Hollywood Film - Avatar

My notes on Avatar;

• Directed by James Cameron
• Budgeted $237,000,000
• Grossed $2.6 billion, the highest grossing film of all time
• Won many Oscars and Golden Globes
• Cameron had the vision/idea for Avatar 20 years ago, but had to wait for the technology to catch up with his ideas.
• Cameron patented a digital camera system called 'fusion digital camera system'
• A handheld monitor was used to film Avatar 
• Footage is 70% CGI, including the female lead

Production

• Cast wore motion capture suits whilst acting out their scenes on a 'performance capture' stage, six times bigger than anything previously used in Hollywood
• Realism was improved by using a skull cap to capture facial expressions with close camera enhancement
• Motion capture makes 3D easier. This technique was more closely aligned with the way high end computer games are developed
• One major advantage was the creation of a virtual monitor. This allowed the director to see motion capture results in real time
• Cameron developed new techniques
• Innovative filming rig mimicked the retina of the human eye, which provided the illusion of depth
• 21.08.09 (my birthday) was officially designated 'Avatar Day' - giving a full 15 minuets of teaser footage at hundreds of sold out cinemas across the planet
• 21.4.09 - 20th Century fox launched the industries first rich media interactive trailer supporting the DVD. Clicking on points of interest, consumers can access extended clips from the film and in depth information about the world and inhabitants of Pandora.

Exhibition

• Exhibition in cinemas required a digitally equipped cinema, also with a pair of specialised 3D glasses
• 3d cinema tickets are more expensive
• 320 out of 3600 cinemas are digitally equipped in the UK. In the USA 2500 out of 38000 are digitally equipped
• It costs cinema's a minimum of 80,000 to get into a 3D position

Working Title and Film4 Exhibition

Lovely Bones and Love Actually Presentation

Distirbution

My notes on distribution in general;
What is distribution?
The stage between production + exhibition which involves all of the deals done to get films shown. Promotion involves paid for 'above the line' advertising - which will be funded as part of the project; trailers, posters, billboards etc. 'Below the line' advertising is unpaid for, e.g interviews, reviews, word of mouth.
Is it all fair?
Big companies control much of the industry, as they control distribution of their own productions. Films are loaned out to cinemas for a finite period.
In the UK film market an increase in the quantity of screens showing films has not lead to an increase in the number of films shown.
Release of a film;

• Marketability = identifying target audience and devising a strategy
• Appropriate budget for box office expectation
• Media partnership - decide who is best to link up with

Planning a release

• Chosing a genre, age group, director, if your audience is semi literate.

Target audience

• Focus on target audience - compared to past films
• Use an element of famble
• People over the age of 45 generally take 1 week to decide whether to watch a film or not, whereas teenagers are more spontaneous

P+A budgeting

• Word of mouth - free advertising, can make or break a film.
• Below the line advertising.
• Screening programmes
• Advertising costs, how to use the budget depending on what section it is spent on.

Competition

• Time of the year
• Weather - rain - more likely to go to the cinema than in the summer
• Winter - darker earlier
• TV adverts are more succesful in winter as people are indoors more

Word of mouth

• Critical depending on movie
• Screenings feed word of mouth - vital. Works both ways, can spread good or bad feedback.
• Effects the life expectancy of films.

Piracy

• In 2006, 20% of all the DVD sales in the UK were pirate copies

Digital distribution advantages

• Promises to transform the film industry
• Making it normality to download films via broadband
• Advantage- offers identical version of the film
• Simultaneous global distribution, puts an end to the time gap

2 different views on distribution;
Toby Miller -50% of the money goes on marketing. Hollywood anticipates.
Tony Angellotti - Films are made with audience in mind. Audience decide film choices, stars etc.

Does marketing a film really matter?
Despite bad reviews, lavish marketing ensured pirates of the carabien 2 made over £50 million in the UK box office, 1.5 million copies of the DVD were purchased 10 days after release.
The Dark Knight broke viral records by costing £185 million to make.
The Dark Knight was released on the 20.7.08 and shown in 4336 screens across the UK, contrasting with This Is England which was released on the 29.4.07 and was on just 62 screens.

5 Major distributors dominate the UK film industry;

1. United International Pictures (Universal are part of this company)
2. Warner Brothers
3. Buena Vista
4. 20th Century Fox
5. Sony

9/10 films in the UK are viewed as a result of these distributors. Most films are directly linked to Hollywood Production companies, who prioritise Hollywood films for profit. Usually blockbusters are distributed via blanket release (It is shown everywhere) comparing with other films which are considered an 'event'. One of the outcomes of the above distribution arrangement is that half of the films released in the Britain don't reach the whole company.

