Celador Films is a small, British film production company that produces films on a project-by-project basis. It began as a TV production company but transitioned to film production. Celador uses freelance crews for each project and seeks early distribution deals and product placements to increase budgets. Notable Celador films include The Descent, Dirty Pretty Things, and Slumdog Millionaire. While larger studios like Sony spend more on productions, Celador is able to turn profits on lower-budget films through UK film tax relief and targeting specific genres.

1. Task 1 – Media Institutions
Celador films
Brandon Daffern

2. Ownership
• Celador was originally taken over by Complete Communications,
• which bought out shareholders including Paul Smith CBE and Jasper
Carrott.
• Under the ownership of compelete , Celador expanded its fledgling radio,
film and international businesses.
• In 2006, Celador offered the rights and UK programme library of Who
Wants To Be A Millionaire? for sale, with a view toward the eventual sale
of other parts of the business.
• In 2004 Celador took legal action against Disney for what it claimed were
unpaid profits from Disney’s screening of the programme in the US.
• At a trial by jury in Los Angeles in June 2010 the jury awarded Celador
$269m (£177m) in damages after ruling it failed to receive a fair share of
profits.

3. Operating Model
• Celador Films is a small film production company that produces films on a project by project basis.
• They began as a TV production and changed into a company of film production.
• Small companies such as Celador often find funding initial capitalization.
• Funding could also come from private investment and also some film funding organizations.
• Freelancers are also used by Celador, this means every member of the crew is hired only for that
project and there is no in house crew.
• Distribution rights for their films such as the decent are sold early to get a better budget for the
production. Products were also signed on for sponsorship and advertisement to have a better
budget for the film.
• Direct assistance is given in the form of a FILM TAX RELIEF by the UK Government to help British
films which are made by a British film production company, qualify as British under the Cultural test
or as an official co-production, are intended for theatrical release and have a core production
expenditure of at least 10% of film making spend in the UK. The film tax relief encourages further
investment in the UK, benefits visual effects production in the UK and the wider industry, supports
UK independent production and encourages minority co- productions where the UK spend is less
than 25 %. Celador is a British Film Company, so they can use the Film Tax Relief as a method of
funding and investment when producing films such as The Descent.

4. Products
• Dirty Pretty Things (2002) directed by Stephen Frears and stars Audrey
Tautou and Chiwetel Ejiofor
• Separate Lies (2005) written and directed by Julian Fellowes and stars
Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson and Rupert Everett
• The Descent (2006) directed by Neil Marshall and stars Shauna
Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, Nora-Jane Noone
and MyAnna Buring
• Slumdog Millionaire (2009) (with Fox Searchlight Pictures, Warner Bros.
Pictures and Film4 Productions)
• The Descent Part 2 (2009)
• The Scouting Book for Boys (2010)
• Also Who wants to be a millionaire was made by Celador productions
which is a famous television show.

5. Market Position
• Sony – Spiderman 2
• Budget - $200 million
• Box office - $783.8 million
• Profit – $583.8 million
• Celador films – Descent
• Budget – £3.5 million
• Box office - $57,051,053
• Profit - $53,155,105
• DNA – The Last King Of Scotland
• Budget – $6 Million
• Box Office - $48,363,516
• Profit – $42,363,516
• Working Title – Shaun of the Dead
• Budget - $6.1 million
• Box office - $30 million
• Profit – $23.9 million

6. Competitors
• DNA FIlms – another independent UK based film production company
• FILM 4 – who share with Celador a link between Film and Television
• Sony Pictures Entertainment– a Hollywood conglomerate
Celador films did better than DNA films because it made more of profit. 11
million more than DNA films because the descent had 53 million dollars profit
whereas the last king of Scotland only made 42 million. Whereas the Sony
company made much more money ($583.8 million) this is because big
company's like Sony spend more money to make more money. This is why
Sony spent 200 million dollars on Spiderman 2 and Celador only spent a much
less 3.5 million dollars. Many Hollywood productions spend a lot of money
but some don’t make as much profit and this is why it is a huge risk, which
most company's take.