Production,distribution,exhibition an intro final for media
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Transcript of Production,distribution,exhibition an intro final for media
An Introduction to Film Production
Section B – The Film industry (Exam)
The basics….
The first three things you will need to know about are:
Production Distribution Exhibition
With your partner – discuss which aspects of the film industry you think these terms refer to.
The Chain
Production
Distribution
Exhibition
Production - The “Big Six” These six “majors” command approximately 90% of box office takings:
Paramount Pictures Universal 20th Century Fox Warner Bros. Pictures Walt Disney Columbia Pictures
They are part of vast conglomerates that are both vertically and horizontally integrated.
The “Indies”
Studios that work outside the major studio system are know as “independents” or “indies”
Summit Entertainment Film 4 Productions Icon Productions
The “mini-majors”
Some of the leading “independent” studios have come to be known as “mini-majors” these include studios such as:
DreamWorks The Weinstein Company Lions Gate Entertainment
The Chain
Production
Distribution
Exhibition
Vertical/Horizontal Integration
Production
Distribution
Exhibition Warner Village
Cinemas*
Warner Home Video
Warner Bros.
PicturesDC Comics Rock Steady
Games
Vertical Integratio
n
Horizontal Integratio
n
Research Task
Find out about one of the big six:
Who owns the studio?Do they have an “art house” branch?
Have they absorbed any smaller film studios?
Which other companies are owned by the same conglomerate?
Production
Refers to the making of the film:
Finding the idea Writing the script Pitching it to a studio Setting a budget Casting stars and employing a crew Filming Editing
Production – Investors
For a film to go into production it needs investors to provide the necessary funding.
Box office is success is never certain and so investors try to reduce the risk of losing their money by becoming involved in important decisions
Production – Investors
Key questions that they will ask are:
Is the film’s storyline similar to other films that have made money recently?
Does it offer easy selling points? Are there obvious marketing spin offs to give added publicity?
Is the star popular? Had the director had previous successes?
Production – Risks :
If the answer to any of theses questions is no then changes will be made to the “package” (the details of the film) to make sure all the answers are yes! Otherwise the investors will take their money else where.
Assess the level of risk for each of these films:
Wuthering Heights
Avengers Assemble
Production - Greenlit Before a director can start filming a film has to be
“greenlit” – this meaning that funding has been made available by the investors
At this stage a project will have most of the key elements such as:
Principle cast, Director Cinematographer Screenplay
It is the job of the producer to bring all of these elements together.
A Film “Franchise”
Why is a film franchise such an important asset to a studio?
Research Task Choose a popular film franchise and prepare a
comprehensive presentation that includes information such as:
Origins Acquisition of rights Products The studios and distribution companies involved Budgets Directors & Casts Marketing Strategies Box Office Figures Notable issues Future plans
Issues Surrounding Film Production: Watchmen
Film Rights When an existing story (book, play, comic) is made
into a film the “rights” have to be bought from the author – the product is their “intellectual property”
E.g. Warner Brothers bought the rights to make the first 4 Harry Potter for £ 1 million. (They bought the remaining 3 when the first had been a success.)
Film makes may “option” a script – meaning they only pay 10% of the fee and then pay the full amount if the project is “green lit” ( goes into production) .
There is normally a time limit on an “option” – usual two or three years. If the film isn’t made in this time the rights can be re-sold.
Film Rights Establishing who has the “rights” to make a film can result in a long legal battle and the delay of a film being made.
Case Study: Watchmen
Watchmen There have been numerous attempts to make a film
version of Watchmen since 1986, when producers Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver acquired film rights to the series for 20th Century Fox.
In 1991, Fox put the project into “turnaround” and was moved to Warner Bros.
A turnaround is an arrangement in the film industry, whereby the rights to a project one studio has developed are sold to another studio in exchange for the cost of development.
Watchmen Gilliam later abandoned the project because he decided that Watchmen would have been “un-filmable”. Subsequently it was dropped by Warner Bros.
In 2004 the film went to Paramount Pictures but again it was placed in turnaround when the lead director left to work on other projects.
In 2005 Lawrence Gordon took the film back to Warner Bros where it was eventually brought to life.
Watchmen 20th Century Fox filed a lawsuit to block the
film's release, stating that they still had the “rights” to the film and that L. Gordon was supposed to resubmit Watchmen to Fox every time he came up with a changed element.
Warner Bros fought this claim but eventually the studios eventually settled.
Fox received an upfront payment and a percentage of the worldwide gross from the film and all sequels and spin-offs in return.
The film was released to cinemas in March 2009 a year after the original release date.
Digital Production
What is a non-digital film? Traditionally films were made up
images printed on to acetate negatives.
These are then “spliced” together to form a reel of film.
These are then feed through a projector at a constant speed of 24 frames a second which makes the pictures appear to be moving.
This is known as analogue
Digital Cinema – Production Advantages of Digital
Production Digital camcorders using a high-
definition format called HD-CAM are much cheaper than standard film cameras.
New digital camera technology rivals traditional film for quality
High quality film production is now far more accessible to film makers outside of the major studios.
