Research into the Film Industry - Production

Production

Production companies provide the foundations for the production of a movie. They look into all major components that are needed to be able to create and develop a film including; looking at the script, casting the actors and actresses, and providing directors, crew and equipment. In order to be able to provide all of this however, funding needs to be attained.

 The entertainment industry is centered around funding and this can come from studio investments, private investments, or self-investments either from earnings from previous productions or personal wealth. It is up to the production company to produce and attain this money and can often come from sponsorship through product placement. For example the latest addition to the ‘James Bond’ franchise ‘Skyfall’ had productions costs of $200 million and the beer ‘Heineken’ paid $45 million of this to have their beer replace 007's vodka martini - shaken, not stirred. This money also paid for a scene in which it is implied the beverage is the best pale lager on the planet.

Product Placement - Daniel Craig as 'James Bond' holding a Heineken Beer

The amount some companies paid to have their branded products placed in the franchises received much criticism from the world’s press but, the director of the movies Sam Mendes said that, ‘without the sponsorship there would be no ‘Skyfall’’. This shows how attaining funding is vital as without it a movie can simply not be produced and made.

A production company is usually run by a producer or director, but can also be run by a career executive. In entertainment, a production company relies highly on talent or a well-known entertainment franchise to raise the value of entertainment projects and draw out larger audiences. An example of a well-known franchise as mentioned before is the ‘James Bond’ series and its last film ‘Sky Fall’ has currently raised $0.5million dollars in the box office alone. This is testament to the $200 million dollars the production company rose in order to produce it.

 

 

'Sky Fall' FIlm Poster

We are lucky in that we did not have to think much about the budgeting aspect of our film. We were given a small production budget to spend on props and costumes, but we always knew that we woukd mostly have to manage the process within very limnited means. We did not have to go through the process of raising huge sums of money to begin.
 

There are 5 main stages of the production system:

Development – A script is looked over and edited to the preference of the producers in conjunction with what they believe will make the movie sell. A director is also chosen, often someone who has previous links with the production company or who has worked with them more than once.

An example of this is Steven Spielberg and Universal Studios, for the production of movies such as ‘E.T’ and ‘Jaws’.

All of our debates around the storyline and how it would work show how important the development phase is because if you do not get this right, the whole film will not be successful. There were differences of opinion which also shows how difficult it is to get the huge numbers of people involved with a film and putting money into it to agree to a certain direction.

Pre-production – Once a final script has been produced by the screenwriters, the production enters into the pre-production phase. Actors and crew are handpicked by the producer, director, and casting director, who often use collaborators or referenced personnel.  

An example of a reoccurring Director/Actor collaboration is Tim Burton and Johnny Depp; films they worked together on include, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, ‘Sweeney Todd’ and ‘Alice on Wonderland’.   Helen Bonham Carter has also worked with both Depp and Burton on many occasion including both ‘Sweeney Todd’ and Alice and Wonderland’ as well.

Sweeney Todd - Featuring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter,
 Directed by Tim Burton

We had to choose our cast and organise locations, props, costumes etc so again, we did carry out this part of the process.
 

Production – The film enters into principal photography and the filming begins. (Often secrecy is a big part of the main production of a film as many actors and extras never receive full copies of scripts, locations are kept secret and private studios are used to keep the production under wraps.)

We will be coming into this stage when we begin filming.
 

Post-production – The editing of the film begins and can often months to do. It is handled by a post-production company and overseen by the production company. The editing, musical score, visual effects, re-recording of the dialogue, and sound effects are "mixed" to create the final film after the film has been made. 

We will have around four weeks to edit our film, which sounds like a long time for two minutes but will probably feel quite short once we begin.
 

Sales and Distribution – It is at this stage that the film it is handed over to the Distribution companies. 

Research into the Film Industry

Production -

A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video. Production Companies deal with a variety of tasks such as; the creating of your film, selling your film in order to gain sponsors, the hiring of the cast and crew, and the actual filming. Production Companies are often owned or under contract with a media conglomerate, film studio or entertainment/motion picture companies because  financial issues cannot be a problem, which is why strong talent or highly recognised entertainment franchises are often relied on, such as:



Universal Studios

Fox Searchlight

Pixar Animation Studios

There are 5 main stages of the production system. These are;

·        Development – the script is checked over by the director and any changes felt necessary are made.

