Here are the key terms with definitions: Production - The process of making or creating a film. It includes development, pre-production, principal photography, post-production and distribution. Subsidiary - A company that is owned or controlled by a parent company. Distribution - The process of making a film available for viewing by an audience. It includes theatrical exhibition, home video, television broadcast, and digital delivery. Marketing - Promoting and selling a film to an audience. It includes advertising, publicity, trailers, posters, etc. Exhibition - Showing a film to an audience, such as in movie theaters. Vertical Integration - When a company owns different parts of the production and distribution

2. Tyrannosaur - Plot
The story of Joseph a man plagued by
violence and a rage that is driving him to
self-destruction. As Joseph's life spirals
into turmoil a chance of redemption
appears in the form of Hannah, a
Christian charity shop worker. Their
relationship develops to reveal that
Hannah is hiding a secret of her own.
After years of domestic violence and
rape Hannah snaps and has to rely on
Joseph as well.

3. Tyrannosaur - Financed by…
• Film 4
• EM Media
• UK Film Council
• Screen Yorkshire
for a budget of £1.2 million the same month
Hollywood released ‘Rise of the Planet of
the Apes’ with a budget of $93 million!

4. Tyrannosaur - Produced by…
• Warp x - “We want our films to be fuelled by irresistible
stories, and extraordinary, even exotic, worlds. To
challenge and entertain contemporary British and
international cinema audiences.
• The films have to be made digitally and on budgets
between £400,000 - £800,000. So we need movies that can
be made faster, leaner, lighter - with no excess baggage.
That way the films will become profitable much quicker.”
• Inflammable films - Tyrannosaur is their first film.

5. Tyrannosaur - Tech Details
• Shot on Digital
• Shot on DSLR
• English cast and crew
• English subject
• Genre - Social realist
• Hard hitting drama

6. Tyrannosaur - Distributed by…
• Many different companies
• In the UK: Optimum releasing, on DVD Optimum
Home Entertainment (now known as Studio Canal
owned by French company Canal+ owned by
Vivendi (a major conglomerate) who have a large
stake in US film production but no longer own a
studio).
• In the US: Strand Releasing - An art house
distributor
• Digital distribution on itunes, lovefilm, Blu-ray.

7. Tyrannosaur - Marketing
• Posters.
• Trailers.
• A lot of film festival promotion.
• Empire magazine podcast.
• No featurettes or TV spots.
• No major stars to sell it.
• Niche audience. Cinephiles over the age of
25.

8. Tyrannosaur - Exhibition
• Opened on 5 screens in the US
• Film festivals - Toronto and Sundance, amongst
others.
• Limited release - They knew it wouldn’t do well
in cinemas and the money to be made was through
downloads and dvd sales.
• Digital distribution meaning exhibition was a lot
cheaper. Instead of spending £1000 for each
printed reel of film (a film usually has around 4 -5
reels).

9. Tyrannosaur - Profit
• Only a few thousand at the cinemas.
• Opening Weekend
• $7,635 (USA) (20 November 2011) (5 Screens)
Gross
• $22,088 (USA) (11 March 2012)
$21,062 (USA) (4 March 2012)
$19,998 (USA) (12 February 2012)
$19,483 (USA) (5 February 2012)
$18,525 (USA) (22 January 2012)
$17,219 (USA) (8 January 2012)
$15,085 (USA) (11 December 2011)
$13,454 (USA) (4 December 2011)
$7,635 (USA) (20 November 2011)
£243,252 (UK) (1 January 2012)

10. Tyrannosaur - Reviews
Generally Tyrannosaur has been received well
by critics - this is what the American top
critics said:
• This isn't the kind of movie that even
has hope enough to contain a
message. There is no message, only
the reality of these wounded
personalities. Roger Ebert - Top critic
• Tyrannosaur is British miserabilism at
its most numbingly brutal and blunt. -
Melissa Anderson - Village voice

11. Tyrannosaur - Issues• Horizontal integration
• Distributed by a subsidiary (Canal+) of a major conglomerate (Vivendi), therefore money goes
back to them as 50% of cinema sales goes back to the distributor after they have recouped their
marketing costs.
• A very British style - miserablism! Or social-realism (this is not a film for a mass market) and so
many U.S citizen’s may not have wanted to see the film. What is popular with a U.S audience is
period dramas or quaint village dramas reinforcing there stereotypical view of Britain e.g. The
King’s Speech.
• With the influx of American films, British people feel the same too and want to see mainstream
films, so does David Cameron:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/14/british-film-lord-smith-review-brand-promotion
• Only opened in 5 cinemas in the U.S.
• Digital production and distribution has kept costs low, therefore the production companies maybe
able to turn a profit over a longer period of time with dvd and download sales.
• Questions to ponder: Should we make mainstream films in
Britain for a British audience? Or should we make culturally
significant films?
• If we made mainstream films that sold well abroad, would we be
able to make more lower budget films that are culturally
significant due to a healthy industry?

