fs2 - jan 2007001

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SECTION B (25 marks)

Answer one question from this section.

3. Read the following extract from :m article about Hollywood's export business, andthen answer the question that follows.

. . . despite all the money we 'foreign' audiences now generate, the attitude of the Hollywoodstudio Golden Age of the 30S, 40S and 50S has survived. It may be that Hollywood these daysrecognises that its own (North American) audience has grown about as much as it can andthat the majority of the revenue now comes from the international market (60 per cent ormore in the late 1990S compared with 30 - 35 per cent at the start of the 1980s). Moreover theinternational market is the only significant area of continuing growth. But the productionpolicy - and so the films that are made - continues to be determined by the audienceHollywood knows: the American audience.

(From Nick Roddick, "What You See is What You Get"in Sight and Sound Education Supplement, 1998)

Question:

Discuss what you feel are important issues raised by this extract about the film 'product'Hollywood supplies to UK audiences. In developing your answer, make reference to any casestudy work you have undertaken on recent Hollywood films.

Or, 4. Read the following extract adapted from an article from Sight and Sound magazine,and then answer the question that follows. '

INDIE EXPOSURE

KateStablesasks ifwebsites arethe newfilm festivals in theexhibition chain

So you want to get your independent debutfilm on the big screen? Babak Forutanpour,creator of film website ReelUniverse.com isoutlining for me the formidable odds againstit ever seeing a theatrical release. First of allcome the 4,000 U.S. movies producedannually, of which around 3,000 will goundistributed. Then there is the 15,000 strongstockpile of unscreened films already outthere, not to mention the upcoming hugeexplosion of product that low-cost digital film­making tools promise to unleash. How are yougoing to make your movies visible? Byexhibiting it - or trailing it, if it's featurelength - on a web site and hoping it generatessome heat.

Question:

In the last year the web has thrown up around30 online film sites including iFilm.net,AtomFilms, Mediatrip and Dfilm. Such siteshave now become key in creating the kind ofprofile that will mark a movie out from thecrowd. It may take a few submissions to land aslot, bu·t any film of reasonable qualitycurrently stands a high chance of finding ahome.

Film websites start out as a marketing tool inthe eyes of film-makers, a shop window on theway to greater things. My guess is t':1at theyshould more properly be regarded as a newwindow in the exhibition chain - sincerealistically this is the only exhibition themajority of independent films will ever attain.

(Sight and Sound, April, 2000)

Discuss the issues raised in the above article in relation to distribution and exhibition of lowbudget films in the U.K. today. You may develop your discussion by reference both todetails from the article and to your own knowledge of the subject.