Pinewood to invest in British film industry

The film studio Pinewood Shepperton hopes to grab a share of the profits of successful British movies, such as The King's Speech, by investing in small budget British films.

Pinewood, where the James Bond and Harry Potter films are shot, said it plans to invest as much as a 20 per cent stake in up to four films a year with production budgets of about £2m.

It is the first time that Pinewood has planned this type of investment since it was making the Carry On films in the 1970s. Ivan Dunleavy, its chief executive, said that while it "did not rush into these types of initiative", The King's Speech had been the latest in a long line of hit British films, citing other successes including Slum Dog Millionaire. The King's Speech only cost £9m to produce and has so far taken more than £150m at box offices globally.

Closure of the UK Film Council

With the closure of the UKFC all of its assets and responsibilities are being transferred over to the BFI and Film London.

What functions have transferred from the UK Film Council to the BFI?
From 1 April 2011, the British Film Institute (BFI) has become the lead body for film in the UK. Most of the UK Film Council's core functions have transferred to the BFI - including the distribution of National Lottery funding for the development and production of new British films, as well as audience development activity through supporting film distribution and exhibition.
The BFI also takes over responsibility for the certification of UK films (which enables filmmakers to access the UK film tax relief for film production); film education; the Research and Statistics Unit (contingent on alternative funding being found post July 2011); overseeing support for film in the English Regions; liaising with the National Screen Agencies in the devolved Nations; funding skills development for the film workforce in partnership with Skillset; and supporting First Light and MEDIA Desk UK. In addition, the work of the UK Film Council's Business Affairs, Monitoring, Strategic Development and UK Partnerships teams have moved over to the BFI.
The BFI is taking a partnership approach for promoting British film internationally, working with BBC Worldwide, BAFTA, Film London and, over time, others.
The responsibility for oversight of the BFI itself, previously held by the UK Film Council, has now transferred to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

What functions have transferred from the UK Film Council to Film London?
From 1 April 2011, the UK Film Council's role in encouraging inward investment into the UK has moved across to Film London in a public/private partnership with Warner Bros., Pinewood Studios Group, the Production Guild, UK Screen Association and others.

British Film Institute to partner with the British Library

The beginning of a new partnership between the BFI and British Library. In order for more people to access a wider range of what is considered a "vital part of our heritage".

The partnership, which will be managed by a joint steering committee, will focus on ways of “collecting, preserving and providing contemporary and long term access to their collections in the digital age for the benefit of research and the wider public".

Amanda Nevill, director of the BFI, said she was “delighted to be developing this key partnership with one of the world-leading custodians of our UK heritage. Partnerships such as this are crucial as we explore new ways to increase access to our collections across a range of different media and platforms in the digital economy and ensure we maximise our combined knowledge, expertise and resources.”

Full Article

Latest film news: US cinemas threaten not to show films in video on demand dispute

I thought this was linked to what Tim Bevan said about the ways that they are trying to combat pairacy with a Video on Demand service.

US cinema chains are threatening to banish some films from their screens in response to a contentious video-on-demand plan by several Hollywood studios to allow new releases into living rooms within weeks of their big screen debuts.

Four of the six major film studios – Universal, Sony, Warner Bros and Fox – plan to make new releases available to rent online just two months after their cinema debut. New releases will be available to rent for $30 (£18) under the premium VoD proposals, set to be introduced in the US later this month.

Sony's Just Go With It, a comedy featuring Adam Sandler, will make history as one of the first films to be offered on the new on-demand service, according to the US entertainment trade magazine Variety.

Film studios have long wanted to reduce the four-month period of exclusivity enjoyed by cinemas. It is seen as a way to offset a decline in physical DVD sales, while also helping to combat internet piracy and initiate a radical change in film buffs' viewing habits.
Paramount's opposition could give it the upper hand when it goes head to head with rival studios this summer, with big-name releases like Transformers 3 and Super 8 set to go up against the final Harry Potter and Fox's X-Men: First Class. Disney, the other Hollywood major, has yet to reveal its hand over the premium VoD plan.

What is a British film?

Activity 1:

The King's Speech:
Story and plot - In 1925, the Duke of York is stammerer and has troubles to speak to the public. His wife Elizabeth seeks the treatment of the speech therapist Lionel Logue that follows unconventional methods and relationship, and Bertie gives up the treatment on the first day. However, after listening to the session that was recorded by Lionel, the Bertie returns to the treatment. In the mid 30's, the Duke of York is forced to assume the throne of England as King George VI due to the abdication of his older brother King Edward VIII. Immediately after, there is a crisis in the government and England declares war to Germany. King George VI needs to make a speech to his compatriots, and his friend Lionel helps him using an unorthodox technique.
For obvious reasons this is in my opinion a very british film as it was filmed n the UK, and is also most obviouly about Britain's history as a naton.

