BFI Trip Notes

BFI AS Study Day 2017

Uses and Gratifications Theory - what attracts national and international audiences to a British film?
Bridget Jones's Baby
Star Wars
High Rise
I, Daniel Blake

Class structure of this country

Social Realism
Quintissential 'Britishness' - tea and crumpets. Americans love this.
Adaptations of famous books - Sense & Sensibility - films are franchises with a pre-built international audiences

2014 most successful year ever for UK independent film - 16% of overall box office receipts.

Marketing - use terminology in exam:
Arthouse
Multiplex
Prestige

Concepts to use:
Exchange - what the consumer gives and what they get in return
Traditional cinema model is consumer ays money for cinema ticket, dvd, dowload, etc. Get the cinema experience.

What else do they get?
Information/education - how other British people live, issues affecting UK - I Daniel Blake

Interaction - crowd pleasers (social viewing) - Bridget Jones's Baby; Oscar nominations (conversation point)

Personal identification - national pride, solidarity, aspiration, glamourisation, reinforcing or rejecting values - James Bond glamourises Britishness; gay culture - challenging or reinforcing ideas

Pure entertainment - spectacle, escapism, adrenaline (thriller/horror), catharsis (emotional intensity) - Star Wars

For international audiences, also:
Information/education - The Queen more successful in America than was in UK.

Social Interaction - crowd pleasers (Harry Potter)

Personal identification - sub-culture cinema, such as ravers, mods or hippies - The Football Factory

Pure entertainment

Institutions - Theatrical Distribution

Arthouse

Small, independent cinemas

Low budget, foreign, speciality cinema

Multiplex
Large, part of a chain - Odeon, Cineplex, often part of a shopping mall, blockbusters and mainstream or Oscar nominated such as 12 Years A Slave

Crossover

'Prestige' cinema - award nominations

Serious topics, non-Hollywood genre, big actor in low budget/eccentric production, e.g. Under The Skin starring Scarlett Johansen

British Sub-Genres

Franchise - Bond, Potter, Star Wars, Dark Knight

Special effects in Rogue One were done in London

Costume Dramas 'Heritage' cinema like The king's Speech

Social realism, e.g. Kes, Fish Tank, The Selfish Giant, I, Daniel Blake

Horror, e.g. Hammer, Hellraiser, 28 Days Later, Woman in Black

'Urban Fairytale' romcom e.g. Love Actually, Bridget Jones' Baby

What audience pleasures are provided by these films?

Franchise: Bond and beyond
Offers similar pleasures to other blockbuster film franchises
Familiar characters and situations
Stereotypes of 'Britishness'
Patriotic pride for UK audiences

Fulfils expectations of international audiences, too

Spectre $135,446,386 Box Office

Star Wars: The Force Awakens over $176,000,000

Popularity inspired two other 2015 movies : The Man from UNCLE and Kingsman: The Secret Service sequel due for release in June

Kingsman $24,160,744 Box Offie - Colin Firth & Samuel L Jackson - Crossover film - high budget action movie with very cool effects and mainstream appeal in Bond mould, played up by trailer. International audience might like it - rags to riches story where character starts in poverty but through skill, talent and tenacity make it big; universal appeal

'Heritage' film

Nostalgic, rose-tinted view of British history.

UK film used to reinforce patriotism for domestic audience.

UK film used as tourist marketing strategy for foreign audiences.

Presents the past as a 'spectacle' - 'museum aesthetic' where the past is displayed for visual pleasure.

Films "half in love with fancy frocks and immaculate cutlery" e.e. Mise-en-scene becomes more significant than narrative or characters.

The past, and our relationship with it, is not questioned or criticised.

Example - Love & Friendship - based on Jane Austen's Lady Susan, Stephen Fry, Kate Beckinsale star - Crossover film targeting older audience, Oscar nomination and Bafta winner. Hybrid genre - 'Heritage' movie but also very witty and funny, quite'modern' issues; international audience would enjoy stereotypical English history, a form of escapism for many audiences.

