Exam Info

G322 Key Media Concepts (TV Drama)
2 h
Fri 23 May am

The Exam is made up of 2 Sections, with each section containing 1 question worth 50 marks.

How to launch a UK film

http://launchingfilms.info/

Working Title

Working Title

Working Title is funded (among other British film studios) by Universal Studios in America. This covers ownership; anything that Working Title does is given the all clear by Universal Studios.

Working Title is run by Tim Bevan – Google him to find out more

·                     The screenplay of a film is the ‘Bible’ of movie making.

·                     When developing the beginnings of a film, they must firstly approach multiple writers with the potential project.

·                     They must create a ‘package’. This consists of script, budget and cast.

·                     Along the way, the Marketing Department hint at good and bad ideas regarding promotion, and audience.

Piracy…

·                     One way of deterring piracy is promoting the appeal of cinemas, giving people a reason to go out and view films at a big theatre.

·                     Piracy is a large problem for Working Title in the DVD sales, therefore they believe that lowering the cost to a fair price would be a successful solution, making people to be more inclined to buy a DVD.

Challenges and Problems…

·                     Fact based films are the most difficult to create, as you must move through ‘a legal minefield’ in order to create a movie.

·                     Translating a novel onto the big screen is normally a gamble, as it is a challenge to create a strong and relevant narrative.

The Production Executive of Working Title is Sarah Jane Wright.

Sarah Jane Wright.

·                     One of the main tasks of the Producer is to break down the script and to work out an estimated cost for the potential movie.

·                     Monitor filming and production on a daily basis.

Film Budgeting…

·                     A film costing under 20 million gives you a 20% tax rebate in the UK, whereas the rebate in Hungry is 25%.

·                     Atonement cost around 17 million - cheap for a period drama.

·                     When deciding on the setting, location shooting is very much favoured, as construction is far more expensive. Atonement was all shot on location and in 62 days, probably the main reasons for it being so cheap to produce.

Problems and solutions…

·                     Studio space is very much a problem in the UK, there are few big film studios in the UK, whereas there are considerably more in the US.

·                     Studios are no longer favoring the genre of drama, so there is far less funding for these films. However upon the vast success of The Kings Speech, film producers are hoping that drama will become more popular again, and that there will be a boom in the market for film drama.

Introduction to Revision Blog

In one or more posts please complete the following.

Pls Define -

Distribution & Marketing

Exhibition

Exchange

Synergy

Vertical & Horizontal Integration

Media Convergence
Technological Convergence
A Mainstream Film
An Indie Film
Art House Film
Ratings Body

Viral Marketing

Guerrilla Marketing

Now post your initial Film Case Study and your overviews of Working Title and Film 4.

The areas covered in your case study

·                     Production (the decisions, issues and patterns in making a film with audiences in mind)

·                     Distribution and Marketing (how the campaign targeted audiences)

·                     Exhibition ( the theatrical, TV and DVD releases and again how audiences saw and reacted to the film )

·                     Exchange ( how the public use Web 2.0 digital technology to interact with the film, to post bits of the film on You Tube, create videos and blog sites about films, Twitter and discuss the film on Facebook, make pirate copies, file share, etc.)

Useful websites for researching Exhibition Audiences, Exchange issues for Case Study Films

These sites are great for establishing the relative success or failure of case study films at the box office. You can later make comparisons major US institutions and their films to judge the state of the UK film industry and the types of films it produces and for whom.

Try the UK Film Council's search engine. They are great for statistics including box office stats., etc.

http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org

Another useful site for stats and info. is IMDB. See their left hand columns after finding your institution's films. Search other parts of the site, too.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1478964/business?ref_=tt_ql_dt_4

Wikipedia has got to be a useful port of call for each part of your case study film and its institutions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_the_Block

Newspaper reviews are often crucial for discovering the reasons why a film succeeded or failed. Newspaper reviews are also a key source for finding out about box office statistics and comparisons with  other or previous films in the same genre:

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/may/12/attack-the-block-review

http://www.timeout.com/london/film/attack-the-block

Remember that DVD sales at Amazon (their rankings for the film's respective genres) is another indicator.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Attack-The-Block-Nick-Frost/dp/B004TQOVP6

Pearl and Dean - business section is really useful for statistics, target audiences, comparisons with films in the same genre, etc.

http://business.pearlanddean.com/

A Future For British Film: 'It begins with the audience': Report on the Film Policy Review Survey

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-future-for-british-film-it-begins-with-the-audience-report-on-the-film-policy-review-survey

Films you will be expected to have knowledge about

Attack The Block
The Inbetweeners
About Time
SkyFall and Bond Franchise
Heyday Films and Harry Potter Franchise/Gravity

Section B Institutions and Audiences

Section B Institutions and Audiences

What to include in your exam answer

You should collect notes, facts and quotes for Working Title, Film 4 and Warp Films making reference to films by both companies (we should aim to have two films per Production Company). You should be prepared to compare WT, F4 and WF in your exam answer stating differences/ similarities between them in Production/ Distribution/ Marketing/ Exhibition.

