Ownership.

Convergence/cross media - Two or more types of media coming together e.g. Kick Ass - comic & film, TRON - Daft Punk soundtrack

Synergy - Different elements of a company working together to promote related products e.g. The Boat That Rocked soundtrack & film, Paramount Pictures, Film 4

Concentration of media ownership - The process by which an increasingly smaller number of companies own most media outlets e.g Big 6 Studios

Cross-media ownership - When a company which produces two or more types of media

Conglomerate - A large parent company which owns a range of smaller companies

Subsidiary - Smaller companies owned by a parent company

Oligopoly - When the market is dominated by a smaller number of companies

The Big Six film studios dominates the US film industry: (largest to 6th largest)

• Walt Disney Pictures
• Universal Pictures
• 20th Century Fox
• Paramount
• Columbia Pictures
• Warner Brothers

Together they control 90% of media.

Implications of this ownership structure

• US domination is crushing British film industry
• Everyone else potentially can only make indie/niche films as they don't have the money to make films with wide appeal/ 4 quadrant pictures

Film market in the UK is dominated by US products.

18 out of the top 20 most successful films at the UK Box Office were made by the Big 6 Studios.
75% of the total UK Box Office is accounted for by US films.

Institutions used in British Film Industry:

• Independent companies
• TV
• Government bodies - UK Film Council
• Co-productions with Hollywood Studios

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.

Film Marketing.

The marketing campaign is the most expensive part.

• Posters/adverts in newspapers/TV/trailers
• New technologies - internet/websites
• Viral - quirky/odd
• Synergies - gets other companies/products involved
• Above the line/ Below the line

Independent distributors in particular don't have press departments and will hire a press agency to run a pre-release campaign.

Distributors will consider the use of advance public screenings to create word-of-mouth and an advance buzz about a film.

Film Distribution.

The film distributor is responsible for releasing a film for public viewing either theatrically or for home viewing (TV/DVD/download etc)
A distributor might do this by directly distributing the film to their own theatres or they can send it to sub-distributors. If the distributors is working with a theatrical exhibitor the distributor will write a contract to say how much the exhibitor will pay them from the gross ticket sales. After the distributor gets their shares in the gross ticket sales they transmit the remainder of the profit to the production company.

Vertical Integration Distribution:
The stages of production and distribution are done by the same company e.g. large Hollywood production companies can afford and have the resources to do this

Horizontal Distribution:
One company produces the film then has another distribute the film. This allows the companies to share the risk of failure and if the film is a failure then it is less of a loss for the companies. This is done by the distributor acquiring the legal rights to show the film from the producers. British productions use this method. Independent producers have to sell their films to different distributors in each territory.

Local distributors only work in their country and will share the profits made in that country with the film maker. There are 90+ territories worldwide.

How are films usually launched?
Scheduling - Often come out on a Friday as it is the end of the week so children and adults will have the time to visit the cinema.
Film Distribution Association - work out how and when the film should be launched Seasonality, light weekends and other releases are considered before they agree on a time for the film to be launched to ensure optimum success.

There is usually about 10 releases in a week.

Prints - (old way of distributing film)
Independent/ specialised films made about 10 prints or less of a film and toured it over 6 month period to all areas around the UK. Mainstream films had about 200+ prints made which would be simultaneously shown in all major UK cities. Transportation around the world was expensive and difficult. The prints had to be hired by the exhibitor, they were easily damaged and expensive to store as they had to kept at a certain temperature and condition.

The success or failure of a cinema release determines when and how the DVD/ TV releases will happen.

5 major distributors will account for 90% of box office.

Wide Release - used for US major distributors/ films need £2 million+ to make a wide release. This type of release requires heavy investment in prints and national advertising. The producers and distributors can recuperate their investment quicker. Also the revenues from the DVD sales can be gained faster from a quickly-executed theatrical release. The shorter the time period between the theatrical release and the DVD release, the greater the potential for DVD income.
Modified Wide Release - The film will open in a few major markets and expand week by week to build up awareness and allow positive word-of-mouth reputation to develop. This type of release would initially be supported spot advertising in a certain area e.g. one city. It may then move to national advertising once it expands to other markets.

Exclusive and Limited Runs - Exclusive and limited runs begin with engagements at a limited number of screens, traditionally in large urban areas e.g. Toronto. Based on favourable reviews and positive word-of-mouth depends on whether or not the film will move to additional theatres. This release is usually used for upscale "art-house" or foreign films and may be part of a platforming strategy where critical acclaim in an important market will assist in providing momentum for a wide release.

