sdkjhd

1. Media
Studies
Film Industry

2. Starter
• Think about the last three films you have seen
• Why did you watch the film? What attracted you to it?
• Where did you watch it? Why did you choose this option?
• Were you satisfied with what you saw? Would you
recommend it to others?
• Spend a few minutes thinking of the answers to these
questions then discuss with others your responses

3. The Film Industry
• Your responses may help you consider some of the ways in
which the film industry works
• You are essentially the target audience for the vast majority of
mainstream movies
• Why?
• Remember, first and foremost the film industry is a business
engineered for profit

4. Big Picture
• Candidates should be prepared to understand and discuss the processes of
production, distribution, marketing and exchange as they relate to
contemporary media institutions, as well as the nature of audience consumption
and the relationships between audiences and institutions. In addition,
candidates should be familiar with:
• • the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
• • the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production,
distribution and marketing;
• • the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of
production, distribution, marketing and exchange;
• • the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and
audiences;
• • the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;
• • the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically,
British) by international or global institutions;
• • the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption
illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.
•

5. The Film Industry
• The industry can be broken down into three distinct areas,
each with individual responsibility for certain aspects of a
films development
• The industry follows a chain that takes us from the original
idea of a film through to the point where you are sat watching
the finished product
• We class these stages as:
Production
Distribution
Exhibition/Consumption
What do you think falls within each area?

6. Production
• Pre-Production
• Production
• Post-Production

7. Film Pre-Production
• Getting a film made:
• Script is bought or optioned to film company (this in itself no
guarantee a film will be produced from the material)
• Writers are often enlisted by the studios to work on proposed
scripts
• The producer has the responsibility of overseeing the progress of
a film from script to distribution. They organise financing, hire
cast and crew, liaise with distribution for marketing.
• Working with the director the producer puts together a film
package to try and get financial backing – this is a one or two
page treatment covering the plot, plus also a list of names that
are interested or have been envisaged for the project.

8. ‘Reducing the Risk’
• When somebody has an idea for a film for a major studio, they
will work with the producer to convert it into a package made
up of individual elements that will help to create confidence in
studio executives that the concept is profitable and low risk.
• Pre Production is essential in combining elements that will (on
paper) indicate the film will succeed – remember the aim is to
make money – if production companies and studios were not
profitable we would have no films

9. ‘Reducing the Risk’
• Study the supplied information for the film The World’s End
(2012)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n__1Y-N5tQk
• Consider, from the perspective of a studio/production
company potentially financing the film, what factors indicate
this premise will be a profitable one?

10. A ‘Trilogy’
• The film was the third part of the Cornetto Trilogy, following
Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz
• Shaun of the Dead – budget $6million, box office $30 million
• Hot Fuzz – budget $12 million, box office $80 million
• This shows that previous films in the trilogy were successful –
thereby indicating the type of film produced has a
recognisable fan base that will see the film
• This also explains why so many films released are
franchises/sequels/adaptations/spin offs

11. ‘Repetition & Difference’
• The film works on this principle
• It offers ‘more of the same’ in an attempt to replicate some of
the elements that ensured the previous films were successful
• However, as audience members we don’t want to see the
same film again and again – we want elements we like, but we
want to see them presented differently
• Consider how many popular films follow formats or ‘cycles’ – if
one film is successful then lots in the same generic area often
follow offering the same but different
• Can you think of any examples?

12. Continuity
• Edgar Wright (director/writer)
• Wright had directed the previous two installments of the trilogy –
from a studio perspective they know he is capable of delivering a
successful formula
• From a fan perspective, he may have a following who will want to
see a film he directed
• Simon Pegg (director/writer)
• Pegg is leading star/writer of previous installments (continuity)
• He has also built his name up as an actor in mainstream roles
(Star Trek, Paul)

13. Continuity
• Nick Frost
• Frost is reunited with Pegg – their ‘buddy’ format has proven
successful over three previous films indicating audiences enjoy
seeing them together onscreen
• Martin Freeman
• Audience familiarity due to starring appearances in the Hobbit films
• Pierce Brosnan
• Former James Bond star
• Bill Nighy
• Recognisable British actor from a number of popular films (POTC,
Total Recall, Underworld) also returning from previosu two
installments
• The film also features other recognisable British talent (Paddy
Considine, Eddie Marsan, Reece Sheersmith, Michael Smilie)

14. Genre
• The film focuses on popular generic elements
• Comedy
• Action
• Sci-Fi/Fantasy
• The actors involved have direct generic linkage
• Pegg, Frost known for comedy/sci-fi
• Brosnan famous for action/comedy
• Freeman famous for comedy/fantasy
• Therefore suitability/audience association is already
established – there is also crossover appeal to other
territories (eg America: more box office gross in US than UK)

