Film GCSE: I Am Legend Section 2

I Am Legend originated from a 1954 science fiction/horror novel by American writer Richard Matheson. It was influential in the development of the zombie genre and in popularizing the concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease. The novel was a success and was adapted to film as The Last Man on Earth in 1964, as The Omega Man in 1971, and now as we know it I Am Legend in 2007. The screen play for I Am Legend was implemented by Akiva Goldsman and Mark Protosevich.

The director Francis Lawrence was born in Vienna, Austria on March 26 1970,   

Before Lawrence went into the world of directing he was a co-director specializing in music videos serving under one Mike Rosen. Lawrence shot his first music for Michael Blakey President of Atco Records with the band Tidal Force which became a great success. Soon, Lawrence became known for his original and imaginative music video scripts and visual directing style. He eventually joined a major new production company and his successful career as music video director, having worked with stars like Britney Spears, Black Eyed Peas, Jay-Z, Aerosmith, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Destiny's Child. In 2005, his feature film debut was Constantine based on the Hellblazer comic book, starring Keanu Reeves.

In 2007, he then went onto directing I Am Legend (based on the Richard Matheson novel), starring Will Smith.

Francis Lawrence has been the director of two films in his directing campaign however Constantine in 2005 was not of big renown.

He also has two films to come, Water for Elephants is being filmed and The City that Sailed is in Pre-Production.

There are 4 main characters within I Am Legend, these four characters consisted of;

the main actor Will Smith (1968) taking on the role of Robert Neville.

Sali Richardson (1967)

Alice Braga (1983)

and Willow Smith, Will Smiths daughter (2000)

I Am Legend was made by 4 studios, Village Road Show Picture, Weed Road Pictures, Overbrook Entertainment and Heyday Films. All of these studios have been noticed in today's latest motion pictures, however, Heyday Films is most noticeable for producing  the well known Harry Potter series. The other studio that caught my eye is Overbrook Entertainment because the production company was created by Will Smith between 1997 and 1999 around the time when Will Smith featured in Wild West. Since then it has served as Will Smiths main production company releasing films such as I Robot, Hitch, Pursuit of Happiness, I Am Legend and Hancock. The Title of this company, "Overbrook" is derived from Will Smith's high school in West Philadelphia, Overbrook High School.

Budget: 150,000,000

Akiva Goldsman decided to move the story from Los Angeles to New York City to take advantage of locations that would more easily show emptiness. Goldsman explained, "L.A. looks empty at three o'clock in the afternoon, however New York is never empty . . . This makes it a much more interesting way of showing the windswept emptiness of the world." However, the Warner Bros rejected this request because of the logistics.  Francis Lawrence was determined to shoot on location to give the film a natural feel that would benefit from not shooting on sound stages. Lawrence persevered and at last gained this advantage.

Filming began on September 23, 2006.

The scenes that i was most intrigued in was the flashback scenes in which the New York civilians evacuated. This scene contained the view of the famous Brooklyn Bridge. This scene took six consecutive nights in January and consumed $5 million of the film's reported $150 million budget, which was likely the most expensive shot in the city to date. The scene, which had to meet requirements from fourteen government agencies, involved 250 crew members and 1,000 extras, including 160 National Guard members.