Wimbledon Studios

Wimbledon Film & Television Studios is an English film and television production company and facilities provider, located in Colliers Wood, between Mitcham and Wimbledon in South London.




The studios are known for the police procedural television series The Bill, which was filmed there until the programme's demise in 2010. Since being taken over in late 2010, many productions have shot at the studios, including the 2011 biographical film "The Iron Lady", starring Maryl Streep; music videos by Cheryl Cole and Ollie Murs; and the BAFTA-award-winning television series Episodes with Matt Le Blanc. The ITV game show Tipping Point has been filmed here since its third series in 2013.

HISTORY.

Wimbledon Studios was established as the Merton Studios. The studios were previously a wine-distribution warehouse, which was acquired by Thames Television as a replacement for their Barlby Road base in North Kensington in the early 1990s. The studios were also used for the Channel 5 soap opera Family Affairs, which was produced by Thames and had moved from a site in Hayes. An exterior street set was built for the programme, which has also since been used by other productions and is available for hire. Thames – which later became Talkback Thames – stayed at the studios until 2010 when The Bill, by then the only show produced there, ended. After the cancellation of The Bill by ITV, Talkback Thames's owners, FremantleMedia, sold the studios. Panther Securities Plc purchased the site for £4.75 million in September 2010 and set up Wimbledon Film & Television Studios in October 2010, to provide a new production facility to the film and television industry. The facility has four studios: two large studios of approximately 8,000 square feet (740 m2) and one 5,000-square-foot studio. The studio has multiple free-standing interior sets – both on-site and in storage – including police stations, hospitals, a prison, a courtroom and the House of Commons set. In August 2014, it was announced that Wimbledon Studios has entered administration with several employees being made redundant as a result.

PRODUCTION HISTORY.

Misfits






The iron lady





Spy

Blitz

This thriller illustrates our idea of using camera movements and sound. The sound in this video really creepy and produces tension during the whole clip. I suppose that this is an amazing example of opening sequence which have some similarities with our idea.

Specialization of Universal Pictures

 Universal Pictures specializes in high budget British pictures. For instance:

• Fast & Furious 
• King Kong
• Meet the Fockers
• Lucy
• Bruce Almighty 
• Robin Hood
• Schindler's List
• Oblivion

Universal Pictures spend a lot of money on famous actors and directors such as Kevin Costner, Julia Roberts, Rowan Atkinson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steven Spielberg, Vin Diesel, Naomi Watts, Maryl Strip, Ben Stiller, etc.). Universal Pictures does not specialize in shooting films of certain genres. There are a lot of films of absolutely different genres. For instance, comedy: 'Braidsmaid', cartoons: 'Casper', drama: 'American Gangster' and etc. The different genres of films attract different people and therefore Universal Pictures does not have certain target audience.

mise-en-scene of opening sequence

List of actors:

• Dead body (Etienne)
• Investigator (Phillip)

Location: shipping containers near studio our our school campus
                                                       
                                                           Plan of the location

Props List:

• artificial blood

Lighting: daylight during the whole opening sequence

In this aricle, you'll see the path of a film from an idea in someone's head to a movie screen at your local multiplex. You'll learn what the "nut" is, find out the difference between negotiating and bidding, and finally understand why movie popcorn is so expensive!

Here's the path a film usually takes to get to your local theater:
Someone has an idea for a movie.
They create an outline and use it to promote interest in the idea.
A studio or independent investor decides to purchase rights to the film.
People are brought together to make the film (screenwriter, producer, director, cast, crew).
The film is completed and sent to the studio.
The studio makes a licensing agreement with a distribution company.
The distribution company determines how many copies (prints) of the film to make.
The distribution company shows the movie (screening) to prospective buyers representing the theaters.
The buyers negotiate with the distribution company on which movies they wish to lease and the terms of the lease agreement.
The prints are sent to the theaters a few days before the opening day.
The theater shows the movie for a specified number of weeks (engagement).
You buy a ticket and watch the movie.
At the end of the engagement, the theater sends the print back to the distribution company and makes payment on the lease agreement.







Some of these steps may be combined and, particularly in the case of small independent films, additional steps may be necessary. As you can see, there is a lot that goes on before a movie is ever shown to a paying audience!

How do movies make money?

16 different ways that we can use to make money out of our film:

Ticket sales

The concession stand

Various cinemas have tried all sorts of bad ideas to cut overheads, from underpaying the staff and keeping them on booby-trapped zero-hour contracts, to letting more or less anybody run the projection booth. I’m sure these have all had some effect, and kept the cats’ cream pouring, but there’s a limit to how much you can cut away before the body dies.So the concession stand becomes incredibly important to the cinema. Those overpriced popcorns, sodas and fat, fattening bags of delicious, deferred arterial congestion are stacked high with price mark-ups, the better to make a cinema into a money-making enterprise.

DVD, Blu-ray or download sales and rental

There are the most profitable form of distribution for the studios. But home video sales have fallen 17 percent since peaking at $21.8 billion in 2004.