Social Realism - I, Daniel Blake

Opposite of Heritage cinema, critical of British life, not reinforcing patriotic values (Trainspotting - It's shite to be Scottish), unflinching reality

Damian Gree, secretary for Work and Pensions, criticised the film - touched a nerve

Shocking eamination of dark side of human behaviour: explicit sex, violence, drugs.

Deals with social problems - drugs, poverty, child abuse, unemplyment - explicitly but with complexity

Often focuses on working or underclass characters

Winner of Cannes Festival Palme D Or.

'An immediate classic' The Times

Horror - The Girl With All The Gifts

Tradition of 'gothic' - back to Shelley and Stoker

Hammer films in 1960s and 70s, offered 'costume' dramas with added sex and violence

Rivalled US horror which had stricter censorship

Modern British horror often aims to make something more intelligent or morally complex than US horror (which often signed up to the Hays Code which avoided anything too shocking)

Fans often want something a little bit more intelligent, original and thought-provoking

Described as 'the best zombie film ever' also won Palme D'Or at Cannes.

Urban Fairytale Romcom - Bridget Jones' Baby

Often made by Working Title - brand, Richard Curtis director

Typical love story conventonns: mismatched couple who don't immediately get on, obstacles to relationship that are overcome, close knit group of friends

Set in contemporary London or other recognisable locations - lots of tourist landmarks; middle class neighbourhoods; 'sanitised' version of urban life 

Matthew Hall's website and facebook group - www.lensflaretheory.com

Case studies for exams
Vertigo
Formed 2002
To produce The Football Factory and It's All Gone Pete Tong
Two subculture movies; one about football hooliganism and the other about Ibiza rave DJs
Allan Niblo, had previously produced Human Traffic, also about rave subculture.
Easy to market to football or rave fans, but also universal themes of violence, hedonism, etc
Today vertigo wants to make 'commercially sustainable independent films'

Mission statement to identify new talent

Ensure films are distributed

 Gareth Edwards, director of Monsters (2008) with budget of $500,000

Domestic box office £237,301
International box office %5,402,429
Incredibly commercially successful film
Edwards' next film Godzilla had $160m budget, then Rogue One $200m.
Vertigo released Monsters 2 in 2015 then Kill Command in 2016

Post-production (incl 3D): 'Post Republic' in Berlin for editing and special effects, popular internationally

Sales and distribution: Protagonist (in association with Channel 4) - really good collaborations with distribution copanies, all Vertigo films shown on Channel 4

'Ancillary' sales - DVD, pay-per-view, TV - as relevant as theatrical box office - Vertigo has films on Netflix, too

The Football Factory is still biggest-selling independent DVD

Vertigo founder Allan Niblo:
Anyone can make a film and distribute it on the internet
Yet ensuring films reach audience rmeans "a Hurculean effort"
So Vertigo doesnt produce presige' films or limited to genres and audience - instead to a range of products.

'Lad'thrillers: The Business, Outlaws

Horror: The Children, The Facility, Kill Command

Family-friendly: Horrid Henry, Moomins on the Riviera
Eccentric indie: In Search of a mIdnight Kiss, Safety Not Guaranteed

Cross-media Synergy - teamed up with SyCo Simon Cowell's production company, developing BGT winners such as Streetdance 3D - $6,700,000 budget most expensive Vertigo production to date, but UK no 1 in first week and global total of over $17m - extremely successful - British audience loved the setting, BGT link, relatable characters; international audience also - trailer had lots of shots of the Gerkin, London Eye, tourist attractions; soundtrack very popular music Pixie Lott, Cheryl Cole. Similar to Step Up. Lots of universal themes.

