Case Study - The King's Speech.

The King's Speech is a British film about King George VI who reluctantly becomes King after his brother abdicated the throne. King George has a stammer and is consider unfit to be King, with the help of an unorthodox speech therapist, Lionel Logue, George is able to find his voice and lead Britain through the war.

Britishness
What makes a film British?
According to government in 2003 -
"Most people would define a ‘British’ film with reference to obvious cultural elements such as: a setting in the UK or a focus on British people abroad; a predominantly British cast; a
storyline about some aspect of British life (past, present or future) or notably by/based on a work by, a British author. The nationalities of scriptwriter, producer, director and, perhaps
especially, the ‘investment’ seem less obviously significant. However, both artistic and financial considerations serve to complicate this issue."

Things have changed since then, as now a British film does not have to be based on British culture or focus on British people e.g Slumdog Millionaire. What classes as a British film would have a predominantly British class but may have actors of other nationalities starring. The main body of the crew - producers, director would be British. Some of the production companies would be British however they might get the bulk of the budget from international production companies.

Surprising Box Office hit
It exceeded Momentum Picture's expectations when it gained £3.52 million on the opening weekend which is almost double the opening gross of Slumdog Millionaire at £1.83m, Atonement at £1.63m and Pride and Prejudice at £2.53m. 

It's appeal to a wider audience
The King's Speech is a very British film - it is about the royal family near the beginning of the Second World War - a time where the class system, that Britain is so well known for, was starting to break down and there was a bigger sense of national unity. The film represents this through the friendship George VI makes with a "commoner", Lionel Logue. The film has an appeal, not only to a British audience because it shows a story where the royal family are seen in private and are humanised by their troubles, but also to an international audience - members of the old British colonies in particular - because it shows a story where a "commoner" from the colonies develops a friendship with the King. This draws in a large audience from American who like their connection to the British monarchy and the idea that someone like them from a colony country could develop a friendship with a member of the royal family.

Reviews and the film's reception
Philip French of the Guardian gave it high praise and said that The King's Speech was "the work of highly talented artists who might be regarded as British realists" - the crew was made up of talented, experienced professionals that have worked in many other successful productions. He praises the film of not being triumphalist or sentimental and says that the film follows themes of courage, responsibility and duty over personal contentment - like popular films Casablanca and High Noon. He also says that it is more significant and ambitious than The Queen.

However, The Times says although it is great work there is still flaws to the film. "Hooper's framing and shot composition leave something to be desired" and that "Guy Pearce (who plays Edward VIII) is too young for the part and doesn't sound English at all. Timothy Spall as Churchill resembles a distended bulldog who's been chewing wasps, and that the characters of Helena Bonham Carter and Jennifer Ehle are under-used." However he does comment that although it is not as deep as it could be, it was enjoyable in seeing royalty humanised as in The Queen and The Young Victoria.

Other more critical reviews have criticised The King's Speech for making errors about the historical accuracy of some aspects of the film. For example the font used for the text in the BBC broadcasting room not being a font that was available til the 50's. The fact some women were shown wearing seamless stockings when they did not appear until later. Other continuity and editing errors were also pointed out where the King was shown throwing his speech then shown holding it in his hand the next shot.

Other than small criticisms of accuracy errors the film has mostly received praise and good reviews.

Award nominations and Oscars
It received nominations for 12 Oscars including best picture, best director, best supporting actor and actress, best screenplay, best editing, best art direction and costume. It won 4 Oscars for best picture, best director, best Actor (Colin Firth) and best original screenplay. It was also nominated for 14 BAFTAs of which it won 7. Mark Kemode comments that Oscar and BAFTA nominations and awards are often expected when playing a monarch for example with Judy Dench - Shakespeare in Love Helen Mirren - The Queen etc. and especially when the story is about humanising the monarchy.

Production Issues
The King's Speech is an excellent example of an indie film that can receive major global success without the help of a major Hollywood studio. See-Saw, a British/Australian company, financed and produced the film by getting deals with key distribution partners - The Weinstein Company (USA) Momentum Pictures (UK) Transmission (Australia) and Alliance Film (Canada).
See-Saw faced a big decision when Fox Searchlight showed an interest in The King's Speech but they wanted worldwide rights to the film. This meant they would have to cut other partners See-Saw chose to turn down Fox Searchlight and keep the original partners to keep the control in their hands.  
The Finance
Prescience saw the film's potential early on and became the key financier of the film. The Weinstein Company and Momentum Pictures were also large investors for the film. The UK Film Council gave See-Saw £1 million for the production. Together they created the budget of $12 million. 

Distribution and Marketing Issues

 
These posters use large bold text with simple messages to draw in the viewer. The poster with Geoffrey Rush uses words from reviews from various different sources. They used words have British connotations and link to the monarchy. "Majestic" and "Exquisite" suggests a royal, grand film. The poster directly addresses the audience when it says "fills you with joy" which encourages the viewer to go and see it. The Colin Firth poster is simpler - it uses God Save The King. The font and style is similar to the famous "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster which was first used around the time the film is set - which shows the context and attitude of period. The main information about the film's cast, release date and companies involved are placed at the bottom. The large image and text would draw the viewer in. The images of the characters are close up to make the viewer feel connected to the characters.

From the trailer the audience can understand more about the film genre and it's appeal.
The international trailer for The King's Speech:



The UK trailer:



The trailers differ slightly. The UK version shows Colin Firth's character more and shows the journey and struggle over coming his stammer but also his family troubles and concerns about the war with Germany. Whereas the US trailer focuses more on Geoffrey Rush's character and how he helps him overcome his speech problems. In both they use famous London landmarks e.g. St Paul's and Tower Bridge, also landmarks that are linked to royalty e.g. the Queen Victoria memorial statue. The UK trailer uses a well known quote from Shakespeare "some men are born great, others have greatness thrust upon them" this adds to the sense of Britishness in the trailer. In the Us trailer Helen Bonham Carter's character calls her husband the King rather than the Duke of York which is what she says in the UK trailer. The word King might mean more and give an international audience more understanding of his importance if they did not understand the monarchy/nobility system.

The various posters, trailer and film's synopsis all play an important part in the marketing of the film. The posters were placed everywhere; the sides of buses, billboards, bus stops etc. The idea of the posters is to grab people's attention, having them everywhere means people can't avoid them, which makes them want to watch the trailer and find out more about the film. The trailer then aims draw the audience in completely and to get them to see it. The film synopsis tells the audience enough about the film for them to understand what it is about but not too much to leave the audience wanting to find out more about the story and experience it themselves.

Major issues facing British Film Makers
According to King's Speech director, Tom Hooper, there has been a revolution in British film making due to the rise in digital technology. When he was younger digital technology was not available so he had to use film and could not afford to add sound so his films were silent. Today gadgets like iPhones etc have the ability to film in HD with sound so everyone has the opportunity to make a film. Digital is a lot cheaper way of film making however there hasn't been a reduced cost of marketing a film to the public. E.g. from The King's Speech budget of $15 million dollars it takes $25/30 million has to be spent marketing it to the US. Tom Hooper says that there is still a restriction to who can make a film that will reach everyone because even if you manage to make a film for nothing you still have to have millions of dollars to market it.

So despite the revolution the digital technology makes to the actual production of the film it has had little impact to the cost. He also mentions that the use of big name stars is a large part of the appeal to films and that also is very expensive. So although the digital revolution has change and given the British film industry opportunities film makers are still restricted by costs of marketing and distribution, and also the ability to make a film with wide appeal with blockbuster stars.