Merchandising

T-shirts, lunchboxes, calendars and bedspreads are amongst the other, obvious mainstays of merchandising. The shirt is open to a much wider range of tie-ins, though there’s a lot of ‘homage shirts’ arriving through online marketplaces that aren’t officially licensed at all and while they’re generating revenue for someone, it’s not a film studio or production company. Still, there’s something ‘cool’ about movie shirts that a lunchbox or duvet cover is never, ever going to compete with.

Novelisations, books and video games

Novelisations and video games are a specific kind of merchandise that become new media works in their own right. Not since GoldenEye have I been convinced that a movie-to-game translation was really worth my while but I do still, I think that if somebody really nails an adaptation, and it succeeds as a game as well as just being a tie-in, there’s going to be so much money to be made here that the original film itself could be pushed into the margin.

Tourism

If I were ever to get on a theme park ride again in my life, and I won’t, it would take something very special to lure me in. MaybeBoth Disney and Universal have their own parks, with plentiful movie tie-ins, and other movies have spawned rides and attractions everywhere from Alton Towers to Six Flags.The Halloween Horror Nights would be a subset of this, with their ridiculous, heart-rate battering spectacles more often than not based (loosely) on some existing horror movie franchise or another.I don’t think we’ll ever see a Squid And The Whale roller coaster, by the way.

the Ethos of Universal Studios Inc.

For over 100 years Universal has created films that have touched the hearts of millions and fuelled culture’s imagination with cinema. Universal Pictures creates and distributes theatrical and non-theatrical filmed entertainment. Universal's theatrical slate includes films developed internally, along with co-productions, acquisitions, and films developed by outside partners and distributed by the studio.
Obviously, Universal Pictures specializes in producing and creating high budget films with beg named stars and directors. For instance, Steven Spielberg worked with Universal Pictures. And three of Spielberg's films—Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and  Jurassic Park (1993)—achieved box office  records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, the unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide. 

There are so many high budget films of this institution where a lot of famous stars were acting. For example, some of them:

• Lucy
• Notting Hill
• The Mummy
• Oblivion
• Schindler's list
• American Pie
• Little Fockers
• Bean
• Love Actually
• Hulk
• 8 Mile

Universal Studios Inc.

From my point of view Universal Studios Inc. is the best and the most appropriate company to make our thriller. Universal Studios Inc. (also known as Universal Pictures) is one of the biggest and richest film company in the world and is one of Hollyood's 'Big Six' film studious. Universal was founded in 1912. It is the world's third oldest major film studio. Three of Universal Studios' films—Jaws (1975), E.T The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993) (all of which were directed by Steven Spielberg)–achieved box office records; each became the highest-grossing film ever at the time of its initial release. It is the most appropriate company because it created such famous and successful psychological thrillers as:

• The Phantom of the Opera
• Psycho
• Phantom of the Opera
• Frankenstein
• The killers (moreover it is a crime film)

Therefore, this company have a lot of experience on working with thrillers and it is really significant.
One of the most well-known psychological thrillers and suspense horror films of Universal Pictures is "Psycho" directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This film as well as and our has crime story. The plot is about A Phoenix secretary steals $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother. To understand this film better you have a chance to watch a trailer.

Obviously, this movie has a lot of in common with our future film. Firstly, this film as well as and our has crime story. Secondly, This is white and black film and we are going to create out film mostly in dark tones. I suppose that Universal Studious Inc. made a lot of work to create such a good film which is well-known and famous all over the world. 

Vertigo Film 'Monsters'

 I really like  Vertigo Films. It is a UK Film and Distribution company founded in 2002 by Allan Niblo and James Richardson.One of the most interesting and popular film of this company is 'Monsters'. Firstly, you can watch official thriller. Monsters is a 2010 British science fiction monster film written and directed by Gareth Edwards

PLOT.
After a NASA deep-space probe crash lands in Mexico, extraterrestrial life forms spread throughout the Mexico-Unites States border region, leading to the quarantine of the northern half of Mexico. US and Mexican troops battle to contain the creatures, while a wall stretching along the American border ostensibly keeps the US protected.
American photojournalist Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) receives a call from his employer, who tasks Andrew with finding his daughter, Samantha Wynden (Whitney Able), and escorting her back to the US. Andrew locates Samantha in a Mexican hospital and the pair board a train, until learning the tracks ahead have been damaged. They discover that if they do not leave the country within a few days, sea and air travel will be blocked for six months. Andrew and Samantha decide to hitchhike their way to the border.
Andrew buys Samantha an expensive ferry ticket for the next morning. After enjoying the local nightlife together, Andrew has sex with a local girl who steals their passports. Unable to board the ferry, Samantha is forced to barter her engagement ring for passage through the quarantine zone.
They travel by riverboat until being transferred to a group of armed escorts who are to lead them overland to the Mexico–US border. The convoy is attacked by the creatures. Andrew and Samantha escape, but none of the guards survive. Continuing on, they discover the bodies of dead travellers and bond at the top of an ancient pyramid in sight of the US border wall. By the time they reach the border, the creatures have broken through. They travel through a ghost town in Texas, find an abandoned gas station with power and call the army for help.
While waiting for help to arrive, they make phone calls to their respective families. A lone creature silently approaches the station. Hiding, Samantha observes several tentacles exploring the inside of the store, seemingly soaking up a television's light. Samantha quickly unplugs the television and the creature loses interest. Another creature appears, and they communicate with one another and mate via light impulses. The creatures leave as the military arrives. Samantha and Andrew kiss before they are rushed into different vehicles. The convoy is quickly attacked by monsters, and the military fires an airstrike at them.