Warp Films

Founded 2001
Off-shoot of successful electronic music record label
"Bedroom producer ethos" - challenging and experimental music
Distribution network already established with record shops and DJs
First ever 'DVD single' - Chris Morris short film, won a BAFTA
Unlike Vertigo, very clear brand
Northern English (first office in Sheffield). THis Is England
"Distinctive auteur filmmaking with a market" - Shane Meadows very distinctive directorial style that also sells
"Artist-driven content": profit participation scheme where cast and crew get share of profit - quiet socialist way of making films
Crossover between arthouse and multiplex
Aphex Twin: "Come To Daddy"

Case study: Dead Man's Shoes (Shane Meadows, 2006) - largely improvised, no shooting script, shot chronologically and creative decisions improvised- very low budget but more creative freedom.
"Punk rock" attitude to filmmaking - CEO Mark Herbert
Won several awards (see trailer)

Warp Films: Developing Talent
Music video like short film
Calling cards for new directors
Used to raise funding - proof of skill and 'distinctive vision'
Off-shoot Warp X works with FilmFour and Screen Yorkshire - plafrorm for distribution
£400,000 to £800,000 budgets
Main aim is to reinforce brand identity rather than make profit.
Shane Meadows also making This Is England epic TV series

Contrast Vertigo discuise low budget, whereas Warp uses low budget to inspire creative freedom. Sticks to small casts to save money, more tightly focused and more creative freedom

Cross-media synergy - lots of TV products - This Is England 86, 88, 90, BBC Grow Your Own, short films for Sky, The Last Panthers film for Sky.

Case Study: Bunny and the Bull (Paul King, 2010)

'71

Producer Robin Gutch - interview

Job is to start off the production of the film, first in and last out. Develop idea, script, get money, director, post production, delivery and afterlife of the film, approve marketing, look at how film is performing, deal with press, after main festival premiere then involvement pretty low. Fundamentally it's the people who make the film happen!

As independent film producer, contrasts with global institution like Disney in some ways - Disney producers fight a film through the system and their company sits within the Disney studio while some are employed by the studio but will only make films for the studio. Whereas WARP will make films for different clients. '71 was FilmFour, BFI, Studiocanal and Screen Yorkshire. Cross-media synergy: companies like Film Four would invest in a film like '71 as part of its remit to commission certain independent work, as is BBC Films and BFI - talent is critical. Yan the director had already done outstanding TV work, but this was his first film - his talent was what attracted funding.

In contrast, currently in production Ghost Stories - based on West End play, with two writer-directors, investors are Lionsgate and Screen Yorkshire - much more of a commercial project.

Other producer, Angus, had personal experience of a school friend who had similar experience as the soldier in '71. Film set over one night. Good but simple idea. Gregory Burke theatre scriptwriter wrote the screenplay. Film Four liked it and said if you can get a director we like we'll back it.

Northern Ireland not a setting which conventionally attracts investors, so needed much enthusiasm to drive the film.

Production runner, production coordinator, production manager, working upwards over years, usually having studied film technically in some way, or TV. Can start as script editors then begin to be in charge of scripts and come up that way - might have had a more academic training. Some are lawyers who know people with money, or people with access to money!

Shortage of accountants in film! Very busy and expanding industry, especially TV. TV and film no longer separate worlds as they were 10 years ago. Budgets for Netflix and HBO can be enormous such as 'The Crown'. Studios focus on 'tentpole films'. Lots of writers, directors, actors who would have been working in independent film now work in TV, too. Aesthetic differences between watching film and tv, though. Directors' ambition is to work in film where audience is focused and doesn't have to be spoon-fed. Netflix fund films directly with brief theatrical life. Amazon do more traditional film finance like 'Manchester By The Sea' won BAFTAs, Oscar nominated, funded by Amazon but promoted as theatrical film.

'71 budget £5.5m, made £1.2m in UK box office. Was theatrically released in US, had amazing reviews, but difficult British period to watch. 

Skillset and BFI involve young people. Industry more open than it was 20-30 years ago. BBC was and still is biggest employer, but people joined for life. Now labour force is more casualised, more open, more insecure. BFI film academy runs every autumn, 16-19 year olds, competitive and selective. Need more people to work in animation in London to stop the work moving back to the US!