Guardian News Article Friday 26/9/08

Follow this link to read a shortish article by Toby Young on how the film industry really works...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/sep/26/comedy

HOMEWORK - Questions on Film Production

The producer

How has production changed since the 1940s and 50s?

‘Producers deal with IDEAS’ – think of 5 films you’ve seen – where did the ideas for them come from? You might start with the film we’ve just seen…

Why are the stars of a film very important? Use the stars of ‘The Duchess’ as an example – what is their ‘baggage’?

Cast your own version of the film - think of who else could have played the roles of Duke and Duchess of Devonshire – or Earl Grey…

The investor

What are the 3 basic forms of FUNDING for a film?

What is an OUTLINE and TREATMENT?

What is a PACKAGE and why is it so important?

If a film is ‘in DEVELOPMENT’ what does this mean?

Why might MERCHANDISING / PROMOTIONS or TIE-INS be an important part of ‘the package’?

What are pre-sales?

Potential profit

What must a producer have a clear idea of from the outset?

How much must a film make to go into profit?

What is the highest grossing film in the UK? See attached Appendix 1 - UK Highest Grossing Movies of All Time.

What is the significance of the fact that 18 of the top 20 have been released in the last 10 years?

What is the single most important aspect of marketing a film? Why?

The deal

What is the most common form of film finanace?

How many film festivals can you name? Why are they important for producers?

Production costs

What percentage of a film’s budget goes on paying the stars / actors?

Production revenue

How much of a film’s revenue comes from video/DVD rentals & sales?

Go to the UK Film Council website. Go to the Funding page and find 5 films the UK Film Council have helped fund in recent years. Where do they get the money from?

http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/

Or you can read the attached article ‘The Achievements of Lottery Film Funding’ and find the answers there.

What happens to the profits made on these films?

The Lottery

Look up Pathe Productions, The Film Consortium and DNA Films online and make a list of the films they’ve helped finance in the last 10 years. How important to the UK Film Industry is the Lottery funding?

Pre-Production

How do filmmakers ensure that scenes shot over several months don’t contain any glaring errors of costume or location.

What is the significance of the storyboard?

Summarise the meaning of ‘above’ and ‘below-the-line’ costs.

Look at Appendix 2 attached to your Film Production pack.

What is the most expensive part of the ‘above-the-line’ costs? ‘Below-the-line’ costs? Post-production?

Production

How do filmmakers ensure a production stays on schedule?

Post production

What are the 3 stages of film editing?

Why is soundtrack so important?

Production Case Study - The Duchess

The Duchess

Production Companies
Boom
BBC Films - http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms/
Magnolia Mae Films - http://magnoliamaefilms.com/menu.html
Pathe Productions - http://www.pathe.co.uk/
Qwerty Films - http://www.inside-pictures.com/pages/WHOAREQ.asp

UK Distributor
Pathe - http://www.pathe.co.uk/

US Distributor
Paramount Vantage - http://paramountvantage.com/

Websites

Home - http://www.theduchessmovie.com/

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Duchess_(film)

Reviews

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/08/29/bfduchess129.xml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/2530446/Princess-Diana-and-the-Duchess-of-Devonshire-Striking-similarities.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/sep/07/periodandhistorical

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/sep/05/periodandhistorical.drama

http://www.amanda-foreman.com/on-set-report.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A40579374

http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/features/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003850485

Publicity

Evening Standard report on the premiere of The Duchess - http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23550972-details/Big+budget+but+Keira's+Duchess+divides+critics/article.do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzb-gy4MpFQ

http://video.stv.tv/bc/catchup-TheFiveThirtyShowPart2-20080902-1745/

Merchandising

http://www.visittheduchess.co.uk/

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-kedlestonhall/w-east_midlands-duchess-2.htm

Careers in the Media - The Film Industry

Overview of Anticipated Trends in the Future Use of Skills in the Audiovisual Industry to 2010

Extract

2.1 Film Industry

Developing UK Film Talent was a film skills research project commissioned in June 2002 by Skillset, the UK Film Council and the National Screen Agencies. One of the aims of the research project was to consult with industry and understand the skills, talent and company development needs of individuals and employers entering or within the UK film industry.
The report focused on the following 10 key themes which were: communicating and informing (industry opportunities); collecting and analysing information (industry intelligence); careers information, advice and guidance at all levels; pre-entry to the film industry (resolving mismatch between education provision and industry need); post entry to the film industry (relevant continuing professional development); business skills; improving diversity in the workforce; digital and new technologies; nations and regions (building a sustainable industry across the UK).; and, finally, investment (industry's understand of Government's skills agenda).

One of key themes in terms of specific skills was the need for business skills in the industry. This was the need to ensure that those just starting out and those already in the industry, often in 'micro-businesses' or self-employed, have the necessary business and management skills to make the most of their creative and technical expertise. A second key theme in terms of this report relates to digital and new technologies. The report noted that the need to keep pace with new technologies is a major retraining issue affecting all sectors of the film industry.

