LO1 – The UK Movie Industry

Working Title

Working Title was a British company based in London. Founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe, it started out in the 1980’s. They commonly collaborate with the Coen brothers. As of 2007 it was bought by Universal. Working Title have three divisions, theatre, television and film. Their fourth division WT2 was for indie movies, but was closed down. Its breakthrough success was for Four Weddings and a Funeral. The film was an unexpected success.

Structure

I am going to discuss the structure of a movie production company. I will discuss the company “Working Title”. Working Title is a UK company, now owned by Universal Studios. Originally founded in 1983 by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe. It specialises in film and television. It was originally independent, until bought in 1992 by PolyGram. It was later on bought by Universal. Working Title is contractually allowed to spend $35million on any movie without first consulting Universal. If higher than this, they must “pitch” the movie to Universal.

They collaborate with other companies including the Coen Brothers. They are people they know well and have a good business relationship that works in order to be profitable for both parties. Another example of a collaboration between two companies is for the movie Contraband. Universal (and Working Title), funded the movie alongside Relativity media. The movie was successful, and therefore a successful joint business venture for both of the companies that were involved. This business relationship also continued onwards to fund Les Misérables. This was another very profitable business venture. However, it is highly debated that whether the movie is still a UK film, because they are in joint venture with an AMERICAN company, therefore they may have some decisions on how the money is spent, or conditions that the film must match in order for them to actually receive the funding. So it is debated that their movies aren’t UK films any more.

Potential sources of funding range from the BBC, the UK Film Council, Screen West Midlands (no longer exists), and the BFI. The BBC has to fund at least 7 movies a year, because of the television license fee that everyone must pay. They are required to fund 7 movies a year, otherwise the funds sourced from TV licensing are taken from them.

Products

Two examples of UK movies include “Shaun of the Dead” and “Johnny English”. Both of these movies feature a cast mainly featuring British actors, British crew, British sound music effects, and British writers. And mostly British based funding. A lot of the time, British production companies focus on a set of themes and narratives, as they are what type of British movies tend to be the most successful. These themes range from Period Dramas, Horror, Brit-Grit and Comedy. These themes are sometimes combined to result in higher profits or more marketable success in order to spark sequels, which is another almost guaranteed profitable investment.

Debate is sometimes sparked over what makes a UK film a UK film. For example, this can all vary on location, director, writers, actors and other important crew. For example, a movie might be directed by a British director, but if the main actor is an American actor, then it might be the case that she wouldn’t be accurately depicting a British person, as she doesn’t fully understand British culture, and her accent might not be right.

Another example would be American funding. For example, because an American company may have funded it, they may have a large influence over decisions that are made, because they are paying for it. For example, Film4 pay for some movies, but in return they get rights to display the movie earlier than anyone else does. Another example may be if the writer is not British. Non-British people will not have an accurate understanding of UK culture, fashion etc. Below is a movie specific discussion about these conventions/codes in relation to the UK movie industry.

Analysis of Shaun Of The Dead

Shaun of the dead is a UK film that is produced by Working Title. It was directed by Edgar Wright, and featured stars such as Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The film’s length is 100 minutes long, and is classes as a comedy horror, being released in the year 2004. This movie was a big success, and being a UK film allowed proper representation of the characters, who were portrayed by British actors.

Shaun of the dead is a horror and a comedy. The movie contains equal elements of both of these genres. The use of camera angles and sound effects definitely complied with the horror genre style, however a comedic approach was taken with the script. These two as a combination creates a very interesting movie. The film’s narrative is of a linear layout, with a traditional beginning, middle and end chronologically arranged timeline.

One of the dominant genres in the movie is horror. This is obvious by the use of location. It is shot on normal streets of a normal city. However, it has been altered in order to make it look more “horrific”. At the beginning of the movie, the street is normal, no colour alterations, there are people on the road, shops are open. However, a little later on in the film when Shaun goes to the shop to buy a “Cornetto”, things have changed. The colour grading is darker, as to make it look a little eerie. There are less people around, no cars are moving, and the only life on the streets is that of zombies. The camera shot used is one long pan following the action of Simon Pegg. We see him walk out of his house, cross the road, go into the shop, and leave again for home. This is one long shot. This is to allow the viewer time to understand everything that is happenings, and allow them time to work out the differences between the last time Shaun was seen outside. As Shaun goes into the shop, he gets the items he wants, and walks out again. The camera follows the “action”, and we see a lack of people in the shop, and the “zombified” people in the background. The lack of any editing or any dynamic camera angles here are juxtaposed against the threat that is developing in the background. The long winded camera angles and editing technique show how clueless Shaun really is to what is happening. As the scene continues, we notice more and more clues as to what is happening, and continue to watch Shaun not notice any of them.

