THE FILM INDUSTRY

In this post, I explore the industry to gather a further understanding of how it works. This is important because I must understand why certain things are done for exposition when I do my film opening. This post includes:

• Factors that influence box office
• Why Working Title is and Warp isn't successful 
• Working Title vs Warp
• Working Title film covers analysis
• Warp film covers analysis
• BBFC and MPAA

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE BOX OFFICE

WARP

Why Warp can't produce any genre besides social realism and horror - (and comedy - 4 Lions -'suicide bomber comedy'

 

Warp X makes lots of horror - similarity between horror and social realism - both lack CGI, IP, stars. Warp X doesn't have access to a high budget and has to stick to these genres as they have a lack of budget.
If they were bought by a conglomerate, they would be able to diversify to different genres.

WORKING TITLE

Working Title have the budget to diversify into different genres, therefore accessing the four quadrant audience.
They can use CGI and SFX for Sci-Fi genres such as in Paul.

They also can afford IP such as the Bridget Jones franchise as it was originally a novel

BILLIE ELLIOT

Outliar for Working Title - WT2 - low budget end - Psuedo Indie
Low budget and social realism (around $2m budget)
Grim setting, accents, working class
Appealed because of feel good ending - ties in with American Dream
Warp don't usually have feel good endings

WHY WORKING TITLE IS AND WARP ISN'T SUCCESSFUL

STAR POWER

WORKING TITLE

BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY (Maguire, 2001)

• Hugh Grant, Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth
• Can afford A-listers (budget of $26m)
• Use for star billing on advertisement (posters)

WARP

LE DONK AND SCOR-ZAY-ZEE (Meadows, 2009)

• No A-listers
• Can't afford (budget of only £48k)
• Doesn't appeal to audience as much

CGI AND SFX

WORKING TITLE

PAUL (Mottola, 2011)
Sci-fi comedy genre
Can afford to use CGI and SFX (budget of $40m)
Appeals to audience

WARP

Lack CGI and SFX

PRODUCT PLACEMENT

WORKING TITLE

ABOUT A BOY (Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz, 2002)

• Product placement of Bang and Olufsen and Phillips 
• Companies use these Big 5 movies to advertise their products

WARP

• No movie with product placement
• Their movies don't get a lot of recognition so companies won't bother paying them to include their products

TIE-INS

WORKING TITLE

BRIDGET JONES'S BABY (Maguire, 2016)

• Softis toilet role tie-in
• Poster for Bridget Jones's Baby on the packaging

WARP

• No movie with tie-ins

TENTPOLE/BUDGET

WORKING TITLE

GREEN ZONE (Greengrass, 2010)
Starring Matt Damon
Tentpole (budget of $100m)

WARP

LE DONK AND SCOR-ZAY-ZEE (Meadows, 2009)

• 5 day shoot
• Budget less than 1% of Green Zone (budget of £48k)

GENRE

WORKING TITLE

SHAUN OF THE DEAD (Wright, 2004)

• Can afford to do any genre they want ($6.1m)
• Even hybrid genres such as the zom-rom-com
• Don't show as many representations

WARP

TYRANNOSAUR (Considine, 2011)

• Can't afford to do different genres (£750k)
• Mainly stick to social realism genre
• Show different representations

FRANCHISE

WORKING TITLE

BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY (Maguire, 2001)
BRIDGET JONES'S BABY (Maguire, 2016)

• Franchise with book and second movie

WARP

THIS IS ENGLAND (Meadows, 2006)

• Became a short TV show

VERTICAL INTEGRATION

WORKING TITLE

• NBC Universal an example of vertical integration
• Working Title being a production company

WARP

• Warp does not own distribution and exhibition/exchange companies

IP

WORKING TITLE

• LES MISÉRABLES (Hooper, 2012)
• Originally a novel
• Can afford to pay intellectual property (budget of $61m)

WARP

• Has IP, however significantly rarer
• Submarine (Ayoade, 2011) was originally a novel
• The difference between Warp and Working title is that Working Title create film on novels that performed well
• Submarine wasn't a particularly successful novel

CHINA

WORKING TITLE

• Second biggest film market in the world
• A quota of 34 movies per year 
• Working Title could achieve this

WARP

• Warp have never accessed the market in China

WORKING TITLE VS WARP

Practise crossword

WORKING TITLE POSTERS ANALYSIS

- Central framing (rule of thirds)

- Both characters set in the middle of the framing, clearly showing the protagonists.

- Also leaving space for the sky, connoting a romantic feel

- Plain colours (both the clothes and the rest of the cover follow a blue and black tone, therefore signifying the movie as a drama, with no comedy elements)

- Style of title (bold serif font, also helping to connote the drama theme)

- Background includes castle, which glamourises the upper-class life

- The physical contact between the characters connotes a love theme

- Facial expressions (look serious, therefore clearly not comedic)

- long-shot

- Main characters holding tools/sport equipment/flowers as weapon (makes its clear it is comedy)

- Flowers being held by female character (connotes rom-com theme)

- Zombies on screen clearly signifies what style of movie it is (zom-rom-com)

- making it a hybrid means it is approachable for more audiences (hybrid)

- widens the preferred reading (could include more negotiated reading and less oppositional reading)

- female holding the flowers (stereotyping)

- although she is also fighting (countertype)

- Pink text connote romance

- Purple font contrasts the pink slightly, as the comedy element shines through

- Female character is centre of the screen, signifying she is the main character

- 2 males and a female connotes their could be a love triangle

- Females facial expression also contrasts the romance with comedy, as she does not look too serious

- Non-serif bubble font, also clearly shows it isn't a film to be taken seriously

- Binary opposition between male and female

- Black and white split on screen (showing good and bad side)

- Character on black side does not cross over onto the other side, whereas Tom Hardy on the white side crosses over onto the white, connoting he could be an anti-hero

- Bold non-serif font

- Suited up, therefore glamourising the upper-class once again

- Hand in pockets, showing a serious vibe

- man in a suit (stereotyping)

WARP FILM COVERS ANALYSIS

The research into these Warp movies has shown that the covers often already signify the genre as social realist. They often use quotes or awards from festivals as they are an aspect that attracts the audience and the audience would choose whether or not to see the movie depending on if its generally getting good reviews.

Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Ze

- Bright colours with title, stars, graffiti (not serious)

- Fat character signifies comedy in this case

- Wearing scruffy clothes, therefore not glamourising the upper-class

- Underwear hanging connotes a comedy genre

- Setting = covered in graffiti (connotation of rough area) + (typical warp)

- Intertextual reference of 'Spinal Tap'

- Stereotypes = short hair, relatively masculine colours

-  rule of thirds - centred on the cover (protagonist)

- more inviting as character is directly referencing the character with hand gesture

- Text = scruffy serif font

- Narrative enigma as we don't know who the character is + his eyes are covered by sunglasses

- Long-shot/extreme long-shot

- Mid angle

- Shane Meadows made clear on cover = denotes the auteur theory

- Small text showing the actors (not famous actors, therefore no need to have their names clear on the cover)

- Not a star vacuole + film ratings on cover

- Showing off film festival ratings

- intertextuality with name (Martin Scorsese)

- Two shot

Dead Man's Shoes

- Bubble font (would typically signify younger audience but not in this case - broken down by 'chilling')

- First warp feature film

- Auteur theory applied again

- Low angle connotes character is a threat

- red and axe signifies danger + clearly signifies genre of horror or drama

- No star power (even with Shane Meadows)

- Dutch angle

- Scary, vicious and violent is important

Tyrannosaur

Rule of thirds, centrally framed connoting this man as the protagonist

However, prop, lighting, mise-en-scene etc connote he could be the antagonist

Own binary opposition - creating narrative enigma

Serif font signifying a drama genre

Wrinkles - older man - older audience

Skin head, vest top - working class

Terraced houses on edge of poster - working class

Dark weather - drama

High key lighting on only one side - reflects his two different personalities - drama

Small 'a film by Paddy Considine' denotes auteur theory

2 awards won; reviews to lead promotion

High angle - surprising for protagonist

Bare tree - drama 

Violence - in this shot - violence to himself - self-loathing

Contemplating - not stupid like the stereotypical working class

Narrative enigma - what is he regretting?

Names but not big or bold

'71

Dark colours used in poster anchor the connotation that this is an action film.

Medium shot, showing facial expression as well as what is being held, further anchors action film

Dark colours also set the tone of the film, and the mind of the protagonist, setting the film as dark and serious, showing the protagonist as troubled.

Facial expression - Mouth slightly opened to show he is shocked.

This is England

This is England immediately signifies that its is a social realist production based in England. This is anchored by the title being the colour of the union jack.

Either side of the poster, two buildings are framed either side signifying working class characters. This is further anchored by the urban decay on the fence/ font. All males in the poster are skinheads which anchors working class

'A film by Shane Meadows' denotes the auteur film theory. 

Wide long shot denotes ensemble cast, Not a star vehicle. It also signifies a community relationship

The film is based in the 1980's, however nothing signifies that so it is polysemic .

BBFC AND MPAA

Does the BBFC treat movies distributed by their Big 5 better than indie movies?

Here is a guide to BBFC and MPAA ratings

MPAA

BBFC

A typical theme reoccurring is the BBFC and MPAA seem to favourite movies distributed by the big 5. They are more likely to give a higher rating to an indie movie, and a lower rating to a mainstream movie.
The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008) opens with a very violent and gory scene, where a pencil is put through a mans head. 

Budget: $180m
Box office: $1b
Distributor: Warner Bros.

The parents guide on IMDb considers the violence and gore to be moderate, with the sex and nudity being 'none', profanity to be 'mild', alcohol, drugs... to be 'mild' and the frightening and intense scenes to be 'severe'.  One comment says:

BBFC gave this movie a 12A and MPAA gave it PG-13, "due to intense sequences of violence and some menace"

They claimed it was due to its 'cartoon style'

The World's End (Edgar Wright, 2013) has constant swearing, with 'mother****er' almost becoming a catchphrase for one character.

Budget: $20m
Box office: $46.1m
Distributor: Universal pictures

The parents guide on IMDb considers the profanity as 'severe', the sex and nudity as 'mild', the frightening and intense scenes as 'mild', the alcohol, drugs and smoking as 'moderate' and violence and gore as 'moderate'.

The movie was given the rating of R by MPAA, and it was given a 15 by BBFC. This seems to be quite shocking due to the repeated use of swearing. The distributors will be very happy with this as it means the target audience (Age 15-24) is easier to access.

On the opposite side, we have a Warp film called This is England (Shane Meadows, 2007). This movie was produced with the intention of creating a teenage movie with a target audience of between 15-24. They were given a BBFC rating of 18, meaning their audience was narrowed to mainly above 18 only. This means that the box office is smaller.

Budget: 1.5 m GBP
Box Office: 5m GBP
Distributor: StudioCanal UK

The parents guide considers the violence to be 'severe', the profanity to be 'severe', the alcohol, drugs and smoking to be 'moderate' and the frightening and intense scenes as 'severe'. Although appearing to have a harsh parents guide, the comments don't seem to appear too different to The World's End.

I would agree that the profanity is severe, however it seems to be similar to the profanity in The World's End. You could look at the other side and say that it depends on the context of the swearing, as it is considered more extreme if it is used as an insult and said directly to someone. The World's End is a comedy, therefore most of the swearing done in that is for comedic purposes.