The Selfish Giant is a 2013 British drama film directed by Clio Barnard that follows two teenage boys growing up in a poor area of Bradford, England. It was produced independently by Moonspun Films with funding from the BFI and Film4. Though the film was critically acclaimed and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, as an independent production with a budget of £1.4 million, it only made $943,209 at the box office, and therefore did not turn a profit.

3. THE SELFISH GIANT
• The Selfish Giant is a 2013 British drama film directed by Clio Barnard, who also
wrote the film.
• The film stars Conner Chapman as Arbor and Shaun Thomas as Swifty, these were
the two main boys in the film and it was based on their lives and the hardships
they went through.The film follows the livfilm stars Conner Chapman as Arbor and Shaun Thomas as
Swifty, these were the two main boys in the film and it was based upon Arbor and
Swifty, teenage boys growing up in a poor and run down area of Bradford, northern
England. Arbor suffers from hyperactivity disorder, which often gets him into trouble
even when it is not his intention. When the boys are suspended from school after a
fight, they decide to earn money collecting and selling scrap metal. They quickly
realize that stealing copper from telecom, railway, and power utilities can be lucrative.
Until the older characters in the film start to take advantage of them and they but
themselves in huge danger…

4. PRODUCTION COMPANY
The Selfish Giant was produced by Moonspun Films, British Film Institute (BFI) (present) and
Film4 (present)
Moonspun films was established in 2008 by Tracy O’Riordan and is an award winning
documentary and feature film production company.
Winner - Best New Documentary Filmmaker - Tribeca Film Festival 2010
Winner - The Sutherland Award and Best British Newcomer - LFF 2010
Winner - The Innovation Award - Sheffield Documentary Festival 2010
Winner - The Douglas Hickox Award (plus 5 nominations) - BIFA Awards 2010

5. FUNDING
- The film had numerous distributors which played a part in making sure their
film was well known and also funded the film
- A lot of the funding came from the BFI
Opening Weekend
$132,128 (UK) (25 October 2013) (35 Screens)
Admissions
$29,935 (Netherlands) (31 December 2014)
Copyright Holder
© Selfish Giant Film Ltd/The British Film
Institute/Channel Four Television Corporation 2013
“Sometimes I think we can idealise children
and childhood. But when I made my first film
The Arbor, I saw loads of children that are
excluded, not just from school, but from
society” – Clio Barnard
Due to having
already produced a
successful film before
hand the producers
knew she was
talented and had
faith in her work

6. PRODUCTION
Budget: £1.4million + made $943,209 at Box office
The selfish giant made a profit, which is impressive when compared to other films such as the lone ranger, which was produced by Walt Disney pictures with a
budget of $225-250million that ended up making a loss of between $160-190million
Barnard was able to keep the location costs low as there were only two
filming locations used in the film. The first was Willington,
Derbyshire, England UK( the power station).then Bradford, West
Yorkshire, England UK(city). These locations are roughly two hours
away from each other so the expense of the shoot would have been
much lower than if the distances were further.
The casting was done by Amy Hubbard, she had also been in
charge of the casting for the lord of the rings and the hobbit

7. PRODUCTION
There were not a lot of technological
convergence used for this film as it was
an independently made British film. Unlike
films produced by companies such as
Walt Disney Pictures this film didn’t have
a big budget and so technological
convergence was not the main priority.
Also the film was only shown In 35
different cinemas and so a he distribution
was not entirely necessary. Through the
internet it would most likely have been
advertised and this would have helped to
gain more publicity for the places in which
the film was being shown.
Music
Harry Escott was the composer for the
selfish giant. Also known for ‘shame’, ‘hard
candy’ and ‘welcome to the punch’.
Music was a key part of the film as it
helped to tell the audience the story and
convey the themes that were used.

8. ADVERTISEMENT
• THE SELFISH GIANT TRAILER WAS RELEASED 07 / 01 / 2014
HTTPS://VIMEO.COM/74646599
There were numerous film posters made that were shaved on social media and around
held in the cinemas where the film was shown that are shown on the next slide…
As it is an independent film social media is a key part of marketing and advertisement as it is free.
On the selfish giants Facebook page it includes information about the film, photos and videos from
the film and also links to their other social media accounts.

10. DISTUBUTION
WORLD PREMIER : CANNES 2013
Due to it being such a success (award wise) lots of people made glowing reviews of the film some
including
- “The Selfish Giant is more restrained formally, but I think it is the better of the two films”
the newrepublic
- “Pushed at the boundaries of documentary film-making.” The guardian

11. MERCHANDISE
As the film didn’t make a profit and was
an independent film it didn’t have the
funds to produce merchandise like
films produced by the big six i.e. frozen.
Although it did produce a film on Blue-
ray and DVD as shown…
27th of January 2014

12. BOX OFFICE – SUMMARY
Budget: £1.4million + made $943,209 at Box office
Therefore this film did not produce a profit