DNA 20 Questions

DNA Film Questions

1. The co-founders of DNA are Duncan Kenworthy and Andrew McDonald.

2. The company was founded in 1983.

3. DNA is based in London in the United Kingdom.

4. DNA have produced 21 films.

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8. 5 box office hits made by DNA: Love Actually, The Last King Of Scotland, The History Boys, 28 Days Later and Notes On A Scandal.

9. 5 flop films made by DNA: Dredd, Never Let Me Go, Sunshine, Amelia and Shooting Someone.

10. Danny Boyle's relationship to DNA productions is a director for film such as 28 Weeks Later, 28 Days Later and Sunshine.

11. 3 famous directors DNA have worked with include Danny Boyle, Alex Garland and Richard Curtis.

12. 5 famous actors DNA have worked with include: Keira Knighley, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, James Corden and Judi Dench. 
13. Highest grossing film was Love Actually with a box office of $246.9 million.
14.
15. One big blockbuster is 28 Days Later (2002), with a smaller budget of $8 million, but made $84.7 million in box office. This was followed in a sequel by 28 Weeks Later (2007) with a larger budget of $15 million and made a box office of $64.2 million.
16. DNA Films are most famous for producing and working on Love Actually in 2003. The film has a very well-known and high profile cast and has prompted many films to be made inspired by Love Actually.
17. The genres covered by DNA Films vary from musicals to romance, comedy, crime, drama, science fiction, horror and psychological thrillers.
18. DNA Films have a partnership with Fox Networks Group, which created DNA TV Limited.
19. DNA is run by Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich, which is one of the most successful production companies in the UK. DNA has produced films such as Dredd 3D, Never Let Me Go, Love Actually, The Beach, 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later.
20. The new partnership for television, DNA TV Limited will produce dramas, comedies and limited series to be distributed worldwide.

Ex Machina review

Ex_Machina

Ex Machina is an independent, psychological thriller made by DNA, Film4 and Universal Pictures. It was released in January 2015. In this review I will be commenting on the cast, director, writer and producer, budget, production, ethical and moral issues and my own opinion of the film. 

The cast members included Alicia Vikander (Ava), Donhnall Gleeson (Caleb Smith), Oscar Isaac (Nathan Bateman), Sonoya Mizuno (Kyoto), Symara A. Templeman (Jasmine), Elina Alminas (Amber), Gana Bayarsaikhan (Jade), Tiffany Pisano (Katya), Claire Selby (Lily) and Corey Johnson (Jay the helicopter pilot). The cast members are from all areas of the world including Dublin, Ireland,Gothenburg, Sweden, America and Japan and the UK.

The director of Ex_Machina is Alex Garland, who also wrote the film and has written films such as 28 Days Later and Never Let Me Go. Garland had the idea and foundations of the film at age 11 or 12 after he had done some basic coding and felt computers could have a mind of their own.

The producers involved in Ex_Machina were Andrew Macdonald, who has worked on film such as 28 Days Later (which Garland wrote) and Never Let Me Go where Garland wrote the screenplay. The  other producer on the film was Allon Reich who also produced 28 Weeks Later with Macdonald and Never Let Me Go.

The budget of the film was $15 million, which is a small budget compared to blockbuster films like Star Wars, which had a budget of $306 million. In box office, the film made $36.9 million.

Production of the film took place after 4 weeks of filming in Pinewood Studios and 2 weeks filming at Juvet Landscape Hotel in Valldalen, Norway. The film was shot as a live action film, and added special effects in later in the editing stages. The scenes with Ava where filmed twice, with her and without her. This allowed the cameras to pick up the background which could then be edited back in in post-production. Her hands and face were rotoscoped and the rest of her body was digitally painted out, so the background could be seen. Camera and body tracking systems where able to create a CGI version of Ava and the robot's movements could be edited. Overall, there was around 800 VFX shots and 350 of them where shots for the robots. The music was composed by Ben Salisbury who has worked on TV music and films. He was nominated for a BAFTA for working David Attenborough series The Life of Mammals and Life in the Undergrowth. He also composed a score for a documentary film Beyonce: Life Is But A Dream. Geoff Barrow was the other composer for Ex_Machina who has worked with Garland on the 2012 film Dredd.

During this film many ethical and moral questions are raised such as, is the nudity necessary? Why is it only female nudity? Does this represent Hollywood and the film industry well? What do certain cultures and religions think of this?

In my opinion I think this film is good as it grips the audience and you want to find out more and what happens to Caleb at the end. Does he escape? Can he escape? Did Ava really love him, or was it just simulated feelings? This ending is good as it leaves the audience wanting more and talking about it, however I would have liked to know what happens to Caleb. I think if the ending was different it wouldn't have such a good and thrilling impact and the audience wouldn't be as shocked. Although, I don't think the nudity was necessary to the film as this could be offensive to religions or cultures. Also it means the rating of the film is increased so a younger audience can not watch the film. 