Actors - I think all of the acotrs in the this film are British, and also there are tars such as Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffery Rush.

Director - The director of this film was Tom Hooper who is also British and also directed The Damned United another very British film.

Style - It's hard to say what the style of this film is when I haven't seen it myself.

Genre - The genre of this films looks like it's more of a historical drama, it's just a bit too young to be called a period drama.

Production Company - Made by See-Saw Films which is a British company.

Distribution - I think that it was distributed by Bedlam Productions which is also a british film, company.

Exhibition - The film was released on the 7th of January 2011.

127 Hours:
Story and plot - 127 Hours is the story of Aron Ralston, a climber/adverturer who becomes stuck in a crevasse with his arm lodged under a boulder. Over the next 5 days he looks at his life and his sourroundings and finds a way to free himself from his prison but at a cost.
The film is about an American, in America, getting lodged under a boulder in the desert. This film has nothing mildly British about it in its subject matter.

Actors - All of the actors in this are also American with the big name of set being James Franco, a well known but American star.

Director - Director Danny Boyle is British though, but seems to have a habit of making films in foreign countries, for example Slumdog Millionaire.

Style - The style of the film seems to be biographic in the sense that the camera for 90% of the film is just on Aron (Franco) and doesn't take a vew on anyone else unless it's in a flashback.

Genre - The genre of the film looks like an Adventure/Drama crossover, it cannot really be called an action film because there is only one very obvious "action" scene but this obviously isnt enough to class the entire movie as it.

Production Company - Pathe, and Everest Entertainment. As far as I am aware Pathe is a British production company.

Exhibition - the film was released on the 7th January 2011.

Another Year:
Story and plot - A married couple who have managed to remain blissfully happy into their autumn years, are surrounded over the course of the four seasons of one average year by friends, colleagues, and family who all seem to suffer some degree of unhappiness. This film seems traditionally British with an all British cast and traditional British location.

Actors - Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen are the main characters who are both British. While not as high profile as Tom Cruise they are still popular among many people.

Director - Mike Leigh, a British Director who also directed other films such as Vera Drake, a very British film.

Style - It is hard to say what kind of style the film has having not seen it before.

Genre -  The film appears to be a cross between Drama and Comedy.

Production Company - Thin Man Films and Film4, Im assuming both of these companies are British as Film4 is linked with the now disbanded British Film council.

Exhibition - The film was released on the 5th of November 2010.

4 Lions:
Story and plot - Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point. As the wheels fly off, and their competing ideologies clash, what emerges is an emotionally engaging (and entirely plausible) farce. In a storm of razor-sharp verbal jousting and large-scale set pieces, Four Lions is a comic tour de force; it shows that-while terrorism is about ideology-it can also be about idiots.
 While set in Britain the film is also spread across a different culture entirely. So this film could very easily be classed as a British film.

Actors - The film uses Kayvan Novac, Nigel Lindsay and Riz Ahmed, three British actors, to portray three foreign wannabe terrorists the most famous of these three in my opinion is Kayvan Novac who most people know as the "Fonejacker".

Director - Christopher Morris a British director who has had his first popular film with the Four Lions seems to also just make British Films.

Style - It is hard to say what kind of style the film has having not seen it before.

Genre - the film is a comedy drama crossover.

Production company - Film4, which is again heavily involved with the Uk Film council.

Exhibition - 7th May 2010

Made In Dagenham:
Story and plot - A dramatization of the 1968 strike at the Ford Dagenham car plant, where female workers walked out in protest against sexual discrimination. This film is similar to The King's Speech in that it is part of the history of Britian as well as just being set there.

Actors - Sally Hawkins and Bob Hoskins are both big British stars that are two of the main roles in this film.

Director - Directed by Nigel Cole a British director who was also involved in Calendar Girls another classicly British film.

Style - As this is a dramatization the film looks much more like a historical event than a piece of entertainment.

Genre - In my opinion this film fits into the characteristics of three genres which are comedy, drama and history.

Production Company - Audley Films and BBC Films, it seems the finance came from BBC Films as Audley Films sound like a much smaller (and British) production company.

Exhibition - Released on the 1st of October 2010.

Working Title Trip

Dear Blog

5:50am: I woke up, it was incredibly early, and I was very tired.

5: 57am: I had a shower and as a dried my hair I smacked my head against the ceiling. Ow. I then recover and get dressed.

6:10am: I go downstairs and have breakfast, Kellogs Crunchy Nut® as per usual.

6:17am: I walk down the road and wait for Miss Purser. I wait for 7 minutes and still no car. I hope she hasn’t forgotten, that could prove problematic.

6:25am: Miss Purser turns up finally and we go to college with a near death count of: 1 Pigeon.

