“It is not the film industry; it the film business.” (Eric Fellner)
Using detailed examples from your case studies discuss the issues and patterns which enables your institution to thrive as a film business. (Chosen institution: Channel 4/ Film 4)
Channel 4 became the fourth ever channel to be on British television in 1982. The difference between Channel 4 and the other three channels at the time was that it brought something different to the table. Channel four was making unique, interesting and enjoyable programs and movies compared to the BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. Because of this Channel became more popular and wealthy, so they started to create more and more movies, but the smart thing channel 4 did and still does is try not to waist or overdo there budget on making a film, they keep it as minimal as it can be which is hard in the film industry as you end up spending millions. Although they don’t overdo there budget does not mean the
y make bad quality films, channel 4 thinks very carefully on what the film is going to be like and the outcome of the film. For the outcome of the film to be good and successful so that they make profit there are issues and patterns that Channel 4 have to think about and follow so they can thrive as a film business. They have to choose the Writer, Producer, the Casting, the Budget, Location and many more, all these decisions
thought through carefully can make them a lot of profit and thrive in the film business.
The first of many issues that enable C4 to t
hrive as a film business is choosing the right writer to create a film. Choosing a writer is the first step of the process of creating a film and it is called the Development stage. This stage is as important as all the other stages, if not it is
more important because it may or may not be the introduction and beginning to a great and successful film. To choose a writer C4 has to think about how important the writer is for the audiences and why he is popular with the audiences. Also when choosing a writer they have to think about what other books the writer has d
one and if they were popular or even if any there books have previously been created into a movie, if yes was it popular with the audiences.
If the writer is chosen carefully and with reason then it may be the beginning of a great film.
After the Development stage of choosing the
right write to create the film Channel 4 then has to choose a Producer. When choosing a Producer C4 thinks about what other movies has he or she produced and where they any successful in terms of Profit and awards, also are they capable of creating the type of film that you want to make and you also have to think about if they are able to move from country to country to produce the film.
For my case I wrote about the film How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, they had two producers for the film they where Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen they chose these producers because they were both well experi
enced and knee perfectly well what to do to create a successful movie and also the good think about choosing these producers was that they had previously worked together as producers of movies for example ‘When Did You Last See Your Farther?’ and ‘Little Voice’ two good and successful movies, and because of these factors they were chosen to produce How To Lose Friends And Alienate People. So before choosing
a producer it is essential to look at there previous work. The better the producer the better the film.
When making a film you also have to think about the genre and the music of the film. It is important to think about the genre of the film you should make because to thrive in the film business you need to make popular and successful movies so you need to think about and research what are the least popular film and the
most popular film, then decide what Genre your movie should be.
Table 1 shows genre frequencies and genre rank
ings for All Cited Films and the Top 25 films.
Table 1
Music is a very important aspect of a film in some cases music can make you enjoy a film that you wouldn’t normally enjoy watching. When making a film it is important to have music that is well-known and sung by a popular artist or bang. In The movie How To Lose Friends And Alienate People they used ‘Enough Love’ by Duffy, ‘I Don’t Fell Like Dancing’ by the scissors sisters, ‘For Reasons Unknown’ by The Killers and ‘What a Wonderful Word’ by Joey Ramone. The producers chose different genres of music to attract different types of audience and they also picked songs that where popular at the time. In most cases the film company has to pay royalties to record companies so that they can use there music in the movie, when doing this the film company may propose a deal to the record company for example they will give 15% of the profit they get form selling the Soundtrack of the movie to the record company. In some films they may also compose they own music, this is done in most horror movies to create tension.
One of the most important decisions is choosing the Cast members. When making a film the producers have to think about what actors to use for the film, this is important because if they hire well known actors it is more likely that it will attract more viewers and a diffrent range of viewers than it would if the actors weren't well known. The producers of How To Lose Friends And Alienate People chose to have two very well known and attractive women Megan Fox and Kirsten Dunst, and two well known actors Simon Pegg and Jeff Bridges in the movie because they are well known actors in the film industry and by having them in there film attracted more audience, male, female, young and old.
Managing the budget for a film during its production phase can be quiet challenging to keep it to a minimal. During script development, a rough budget is produced by filmmakers in order to convince film producers and film studios to give them a greenlight for production. During pre-production, a much more detailed film budget is produced it could be over 150 pages long. When Channel 4 made How To Lose Friends And Alienate People the budget was $28 million but the total worldwide gross was about $17.3 million world wide, forty percent less than the production budget. This mans that they didn’t attract enough audiences to watch or buy the movie so they didn’t manage to gain profit unlike another channel four production Slumdog Millionaire there budget was 15.1 million and worldwide, the film has currently grossed over $377 million, this was an extremely successful movie even though it broke all the patterns of film making while it was being produced.
A filming location is a place where some or all of a film is produced, locations can be used instead or in addition of using sets constructed on a movie studios Back Lot or sound stage. The advantages of filming in a certain location may some times be cheaper that constructing large sets and it looks more real that a studio se, but the disadvantages are taking a whole film crew to film on location can be extremely expensive, sometimes it is also difficult to find a location that matches the requirements of the script and when filming at a location you may have no control over the environment - passing aircraft, traffic, pedestrians, bad weather, city regulations. The film How To Lose Friends And Alienate People filming locations were the Café de Paris, Coventry Street, Soho in London,(interiors),streets of London, New York City, Soho Grand Hotel in New York City, Three Mills Studios in London, (studio),Times Square, Manhattan and New York City. This would of increased a lot on there budget as they would have to pay for the use of the locations and pay for all the cast an crew to move from location to location.
For this film they didn’t have to use Special effects which tend to cost a lot for example the budget of the X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean and Superman Returns exceeding $200 million. There is a very big difference between the budgets of a film without special effects like How To Lose Friends And Alienate People $28 million and a film with a lot of special effects like Superman Returns $209 million.
For Channel 4 to succeed and thrive as a film business they need to create successful films that make profit and are good enough to win awards Just like Slumdog Millionaire. But for this to happen they have think carefully about all there decisions about the Production of the film. If everything goes to plan and the film is successful they will make profit which is the aim for every film they make, to gain more that they spent.
No comments:
Post a Comment