·        Pre-production – the hiring of the crew and cast members.

·        Production – the film is made.

·        Post-production – the editing begins, this being the tracks and dialogues, after the film has been made.

·        Sales and Distribution – this isn’t always part of the production teams purposes but is when the film is shows to potential buyers and then released in the cinema and on DVD’s.

We will have carried out nearly all of these tasks by the end of the process.

Zack Snyder –
 Zack Snyder is an American director, producer and screenwriter. He and his wife, Deborah Snyder, are co-founders of the Cruel and Unusual production company which coincides with Warner Bro’s and Wesley Coller. Although Snyder is not a well-known producer, the genres of his films suit our film; Psychological Drama. His most recent, and obvious, piece being the re-worked version of Alice in Wonderland, Sucker Punch. He has also made Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, an animated-film based on the fantasy novels. Zack and Deborah’s films are not renowned all over the world but this also suits our film as ours would be considered an independent film, it is evident that Snyder’s success is through, not only his own ability to produce films that will sell, but also the popularity of his partner company, Warner Bro’s.

Distribution –

The job of film distribution companies is essentially to release the film through the cinema, renting or buying the DVD to encourage an audience to go and view it. Examples of these are:

Warner Bros

Columbia Pictures

Metro Goldwyn Mayer

Production Companies and Distribution Companies are very much linked together in the sense that the production company needs to be on good terms with the distribution because it is essentially all down to them; the production company does not get a huge say in the selling of the finished product. The distribution company will release said film in any way they feel necessary to promote it and attract viewers.

For our film we would need to be careful of our choice of distributor because of the genre. A psychological drama is not a well-known cinema type film, usually romantic comedies or action films are released – ours would be more suitable to being shown on a film channel on television and then possibly released on DVD because it is an independent film rather than a large company film.

 A choice of a possible distributor could be 20^TH Century Fox as they were ‘Fight Club’s’ distributor which is one of the most popular psychological dramas in film history. They also distributed The Little Princess which has been a huge success since 1995.

Fight Club

Directed by: David Fincher

Produced by: Art Linson, Ceán Chaffin, Ross Grayson Bell

Distributed by: 20^TH Century Fox

Box Office: $100.9 million

The Little Princess

Directed by: Walter Lang

Produced by: Darryl F. Zannuck, Gene Markey

Distributed by: 20^TH Century Fox

Box Office (later film): $10,015,449

Marketing –

 

There are endless possibilities of ways to market a film. The most obvious, and rewarding, option being to gain a TV spot. An advert for your film is bound to gain a potential audience because the majority of the population owns a television, and watches it.

 Other publicity techniques are magazine covers, where the star of the film is front page of a well-known magazine and therefore has a series of pages dedicated to them on opening it:
 

Emma Stone on the front page of Vogue after Spiderman is in the early stages of being released.

Emma Stone story – inside the magazine.

In addition to magazine covers and spreads, cast members get interviewed personally as well through TV chat shows and at their premiers.
For example, Natalie Portman on the Ellen DeGeneres show speaking about Black Swan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrkhEf6-XMY

Another huge, and modern, form of marketing is through the internet. Youtube video’s now begin with a compulsory advert period which often shows film trailers. Alongside this, on social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook, advertisements often appear alongside the ‘newsfeed’.

Something noticeable with film advertising in comparison to music advertisement is the freedom of copyright – with films they are easily downloaded or viewed, and the soundtracks are often easily downloaded too, however, music is very strict on this with lots more downloading sites being blocked and reported.

 A massive part of the advertising of films is the publicity scandal between the main cast, whether it is a dispute or a relationship, or a dispute in a relationship, something is always happening. The prime example being Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattison; they were a genuine couple from the second Twilight film, until Kristen cheated (which was publicly announced through every form of media) and then when it came to the premiere of the very last Twilight film; Breaking Dawn, Part 2, they were ‘together’ again. Although the audience knew that this was not true, they believed it because of the film and the persuasion it created.
 

