Research about the film industry!!

The idea

It all starts at this point. The inspiration is key to a successful film; it is the starting point and a very key thing to the whole process. Inspiration can some from anything, anywhere, For example it could come from newspapers, books, people, posters, cultures etc. But what makes inspiration a good one is when the producer really believes in it, it must be something they feel strongly towards or something that has really caught their eye because if not they would presumably start to lose interest and the film would start to lose its touch. A main source of inspiration to producers is real life events, when creating these film they have a sense of realism to them. These films are easy to relate to and can capture audiences by the mass. Books are usually a huge source of inspiration to a film maker because they help generate a lot of successful ideas. Especially when creating a film version of a book, these are usually so popular because they take the key parts of the book which really moves them or inspires them and re-create that in film form, they also take parts where they know the audience loves and re-creates those in film form helping to boost the success of the film. The publicity that also comes with books anyway also helps the film maker when starting a film because it’s something already well known. And lastly original ideas are probably the most valuable to the film industry. They can spark of a whole new franchise and bring in a lot of money if the idea and production is done well enough. Literally anything can spark off an original idea either by conversation, a dream, places etc. But protecting your idea is crucial because if people start to take your idea and make it their own and say they did an even better job than you they would make more money and why would you want someone to make more money of your ORIGINAL idea. Steps film makers use to protect their idea are making sure it’s copyrighted and having insurance on it.

Producers are key to the film industry their job is to make what's on paper come to live before us. Their job is to make sure they have a good story to work with something that catches the audience and makes them want to watch on. All the decision is not just left up to the producer though because it is also up to the audiences. If the audience clearly does not like something and the producer does the audience likes go through oppose to the producers because they are not making the film for themselves they are making it for the audience. Producers tend to stick to the commercial and creative side of things oppose to the financial mainly because it is where they are more comfortable at and where they have more experience and can help out. Overall the main skill a good producer needs is to be able to stick with the idea they have and follow through to create a film which 100% of their time and effort has been put into to really capture what it is about and get a good understanding of. Not many people can do this; this is why there are very few well known producers right now.

A director can visualise a script and make it a reality. They know exactly how to capture the moment and visualise what the producer has put in words. The director and producer would usually work together to get a middle ground on what they both like and how they would both like it to be captured. When having a really well known director it’s easier to get a very good producer which would help the film your making.

The writer defines and clarifies the idea. The relationship between the write producer and director must be very good, if they all in sync they could have a good film on their hands. The writer’s job is usually they would be brought in after the producer has made a script and they are there to help improve it. They are used to help the producers write the film in a clear way so when the script is given to the director, and he/she reads it they get the clear idea that the producer was putting across and so the director doesn't change anything.

After this is done the writer will then write a treatment and this is a one pace description of the main story and characters in the film. The treatment of the film is a description of key events which take place and people in the film. It should be written well according to the genre for example if it’s a comedy film it should be funny, upbeat and exciting to read. And lastly the treatment should give the reader an idea about the film and what is so unique or special about it.

And lastly the pitch, the pitch is all the information put together; the producer needs this in order to sell their idea to the financiers to commission a script. 

Development Finance

Pitching the product can take quite some time, the reason they do this it to help develop the script even further. The money that goes into it is called development funding. This is when the producer goes to the potential funders to get money from pitching their idea and hope they like it to help invest in the idea and develop it further. The producer is also able to invest in the project themselves; if they do this they are able to retain all the rights to their resulting package themselves. This is a benefit to them but can at times be a very high risk because there is no external verification of the inspirational idea. The producer then moves to a film company for development money. The producer try to persuade the company to take on their idea so they can get development money, if being accepted they would usually ask you in return if they get rights to get the outcome of the development process and to have some say in the making of the film and have some sort of take part just to be able to say that they helped and have put forth to it. From being involved in the film form such an early stage usually mean they get full funding which is a bonus to a producer because they have more money on bettering their idea and developing it. But when there is full funding the company usually takes in a large percentage of the profit in return since a lot of their own money was put into creating the film. The producer can offer the future sales and broadcast rights to the film in return for money to develop the script. The sales company can provide development money when they feel that personally a certain film is worth marketing or it has something about which they know from experience which will do well. In return for them giving money they then get the right to sell the film to companies, this is good for them because they get a percentage of profit but also good for the producer because it puts their film out there. The broadcaster would ask to show their film on certain television programmes. The channels they choose to show it on may be free view channels like BBC1 or subscription channels where you have to pay like Sky Movies. By having it on two different types of channels they can see where it does better on a promote it more on one than the other and they know where to focus on so they can take it off the other channel. The distribution company are very important; they are there so that there films can be distributed all around. They normally give development money and in return for that they usually ask for the rights to distribute the film to exhibitors etc. When it comes to profit they usually take a decent amount back, so they are making their fair share. After doing this the producer can no apply to a public funding body such as the UK film council for a development grant. The UK film council is very limited on who it helps, they are there to help improve the quality of the scripts and also the variety. They also operate in commercial world but only so that with certain films which they feel have a strong audience. For this reason they make sure that a distributor is invested or interested in the project. To get even more money the producer can even pitch to a private investor to get even more money for development. There are many private investors around the UK and internationally, they usually have a lot of money to spend on a film. What is so difficult about getting one is that they are very hard to persuade. And will only invest in a film they believe is worth it. After all this is done they then can finally tie down a writer. Writers have agents who represent and speak for them before you can actually speak to them. When getting a good writer you have to persuade them, make your idea sound good and you also have to give them a good cut of the profits.

