Hollywood vs UK Cinema

5/20/2018 Hollywood vs UK Cinema

1/40

Audiences and Institutions

Hollywood vs. UK Cinema


2/40

Hollywood Cinema

Starter:

Two adjectivesto describe Hollywood film


3/40

Hollywood Cinema

In order to understand British Film, it is important

to compare it to Hollywood film.

Why?


4/40

Hollywood Cinema: Conventions

What do you associate with mainstream Hollywood film?

Create a spidergram in pairs


5/40

Eddie Izzard

British vs. Hollywood Films
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjC3R6jOtUohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjC3R6jOtUohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjC3R6jOtUohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjC3R6jOtUohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjC3R6jOtUo


6/40

Hollywood Cinema: Industry

Originated as a distinctive product of the Hollywood Studio

System from 1930to 1959

The American film industry has dominated global film

production ever since

Similar model still widely used today


7/40

Hollywood Cinema: Industry

Emphasis on industry (money) over art

Major companies undertake production, distribution and

exhibition

Factory production-line approach

Has come to mean mainstream (non-controversial)


8/40

Horizontal Integration

Ownership of the same type of company / product

A butcher may become successful and decide to buy more shops


9/40

Vertical Integration

Ownership of different types of related companies /products in order to maximize profit and control the market

A butcher may decide to buy the farm that rears the livestock

and the restaurants that uses the meat


10/40

Hollywood Cinema

In pairs, discuss and make bullet point notes on the

following:

Style(consider the 5 areas of film language)

Narrative

Character

Genre

Audience


11/40

Hollywood Cinema: Style

Artifice rather than realism (artificial reality or heightened

realism)

Studio sets rather than real locations

Artificial lighting (back lighting)

Use of music to emphasise tone, mood and atmosphere and

to heighten emotion


12/40

Hollywood Cinema: Style

Fairly short scenes and tendency for rapid editing (to keep

audience interested)

Use of slo-mo; dissolves etc

Lots of special effects

Emphasis on glamour

Emphasis on escapism

Emphasis on entertainment


13/40

Hollywood Cinema: Narrative

Prioritises story using straightforward narrative techniques

Easily understood by widest possible audience

Avoidance of any narrative complexity

Continuity editing to hide constructed nature of film

production


14/40

Hollywood Cinema: Narrative

Linear cause and effect narrative

One main narrative strand

Emphasis on action (moving narrative forward)

High degree of narrative closureusually a happy ending

If not happy, then at least satisfying


15/40

Hollywood Cinema: Character

Relatively small number of characters to maximiseaudience involvement (identification and empathywith main protagonists)

Characters have clearly-defined motivations for

their actions (realism?) Emotional involvement with characters and their

predicaments

Characters have hero qualities (they are ego-ideals

rather than real people)

Heavily reliant on the star system


16/40

Hollywood Cinema: Genre

Recognisable generic features -audiences predict actions

and events

Fulfil audience expectations (generic unity)

Pleasure

Passive audience?


17/40

Hollywood Cinema: Audience

A number of formal features:

Feature length (85 + minutes in duration)

Designed to maximise its potential audience both home and

abroad

Mass-market, global appeal


18/40

Hollywood Cinema

Carry out your own research on:

Classical Narrative Cinema

Apply what you have learned to a recent American film of

your choice.


19/40

British Cinema


20/40

the American hegemony over

cinema in Britain has frequently

been blamed for preventing thedevelopment of an authentically

indigenous cinema Tom Ryall


21/40

In Britain, most of the films tend to be seen as

independent

There are two ways in which one can consider the term

independent- films which are produced through no

affiliation with the Major and Mini-major studios,

or films which are produced with transgressive (or non-mainstream) ideologies, themes and values.


22/40

In America, some independents include: Fast Food

Nation (Linklater)documentary investigation into the

corruption of Fast Food companies, Little Miss

Sunshinea black comedy about a dysfunctional

family, Milk (Van Sant)a drama about a gay rightsactivist, Do the Right Thing (Lee)an realist

exploration into race issues in the Bronx.

These films were made outside of the Hollywood

industry and are transgressive of the dominant

ideology.


23/40

Do we have a film industry We do not have a film industry in the same way that

Hollywood is structured.

Working Title is the only mainstream, large production

company, they are attached to Universal and thus haveguaranteed distribution/ exhibition and the other

benefits of the Conglomerate system.

Films include United 93, Notting Hill, 4 Weddings

and a Funeral, Billy Elliot.They make 3 types of films:Major projects, mid-projects, risks. They tend to

produce films for commercial reasons and have a

relationship with the Coen Brothers, producing most of

their contemporary films.


24/40

TV & Film Great correlation between the Film and TV industries:

BBC Films and Four Films regularly produced films in

the UK, though Four Films often finds itself falling in

and out of bankruptcy.

Both, often focus on independent films (in terms of

ideological messages)particularly Film Four.


25/40

Actors/ filmmakersDaaaring British film stars often go over to Hollywood to really

define their career, stars like Robert Carlyle though

are dedicated to the British cause. Filmmakers:Shane

Meadows, Ken Loach, Jake West, Neil Marshall,

Neil Jordan, Danny Boyle, Gurinder Chanda, LynneRamsey, Guy Ritchie, Kenneth Branagh, Nick

Broomfield, Antonia Bird, Richard Curtis, Stephen

Daldry, Noel Clark, Mike Figgis, Saul Dibbs, Paul

W.S. Anderson, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, AlfredHitchcock, David Lean, Michael Winterbottom,

(Pavel Pawlikowski)


26/40

To get a film financed sell the script to an established small production house,

find finance through the film council/ BFI (pitch your film

and will need to have an already well established

profile as a short-filmmaker, awards etc), loans/

private investments, co-productions with various

British companies, European, US- Canal + in Francefor example, US Studios.

