Institution research

For our main task, we have chosen the horror genre as the genre of our video. This is a popular genre in aspects of books, films, video games and others. With regards to films, there are many production companies associated with producing films of this genre and making them successful.

One example of this is Blumhouse Productions. Their model of movie making is high quality micro budget films, which has been a proven successful formula. The company has produced highly profitable films such as The Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Insidious and Sinister franchises. The beginning model of this idea was Paranormal Activity 1, which was made for $15,000 and grossed close to $200 million worldwide, which made it the most profitable film in Hollywood history.

Another example is Platinum Dunes. A company set up by the 3 film makers Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form. Platinum Dunes was set up in 2001, and started with a speciality of producing horror films, particularly remakes of older films. Some examples are The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday the 13th, although none of these films became a critical success. Since the inception of the company, the 3 have branched out into other films, such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot. Also, Michael Bay directed Pain and Gain. Despite these recent productions, the vast majority of this companies money has come from the horror movie remake business.

Another example is Vertigo Entertainment, set up by Korean American Roy Lee. The starting formula Lee has was that he would re make Asian films for an English and American audience. This was so that the film can have more success outside of Asia. Examples of his work include The Ring and Grudge franchises, Shutter remake, Rec remake (renamed Quarantine) and the A Tale of Two Sisters Remake ( renamed The Uninvited).

All of these production companies are focused heavily in the horror genre, focusing on the slasher and psychological genres, which fits in with the type of genre our video will be. Our video brief will be more indie based as due to a low budget, there will be more of a focus on the story and the characters performance on screen to build tension and scare factor, as there is an absence of expensive editing and production costs to glamorise and make the film more professional. Also because the film is indie, it can have any a story as the primary focus is not drawing in lots of money from an audience, and it also doesn't have to fit with films of the genre that have been mad.This way there is more freedom to subvert the genre and play around with the story, as there wouldn't be any big production companies getting involved and wanting to change it to appease a mass audience.

If I was to choose a institution to produce my films from the ones I have researched, I would choose Blumhouse productions. This is because I agree with their mission statement with small budgets and high quality films and also they have produced one of my favourite horror movies in sinister and also very popular films amongst myself and my friends like insidious and Paranormal activity.

Preliminary task: Video Brief

This is my groups' preliminary video task.