Script Development 

Once everything is secure financially, they can’t get started on synopsis. At this stage the writer and producer are working together still. This is a very important stage because it can make or break a film. What they have to do here is both come to an understanding of what and how they want the film to be. They can them move on to creating a step outline. A step outline is where each scene is taken and underneath there are little annotations describing what it going on in each scene. This is a key step because you can know see your film before your own eyes, it helps look at the film in more detail and helps to break it down and pin point certain areas where you feel you could change or improve. Each step will describe the plots events and the development of characters throughout the film. A step outline for a film is usually 10 pages long. After doing that you can move onto script drafts. The first draft is usually the trickiest. Scripts don't just contain dialogue they also contain actions and events that would take place on scene at the same time, this is practically turning what you want it to look like visually, putting it into words and this is very hard because it has to be very detailed so the director gets it. You must capture the characters personality through the script making sure you convey a clear description or portray a clear description of what you make them out to be. Scripts that writers produce must be fully formatted. The first draft is the trickiest one to do ant can take the writer months to complete it. Once the writer and producers are happy with the draft they would then send it to the financiers to evaluate but who will also have their own ideas on the film. Writers often have script editors to help them, their purpose is to help them overcome problems they may face whilst writing the script, they are also there to put their input into it on how the writer could improve a certain section etc. They may also have story editors to help but writers are usual isolated from people whilst writing for mainly concentration reasons and they work better if they are with a script editor is would just be them as a pair and no one else.

When everyone has approved of the script it is then then sent off and becomes a final draft and the writer finally gets paid after everything. Once the producer and director are pleased with the script it finally becomes the final draft. This is now the final scrip which is taken forth to the next stage of the film process. The final stage of the script development process is the creation of a sales treatment. The producer will now finally write a sales treatment with help from the director and especially the writer they would write it based on the final draft. A sales treatment is a synopsis made, designed to sell the film to potential financiers. When writing the treatment you have to make you film sound original and catchy and most importantly something you know financiers will think will make a big hit.

Packaging

The producer then takes the sales treatment and the final draft and estimates how much it will come up too. It is an estimate of how much they can expect to secure for the script and where they intend to channel their film. After that you are no in the packaging stage of the process. This part of it is the producer’s chief responsibility and everything is left up to him or her. The producer’s assistant gathers parts for the package for the producer. The package is selling icon to raise production money, in the package so far all you have is the final draft script, the sales treatment and the rough budget. It is the producer’s job to add other things to make sure it is a worthy prospect for financiers. Now moving onto the cast, the cast are key assets to a film having well-known actors can boost your film income by a large amount oppose to having less known people. Stars in films are also looked at as commercial assets because they are a crucial in attracting funding to a film. The bigger the star the more their fee will be, the less known/ not a big star their fee would be less. When making a film you look for actors or actresses who you know suit the role well and the genre because if you get someone who does comedy a lot and it well known as successful in that genre to do a sci-fi they probably won’t perform as well and it can bring your film down.  Producers normally contacts actors through their agents, the agent normally takes a percentage of pay from the producer as well as the actor. Now moving on to heads of departments. You firstly have the editor a really good editor can help your film in so many ways, getting a good editor can help attract financiers. The second person in the production designer they are extremely important for visual reasons, they help set the scene and when watching make the whole experience better, they design everything you see so if you hire a good one it improves the quality of everything. And lastly the director of photography is an important creative figure in the film because they work with the production designer, costume and location. They are given the responsibility of giving the film a certain look and feel too, to give the film a continuous theme throughout. Now onto the detailed budget and production schedule. The line producer is the person who makes a schedule and gives it to the producer. The film budgets are now on a spread sheet where everything is clearly spread out. The production schedule is also done the same way. The package is now added to with the added stars, head of departments, the proposal and now the financial side of things added to it.  The finance plan is the producers plan how to raise finance for the film. The recoupment schedule is when they estimate how much money a film will make, it estimates from DVDs, broadcasts, cinema, merchandise etc.