Need to secure a distributor before production, where

possible otherwise could find yourself hanging with now

distribution arm, many British films are left on theshelf after production with nowhere to go.


27/40

These demands on British films often means they do

not get marketed as successful and distributed as

widely, often popular in Europe- Ken Loach is a

particularly favour amongst French cinephiles, co-

productions with US/ Europe and romanticised Britishfilms are more likely to sell abroad.


28/40

American films have dominated global cinema for many

decades now. Such is the high number of Hollywood

productions being shown in cinemas across the UK

that this has perhaps proved a stumbling block for the

progression of British film.

But how can two industries that share the same

language and westernisations as each other be so

different?


29/40

British film has always had its ups and downs


30/40

Is British Cinema in Crisis?

Seems to be perpetually in crisis!

1927 Quota system brought in to compete withUSA films, resulted in quickly made, poor quality

films.

1930s: New talkies Americanised cinema

1970s: struggle against the American

blockbuster at box office

1980s: collapse of Goldcrest films; fallingaudience due to video

1990s: demise of FilmFour


31/40

On the other hand 1940s and 50sAudiences would go three or

four times a week

1970s: After 2001A Space Odyssey Britainbecomes the centre of the special effects

industry (Star Wars, Alien, Harry Potter) 1980s: Tax Breaks plus Channel Four

investment

2000+: Investment from the UK Film Council

(UKFC)lottery money. BFIFunding
http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/fundinghttp://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/fundinghttp://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/fundinghttp://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/fundinghttp://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/fundinghttp://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/fundinghttp://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/fundinghttp://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/funding


32/40

Unfortunately, the British film industry has never beencapable of generating worldwide commercial success

on its own.

This is partly down to the major power, success andcontrol of


33/40

The basic fact is that the British cinema market is too small

for the British film industry to successfully produce

Hollywood-style blockbusters over a sustained period

UK Film

Industry

Hollywoo

d


34/40

with great power comes great responsibility.

This is something that Armando Iannucci, director of Britishpolitical satire film In The Loopis not necessarily

comfortable with.

He is on record as saying The bigger the budget , themore people have a say. This is one of the reasons whyhe did not accept funding from the US for this film so as notto jeapordise his creative input.

Stuart Hazledine is a British screenwriter working in theHollywood systemif a writer goes to a production companywith a spec script, and the producers like the idea but notthe screenplay, they will simply buy the spec script fromthe writer and hire a proven screenwriter to develop a

script based on the original idea. This is in completecontrast to the support given to British writers and directors.


35/40

Hollywood is either too interested in remakes andadaptations or set on making money from the filmsmade by established individuals. Of course Hollywoodmakes room for newcomers otherwise the industry

would not move forward, however in Britain thereseems to be more focus on bringing through talentedfilm makers.

The UK Film Council has a Development Fundwhich supports writers who are working on a featurefilm script that has great potential

Th lti t diff i th t i th t di t


36/40

The ultimate difference in the two is money the studio system.This is where a company invests money into a film and recoups themoney it takes at the box office.

. The process of writing/making/producing a film in either place is basicallythe same. How you make them are the same.

The difference is the creative freedom that comes with more moneyavailable for production. -

What elements?

bigger names you can get attached to the film, not just the cast, butdirectors, composers, cinematographers etc.

You have a better budget for things like special effects and postproduction.

Filming in certain locations can be very expensive and big budget filmscan spend more money to be able to shoot in expensive locations.

As well as higher production budgets than British films, Hollywood movieshave significantly more money to spend on marketing and distribution.YOU CANT IGNORE!!! the key to the popularity of American goodsin overseas markets was their talent for boastful publicity.


37/40

And often with the difference in money can cause inherentdifferences in feel, scope, and tone of the film. Hollywoodblockbusters can be massive, where Brit films are more intimate.

Hollywood films have general themeson a big scale, where as Britfilms are often very small, almost personal stories.

Also Hollywood films are often made intended for an internationalaudience, but Brit ones are made primarily for the UK and if they aresuccessful internationally for them (ie in the US or Europe) that's justa plus, not always a goal.

A final difference is often that Hollywood films rely on action and

special effects, but Brit films rely on dialogue and story. Manyclassic examples of successful Brit films are that way. (Four Weddingsand a Funeral, Full Monty, Kes, Waking Ned Devine, The DamnedUnited, Cemetery Junction etc etc)


38/40

http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2009/12/hollywood-vs-

britain.html
http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2009/12/hollywood-vs-britain.htmlhttp://www.flickeringmyth.com/2009/12/hollywood-vs-britain.htmlhttp://www.flickeringmyth.com/2009/12/hollywood-vs-britain.htmlhttp://www.flickeringmyth.com/2009/12/hollywood-vs-britain.htmlhttp://www.flickeringmyth.com/2009/12/hollywood-vs-britain.htmlhttp://www.flickeringmyth.com/2009/12/hollywood-vs-britain.htmlhttp://www.flickeringmyth.com/2009/12/hollywood-vs-britain.html


39/40

Write me a letter.


40/40

How do your expectations of British films produced by

Working Title differ from your expectations of British

films produced by Warp Films?

Why?

Hollywood vs UK Cinema

Documents

Transcript of Hollywood vs UK Cinema