Homework - Film Industry

During pre-production, the production is broken down into scenes andlocations, props, cast members, costumes, special effects and visual effects . The script is written at this stage. 

 

 Production is the stage at which all the filming is carried out. All scenes planned out in pre-production are filmed at the decided locations. It is sometimes difficult or impossible to go back and repeat certain events if the filming is incomplete when it comes to the post-production stage.

 Distribution is about releasing and sustaining films in the market place.  In the UK, distribution is very much focused on marketing  a global product in local markets. 

















 

They market films online through social media, bus poster campaigns and television and cinema trailers/adverts.

Karate Kid Swede

Different aspects of the film chain.

Film Production

After a script is developed, a film gets made in the following order:

Pre –Production

•   Director and main cast is confirmed to secure the finance
• The script is broken down into individual scenes
•  Location, Cast members, Props, Costumes, Special effects, Special effects and visual effects are identified.
• A detailed schedule is produced
• Arrangements are made for the necessary elements and people to be available at the appropriate times.
•  The director, producer and line producer finalises the script and schedule.

Production

• filming is carried out
• Scenes are filmed multiple times to gain the best quality for the film
• It is now no longer financially viable to cancel the project even if they want to, as it would be too expensive to stop.

Post –Production

• This is where the film is assembled together
• A rough cut is built up from the sequences /scenes based on the best individual shots
• A fine cut is then produced from this, where all the shots flow smoothly
• This is when the editing of the footage proceeds (Music, sound track, Graphics, Menus ETC)
• At the end the director, producers and financiers approve the cut and the film is locked- meaning that it can not be edited further

 

The main producers of Hollywood films are …

§  Jerry Brucheimer who produced Pirates of the Caribbean.

§  Brian Grazer producer of American Gangster and 24

§  Tyler Perry Producer of the Madea Films

§  Michael Mann producer of Heat

§  Barbra Broccoli Producer of the Bond movies

§  Karen Rosenfelt producer of The Devil wears Prada and The Twilight movies

 

Main Studios

• Warner Bros Entertainment created by Sam and Albert Warner
• Walt Disney Studios created by Walt Disney
•  Fox filmed Entertainment created by William Fox
• Sony pictures studio created by Harry and Jack Cohn with Joe Brandt

 The ownership of a studio would have an impact on what they makes depending on type of films they are known for making /or have had success making. For instance Disney makes animations and family films. Where as other countries concentrate on the horror genre or action.

An independent production is where a filmmaker is able to keep more creative, artistic and editorial control. Finance is raised from sources other than one of the main studios and sales and an independent/smaller company, such as Lionsgate and Pathe in the Uk, normally does distribution for them.

               

Film Distribution

Film distribution is making a movie accessible for viewing by an audience. A professional film distributor will determine the marketing strategy for a film, the media by which a film is to be exhibited or made available for viewing. A company or individual responsible for marketing a film is the distributer, and the film producer will present a film to a sales company who will then sell it to different distributers around the world.

There are many different ways in which you can distribute a film. Traditional ways used to be packaging films with travelogues, comedy sketches and cartoons. However now there are more modern ways to distribute a film like financing prints and advertisement. Promoting the films release dates-creating hype, organizing partnerships, public relations and sending publicity materials to the exhibitors. Further they would book negotiations with exhibitors.

Why is it essential to have a distributer present when creating a film?

•   You need one to help market your film.
• They will know when is the best time during the year to release your film.
• Normally distributers have their own theatres and film distribution networks.
• If a film can’t secure a distributer then the film might not get the maximum amount of marketing that they could get.

A film festival is an organized presentation of film in one or more cinemas or screening venues. Sometimes showing specific genres and either recent date films or old films.  These film festivals help with film distribution as they give them publicity in the country the festival is showing, and to get it distribution if it doesn’t already have it. Further if the film wins a prize it gets film credibility, publicity and sometimes money.

The things that might make a distributer release a film on a particular weekend would be …

• Season – as if the film is based on a particular time of the year e.g. A Christmas story would not be released on Halloween or Valentine's Day.
• Buzz- If the film has unknown cast member or hasn’t been advertised as much then it would be best to release it on a holiday so people wouldn’t have to go out of there way and make time during the week to see the film.
• Block buster e.g. action/big budget films tend to get shown during the summer months.
•  Star Power- having movie stars present in your film will create a much bigger fan base and help make it become popular, so particular dates wouldn’t be as important because you know that people will want to see it.

Film Marketing

Marketing is the business of promoting and selling products and services, involving market research and advertising. Marketing differs from distribution as marketing is when you someone takes an idea and spreads knowledge of the film round the world, while a distributer will build a channel that they will have control over and then use the channel; to connect things to people.

Different types of marketing for films would be…

•  Promotional tour 
• Merchandising
• Posters on buses, magazines etc.
• Trailers
• Sound track
• Website
• Competitions
• Cross Media marketing
•  Facebook pages

  

Way’s in which distributers could promote the film would be…

§  By changing the language of the film as a whole or just adding on sub-titles for different territories.

§  They can promote it by using never before seen trailers

§  Behind the scenes clips showing how they made the special effects

§  Magazine articles

§  They can use electronic press kit that can show what the actors thought of making the film, or if there is a female lead how to get her wardrobe style.

12 years of slave’s -when it was being promoted in Italy they changed the poster of the film predominantly featuring the film's white male stars, Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender, instead of the black actors who are the actual lead Chiwetel Ejiofor. They did this because they have found that Italian people are less likely to watch a film if it has a black male lead. The Italian distributor of the film had to apologize for the promotional posters.

  

 

                   

Film Exhibition

Different ways in which we get to view films would be …

• Cinema
• DVD
• Video on demand (VOD)
•  Tablet
• On the internet

Who receives the money from a successful film?

• The film distributer
• Cinema
• Financiers
• Key creative-the writer, director, producer and sometimes the lead actors

The box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. The owner of the venue will then give the distributer  the box office grosses (income figure), referring to the total gross of tickets sold for a particular movie.

How do cinemas make their money…

• Movie tickets
• Concessions-pop corn etc.
• On screen advertisement

What do cinemas do to attract people to go rather then watch films at home …

• Bigger screens
•  Ticket and concession deals
• Better seating
• Surround sound
• Some cinemas have become upmarket with luxury seating and services e.g. restaurant quality food and drinks brought to your seat.

Ancillary markets are non-theatrical markets for feature films for example home video, television and Internet streaming. These enable exhibition of a film outside of /after a films release at cinema and they give the film an extra stream of income.

BFI

The BFI is the British Film Institution, it exists to promote greater understanding and appreciation and give access to films, especially independent films and moving image culture in the UK. Further they do audience development   work to encourage people to watch a wider variation of films like foreign and older movies. E.g. they take films into schools and community centers. The BFI is also required to support film development, production, archive work and distribution in the UK and it also helps to promote wider audience participation.