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Questions

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

1. Lucasfilm is owned by Walt Disney Studios and in 2012 was acquired by The Walt Disney Company too.

2. Lucasfilm was formed by George Lucas.

3. It was founded in 1971.
4.

5. Lucasfilm has also worked on the Indiana Jones franchise and the Star Wars franchise.

6. Lucasfilm was sold for $4.05 billion in 2012.

7. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was written by Lawrence Kasdan, J. J. Abrams and Michael Arndt.

8. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was directed by J.J. Abrams.

9. J.J. Abrams is also responsible for directing Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, Mission: Impossible III and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He has also written and/or produced Regarding Henry, Forever Young, Armageddon, Cloverfield and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

10. There has been seven Star Wars films. The fist one of the original trilogy is episode IV - A New Hope and episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, episode VI - Return Of The Jedi. In the prequel trilogy, there is episode I - The Phantom Menace, episode II - Attack of The Clones and episode III - Revenge of The Sith. And the latest film is episode VII - The Force Awakens.

11. In total, all the Star Wars films have made $6,479,600,000.

12. The first Star Wars film, A New Hope, was released 25th May 1977.

13. ILM stands for Industrial Light and Magic.

14. ILM is an American motion picture visual effects company. It is part of the film production company, Lucasfilm.  

15. ILM was created by George Lucas in May 1975.

16. ILM was created when Lucas began creating Star Wars. In the 1980s ILM was the leading industry standard production house for computer graphics in film.

17. Casting directors hold auditions for actors and then with other casting staff choose the actor most suited for the role. The casting director is in charge of the other casting staff.

18. The first scenes of Star Wars the force Awakens was filmed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

19. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was shot on IMAX format.

20. The cameras used to film a sequence in Star Wars: The Force Awakens was 35mm and 65mm
IMAX cameras.

21. Pinewood Studios was used to film most of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

22. Pinewood Studios is in Buckinghamshire, England, UK.

23. A major franchise famously films at Pinewood Studios is James Bond.

24. James Bond is linked to Star wars: The Force Awakens as they are both films which have been around since the mid 1900s. These films have turned into franchises, with a huge world fan base and major attraction. These films are both based on books and comics. Also Daniel Craig, AKA James Bond had a cameo as a Storm Trooper.

25. J.J. Abrams' English teacher, Rose Gilbert is the inspiration for Maz Kanata.

26. The technology used to portray Maz Kanata is mouth motion capture to see how the actresses face moves as she talks, to be realistic. Also motion capture body double was used to copy her body movements. This was used along with CGI.

27. Maz Kanata is portrayed by Lupita Nyong'o, who is also famous for playing Patsey in 12 Years a Slave, which she won 6 awards for.

28. General Snoke is played by Andy Serkis.

29. Andy Serkis is known for creating The Imaginarium Studios, and for directing, acting, doing voice overs and being an author. he has worked on Star Wars, King Kong, Dawn of the planet of the apes, and many more.

30. The final scene of the film was filmed in Ireland, on an island called Skellig Michael.

31. John Williams has composed the scores for all the Star Wars films.

32. John Williams has composed music for all the Star Wars films from 1977 to 2015. This is a total of 7 Star Wars films.

33. John Williams has also created music for famous film such as Jaws, Indiana Jones, Home Alone, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Harry Potter and many more.

34. John Bodega auditioned 9 times for the film.

35. Casting occurred around August 2013, after alterations to the script it then occurred around January 2014. The official cast was announced on the 29th April 2014.

36. B-B8 was operated by 2 people, Dave Chapman and Brian Herring, they where the puppeteers. B-B8 was also operated like a robot by a controller.

37. The main version of B-B8 was controlled by puppeteers, sometimes using a remote controlled robot.

38. B-B8's operator wore a green suit.

39. They had to wear a green suit so they could blend into the green screens and so they can be edited out.

40. J.J. Abrams usually used effects actually there when filming such as puppets and green screens.

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42. Simon Pegg was in Star Wars: The Force Awakens as Unkar Plutt.

43. IMAX is an acronym for Image Maximum. It is a motion picture film format and a set of cinema projection standards.

44.

45. The age rating for this film is a 12A.


46. The British government gave Disney £31 million from UK taxman. Which is around $39 million.

47. Harrison Ford was apparently paid between $10 million-20 million to reprise his role as Han Solo. 

48. Daisy Ridley and John Boyega were apparently paid between $100,000 - $300,000.