Researching The Film Industry

Researching the Film Industry

Film Institutions – Production

Most often, the production company for films and television provides the money, and thus sets the budget, and may also make decisions on what director, and actors can be hired. Budget often makes other decisions possible or impossible. A low budget film may not be able to be filmed in a remote location, for example. Outside investors will also be found to set a higher budget.
 

The company may also come attached with certain actors, directors, or film editors and photographers. Often this is the case when it belongs to a major studio, like Touchstone Pictures, which belongs to Disney. Directors who have contracts with Touchstone are more likely to be offered jobs produced by Touchstone.

Some examples of production companies are:

-  Warner Bros. Pictures:

- Walt Disney Pictures:

- Touchstone Pictures:

- Paramount Pictures:

Production Companies are often owned or under contract with film studios, entertainment companies or motion picture companies, who act as the production companies’ partner or parent company. This has become known as the ‘studio system’. Evidently, many jobs come with Production Companies. Some of these include:

Director, Assistant director, Casting directors, Studio manager, Production manager, Director of photography, Production sound, Choreographer, Gaffer (production sound), Art director, Costume designer, Make-up and designers, Story board artist, Screen play artists.

-Development - Screenwriting, Viability testing, Gather resources.

-Pre-production - Logistical and creative planning, rehearsals and tests, fabrication of art.

-Production - Execution (film is made).

-Post-production - Editing, sound design, visual effects and titles, mastering.

-Distribution - Marketing and delivery.

Mark Waters

Mark Waters is a famous and successful producer and film director of numerous block buster chick-flick films. He has produced films such as Freaky Friday and The Spiderwick Chronicles. Each one of these films fit well into our genre as the genre he focuses on is chick-flick and his main fan base and niche market revolves around teenagers. He is also known for producing films such as, Mean Girls and 500 Days of Summer. We would be likely to choose Mark Waters as our producer additionally because, his films reach other countries and all go to the cinema. This means talk is easily generated about his films and profit is highly likely.

Our kind of film has a global appeal and therefore we would be looking for a widescale distribution even though we would be a small and unknown production company. Having a well known director would help with this.

Film institutions – Distribution

Columbia Pictures, 20^th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures are all examples of film distribution companies. Film Distribution involves launching and sustaining films in the marketplace. Film Distributors must connect each film they release with the widest possible audience and encourage an audience to see the film in money spending ways.

Examples of films and their distribution companies

For our specific genre we would need to choose a certain Production Company relevant and successful with our genre as they all specialise in certain areas/genres. Our film is a chick-flick teenage drama film with mild humour so it would have to be advertised in a way that would attract a solid audience. This film is a typical film that would be suitable for the cinema and later on in the process on the television. The film will deal with teenage and adult dilemmas but be conveyed in a younger generation’s point of view making it appeal to a wide range of people. An example of a possible distribution company we could use is Universal Pictures. Although Universal Pictures produce numerous films across the world and of various genres it has its fair share of producing successful Chick-Flicks. They are one of the most famous and successful production companies in the word and perform very well. They fit perfectly into our genre and have produced great popular films (fitting into our genre) such as: She’s The Man, Definitely Maybe and American Pie.

Another possible producer that is worth considering for our genre would be Paramount. They produced films that fit perfectly into our specific teenage chick-flick genre by producing films such as Clueless, Grease and The Virgin Suicides which each fit perfectly into our genre suggesting that our film could be successful with this Production Company because of their expertise with chick-flicks.

Film institutions – Marketing and Promotion

Posters

Posters around busy streets on buses and in tube and bus stations are the key to regional, national and finally universal promotion. Posters reveal the picture of (usually) the cover of the future DVD that will be released after the film has been in through the cinema process. On the poster it will includes some of the main characters’ names, the main characters will always be on the cover to attract fans, the title of the film in bold and fancy font always linking to the themes and conventions of the film, a catch phrase I.e: Twilight catch phrase was ‘The forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest’ which again links into the film and finally the small print and release date which will stand out to immediately generate an audience to plan their viewings.

Trailers

Trailers have become another one of the best ways to promote films universally and generate gossip about the film and therefore spread the word around. Trailers although expensive to make and display they are worth the gossip they accomplish. They are ultimately teasers of the film which may include in our case funny and dramatic moments that happen throughout the film. They are all pieced together to the final 2 minute final piece and are shown on television during adverts which is a worldwide product and also in cinemas before watching a film. Trailers therefore are viewed by a large proportion of the world in which the media get involved and start gossip shows, mention it on the radio and perhaps even write small critics in some magazines before the release date. Therefore, trailers are a great way of getting a large audience’s attention and support.