Research Into Institutions

I am hoping that research into the film industry will help me understand more about how films are produced and what company would most likely produce my film.
The film industry is the basic creation of film split into 6 parts, the Development, Production, Facilities, Distribution, Exhibition and Export. I have found some percentages of what is included more in the film industry of the companies existed today; 43% of the companies are production, 13% are distribution and the remaining 44% are the exhibition companies.


There are the main stages that a film will have to go through before getting shown at a cinema:

• Production - This is where the scenes are filmed and all put together to make the final movie.
• Distribution - This is when the film is shipped all over the world to where it is going to get shown in different countries.
• Marketing - This deals with the advertising of films, such as movie posters and trailers.
• Exhibition - This is the final stage where the film finally gets shown in the cinemas.

I found from a website that a company that fund films is the British Film Institute, which may be a big help for individual films. They get 15 million pounds a year that they can use to invest in the production of films. If a company is funded by the BFI they won't only receive money, but they will receive guidance along the way of the film making, and they will receive advice by members of the BFI.


A production company that I have done research into is Working Title, who are a production company that are based in London, England. Working Title are co-produced by Sarah Radclyff and Tim Bevan, however Sarah left after a while to be replaced by Eric Fellner. Working Title have teamed up with Universal Pictures who are responsible for their funding. Due to this merger, Working Title have a much higher budget making them able to produce more advanced movies with bigger A-List Hollywood Actors.
Working Title have produced these films:

• Love Actually
• Atonement
• Johnny English + Johnny English Reborn
• Notting Hill
• Sean of the Dead
• Hot Fuzz

Working Title have expanded massively thanks to their merger with Universal Pictures, and they have also been able to distribute their films world wide getting more recognition.

By carrying out this research into institutions it has become a lot clearer on how a film is produced and funded. I have established that working title would be a likely production company to produce my film as the opening sequence is British and based in Britain, and Working Title is also based in the UK. They are also funded by Universal who are an international conglomerate company. This would be good for my film as it would have a much higher budget, and the rest of the film would be Thriller/Action so it would include a lot of special effects. Working Title would also be able to give my film a lot of above the line advertising, therefore trailers would be played on the TV, and billboards could be shown around the country; therefore making the public aware of the film release.

Reference: http://industry.bfi.org.uk/

http://www.skillset.org/film/industry/article_6763_1.asp       

Opening Sequence Analysis

We were asked to analyse the titles of a film, and put it into a time line, explaining what is shown and said during the sequence. I have chosen the film Captain America, and got the video from www.artofthetitles.com.

Analysing this opening sequence has given me an idea on what to include in my opening sequence. It has shown me different ways of adding in Titles and given me ideas for a more creative opening sequence.

By Hollie Fowler

Opening Sequence Title

Alice and myself came up with 3 names that we could possibly use as the name of the film that we are making an opening sequence for. The names we came up with were:

• Have You Seen...
• Not What You Think
• Vulnerability

In order for us to decide what name to chose, we asked 12 people which they preferred and these were our results:

As you can see from the results, the most preferred name was 'Have You Seen...' because our film is about abduction, and this name refers to someone being missing. As this was the most preferred name, we will be using it as the title of our opening sequence.

By Hollie Fowler and Alice Hogan

Step 2 - Interviews, showing the wants and needs of my target audience.

By Hollie Fowler

Step 2 – Investigate the wants and needs of your audience"

I am aiming to make 2 or 3 videos of an interview, where I shall ask people of my target audience what appeals to them in films. I will be asking the following questions:

1. What films of the "thriller" genre appeal to you?

2. What is your opinion on our opening sequence idea?

3. What do you enjoy about films of the 'Thriller' genre?

4. Do you think that social networking websites can be dangerous these days?

By Hollie Fowler and Alice Hogan

"Step 1 - Identify who your target audience is"

By Hollie Fowler

Opening Sequence analysis

The films I have chosen are ‘Hard Candy’ and ‘The Lovely Bones’. They are both based on abduction, which is what my opening sequence is going to be about. In this essay I will be talking about the opening sequences of these films and how the camera work, mise en scene, lighting, sound, editing, and the representation of characters are used.

   Hard Candy is a film about a girl who enters a chat line and agrees to meet up with someone. However it isn’t exactly like what we are planning our sequence to be, as she is the one who abducts the man as he is a paedophile and she is making him pay. They first scene is of the titles of the film, showing the actors names and directors etc. After the titles, it shows a conversation on the internet between the girl and the man, and the only thing you can see is the screen.

The camera work throughout the opening sequence only consists of panning shots that go up and down the computer screen in order to see what is being typed. There isn’t a wide variety in camerawork as it adds stillness to the conversation on screen making it sound quite tense. As the sequence is so simple there also isn’t much element of the mise en scene apart from lighting, which is only on the computer screen so it is quite high key. The sound in the clip is diegetic, as you can hear the keyboard as the girl types and the sound on the computer when she receives a message. As the scene is very quiet and you can just hear the typing it adds to the cold, quiet mood of the sequence. There is only 1 editing shot within the sequence and this is the 180 degree rule. The characters aren’t represented much in the opening sequence because the only thing you can see from the characters is what they are typing, which is clever because it gives a mysterious vibe to the extract. I think this film had a big impact on my final idea for the opening sequence because it shows me how to film a conversation from the internet.

   The Lovely bones is a film about a young girl that gets abducted by her neighbour and killed. The whole film is her journey in the afterlife. I have chosen this because it has the same story line under the theme of abduction.

The Opening scene of this film shows the main character as a little girl, and the relationship between her mum and dad being so fresh and sweet. Then in the next scene it is 12 years on and the parents are older and less interested in each other. The sequence includes the name of the film, however it doesn’t include names of the actors of producers so I presume this is going to be shown at the end. The sequence does have a funky sound track in it, because the film is set in the 70s.
The camera work throughout the sequence consists of many close-ups to introduce the characters. There is also mid shots and long shots that show people together so we are able to see what the relationship is like between them and their surroundings. After the title that says ’12 Years Later’ the first shot is an establishing shot that shows the audience where the film is set and what their house looks like.
The editing throughout is rather basic, until the main character is introduced, and her first few scenes are jump cuts, that give us the idea that she has a rather quirky personality. There is also use of the fade to black technique that introduces a new scene and ends the scene of the girl.

Over all the shots and editing throughout both of the opening sequences for the similar films tells me that I need to introduce the characters, place, relationships etc. I can do this by using a wide variety of camera shots and editing techniques, and this will help me with the basic opening sequence that shall fit in with my theme and genre.  

By Hollie Fowler

Opening Sequence analysis - Similar films

The films that I have chosen to base my story on are
Taken -
 

The Lovely Bones -


Both of these films are based on abduction, which is what my opening sequence is based on. The way the opening sequence of these films is done will help me plan my opening sequence as I have a similar plot.
By Hollie Fowler

What is an Opening Sequence?

An opening sequence is the first few minutes of a film. It gives an overall idea of what the film is going to be about and includes features such as titles, of the producers, makers and main actors. These are shown to give credit to the people who created the movie, and put all their time and effort into starring in it. They may also be shown as a form of advertising, for example if someone created a movie and the film is a huge hit people will know them by their name, and they may also be hired to create future movies. It is used because without it, the film would just be jumped straight in to. Opening sequences tend to include a soundtrack, this is played whilst the opening credits are shown, and the track usually fits in with the genre of the film, for example a horror would have dark gloomy music, and a chick flick will have up-beat pop songs.
By Hollie Fowler