Director of Photography Showreel 2015/2016

Unit 8: Understanding the Television and Film Industries - Task 1 - Case Study

Marvel Studios

Marvel Studios (originally known as Marvel Films until 1996), is an American motion picture studio based at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It was founded by Avi Arad in 1993. It is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios and uses vertical integration as it has subsidiaries of its own such as Marvel Music, Iron Works Productions, Incredible Productions etc. Marvel Studios was bought by Walt Disney Studios in 2009 for a huge $4 billion and since the purchase the company's net worth has grown to a $9 billion, due to the success of the 'Marvel Cinematic Universe' films. They also produce TV shows too such as Agents of Shield and Agent Carter and Netflix Exclusive shows like Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.


Miramax Studios

Miramax is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. It is head quartered in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in 1979 by the Weinstein brothers, Bob and Harvey. However, in 1993 the company was acquired by the Walt Disney Company. The Weinstein brothers still had a large amount of control over the company despite now being a subsidiary of Disney. The Weinstein's eventually left the company in 2005 and in 2010 Disney sold Miramax to Filmyard Holdings. The company currently has a net worth of £457 million. Since it started Miramax has produced some of the biggest films such as Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, The Aviator etc.

Unit 8: Understanding the Television and Film Industries - Task 2 - Flow Chart

In groups, we made flow charts showing the responsibilities of jobs in the Film & TV industry. Job types were split up among the groups. My group worked specifically on showing the links between roles in Technical and Construction. The photos below show the job roles in these categories and which jobs are higher than others with more responsibility:

Unit 8: Understanding the Television and Film Industries - Task 3 - Contracts

The Contracts in the Film & TV industry are unlike contracts for traditional jobs because of the Industry being so flexible and constantly changing.

Full Time

A full time contract is more similar to a regular job's contract in comparison to, for example, a freelance contract however it is less likely to get a full time contract in the film industry. As it says in the title, someone with this kind of contract would work full time and be permanently attached to the company until the project was finished, working a set number of hours per week. A full time worker always gets company benefits such as pension, sick pay, maternity and holiday leave. Job roles that are most likely to be under a full time contract are managerial, editorial and financial. An example of someone on a full time contract would be someone high up, possibly in charge of the company/project.

Part Time

A part time contract means you work just a small amount of what a full time contract would ask for. Similarly to a full time contract, this contract gives a set amount of hours a week, just not as many. Also in the contract are similar benefits a full time worker gets, just less because of the lesser work hours.

Freelance

Freelance contracts are the most common contracts in the Film Industry. Technical & Creative jobs are most likely to be under freelance contracts. Unlike a full time contract, these kind of contracts are temporary and they will only last for so long. In a freelance contract, the employee might still be entitled to company benefits however it depends on the situation and the company they are working for. However, while they might not definitely get company benefits, a freelance worker gets to be in control of a lot more due to not fully working for the company and just being hired temporarily. An example of someone freelance would most likely be someone in a role such as a Camera Operator.

Confidentiality

Contracts sometimes can contain confidentiality agreements. This is an agreement that the worker signing the contract is bound by law to not speak about or give any information about the project they are working on until further notice or a previously agreed date. This means that the worker giving away the title of the project, any plot details or their involvement is breaking the law as well as a breach of their contract. This is often used on contracts on Hollywood blockbusters like Star Wars for example which, even though people knew it was being made, had a huge amount of secretiveness around it with nobody except people working on it knowing the plot until it's release.

Exclusivity

Some contracts contain exclusivity agreements meaning the person signing the contract, by law, is only allowed to work for one company for an agreed amount of time (usually the duration of the project). This means that if the person who signed the contract went to work for a another company during their agreed duration of time, payment can be suspended and employment even terminated as a punishment. This is most likely used on contracts signed by Directors working on a series of films so that they will definitely attached for the production of all of them.

Unit 26: Film Studies - Task 4 - My Relationship With Film

One of the most important parts of a film is its audience. As part of an audience, you interact with the film. A film’s audience can determine its popularity and status in culture. It is almost impossible to create a film for everyone due to the difference between the individuals who make up the audience and the way each single person reads the film and is affected by it.

