Case Study of The Bourne Supremacy and Hot Fuzz
The two films I am analysing are The Bourne Supremacy and Hot Fuzz. TBS is a pure action based film. It had an enormous budget and therefore had a high standard of special effects, Hollywood actors and filming locations. Although Hot Fuzz is also an action film, it has a kick to it. It has mixed the genres of action and comedy into one, in order to create a funny laid-back spoof of a traditionally serious action film. Unlike TBS, Hot Fuzz was a low budget film. This meant that everything was on a much smaller scale. The actors weren’t international famous stars, the effects weren’t as intense and it was set in a small village in Wales.
Production
There were three key production companies involved with the film Hot Fuzz, who were all fairly independent: Big Talk Productions, Studio Canal and Working Title Films. Hot Fuzz’s director, Edgar Wright and lead actors, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, own big Talk Productions. Studio Canal and Working Title Films have also made an appearance supporting Edgar Wright’s previous spoof of the horror genre, Shaun of the Dead. They also teamed up to produce a 9/11 interpretation in United 93. Therefore it is not a great surprise that these three companies joined together to produce Hot Fuzz.
The Bourne Supremacy was primarily produced by one of the biggest names in film, Universal Pictures. Universal have produced many high-budget blockbusters in a wide variety of genres. Some of their films include King Kong, 2 Fast 2 Furious, American Pie and Shrek. However, a further four companies assisted Universal in the production of TBS. The Kennedy/Marshall Company: a relatively small company who participated in all 3 of the Jason Bourne series. Ludlum Entertainment: a company belonging to the author of the Bourne series. Hypnotic: primarily a film distributor but played a part in producing the first two Bourne films and most recently the action thriller Mr and Mrs Smith. As well as Motion Picture THETA Produktionsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG: a company, which was set up in order to produce The Bourne Supremacy as a one off. Four of the five production companies are experienced in producing action films and have also appeared in two or more of the Bourne series. Similarly to Hot Fuzz, the majority of these companies have accompanied eachother in film production on numerous occasions, which have evidently been successful, thus joining together again to produce another high-budget film.
The most important similarity between the two production companies is that both ‘teams’ have joined up together in previous films. Therefore, they most probably have a strong relationship, which would create a positive impact on the film they are producing. Production companies in each of the films have also got previous experience in the genre of action. A high knowledge of the industry is always key to success.
One of the differences between the companies involved is that The Bourne Supremacy has a BIG company producing it, whereas Hot Fuzz has much smaller companies. This affects the budget of the films, which is clearly represented in the extent of things such as effects and actors. However, The three companies that produced Hot Fuzz were already fully established companies, which were familiar with the film industry. However, two of the four producers in TBS were newly formed groups, created especially for the production of this film.
The similarities and differences weigh themselves out, but the most important point is that The Bourne Supremacy’s producers put in a significantly larger sum of money into the film compared to the figure that was used to produce Hot Fuzz. This benefited the profit it gained. However, Hot Fuzz was also a success despite having a substantially smaller budget.
Directors
The director is the man in charge. He or she controls everything that will be seen on the screen. This ranges from the props to the actors standing positions to the way they project their lines.