Film 4 Distribution

Film4 is controlled by Tessa Ross. (picture to the right)

• Ross secured an increased budget from £8-10m a year to £15m for film4, who make 6 films per year.
• Set up a low budget studio with the film council and distributors Optimum as well as WarpX (digital production house)
• Working across TV and film drama also allowes for economics and cross fertilisation
• Film4 gains a lot of money through advertising.
• Ross see's film4 as part of a wider creative community with Working Title, the BBC and BBC Films, as well as partnerships with distribution compaines.
• WarpX are a film4/UK film council joint project with the Sheffield based indie WarpX that finance three low budget films per year. 

Film 4 Production Practices

Film four is an independant British film company, owned by the Channel4 Corporation, which was launced on the 1st of November 1998. The company has recently improved their budget to £15m per year, contrasting to the £8-10m they were on previously. Film4's controller is Tessa Ross, who has an alternative way of thinking which reflects Film4's choice in films.

Film4's style is quirky and experimental. Their philosiphy is to aid directors and actors, and give them their 'big break'. By sticking to the quirky and non-mainstream style of films they cater for a seperate audience, which helps them compete with Hollywood films.

Their biggest success is Slumdog Millionaire, which wasn't expected to gross 25 times it's original budget; raking in a staggering $377910544. Again, it is not your typical film, adressing contraversial issues yet in a different style to Hollywood. 

The Film4 channel is a freeview channel in the U.K and Ireland, which now manily airs Hollywood blockbusters around 2 years after their release, it also broadcasts it's own productions. In August 2007 Channel 4 added the Film4+1 channel, which allows viewers to see the film an hour behind the original broadcasting time. They also added a Film4 on demand service, which allows viewers to watch a selection of Film4 productions anytime. 

The Film4 website (www.film4.com) has an on demand service, information on productions, video clips, reviews, interviews, behind the scenes clips, and competitions. It gives the viewer a wide variety of special features, producers, writers, directors and actors.

Channel Four Television Corporation was set up by the government. It is a publicly owned "not-for-profit" corporation and does not have any shareholders.

Working Title production practices

Working Title;

• Co-Chair people of working title are Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, who have been listed as the most powerful figures in British industry.
• They only have 42 full time staff, which is split between working title (main company) and low budget WT2.
• Secret of their success? "The working title philosophy has always been to make films for an audience- by that I mean play in a multiplex. We totally believe in this because we know it is the only hope we have of sustaining the UK film industry"
• Working Title was founded in 1984
• 85 films have grossed more than $4 billion worldwide
• They have won several awards; six academy awards, 26 BAFTA awards, 4 Oscars and prizes at Cannes and Berlin film festivals
• Impressive catalogues of films from a wide range of genres; Billy Elliott, Johnny English, Love Actually and Shaun of the dead.
• Their flops have been Wimbledon, Thunderbirds and Captain Corelli.
• Blockbuster comedies of Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson who deliver punchy period films, political dramas, litery adaptation and family affairs.
• Working Title launch fresh talent, such as directors Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice) and Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliott)
• In addition to which it has launched 'Working Title 2' a subsidiary for low budget films with an 'independant' appeal
• Their most successful genre is RomComs. The companies 'Treasure' is Hugh Grant.
• Working Title was bought by Polygram, taken over by Universal in 1999. Bevan said "We were now part of a big structure, so we spent much less time on finding the money and much more on developing the scripts"
• Universal own a 67% stake in the company, many of its recent films are co-productions with Studio Canal.
• The remaining shares are owned by the companies founders which is the BBC and private investors.
• Working title is clever and tactical about film projects. In 2004 they made Shaun of the Dead, and Bridget Jones 2, knowing they would financially be OK, because Thunderbirds was a flop the other two supported it.
• They have to make 1 big blockbuster per year that makes $200-$400m in the box office revenues.
• Is Working Titles lower budget film brand. Some of their productions are Billy Elliott (2000), Shaun of the dead (2004) and Ali G in da house. WT2 recently released Burn After Reading starring Brad Pitt and George Cloony.
• A long history between American actors playing leading roles in British films; e.g Rene Zelwegger playing Bridget Jones.
• The importance of release dates is vital, as it can make or break a films success. e.g films released in winter generally do better as the weather is colder and people spend more time indoors. Christmas films tend to do better if released in the Christmas period (Love Actually) , the same with Romantic films doing better around Valentines day.