Spectatorship of a film can be seen in two different ways. Active Spectatorship suggests that audiences are made up of individual active spectators who each are different and will have different reactions to a film. These active spectators are independent in choosing what films to watch and do not just watch what they are told to. Passive Spectatorship suggests that a film audience’s knowledge or life experience has no effect on their reaction or reception to the film they view. Often, film directors actually prefer their audience to be passive. They will put very obvious preferred readings in their films so the audience will react in the way they want. These preferred readings can be conveyed to the audience through choice of music, lighting and cinematography in hope that this would cause a specific emotional response. Some film makers do like the audience to have a more personal response and be active spectators. They sometimes encourage their audience to interpret the film in their own way. However, in bigger Hollywood blockbusters, a preferred reading is usually put forward to the audience and a Director has a specific idea of the plot and characters that they want the audience to understand. A common use of active spectatorship is leaving an open ending to a film. Open endings leave a sense of ambiguity for the audience and allow them to use their imagination rather than being told exactly what happened. An example of an ambiguous ending is Memento. The film finishes by totally changing what the audience thought they knew and leaving them unsure what to think.

Audiences can gain four main types of pleasure from watching a film; personal relationships, personal identity, diversion and surveillance. The most common of these four is probably Diversion, this is because it is the most common reason a person wants to watch a film. Films allow a person to divert from their own lives and escape into another reality. Many films offer huge amounts of escapism to an audience such as, Lord Of The Rings or Star Wars, which take place in other worlds we aren't familiar with. Personal Relationships or Personal Identities are when an audience feel a personal attachment to characters in a film or can relate to the characters. For example, The Inbetweeners movie is very relatable to groups of young 'lads', especially in the UK, as they will have experienced very similar situations. Older men can also relate to it as they can remember being in similar situations when they were younger. Other examples could be 'stoner' movies as 'stoners' will likely relate to the characters and topics in the films due to their lifestyle. Some films fall into the Surveillance type. In these kind of films the audience are often educated because they are watching a film which explores a subject, idea or even culture, for example, that the viewer isn't aware of or familiar with. A lot of foreign films are surveillance because of the look at a different culture. For example, 'Sin Nombre' is a Spanish film which explores gang culture. Anybody from a different country and totally unfamiliar with any kind of gang culture would be educated by this film.


A viewer's response to a film can differ depending on their Media Literacy. Depending on an audience's knowledge of the media and how film works, they can have a different interpretation. For example, some one like me who is a film student will view films very differently to a casual viewer due to the fact that a film student knows more about how a film is put together and how stories work whereas a normal film goer would have more a simple idea and not look into those kind things. An example of the responses differing could be seen with 'Memento'. The film has a non-linear timeline and the audience have to think about how the story pieces together rather than it all just happening chronologically. While someone with better media literacy than others might find that very interesting and enjoy the challenge of piecing it together, someone with less media literacy/a casual film goer might just find the story confusing and boring and they might prefer to see a film which happens chronologically.

Intertextuality is where a film references another piece of media. This includes parodies, spoofs and homages. In parodies/spoofs a film is deliberately referencing another piece of media, usually in a comedic way, sometimes even mocking it. In 'Hot Fuzz' the entire Hollywood action genre is parodied throughout the movie with characters acting in similar ways to popular 'action heroes'. Specific moments from films such as 'Point Break' are also parodied however could also be classed as a homage to the film. In homages, a director purposely references a piece if media in some way in their own film but, unlike parodies, homages tend not to be comedic and are usually meant to show an appreciation for the thing they are referencing.

Pre & Post-viewing experiences and a persons opinion on a film can be affected by different aspects. For example, a person who watched all the trailers a promotion for the film they are seeing might have high expectations and be let down however someone who saw nothing beforehand would have no expectations. Trailers can have a large effect on people experiences with films. Often, in comedy trailers the best jokes are shown to get the best laughs and gain audience however this leads to all the best jokes being heard before the film and the audience being let down. Similarly a trailer can give away too much plot, a problem many people believe to be in today's cinema. A recent example would be the trailer for 'Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice'. With people an audience already gathered from simply the announcement of Superman and Batman being in a film together, you would think there would be no need to give away too much plot. However, the trailers released before the film came out revealed what many considered to be far too many plot points and even giving away twists which, had they not been mentioned in the trailer, would have been very entertaining to an audience when watching the film in the cinema. This, among many other reasons, contributed to overwhelmingly bad reviews from critics and fans alike.

Unit 26: Film Studies - Task 3 - Producers and Their Audience

‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ continues the saga, following Episode III. In this installment ex-Stormtrooper Finn, scrappy desert dweller Rey, and droid companion BB-8 get caught up in a galactic war when they come across a map containing the whereabouts of the missing Luke Skywalker. They soon embark on an adventure that brings them face-to-face with heroes from the past, as well as new villains such as Kylo Ren and the First Order. 


