How to Answer a Film Industry Question

How to answer film industries questions from englefieldf11

Evaluate the role of digital technology in the production, marketing and consumption of products?

Throughout the year’s technology convergence has always been taking place. This entails that’s as technology changes, different technological systems sometimes evolve towards performing similar tasks. This happens in production, marketing, exhibition and distribution in many ways. Throughout my research, I took an interest in The Amazing Spiderman 2 produced by Marvel Entertainment and Sony pictures and released by Columbia Pictures. Throughout the production of the film they had a budget of $200,000,000 which included paying the cast, the filming of the scenes and the marketing and distribution involved. Within the marketing, they used synergy and decided to produce a TV advert with Evian (the water drinks company), editing in a baby dancing Spiderman. It aired and drew attention to the new film available in cinemas. It also has produced a game which allows you to travel round you virtually free reign to web-sling your way through New York, picking out objectives on your trusty new smartphone Satnav. There are optional distractions to the main action, including picking up collectable items and taking photographs, but your main concern remains saving the city from genetic freaks and Oscorp's ham-fisted attempts to contain them. Again, adding to the spread of the films target audience.

There are three types of production; pre-production, production and post-production. Pre-production being before shooting begins, it included the story boards being made, set construction, location scouting and the finances of the product. Production is the next step, when things are being filmed, past this point financially the directors and producers cannot back out of the film. Then finally comes post-production, which is where the editing of the footage and adding in of the non-diegetic and diegetic sounds comes in and are enhanced. There are many new technologies included in these areas including drones, 3D printing and CGI. CGI is also known as computer generated imagery and during the production of The Amazing Spiderman 2, twenty layers of lightning CGI effects were applied to depict Electro. Jamie Foxx was photographed as Electro by KNB EFX team and the skin colours used to show the moods of the character. For the ‘pre-production’ of the film, the studios hired James Vanderbilt to write the screenplay and a selection of writers including Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci rewrote it to make sure the final screen play was the best that is could be.   The ‘production’ part of The Amazing Spiderman 2 took place during February through to June 2013, in New York city.

Distribution is a key factor when creating a film. This entails the way a film is shared out among a group or spread over an area. It is very important that the distribution of a film is done properly as it is what makes people want to go and see a film, the correct advertisement is what gives people interest in the product you are trying to sell. The process of distribution are as followed: a studio or interested investor decides to purchase the rights to the film, they then receive the licensing agreement which gives them access to produce the trailers websites and a free preview of the film. For instance, pirates of the Caribbean gave a preview of the trailer at the super bowl, which had millions of viewers publicising the film. For the smaller companies with a smaller distribution budget, there lots of below the line ways of marketing which can become very useful, including on social media and through interviews.  In the Amazing Spiderman 2, it was distributed by Sony. On the 17^th of July, they released a clip from the film with the first footage of Jamie Foxx as Electro to encourage viewers at the San Diego comic-Con international. This was cleverly throughout as comic-con is a large event where a majority of the target audience would be attending therefore make the audience excited about the film’s release.

Exhibition is the selling of the film on to cinemas either independent or mainstream. Types of exhibition depend on the type of audience the film is wishing to achieve. For example, YouTube is viewed by a wide audience although vimeo is more specified. Imax 3D, and the software’s used in Disney’s brave are both sound systems used to enhance the way a film is exhibited, to increase the audience satisfaction. The 3D and 4D resources are useful for the distributors and producers as it means their film cannot be pirated. The Exchange is how the audience views the film; Netflix, DVD, Blu-ray, sky movies, streaming, cinemas. Some of these sources can be pirated like streaming for instance on sites like putlocker. Many of these are usually shut down as piracy is illegal although technology has become so advanced that it is occurring more and more.

All in all the role of digital technology has played a large role within the film industry by expanding the way the films are marketed and also to do with the way films are produced. The industry has come a long way from black and white films to HD screening with 4D effects. Although the negative side to this is that some of the effects in films are too unrealistic and ruin the whole message that some of the films are trying to bring across. This can then take the purpose out of producing a film. However, I feel that the development and need for technology is positive as it means within the film industry it will always be able to stay one step ahead. For example, in Back to the Future thought up the idea of hover boards in 1989 and in 2015 we had Segway’s in every shop.

Task 10 - Distribution

Distribution in the film industry from englefieldf11

Task 9 - Film Industry Terminology

These are the key terms that need to be known for the Film Industry part of our course...