Digital Cinema – Production Digital technology can be store,
transmit and retrieve a huge amount of data exactly as it was originally recorded.
The quality of digital film does not deteriorate.
Analogue technology (film) loses information in transmission and generally degrades with each viewing
Digital Cinema – Production Memory Cards can be re-used many
times – unlike film
Footage can be viewed immediately on set
Production time is cut and so are costs
BY HOLLYWOOD STANDARDS DIGITAL VIDEO COSTS VIRTUALLY NOTHING
Digital Cinema – Production Digital information is a lot more flexible
than analogue information A computer can manipulate bytes of
data very easily Virtually no processing necessary before
the editing stage E.g. ease of editing using a program
such as Final Cut/AVID/Premiere This saves time and therefore saves
money.
Digital Cinema – Production Example: Attack of the Clones (The first digital
film) $16,000 on 220 hours of digital tape
Would have spent: $1.8million on 220 hours of film
Digital Cinema – DistributionAdvantages to Digital
Distribution Digital films are basically big
computer files Can be written to DVD-ROM Sent via broadband Transmitted via satellite Virtually no shipping costs Not much more expensive to show in
100 cinemas as 1
Digital Cinema – Distribution Film prints are very expensive (£1500-
£3000 per print) Expensive to ship heavy reels of film and
then to collect them when film finishes its run
Because of cost you have to very cautious about where films are played – unless it is a guaranteed hit it is a risk to send film to a lot of cinemas
Digital films can be opened simultaneously all over the world
Digitisation in UK 2000 - 2011
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 20110
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
3d screensdigital screens
Num
ber o
f UK
scre
ens
Digital Cinema – Exhibition A good analogue film projector
produces a clear, crisp vibrant image but every time the print is projected the film is damaged.
A digital projector produces a high quality image and sound every time.
The 1000th view is a good as the first!
A digital projector does not need a trained projectionist!
Digital Cinema – Exhibition Advantages to Digital Exhibition A digital projector does not need a
trained projectionist! With a film reel, once it begins playing it
can not be stopped. If there is a problem with the print it is very problematic to re-start the screening.
Cinemas are looking to run from “hubs” meaning the projection for each screen is centralised.
Digital Cinema – Exhibition Staff could be cut to a bare
minimum. According to Edward Fletcher (Soda
Distribution): ‘In place of the projectionist, you
could have one person in a business park in Stevenage sat in front of a bank of screens. That person could programme their entire group of cinemas by doing some drag-and-drops on a laptop’
Film Distribution
Distribution The distribution phase of the film industry
is a highly competitive business of launching and sustaining films in the “market place”
You must remember that the film industry is a business and the films are products to be marketed and sold.
Every film has its own distribution plan to ensure it reaches the right audiences.
Clip: Target Audience http://www.launchingfilms.tv/planning.php?video=2&autostart=1
Distribution Costs The distribution of
a film in the UK can cost any where between a few thousand pounds to 4 or 5 million!
Clip: P + A Budget http://www.launchingfilms.tv/planning.php?video=4&autostart=1
Release Date Release timing is critical in the film industry
There is significant “seasonality” in box office figures.
Major holidays such as Christmas, New Year Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving (US) Independence Day (US), the school holidays all play a role in the success of a film.
Clip: Competition http://www.launchingfilms.tv/planning.php?video
=3&autostart=1
Release Date Studios make and pre-announce the release
date decisions on a weekly basis. Film release dates can be announced years in
advance. Pre announcing dates in the film industry is a
bit of a game played by the studios. Dates will be announced and then shifted to
reflect various new additions to the calendar. Distributors have to position their films
carefully to avoid disastrous clashes.
Seven months before The Hunger Games was released Lionsgate announced the date for its sequel. Catching Fire will debut on 22nd November 2013
Here are the released scheduled for July 2014
On the website www.launchingfilms.com I can look ahead to March 2016!
The opening weekend
For a film the opening weekend is make or break!
If a film doesn’t make very much money on the opening weekend – on Monday cinemas will make the decision to remove it.
Clip: Opening Weekend http://www.launchingfilms.tv/licensin
g.php?video=2&autostart=1
Release Strategies
There are a number of different ways of releasing a film. Each has its pros and cons.
Films are released in “release windows".
This keeps different instances of a film from competing with each other.
Standard release
In the standard release, a film is first released in the cinema (theatrical window),
After approximately 16 and a half weeks, it is released to DVD (video window).
After an additional number of months (different for each film) it is released to Pay TV and On Demand services and
Simultaneous release
A simultaneous release takes place when a film is made available on many media (cinema, DVD, internet) at the same time or with very little difference in timing.
What are the pros and cons of a simultaneous release?
Consumers have more choice Producers only need one marketing campaign
Route Irish – Ken Loach The film was released on multiple platforms
on he 18th March 2011:
20+Cinemas Sky Movies Box Office Curzon On Demand.
It was the fourth collaboration between Artificial Eye and Sky, with previous simultaneous releases including Edge of Heaven, Julia, and Life During Wartime.
Straight-to-video release
A straight to video (DVD/BluRay) release occurs when a movie is released on home video formats without being released in cinemas first.
