Looking at the film ‘Monsters’, research how the film was produced and distributed to audiences. Consider the following;
· Target audience,
· All elements of production, cast and crew, location and budget,
· Marketing and distribution, UK and worldwide
Synopsis
Six years after Earth has suffered an alien invasion a cynical journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through an infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border.
- Edwards and the film’s two leads – Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able – filmed on location in several South American countries with only loose ideas about the story they wanted to tell. Edwards later manipulated that footage to make it feel cohesive. Guerrilla filmmaking at its best.
- Edwards shot 4.5 hours of film and spent months cutting that down to a 90 minute story.
- He wanted a monster movie that was “10 minutes of nuts and 80 minutes of therapy.”
- He believes that many monster movies have great effects but lame characters; his movie wanted to avoid that.
- One possible theme for Monsters is that “You can’t fight nature.” It’s a theme that runs parallel between the aliens’ maturation on Earth and the main characters, their attraction and the issues in their respective lives.
- Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able eventually got married after shooting Monsters. The chemistry you see onscreen is real.
- The Monsters themselves originated from theories about a Jupiter moon, Uropa, which has a deep-sea ocean. They are ocean creatures.
- The film cost more than the rumored 15k, but was still relatively inexpensive to make and is already in the black.
- Edwards is cool with both the positive and negative Internet attention – anything to gain exposure.
- Edwards filmed Mexico’s famed “Día de los Muertos” festival and twisted that footage into a protest against the aliens for the film.
Target Audience http://horrornews.net/17934/interview-gareth-edwards-director-of-monsters/
Gareth Edwards, the 35-year-old filmmaker was not afraid to smash stereotypes and described the film as a road trip movie that involved aliens instead of trying to shill the standard Hollywood horror movie. “My target audience was me.” Edwards laughed and went on to add that he only wanted to make a film that he wanted to watch and did not wish to get lost in the complications of trying to create a film that other people would want to see.
Production http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsters_(2010_film)#Production
The film was devised, storyboarded and directed by Gareth Edwards, who also worked as the visual effects artist Allan Niblo and James Richardson of Vertigo Films work as producers on the production. The filming equipment cost approximately $15,000, with the budget coming in at under $500,000. The film was able to be made on such a low budget due to the use of prosumer cameras to capture digital video rather than the more expensive 35mm film, Any settings featured in the film were real locations often used without permission asked in advance, and the extras were just people who happened to be there at the time.
