Pre-production & Post Production

Making a big budget Hollywood film costs a tremendous amount of money and involves many months of hard work from a variety of people. This hard work can be split up into 'Pre-production' and 'Post Production'. Here is a step by step guide (split up into pre-production and post production)showing how a Hollywood film is generally made.

Pre-Production
A source material is found or an idea is pitched.

↓
Rights to the source material then have to be obtained.

↓
A screenplay is then written by professional screenwriters.

↓
Screenplay then has to be approved by backers of the film(the money). The screenplay may have to be re-writed at this stage if necessary.

↓
Essential personnel is hired such as the director, casting director, cinematographer, assistant producers, editor and musical director

↓
These professionals then hire their own assistants and crews.

↓
Auditions are then held or there are negotiations with an actor's agent if a specific actor is wanted.

↓
Contracts are then signed.

↓
Then a location is either found or built.

Post Production
Once filming has finished the director works with editors to edit the footage.

↓
Musical directors then create a score to accompany the film. This means either securing the rights to a certain song or hiring an orchestra.

↓
Special effects are then added.

↓
Dialogue then may have to be re-recorded if necessary.

↓
Sound effects are then added by 'foley artists'- professional sound recordists. These people can generate noises such as footsteps aswell as enhancing natural sounds.

↓
The film is promoted. This is done by methods such as the actors making personal appearances around the world, on numerous television talk shows and at arranged press conferences. Posters and preview clips must also be produced to help promote the film.

↓
Then finally the film is released.

Conventions of Horror Films Found in 'I Still Know What You Did Last Summer'

Some of the conventions which featured in "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" included :

1)Dream Sequence (1:20 - 3:36)
The main character Julie is confessing to a man about a man she killed and the aftermath. The person she is confessing too then turns out to be the killer and his hooked hand comes through the window as if to kill her. However Julie then wakes up and we realise she was dreaming in her lesson.

2)Fake Scare (8:14-10:03)
Julie gets woken up by her door slamming. She thinks someone is in her flat as she hears noises and keeps seeing shadows of a person on the walls. However it turns out to just be her friend.


3)Blood Splatters (41:14 - 41:16)
One of the hotel workers gets murdered by the killer and his blood is shown splattering on the surface.

4)No-one Believes Witness (48:41 - 49:11)
When Julie tells everyone that there was a dead body in her closet which means there is a killer on the island no-one believes her.

5)Phone Lines Cut (49:43 - 49:52)
Julie realises there is something wrong with the island and trys to ring for a boat to come take them off the island. However it turns out the phone lines are down.

6)Dark and Stormy Night (50:22)
A shot of the hotel shows the night is very dark and stormy.

7)Power Cut (1:06:07)
When the group decided to go look for the killer all of a sudden the power goes down.

8)Horror Film Showing On Tv. (1:08:22 - 1:08:26)
Ray goes to see a man about a boat. The man he goes to see is watching something on TV which appears to show a dead body with a monster reaching out to take it.

9)Secluded location (1:10:31 - 1:10:34)
Karla reminds Julie that the boats are down and theres no way off the island.

10)Someone Runs Upstairs Instead Of Going Out A Door (1:15:03 - 1:15:10)
When the killer starts to chase the girls they decided to run up flights of stairs instead of going outside.