Brief Outline of The Film Industry

Production

A small production company will form and have an idea for a new movie. They will then have to get the funding for this movie. Movies often cost many millions of dollars/pounds to create. The production company will go to a distributor for this money.

If the distributor likes the idea, in other words that the film has a winning formula or that it is so brilliantly original that it amazes them (this is unlikely to be the case). Also the idea must meet the conventions of the genre it belongs to. Then the distributor may well lend the money for the production company to make their film.

The distributor can force changes and change the ideas and demand certain starts to be in the film itself.

The production phase itself is split up into three sections.

1. Pre-production: planning, design, storyboard, casting.

2. Production: The actual shooting of the movie.

3. Post-production: Editing the movie altogether, adding sound and special effects.

Distributor/Distribution

These are the people with the money. They are often large studios such as Universal, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers. They are often part of a huge media conglomerates. Examples include: Vivendi, Universal, News Corporation and Time Warner. They are wealthy and own much of the world's media.

Once the film has been produced then the distributors start marketing the film. Posters, interviews with stars, merchandise, soundtracks and trailers etc. Seeing as the distributor lent the most of the money for the movie, they then scoop up the majority of the film's profit.

The distributors are often American, hence why the American film industry dominates our screens.

Exhibition

This is the showing of the film. This can be either:

Cinema

DVD (rental and sales)

Video (rental and sales)

Satellite/digital TV and Box Office.

Terrestrial TV

Internet

Film Trailer

They are normally 2-3 minutes long. They have about one hundred cuts in them. They are designed to make the audience feel both:

the pleasure of the text - the audience recognises familiar codes and narratives.

suspense in the audience - by use of enigma codes. Who is the killer? What happens in the end?

The film trailer itself tends to be structured in the following way. This structure is not 'set in stone' and can be moved around to have a greater effect.

1. The distribution company logo

2. Production company logo

3. The narrative establisher - a series of longer sequences which establish the fundamental storyline of the film.

4. The stars of the USP - unique selling point - often stars or directors. Horror movies traditionally don't always use well known stars because the audience feel more uncomfortable with actors they don't recognize and don't make them feel secure. In the trailer for the horror movie Scream, the director, Wes Cravern, is the USP for directing the cult horror film Nightmare On Elm Street.

5. A series of quick, exciting, suspenseful sequences from the film - this is the convincer in that it should create enough suspense to ensure that the audience decide to go and watch the film.

6. All through the trailer will appear conventions of the genre.

7. The black and white film listings.