Editing and effects.

Every night after shooting, editor Colin Goudie and his assistant Justin Hall would download the footage so the memory sticks could be cleared and ready for the next day. While new footage was being captured, the previously filmed footage was edited at the production team's hotel. After filming concluded, the crew had over 100 hours of footage. The original cut was over four hours long but was trimmed to 94 minutes after eight months of editing. Edwards originally had the ending of the film both at the beginning and the end. He and the film's producers disagreed about the placement, so he decided to put the chronlogical ending of the film at the beginning and end the film immediately after Andrew and Samantha kiss.
Edwards created the special effects himself using off-the-shelf Adobe software, ZBrush, and Autodesk 3ds Max. He had five months to create all 250 visual effects shots, a process he undertook in his bedroom. He produced two shots a day until he reached the first creature shot, when "suddenly two months went by and [he] still hadn't finished a single creature shot"; Edwards stated that the creatures' visual effects were the most challenging element of production. Due to time constraints, the sound effects had to be produced before the special effects.

Our Pilot Video

                                        Our Pilot Video

Pilot Evaluation

Our pilot episode

We were filming our pilot for better understanding of future concept of our idea. Etienne played the main role. So, he was the old woman and I was the woman who committed suicide. We used to united tables together as a bed. Etienne's sneakers were used as flip-flops.

What camera angles and camera movements we were testing and why

•  We were testing a wide-shot in order to know how it will be look like in the real opening sequence. We made a conclusion that it is appropriate shot for out video. 

• Moreover, we were testing the over-shoulder shot when the old woman ringing the door. We used this shot in our pilot because we have some doubts about including this shot in our opening sequence or not. So, our pilot really helped us to make a decision to use this shot as it is look appropriate and has especial sense. It hives an opportunity to feel the scene more throughly.

Filming the pilot before the 'real' shooting was really useful task for our group as it gave us an opportunity to eliminate all possible future mistakes. It showed more clearly where we should change something in order to get better results. Finally, it was really beneficial as we had an chance to decide what task every member of our team is going to do. Therefore, now we can imagine what should we do when we are going to real our opening sequence. I hope that the pilot really helped us to avoid a lot of mistakes.

However, we did some mistakes. The timing was wrong because we wanted to make it more intelligible and understandable. Moreover, the same shot was reversed twice but from the different angles. In our testing video we can hear Philipp's voice behind the scenes. We asked Ethen to play the main role, however in the original opening sequence in should be an old woman. And the location wasn't appropriate as ideally it should be an apartment with a bed, a window and a television. 

To sum it up, A pilot is very useful as a planing exercise as it ensures future opening sequence to flow in a logical order. it is really significant because it allows us not to forget various scenes and shots. In other words, a pilot wide gives us an opportunity to shot everything just in time and make it logically appropriate. Moreover, it ensures us to cover all the points they need to make.

What is a pilot episode?

In media, a pilot is often defined as 'television or radio program me made to test audience with a view to the production of a series'. A pilot is a scripted and filmed “first episode” of an intended series. However, pilots can also be made for firms to test out shot type, camera angles, props, actors or locations. There is significant competition for actually getting airtime for a series. Generally a network gives the go-ahead to writers and producers, and will fund production of a pilot. Occasionally, a pilot is produced by non-network individuals and is then farmed out to networks to see if interest exists.  

A pilot is very useful as a planing exercise as it ensures future opening sequence to flow in a logical order. it is really significant because it allows us not to forget various scenes and shots. In other words, a pilot wide gives us an opportunity to shot everything just in time and make it logically appropriate. Moreover, it ensures us to cover all the points they need to make.

Our storyboard

The russian's from Elenamax

It is essential for our concept idea to crate a storyboard because it opens up a great number of opportunities. First of all, it helps to plan the narrative of our opening sequence, scene by scene. Secondly, it is both an artistic and logistic process allowing the film crew to have a visual idea of what we as a directors want in the scene before the actors, actresses, props and set get involved. We were aiming to prevent a lot of wasted time in filming aspects of the scene that ate not what the director is looking for, as well as streamlining or eliminating unnecessary scenes and filming requirements from the production. I suppose that our storyboard illustrates the main concept and idea of our opening sequence and it will be a great advantage and help in its future creation. Our storyboard represents a road map that can keep everyone on track during production. It lets to see the plan ahead of time and allows the various departments involved to prepare in advance of the camera rolling. Moreover, we use storyboard in order to help us organize our work and give an idea of what final project will look like. To sum it up, film and animation production takes a great deal of planning; just as any complex project would. This is why the role of storyboarding is so vital.