STV releases used to be seen as a sign of poor quality
Have become a more profitable option in recent years. Especially for independent moviemakers and companies.
Shrinking the theatrical window
Originally a six months duration Today’s theatrical window is usually around
four months. Studios have reportedly been pushing to shrink
the duration of the theatrical window. Cinema owners have fought fiercely against
this. Why do you think studios are
in favour but cinema chains are against shrinking the theatrical window?
Shrinking the theatrical window
Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland cause great controversy as Disney wanted to reduce the theatrical window to 12 weeks!
Odeon and VUE threatened to boycott the film!
Film Distribution: Marketing
Distribution In starting to plan a marketing campaign, the film
distributor has to decide how it will present a film to a potential audience.
They need to decide what sets this film apart from all the other films that are released – they look for a film’s ‘unique selling point’ (USP).
If, for example, the distributor is handling an adventure film, they will need to look for aspects of the film which set it aside from the other action adventure films.
Distribution - USP
What you think is the USP of each film?
The Kings Speech
Shaun of the Dead
Avengers Assemble
Distribution
After this they will look at such things as who stars in the film, are there new and spectacular special effects in the film and who is the director?
Taking all of these into consideration, the distributor will then decide which elements to stress in the marketing campaign (posters, trailers, etc.) i.e. how to position the film in the market place.
Distribution
Star Trek Selling Points
The passion & vision of JJ Abrams
“
A complete re-invention of an iconic
property
Completely new cast portraying much-loved characters
Supreme production values
* Quote from Paramount Star Trek Roadshow, 2008
Building the audienceIF this was just another Star Trek sequel, not the biggest blockbuster of the
summer 25+ male sci-fi fans (Trekkies)
Mean age = 42ABC1 skew
MarriedNo children in household
Love to buy new gadgets (199 index)Influenced by internet reviews (172
index)First place I look for info is internet (159
index)I am introverted (142 index)
Know what the Kobayashi Maru isSpeak fluent Klingon
Cringe whenever a red shirt enters the screen
NOT traditionally drivers of strong blockbuster
performance
Making Star Trek the Biggest Blockbuster
MINIMISE
LEGACY (STAR TREK)CONTEXT (SCI FI)
RETRO FEELINSULARITY (TREKKIES)
MAXIMISE
NEW CASTACTION/VISUAL EFFECTS
CUTTING EDGE COOLUBIQUITY
SPECTACLEGEEK FEST
JJ ABRAMS’ STAR TREK
Trailer Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=kHfbn8jtiBM
Marketing Independent FilmLOOKING FOR ERICA Case Study
STRENGTHSPEDIGREE OF DIRECTORBRITISHNESSHUMOURTHE FILM ITSELF
S.W.O.T
OPPORTUNITIES
ERIC CANTONA
MANCHESTER UNITED
CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
END OF FOOTBALL SEASON
GO WIDE
WEAKNESSES
GRITTY / LACK OF GLAMOUR
LOOKS LIKE A DOCUMENTARY?
WILL IT APPEAL TO WOMEN?
THREATS
TOO ASSOCIATED WITH FOOTBALL
ERIC CANTONA
COMPETITION – 44 INCH CHEST
A Ken Loach movie... A football movie... A romantic comedy... Or a quirky British comedy...?
Positioning. So, what is it?
A Ken Loach film…
A football film…
A romantic comedy…
A quirky British comedy…
Final Posters
Distribution - Marketing Marketing is one of the most important
aspects of a film’s distribution and there are many different ways to market a film.
Make a list of the different the ways you can market a film.
Posters Trailers Online and mobile content Special Screenings/Premieres Interviews/ articles Merchandising Festivals/ Awards
Distribution – Marketing -Task: www.launchingfilms.com/releasesche
dule Choose a film that has either been
released this week or is just about to be released.
Create a PowerPoint presentation that covers as much about the marketing strategy for that film as possible
Make a note of whether your chosen film is British or America
Record the name of the distribution company
Film Exhibition
Exhibition The cinema release of a film marks the final
stage of one part of a film’s journey from idea to audience.
After the cinema release, the film will then be available on several different formats.
Each of these “exhibitions” of the film offer the opportunity to generate profit.
List as many different ways to watch as film as you can.
Small Group Task
Make a poster displaying the pros and cons of a particular type of exhibition (watching a film).
You will present your findings to the rest of the group and as a class we will try to decide which way is the best.
The options are: Cinema (theatrical), Television (All types), DVD/BluRay, Online Service
The Film Value Chain
•Cinema
•DVD/BluRay/Downloads
•Subscription Television
•Free to air television
Key Questions
Of the “Film Value Chain” where do you think that films make the most money?
Why do you think this is?
Cinema – the first and the best way!There are several different types cinema :
Multiplex ImaxArt-house screens
Group Task
Cinema Chains:OdeonVUEEverymanCurzon EmpireCineworldPicturehouse (see printed sheet)
Changes in Exhibition
Using your research notes answer the following questions:
How does the range of “cinematic experiences” offered vary between the Odeon/VUE and Curzon/Everyman chains?
Do all cinemas within the same chain show the same films? If not why not?
Do you think all these cinema chains attract the same types audience? Why