Star Wars: The Force Awakens turned out to be one of the most financially successful films of all time, but how did it manage to gain such a response?

First of all, the producer of the film, Disney, needed to identify the audience. This wasn't difficult due to Star Wars being one of the most well-known franchises in the world. Audience research, for most films, would usually be done by looking at previously released films and seeing what the reactions, interests and preferences of audiences who went to see them were. Next, audience targeting would take place, in which the producer would promote the film to the audience they had decided on. In Star Wars' case, when announced in October 2012, the news was reported worldwide meaning everyone knew and heard about it. The franchise already had its audience figured out due to a previous 6 movies so audience targeting was the priority for this production.

The movie had a huge amount of promotion, mostly due to its announcement in 2012 and the subsequent 3 year build to the release. Having 3 years to promote the film gave the production company a huge ground to work with. In this time they released several trailers, posters, had the cast go on chat shows and held press junkets for journalists to interview the cast, all allowing the film to get a major media presence in the build up.

One example of promotion on a chat show was The Graham Norton Show. On the show, a collection of cast such as John Boyega and Daisy Ridley talked about the film and why people should go and see it. As well as this clips were shown from the film to promote it even further.

A huge event for the film was the premiere in December 2015, a huge event where the film is screened for the first time to the public and there are even more press interviews and more promotion. While many premieres are held before the films general release, this one was held on the same day as the general release. This meant there were no pre-release screenings for critics to review the movie. While most reviews ended up being very positive anyway, having no reviews beforehand meant there was no influence on the audiences response to the movie other than the movie's advertising itself, meaning the audiences attitude to the movie beforehand will have been mostly positive. While reviews would be out as soon as the first day of release, the main target audience the producer was going for were the people who would have gone to midnight screenings or seen the movie within the first few days at least.

Once the film was released and critics reviewed it, they were incredibly positive. This allowed the film to be marketed by showing 5 star reviews and quotes from critics. Quotes such as “Star Wars is back, and this is just the beginning” and describing the film as an “outrageously exciting and romantic return to a world you hadn’t realised you’d missed so much”. While their main target audience probably wouldn't pay attention to this kind of thing, more general audiences seeing such overwhelmingly positive reviews might influence them to go and see them film too.


There was also a huge amount of merchandise to accompany the film such as toys, clothing etc. One product that was a big deal among fans was the Sphero BB8 Droid. This was a miniature, remote control version of the BB8 droid in the movie. It can cost upwards of £90 however sales for the product were incredibly high. This was released before the release of the movie however fans still bought the product anyway. That sums up the attitude audiences had to the film as they were so confident it would be good from what they had seen in the marketing from the producer they ended buying expensive products attached to the film. This also goes for clothing as many of the target audience bought T-shirts with the films logo on it before seeing the film. This was great for the producers of the movie because alongside their marketing, people buying T-shirts and even just talking about the movie was free advertisement.

The marketing tactics of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' were incredibly successful and, as I previously mentioned, actually led to the film being one of the most successful films to ever be made. The film made $247,966,675 in its opening weekend box office and by the end of its theatrical run made a total of $936,662,225, breaking the all-time domestic record. A large reason for this could be the marketing that accompanied the film and the long time that was spent on it. This film is a great example of the relationship between Producers and audience.

Unit 26: Film Studies - Task 2 - Comparing Hollywood & British Film Production

Since the first World War, Hollywood has essentially dominated Britain's entire film industry. America's industry was growing at a faster pace than Britain's and it never caught up. Since then the film industry in America has been made up of a series of global media conglomerates with many subsidiaries while Britain is full of smaller, more independent companies.

The British Film Industry is often referred to as a 'cottage industry'. This refers to the smaller scale of the industry compared to Hollywood. The 'cottage industry' targets mainly British audiences, unlike Hollywood, an industry which is globally known and has a worldwide audience.

But Hollywood & British Film production aren't as separate as you might think. The majority of 'British' films are actually funded by American corporations as part of a co-production. This is because many of the top British companies are subsidiaries of American companies. For example, although people tend to class the Harry Potter films as British, they are distributed and partly funded by large American companies like 20th Century Fox and Sony. This actually means they aren't making all of the profit from one of their industries biggest franchises, which stops the British film industry being able to rise, not even necessarily to the level of Hollywood, but higher than it currently is.

