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Oct 15, 20204 min read

Billing Block - Initial Research

A billing block is where the main and important crew and cast for a film or production are written down. Not only do these feature the cast and crew, but they also feature the film's rating and the logos of the companies who created it. I need to create a billing block for The Tower that Never Was brief, which will not only be used on the poster I'm creating, but also have a place in the essay, as I need to discuss my choices for the billing block and why I chose them.


I started out with some research into what was on a billing block. I looked at a variety of different billings blocks for different movies, anything from horror to fantasy. The films I looked at were The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Mary and the Witch's Flower, Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and X-Men: Apocalypse. I picked these because the themes these movies have are similar to what I am creating a poster for. I also wanted to look at a variety of different billing blocks, so that I could get an idea of what different forms of media emphasis.


The most common roles I picked up on were the directing companies, the Executive Producers, the Directors, the main cast, the Visual Effects Supervisors, the Writers, the Film Editors and the Composer. Sometimes the novel the film is based on is listed, and costume designer and FX Artists. I decided to look for Executive Producers, Visual Effects Supervisors, Visual Effects Artists, Matte Painters, Concept Artists, Storyboard Artists, Prosthetic Makeup Designers, Screenwriters, Composers, Film Editors and Directors who've been a part of the creation of similar movies.


Here's a list of what I have so far. I looked at productions such as Carnival Row, 2018 Robin Hood, BBC Merlin, The Huntsman: Winter's War, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The House with a Clock in its Walls, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit trilogy, The Golden Compass, Wonder Woman, Doctor Strange, Thor: The Dark World, and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.


Executive Producers:

  • Iron Chen (Robin Hood 2018)

  • Soren Bendt Aaboe Pederson (Robin Hood 2018, ZombieWestern: It Came from the West, The Mummy 2017, Thor: The Dark World)

  • Visual Effects Supervisor

  • Double Negative / Jesper Kjolsrud (Alice Through the Looking Glass)

  • Sony Pictures Imageworks/ Ken Ralston (Alice Through the Looking Glass)

  • Weta Digital/ Eric Saindon (The Hobbit trilogy, Alita: Battle Angel, Avatar, Peter Pan)

  • Stephane Ceretti (Avengers, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy)

  • https://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-famous-visual-effects-supervisors/reference

  • Visual Effects Artists (?)

  • Jason Astley (Alita: Battle Angel, Mulan 2020, Mortal Engines)

  • Andrew Bangel (Carnival Row, Westworld)


Matte Painters:

  • Tristan Cerrer (Lost in Oz, Carnival Row, Suicide Squad)

  • Guillaume Berthoumieu (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Cinderella 2015, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men tell no Tales, Shazam!)

  • Clara Parati (Merlin, Wonder Woman 1984, Robin Hood 2018)


Concept Artists:


Storyboard Artists:


Screenwriters:

  • Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit trilogy, Mortal Engines)

  • Guillermo Del Toro (Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit trilogy, Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water)

  • Christopher Markus (Narnia trilogy, various Avengers, various Captain America, Thor: The Dark World)


Composers (?):

  • Hans Zimmer (?)

  • Henry Jackman (Winter Soldier, Big Hero 6)

  • Nathan Barr (The House with a Clock in its Walls, Carnival Row)

  • Danny Elfman (Alice through the Looking Glass)


Film Editors:

  • Andrew Weisblum (Black Swan, Alice Through the Looking Glass)

  • Wyatt Smith (Into the Woods, Doctor Strange)


Directors:

  • Tim Burton (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Alice in Wonderland)

  • Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange, Sinister)

  • Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass, Rogue One)

  • Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman)


This is the research I've done so far. I tried to find a variety of people to choice from. I had trouble finding concept artists, and I ended up looking at a few game artists instead. I felt that this fit with the type of work I want to go into after the course, so I put their names down as well as links to their websites so that I can decide whose work I like the most.


I also used some of the names I came across in my initial looking at billing blocks, like the screenwriters, some of whom have worked together before and produced highly regarded films. I thought it was important to add the screenwriter, concept artists and storyboard artists, as those are the types of jobs I want to go into. Since I'm more focused on the Games Industry, these are the most similar roles to the ones I'm interested in (Concept/Games Artist, Games Writer, Games Designer).


This is still just a forethought, and I still have to condense this down into only one or two names for each role. There may also be more roles I need to consider, but this is just a forethought of who I'd like to write about in my essay.

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