British cinema fundamentals 2015

1. BRITISH CINEMA FUNDAMENTALSBRITISH CINEMA FUNDAMENTALS
NB: abbreviations I use – auds = audience/s; instns = institutions; natl = national
G322 BRITISH CINEMA TOPICS: Candidates should be prepared to understand and discuss the processes
of production, distribution, marketing and exchange as they relate to contemporary media institutions, as
well as the nature of audience consumption and the relationships between audiences and institutions. In
addition, candidates should be familiar with:
the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing;
the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing
and exchange;
the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;
the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;
the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or
global institutions;
the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends
of audience behaviour.
This unit should be approached through contemporary examples in the form of case studies [we will use Warp
+ Working Title]
A CONDENSED VERSION:
Case studies, using contemporary egs
Cover full film cycle: Production, Distribution/Marketing, Exhibition/Exchange
Key themes: digitisation, ownership/finance, audiences
All themes: ownership; cross media convergence/synergy; technologies; hardware/content proliferation;
technological convergence (for auds + instns); global instns > targeting natl/local auds; your own experiences
CASE STUDIES: WARP v WT, PLUS…
 Warp/WT often a binary
 But some similarities, common ground
 Digitisation: threat/opportunity?
Wider context beyond these two is useful
 Eg: Avatar, Marvel, Corrie Greenop, Hinterland, Colin…
MARKED ON EAA, EX, T
Explanation/Analysis/Argument [EAA] 20/50 marks
Use of Examples [EX] 20/50
Use OF Terminology [T] 10/50
British Cinema: The Fundamentals, 2015 by Mr Burrowes 1

2. WHAT WE MEAN BY EAA
Explain complex terms, concepts, ideas
Analyse how industry and audience interact
Argument: put YOUR spin on how things work; answer the question!
WHAT WE MEAN BY EX
There are many areas this covers, including some semiotic detail from the film or its marketing; financial and
ownership; production/marketing strategies (its hard to really separate the two if it’s a commercial movie);
digitisation elements and convergence …
NB: its conventional to note a film once as Theory of Everything (Marsh, 2014). If unsure, just
try to get the year roughly right. For financial figures/screen counts etc, same point: if unsure,
just try to get it roughly right. Generally round box office off to nearest $m.
FINANCIAL: budget; box office (can use UK, US, global, RoW [non-US], US % take etc); screen/theatre
count
COMPANIES: co-producers, financiers; public bodies (UKFC/regional wings, now BFI, National Lottery,
tax breaks); TV/Subscription companies [convergence] (BBC, C4/Film4, NetFlix etc); distributors (as with
budgets, UK, US etc)
COMMERCIAL: tie-ins, product placement (Bond $100m+ record; unsuitable for Warp!; Paul: Tango),
merchandising, synergies + horizontal integration (games, OST etc), OST, retailer deals (Tesco aisle banners
for Les Mis; Sainsbury exclusive Rush DVD edition)
MARKETING + PRODUCTION STRATEGY: for commercial movies, the production strategy is part of
the marketing strategy, but for more niche, less mainstream movies this is less so
semiotic/specific detail from poster, trailer, OST CD/DVD cover; OST artists/music videos (BJD Geri
Halliwell Raining Men; Love Actually Love is All Around – 4Weds included Wet Wet Wet version which was
no.1 for 9 weeks), website/social media…
Release strategy: date – counter-programming or avoid competition (Theory pushed back in US to Dec 25th
to
avoid Hobbit!); staggered release (DVD regions);
Audiences targeted (using semiotic evidence from film or marketing, + any production strategy)
[PRODUCTION STRATEGIES] Horizontal integration and synergy (most commonly music [Arctic Monkeys!],
but even theme parks: TTSSpy at Universal Theme Park)
Cast/stars (must have US/Hwd/A-list for global appeal?); location/setting, region/accents, social class
(ethnicity, gender?) of an/protagonists
Genre, hybrid, comparability (just look at Marvel hegemony)
CGI/SFX/IMAX/3D: spectacle, tentpole. Green Zone and John Carter show there are no guarantees. Avatar
smart practice. WT to produce $65m Everest in 3D in 2015. Les Mis box office helped by IMAX. 3D/IMAX
currently beyond Warp (wrong genres too?), BUT Monsters and Cloverfield and Moon show that sci-fi can be
done cheaply, by Indies now thanks to digitisation and convergence (dropping price of hardware, DV editing).
World’s End a poor use of this advantage ($20m budget, $46m global take, just 17 countries)
Event: Harry MacQueen did short tour of Curzon cinemas with Hinterland, his £8k debut, and Ilkley Film
Festival; Four Lions quadrupled prints after Chris Morris tour of Q+A helped boost profile)
Press (Le Donk’s fake cinema release; NMM on Guardian and ’71 ABC1 audience; Michael Bay immune;
not a guarantee: Captain Corelli's Mandolin a $57m star-studded hit book adaptation, good reviews, took
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3. $62m global; John Carter not helped by poor reviews; convergence: rise of Amazon, IMDB, RottenTomatoes
etc user ratings/reviews [+ Twitter] in place of professional reviewers)
DIGITISATION, CONVERGENCE, PROLIFERATION:
Several of the exam board themes combine, all linked to digitisation.
EXPLOSION OF SCREENS: film viewable, accessible through smartphones, phablets, tablets, computers,
games consoles, Apple TV etc
DV EDITING + FILMING: dramatically reduce cost (key part/point of convergence): Le Donk, Atonement
(£48k v £30m; Warp X!). Phones (etc) now cameras. Can edit online (eg YouTube) and through devices
(iPad, even phone). FCPX/Sony Vegas, iMovie/WMMaker have made high-powered non-linear DV editing
accessible, ditto falling cost of computers. Monsters: whole cast/crew in ONE car, initial editing in hotel room
during shoot. Corrie Greenop, Colin, Hinterland and other micro-budget productions. Even 4K cameras are at
consumer level (£300) now.
ONLINE DISTRIBUTION: YouTube, Vimeo etc (ads). VoD (Corrie US deal) – The Two Faces of January
(WT 2014) released on VoD in US before cinema release – experiments with all-platform releases (A Field in
England), Warp’s All Tomorrow’s Parties VoD (+ many more). Corrie US deal VoD. Prints cost £1k, huge
cost reduction if streaming or hard-drive. At tentpole level, making it easier to replicate Avatar simultaneous
worldwide release. Corrie using social media to arrange Cannes meetings!
PIRACY: BitTorrent, ShowBox etc
CROWD-FUNDING: Warp say this is their future; All Tomorrow’s Parties good example (Kickstarter); past
IGS students now doing this
UGC/PROSUMER: Dan Gillmor writes of the “former audience”, arguing the line between producer and
audience has disappeared. All Tomorrow’s Parties was made up of footage filmed by festival audience.
Convergence (above points on hardware and software, plus online distribution) means amateur can produce
and sitribute films, while UGC and social media engagement is increasingly key to studios.
FORMATS: As well as cinema and TV, we now have digital video files (mp4 etc), DVD/Blu-Ray (and
editionalising, from vanilla to ultimate editions, with director’s cuts and extended cut [Paul] common),
streaming/VoD (NetFlix etc)
HOME CINEMA: Eating into cinema revenue: convergence means falling cost of large screens and surround
sound, even home projectors affordable. Thus IMAX and 3D. NBC-U’s Prima is one response: $35k setup
fee, then $500 per movie with max 25 seats. 3D TV has failed though: after big launch with Avatar premiere,
Sky has just closed its 3D Movies channel.
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