jack O'Connell who has been in British TV series, 'Skins', and another Warp social realism film called 'This Is England'. Since '71 has no stars, this film was very hard to market. All Warp's films are hard to market because there are usually no stars. 

BUDGETS
Warp is an indie film company. Warp Films' budgets are extremely lower than Working Title's budgets. Warp also owns Warp X and Warp Records which gives Warp cross media ownership.

For Those In Peril - £2k 

This is an extremely low budget, for Warp this is somewhat usual, but for Working Title definitely not. 

This Is England - $1.5m

Compared to For Those In Peril, this is a high budget for Warp. The '71 budget is also very high for Warp.

71' - £8.1m

This is an action, thriller, social realism film and this is unusual genre for Warp Films. Warp is paid by funding agencies such as BFI, Creative Scotland, Screen Yorkshire and Film4 because they pay early to Warp for limited TV rights. For '71, because of the action genre, the budget was a lot higher than what Warp's budgets usually are.