12. Case Study:
Black Swan and
Fox Searchlight
Pictures

13. Plot
• Nina (Portman) is a ballerina in a New York City ballet company
whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed
with dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother
Erica (Hershey) who exerts a suffocating control over her. When
artistic director Thomas Leroy (Cassel) decides to replace prima
ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Ryder) for the opening production of
their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has
competition: a new dancer, Lily (Kunis), who impresses Leroy as
well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White
Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who
represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role
perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the
two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship,
Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side - a recklessness
that threatens to destroy her.

14. Financed by…
• Black Swan began its development initially
through Protozoa Pictures and Overnight
Productions.
• Overnight productions financed the film.

15. Produced by…
• Producers:
Ari Handel, Scott Franklin,
Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer and Brian
Oliver.
• Studios:
Cross Creek Pictures, Phoenix Pictures and
Protozoa Pictures

16. Black Swan - Tech details
• Camera
• Arriflex 16 SR3, Zeiss Ultra 16 Lenses
Arriflex 416, Zeiss Ultra 16 Lenses
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon L-Series Lenses
Canon EOS 7D, Canon L-Series Lenses
• Laboratory
• DeLuxe, Hollywood (CA), USA (prints)
Technicolor, Hollywood (CA), USA
Technicolor, New York (NY), USA (digital intermediate)
Film length (metres)
2946 m (Spain)
2952 m (Sweden)
2954 m (Portugal)
• Cinematographic process
• Digital Intermediate (2K) (master format)
HDTV (1080p/24) (source format) (some scenes)
Super 16 (source format)
• Film negative format (mm/video
inches)
• 16 mm (Fuji Eterna Vivid 160T 8643,
Eterna Vivid 500T 8647) Digital
Aspect ratio
2.35 : 1
• Printed film format
• 35 mm (anamorphic) (blow-up) (Fuji
Eterna-CP 3513DI)
D-Cinema
Director
(Aronofsky)-
”I really wanted the
camera to dance, but I
was nervous about
shooting a psychological
thriller/horror film with
a hand-held camera.”

17. Distributed by…
• The main distributor of Black Swan was Fox Searchlight.
They also contributed 10-12 million dollars for the
production of the film.
• The main distributor for the worldwide audience was
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
• Fox Searchlight distributed throughout the USA whilst 20th
Century Fox distributed Black Swan throughout Europe
and Southern America.
• Theatrical displays of the film were shown throughout a
number of countries and the Blu-Ray/DVD distribution
was also used worldwide.

18. Marketing
• Methods of Marketing:
• Film Trailer
• Posters
• Social Media
• Website
• Apps
• Publicity from the Media
This publicity was mainly from nominations
and collections of awards. This recognition
then spread worldwide which helped broaden
the initial target audience
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=5jaI1XOB-bs
Black Swan managed to
capture the binary opposition of
good vs evil simply within their
posters and the success of these
posters managed to expand
their originally niche audience
into a mass audience.

19. Exhibition
• The overall exhibition cost around
$13,000,000. A further 50% was
expected to be spent on the marketing
of the film. Fox Searchlight produced
a fairly small budget for the film
however the worldwide distribution
(through cinemas, online and hard
copies) helped achieve a gross profit
of $329,398,046.
•
The film was premiered in New York
on the 30 Novemeber 2010.
Black Swan Premiere

20. Synergy
• Fox Searchlight is an American film division of Fox
Entertainment Group alongside the larger studio 20th
Century Fox. Together with Warner Bros. they helped
to promote Black Swan.
• Fox Searchlight also introduced the $13,000,000 budget
towards production.
•

21. Reviews/Awards
• Black Swan received a number of nominations within
the Academy Award nominations (Oscars). Natalie
Portman won the best actress Oscar for her performance
in Black Swan. The film also won best film of the year
at the ‘AFI Awards’. Portman and Kunis won best
actress and best supporting actress, respectively, in the
Academy of Sci-fi, Fantasy and Horror Films, USA.
“Natalie Portman excels
in this gripping ballet
psychodrama from
Darren Aronofsky. Peter
Bradshaw applauds a
film about fear, love and
hatred.” – Guardian.
“Black Swan is one of the
finest movies of the past
few years; it is also sure to
be among the most
unjustly vilified and
misunderstood.”
– Mail Online

22. Issues
• Although Black Swan was widely accepted around
the world. It does not come without its critics.
• The rating of 15 was questioned upon throughout the UK as the strong
sexual content, strong language, drug use and violence were seen as
beyond these age brackets.
• Many parents complained about the explicit content with comments
such as “Surfeit of gory, badly executed violence and unnecessarily
explicit sex scenes” and
“As a parent of a 15 year old, we left during the taxi scene between
the two main characters.”
• The main issues orientated around the strength of the scenes and
whether the age ratings world wide fairly reflected what content was
included throughout the film.

