The Film chain
Production
there are 3 key stages in the production of a film.
Pre production
production
post-production
PRE-PRODUCTION
This is the stage in which all the planning for the project takes place. During pre-production, the production is broken down into individual scenes and all the locations, props, cast members, costumes, special effects and visual effects are identified. The script, if not already complete, is written at this stage. A detailed schedule is produced and arrangements are made for the necessary elements or people to be available to the film-makers at the appropriate times.
PRODUCTION
This is the stage at which all the filming is carried out. All scenes planned out in pre-production are filmed at the relevant locations. Each scene is filmed as many times as the director deems fit, to ensure the best quality scenes will be used to construct the film. This is where the strength of the pre-production work is put to the test. Great care must be taken to make sure that all the filming is done correctly and all necessary shots are taken, as it is sometimes difficult or impossible to go back and repeat certain events if the filming is incomplete when it comes to the post-production stage.
POST-PRODUCTION
This is the stage in which the film is assembled by the editor. The first job of the film editor is to build a rough cut taken from sequences (or scenes) based on individual "takes" (shots). The purpose of the rough cut is to select and order the best shots. The next step is to create a fine cut by getting all the shots to flow smoothly in a seamless story. Trimming - the process of shortening scenes by a few minutes, seconds, or even frames - is done during this phase. As well as the editing of footage, all music, graphics, menus etc are added in this stage. After the fine cut has been screened and approved by the director and producer, the picture is "locked," meaning no further changes are made.
Fox are a major film production company in the USA, they own 21st and 20th Century Fox, Blue Sky Studios, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic. Another large production company is Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation, or MGM, and there is Universal studios.
The size of the owners of the production company would affect the films, because the larger and richer owners would produce higher budget, wider audience films, whereas smaller owners will have a smaller budget.
An independent production is an independent film is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system.
Distribution
The definition of distribution: Film distribution is the process of making a movie available for viewing by an audience.
- how films get from the edit houses to the cinemas
- The film is completed and sent to the studio.
- The studio makes a licensing agreement with a distribution company.
- The distribution company determines how many copies (prints) of the film to make.
- The distribution company shows the movie (screening) to prospective buyers representing the cinemas.
- The buyers negotiate with the distribution company on which movies they wish to lease and the terms of the lease agreement.
- The prints are sent to the theaters a few days before the opening day.
- The theater shows the movie for a specified number of weeks (engagement).
- You buy a ticket and watch the movie.
- At the end of the engagement, the theater sends the print back to the distribution company and makes payment on the lease agreement.
The traditional way of distributing a film is through cinemas , but sometimes films may be small scale so will not be released in cinema and therefore they may be released straight onto DVDs or online.
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors.
Distributors may release a film on a particular weekend due to the fact as that certain weekend may get them the highest box office numbers. For example they would not release a family or teenage film during school as they would not receive as much box office numbers as they would if they released it during a holiday.
It is essential to distribute your film as if your film is not distributed smartly then the film would have no box office numbers and this will decrease the profit and would end the film chain as without distribution they would not be able to take it to the next stage which is marketing. If a film was unable to receive a distribution deal but still distribute it this is deemed to be illegal.
Marketing
Marketing is the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising. This is different to distribution as this is the method of selling and attracting customers to the product , not selecting areas to sell it in.
These are the different types of marketing for films currently being released:
Trailer :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgZlDFnEozw
Bus Advert
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Films are promoted to different audiences using specific techniques to make the film significant to them. For example an English language film would be aimed at English speaking countries like England and America. Furthermore if a film was in a certain language for example in French but had English parts , it would be subtitled, e.g. the dawn of the planet apes was in 'Ape language' but was an English language film therefore it had to be subtitled.
EXHIBITION
How do audiences get to see films nowadays?
Cinema
Television
free online hosting sites ie Youtube and Vimeo
On demand service , Netflix etc.
Online illegally
Flim Festivals
Inflights
This is useful to identify the success of a film because it means that a lot of people who viewed the film actually enjoyed it. This can lead cinemas to pay more money to keep the film running longer on the cinema screens.
The box office for a film is how much that movie made when viewed in the Cinema. It shows how much money was made and if it broke even.
If the film is successful the money is then shared among all those that helped in creating the film this includes the producers, directors, actors, editors, etc.
Cinemas make there money through selling food and drinks as they sell them at a much higher price than what they pay therefore making a huge profit, Without the food and drinks cinemas would not be able to stay in business. However, sometimes they also have onscreen adverts where some companies pay the cinemas to show trailers, therefore if the film is a block buster the cinema may charge higher to have it advertised. Cinemas provide audiences with a variety of different screenings to encourage them to come to the cinema. Such as 3D, 4D, they have specialized screenings such as autism friendly, orange Wednesdays and lots of more offers.Ancillary markets are non-theatrical markets for feature films such as home video, Netflix, internet streaming, airlines and others. This allows people to be able to enjoy films when with friends at home or when travelling somewhere , so they are free to watch it when they want to.
The BFI
The BFI is the British Film Industry. They hold the worlds largest film archive , they run cinemas in central London like the IMAX. This helps the BFI as they would make more box office sales as people would be encouraged to enjoy the arts.
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