Practice Exam Question

‘Media production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their products and services to national audiences’ To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Two global institutions I will be looking at is the British Pinewood studios and Americas main institution. Both places have released top box office films. These include Britain’s Les Mis and Americas After earth. The British film industry was only responsible for 15% of the global box office meaning America would have easily topped this with a potential percentage of 85%. Britain however have started to improve with their box office ratings as in 2009 they were on just 6.8%. This meaning is has more than doubled. Does this mean British films are getting more even in quality when compared to America? When looking at the films responsible for this change, you can see why Britain is improving. Britain has managed to produce films such a; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, The Kings Speech and also Skyfall. Skyfall is now known as the highest grossing film in UK box office history and managed to cover 587 UK screens. This overall got the British film industry £20,180,369 in profit.

The domination of media production could also be because of genre of films that has become more popular. A lot more action and horror films are now being produced so the industry is losing audiences of families. However British film, Despicable Me 2, was the most popular film last year. This film I feel would appeal to mostly families with young children and occasionally teenagers. Film reviewer, Charles Grant put the decrease in family films being made down to them being too expensive.

American film industries do have access to services to make their films such as IMAX cameras and CGI. However Britain does have some of the same kind of thing. The British film industry’s profit rating has recently gone up 7% however the American film industry are beating us Britain’s currently with a profit intake of 17%. This 10% difference could potentially be a big difference in what each country can afford to make and what quality it would be. There are only 26 IMAX cameras in the world and they cost half a million pound each. The American industry does have a benefit, for the person in charge of the renting and creation of the IMAX cameras is in fact American.

Overall I do agree with the statement to some extent because the main global institutions do dominate most media production which sells products and services. Britain I feel offer a more and better variety of studios and landscapes for filming. However America offer better services of cameras. This is sometimes why American films are recorded and produced in Britain studios and then the British claim them as their own. Paul Greengrass, an English film director described the British film industry as a success story and predicts it will continue to grow internationally. This is true when you look at the British box office percentages and how they are increasing. Then you compare them to how America is slowing evening out with us.  In the future I think that Britain will continue to rise in percentage and their use of CGI and IMAX cameras will increase. They use a lot of CGI in the film Gravity that was an award winning film and IMAX cameras were used in Thor: The Dark World and this film also made a lot of profit in the box office. This can only be a good thing for the British film industry. And Britain are slowly but surely catching up with the quality of the Americans…So yes, media production is dominated by global institutions.

Production Workers

Writer- The writer is the person that writes the screenplays. A screenwriter (proper name for him/her) has the job of writing the scripts for mass media productions like films, TV programmes, comics or sometimes video games.

 

Producer- The producer is the person that is responsible for the managerial and financial aspects of the making of a film or production. He could also be in charge of a play or opera.

Casting director- The casting director is the person in charge or roles and who plays them. This person will audition the actors or actresses for the role and say which part they will play or not. They are basically in charge of cast and their assignment.

 

 

 Director- The director is in charge of everyone and the department/organisation. He manages and oversees business responsibilities and makes sure everyone is doing things correctly. The director also supervises the cast and other staff members involved in the production.

 

Film finance- The films finance is an aspect of the films production. This occurs during the development stage before the pre-production. It is also something that is considered when the potential value of the film is decided.

Camera operator- A camera operator is part of the films crew. The film crew consists of director of photography and one or more camera assistants. In filmmaking and news the camera is often called to film unfolding and unscripted events so the camera operator has a job of being aware about things. An example of film like this is Bad Grandpa.

Editor- The editor is in charge of the process in which involves corrections, organization and many other modifications. He has to make sure that the final produced work is correct, accurate and completed. This is before it is sent to a trail audience. If they don’t like it, it can be sent back to the editor for more modifications.

Production designer- In a film or a television programme the production designer or the P.D is the person who is in charge of the overall look of the film. The production designers have one of the key creative roles in the creation of films and motion pictures and are very important in the production of them.

Marketing- Marketing is the action or the business of promotion. It is a way of making the film or production known to the public so that they are encouraged to go and see it. Market researches are in charge of making sure the ‘film’ gets enough promotion.

Exhibition- A film exhibition is the distribution of which the film is then processed through an audience. This is done by a film distributer.

The British Film Industry and America's influence. Questions

1.    What % of global box office was the British film industry responsible for? The UK film industry actually only claim 15% of the global box office.

2.    What was this % in 2009? In 2009 the film industry in the UK gained even less, at just 6.8% of the box office films.

3.    What might this change indicate about British film? This change indicates that the film industry in the UK is making improvements as their percentage rate has more than doubled.

