The Film Chain

The Film Chain

Production

During the filming process, there are three main stages of production; pre-production, production and post-production.

·         During the pre-production the film is planned and broken down into scenes in detail. They decide on what props, cast members, locations, costumes, special effects and visual effects are going to be used in each scene. The script is written and finalised at this stage.  All the necessary elements or people are arranged to be available to the film-makers at the appropriate times.

·         The production stage is when all the filming is carried out carefully. All the scenes planned out in pre-production are filmed at their relevant locations as planned. Some scenes may be filmed more than once according to the director to make sure they have the best quality shots. This stage must be taken with a lot of care to make sure each scene needed is shot, as it may sometimes be hard to go back to re-film incomplete scenes when it comes to the post-production stage.

·         Post-production is when the film is put together by the editor. First the editor builds a rough cut taken from scenes and sequences based on individual shots. This helps to order and select the best shots. Then they will create a fine cut by getting all the shots to flow smoothly in a seamless story. Trimming is done through this process – where they short scenes by a few minutes, seconds or frames. The editing is also done in this stage and the music, graphics, menus etc are added in this stage. After the director and producer has approved and screened the fine cut, no further changes can be made so the picture is “locked”.

 Some of the main producers of films in America are DreamWorks Animation who has made films like Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon. They are currently distributed by 20^th century fox. Another film production company is Universal Studios; some of the films they have produced are The Mummy, Spartacus, Beethoven, Jaws and many more. Furthermore another famous film production company in America is Paramount Pictures and they have produced films like The Godfather, Star Trek, Indiana Jones and Ghost.

An independent film production is when a professional film production is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system.

 

Distribution

Distribution is the process of making something available to a number of recipients. When distributing a film, the distributor will come to an agreement with the cinema on when to release the film. They will arrange the transportation of the film to the cinema. This is normally done by a professional film distributor who will decide the marketing strategy for the film, decide the release dates etc. The traditional way films are normally released are firstly released in cinema and then released to DVD approximately 16 and half weeks later. However the producer may choose to release the film straight onto DVD and the internet instead of releasing it out in cinema first.

Film festivals are films shown in one or more cinemas/screening venue, usually in a single city or region. They may focus on one particular film-maker or genre and show films that are relevant to what the festivals focus is on. Film festivals are used to promote and market the latest films to the audience. Some of the most famous and well-known festivals are the Venice Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival.

A distributor may choose to release there film on a particular weekend depending on the event occurring around that date. For example if they are releasing a film that is aimed at a teenage audience, they may choose to release it during the half-term as they will be off school and it would be more likely that they will go to the cinema that week. Another reason may be that if they are releasing a Christmas film they would most likely release it during the Christmas holidays as more people are off school and work.

 Distribution is essential to the film chain because it is the process of connecting the film and the audience and promoting it to the public. If a film cannot secure a good distribution deal the film is less likely to do well and be as successful as a film that secures a good distribution deal. Less of the public will know about it as it wouldn’t be promoted and marketed very well.

 

Marketing

Marketing a film is promoting it and getting it to reach a wide audience as possible. It’s different to distribution because distribution is the process of getting the film out there e.g in cinema or on DVD, whereas marketing a film is actually promoting the film. This includes trailers, posters, social networking pages like face book and twitter, merchandise and interviews with the cast and directors.

One film currently being released is Love, Rosie:

This film has a trailers, a face book page and a twitter page so the audience can access it and so the film is promoted to a wide audience. It also allows the public to have audience participation.

Some American films can be promoted to a non-English speaking country by having different language trailers. This makes the film accessible for every country around the world so everyone can watch it. For example Avatar has a Spanish trailer so everyone in Spain that doesn’t speak English has the advantage of understanding and knowing about the film.

 

Exhibition

There are many different ways the audience can access films today. Some of these are:

·         Cinema

·         DVD

·         Blu Ray

·         Television

·         Netflix

·         Internet

Box office is where the public can buy admissions to an event. The box office measures the success of a film from the amount of people that have paid to watch the film. The producers earn most of the money produced by a film or anyone else involved in the film, depending on the contracts and agreements. Sometimes the actors invest their own money from the film as well. Cinemas make their money from the popcorns and snacks they sell.

Ancillary markets are ways of viewing the film outside of the cinema like DVD, home video, television etc. This allows the film to still be watched after it comes out of cinema so people that have missed it while it was in cinema still have access to it.

The BFI is the British Film Institute who is the lead organisation for film in the UK and use lottery funds to support film production, distribution, education and audience development. They encourage UK film releases and fund and support them through the process of producing to distributing and audience development.