Production

• Who is responsible for production (companies, names, style of company etc.)?
• Type of institution (in line with the BFI categories)
• Money (funding, budget, overall expenditure, predicted revenue and revenue)
• Filming (how is it filmed in today’s ever changing media – cameras/ film reel/ HD, DV)
• Type of story (is it typical to the production company, what type of genre, does it fulfil a real representation of Britain?)
• Stars (celebrity, typical to that company)
• Directors (well known, unknown, style)

Distribution

·         Companies (who are they owned by, who are they associated with, how do they fit into the BFI categories)

·         Cinema (how is the film distributed to cinemas, what is the impact of digital technology?)

·         DVD/ BLU Ray (how are these distributed and by who, what is the impact of digital technology?)

·         Internet (what changes has this made to distribution)

·         Convergence (how does this affect distribution)

·         Piracy (how will digital technology impact on this, how does this affect distribution?)

Marketing

• Audience (this should be clearly researched – who is the target audience, what strategies to advertising companies use to reach audiences, how do audiences make decisions on the films they watch?)
• Synergy (what impact does this have on marketing of a film?)
• Advertising (how is a film advertised, what expense would be spent, what impact does advertising have on the success of a film?)
• Internet (how has digital technology changed the marketing of a product?)

Exhibition

• Digital Technology (how does this impact on the way we view a film- in cinemas and out?)
• 35mm film (who uses this to show a film and why?)
• Hollywood vs. British Film (what do people in the UK ultimately want to watch and why, what is the ratio of Brit to US films on offer at a cinema, how long is the run time of a Brit film compared to US?)

Working Title, Warp & Film 4 Case study

1. Audiences. Ownership and finance (who owns and pays for it?
2. Distribution. Who delivers it and in what form? The Future?
3. Broadcast, exhibition, - where is the product consumed?
4. Controls? Who decides?
5. Promotion and marketing. Who will do it?
6. Audiences. - Why?
7. Associated Directors/Actors/Actresses- Why? Who do they want to work with in the future?
8. Associated Genre/Narrative/Mise en scene? 
9. Biggest successes/Failures - Why?
10. Future films?

An Intro to British Film

Choose a contemporary British Film and answer the following question -

What makes a British Film 

Pls include reference to the -

Studio
Distributor
Narrative
Genre
Director
Actors

Pls also answer the following -

• What do you understand by ‘World Cinema’?
• What do you understand by ‘Indie Film’?

Audiences & Institutions - Film Industry Intro

The questions are very broad and can focus on one of the following areas:

1. Media Ownership (Media Conglomerates)
2. Synergy & Cross Media Convergence
3. New Media Technologies
4. The spread of technology
5. Technological Convergence (media gadgets)
6. Big industries targeting British audiences
7. Your media consumption

The exam board want to know what you understand about:

Media Institutions: Hollywood Studios (20^th Century Fox etc.), British Studios (Working Title + Warp Films etc).

Media Audiences: UK film viewers (either in cinemas, or via PC / TV / Phone etc)

Media Technology: Digital filmmaking (CGI, 3D, Imax, DV-Cams), Online Films (LoveFilm, iTunes, YouTube, piracy), Convergence (gadgets to watch films on)

Marketing Campaigns: How Studios advertise their films (Synergy, TV + Internet trailers, Print ads – newspapers, magazines, posters, Premieres, junkets, word of mouth, USP, merchandising etc).

ALL OF THE ABOVE NEED SPECIFIC EXAMPLES.

Examples of Previous questions

·         Discuss the issues raised by an institution’s need to target specific audiences within a media industry which you have studied.

·         “Media production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their services and products, to national audiences.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Deadline tonight :)

Please make sure you have submitted your blog by Midnight Monday. You must Email me your blogger xml file. You can email the file to either

Mr Ambrose - jambrose@beaverwood.co.uk
or
Beaverwoodmedia@gmail.com

To obtain your xml file and submit your blog, please follow these steps.....

1. Log in to your blogger account and go to your blog settings, by clicking on the drop down arrow next to your blog name and hitting settings...

2. Now select Other in the settings menu in the bottom right

3. Now select Export Blog and then hit download blog to download your blog

4. Finally email me your downloaded XML file....

If you have any questions please email Mr Ambrose asap