Producers & Audiences

The Film Audience

The Film Audience (a recap)

• The Film Audience– film demand and supply, specifically in the UK today– the consumption of film, including cinema-going and

the importance of home cinema and the internet, – the significance of digital technologies in delivering

different kinds of film experience.

Supply-led vs Demand-led films

• Supply-led films are films that become popular because the suppliers (i.e. the movie companies) bombard us with marketing to tell us to watch the film

• Demand-led films become popular because word gets around to audiences that they are actually very good, despite not being heavily marketed

Go to the Vue: Newbury’s website and see how many films there are on this month. How many have you already heard of?Now go to the website for the Phoenix Cinema in Oxford. How many of their January films have you heard of? How did you hear about them?

Supply-led vs Demand-led films

• Which of these films do you think have been supply-led and which demand-led

DemandDemandSupply

$150m On marketing

Became popular

after receiving critical acclaim

Nearly went straight to

DVD!

Demand-led success:The Case of Slumdog Millionaire

• Budget: $15m• Gross Income: $378m• Made by: Celador Films & Film 4 (both UK)• Distributed by: Pathé (UK & rest of the

world); Fox Searchlight & Warner Bros. (US)• Awards: 8/10 Oscars; 7/11 BAFTAs; 4/4

Golden Globes (all three including best film)

Demand-led success:The Case of Slumdog Millionaire

• Celador – a British owned film company that funded films like The Descent & Dirty Pretty Things

• Pathé – a French company that both funds & distributes films – the closest thing Europe has to a major movie studio

• Warner Brothers – a huge US movie studio (one of the Big Six Media Conglomerates)

• Fox Searchlight – a smaller arm of Fox (Newscorp) set up to fund more risky film projects

Demand-led success:The Case of Slumdog Millionaire

• Slumdog producers get funding (c.$13m from Celador to fund the film); Pathé to distribute

• A previous deal grants Warner Brothers (WB) the US distribution rights to Pathé’s films

• WB get itchy feet about the success of the venture in the US and talk about releasing the movie straight to DVD (and so denying it any box office success).

• WB sell 50% of their distribution rights to Fox Searchlight

• Fox Searchlight decide to go with a speculative cinematic release

Demand-led success:The Case of Slumdog Millionaire

• The movie receives critical acclaim, being nominated for 10 Oscars

• At this point, Fox Searchlight begins to market the movie more heavily, largely because of the demand for it

• This greatly contributes to improved publicity for the movie, and it goes on to make $144m in the US alone

• This decision to sell to Fox Searchlight ends up costing WB around $20m in profits…

UK Film Production & Consumption

** = these figures are not released as only 2 films were made in this way and so the data could indicate which film was which

Dom = domestic (films produced entirely by UK companies)COP = co-operative (films produced in co-operation with other countries)INW = Inward Investment films (UK films wholly or partly financed by US studios but

qualifying as British through the Cultural Test – i.e. using UK cast, crew, locations, facilities, post-production and often with UK source material)

Data is for films produced in the UK (in Q1) with budgets £500,000 or over

The Changing Face of the CinemaProjection

• With traditional projectors, film is loaded in roughly 22 minute sections and a projectionist flips between film reels as one ends.

• This requires 5 cans of film, each of which contains 2000ft of film (c.10000ft per movie) and weighs 20-25kg

• Film costs anywhere from $590-$640 per 1000ft• Each copy of each movie shown at each cinema

can cost c.$6000 to produce

The Changing Face of the CinemaProjection

• Digital Distribution began as an alternative to traditional film in countries where it was hard to transport film over long distances

• It also gained popularity in schools and societies where 35mm projectors were too expensive

The Changing Face of the CinemaProjection

• Within the film industry, films were initially digitized from the film stock on which they were shot, though now increasingly more films are shot digitally

• Digital files are downloaded by cinemas with digital projectors, unlocked by purchasing a time-release key and screened to audiences

• This will mean films can be shown 1-3 months after completion, instead of the current 3-6.

The Changing Face of the CinemaOther Viewing Experiences

• Watch ‘Mark Kermode – the future of cinema: This Is It’

• What other viewing experiences does he say cinemas have/can/will be used for?

• What objections does Mark Kermode raise about ‘This Is It’ and how valid do you find them?

The Changing Face of the CinemaOther Viewing Experiences - Digital Downloads

• Digital Downloads (DD) offer movies on demand that can be downloaded in a matter of minutes.

• Most movies with a cinematic release will eventually be released for DD via services like iTunes

• In 2007, ‘Digital Copy’ saw some DVD and Blu-Ray movies come with a free download

• In 2010, some Blu-Ray releases were sold as a Triple-Play, with a Blu-Ray disk, a DVD and a digital download

• What assumptions about modern audiences does this last innovation make?

The Changing Face of the CinemaOther Viewing Experiences - Piracy

• Watch ‘Movie Piracy Debate’• What are the two sides of the argument

surrounding piracy? [PAUSE PRESENTATION]

• “It’s widely assumed that you can’t compete with free...” – How far do you believe this to be true?– In what ways do cinemas try to compete with free

downloads?

3D Revolution?

• Which of these years saw the release of movies in 3D?

• The answer is all of them!1952 200319861961

3D Revolution?

• 3D films in the 50s used ‘anaglyph’ lenses where a red and green image are combined to make the picture have depth

• Even by the 60s, this had given way to polarization, which is the system still used today

3D Revolution?

• Watch the following videos:– James Cameron and the future of cinema– Avatar: what’s the future of film?– Mark Kermode – the science of 3D explained

• Is 3D a ‘game changer’ or is it just another gimmick designed to mask a hike in ticket prices?

Feedback from Exam Answers

1. Context – how to set it– In the moment of the film when...

2. Relevance to Q – how to ensure it– Point– Example– Explain– Relevance to Q

RE-USE THE WORDS OF THE QUESTION IN THE ANSWER