15. Merchandising
• The film featured a soundtrack composed heavily of popular
music – this gives it a good opportunity for a studio to release
a soundtrack album

16. Merchandising
• The film has also been released to buy on:
• Blu Ray – limited edition steel book
• Blu Ray – standard edition
• DVD
• The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy Box Set (Blu Ray & DVD)
• A host of digital platforms
• http://www.waystowatch.com/the-worlds-end-blu-ray-dvd-and-
digital-buyers-guide/
• Sky Store
• Merchandise includes T-shirts and
• Themed pub glasses

17. Production: British Film
• Is there such a thing as the British Film Industry?
• Think of the last five or so films you have watched – how many
were British?
• Try to think of some films you believe to be British
productions
• What makes a film ‘British’?

18. 12 Years a Slave

19. Chicken Run

20. Tyrannosaur

21. Filth

22. This is England

23. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

24. Skyfall

25. A Field in England

26. Gravity

27. British?
• 12 Years a Slave – Plan B, Lionsgate, Regency, River Road (all
US), Film 4 (UK)
• Chicken Run – Aardman (UK), Dreamworks (US), Pathe (Fr)
• Tyrannosaur – Film 4, UK Film Council, Warp X (all UK)
• Filth – I Vast (Swe), Steel Mill (UK)
• This is England - Film 4, Warp Films (all UK)
• Harry Potter – Heyday Films (UK), Warner Bros (US)
• Skyfall – Eon (UK), MGM/Columbia (US)
• A Field in England – Rook Films (UK)
• Gravity – Heyday Films (UK), Esperento (Mex), Warner Bros
(US)

28. Defining a British Film
• Cat A: films made with British money, personnel and
resources
• Cat B: films co-funded with money from Britain and from
foreign investment, but majority finance, cultural content,
personnel are British
• Cat C: films with mostly foreign (non USA) investment and
small British input either financially or creatively
• Cat D: films made in the UK with (usually) British cultural
content, but financed fully or partly by American companies
• Cat E: American films with some British involvement

29. Defining a British Film
• What do you notice about the completely British funded films
in comparison to the others?
• Why is there such a mixture of companies involved in these
films?
• What does this tell you about the British film industry?

30. Film Production in the UK
• There are no major studios in Britain on a par with Hollywood
(Warners, Disney, Paramount etc)
• It is very unusual for films in Britain to have just one source of
finance
• Most British films are collaborations between several sources
of film financing, and as such are much more complexly
financed than traditional major studio films
• They can receive support from the governments Film Council,
a distributor, a broadcaster (such as BBC or Film4, and an
equity investor)

31. Film Production in the UK
• British film production can be seen on three levels:
• Big Hollywood co-productions
• Typified by Bond movies. Often include transnational casts and
Working Title are owned by Universal – often hard to identify as
‘British’ – much of the funding comes from abroad
• Large independent companies
• These produce or distribute - Vertigo, Warp, Momentum.
Although they are large they will still seek to co-finance films
• Small-scale self financed productions
• Often short films, the vast majority are financed personally – the
biggest independent festival in Britain is ‘Raindance’

32. Defining a British Film
• There are few well known ‘purely British’ films
• At what stage do we consider a film to be ‘British’?
• Are successes down to the British Film Industry or foreign
investment?
• Do we really have an ‘industry’?

33. British Film: How to compete
• Example Study: Vertigo Films
• Baring in mind some of the issues of British cinema, how might a British company like Vertigo
films ensure business success?
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBk8At1YfRI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO6JXIrLP0s&noredirect=1

34. Case Study: Vertigo Films
• Founded in 2001 by James Richardson and Allan Niblo
• Believed there was a gap in the market for commercial appealing
contemporary low-budget movies
• Films shot on High Definition Digital Video – crucial for keeping
budgets low
• “we are making films for an eight of what other people call
low budget”
• Outlaw - £2.5 million
• The Sweeney - £3 million
• Complex financing – secured backing from a range of investors (e.g.
Rockstar Games – Football Factory)
• Cast and crew paid low amounts upfront but would receive more if
the film was a success

35. BBC News
• “Vertigo Films was set up with the specific purpose of making
two low-budget, commercial British movies: The Football
Factory and It's All Gone Pete Tong. That goal has now been
achieved, but the company is already planning bigger and
better things.
• They make no bones about what they're aiming to achieve: a
conveyor belt that makes four movies a year and releases
another four under their own distribution company, and at the
kind of cost which most Hollywood studios spend on their
star's personal trainer.”

36. Plenary
• Name five things that you have taken from this session
• Consider how those five things may impact you as a
consumer of film