Box Office

The budget of this movie was $25m. In the UK this would be a very high budget film. However, in the US it would be mid-budget. The distributers pay for many things such as the trailers being seen, the cardboard cut outs at the cinema. Working Title is a subsidiary. You can have:                                                                                                                         

•        Indie, not owned by anyone                                                                                                                    
•        Subsidiary, owned by a bigger company
•        Conglomerate/parent, are the big company, own other companies.                                                           

Working title are a subsidiary of NBC Universal, who are owned by Comcast. NBC also own Universal Pictures.

Big Six are the biggest Hollywood production companies that dominate cinema industries worldwide. These are the Big 6:

1. Disney
2. Warner Bros. Pictures
3. 20th Century Fox
4. Paramount Pictures
5. Universal Pictures
6. Sony Pictures Entertainment

Recently, because of Lionsgate’s success, there is talk that it should be included, and it should become the Big Seven.

Studio canal are an originally French company, who have a part called Studio Canal UK               (Optimum Releasing). 

Even Warp cannot help being caught up in the Big Six as studio canal and optimum releasing have worked on distribution and production for various Warp films.

Films budgeted at 100 million plus, are known as tentpole films. Bigger companies are spending more money on tentpole films and creating less other films. All the big six have applied the strategy of vertical integration. Which means that within the one conglomerate, they all have production companies, distribution companies and some means of exhibition. This essentially means that they create everything themselves.

Warp almost always is a 15/18 rating.  Recent Warp film, called ’17 was given a 15 which is low for Warp.

Working Title, over and over again use big, American stars, which is a large part of their budget.

The worldwide box office for BJD was $281m.

The US share of this revenue, was 25%. For a long time, the US revenue for UK films has been around 50%. This is why there are such harsh stereotypes, and representations in Working Title films, to appeal to an American audience and to be recognisable to Americans.

The Chinese market is growing bigger and bigger and will almost surely become the largest market. The American market is decreasing. The British market is tweaking what they do in order to fit the American market and the American market is tweaking what they do in order to fit the Chinese market.

Rom-coms are half romantic, in order to appeal to the female audience, and half comedy, to appeal to the male audience.

The UK made $60m on Bridget Jones’s Diary. The Gant rule argues that if a film is a hit in Britain, it will make 10x more money in America, and be shown on 10x more screens.

Bridget Jones’s Diary made so much money in Britain because of the fact that it’s a British production. As well as the UK got distributed in 15 different companies. After this, they were taken over by Universal.

Everest was distributed in 65 different companies worldwide, which is the benefit of being owned by such a large company. Its global total was $200 million, but will probably increase as its still being shown.

Mickybo and me was a film set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which had a budget of £5m by WT2.

’71 is a film by Warp which is their highest budgeted film ever. (£5m) Before that it was a film which was £2.5m, and before that “This is England” (£1.5m).

In ’71 the social realist genre was established by the shaky camera movement. Also the main character is an orphan, its set with a lot of violence, and has political aspects to it. According to 

Box Office Mojo, it grossed only $1.6m. However, it won many awards. ’71 was distributed in 10 different countries, UK included.

This is England grossed $8m worldwide. This is the highest warp film.

NBC is one of the main American TV companies.     

Vertical integration is a business strategy. This goes:

• Production
• Distribution
• Exhibition

Tyrannosir Swede

Before we started our swede, we watched the opening few minutes of tyrannosaur
We made a list of some key moments from the opening and switched them around:

1. He comes out of a 5 star restaurant.
2. Holding a champagne glass rather than a can of beer.
3. Smartly dressed, suit rather than joggers.
4.  Speaks posh rather than a rough, coarse accent.
5. Been kicked out for being too nice rather than the opposite.
6. Hugs dog to death.
7. Sheet of paper with doodles for title, bright colours.
8. People humming Titanic song when dog is injured.
9.  “Funeral” for the dog.
10. Reading from a pride and prejudice book rather than a bible.
11. Piano scene, hides behind piano in music shop.

f  These are the two scenes from the Swede that i edited, using adobe premier. On the second one, the funeral scene, I worked with Sophie to edit.


        

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We divided up the editing equally and then put all the scenes together to create one final swede. 

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Bridget Jones's Diary Analysis 2

                          Bridget Jones's Diary 

Classical music gives hints to genre and rest of the movie. Establishing shot of a small picturesque village. She gets out of a taxi, hints towards her class. The fact that it’s snowing adds to the idyllic feeling. Quality street Christmas music is playing which further adds to this effect.

There is a poppy wreath on a monument. This is a very British cliché. The framing is very cosy and British, small church, small cottages.

When Bridget gets out of the car, there is a phone box in the background, again going back to the typical British theme. When she talks about the “turkey curry buffet” it would be very confusing to an American audience as it’s a very British thing to have turkey curry after Christmas.

The house has a large garden and is very big, very quaint and typically British which again goes back to her social economic status.