Robert Pattison and Kristen Stewart at Breaking Dawn, Part 2 premiere.

For our own film the marketing area which would benefit us highly, in addition to interviews and magazine covers (although the magazines our main stars would be published in would probably be low-key ones such as Now or Star, as it isn't a big company film, it is more of an independent one), is bringing out a soundtrack as ours is based in the 80's and is actually about a band. Following this, dolls and other figures, with their own 80's style clothing and accessories, can be brought out too.

 

Research Into The Film Industry

Production

Production companies are key components of the film industry, as they are responsible for a lot of tasks. They are responsible for the main concept of the movie and developing a script for it in the initial stages, from then they have to pitch the ideas to potential partners, sponsors, and investors in order to gain funding. Using the funding, they can hire casts and crew, create scenes/sets and condition for making the movie. Each of these tasks is under taken during the 5 main stages of the production process.

The main 5 stages

Development- During this stage in production, the writing of the script will be written, and a plan of action will be made, so that the production will run smoothly and on time. Also a cast and crew list will be made and maybe finalised.
Pre-production- During pre-production, the location ideal for the movie will looked at; budgets and funding will also be looked into. Props, cast wardrobe and technical items will be bought. The shot list will be made, so the filming is time convenient, and the rehearsing of the script with the cast and director will also take place.
Production- This is when the film company reaches the point of no return. Which is when the company is financially unavailable to cancel the film and it is cheaper to carry on and finish until you get a final product. It is the main filming of the required shots yet there is most likely going to be mistakes which are resolved in post-production.
Post-production- This is a very important part of the production process. It involves editing the footage already filmed and also editing the soundtrack of the film and adding in the sound effects. Titles and credits are also placed within the film along with special effects. Pick-up shots are also used as there may be scenes missing within the film.

Production companies are normally owned or on a contract with a Corporate Entity. These can include a Media Conglomerate, Film Studios and Entertainment Companies. Within the production company there are a lot of jobs. Below is a list of the main jobs in the film production.

Director- A director is the person responsible for the may the movie is filmed.
Assistant director- Assists the director with the making of the film
Casting director- This person is responsible for assigning roles in a film (selecting actors)
Director of photography- This person is responsible for the filming of a scene after being given orders from the director.
Director of audio- Directs the sound department within the making of a film. Responsible for mostly all sound in a film
Location managers- These people has the responsibility of finding and securing locations for the use of filming. Things such as accommodation and food supply are needed for other cast and crew.
Storyboard artist- The person responsible of the whole storyboard of the film.
Makeup and Costume designers- The people responsible for the make up and costume for the film.

We are acting as a production company and therefore have been responsible for everything above, which is quite a lot for a small team.

Director

Christopher Nolan is a British-American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He co-founded Syncopy Films with his wife, Emma Thomas, and they have produced all his films since 2006. He is renowned for his works on the Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception. Christopher Nolan’s choice of genre is similar to our film, psychological thriller. He uses his own label Syncopy Films or collaborates with the well known Warner Bros in producing and directing.

Distribution

Distribution is normally undertaken by a company or an individual; they have a tight relationship with Production companies. The production company simply makes the film whilst the distribution company releases it to the public (cinemas) or for home viewing (DVD or On Demand). The distribution company has to decide what kind of marketing they will do in order to achieve maximum exposure of the film to the public. To achieve this; the distributor needs to create many forms advertising campaigns that attracts target audiences in many ways. The distribution company also has to put together a trailer for the movie, this is a vital part of distributing as the better the trailer is, the more likely people are going to be interested to watch the film.

The film distributor can play a huge factor in a film's success. Because distributors control the marketing and circulation of movies in theatres and also home viewing. Ultimately the film itself is the biggest factor in whether or not a film is successful, but the distribution is nearly as important. 

Distributors decide how much the film should be advertised (TV commercials, internet, magazine, posters, trailers, special promos, etc.) - this is crucial for the film because it gets the word out there and gets people interested in it.
 

