FILM AS INDUSTRYAryanna Martin

FILM AS INDUSTRY

• Production, Distribution

and Exhibition

• Marketing

• Non theatrical Exhibition

Production

Scriptwriting and Funding• Producer: financial and

organizational• Screenwriter: prepare the

screenplay (or script)• As screenplay is being written

and rewritten, the producer is planning the film’s finances

Preparation Phase

• Preproduction: filmmakers prepare for physical production

• Several things are happening at the same time under the supervision of the director and producer.

• A writer may be revising the screenplay.

• A casting supervisor is searching out actors.

Shooting

• Shooting is known as principal photography.

• It is the entire process of making the film

Assembly

• Assembly phase is postproduction.

• It does not really begin after the shooting is finished.

• Postproduction staff members work behind the scenes throughout the shooting.

Artistic Implication of Production

• Every film is a compromise within constraints.

• These contraints pave way for innovation and creative choices

• By choosing within production constraints, filmmakers create film form and style.

Modes of Production

• Large-scale Production• Exploitation and Independent

Production• Small-scale Production

Large Scale Production• Filmmaking in studios• Studios are companies in the

business of manufacturing films.

• These companies owned equipment and extensive physical plants

• They retained most of their workers on long-term contracts.

Exploitation and Independent Production• Low-budget exploitation products • Tailored to a particular market-in

earlier decades, fringe theatres and drive-ins, video rental s and sales

• Exploitation films don't enter the theatrical market but independent films may.

• Filmmakers may have to finance the proj ectthemselves, with the help of relatives and friendly investors

Small-scale Production

• One person to do everything.• Plan the film, finance it, perform

in it, run the camera, record the sound, and put it all together

• Such films are seldom seen in commercial theatres

• they are central to experimental and documentary traditions.

Distribution

• Filmmakers need distribution companies to circulate their work

• Exhibitors need them to supply their screens

• Hollywood: Paramount, Warner Brothers, etc.

Distribution

• Provide mainstream entertainment around the world

• Advertise films, schedule releases , and arrange for prints to be made in local languages (either dubbing in the dialogue or adding subtitling)

• Can endure the risk of theatrical moviemaking

Distribution

• US: theater owners bid for each film a distributor releases

• Blindbooking: renting a film without even seeing it or before it has been completed

• Block booking: rent a package of films in order to get a few desirable items

Distribution

• Once the exhibitor has contracted to screen the film, the distributor can demand stiff terms.

• Distributor- minimum of 90 percent of the first week's gross, dropping gradually to 30 percent after several weeks.

Distribution

• Filmmakers get what is left after distribution fees and prints and advertising costs were deducted from the grosses.

• Out of the proceeds, the producer must pay all profit participants-the directors , actors, executives, and investors who have negotiated a share of the rental returns.

Distribution

• Producers wait to receive their share from video and other ancillary markets

• "first-dollar” participation- powerful actors’ and directors’ share will derive from the earliest money the picture returns to the distributor

Majors and Minors

• Major Distributors: Companies that produce and manufacture films while controlling subsidiary companieso Time Warner, Inc.

Majors and Minors

• Independent and overseas filmmakers: try to presell distribution rights in order to finance production.

• Specialized distributors acquire rights to foreign and independent films for rental to art cinemas, colleges, and museums .

Majors and Minors

• Multinational companies: bank financing, stock issues, and other sources of funding

• Media conglomerates can build synergy-the coordination of sectors within the company around a single piece of content, usually one that is "branded.“

• Every product promotes the others.

Majors and Minors

• Distributors release dates, make prints , and launch advertising campaigns

• Distribution is more efficient in big companies.

• Mass-market filmmaking: platforming and wide release

Majors and Minors

• Platforming: film opens first in a few big cities

• Accumulation of critical support and generate positive word-of-mouth (Brokeback Mountain)

• Wide release: film opens at the same time in many cities and towns

• Typical strategy of mainstream films (Harry Potter installment)

Majors and Minors

• opening wide helps recoup costs faster but it’s a gamble

• Distribution companies realized the risks of opening wide in the United States and then waiting weeks or months before opening overseas.