Task 8 - Technology within the Film Industry

For this task I produced my own mind map, including technology that is used in the production, exhibition exchange and distribution processes of the film industry. This is what my research concluded...

As a class we came together and produced a larger mind map with all of the information the class had gathered, producing and excellent revision resource...

Task 7 - Audience Cinema Going Habbits

From research of surveys and other recourses it is clear to see that during WW2 and for a short while after, was when going to the cinema was most popular with an all time high of 1,635.0 million in admission fees during 1946. At these times going to the cinema was known as 'going to the pictures'. Going to the pictures was extremely popular as there wasn't anything similar at home due to ordinary families not yet having televisions. Even in the late 1950s as televisions trickled into homes, the screens were tiny and the choice were small. Going to the pictures was an outing for young and old alike. Which made the cinema a fun fulfilled experience for all of the family, thus it became very popular. Most towns and large villages had their own cinema.

• Recently the UK box office receipts have being rising. In 2015 they came to £1.236 million, up 17% from 2014. although the box office share of independent films was 10.5%, down 16% from 2014.

What days to audiences go to the cinema?

What are the most popular genres? 

What was the top film in each of these genres?

How do audiences hear about films?

Do audiences prefer US, UK or other nationality films?

Do audiences like 3D films?

What other ways to audiences watch film aside from the cinema?

Who do audiences go to the cinema with?

When and where are most audiences likely to go to the cinema?

Task 6 - Independent Cinema VS Mainstream Chains

Task 6 – cinemas from englefieldf11

Task 5 - Independent Production Companies Research

Independant Film Research

For this task we had to research an independent film and find out key points and information about it. The film I chose was The Selfish Giant and here are my findings...

The selfish giant from englefieldf11

The Amazing Spierman 2 - Case Study

This is the case study I researched for our exam. I chose this film as it was produced by a company from the big six which mean I was able to find a lot of information about it...

The Big Six - Top Films

When researching we looked into the big six and the films that they had recently produced. These were our findings...

We also looked at films that were major although that had been produced by a minor production company..

Top Films of 2016

Look up top grossing films of 2016 - Write down top five and their producers/exhibitors and when they came out

1. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
14 December2016
Lucasfilm production

2. Finding Dory
8 June 2016
Produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures

3. Captain America: Civil War
29 April 2016
Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures.

4. The Secret Life Of Pets
8 July 2016

Illumination Entertainment

5. The Jungle Book
15 April 2016
Produced by Walt Disney Pictures

What are the big six film companies?

-Warner Bros. Pictures. Warner Bros. ...

-20th Century Fox.

-Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures is the longest operating major studio in Hollywood. ...

-Universal Pictures.

-Sony Pictures Entertainment (earlier known as Columbia-Tristar Pictures)

-Walt Disney Studios

  

Think of the dates and school holidays, which films are on general release?

 General release is the act of making a film available to be shown in theatres. All of the top five films released where on general release. They are also released in school holidays this is because they will have more of a change of selling tickets, as more people have the time to view the films.
 

What genre of films are there? blockbuster, indie, foreign?

Comedy | Crime | Thriller | Mystery | Romance | History | Adventure | Biography | Drama | War | Sci-Fi | Music
 

How many are sequels?

 2 - Finding Dory and Rogue one: A star wars story

How many are blockbusters aimed at a younger audience?

 Three of these films are blockbusters for the younger audience. They have made it big due to their huge amount of advertising towards the young children.

How many were produced by the Big Six?

 One of the top five was produced by the big six; The jungle Book. although they were not produced they still had a connection to the big six, as some were distributed by them for instance, finding dory was released by Walt Disney and captain America: civil war was distributed by Walt Disney pictures. 

What kinds of films seem to be missing?

 In this selection of films there are no independent films, this is because independent films are of a smaller budget therefore cannot compete with the masses of advertisement that the big six are able to afford. Plus there are no sad chick flics. this is down to the small target audience that they have compared to the action films that a wide variety of people want to watch.

How many of the film distributors seem to be producers as well?

 The distributers are also a part of the big six as it means more money can be put behind the film. The more money that goes into the film the more money that is expected to produce. No publicity is bad publicity.

Who do you think are the target audiences for these?

Due to them being block buster films, it means they have a wide target audience and make sure this shows in the way they advertise. By marketing with colours that suit both of the sexes and using appropriate language for the bffc rating.