British and Hollywood Case Studies: Production

PRODUCTION	Hollywood Film: Dawn of The Dead	Brit Film: Shaun of the Dead
Production company	Strike Entertainment and New Amsterdam Entertainment	StudioCanal, Working Title Films and Big Talk Productions
Who owns the source material	George A. Romero	Simon Pegg and Nick Frost
Nationality	American	British and French
Budget	$26 million	Just over £4.1 million
Year of principle filming	2003	2003
How long filming took	16 June 2003-6 Sept (over 11 weeks)	Nine weeks
Where (locations) it was filmed	The mall scenes and rooftop scenes were shot in the former Thornhill Square Shopping Centre in Thornhill, Ontario and the other scenes were shot in the Aileen-Willowbrook neighborhood of Thornhill, Ontario. The set for Ana and Luis's bedroom was constructed in a backroom of the mall. The mall was defunct, which is the reason the production used it; the movie crew completely renovated the structure, and stocked it with fictitious stores after Starbucks and numerous other corporations refused to let their names be used (two exceptions to this are Roots and Panasonic). Most of the mall was demolished shortly after the film was shot. The fictitious stores include a coffee shop called Hallowed Grounds (a lyric from Johnny Cash's song "The Man Comes Around", which was used over the opening credits), and an upscale department store called Gaylen Ross (an in-joke reference to one of the stars of the original 1978 film). The final sequences on the boat and island were shot much later and at a different location (Universal Studios Hollywood) than the rest of the film, after preview audiences objected to the sudden ending of the original print.	In London on location and at Ealing Studios.
What equipment was used	Sound Mix DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS Color Color Aspect Ratio 2.35 : 1 Camera Moviecam Cameras Laboratory DeLuxe, Toronto, Canada EFILM Digital Laboratories, Hollywood (CA), USA (digital intermediate) DeLuxe, Hollywood (CA), USA (prints) Negative Format 35 mm Cinematographic Process Digital Intermediate (2K) (master format) Super 35 (source format) Printed Film Format 35 mm (anamorphic)	Sound Mix Dolby Digital EX Color Color Aspect Ratio 2.35 : 1 Camera Arriflex Cameras and Lenses Laboratory Technicolor Negative Format 35 mm (Kodak) Cinematographic Process Super 35 Printed Film Format 35 mm (anamorphic) (Kodak Vision 2383)
Producer	Richard P. Rubinstein, Marc Abraham and Eric Newman	Nira Park
Director	Zack Snyder	Edgar Wright
Cinematographer	Matthew F. Leonetti	David M. Dunlap
Editor	Niven Howie	Chris Dickens
Screen writer	James Gunn	Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg
Music Providers	Tyler Bates	Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford
Principle cast members	Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer and Ty Burrell	Simon Pegg and Nick Frost
Any other production information e.g problems	James Gunn is partially responsible for the screenplay although he received a solo writing but after he left, Michael Tolkin and Scott Frank were brought in for rewriting. The final sequences were shot in Universal Studios Hollywood after preview audiences objected to the sudden ending of the original print.	When Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg began pitching the film, Film4 Productions showed interest in it. Then, Film4 significantly cut back its budget, leaving the film without a production company for a while. Because Wright was still hoping to get the film made, he held off on taking other directing jobs while searching for new financing for the film, and ended up having to borrow money from his friends.