7:45am: We get on the bus and I find a seat at the back not much leg room quite disappointing.

11:30ish am: Arrive at Working Title Pictures and greeted by Deborah Hayward. She led us to a theatre room where we talked to Tim Bevan. At first he described the role of Working Title in the film industry, All funding for staff and development of the projects comes from Universal Pictures their partner companies. WT often have over 50 projects “on the slate” at any one time and make averagely produce 3-4 pictures a year.

One of the first things he said was “Film is big big f@*£ing business.” This was in response to a question about piracy and what was being done about it. He said that they were looking into a new type of online film viewing service which reasonably priced could help the film industry with the issue of piracy.

He talked about what it was like working between films of two very different styles which was entertaining but occasionally had difficulties.

He talked about his favourite part of the process being both at the start of the production when the script has been written the cast are all on board and until that moment the film has the possibility to be the best film…until it starts.

We then talked to Sarah Jane Wright who was in charge of production, and one of the projects that is being worked on at the moment is Anna Karenina a film with a budget of around £17,000,000. She talked about how they need to be able to keep the cost down so instead of lying all over the world and doing the scenes on location, they filmed in Hungary. Hungary has the ability to look like many places across the world, for instance they can film in Budapest for scenes that take place in Italy or London. Also there is up to a 20% tax rebate in Hungary if the filming costs are kept under £20,000,000. So again this makes it much cheaper to film.

We also talked to Steve Hally. He has been in charge of the theatre room we were in for 16 years. And it was interesting as he has seen the change that had occurred over the time he was there from 16mm film to digital, and when instead of spools and reels of film he has to now use a computer to play these films.

We then got a chance to talk to one of the interns called Harriet Spencer (No second name was provided) who talked about how she first discovered she wanted to be in either film of theatre at university. She took a year off and became involved in different parts of the film industry, but afterwards applied for a job as a runner at Working Title and after a month’s unpaid work she was offered a full time job there and has been working on research recently for new television programmes which are being released or “Ones to watch”. I felt the information was useful because becoming involved in film as a career is something that interests me.

1:15pm: We left the studios after an impromptu and very entertaining talk by the writer of Borat, Bruno and Ali G. Who spoke of slightly strange and nostalgic times working on set. I got chicken teriyaki for lunch, it was quite expensive but I was full after and it tasted great.

1:30pm: We realised we were lost in the depths on London, scared and worried we had no way out. So Johnny asked for directions.

2:15pm: We arrived at the Wallace Collection and had to wait for teachers who were slightly late (tut-tut). We walked around looking at paintings and the underlying messages from them. Also trying on armour along the way.

3:10pm: After trying to make friends with some locals we discovered the natural hostility that somewhere like Hackney provoked. We were attacked from the left flank and had to defend ourselves, our main defence was to close the curtains but after realising that a traffic jam was impeding out escape we had to take the beating even after some pillow fumbling issues and some unnecessary provocation they launched a second attack, after a high speed chase and a high dosage of paranoia we were safe.

7:40pm: We returned to college, battered and bruised but alive, we did lose some good people that day but they shall never be forgotten.

Research on: Issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media. 2) The importance of cross media convergance and synergy in production, distribution and marketing. 3) The technologies that have come out in recet years.

1) The idea of comparing illegal music downloads and to purchasing songs to buying bottled water when we can still get it free is very clever and easy to understand.
Victor Keegan said "If music executives sold bottled water, they'd be calling for a ban on tap water downloads. But their industry is proving resilient" this point truly reflects his opinion and makes a lot of sense.

Young people and especially teenagers do download illegal music although are prepared to pay £3 for a ring tone of their phone. Keegan stated that the reason for this is because it was an easier payment option and if companies had spent more time thinking of easier ways to pay then more people would pay for the songs.

He also said that people these days tend to download in single tracks rather than downloading the album as they may not want other songs they don't like or don't want.
However money can still be gained as this particular audience are prepared to spend a large amount of money on going to their favourite artists gigs and on merchandise.

Keegans point truly highlights where the big music companies have gone wrong and the ways in which they could have stopped illegal downloading or reduced it. "If the big music companies had spent their energies dreaming up a payments mechanism for web downloads instead of suing their customers they could have swept all before them. Instead they were like the crew of a sinking boat that blames the sea instead of trying to mend the leak."

Also to purchase on itunes you have to have an itunes account which could be inconvenient for some people so they seem to resort in getting the music for free. Surely if the music companies focused on creating other and easier ways to pay people may decide to purchase it.

