The single most important fact, perhaps, of the entire movie industry is that nobody knows anything...

Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work. Every time out it's a guess and, if you're lucky, an educated one. Two time Academy Award winning screen writer William Goldman

WHAT ARE THE THREE STAGES OF FILM MAKING?

1.Production: funding and making films (includes the funding/pre/post production). 2.Distribution: marketing films and getting them into cinemas and out on DVD as well as any spin offs/related media products. 3.Exhibition: people paying at the cinema, renting or buying DVDs and downloading and purchasing related products.

LO- TO CONSIDER PROCESSES AND ROLES WITHIN TRADITIONAL AND CONTEMPORARY FILM Production How films are created, the most expensive phase, labour PRODUCTION

intensive. In Mainstream film industries, production concerns: stars, special effects, million dollar budgets. Film, like most art forms, is essentially a creative medium but it is also a commercial venture. Filmmakers are not providing us with a charitable entertainment. They are key players in a fast-moving, global, commercial industry. The power of the financier is huge. The film that we finally see at the cinema is the result of many months, often many years, of planning and budgeting. The most important role in the production of films is unsurprisingly, the producer

STARTER EXERCISE (5 MINS)

Titanic $200,000,000 $200,000,000 $175,000,000 $175,000,000 Spiderman 2 Waterworld The,Wild,Wild West

Van Helsing
Terminator 3 Troy

$170,000,000
$170,000,000 $150,000,000

With a partner, look at the above list of the biggest film budgets and discuss what factors do you think helped secure such huge amounts of investment in these films?

STAGES OF PRODUCTION: 1.DEVELOPMENT

The role of the Producer:
Finding Finance

Script development
Stars Finding the Director and other Key Crew

STAGES OF PRODUCTION: 2.PRE-PRODUCTION

Finalising Script

Scheduling
Budgeting Casting Crew contracts Storyboarding

Location scouting
Equipment hire

STAGES OF PRODUCTION: 3.PRODUCTION

Filming/Cinematography DOP and the camera crew.

Production Design Art direction and dressers. Actors- Direction.

4. POST-PRODUCTION
Editing

Special Effects
Re-shoots Sound mixing ADR Foley

Music
Laboratories

RESEARCH TOPICS (4 GROUPS) X2 GROUPS OF 3 PERSONS X2 GROUPS OF 4 PERSONS 1. THE IDEA AND DEVELOPMENT FINANCE (INCLUDE ROLE OF PRODUCER). 2. SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT AND PACKAGING. 3. FINANCING AND PRE-

ALTERNATIVE PRODUCTION worlds largest platform for METHODSThe funding creative projects. Each project
is independently created and crafted by the person behind it. The filmmakers, musicians, artists, and designers have complete control and responsibility over their projects. Project creator sets their project's funding goal and deadline. If people like the project, they can pledge money to make it happen. If the project succeeds in reaching its funding goal, all backers' credit cards are charged when time expires. If the project falls short, no one is charged. Funding on Kickstarter is all-ornothing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =ePfNcj-SaZM

Life in a Day
2011 Director: Kevin Macdonald.

HOMEWORK:
CHOOSE A BRITISH FILM PRODUCED IN THE LAST 20 YEARS TO RESEARCH AS A CASE STUDY CREATE A BRIEF PRESENTATION OF UNDER 5 MINS (EITHER NOTES/WORD/POWERPOINT/PREZI) TO FEEDBACK TO THE CLASS.

WHAT WERE THE PRODUCTION METHODS AND BUDGET? WHO FINANCED THE FILM? RESEARCH THE NAMES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN PRODUCTION PRODUCER? DIRECTOR? ACTOR? WHAT FILMS HAD THEY WORKED ON PREVIOUSLY? WAS THE FILM A SUCCESS? WHAT WERE THE FIGURES? WAS THERE A PROFIT?