They also decide how many theatres in the film will show in and for how long, thus how much money it can be allowed to make during its theatrical run. Distributors ensure their physical delivery to the theatre by the opening day, monitor exhibitors to make sure the film is in fact shown in the particular theatre with the minimum number of seats and show times, and ensure the prints' return to the distributor's office or other storage resource also on the contract-based return date. 

Film distributors are even more important for small, independent films because they are less known and usually don’t contain the big name stars that studio pictures do therefore it is crucial for the word to get out on them. As ours is likely to be a film of this kind then we would need a good distributor as we would not be able to manage this part of the process ourselves.

Other Jobs

•        Securing dubbing or subtitling for the film.
•           Securing censorship or other legal or organizational "approval"
•            The distribution company shows the movie (screening) to prospective buyers.

Examples of films and their distribution companies

Avatar

Produced by - James Cameron & Jon Landau

Distributed by – 20^th Century Fox

Box Office- 2.8 Billion

Fast Five

Produced by – Vin Diesel, Michael Fottrell & Neal Moritz

Distributed by – Universal Pictures

Box Office- 630 Million

Limitless

Produced by – Leslie Dixon, Ryan Kavanaugh & Scott Kro

Distributed by – Relativity Media

Box Office- 170 Million

Filming Practice

Research Into Genre

The genre that we have decided to base our opening sequence on is a mixture of psychological drama and coming of age film. There are a lot of conventional elements to both these genres and I am going to research this and then discuss how we might mix them.

The main goal of a psychological drama is to draw the audience into the moods and emotions of the main characters. As it is such a broad genre there are a lot of different sub-genres and as there are so many crossovers it can sometimes get confused with e.g. teen drama.

Common Sub-genres

-    Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on the unstable emotional states of characters, in combination with mystery and thriller. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre.Although we have a dramatic story line, there is not the danger element that goes along with the classic thriller.

                   

 

-   Mystery film is a sub-genre of the more general category of the thriller genre. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of a crime by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction. The plot often centers on the deductive ability, prowess, confidence, or diligence of the detective as they attempt to unravel the crime or situation by piecing together clues and circumstances, seeking evidence, interrogating witnesses, and tracking down a criminal. In some ways we have a kind of mystery film. Because we start our film at the end, we are almost creating a kind of murder mystery (in our case suicide). It's more a case of why she did it rather than who did it but the story works the same, looking for clues.

  

Thriller Theories

Partial Vision
This is where only some of the narrative information is given, leaving the audience to wonder what is going to happen next. This gives a chance for the audience to think of their own theories about what is going to happen in the film. Se7en is a great example because the audience only see the murder scene, not the murder happening. In our film, starting with the ending tells the audience what will happen, but not how.

Question Answer Model
This keeps the audience asking questions. We create a lot of questions at the beginning of our piece.


The Heroic Romance
The Protagonist of the film is shown to be an ordinary person but acts in heroic ways to survive during the film. In Thrillers the hero is usually portrayed as having an ordinary job and an ordinary life. In our film, we take a very ordinary girl and turn her into someone famous.

Social Realism Drama


Feature films that take up serious social issues and are placed within the contemporary cultural context. It’s usually a gritty film that involves social issues such as drugs, sex or crime.

Characters

Characters in social realist are not generally found in mainstream films.

They draw in characters who inhabit the social margins of society in terms of status and power. It usually involves the representation of working class at moments of social and economic change. They tend to represent the working class to be seen as more energetic and vibrant. They also seem to focus on white working class males. The characters are usually troublesome and have involvement with something such as drugs or alcoholism.

Iconography

Iconography is language of images and forms that are typical to a particular genre. Some typical ones you may find in social realist films might be:

Drugs- creates social issues found in most social realist films. It creates an idea that they live a rough life.

Bottles- to represent alcoholism and show they don’t live in an upper class way.

Dirty clothing- to show they are working class and don’t take much care of how the look, or can’t afford too.

Council house- to, again, show a working class representation.

Crime- to show they live roughly and dangerously, they don’t live in a nice area or live high class lives.

Mise-en-scene

Social realist films are typically set in working class areas such as council estates and run down areas. This is to make the film grittier and will add to the troublesome lives of the characters.

