FILM STUDIO RESEARCHA2 Media

PRODUCTION COMPANIES

• There are plenty of production companies out there, here are some examples:• Universal Studios• Sony

• Columbia Pictures• Warner Bros. Pictures• Paramount Pictures• FOX• Working Title• Bad Robot• Disney:

• Lucasfilm• Marvel

• Lionsgate

TYPES OF PRODUCTION COMPANY - CONGLOMERATE

• These previous examples can be categorised into different categories of film industry that all have different morals/values, and what sort of films they want to create. The three main examples are conglomerate, independent and mini-major production companies.

• Conglomerate production company - the main examples of this are the ‘Big Six’, which include: Warner Bros., FOX, Paramount, Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures and Disney. Columbia is a subsidiary of Sony, and Lucasfilm & Marvel are owned under Disney. These types of studios aim to make a lot of money and target a mass audience by using universal themes and more formulaic narratives in films to attract the most people as possible and earn the most amount of money. It is more of a business, and the films will have a very large budget. This term and these studios are often associated with Hollywood.

• Because of these general values followed by conglomerates, they would appeal to show their films to a mass audience, so a large audience would be targeted, to try and make the most money possible.

TYPES OF PRODUCTION COMPANY - INDEPENDENT

• Independent production company – There seems to be many definitions online of what an independent film is. Generally, they have less money and they don’t have a large studio behind them to provide that money. They target more niche audiences that do not necessarily relate to a mass audience. The filmmaker can tell the story they want, focusing on the art of storytelling through filmmaking, rather than having certain business constraints. They will be limited financially, however, they will be able to tell a more unique story with deeper messages that could be more cultural/age/gender specific, to target a more specific audience. They don’t tend to make too much in the box office for this reason, if they get a theatrical release. However, the British film industry is quite large, with large independent companies in existence like Film4. However there are exceptions to the rule. Blumhouse Productions are a small independent company, who made the 2009 hit film Paranormal Activity with just $15,000. They made a lot of money when Paramount decided to distribute it, because they thought it was good enough to make a lot of money for both companies. The film has now expanded into a very lucrative series of films from the company who still used a relatively small budget for the sequels.

TYPES OF PRODUCTION COMPANY – MINI-MAJOR

• These types of film studios are similar to conglomerate film studios. They are very large – larger than independent studios – but not as large as the major conglomerate studios. These film studios attempt to go into direct competition with the conglomerates. Perhaps the most popular of these studios currently is Lionsgate, who helped produce the very popular series of films, The Hunger Games.

• These film production companies operate, produce and release films that are a commercial success, however, they have no large companies to use as a ‘safety net’. Conglomerates are companies that often produce a lot more than just films, whereas the mini-majors seem to just produce films. Disney, for example, owns the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).

• These companies have helped to shrink the gap between the independent film production companies and the conglomerates. And in fact, the market share gap between mini-majors and conglomerates, since the largest and most popular of the mini-majors, Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company have made a lot of financial successes in recent years, and have been growing and competing well with the conglomerates.

• In terms of the types of films they make, the most popular film series from Lionsgate were Twilight and The Hunger Games, and both of these series were adapted from popular books, and the Saw series of films. Some of The Weinstein Company’s most popular releases were Django Unchained, the critically acclaimed The King’s Speech, and 2010’s Piranha 3D. This company seems to make a mix of different genres and styles of film. However, they have managed to achieve massive success and build one of the world’s most successful mini-major production companies in only 10 years, since the company was founded in 2005.

THE FILMMAKING PROCESS - PRODUCTION

• There are three main stages of making a film:• Production

• Development: Idea Screenplay and roles (writing the film and finding producers/directors to help make the film) Investors (financing the film)

• Pre-production: Lengthiest stage of filmmaking. This is basically planning the film to make it better thought out, like securing locations and creating storyboards so it becomes an easier task to shoot the film. It also includes finding equipment, staff, actors, and developing the budget for the film for production and post-production.

• Production: Simply the filming of the film. For a feature film this can take a few months.• Post-production: Where the film is assembled, corrected, edited and finished for release.

