Funding & Distribution
The main priority for film makers is finding someone to fund their movie. Funding is the most complicated issue when it comes to film making because the company who is financing your movie has to agree with your script and may need to make changes to it so they can fund it. Hollywood has many film studios that directors can pitch their movie to for funding. Warner Bros, Paramount Studios and Walt Disney are a few examples of huge film funding studios. The British film industry is not as big as the likes of Hollywood. Most directors within the UK have to rely on small places for loans to fund their movie, such as banks or different companies. For example, I met the producer of Kidulthood, he had mentioned that he had gone to Costa coffee Inc for funding his movie. There are certain film studios within the UK that are partnered with a US film studio such as Working Title who is partnered with Universal Pictures. Universal Pictures have been one of the big film studios that distribute British films worldwide.
In 1989, British cinema hit its all time low, however, since 2000; British cinema has become quite successful. BBC Films and Film 4 are known to have funded many British films, and independent companies such as Working Title which has been mentioned above have secured financing and distribution deals with major American studios. Working Title had mainly produced worldwide international hits with its rom-coms such as Love Actually which grossed $239 million. Mama Mia had been the most successful in 2008, when it grossed $601 million. Many Hollywood film directors have been influenced by British culture and history. This can be seen in many of the Disney animated films such as Robin Hood and Alice In Wonderland. Although Hollywood is way ahead of the British film industry, the British film industry has produced many successful actors in its time such as the likes of Sir Alfred Hitchcock who directed one of the most successful films of all time, Psycho (1960). The future looks good for the British film industry as many British films released are successful from the likes of Harry potter to James Bond which are US funded but played by British actors. However, at the same time many UK film productions are never released.
Film directors need to rely on good film distribution companies because they are responsible for releasing the films to many cinema companies. If a good distribution company is selected for the film, then there is more chance of the movie making lots of money because it will be shown in lots of cinemas. Distribution also describes all the things that happen when making the film and then the sales of the movie when it goes on DVD. It is basically responsible with getting the film promoted and shown to a large audience. Promoting the film means advertising it so the audience are notified of it. Advertising the film is very complicated, because there are so many different ways in doing it. Some distributors promote their product by the use of action figures. This is mostly done for movies based on superheroes from magazines.
Clothing is also a way to advertise, by putting the film pictures on clothing items such as shirts. Fast food adverts such as Burger King and McDonald’s are used to advertise the films within their meals by giving the advert a theme of the film. Toys are also used in children meals in certain fast food restaurants if the distributor is promoting a children movie.
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