23. Black Swan and Tyrannosaur comparison
• The production budgets were incredibly different between Tyrannosaur and Black
Swan with Tyrannosaur having a small film budget compared with the larger film
budget of Black Swan. Tyrannosaur was filmed digitally due to the small $1.2
million budget however Black Swan converted back to filming on film as they had a
larger budget to achieve this.
Black Swan worked with high convergence to produce posters and soundtracks to
help promote their film, this was done through Fox Searchlight and the high number
of resources they have. However Tyrannosaur had to market their product
individually through Warp X with the use of posters and trailers. Both films were
promoted in similar forms however the resources of each company meant that the
success of each method differed and Black Swan was able to distribute the product
world-wide.
• The influence of American films has affected the British audience as they now
require mainstream films that are being distributed world-wide. This means that the
niche audience for independent British films is slowly deteriorating as mainstream
big Hollywood films are taking audiences away from watching small low budget
films. The oppositions of Tyrannosaur and Black Swan is a perfect example of how
the higher budget larger film (Black Swan) is attracting a huge audience compared
with the smaller budget film (Tyrannosaur) attracting small audiences due to the
limited resources and difficulties behind distribution.

24. DEBATES
• MEDIA COMPANIES ARE BLAMED AS MEDIA
CONCENTRATION LEADS TO MONOPOLY IN THE
MARKET
• SPONSORS AND ADVERTISERS MORE IMPORTANT
THAN VOICE OF THE MASSES
• LACK OF HEALTHY MARKET COMPETITION
• PEOPLE HAVE LESS DIVERSE OPTIONS
• INCREASED CONCENTRATION OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP
CAN LEAD TO THE CENSORSHIP OF A WIDE RANGE
OF CRITICAL THOUGHT.
• HENCE SLOW MODERNIZATION AND INCREASE IN
PRICES
• DOES NOT SERVE PUBLIC INTEREST
• CONCENTRATION OF MEDIA CONGLOMERATES IN US
HAS LED TO AMERICANIZATION

25. COUNTER VIEW
• MEDIA COMPANIES STATE THAT IT LEADS TO
BETTER COMPETITIVENESS BETWEEN GIANT MEDIA
CONGLOMERATES
• REDUCED COST OF OPERATIONS DUE TO
CONSOLIDATION OF SOME FUNCTIONS
• MORE SEGMENTED OR DIFFERENTIATED PRODUCTS
AND SERVICES TO RESPOND TO A WIDER VARIETY
OF DEMANDS BETTER
• INTERNET HAS BECOME A NEW SOURCE OF
AQUIRING INFORMATION. THROUGH BLOGS,
FORUMS.
• THANKS TO THIS TREND GOOGLE AND YAHOO ARE
ALSO MEDIA GIANTS IN THE MAKING.

26. Piracy
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/14029865

27. • Major issues facing British Film Makers
•
According to King's Speech director, Tom Hooper, there has been a revolution in British film
making due to the rise in digital technology. When he was younger digital technology was not
available so he had to use film and could not afford to add sound so his films were silent.
Today gadgets like iPhones etc have the ability to film in HD with sound so everyone has the
opportunity to make a film. Digital is a lot cheaper way of film making however there hasn't
been a reduced cost of marketing a film to the public. E.g. from The King's Speech budget of
$15 million dollars it takes $25/30 million has to be spent marketing it to the US. Tom Hooper
says that there is still a restriction to who can make a film that will reach everyone because
even if you manage to make a film for nothing you still have to have millions of dollars to
market it.
So despite the revolution the digital technology makes to the actual production of the film it
has had little impact to the cost. He also mentions that the use of big name stars is a large part
of the appeal to films and that also is very expensive. So although the digital revolution has
change and given the British film industry opportunities film makers are still restricted by costs
of marketing and distribution, and also the ability to make a film with wide appeal with
blockbuster stars.

28. RECAP
Write down the key term on one side and the definition on the back.
• Production
• Subsidiary
• Distribution
• Marketing
• Exhibition
• Vertical Integration
• Co-Production
• Synergy
• Niche market
• Conglomerates
• Exchange