THE FILMMAKING PROCESS - DISTRIBUTION

• This is the important part for teaser trailers. However, since teaser trailers are often released before post-production is completed, then distribution and production start to merge, in terms of chronology. The promotion of the film is done in co-ordination with the distribution of the film. And according to different sources, it is agreed that a lot of a film’s budget is put into the marketing of a film, however this includes more than just teaser trailers. Theatrical trailers are included, TV trailers, print media such as posters and billboards, and other forms of marketing like different events. According to HowStuffWorks, a general rule of thumb is that half of the budget that goes towards the production of the film (pre-production, production and post-production) should be added onto the budget to help sell it. If your budget is £100m, then another £50m should be added to sell the film, totalling a new budget of £150m.

• As aforementioned, this is the most important section for teaser trailers, since they help distribute and market the film. This is where they fit in the timeline and life cycle of a film and its release.

THE FILMMAKING PROCESS - EXHIBITION

• This involves the release of a film, and how different studios release their films. For instance, a film made by a large conglomerate used to target a mass audience may be put in the cinemas for a mass audience to see. However, the cinema is a very competitive market and other, more preferable options are becoming open for more independent filmmakers, such as the extremely popular online sites, Netflix and Amazon Prime. This too is important to our teaser trailer to a certain extent since we have to consider the institutional information we provide on the trailer. Trailers for Netflix/Amazon productions often feature their logo on it, and this would be required if we had a film that was appropriate to directly produce for the online market. However, although these online platforms can allow for better targeting for independent filmmakers to exhibit their productions, these large companies will still only invest in showcasing a trailer for their products if they think it will help sell them more, since it is still a business. So that is another issue to consider when marketing our film using a teaser trailer.

PRODUCTION COMPANY IDENTIFICATION

• The 2013 film Horns seems to display some similar qualities to our initial ideas. This was a film produced by Red Granite Pictures, and Mandalay Pictures, which are both fairly small production companies. The film was distributed however by Dimension films, who were once owned by Walt Disney Pictures, but is now owned by The Weinstein Company, one of the biggest ‘mini-major’ production companies in the world currently, and is well known for film series like Halloween, Scream and Hellraiser.

• This use of a mini-major to distribute the film is interesting, however, I believe that the idea that we would use for the teaser trailer targets a wider audience than a smaller company would generally target and would perhaps have a larger budget, so since it appeals to a wider audience and would perhaps require a bigger budget than a small independent company usually has, I think it would be more appropriate to be produced by a large ‘mini-major’, or a conglomerate. However, it does have a story to tell also, which may change this, since the business like attitude of conglomerate companies may hinder the creative freedom of the film.

TEASER TRAILERS AS A MARKETING OPTION (REPRESENTATIONS)

• Teaser trailers are a form of marketing, and therefore they are created and intended to make the most attention possible, so that they will attract their target audience and make them interested about the upcoming release of the film, so they will want to find out more about the film, and will ultimately have a greater chance of going to see the film, benefiting the production company by earning more money in the box office.

• However, teaser trailers are created when the film is still in production. And since they are for marketing, they can be produced out of the hands of the filmmakers actually making the film. They edit the teaser trailer in such a way that it will attract maximum attention, possibly disregarding the story and tones of the film itself, so the teaser trailer becomes less representative of the actual film, which could attract the wrong audience, who are targeted in the teaser trailer, but not the target audience for the film. This could damage the film's reputation. For instance, the trailer for the horror film The Babadook was interpreted by some as a trailer for a film about a spooky children's book, with elements of the 'Slenderman' character in it, which doesn't sound too original, however, it was a hit with critics, gaining a very high rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, instead of following the popular use of jump scares as modern horror films by conglomerates often feature.

TEASER TRAILERS AS A MARKETING OPTION (REPRESENTATIONS), (CONT.)

• Since we are coming up with the idea for the film as well as marketing it for the audience, we will have more control over how we choose to represent the film. Representing the film for its morals, story and messages may prove more representative, but perhaps not as successful at marketing the film if we were to show the most exciting scenes from the film, to get the audience excited, and representing the film less accurately.

• Perhaps then, it is important to find the balance between these two aspects of a teaser trailer, so that the trailer attracts the target audience but also represents the film in the correct way, so the film has a greater chance of success too, thinking ahead to the reputation of the film and ultimately the reputation of the production company/companies and how they market their films.

SOURCES

• Sources• http://nofilmschool.com/2015/10/3-reasons-why-horror-films-are-just-not-scar

y-anymore• http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_babadook/• http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-cost1.htm• http://

www.infoplease.com/cig/movies-flicks-film/production-distribution-exhibition.html

• https://handmovie.org/film-festival/en/media/articles/filmmaking-process-continuation