Sunday, 14 November 2010
Monday, 11 January 2010
20th Century Fox's "Avatar"
This post is focussing on US institution together with one of their recent films from production, distribution and exhibition which is AVATAR. I will focus on how British audiences reacted to the film and the distributor's efforts to market and distribute the film.
US conglomerates can use their size and reach to create massives synergies to awaken desire in audiences to see their films. They can cross-promote their films across their media empires!
| Directed by | James Cameron | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Produced by | James Cameron - he was one of the main attractions why people wanted to watch this movie because he was so successful withTitanic, Terminator 1 & 2 ,Aliens and True Lies this film was bound to be amazing. Jon Landau | ||||||
| Written by | James Cameron | ||||||
| Starring | Sam Worthington Zoe Saldana Stephen Lang Michelle Rodriguez Giovanni Ribisi Joel David Moore C. C. H. Pounder Wes Studi Laz Alonso Sigourney Weaver | ||||||
| Music by | James Horner | ||||||
| Cinematography | Mauro Fiore | ||||||
| Editing by | James Cameron John Refoua Stephen E. Rivkin | ||||||
| Studio | Lightstorm Entertainment Dune Entertainment Ingenious Film Partners | ||||||
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox | ||||||
| Release date(s) | December 10, 2009 (London premiere) December 18, 2009 (United States) | ||||||
| Running time | 162 minutes | ||||||
| Country | United States | ||||||
| Language | English | ||||||
| Budget | Reportedly budgeted is bettewn a whopping $237m - $500m which would make it the most expensive film ever made. | ||||||
| Gross revenue | 20th Century Fox's "Avatar" Opening Weekend $77,025,481 (USA) 20 December 2009 (3,452 Screens) Total World Wide = $745m (£460m)£8,509,050 (UK) 20 December 2009 (503 Screens) |
Press reviews
"This morning saw the first ever screening of 15 minutes of footage from James Cameron's film Avatar. The 3D landscapes are spectacular, writes Ben Child - shame the alien romance has so much less depth."
Articles on the film
Is James Cameron's 3D film changing the way we watch films?
3D films are back - with a vengeance. And some believe they will change the way we watch movies forever
"They call it 'the illusion of depth', a conjuring trick on the visual cortex, and it works like this. You take two cameras and shoot with them side-by-side. Later, when the results are projected, the viewer interprets these dual images as a single three-dimensional image. We see (or believe we see) a foreground, a background and, best of all, bulky projectiles that threaten to leap from the screen and land in our laps. This is the USP of 3D or stereoscopic cinema, a gimmick as old as film-making itself. In the past the success of this illusion has likewise proved illusory – but this time, we are assured, the landscape is different."
"This year has already witnessed an unprecedented rise in the number of 3D studio pictures, from Coraline to My Bloody Valentine to Monsters vs Aliens. The 3D version of Monsters vs Aliens earned more than its flat-screen counterpart despite playing in fewer cinemas.
Another adantage about 3D films is that you can't pirate a 3D image by smuggling a camcorder into your local multiplex. Cameron first devised the concept for Avatar in the mid-90s, but decided to hold off on the actual filming until the technology caught up with his vision which of course would make the film a million times better.
In the UK alone, only around 320 out of 3,600 cinemas are digitally equipped, while in the US the ratio is even worse (2,500 out of 38,000), the danger is that, in this digital switchover, a number of cinemas may well be left behind , because they weren't 3D equipped and it cost £80,000 to get themselfs into a 3D position."
These are bits that I have picked out from the articles that I think are important for my research.
How much did Avatar really cost? by Vanity Fair
Was Avatar worth it?
"Determining the final cost of this film is a trick in itself. Wildly different reports have been published, ranging from $230 million (The New Yorker) to nearly $500 million (The New York Times). The buget has not yet been confirmed.
Avatar’s official budget lies somewhere in between, probably closest to the figure of the Los Angeles Times’s—$280 million for the production, plus marketing costs. It is the most expensive film they’ve made, but now, having the luxury of hindsight, it is money well spent, so their not concerned about it.
Normally, when people talk about a movie budget, they’re talking about the production costs—the expense of hiring the actors, building the sets and keeping the special effects artists chained to their computer monitors. They’re not talking about the marketing costs. So when you hear that the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie cost $300 million, that number doesn’t include paying to slap Johnny Depp’s face on every billboard and bus in town."
These are bits that I have picked out from the articles that I think are important for my research.
The articles above are important for understanding the issues around technological convergence and how it affects the ways we consume films. They also reveal the growing significance of 3D films and the newly developed cameras that help make them.
Reviews
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Exhibiton - Channel 4
mainstream films.
DVD sales ranksHow to Lose Friends and Alienate People Amazon Sales Rank is 1o,194 in DVD and TV this is very good compared to Slumdog Millionaire Sales Rank: 251 in DVD and TV, this is very surprising because Slumdog Millionaire did much better in the cinemas than How to Lose Friends And Alienate People. Although a movie may have a low or high DVD rank what matters is the Total Gross for example How to Lose Friends And Alienate People sold more DVD's, their budget was $28 million but they only made $17,416,598 over all, On the other hand Slumdog Millionaire has a low DVD sales rank, their budget was $15.1 million and the made $377,417,293 overe all.
