Researching the Film Industry

Film Institutions -Production

Production companies are responsible for a lot of tasks that need to be done to make a successful film. This includes the funding of the movie, the script and casting and most importantly finding the director plus organising the distribution and marketing.

Funding  

Film industries get funding for their movies from their own cash, bank loans, and through investment from a number of wealthy parties, entrepreneurs or investment specialists who will be willing to give this money if they think the movie will be a good success and provide them with profit.

Scripts

Most of the time, when people send their scripts off to production companies, they would be lucky if someone decides to read it. On the other hand if the script you wrote goes through, it will be read and changed and that script will only be made a reality if you agree with the changes.

Casting

Casting is very important to production companies as it can be a way to promote their image. Production companies, depending on the films genre, might insist on hiring actors like Jonny Depp as he is one of the top 10 most popular actors in the world today. Casting is also important in the transformation of a film as getting the right cast to perform will decide a good movie from a bad one.  Choosing the right actors will make the movie more realistic in the audience’s eyes. For example, the ‘Titanic’ movie was a great success as I believe the production companies chose the right casts which engaged with the audience, and when one of the main actors died, the audience felt sympathy.

Director

Production companies are also in charge of choosing who is going to direct their movie. Justin Lin who is a Taiwanese American film director whose films have grossed $1.2 billion worldwide. He is best known for his work on Better Luck Tomorrow, The Fast and the Furious franchise. These are films similar to the one my group is trying to produce. Some directors also employ actors they think will fit the role in the script perfectly. 

Famous US film productions

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. is an American producer of film, television, and music entertainment. Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. It was founded in 1918 as Warner Bros. Studios. 

Famous UK Film production

Aardman Animations, Ltd is a British animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1972. The studio is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit.

Distribution

Screen Gems is an American film production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation. 

Distribution is normally undertaken by and individual or a company. They’re responsible for the success or failure of the films they release it to the public (cinemas) and for home viewing (DVD, on-demand)

The distribution handles the marketing and promotional sector of the film industry, good marketing and promotion will give maximum exposure to the movie which would be beneficial to the distributing company. To achieve good marketing the distributing company will need to create an array of advertisement campaigns to promote the movie.

Trailer

Types of advertisement (billboard, internet, promos, posters)

Premieres, gossip related to the movie (relationship status -  Twilight)
Sell the copyright issue to cinemas, create more copies of the film for worldwide release

Trailers

The trailers are distributed by the distribution companies, they are the ones that pick what part of the movie will be revealed in the trailer and they are responsible for how successful the advertisement outcome of the movie is.

Cinemas

When the film is completed it is sent to the studio, which makes a licensing agreement with a distribution company. The distribution company decides how many prints of the film to make and then they show the movie to potential buyers representing the theaters. The buyers negotiate with the distribution company on which movies they wish to show in their cinema/ theaters and come to an agreement contract. The theaters/ cinemas show the movie for a specified number of weeks.

DVD

The DVD of movies is usually released about 4-5 months after the movie has come out. This is so the distribution companies drain as much money as they can from the customers as they can in that amount of time. Additionally, newly released movies are usually at a high demand to be viewed by the public for about 4-5 months before people start losing interest in the movie or new exciting movies come out and take the spotlight. Let’s take for example the successful movie “Avatar”. It came out on December 18, 2009 but was only release on DVD on April 22 2010. 

Marketing

TV Spot

After the Movie has been realised and if it is a big success, there are things marketing companies can do to gain profit from the movie. Things such as producing soundtracks which was popular in the movie and selling it to the public. They also produce merchandise (toys, cups, bags etc.) relating to popular characters in the movie. For example, the character “Yoda” in the movie “Star wars”.

There are also games produced reflecting on the movies story line. E.g. Spiderman 3 the movies developed to Spiderman 3 ps3, x-box, Psp, Wii (games). It has been developed into a game as customers will like to engage in actions similar to what happened in the actual movie.

Posters

Posters will also be realised to the public if the movie is popular as people us it to decorate their houses (rooms). Poster is also a way for the marketing companies to advertise themselves because if they make the posters available to the public when it’s on high demand, the customers will know their company name and brand and might buy more things from them in the coming future.

For our film opening we would have to be specific in our choice of Production Company as it is a heist film (high action) film and would have to be advertised in a way that would attract our targeted audience. I think our movie would be suitable to be shown in the cinema and after 4-5 months, would be released to the public. An example of a possible distribution company that we could use would be Screen Gems which distributed films like “Takers” which is a heist film about a team of robbers who plots to steal from the bank.

Examples of films and their distribution companies

Fast Five

Produced by -    Neal H. Moritz
                            Vin Diesel
                            Michael Fottrell

Distributed by - Universal Pictures

Box offices -      $626.1 million

Takers

 

Produced by -  William Packer

  Michael Ealy

  T.I.

  Tom Lassally

  Jason Geter

  Gary Gilbert

Distributed by -Screen Gems

Box offices -     $70,587,268

The Bank Job

Produced by -  Chuck Roven

                        Steve Chasman

Distributed by-    Lionsgate Films

Box offices -      US$64,068,159