Actors used are usually young males. They don’t tend to be typically good looking to make them seem more normal. They are also likely to be unknown actors to make the story more believable and relatable to the audience. If they use a film with a well-known actor the audience is likely to associate them with other characters they have played.

They are likely to use props such as weapons and drugs to relate to the rough story lines and atmosphere. They also use props in the homes to make it look more run down or something like a broken car.


Our film will combine many elements from these different genres.

 

 

 

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Animatic

Second Draft Storyboard

Research into Chosen Genre

Our chosen genre falls under 2 different ones; the first being the sub-genre of the Psychological thriller; a Psychological Drama and the second, a ‘Coming of Age’. This is because, although it is a film about the rise and fall of an, in the end, successful band, it involves the drama of the suicide of one of the members – under suspicious circumstances (was she unhappy or did her party lifestyle lead her in the wrong direction?)

Typical Plot -

It is essentially the audience that experiences the unfolding of the psychological drama.

There are 2 main purposes of a Drama;

1. To entertain

2. To provoke thought and emotion.

This genre aims to engage their audience through revealing the main drama as soon as possible; once revealed it continues to go into depth on the storyline – including various different twists and complications. It is often narrated through the eyes of an important character, usually the starring role, but it wouldn’t be unusual to have no narration at all. The general idea of having the importance focused on one character is to make the audience feel like they are in this person’s position which will grasp their attention so they will want to continue watching.

A psychological drama, unlike the thriller, involves little to no violence – it instead focusses on characters relationships and the dilemma’s involved. The emphasis of a drama is conflict, and this conflict is more often than not internal or between a character and their self– this is why we categorized our film as this sub-genre as ours is heavily focused on the relationship between the brother and sister of the band and how the brother feels guilt over his sister’s eventual death. It then has minor mentions of how the band rose to fame and how fame essentially ruined them. 

Examples are based on Sucker Punch (2011) as the genre is the closest to an exact match of our own piece.

Characters –

 



Blue Jones is one of the main Antagonists

Baby Doll is the Protagonist

 

 

Camera Angles/Movements –

• Extreme close ups and close ups to emphasise characters emotions or significant props/details of the scene
• Soundbridges are often used – not only in a psychological drama but in a coming of age as well
• Unusual angles, such as canted, close ups to create confusion and sympathy
• Often various mid-shots to emphasise the current situation of the particular scene – usually empty spaces or clustered areas
• Tracking movements to follow particular characters

Misé-En-Scene –

• Lighting/Colours -

Baby Doll's appearance is emphasised through the amount of light she receives in comparison to the rest of her surroundings

Dim lighting creates a mysterious and eerie vibe. Although, we can see the girl’s face is slightly brighter than everything else – including the man beside her who appears to be blurred out as well.
The colour of each scene is often related back to the mood of the character; here we can the girl’s expression is dull and unimpressed- much like the lighting of the scene.

• Sound -
  

This depends a lot on the individual storyline because although the most obvious sound would be slightly opera/orchestral to create suspense, it can vary according to the course of the action involved. For example, our film consists of mainly silence because it begins through the eyes of the brother who has just lost his sister. The flashback then proceeds into a more upbeat, rock tune because of the 80’s theme.

• Costume/Make-Up -

This is generally natural because it is meant to be a realistic story – if the characters are unnecessarily ‘dolled up’ and over-dressed; the presentation of the storyline can become less believable. The audience is supposed to feel like they are engaging with actual people, not actors and actresses. This is reflected through different scenario’s, for example;




From Baby Doll's make-up here, it is easy for the audience to relate to her as an average teenage girl because she is not overly made up or exaggerated - she looks like a normal teenager would

From the dripping make-up and worn out appearance we are aware that she is distressed or upset

• Settings/Props -

Due to the genre not being a classic Psychological Thriller, where there’s more obvious props and settings such as; dark alleyways or deserted houses with various weapons involved, it again depends on the storyline – because the aim is to make the audience feel connected it has to be as realistic as possible, which means anything could happen and anywhere. 

I have analysed the coming of age genre more in my work on target audience.