The British film industry 30 questions

What % of global box office was the British film industry responsible for?
 The British industry was responsible for 15%. 
What was this % in 2009?
There was 6.8% global box office profit from British Films in 2009.
What might this change indicate about British film?
This change suggests that British films are becoming better and more successful.
What films have been responsible for this change?
The films that have been responsible for this change are The King's Speech, Skyfall and Slumdog Millionaire.  
What % of the British film industry makes a profit?
Films that have a budget of £2 million make a profit of 4%.
What % of Hollywood films make a profit?
17% of Hollywood films make a profit.
How does that % differ between £2m and £10m budget British films?
Because films that are made with a budget of £2 million will find it hard to make the money back because films they make are less known than the films that are made for £10 million.  
What might we infer from this difference?
When a film has a higher budget, the makers are able to do more effects and hire more well known actors.
Which age group makes up the largest % of UK cinema goers?
Ages 18-24 both male and female.
Why do you think this might be?
Because these are the target audience for most films coming out.
Which 'type' of film has seen an 18% drop in attendance?
3D films have seen an 18% drop in attendance.
Within that 'type' which genre has seen the biggest fall?
Family films such as Brave.
What did Charles Grant put this decline down to?
The prices of the 3D tickets was too much for families.
Who is Paul Greengrass?
Paul Greengrass is an English film director, screenwriter and former journalist.
How did he describe the British film industry?
He said that the British film industry had changed from what it used to be.
What did a BFI spokesperson say was the point of less profitable low budget British films?
"tiny budget films that, while commercial success is always hoped for, are successful and beneficial to the industry for other reasons like skills and training development and for artistic and cultural importance"
What was the budget for Filth and how much money did it take?
the budget was £2 million and it made £4 million.
What advantage did James McEvoy feel £100m films have over low budget films?
He said that films with larger budgets have chances to sell the films in all sorts of ways, where as smaller budget films aren't able to do this.
What is VOD?
Video on Demand
What % increase did VOD see last year?
The VOD market has increased by 50% last year.
What impact might VOD have on distributers and Studios?
its becoming more popular and it might out sell them.
What impact has it had on Blockbuster rental stores?
It could outsell the stores which means that they could run out of business.
What was unique about Ben Wheatleys 'A Field In England'?
It was the first UK film to be released in the cinema, DVD, TV and on demand.
What does director of The Machine Caradog James think is the toughest part of film making?
"The toughest thing is you make a good film but can you get it to reach an audience? It's events like this and individuals who champion independent cinema that give us a profile and any chance of a mass audience."
Why have rules been relaxed on what makes a film 'British'?
To make more people want to make British films so that they can be more of a success.
How has the use of visual effects in films been encouraged?
Because they make films more interesting and fun to watch and as a result of that the ratings go up.
Name five of these rules and link them to The Kings Speech, Kill List, The World's End
Keeping a British Theme through culture -Kings Speech
'LAD' like actions and ways about them - Worlds End
British director - The King's SpeechBritish Cast - Kill List, Worlds End Location set in Britain - Kill List, Worlds End, King's Speech 
What rules has chancellor George Osbourne announced for tax on British films?
He announced that films only need to now spend 10% of their budget within the UK to qualify for tax relief, where previously they had to spend 25%. Tax relief would be applied to 25% of the first £20m of a production, and 20% on any remaining budget, regardless of the overall total; previously only films under £20m were eligible for the higher rate.
What is the highest grossing film in UK box office history?
Skyfall.
How much has it taken and how many screens was it available on?
£94.3m in the UK, Sky Fall opened in 587 cinemas across the UK and Ireland on 26 October.

Roland Barthes Research

Barthes codes theory from alexdabriel

Kill List Research

Warp X- This is a British film production company based in Sheffield UK. It is a digital film studio that produces films with a budget of in between £400,000 and £800,000. The studio is set up for new film directors to create movies for the first time, with a low budget and low expectation. The film studio began with support from organization including Warp Films, Film Four, The UK Film Council, EM media and Screen Yorkshire.

 Studio Canal- This is a French based production and distribution company that owns the third largest film library in the world in the world. the company is owned by the canal+ group ( which is owned for most the part by Vivendi and Universal studios).