Territorial Saturation - Territorial saturation involves saturating a territory with bookings, heavy advertising and promotion before moving on to another territory. This method would be used for films tailored to specific markets. In Canada this would be seen with French-language films, which primarily would be well-received only in Quebec. It is also used by independent distributors for exploitation or family movies.

Universal Release - The film is released in several countries on the same day. For instance a major blockbuster is sometimes released in the USA and the UK on the same date.

Digital Distribution - quicker/cheaper/gets straight to the audience who want to see it. Independent productions use this method. The main attraction to this type of distribution is the way it can get directly to the audience with minimum business overheads involved which makes it cheaper for the consumer. It has been blamed for media stores having to close down. DSN (Digital Screen Network) sites supports new facilities in 211 screens across the country (out of 33,000). This is a small but important step of change towards full digital cinema.

49% of all DVD rentals are now generated online.

Only Showcase remains in American hands but all the other chains are deeply committed to distributing American films.

How film makes its money back:
Promotional screens -> Cinema -> Hospitality (planes/hotels) -> DVD rental -> Pay TV/VOD -> DVD retail -> Free TV -> Library

Digital distribution is changing this order because it allows it to go straight from cinema to DVD retail, Pay TV and download at the same time.
A film recuperates most of its budget through DVD sales. From 40% of DVD sales 75% is from Retail and 25% is from Rental. 28% is made from TV, 25% from Cinema profits and 7% from other sources.
The more times and places a film is exhibited the move money it generates. There are around 45 international areas in which the rights to exhibit films are regularly traded. 20 major international marketplaces: Sundance - Utah, Cannes - France, Toronto Festival - Canada

Sales agents for film rights tend to use the same set of generic internal percentage to make estimates as to how a film will sell internationally.
Europe - 39%
North America - 33%
Far East - 16%
Latin America - 4%
Other - 9%


A film exhibition sale is generally a 75-25 split between a vendor (cinema/retailer/TV channel) and a distributor - who deducts 35% commission and costs "off the top".

Royalty Model - Distributor pay the producer a 35% royalty of the profits made

"Off the top" Model - Distributor takes 35% commissions + 25% of costs.

Cinema hasn't been seriously affected by the recession. As people still want to see films and go out for the cinema experience. The high months are May, July, August and Jan/Feb

40% of independent British films never gross more than 100k at the box office as opening in over 100 screens significantly increases the cost.

DVD Sales
Audio-video specialists - 35%
Supermarkets - 23%
Generalists - 18%
Mail order - 15%
Wholesalers - 9%
Supermarkets have come to dominate DVD sales pushing the average retail price of DVD to £7.42.
Pay-per-View & VOD tend to be more profitable as the costs of sale are born by the TV platform.
Subscription & free TV fired-fee licensing deals depend on the performance history of the film.
Producer - 60%
Distributor - 40%

Recoupment is organised into a corridor and made from a central collection account.

Kick Ass.

Mark Millar was the executive producer. He had previous produced Wanted but in this film he got more involved in the post-production work like casting, drafting the script, costume, sets and location. He was also involved during filming, which took 14 weeks, 14 hours a day. The film was based on the Marvel Comic, Kick-Ass, which was written by Mark Millar. Millar started writting the comics in 2008 but the last comic of the series came out just before the film came out.

There were some problems with script, Mark Millar and Matthew Vaughan, the director, disagreed on the way it should end. Matthew Vaughan wanted to have a happy ending where the boy gets the girl, however Mark Millar had written a different ending for the comic where the boy doesn't get the girl. Another problem they had was they couldn't even afford a C-grade Marvel comic character so they had to release the film around the same time the last comic was released. Matthew Vaughan had a huge problem in finding people to finance his film because it was about a C-grade Marvel character, so he decided to raise the $30 million that was needed himself.

Matthew Vaughan said "I think that the British Film Industry has the potential to be the biggest and best film industry because we have the best actors, directors,studios and production crew the only thing we don't have is the money. We should stop being service providers" He says that British directors tend to make arthouse films because they have failed to make it big in Hollywood. He thinks that if "greedy" directors and actors didn't ask for large amounts of money up front and took a smaller salary it would give the industry a chance to grow.

Matthew Vaughan saved money in production by shooting in London rather than having to deal with the difficulties of transporting sets etc to Manhattan, where the film is set. They did a lot of the action scenes in Estree Studios with large green screens, high-resolution images of Manhattan was then added later using Media Composer program. The SpectraMatte feature can adjust details to make the backdrop look very realistic. Matthew Vaughan wanted to get high quality recordings of the original production sound so the actors didn't have to re-create the emotion later. He used multiple radio and boom mics, the audio was then imported onto Pro Tools program and edited.

