2. The name of our production company is „Dynamic Productions’. We decided
to choose this name because we felt that the word “Dynamic” had an obvious
appealing nature. Essentially, “Dynamic” means change, and that is what we want
our audience to think of us. We want them to think that we are able to adapt our
ideas and that we are willing to try current ideas in order to keep up to date in the
modern market for film and media.
We chose to have water as the main aspect of our logo. We believed that this fitted
with the idea of, „Dynamic‟, meaning change. We thought that water has obvious
connotations of being adaptable and timeless. Optimistically, we assumed that water
is known as a life source, so our target audience would want to keep coming back
for more when it came to viewing our work.
The production company name and logo plays a crucial part when it comes to the
marketisation of a film or media product. When a person sees that a film is being
released that has been made by a major production company such as, “20th Century
Fox”, they are likely to go and see the film. This is because they may have seen a
film produced by them before, and will therefore assume that the new film will reach
their high expectations.
3. A production company basically assists in the making of a film. This
includes aspects such as budgeting, casting, scripting and marketing. They are
judged mostly on their funding, and the past productions that they have completed.
There are six major conglomerate production companies today. They are, 20th
Century Fox, Universal, Paramount , Warner Bros, Sony’s Columbia pictures
and Walt Disney’s Buena Vista Motion Picture Group. As production companies
are ranked by the amount of money they have, they contribute significantly to the
budgeting of the production. They oversee the budget of the film and decide what
amount of money goes to each department. This is generally not a problem for major
production companies but smaller production companies will find that they will have
to limit their options. They cannot give complete creative freedom to the director and
they may have to adapt the script in order to find the cheapest locations, props and
costume that they need for the picture. They also help choose the actors that will
play principle and ensemble roles. Usually, a major production company is
associated with popular actors and directors. Nonetheless, a smaller production
company will have to create „open‟ auditions for its search to find a cast and crew in
order to find new talent that would benefit their production.
4. Occasionally, a production company assists in the scriptwriting for a
production. They usually just oversee the location choices in order to plan
ahead to make cost efficient decisions. In terms of marketing, production
companies frequently attract their target audience by highlighting the image of
specific actors or directors. This entices their desired audience because they
are approaching the fans of that particular artist. Therefore, the fans will be
more likely to want to see the film that their favourite actor, actress or director
has been associated with. For smaller production companies, they have to rely
on marketing devices such as posters and low-budget trailers. Currently, they
are able to use social networking to attract their target audience to a greater
effect.
Production companies play a vital role when it comes to the production and
distribution of a film. Dissimilar to other businesses, production companies do
not have a secure monthly salary; they have to make their money from on-
going investments. Consequently, their only source of income is from the profit
that their productions produce.
5. A distributor is mainly responsible for the marketing of a film. Some
popular distributors include American company Lions Gate Entertainment
and United Kingdom company MGM-EMI. These companies are also major
production companies that are officially now known as entertainment
companies. They set a release date for the film, how it is able to be
viewed, confirm legal approval and explore advertisement strategies. To set a
release date, they must work closely with the production company to keep up
to date of the latest schedules for the film. When they have decided on a
release date, they must decide how it will be viewed by awaiting audiences.
For example, they will have to organise the budgets for each film and decide
whether the film will be released straight onto DVD or if it would air in global
cinemas. After this, they must decide how the film would progress to home
viewing, whether that be, DVD‟s, Sky Movies etc. To set the legal requirements
for a film, they must issue a suitable BBFC rating. Failure to do this, they could
come face to face with executives and receive a fine. Furthermore, if the word
got out that the distributor made a crucial legal mistake, they would lose their
credibility and reputation, making viewers apprehensive about watching their
future releases. In terms of marketing, major distributors would want to appeal
to a global audience but smaller companies must be more specific.
6. Ideally, we would like our video to be distributed by one
of the major companies such as 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros or
Paramount. These companies are all known for their previous
productions and the success that they created. In terms of
thrillers, we would want our distributor to be 20th Century Fox
because they have released thrillers including Alien, 1979. If we
could grab the interest of this major distributor, they would release
our video to a global audience to attract as many viewers as
possible.
However, our film is of low-budget, so we would have to set more
realistic goals when it came to finding a distributor. “Vertigo Films”
are a low-budget British film production and distribution company.
On average, they produce and distribute four films a year, these
include, „StreetDance 3D‟ and „Monsters‟. This company would be a
more achievable goal because they will understand funding issues
and try to distribute our film to as many viewers as possible.
Moreover, they will probably distribute our film in a DVD format
instead of viewing it in cinemas. This will be more cost efficient for
us and we would still build our name with the right marketing
strategy.