Film Yorkshire (Screen Yorkshire)- For over ten years, Screen Yorkshire has been at the forefront of championing the film, TV, games and digital industries in Yorkshire and the Humber. Its aim has always been to secure and support the very best projects, companies and individuals, helping to make Yorkshire and the Humber one of the most sought after destinations for production in the UK.

Film Four- Film4 is a digital television channel available in the United Kingdom and Ireland, owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, that screens films. It offers films in standard definition free of charge.

UK Film Council- The UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 by the Labour Government to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee governed by a board of 15 directors and was funded through sources including the National Lottery.

Rook Films-





Distributors 

Optimum Releasing- StudioCanal UK (formerly Optimum Releasing/Home Entertainment/Classics) is a film distributor company working in the UKand Ireland. The company releases many films, including foreign language films, anime releases such as Studio Ghibli's films and independent British, Irish and American films in the UK and sometimes Ireland.
Optimum was acquired by StudioCanal, a subsidiary of Vivendi SA, in 2006. Since StudioCanal bought Optimum, the French company distribute their large back catalogue of classic British films (many from the Cannon and EMI catalogues) through Optimum releasing under the strand 'Optimum Classic'. 


IFC Midnight- IFC Films is an American film distribution company based in New York, an offshoot of the Independent Film Channel owned by AMC Networks. It distributes independent films and documentaries under the IFC Films, Sundance Selects and IFC Midnight brands. It operates the IFC Center.

   

Gender Essay

In most TV dramas women are portrayed as being less powerful and men are the ones who are in control. However in this Doctor Who clip it is shown differently. At the start of this clip there is a close up of the character called "The Master" we are given a close up of his face to show his facial expressions. In the background we see an out of focus shot of Martha being taken to The Master by two of his guards, she is smaller than the two guards which shows their power over her.

Next we are given a low angle shot, with The Master and his assistants at the top of the stairs and Martha at the bottom. One of the assistants is wearing a red dress and this could represent the male gaze in the clip, because she has no purpose in the clip and is there just so people look at her. The Master is wearing a black suit and with his hands in his pocket, which could show that he feels in charge of everyone in the scene. The Master and his assistants are on higher ground than Martha which could show the power that he has over her, also some of his guards are holding female hostages which could suggest that the males in the room have the most power. The Master tells Martha to kneel, which she does and this shows that the Master has the control over Martha and may feel like she will do anything that he says.

In the scenes Martha is seen to be wearing very masculine clothes, she also has her hair tied back. Stereotypically we don’t think of women wearing masculine clothes because we find it un-lady like. Also we get close ups of Martha’s face which show her emotions and how she is feeling. We often think that women are more emotional than men, however in this clip Martha is worried but not crying this shows that she is not like other women we see on TV because although she is worried she is keeping her emotions in check to show the Master that she is not afraid of him. When the Master turns the countdown on the sound of the clock ticking adds tension to the scene.

In the scenes where Martha is in a flashback, she is seen to be doing very hard work, whereas in most shows the man is seen doing the work and the woman is usually a house wife or not doing as much work as the man. But this clip proves this stereotype to be wrong. In most TV shows the male is shown to be rescuing the female, however in this clip the person who is being saved is the Doctor and the person saving him is Martha. This shows that women are capable of doing the same things as males do. While Martha is telling the Master about her flashback her voice seems to be getting louder whereas before at the start of the clip she was quite and did what the Master told her to, this is showing that Martha is gaining control of the situation and the Master is losing his power to Martha. The music in the background is getting louder because the clock is getting closer to zero this adds lots of tension and excitement to the scene.


Over all in this clip of Doctor Who we see that women can be independent and don’t need a man to help them. We also see that the powers in a scene can switch sides showing that women can be more powerful than a man.   

Ethnicity in Hotel Babylon

Ethnicity in Hotel Babylon

In this clip ethnicity is presented as white people being superior to other races of people (black, Asian) and people who are from a different country e.g. polish people. The clip shows illegal immigrants doing jobs that white people wound not want to do for very little money, and the white people doing jobs such as receptionist and getting a fair salary.

 

At the beginning of the clip the police man that is in charge of this raid gets a close up shot of his face to show the audience that he means business and wants to get a result. He also gets the close up of his face to show his expressions and to show the audiences that he be portrayed as the bad guy in this episode. The clothes that the detective is wearing are considered smart with a dark blue jacket and a lighter jumper underneath it. The lighting of the scene is dark because it represents the role of the detective to the audience.