Music is typical of that in a horror movie, however in slightly comedic scenes, typical comedic music is played to play out the scene with all of the dialogue, which adds to the comedic effect of the movie, and makes it less horror centred. Music is a nice blend between diegetic and non-diegetic. When Shaun enters the shop, we hear the sound from the radio in the shop. Whereas in other scenes, we hear music in the background which doesn’t match with any potential audio source in the scene, it is just there to back up whatever atmosphere is trying to be portrayed at any given time.

There are multiple UK aspects to this movie. The stars are Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Kate Ashfield, which are all very popular British actors. This is more realistic for the location chosen, and the stereotypes used and portrayed in the movie will come across as more believable. Having American stars would mean their accent would’ve been unrealistic, and their lack of understanding for British culture could ruin the atmosphere of the movie. The movie was also directed by Edgar Wright, a director from the UK. These combination of UK elements allow the movie to be classed as a UK movie. This also applies for the rest of the crew/cast.

Production Process

The preproduction process for most UK films consists of planning, finding funding, finding a cast, location scouting and rehearsal. Before a film can be successfully made, it must be fully planned and scripted out, with any omissions made early on in the process. These plans can then be used to acquire funding from film councils, organisations, commercial investors and personal investment. Legitimate plans and fully structured scripts can convince a potential funding organisation to fund the movie. A convincing and powerful cast must be chosen for the movie. It may be decided to get big stars in order to draw an audience, or it may be chosen to pick smaller and cheaper actors, that could be just as successful. Another part of the process is finding a good location, that reflects all of the things that the script suggests. This could be difficult, as a location owner may turn down the offer, or locations might not be safe or suitable for the particular filming process. Although not necessary, a read-through or rehearsal may be suitable in order to make sure all of the actors understand the character that they are portraying in the movie.

The actual production process highly depends on the success/failure of the preproduction process. Was the right cast selected? Is the script up to standard? The quality of the production process is all very dependant on whether all (if not most) of the pre-production requirements were met correctly. Crew required on set include director, producer, actor, camera crew, sound crew, safety etc. There are scenes shot on location, in studio and on green screen.

The postproduction process consists of editing, sound mixing, visual effects, ADR and foley work. Editing is the process of stitching the clips together in the correct order for the movie. Sound mixing is the process of combining ADR, real sound and effects together in order to create the product that is required. ADR is usually a last resort method for fixing audio issues. It is the process of dubbing audio over the top of audio. Foley work is the same process, however is much easier because it isn’t the process of dubbing dialogue, it is the process of dubbing sound effects.

Marketing

Trailers are an important part of any marketing campaign for any movie. They are shown in a wide range of places, such as TV, online, in Cinemas and more. Trailers must be able to tell the story of what happens without ruining the story. It must intrigue the attention of all of the target audiences but not show all of the funny parts in order to get a good review and not be slated for ruining/over hyping the movie. Trailers for the internet and cinema are usually 1-2 minutes long. TV ads are usually around 30 seconds long, because the lack of information could intrigue people to research the movie themselves during the ad break, through the use of the internet.

The website is also an important part of the marketing campaign because it provides a one stop place for information, updates, games and merchandise in order to convince people to watch and later on purchase the movie, and maybe sell merchandise to the younger audience (if applicable). The website often has a large graphic, a list of cast for people who may like to see films by a particular actor (e.g. Johnny English).

Billboards are usually placed outside places where young people tend to be, next to schools and shopping resorts/centers. This will draw attention of the target audience. Billboards will likely contain a large title, large print photos of actors and a slogan, to help people to remember the movie by a slogan. They often have a short url at the bottom of the poster in order to help people remember the url. Most teenagers have a smartphone so will likely look it up.

Posters are placed in cinemas, bus stations, trains, and other advertisement places. The posters are usually stylized with the main characters on the front, with a matching background. For example in a Michael Bay movie, there will be an explosion in the background. In a kids movie there will be bright colours and large text in order to draw their attention to the poster and make them want to see it.

Chat shows are a great way to promote a movie. Because people are sometimes regular viewers of chat shows like the Jonathan Ross show. They may tune in and see the actor. Also, people who like the actor may hear that they are going to be on the show, and hear about whatever they are promoting in that way. They will often show a trailer on the show, and sometimes have other cast and crew on the show to explain the movie further.

