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.