Researched from Media Blogging Websites

2) James Cameron plans another innovation for his next "Avatar" installment: shooting at double or more the film speed that has been Hollywood's standard since the 1920s, a move he says will greatly improve 3-D images.Cameron, whose 2009 sci-fi blockbuster raised the bar for digital imagery and put the 3-D craze on the fast track, said Thursday that "Avatar 2" would be shot at 48 or 60 frames a second to reduce an effect called "strobing" that can blur moving images, particularly those in 3-D. For more than 80 years, the norm has been 24 frames a second.

In a demonstration for theater owners at their CinemaCon convention, Cameron played 3-D footage he recently shot at 24, 48 and 60 frames a second to show the better quality of high-speed filming.

The footage of medieval dinner and fight sequences shot at 48 and 60 frames a second were noticeably superior.At 24 frames, blurriness was very evident when the camera panned or dollied along the dinner table and when two knights dueled with swords. The fuzzy images greatly diminished at 48 frames and virtually vanished at 60 frames.

"I was stunned when I saw it, at how clear and crisp it was," Cameron said. "If 3-D is like looking at reality through a window, we've taken the glass out of the window."

New digital projectors rapidly being installed in theaters can handle the higher frame speeds with no more than a software upgrade, said Cameron, who wants faster filming rates to become the standard for 2-D and 3-D movies.

Reasearch from: hitfix.com

Working Title Questions

How do you decide what film projects to start production and which not to?

If a film that you have invested in does not make the return you were expecting, how would you normally attempt to regain your investment?

What are your thoughts and possible ideas about the new wave of 3D movies being released?

Guardian Article

Explain, using specific examples, how the expansion of digital media has been an improvement for audiences.

Over the years there has been a huge amount of ways that media ca be taken in thanks to new digital media developments. The main one has been focused on viewing films online. This has changed the way people think about films in many ways. Although different forms of media have been developed and thereby perhaps have split up fiom-viewing audiences, certain expansions have been a certain improvement for audiences in order to move with the times. Most of the emphasis has been on viewing films online. There are so many ways to watch online, it has opened it up to new audiences for instance if there was an audience that didn't have a TV, or didnt own a DVD player then you can watch yor movies online, Using such internet services as the new LOVEFILM online service which means you can watch new releases online. It has also created a whole new viewing base for other genres as there are so many new film and media genres that can be viewed online and ar open to so many more people.

Other programs that can be used online incude Sky Player, which allows people to catch up on and watch new film releases online for no extra cost than the subscription cost. Another example is BBC iPlayer which allows you to catch up on recently aired television. So with all of these new ways to watch movies people can watch many different types of films that wouldn't usually be shown. For example there are some cult movies that I enjoy to watch online.

It's not just computers that can be used to view films. for instance the Sony PS3 now allows people to stream movies directly from LOVEFILM to their console, it acting as a "computer". The same with Microsoft's Xbox 360 which uses a "Zune" application to let owners to watch films on the console. Sky has also teamed up with Microsoft and allowed the SkyPlayer to be used in conjunction with the console.

The "Hot-Box" Gameshow

We have decided to make a game show called 'The Hot Box', which is a mix between popular game shows 'Deal or No Deal' and 'Take Me Out'. We have converged these two ideas and come up with a different approach, by changing the prize from money to people. We have decided to use a similar idea of Deal or No Deal by having a system of 20 'prizes', but instead of having a jackpot prize in each box, we will have a girl or boy. The 'date' will be rated via the internet, pressing the red button, and by the live audience, and the girl who receives the most votes will be the one which the competitor will want to win, and the one with the least votes will be the one he/she will want to avoid.

The object of the game is more the competitor to leave the show with the best (Or most attractive)date and also to win a good destination on the 'Wheel Of Dates'. But, different members of the audience may want to change the competitor’s fate and vote for the least attractive or most annoying date or destination, therefore making the show more interesting and less predictable, or if they like the competitor, they may want to help him/her have the best date possible.

This type of convergence will allow the audience at home to be a part of the outcome of the show, and will make the audience more interested in what will happen on the show. If a member of the audience votes for a date, then they will be cheering that date on. We have decided that by introducing more technologies for the show, there will be a greater audience, meaning a larger amount of people the show will appeal to. For instance "Take Me Out" is all about men trying to find a women, but it still appeals to both genders.

We have also decided that we would bring out an iPod and/or Android app, where players can play the game themselves but through a non-real system. A computer game and X-BOX 360 or Playstation 3 versions will also be available for the audience, where they can be a part of the show but on a different technology. With these different technologies, our show will appeal to a variety of members of the public. By keeping up to date with the latest technologies, we will appeal to the younger generation, while at the same time being available for the television for those who know little about technology. Watching the show on a different technology will make a different experience for the viewer, which may make them appreciate the show more.

Members of the audience who vote will also be able to live stream the show on their computer or iPod as a reward for voting. This will encourage more people to vote on the show, while at the same time increasing the number of people watching the show.