Next the woman working at the reception is white and wearing smart clothing.  She is wearing a white suit because she is a higher rank than most people working for the hotel which means that she can wear what she wants. She could consider herself being better than all the other workers because she has a better job than them and the fact that she is British allows her to be offered roles like this because she is from this country. The way the woman speck is very formal and professional. Also she has make up on and is wearing jewellery which other workers are not allowed to.

Now to the main character in this scene Jackie, she is another worker for the hotel but she is a lower rank to the woman at the reception, she is wearing the uniform for the hotel. When we first see Jackie she is in a dark room at the back of the hotel, next the room does not have a lot of room in it there are files and other thing in there. In the next scene Jackie is seen going into the kitchen of the hotel and telling all the illegal immigrants to follow her in a room and hide, she is specking in a different language which could suggest that she is an immigrant herself but a legal one. The camera is following her as she is running. Next is the camera shot is behind an elevator shaft and shows Jackie and the immigrants running towards the room, this could represent what the immigrants are feeling locked behind bars. The camera then does a close up of Jackie opening the door to the room, she is struggling to open the door because she is a rush to open it and this builds up the tension of the scene. Once they are in the room she locks the door, this could reflect on how the immigrants are feeling as if they are locked in the hotel and can’t go out.

Next you see the immigrant that did not go to the hiding room, because he is doing his cleaning job. This job was given to him because no legal immigrant wanted to do it so that job was given to him and that goes for almost all illegal immigrants they are given jobs that no else wants to do. Ibrahim is his name and he gets caught be the police searching the hotel. The police that catch him are all white and wearing smart clothing, the lighting in that room is normal.

While Ibrahim is being caught a woman in the room faints and another immigrant helps her out because he was a doctor in his country that he was from. This shows that he was an intelligent man in his country, but because he is an illegal immigrant he has to do work that he does not want to do. This shows that some illegal immigrants have to leave their because of some sort of conflict there. All of the immigrants are wearing the hotels uniform; also the lighting in the room is dark.

When Ibrahim is being taken out of the hotel the room is dark and people staying at the hotel are shocked to see what they are seeing. Jackie is trying to persuade the police man not to take him in because of what happened to his brother and farther but he refuses and says that if he doesn’t bring anyone back he will  be killed by his boss. He then says “rules of the game” which could mean that they are not treating this as serious as they should be and also that it happens quite often. The camera is in a close up when the police man says these things; it’s on a close up to show his facial expressions.

Dredd Essay

Dredd 3D was a flop film released in the year 2012, the budget for the film was $45 million and it only made back $36.5 at the box office. In this essay I will be writing about how and why it flopped and I will be comparing to the dark knight rises.

One of the reasons why Dredd was a flop film for me is that it’s not a very known comic character; this could mean that not many people knew who Dredd was. On the other hand Batman is known in the world and almost everyone knows who he is and that is one of the reasons why the dark knight rises was a big hit. The year that Dredd came out into the cinema it had very big competition from the likes of The Avengers Assemble, The Amazing Spiderman and The Dark Knight rises. So people would want to see them more because they have herd of them more.

 Next the certificate for Dredd was an 18, which means that only people over 18 can see the film. This restricts the film to make more money because of the limited people allowed to watch it. The dark knight rises certificate was 12a, this allows for a wider age range to go and see the film. Another reason for Dredd was a flop is the budget that the film got to be made, it was given $45 million to be made and that is not that much for a comic book film. The dark knight was given $250–300 million ($230 million after tax credits) which is a lot more than Dredd. This allows the director of the film to a lot more in the film e.g. film in more exiting places and have better technology in the film. In Dredd the graphics used in the film were not that good for example when Dredd shoots the guy in the face, it just looks like paint is coming out and does not look very realistic. In the dark knight rises, the graphics in the film looked realistic.