As for the content both industries produce, they are totally different. Hollywood are known for their 'Blockbusters' and their 'big action flicks' while the British film industry usually create much more down to earth, relatable and realistic films. For example, some of the most popular and successful British films are This is England, Kes and Trainspotting. All three of these films are based around working class characters and areas in England. Kes follows a young boy who spends his free time caring for a pet falcon however around the main plot the character deals with many of the issues that working class people would deal with when this film was released (1969) and also is shown taking part in things that people in Britain would be able to relate to. Trainspotting & This is England are more modern films with very similar themes. Once again, both follow a group of working class characters. However, in both of these films there is a lot of drug use, which people consider a very large problem amongst the working class, which means both of these films have a very honest look at Britain.

Al 3 of these films had a low budget compared to something being made at the same time in the American film industry. For example, Trainspotting (1996) had an estimated budget of £2,500,000 while an American film such as Die Hard: With A Vengeance (1995) had a budget of $90,000,000. This is due to the huge difference in money the British and American film industries had and still have.

There are all kinds of methods for funding British films. One way is through BBC films. This method works by getting in contact with BBC films either through an agent or individually with your pitch or idea. BBC films is an established film production company with a high income due to their position in the film industry, which means the offer great funding towards any film that they decide to produce.

Another method is through the BFI Film Fund. Using money from the UK national lottery, the BFI provide investment in a film production to support it. This is a good method for smaller films and film makers that usually wouldn't get funding for production. They also support and fund UK distributors, sales agents and exhibitors.

Companies such as Film4 fund several feature films a year through using both licence fee and equity investments.

British films can qualify for tax relief funding. This is a method where the UK Government directing assists the production, providing that it meets the requirements. They need to either qualify as an official co-production or pass a Cultural Test. The Cultural Test consists of a series of statistics about the film and depending on if the production fits into those statistics it will dictate if it is eligible to be a British film. Tax relief funding encourages further investment, benefits many film making aspects, supports more UK independent productions and encourages minority co-productions where the UK spend is less than 25 %. 

The technology used on a production can effect the production's process. For example, if the film was going to be shown in IMAX it would need to be recorded with an IMAX camera. Filming 3D movies is a very similar case. Having extra technology like this used on the production adds cost and means less of the budget can be used on other aspects of production. Having a Blu-Ray or DVD release of the film is also an extra cost, including the additional features likely to be added to them like behind the scenes footage.

Speaking of Blu-Ray & DVD releases of films, while they are the main source of distribution in both the British & US film industry, they are only one part of the release. Another part of the distribution are the trailers and other promotional material. Promotion of films in the UK film industry and the US film industry can be similar however America tends to promote their films on larger scale. For example, in America, there are often huge billboards with the poster for the latest blockbuster movie on display. The UK also have posters on billboards and have other ways of showing the latest films however, these are usually also filled by films from the American industry. Even in the UK the posters we see are advertising America's latest blockbuster. Fully British movies are often promoted on a much smaller, lower level. Rarely will you see a poster advertising the latest film in the British film industry because America has dominated the entire global film industry so much.

Because Hollywood is such a dominating industry compared to Britain, they can use both Vertical & Horizontal Integration. Vertical Integration is when a large conglomerate owns different companies that work on all 3 stages of the film from production to distribution. This is a huge advantage for conglomerates as they are able to cover the entire film themselves. They can save time and money because they do not have to pay any extra money to another company to do it for them. Buying companies to work on each individual stage of the film is, in the long term, very expensive however it will almost definitely save the conglomerate money meaning they will generate more income.

 Horizontal Integration is essentially the opposite of Vertical. It's when a conglomerate goes into business with other companies through acquisition. This means the different companies from different sectors of the film industry can then work together on the same project. This means that there is no need to bring anyone else in to help work on the project meaning that money will be saved. An example of this would be the production of Skyfall (2012). The film, produced by Sony Pictures, needed a song and they got Adele to make one specifically for it. Since Adele was already singed to Columbia records, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment, Sony would make money from the film and the music.

Horizontal & Vertical Integration are not often used in the UK film industry without the British companies involved being subsidiaries of American conglomerates.

One of the many differences between the British Film Industry & The American Film Industry is the ratings system. Britain has the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) while the US has the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The ratings in the UK consist of U, PG, 12A, 12, 15 & 18 while in the US it consists of G, PG, PG-13, R & NC-17. America's rating system can be seen as less strict than in the UK because younger viewers are actually allowed to see higher rated films in US theatres. For example, in UK cinemas, adults accompanying children under the age of 12 are not allowed to take them into any film rated higher than 12A while, in the US, adults are allowed to take children of any age up to 17 years old to see a film that has been passed as high as R (Restricted).