Distribution

Movies are distributed in multiple ways. Different companies can have different connections with other companies. For example, a movie distribution company could be connected to a cinema company, so may be easier to get the movie shown. Rental services are also a popular method of distributing and viewing a movie. For example, Working Title have a business relationship with ODEON Cinemas. Services such as Blockbuster,  LoveFiLM, and Netflix are all very popular services. Pay-per-view services such as blinkbox and Now TV are also very popular methods of finding and streaming movies legally. These services are usually extremely popular and have a large selection of movies available to chose from using the UK and US version (Netflix, for example).

Piracy has a lot of impact on the movie industry, however the large film companies do over-exaggerate the loss that is caused by the illegal downloading sites. This can affect jobs, future roles and potentiality of sequels. Although illegal downloading is very common, legal digital downloads still exist on services such as iTunes, HMV etc.

Cinemas are still the primary outlet for film releases in the UK and the world. This is because it is the easiest way for movies to be accessed legally, as soon as they are made public. Cinemas are pretty much always the first place that mainstream movies are shown, and is therefore the most accessible. It is generally the start of all films, unless it is an exclusive series. A cinema is the first place where a film is distributed because it has great sound quality, a large screen, and other technical standards that people want. Also, the viewer has no control over the screening. For example, when viewing at home, they have the power to pause the video, skip ahead, rewind, adjust the volume, etc. At the cinema, all the control is with the cinema operator – exactly how the movie is intended to be watched. Cinemas also have links with production companies, which means they can secure deals to show the movie first. Cinema sales are also where the Box Office Gross’ are calculated.

Market Position

The main industries I am going to compare and discuss are the UK film industry, Bollywood, and Hollywood (America). The top creator f0r movies is America. They 99 times out of 100 will get a higher profit than any UK or Bollywood movie. The UK is next in the chart, who’s successful movies tend to be made for very little money, and have a ridiculously high profit margin in comparison to the actual budget. Whereas successful UK movies tend to be popular all over the globe, UK movies are still primarily aimed at a UK audience. They usually have big UK actors, UK settings and sometimes UK directors. Profits generated from the UK alone can help to prove this. For example, a very successful UK movie, “The King’s Speech”‘s total revenue was £430 million, whereas the UK alone raked in £44 million. Hollywood movies such as Iron Man have less of a UK impact on the revenue. Iron Man made a total of $1.2 billion, and drew a total of $57 million from the UK. Which granted is still a high number, but is proportionately small. However, with this in mind, as of 2011, the UK market share of movies is 12.8%.

It is very popular for Bollywood movies to be co-directed/produced with UK film companies. For example, Slumdog Millionaire was directed by Danny Boyle, but co-directed by Loveleen Tandan. This was because most of the movie was shot in India, and Danny Boyle won’t be as knowledgeable about the language or culture as Tandan would be.

Audience

Working Title movies are generally a large variation of genres, varying from comedy to family friendly PG movies. Their certifications range from U’s to 18’s. This is so that their profit levels are generally quite high. Target audience is generally selected from three categories, Age, Gender and Socio-Economic grouping. The age ranges are 15-25. 25-35, 35-55 and 55+. The socio-economic groupings are E, D, C2, C1, B and A. E are casual labourers, pensioners and the unemployed. Also includes students with disposable income. D are semi-skilled/unskilled manual laborers. This could be an assembly work liner. C2 are skilled manual workers such as electricians or carpenters. C1 workers work in supervisory roles, junior managerial jobs for example. They can also be bank clerks and sales personnel. People of group B are intermediate managerial, administrative and professional workers. A workers are of high managerial position, administrative, and/or professional. A lot of movies are aimed at E’s because they are usually students, without any bills, or any fixed outgoing bills. They have pocket money/spare money and could have a part time job as a paperboy or in fast food (for example). The films they make generally fit into these generic stereotypes very well. This is how they make money.

UK Working Title Films are generally films that are made for a UK audience. The narrative and language used in the movie is solely aimed at a British market. Successful UK movies tend to have two main age groups, 15-25 and 25-35. 25-35 year old viewers are the slightly older people and the movies will be aimed at this age group, who would watch movies with education aspects in them for example. A prime example of this is “The King’s Speech”. The King’s Speech was a historical drama movie, that contains some humorous elements in it, but was also a biographical piece, and therefore contains some educational aspects to it. This film may not necessarily appeal to the younger audience of 15-25 year olds.