This document discusses genres in filmmaking and how different institutions approach film production and distribution. It explains that genre is defined by form, content, and technique. It also discusses the differences between a high budget film from a major studio versus an art house or independent film. Major studios have more money to widely distribute their films, while independent films have smaller niche audiences. The document also compares the American film conglomerate Disney, which spends over $150 million on animated films like Frozen, to British institutions like Film4 that independently fund lower budget films around $9 million like Attack the Block.

1. What do you understand?

2. • Genre Definition:
Type; Kind; Sort; Style.
A class or category of artistic endeavour (attempt) having a
particular form, content and technique.
• Form – external appearance of a specifically defined
area, it is distinguished by colour or the way it is
formed/structured.
• Content – the subject and topics covered throughout
• Technique – the manner and ability with which the person
involved employs the technical skills of a particular act or
field of endeavour.

3. You are looking for:
Typical narratives: the type of characters: hero, villain,
youths etc. The structure of the story.
Typical micro elements: lighting/costume/font/props etc.
A typical theme: crime/punishment, good vs evil, love
conquers all etc.
• Some films cannot be classified as one genre. As a
hybrid they use generic conventions from a number of
different genres. One example of this is Shaun of the
Dead who comes under three genres, romantic, zombie
and comedy.

4. •
• Filmmaking has become so much more diverse since the
development of technology. In the present day there is no
single way to make a film, the industry itself has a large
amount of sectors that affect how a film is made. The
sector the film affects how much money is put into the
film, the style of production whether CGI and animation is
used, how it is distributed etc.

5. A high budget film
• A high budget film is one that would appeal to most segments of an
audience. Distributors often spend as much or more than the film
cost to make when distributing mainstream films. These are often
given wide or universal releases.
An art house film
• An art house film is typically independently produced, outside of the
major film studio system. Many major studios are reluctant to pour
money into these films as firstly they are unlikely to return a profit
and this is due to the niche market appeal. Without major studio
backing, art house filmmakers rarely obtain the needed finances for
large productions. These type of films usually have to use lesser
known and amateur actors as they can’t afford well-known,
professional actors. Coupling with this is the need to have real world
locations. An art house film does not have the finances to create
large stunts or special effects.

6. • Development – from idea to signing of contracts with a
production company
Preproduction – this includes all the technical matters, last
minute changes and confirming sets and actors. These
matters have to be settled before shooting to ensure
production works efficiently.
Production – this is the actual shooting of the film
Postproduction – this is where the editing and technical
aspect comes into play. This turns the raw film into a finished
product for the public to see.
Marketing – the process of making the public aware of the
film including Viral marketing, Guerilla marketing, synergy and
convergence.
Distribution – the process of getting the finished product to its
audience.

7. • Nowadays people have a greater access to films across a variety of
media platforms one way is through video on demand.
• VOD
VOD is short for Video-on-Demand, this a term for a wide set of
technologies and companies whose common goal is to enable
individuals to select videos from a central server for viewing on a
television or computer screen. VOD has a main goal to entertain the
audience.
• As VOD is getting a lot more popular across the globe, many more sites
are available to view films on. Film4 is a British institution that funds
findanyfilm.com which is one of the UKS leading sites for users to
stream films.
• The world’s leading internet television network is Netflix. It has over 48
million members across 40 countries. The users all together are
enjoying more than one billion hours of TV shows and movies per
month. Netflix allows their members to watch as much as they want,
anytime, anywhere, on nearly any internet connected screen. These
include, television, iPads, laptops, phones, tablets etc.

8. • An institution is an established organisation or company
often profit based that deals in the creation and
distribution of advertising, entertainment and information
services. A conglomerate is a massive multinational
media company who owns a range of media platforms
which are integrated within a single piece of media
technology.
• In the light of rapid media convergence, conglomerates
are able to attract their audience across a variety of
different media platforms including film studios, TV
stations, Record labels, Newspapers, books and internet
platforms.

9. • American conglomerates are profit based and have the funds to work across a
variety of different platforms. The Walt Disney company, together with its
subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family
entertainment and media enterprise with five business segments. Across these
five business segments they are able to appeal to all segments of the audience.
The first segment is media networks which includes channels such as ABC
News, ABC television, ESPN and The Disney channel worldwide. These
networks appeal to all social classes A to E. Disney’s second segment Parks and
Resorts allows the conglomerate to be multi-national as they have parks and
resorts situated all around the world including Disneyland Paris and Tokyo
Disney Resort.
• Disney uses their funds in order to ensure their distribution is spread throughout
the market place. The Walt Disney studios own a variety of studios including
Marvel Studios, Pixar Animation studios and Touchstone pictures. Horizontal
integration was used in order to take over Marvel Studios, by buying up the
competitors it allowed Disney to become even stronger on the marketplace. They
use a continual state of synergy. The Disney stores promote the consumer
products which in turn promote the television shows. The television shows
promote the company. The consumer products emphasise the buzz around the
film as many people become more aware of the characters involved in the film
and therefore want to be involved in the excitement.

10. • This institution is able to spend
a lot of money on films as they
are so diversified and
successful. One example is the
film Frozen. The budget for this
film is $150,000,000. Whilst this
budget is so extortionate, it
meant that the animation was
so high tech and realistic. This
ultimately resulted in success
for Disney as Frozen is the
highest-grossing animated film
of all time and the sixth highest
grossing film of all time. So far it
has grossed $1.14 billion in the
worldwide box office.

11. • British institutions do not have the funds to have such high
budgets. This often means that they create independent films
instead. One example of this is the film Attack the Block
funded by Film4. They are the UK’s most significantly vertically
integrated film producer in the UK. They fund around 20 films
per year usually by first time writers and directors. Attack the
Block had a production budget of around £9 million. The
opening weekend figures were £1,133,859, it had no initial
plans to distribute to the US, however was able to because
Screen Gems from Sony Pictures purchased the US rights. It
was eventually released to 66 screens across the year. A
marginal success compared to Frozen, however a success for
an independent film.

12. • Films by smaller
institutions cannot
compete with the larger
institutions as they don’t
have as much money to
spend. Attack the Block
contains monsters,
however they were not
created by CGI due to
financial issues. Instead
they were performed by
quadrupeds, this meant it
did not appear as
realistic.