The Developing UK Film Talent report laid the groundwork for the UK film skills strategy encapsulated in the 2003 report A Bigger Picture. It is a complete training and education strategy for the British film industry.

As the report indicates, three "golden threads" run through the strategy. It notes these are:

1. the need to encourage and deliver a more diverse workforce, both culturally and socially. This is fundamental to the industry's future relevance . It is essential that all sectors become more accessible to currently under-represented groups
2. the nations and regions of the UK are central to the successful delivery of this strategy. Skillset's Approved Training Partners have a vital role to play in developing and nurturing talent and supporting the growth of a UK film industry
3. the implications of new technologies, as a result of the accelerating pace of change, need to be taken into account so that industry can be in front of, rather than behind, that curve.

This strategy will be implemented over the next few years.

It will deliver:
• an expert film-specific careers information, advice and guidance network
• an integrated approach to skills provision
• industry-approved relevant training and education provision
• a small network of Screen Academies providing creative and commercial skills
• coherently developing skills and talents in priority areas.

In addition, it notes a new emphasis will be placed on support for business, management and leadership skills.

Aspects of the skills development priorities and strategic threads contained in Developing UK Film Talent and A Bigger Picture are echoed in the television sector report.

CONVERGENCE - AS G322: Key Media Concepts – Section B

Institutions and Audiences

Convergence

Definition again - Hardware and software coming together across media, and companies coming together across similar boundaries. This makes the distinction between different types of media and different media industries increasingly dubious.

1. Converging technologies – e.g your mobile ‘phone…

So what can the iphone do?

Make a list of the features…

http://www.apple.com/iphone/

2. Converging media industries

News Corporation produce and distribute across several media. Find examples of their multinational media presence.

http://www.newscorp.com/

(Luhrs quote)

We no longer live in a media world where TV, videogames, films, newspapers, radio, magazines and music exist separately.

For this reason it is essential that you become aware of the impact of convergence on the film industry.

INTRODUCTION - AS G322 – Section B - Institutions and Audiences

Institutions and Audiences

In this part of the media studies course you will to learn how the film industry operates and explore how audiences are formed and use media.

The first two keywords you need to learn definitions for are – unsurprisingly – institution & audience.

Audience - Collective group of people reading any media text.

Institution – An established organization or company, e.g. the BBC, that provides media content, whether for profit, public service or another motive. This involves you understanding of the media as a business, the relationship between institutions and the public and media as a form of power.

Q - Think about the number of ways you can ‘read’ something produced by the BBC?

TASK - Go to the Doctor Who website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/

Q. How can the audience engage with Doctor Who? How many different forms of ‘media’ are offered?

Although this is a TV programme produced by a British company it involves video games, cartoons, film style trailers, cartoons, comics, music etc…

The name we give to this coming together of different ‘media’ is your third keyword:

Convergence - Hardware and software coming together across media, and companies coming together across similar boundaries. This makes the distinction between different types of media and different media industries increasingly dubious.

Q. How would you usually watch an episode of Doctor Who?

Now think of the other ways you can watch an episode. Here’s one…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOx5VlPQgY0

What links these formats?

They’re all digital, your fourth keyword...

Digital technology has led to increasing uncertainty over how we define an audience, with general agreement that the notion of a large group of people, brought together by time, responding to a single text, is outdated and that audiences now are ‘fragmented’.

Key Points

In media studies we focus on ‘the contemporary’.

What does this mean if, for example, we are to study the film industry in Britain?

We are also keen to focus on convergence as a key agent of change. Why?

Because it’s one of the most important things that’s happening now. How does the film industry 'converge' with the internet?

We are finally interested in how things are changing.

Within the context of not only convergence, but also ownership, technologies and globalisation.

More key words – ownership and technologies are pretty straightforward however…

Globalisation means - The shift in media distribution from local or national to international and the whole world at once. Culturally, describes the process of ‘sameness’ over the world, typified by the availability of McDonalds in most nations.

HOMEWORK FOR TOMORROW!

Careers in the Media

To understand the workings of media institutions we need to get an understanding of the changing nature of employment and careers in the various media industries.

Skillset is the industry body which ‘supports skills and training for people and businesses to ensure the UK creative media industries maintain their world class position.’

Open up the 2006 Skillset Employment Census and go to pages 4 & 5 - PART ONE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.

http://www.skillset.org/research/article_5136_1.asp

TASK – answer these questions…

What’s happened with employment on terrestrial TV? What does this suggest about the traditional TV industry?
What’s happening in the interactive media sector?
Where is the industry predominantly based?
What’s the proportion of women working in the media? Where do most women work?

In Skillset’s ‘Survey of the Audio Visual Industries' Workforce 2005’ it revealed that since 1990, more women have entered the industry than men, and more black or ethnic minorities have entered the industry than whites.

In a similar survey from 2003 it revealed that just under two-thirds of people working in the media are under 35, two-thirds of all people working in the media have a degree and a quarter of those have a degree in media. Only 46% of those working in the media earn over £30,000 a year.

What does this suggest about the media industry?
What does it suggest about media representation?

Don't forget to update your media diary.