Wednesday, 2 December 2009

Differences

The Digital Screen Network is a £12 million scheme, funded by the National Lottery, It has installed to 240 screens in 212 cinemas with state of the art digital projection facilities. As a result, viewers will be able to enjoy a wider range of films at their local cinema.

In return for the new technology, cinemas will show more specialised films including British films such as Control and Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten. films such as Black Gold; classics including Casablanca.

In 2005, around £300 million was spent on distributing and marketing all cinema releases in the UK but only £18 million, was spent on specialised films. The introduction of digital distribution will mean that films such as these will reach around 30 million people throughout the UK with an increase in specialised film screenings of up to 75,000 in the first year alone, rising to 165,000 in four years from now.

In contrast to this independent film companies have much less means of advertising and exhibitions compared to the mainstream films.

ways in which u.k film council is making independant films more accessable to the audience

The first way in which they make non-mainstream films more accessable is by improving access to the films. They do this by digital screening that shows non-mainstream films regularly. The second way in which they do this is by raising the awareness of these non-mainstream films. They spend araound 4 million pounds a year on advertising non-mainstream films, ususally on advertisements and billboards. Finally they also increase information about these independant films, by using such things as websites.

Monday, 23 November 2009




I really like this picture, i think it looks really interesting and love how Mario has been incoporated into it. I think something like this would be really hard to do for my magazine but i would like to try an incorporate some aspect of it into it. i love the idea of having cartoons or something along them lines in my magazine, i think it would stand out from the rest.

Distribution and licensing

Distribution: This is about keeping films 'alive' and in the public eye, as well as when released on dvd. New films are generally released on fridays, as scheduled by the Film Distributor Association. Distributors try to find 'light' weeks, where there is no competing films released and not too much competition in that week.
Logistics is also about the organisation of a film, this tends to be more important in independant films as they have less money to spend. Hollywood films tend to have about 1000 prints which are sent to different countries and distributed themselves. Independent film companies, in contrast, would have about 10 prints. Howver, grants are available, for example the film This Is England got a grant from the national lottery and so could afford to buy another 20. Most films are made in 35 mm prints, which would typically cost about 1000 pounds per film and double if the film has subtitles. Each reel lasts abut twenty minutes, and on average there are about 6 reels in a movie. Cinema companies wouldn't buy these, they would be rented from film producers. This could be described as the third link in the supply chain - distributing. Distribution is most successful when 'vertically integrated', where the three stages in the supply chain are seen as part of the same process or company.
Digital Distribution is basically using things digitally or downloading/streaming via internet. This is cheaper,as there is no need for physical manufacturing. This is better for the consumer as it is easier and cheaper, however, this is also very detrimental to film companies and therefore damaging to the very cinema experience itself.
Licensing is the process by which the distributor gets the legal right to exploit a film. U.S. films have their own distributors in the 90+ market territories throughout the world. Independent companies, again in contrast, have to sell their licenses to independent distributors.

Thursday, 29 October 2009

Working Title and Warp films

1. Who are working title?

Working title are a middle budget film company which make small to medium budget film.

Who are warp films?

Warp films are a small budget film company which make short low budget films.

Are they independent or part of a conglomerate?

Both are independent film companies.


2. How does the ownership of the company affect the budgets for film?

The bigger companies invest more money in the film’s therefore the film’s have better special effects, actors, props, etc. The more money a company invests usually means that the film is a hit or popular. Whereas smaller companies don’t have as much money to invest in films this causes the props, actors, special effects etc won’t be as good.

3. Create a list of films that both institutions have produced.

Atonement This is England
Billy Elliott Window licker
Wimbledon Dead mans shoes
Nanny Mcphee
Bridget Jones

4. Choose one from each list and compare the budgets for these films and how much they made.

Billy Eliot’s budget was $5,000,000 the profit was $109,280,263, whereas the budget for This is England was £1,500,000, and the profit was £4,914,209.

5. Now choose a Hollywood Blockbuster and research the budget.

We chose the film Transformers 2, and the film was given a $200 million budget, which was $50 million more than the 2007 film.


6. Where do Working Title and Warp Films get their funding from?
Working title gets it’s funding from Nesta, Warp films get there funding from the lottery.

7. In the case of Warp Films, how does the budget affect the genre they use?

They generally choose to create comedy or horror films as their is less risk of the film failing, as comedy and horror’s are easier to sell.

8. What is the main appeal of this genre? Give examples.
The appeal of these genres is that they provoke a reaction from the audience therefore they are easier to sell. Also they provide a better form of escapism.
9. Who are the target audience for Working Title and Warp Films?

The target audience for working title and warp films are tent pole; this means that they try to attract a variety of audience. They do this by having a variety of actors with different ages, sex etc.

10. What is the main genre of the films Working Title produce?
The main genres of working title are mainly big Hollywood films with well known actors.

Tuesday, 13 October 2009

Preliminary Task Evaluation Questions

1) I worked with Josh Nwaozuzu on this project. We tried to share the work out evenly, making the decisons together, getting the camera etc.

2) We planned out our sequence with a storyboard that we designed in class before we did any filming, this way it makes it easier and faster for us to film. The inspiration for it came from a few examples we had seen and abit of our own imagination.

3) To fully complete this task, we had to use various technology. The video camera being the ovbious one and we also used iMovie on the Mac's. It's good fun to use as you can do almost anything editing wise.

4) Some of the things we had to think about before shooting was, who was going to be in the clip, where abouts we would film, what camera angles and dialogue would be used and at the final editing stages we had to make sure we had good continuity to make the whole thing run smoothly.

5) Our sequence was reasonably succesful considering that we shot it in a very short amount of time as the first time we shot, the tape had dropouts and didnt work properly. Next time we would make sure we have a working tape, and check to make sure we had the footage after each shot. However me and Josh worked well together and i think were a good team.

6) Now we have completed our first sequence, i can how things need to be done. Planning is very important and so is the person you work with, these two things have a big influence on how well you do in my opinion.

Wednesday, 23 September 2009