4.    What films have been responsible for this change? The films that have been responsible for this change include the films; Skyfall, Slumdog Millionaire, The Woman in Black and The King's Speech. These films were seen as international hits.

5.    What % of the British film industry makes a profit? 7% of the British films industry makes a profit. This is according to the figures revealed by the BFI.

6.    What % of Hollywood films makes a profit? The percentage of Hollywood films that make a profit is what I can see at 17%. The profit being the doubling of the money it took to make the film initially.

7.    How does that % differ between £2m and £10m budget British films? It differs in way that lower budget films, like those made for £2million or less are more likely to make a profit (4%). This because the finance increase is lower so easier to reach. Whereas the figure improves as the film budgets rise. 17% of films that cost £10million or more end up with a profit and making their money back.

8.    What might we infer from this difference? What we might conclude from this difference is that when the film is cheaper, yes it is easier to make a profit but however less likely due to the quality of the film itself.

9.    Which age group makes up the largest % of UK cinema goers? The age group that makes up the largest percentage of UK cinema goers is the category of 16-25 year olds.

10.  Why do you think this might be? I think this might be because people of that age have more free time and can finance it with weekend jobs. It also is popular to go with friends etc.

11. Which 'type' of film has seen an 18% drop in attendance? The films that have seen an 18% drop in attendance is actually 3D films.

12. Within that 'type' which genre has seen the biggest fall? The genre that has seen the biggest fall is actually action because more animated films are coming out now. For example; The Lego Movie, Frozen.

13. What did Charles Grant put this decline down to? Charles Grant understood that this change was due to families.

14.  Who is Paul Greengrass? Paul Greengrass is an English film director, screenwriter and he used to be a journalist. He specialises in dramatizations of real-life events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras.

15. How did he describe the British film industry? He says that the British film industry must nurture young directors.

16. What did a BFI spokesperson say was the point of less profitable low budget British films? The BFI spokesperson said that is was for skills and development. This being done cheaper and with less profit saves money for the industry.

17. What was the budget for Filth and how much money did it take? For the film Filth the budget was $5billion dollars and it took a whopping $4million at box office. So this was in fact didn’t make a profit at all.

18.  What advantage did James McEvoy feel £100m films have over low budget films? The advantage that James McEvoy found was that he could actually make double the money in his profit of what the budget was. This would leave him with £200million.

19. What is VOD? VOD stands for Video on Demand and that means people can watch films and television programmes of their own choice at home by connecting to a system on a computer, interactive TV etc.

20. What % increase did VOD see last year? The increase in Video on Demands last year was 50% so another half of the original percentage use.  

21. What impact might VOD have on distributers and Studios? A good impact that VOD has on distributers and studios is that it is a way in which they can reach the audience with their films without the audience having to buy the DVD or go to the cinema.

22. What impact has it had on Blockbuster rental stores? It does however have an unfortunate impact on places like Blockbuster because it means that people don’t get their films from places like that anymore because they just get them online instead. This would make them lose money from rentals.

23. What was unique about Ben Wheatleys 'A Field In England'? The unique thing about Ben Wheatley’s film was that it was the first UK film to be released in cinemas, on DVD and TV through VOD all at the same time rather than coming out in separate months.

24. What does director of The Machine Caradog James think is the toughest part of film making? The direction of The Machine finds getting the film to reach the audience the hardest/toughest part of making the film actually happen.

25. Why have rules been relaxed on what makes a film 'British'? The rules have been relaxed slightly because it means that it helps encouraging more investment into the film industry. This therefore helps the British film industry to make more money for themselves rather than America.

26. How has the use of visual effects in films been encouraged? It has been encouraged because people like them so much. In the new avengers film for example there is a lot of special effects and the whole of New York City was done in CGI. They had people take photographs and that way they could replicate it all in a program. This means any destruction is cost free. This saves money for the film industry so that’s a reason why it’s being encouraged to be used more.

27. Name five of these rules and link them to The Kings Speech, Kill List, The World's End.

28. What rules has chancellor George Osbourne announced for tax on British films? George Osbourne announced a new tax relief rule on British films that meant it would be increased from 20% to 25% on the first £20m of the qualifying production expenditure.

29. What is the highest grossing film in UK box office history? The highest UK grossing film in the UK box office in the whole of history is actually James Bond-Skyfall.

30. How much has it taken and how many screens was it available on? The information about how many screens it was on isn’t available currently however I do know that it was screened at 587 cinemas across the UK and Ireland. The film itself has also taken £94.3 million as an added income.