Reviews
The film has received overall negative reviews. It currently holds a 37 percent "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, however not everybody disliked it, for example The Spectator called the film "fun," but noted that it "yaps around the ankles of its subject without ever moving in for a decent-sized, satisfying bite."[9] The Sunday Times said the film "has more laughs than any British comedy to appear over the past decade."[10]
In the U.S., Roger Ebert called it "possibly the best movie that could be made about Toby YoungNC-17" and gave it 3½ out of 4 stars that isn't ratedEvery film gets good and bad reviews on what aspects of the production they like or dislike.
Here are some reviews from Amozon amout the film How to Lose Friends And Alienate People:
I loved it!, I'm a big fan of Pegg and love his other work such as Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Run Fatboy Run and this film is easily up there with the best as it was absolutely brilliant. As well as being extremely cringe-worthy in a lot of scenes, it is also very heart-warming and hilarious. It just goes to show that attending parties with the stars isn't an easy life and Young has to do a lot if he wants to get to the top and there's not much he doesn't do in this film!
With some really great acting from Gillian Anderson, Jeff Bridges, Kirstin Dunst, Megan Fox and many other cameos, this really is one comedy I can't recommend highly enough. The humour is very British and all the best for it. Watch it as soon as you can!"
How to disappoint Pegg fans and alienate laughs, There are also disadvantages to Web 2.0 that causes a decrease to the amount of viewers to see the film in cinema or buy the DVD and this leads to the reduction of profit that the film will make. Some of the few and popular digical technologies that cause these reductions are Pirate DVD's, and Downloads.
Friday, 30 October 2009
Distribution - Channel 4
The Distrobution stage is where the institutions market their film and then the movie is released to theaters or, occasionally straight to DVD. The movie is duplicated as required for theatrical distribution. Press kits, posters, and other advertising materials are published and the movie is advertised. The movie will usually be launched with a launch party, press releases, interviews with the press, showings of the film at a press preview, and film festivals. It is also common to create a Web site to accompany the movie. The movie will play at selected theaters and the DVD is typically released a few months later. The distribution rights for the movie and DVD are also usually sold for worldwide distribution. Any profits are divided between the distributor and the production company.
There was alot of imformation but I read through it and picked out the bits that answerd my question.
" NS: No ads at all? "
"BW: No. A decision was made that Friday that there would be no print ads after the opening weekend. So the towel was already thrown in. By the second weekend, if you opened up the paper to decide on a movie, there were no ads to direct you to ours. Not even the postage stamp sized ads just giving the title. So then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because with no ads, your box-office is going to drop big time, and then you lose theaters because there's so much competition for the screens that the theater owners won't hold your film if you're not going to support it with advertising. So the writing was on the wall literally before our opening night on Friday."
What this means is that they didn't have enough advertisement after the realese to reminde people to go and see the Film. To get as many poeple as you can to watch your film you have to keep the adverts running from weeks before the release to a couple of weeks after the release. This way people keep seeing the ads and it works as a constant reminder and an attraction to watch your movie.
"NS: What went wrong with the campaign?"
"BW: There was nothing about the graphic on the billboards or the poster or the ads that would compel you to see the film. It looked like five seconds of thought went into it. A terrible design of Simon pouring beer onto Megan Fox or stepping on her dress, with Jeff Bridges and Kirsten Dunst just standing there. Just… uninteresting. And if you don't know who Simon is, you're really lost. Even if you do know who Simon is, his image was airbrushed beyond all recognition. I mean, if you wanted to create an ad campaign specifically designed to keep people away from this film, you'd be hard pressed to come up with something more effective.
This was another problem they didn't think about what effect the posters and billboards were giving out they only realised once it was out in public and once its out they have to pay more money to change them again. The fact that they didn't create good quality and attractive posters affects on the amout of money they will get in the end. The posters are essential to attract the audience to watch the film and the more audience the more money they get and because the posters weren't the best they could be it affected there profit.
http://www.duckprods.com/projects/howtolosefriends/sweetzer02.html
Analysing poster
The character of Kirten Dunst 'Alison' in this poster comes across as an
The character of Simon Pegg 'Sidney Young' in this poster comes across as clumsy,a funny character that doesn't take things seriously, lower class, a misfit and looks like the odd one out. I can tell that he is clumsy because of the drink missing the glass cup and falling on top of Megan fox, I can tell that he is a funny character that doesn't take things seriously because of his facial expression, the reason I think he is a misfit and looks like the odd one out and he is lower class compared to the other characters is because of what he is wearing, he is wearing casual clothes jeans and tee-shirt and the others are wearing expensive and formal clothes. The fact that he is the odd one out makes him come across as the main character in the film.
Megan fox's character 'Sophie' in this poster comes across as a spoilt, vain and arrogant character. The reason she comes across a spoilt, rich, vain and arrogant is because of her body language and the fact that she is the one laying on the luxurious chair suggests that she is the centre of attention and is spoilt. Her face expression makes her seem vain and her dress tells us that she is wealthy.