The Dutch angle represents an awkward moment. The décor of the house itself is very quaint and old fashioned because England is stereotyped in this way. The shot allows the audience to take in all of this. The décor in the house again is very antique, even the mother’s dress (floral, old fashioned) adds to the stereotype. Things that are unknown are very difficult to sell, which is why stereo-types are so crucial in films.

There is the non-diegetic sound of the music, but the fact that it has singing in it again proves that it is not at all a social realist film. The budget of a social realist film wouldn’t allow it.

Bridget’s accent is extremely posh and stereotypical.

The British marketing used all three main actors to promote the movie. However, worldwide they would have mainly included Bridget as the other two actors wouldn’t be very well known globally at the time in which this movie was made.

The actress who played Bridget had to gain a lot of weight in order to prepare for the role. This is because in the book she is meant to be a bit overweight. However, in the movie she is still a lot slimmer than the average British woman. This is a very negative message to put out to the primarily female audience of this film.

Bridget is represented as the central protagonist as we always return to her character. Bridget is kept in the centre of the frame in order to establish her as the main character.

There is a stereotype and cliché of the British man, middle aged, wearing dull clothes, brown, a cardigan, balding, wearing spectacles. They are all drinking wine/sherry, again going back to the stereotype.

The way that Bridget says “Ding dong” is unrealistic and completely invented. However its part of the invented film language and does seem very plausible, especially to an American audience. 

SR: Film opening 6: This is England (2006) - Shane Meadows

Social Realism is an genre, which is often used by the film company Warp, that produced this film. The genre is based on real life and even though the story's are mostly fiction, the stories are supposed to show a reflection of the world we live in.

The characters, dialogue and the entire mise-en-scene are all used and inspired by the real world.

The film opening from "This is England" is very useful when looking for a good example of the social realism genre.

The film opening also represents a lot of historical context. It shows many uprisings and demonstrations on the streets. People going on strike, wars and bombing of houses and ships  etc. During many different clips we also see images of Margaret Thatcher, who was the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. By knowing this, we can state that a lot of the scenes may have been shot at that time period.

During the entire film opening, there are people and stories portrayed on screen. These show everyday characters and their working class backgrounds. This use of untrained actors and everyday situations, is a typical convention of a social realist film. It also makes the movie more realistic and the audience might also be able to relate themselves to the movie.

We also see a lot of different shots from the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Princess Diana, which took place on the 29th of July 1981. These pictures again show the audience that most of the scenes are shot in that specific time period.

A lot of scenes are emphasising on what Britain was like back then. The non-diegetic song in the film opening is called "54-56 What's my number?". The band "Toots and the Maytals", has written this song to show the ability to grow and thrive against injustice.

During the film opening, we see a lot of shots of demonstrations and also people fighting against the police. Since the song is about fighting injustice, we can conclude that many of the scenes were about people who felt unjust.

Comparing: Warp VS Working Title

Warp Films

Warp films use Sheffield, in Yorkshire as their main filming location. Their films often don’t have a specific genre. They usually target audiences in England.

They are an independent company, who therefore don’t get very much funding.

They focus on allowing the actors to develop their own roles.

They use a lot of urban areas to shoot locations to emphasize the real life situation.

The themes in the films focus more on the “grungy” and real aspects of life.

Working Title Films.

Their filming location is mainly London but also in the areas around London. This is something that is found a lot in working title, and many of the other production companies.

They focus on many different genres but romance in particular.

They are able to spend more money on actors and mise-en-scene due to them being given much larger budgets.

Their audience is much broader and ranges from children to middle aged women to entire family movies.

The image for working title is “cleaner” and idyllic. The costumes and filming locations are often nicer.

SR: Production Schedule Version 1

15th of January - creating idents

22nd of January - Deciding on exact costume of the girl choosing her exact clothes and make-up (stereotypical girl, wearing pink possibly heels as well)  

23rd of January - Creating the 5 photos that the girl will hold in the "Auchan scene" (taking pictures with the girl and her friends, guy/stalker wearing black in all of them with a mask.

23rd of January - Starting the filming procedure in Bronwen's basement, filming the scene where Olivia is threatened with a knife. Focusing on the mise-en-scene with candles, sheets etc.

2nd of February - Filming the Auchan scene. Focusing on the acting and the costume of Olivia.

5th of February - Working on the editing, using Final Cut, and looking at which shots are missing and if we have a good sound, continuity and shot variety.  

16th + 19th + 20th of February (after holidays) - add title sequence and idents, using Final Cut, finishing editing

Storyboard 1

As the art student in the group, I was assigned the role of creating the storyboard.

As a group, we sat down and went through the plot of the film opening. I quickly sketched a draft storyboard, using stick figures. We decided what kind of camera angles we wanted to include and what effect they would have on the film opening. 

I then went away and did the real storyboard, using watercolor paint and fine liner.