The film was rated a 15 which may not have helped the box office sales because the target audience was meant to be young teenage boys who are into the superhero genre. However, Matthew Vaughan was not surprised at the rating and had ignored suggestions from Sony, the distributors, to tone down the language.

There was a lot controversy surrounding the film, some objected to the 11-year old girl using strong lanuage, also the strong theme of violence throughout the film. However, this did not effect the success of the film as much as it could have. Usually protests against that kind of thing would boost sales because it promotes awareness of the film and people want to see what the fuss is about for themselves. However, the main controversy talks came from the filmmakers themselves in a bid to increase promotion, and no large scale organisations made publicized protests so the controversy didn't really effect the box office sales.

The soundtrack used a lot of well-known songs and artists, like Elvis, a cover of Bad Reputation (although in the film Joan Jett's version was used) The Prodigy, Ellie Goulding and The Pretty Reckless. Some critised the use of well-known and "overused" songs as distracting. "Kick-Ass is let down by a soundtrack with too much baggage of its own"

American and British Film Production Essay.

American and British Film Production Essay

British and American Film Industry.

To qualify as a British film the needs to meet three of the following six criteria:

• A British director
• A British producer
• Predominantly British cast
• British production company
• Subject matter that informs on the British experience
• British identity defined by the BFI in Sight and Sound

Co-productions with British input are often classed as British films.

BBFC - An independant, non-governmental body which classifies and censors film, video as well as computer and console - based games released in the UK.

British Council - The official UK agency for international cultural relations. Its film department promotes new British film internationally principally through festivals and showcases.

BFI - Aims to support, develop and promote the art forms of moving image.

UK Film Council - Promotes understanding and appreciation of Britain's rich film and TV heritage and culture.

British Film Council - Government backed agency for film in the UK ensuring that the econmoic, cultural and educational aspects of film are effectively represented at home and abroad.

What do the British Box Office figures tell us about the British Film Industry?
It shows that American films are more popular in Britain than British films. Due Date, Jackass 3D, Saw 3D and Paranormal Activity 2 are some of the most popular films at the moment. This is slightly unusual as they are not four-quadrant pictures however they are sequels of popular films which would have drawn people in. This shows that the British Film Industry produce more specialised/ niche films which don't appeal to wider and larger audiences which is why they get low box office figures both in the UK and the US.

What do stars bring to a film? Why do producers use certain stars?

• Guaranteed sales - good box office figures
• Brings in their fans
• Narrative image - star persona/ typecast
• Interest and attention from the press = publicity
• Expectations of genre
• Used as main market feature

How much do you agree with this statement "Hollywood films have movie stars, That's why they are more appealing to UK audiences that UK films"
I partly agree with this because Due Date, the highest grossing film in the Box Office at the moment starred Robert Downey Jr. who would attract fans of action films and it might appeal to some women as he is considered to be an attractive actor. Also Zach Galifianakis is a comic actor and would attract audiences who enjoyed The Hangover. Movie stars are often very successful at attract an audience to a film which they might not otherwise see. An example of this would be Valkyrie which is about the final assassination attempts on Hitler's life a story which is unlikely to have a wide appeal. It was a drama rather than an action film which would have appealed even less to some however the appearance of Tom Cruise boosted the box office figures to over $200 million which is unlikely to have been the case if there had ont been a very popular movie star cast as  the main character. 

However Hollywood films do well without having well-known movie stars for example Saw 3D and Paranormal Activity 2 did not star well-known actors but came 4th and 5th in the UK Box Office which suggest that audiences don't watch a movie just for the stars. The movies' genre might go some way to explain why these films did so well because the appeal of horror/thriller films is the special effects, the plot and how the fear is portrayed rather than who is playing the main characters. So I disagree that the movie stars is the only reason Hollywood films do better than UK films. I think the budget available for the films is another reason why UK films don't do as well. Hollywood films have major production companies behind them who can afford to spend money on special effects, CGI etc that makes films, especially action and fantasy/sci-fi films so successful. Whereas British film companies often don't have enough money to use a lot of special effects which makes action films so appealing to worldwide audiences.

Overall I agree that Hollywood films with movie stars are more appealing to worldwide audiences than UK films however in some cases the film can carry itself without a star in the lead role. Other factors which lead to Hollywood films having more appeal than UK films would be their higher budgets which often results in better quality and more special effects which hold a wide appeal for many different film genres.

Would the world be different if we relied only on the US film industry?

• US films about wealth/money
• White male dominance
• Foreigners/English are the bad guys
• Women are represented as skinny/ petit/ blonde/ lacking intelligence/ vulnerable

Hypodermic model - The audience is passive and are injected with ideas and beliefs by what they see.

If only American films were available we would lose British identity/culture. British Film Council offer grants to film makers to keep British culture "alive".