Selling the Film

• The distributor provides not only the movie but a publicity campaign.

• Trailer: single most effective piece of advertising

• Soundtrack albums • Onset interviews and talk

appearances• Special premieres

Selling the Film

• Electronic Press Kits (for journalists)

• Websites: plot information, star biographies, games, screen savers, and links to merchandise

Selling the Film

• Merchandising: a form of promotion that pays back its investment directly

• Manufacturing companies buy the rights to use the film's characters, title, or images on products

• Shrek clothing, games, lunchboxes.

Selling the Film

• Cross-promotion or Brand-partnering: allows a film and product line to be advertised simultaneously

Ancillary Markets

• When a film leaves theatrical exhibition, it lives on.• These typically return more money than the

theatrical release• Distribution companies carefully plan the timing of

their video release– airline flights --cable broadcast– hotel television systems --network

broadcast– pay-per-view television --cable reruns.– DVD release

Ancillary Markets

• Cyberspace: Video on demand promises huge profits and can limit consumers ' access by blocking copying

• Google Video Store and YouTube- citizen filmmaking

• Allow anyone to upload a video• Open room for innovative work

Ancillary Markets

• Cyberspace: Video on demand promises huge profits and can limit consumers ' access by blocking copying

• Google Video Store and YouTube- citizen filmmaking

• Allow anyone to upload a video• Open room for innovative work

Ancillary Markets

• Paperback novels• Themeparks• Video Games

Ancillary Markets

• With the rise o f digital distribution and the boom in ancillary markets, the conglomerates police their products vigilantly.

• Alert for piracy• Cable tv, Internet and DVD provide

more money out of movies yet still bring about piracy.

Nontheatrical Exhibition

• Includes all other presentations, such as home video, cable and satellite transmissions, and screenings in schools and colleges

• fiction films, documentaries, and experimental works

• Kino: allow filmmakers total freedom of content, an audience for their short films, and a network of like-minded colleagues who encourage them to make more films.

Nontheatrical Exhibition

• Already driven by a digital technology, the DVD• Portable, took up less storagespace than a VHS tape,

and offered good picture and sound quality• Widely available• Commercial theaters began competing home

theaters, video games , and Internet entertainment.• Windows: time between a film ' s theatrical release

and its release on DVD and other platformso IMAX, 3D

• DVDs were easy to copy and manufacture in bulk.

Artistic Implications of Distribution and Execution

• ways in which movies are circulated and shown can affect viewers ' experiences

• Video distribution and exhibition have created new choices in the realm of storytelling– With videotape, and especially DVD, viewers can

pore over a film– Some interactive DVD movies permit the viewers

to choose how the plot develops

Artistic Implications of Distribution and Execution

• Variations in the narrative form can take place esp. in the Internet

• Marketing and merchandising can extend a theatrical film's story in intriguing ways

• Style can be affected by distribution and exhibition, as is evident in image size

• Technology and exhibition circumstances have created stylistic constraints

Artistic Implications of Distribution and Execution

• Letterboxed: Dark bands at the top and bottom of the screen approximate the film’s theatrical proportions

• Product placements offer some artistic opportunities

PRODUCTION CONTEXTS

PRODUCTION CONTEXTS

• Mainstream Filmmaking

• Independent Filmmaking

Mainstream Filmmaking

• Feature-length narrative films created for entertainment and profit

• Usually associated with ‘Hollywood’, regardless of where the film is made

Independent Filmmaking

• A production realised outside one of the majors

• May be divided into two areas:o Independent Mainstream- aims to

compete with the big studios but without any large financial backing, and thus finds it difficult to survive

o Used to describe film-making outside the mainstream sector (film workshops, avant-garde film, feminist film)

SOURCES

Bordwell, D. & Thompson, K. (2008). Film

Art: An Introduction (8th ed.). New

York: McGraw-Hill.

Nelmes, J. An Introduction to Film Studies

(3rd ed.). London: Routledge