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