7. When creating a low budget film like ours, finding the
resources and funding can be very tricky. There are a few ways
that can help and one of these ways is through a website called
Kickstarter. This website was set us to allow low budget
producers/directors to ask the general public for help in funding
their film. When it was created in April 2009, directors were able to
portray their ideas online. The website isn't just for film
promotions, it also helps in finding funding for music, stage shows
and comics/magazines. When the public enter the website, they
get to read and watch about the film they could possibly start
backing. Depending on how much they want to pay towards the
budget of the film, depends on what gift they get at the end. It
shows the backer what sort of budget the director is looking for and
what you will get when you pledge an amount of money. To find the
target that is needed to produce the low budget film, the director
would go to a large company, like Universal or Sony and ask how
much it will cost them to be able to produce their film using their
facilities.
8. The budgets sometimes seem very unrealistic but sometimes it will cost
more for all the resources and equipment needed to be used. I think that this
will be a good way to get money for a low budget film like ours because it is
quick and easy to get onto, easy to use and also it doesn‟t take to long to
pledge some money which sometimes puts people off. I think the thing that
attracts the public more is probably that they get a gift at the end of it, but only
if the target gets met. The gifts can range from getting a copy of the DVD that
is signed by the actors to getting your name on the credits and being treated
like an executive producer. There is a time limit on the funding as well so if the
public like the look of the film that is going to be produced, they will have to
back it fast because if the time runs out and the target hasn‟t been met, they
would have missed out on the opportunity to get what could be a very
successful film into the cinemas.
9. The importance of the credits at the beginning of a film is so that
the audience can see who produced, directed, filmed and starred
in it. In our thriller film, we chose to put the director first because
we agreed this was one of the most important roles in the entire
production company. You could say that they make up the base
of the production company alongside the producer, marketing
director and crew, the director makes a huge impact into bringing
the film to life. They are there to make sure the actors say the
right lines at the right time, are in the right places when they
should be and generally to give constructive criticism towards the
actors and put their opinion across about whether anything
needs to be changed or moved around. Their most important job
is to make sure the production process is running smoothly and
make sure that no one is ever without a job. By putting the name
of the cinematographer into the credits after the director, not only
shows their importance to the making of the film but it helps them
get noticed by other directors.
10. Directors who what the film will be able to know
what skills this particular cinematographer has and maybe
if that like it, incorporate their skills into their future
productions and films. We decided that putting the names
of the actors who star in our production last wouldn't make
a difference because they will be in the first of the credits
at the end of the film which the audience are most likely to
see. We still added them into the beginning credits even
though it was just at the end. We put them in alphabetical
order so that it doesn‟t give anything away to who is the
main character and what happens to who. Looking back
at the order that we put the titles in, I think we made the
right decision because we sorted them out into order of
importance, don‟t give away anything and include all the
important people in the production company.
11. One very popular film that could have been released the
same way as ours is Paranormal Activity. A success around the
world and it only had a budget of $11,000 to make. Director Oren
Peli marketed the film as „one of the scariest movies of all time‟ and
it only really used two important elements to make it. A single
location and a handheld camera. Peli didn‟t even have to pay to hire
out a location, he used his own house for all the shooting and didn‟t
even have to spare the cost of a camera crew as he left the camera
on a tripod for most of the filming process, increasing the storylines
believability and is one of the easier ways to film. Thriller films have
to connect with the audience so they have to be able to focus on the
things that are most feared by the audience. This film in particular
focuses on the „scare factor‟ rather than blood and gore. This helps
because then it is within the budget set because you wont have to
pay out for all the effects and makeup to be applied and also to use
someone‟s facilities to edit it to make it fit the genre more.
12. By filming it in a house, not only is it cheap and helps
the budget to stay low, it creates a sense of familiarity throughout
the audience and makes the tense and shocking parts of the film
even more interesting. It also scares the audience more when they
think all these scary things are happening in the place where they
are meant to feel safe and secure. Paranormal Activity is just one
of the films that can be compared to ours. It relates well because
Peli had used locations that are easy to get to and don‟t cost
anything to hire, his budget stayed low throughout and he didn‟t
have to pay out for any makeup or other facilities such as
costumes. As mentioned before, he filmed it all himself, either with
a handheld camera or by placing the camera on a tripod in the
corner of the room. We seemed to have the same idea as Peli on
the side of focusing on the real fear of the audience instead of
using all gore and blood. It didn‟t cost him anything and it also
makes the film into more of a physiological thriller, making the
audience ask questions.