The location used to make Dredd was Cape Town in South Africa; they could only use one location because of the low budget given to them to make the film. This could be a reason why it was a flop because they were not given the chance to shoot in more exiting places. For the dark knight rises the locations were India, Romania, Michigan, Pittsburgh, New York, New Jersey, London, Glasgow, Wales and Nottingham. This gives the audience a lot more views of how Gotham City looks like. Next Batman the character is owned by DC a comic (detective comics) who also owns the rights to other big comic book characters such as Superman and The Joker and warner brothers produce their films; they are also a well-known company. DNA is the studio that made Dredd, they made films such as 28 weeks later but they are a British based studio and they are not very big. This is one of the reasons why Dredd was a flop because of the size of the studio that made it, they could not give the director the resources that he wanted to make the film. On the other hand warner brothers are a big company and make big movies like man of steel, and they can provide the director and the production team with what they want to make the film.

The actors and actress that were in the film Dredd were  Karl Urban as judge Dredd, Olivia Thirlby as judge Cassandra Anderson, Wood Harris as Kay and Lena Heady as Ma Ma. These are all good actors but the only one that I have herd of is Karl Urban and I think that was one of the problems with the film, there was no big Hollywood name in the cast. The dark knight rises cast includes Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Gary Oldman as James Gordon, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, Tom Hardy as Bane, Marion Cotillard as Talia al Ghul / Miranda Tate, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. In that list there is several big names and that was a reason why the dark knight rises was a hit film because people knew who the actors were. Dredd flopped because the actors and actresses in the film were unknown and people did not want to see a film where they did not know who played in the roles.

The marketing for Dredd was not very good. The things that they did to market the film and promote it were launch a new website for the film, which included news and information about the film and also have videos about the slow Mo drug used in the film. Next tie in comic book was made for the film was made it was about the origins of Ma Ma and how she became a drug lord. Lastly the released an exclusive film poster. This is not that much marketing for a film and this was a major factor why the film was a flop because not that many people herd of it coming out. The dark knight rises marketing was much better than Dredds, they had a website for the film where people had to decrypt an audio file using twitter. Next they had a logo for the film on a formula 1 car, toys of the characters where made, a video game was released on ios and android this meant that people world-wide knew that the film was coming out. Also they had clothing made for the film in which people could buy and lastly the stars of the film would go onto TV shows and talk about the film trying to help promote it. This is why the dark knight rises was a hit film because there marketing was great, Dredd on the other hand didn’t do well because there marketing was poor.

Lastly the film Dredd 3D stuck very closely to the comics which is great for people who are fans of Dredd, but because Dredd is not very known people might have been put off because in the movie Dredd never takes off his helmet and you can’t see his face. Next the film is violent throughout and people could have been put off because of how much violence was in the film. Lastly the films’ ending is a bleak dystopia which is an ending that doesn’t really matter to people who watch the film, this could be why the film was a flop. The dark knight rises stick with the comics in some places but the director has put his own touch on the character which both comic book fans and non-comic book fans enjoyed. The film is violent in some scene but not that violent and kids can watch it. Lastly the ending to the film is happy you feel happy after you have watched it, this could be why people liked it so much.

These are my opinions on why Dredd 3D was a flop.                   

Ethnicity in Arrow

stereo-typically we think of black people to normally be involved in gangs,drugs and crime. Also we think of them always wearing track suit bottoms and a hood. But as you can see here David Ramsey's character John Diggle  is not like that, he is smart, has good manners but he is involved in crimes, however he is on the good side of the law and is willing to help people as you can see in the clip. so this this character is not what we think black people are like.

When we watch TV shows the blond girls are usually portrayed as being stupid and dum, also they are very made up. But in this show and the clip you can see that Emily Bett Rickards character Felicity Smoak is not like that at all. She is very smart because she is the IT technician and helps to take down criminals. in addition to that she is not at all heavy made up, she is just wearing a normal amount of make up and dresses smartly because of her job.   







Stephen Amell plays a  billionaire playboy turned hooded vigilante, in some TV shows white people are shown to be one of the richest people in that show and this is an example of that. But his character Oliver Queen at the start of the show took advantage of how rich he was and did not care about anyone but himself, but that all changed when his yacht sunk and he was held captive on a island. When he returned to his city he uses his money to help people who are being bullied by the rich. This shows that all rich people are not snobs and want to help people who are less fortunate than them. He often wears smart clothing such as jeans and a nice jumper but the colors that he has are often blues, grays and blacks.  



Here is a clip to show you what i'm on about if you have not seen this.