Lastly Jeff Bridges character 'Clayton' in this poster comes across as a superior, dominate, powerfull and wealthy. The reason he comes across as a superior, dominate, powerfull and wealthy character is because of his body laguage of him arched back with his hands on his hips, his face expression and the suit his wearing suggests that he is formal and wealthy unlike 'Sidney Young'.
This trailer is a teaser trailer for the film 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People'a one of the film that channel for created. By watching this trailer the unique selling point in this movie and the way the distributors are positioning the film in the marketplace is by elements in the film's genre and the distributor highlighting which sets the film aside from other films in its genre. The things that make this comedy film different to other comedy film is the fact that in the trailer they highlight twice that the main character is English and because they have maid the main character English relates to the British audiences and it is an importante point that attracts the audience to watch the movie.
Another imfortante point in a trailer is what messages are in the film's trailer and what do they say about the film. The messages in this trailer tells the audiences a lot about what they should expect the film to be like, one of the message is that a lower class English guy is trying to move his way up the celebrity world by being a clumsy joker but in stead of movind up "he worked his way to the bottom" as said in the trailer, also by watching the trailler it is very easy to understand what genre the film is which is Comedy.
Monday, 19 October 2009
Essay On Production Patterns And Issues
“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.
Monday, 21 September 2009
Channel 4 Productions Issues
http://www.slideshare.net/cskinner1/film-4-1439921
History and Background of Channel 4
When Channel Four became the fourth channel on TV in
1982 and at the time the only channels you could watch were BB1, BBC 2 & ITV. Channel 4 had a brief for showing a range of cutting edge programs which were very different to what was being shown on other channels. British film included into there individual style and many films that were made which appealed to different types of audiences. Many of these films became some of the best known and most financially successful films in British cinema since 1982. This shows what a powerful influence channel 4 had over the long term as it has know been operating for over 25 years. By 1984 C4 had co-produced over 20 featured films.Channel Four Films and Industrial Context
Channel Four had been established with the aim of getting many programmes either by comissioning or buying in programmes from other companies rather than producing its programmes in house which was what both ITV and the BBC did. By 1987 24% of C4 programming was externally produced and films were a large part of this 24%. C4 had an ambitious target of co-producing 20 films per year which was beyond the resources of any other film making companies in the UK. According to Walker (2004) it had a budget of £6 million to spend on fully or part financing films. It typically invested between £250k - £300k per film in the TV rights. C4 also invested £750k per year in British Screen Finance and another £500k per year in the BFI production Board.
By the end of 1987 C4 was producing 17/28 films per year on a £9.5 million budget. Very few of the films directly recovered their costs and to all intents and out poses C4 remained an 'art-house' producer as the films weren't reaching mass popular audiences they had on the other hand established a good rapport with more specific audiences and can be used as an example of how audiences were beginning to fragment as more media products became available. The breakthrough films for C4 were My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Letter to Brehznev (1985) Mona Lisa (1986). A useful boost was that these films also found an alternative audience in the United States.
The decisions that Channel 4 makes in bringing its films into production.
To make film there has to be alot of decisons and stages to go through to make the film as successful as it can be. Film Production has five stages:
- The first stage is the Development stage - this stage is when the script is written and drafted into a workable blueprint for a film.
- The secons is the Pre- Production stage - in this stage preparations are made for the shoot, in which cast and crew are hired, locations are selected, and sets are built.
- The fird is the Procution Stage - the raw elements for the finished film are recorded, one of the many procedures this stage consists of is that the call sheets tend to be distributed to the cast and crew to tell them when and where to turn up the next shooting day, one of the reasons they do this is to make things more organised so people are not always treading on each others feet.
- Stage four is the Post-Production stage - This is when the film is edited: production sound (dialogue) is concurrently edited seperatly, music tracks and songs are composed, performed and recorded; sound effects are designed and recorded; and any other computer-graphic effects are digitally added, all sound elements are mixed into stems then mixed to the picture and the film is fully completed.
- And finally stage five the Sales And Distribution stage - The film is screened for potential buyers which are the distributors,then the film is picked up by a distributer and then then film reaches its cinema and once on DVD it reaches the home media audience.
Recent channel 4 film production - How to loose friends & alienate people.
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People is a 2008 comedy film based upon British writer Toby Young's 2001. The film was directed by Robert B. Weide nominated for an Oscar and another 10 nominations,and also won 5 awards. The discription of the film said on the Film 4 website is as followed "British journalist Sidney Young tries to take New York City by storm and spectacularly fails in this romance-tinged comedy."
It was distributed in the US and in the UK by Paramount Pictures and Channel Four Films.
Channel 4(Film 4) was one of the three companies that helped funding the film.
They were:
- Film 4 (funding)
- Aramid Entertainment Fund (funding)
- Lipsync Productions (funding)
The budget for this film was 28 milion dolars and the total worldwide grosses was $17,416,598, so this film didn't gain any profit.
To get more profit than what your budget was the film as to be successful. For it to be successful the film has to attract a big amount of audients to watch it and/or buy it.
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. Also when making film the genre is very importante because there the more popular a certain genre is the more people will be attract to watch the movie.