Now finally the producer has packed the film with all the extra pieces of information and has put it together for the final package. All parts of the package are now included which are the final draft script, a sales treatment, a list of attached stars and heads of departments, a detailed budget, a production schedule, a finance plan and a recoupment schedule. Now that the package is complete the producer has to present it to a range of different funders to make money for the film. Depending who the producer goes to, it can depend on how much they make. A good producer will know what funders to go to and get money for their film from.

Financing

This part of the film making is probably the hardest part, because you have to attract investment, when doing this you need to remember that you will be competing with other people who want the same of you, so your persuasion skills should be good. Since the film industry is international you could travel to get more funding. Moving on to the investors there are three sources of investment which are private finance, co-productions and public investment. Private investment is when certain individuals are just looking to spend money and invest in a project and they usually have a good understanding of the industry. Co-productions are when a company invests in you but also one of their smaller company do is well. And public investment is agencies such as the UK film council invest in you. The contract that comes along with investments state how much they get in the profit. It usually contains very detailed, complex documents. Pre-sales are when the sales company will want the rights to sell the film to Distribution Company’s and then take a percentage out of the profit for themselves. A broadcaster will ask for the right to play a finished film on their own channel. And the distributor will in the end have the rights to the finished film. Moving onto the insurer you go to them to complete the bonds. Now that all the financial and insurance side of things are all completed you can now move onto production. 

Pre-Production

Now that everything is taken cared of financially, they can now start pre-production. They first start off by hiring the casting director, the editor, and the head of sound, the director of photography, the production designer, the 1st AD and the line producer. Each of them play important roles which when all combined are needed for a film. The casting director then moves on to finding cast for the film. They find people through auditions but if there's someone who they really want mainly a big star they contact their agent. The process you have to go through to get your role is that you have to firstly audition show them how you act, then get head shots and cv's given in so they know a little more about you. The normal everyday film will had around 30 cast members so getting the right actor for the job is a tricky task, casting directors are usually people with a lot of experience so it helps them pick out the right people. Now onto storyboarding your idea, when planning a story board it is usually the director, the storyboard artist and the director of photography all together to create it. The film would employ a storyboard artist to draw it out while the director is their saying how he or she wants things done with the assistance of the director of photography for their input. You then move onto the production designer where they design exactly how every things supposed to be. They would usually make a miniature model to show everyone before commenting on the real thing enlarged. They are usually accompanied by the art director, the location manager, the construction manager and the head of costumes. They all work together to produce a quality set, they all interlink into each other’s jobs. Moving onto special effects, they are looked at in more detail oppose to a normal shot. Special effects are done by the visual effects supervisor, they are responsible for the planning and editing of them and are also very skilled people with the computer, they need to have a good eye to detail and pay attention to every aspect of it making it look as realistic as possible. Now onto the final stage of pre-production, the production unit which is the production manager, the first assistant director and the line producer all together where they make up the key logistic triangle of the production.

The shoot

In a film many people take part to make it happen, on a normal set you have the production office, the insurers, the producer, the gaffer, the camera team, the construction team, the stars, the property manager, the sound team, the director and 1st ad, the 3rd ad, health and safety, the 2nd ad and the caterers, Each play a vital role on set and are all needed for a film to take place. The camera department are responsible for getting all the correct footage. In the camera you have the director of photography over seeing everything. The camera operator who keeps tabs on visual quality. The grip which is there to oversee the equipment. The focus puller which to help focus the frame and the clapper loader. Onto lighting and sound, they are combined with hair and make-up. Onto actors they should take well to the role they play helping create something believable and try to portray exactly what the character is and not what they want it to be. A lot of attention goes into special effects and taken very seriously with health and safety they have stunt men to do certain things because actors are not trained to do such dangerous stunts. The visual effects supervisor ensures that everything goes well and to plan. And finally everything is done according to schedule and taken very seriously if things start to fall behind schedule the financiers and insurers start to step in.

Post production

The first thing they do in post-production now that the filming is all done is a rough cut; this takes place with the assistant editor and the editor. What they do is they piece the film together and overlook if everything is working. It usually takes a number of weeks to do. Post production sound is them made, after all the visuals are done they then start to edit over and edit every piece of sound they have recorded to make sure it is at its best. The Foley artist is used to record custom sound effects during post production. The sound editor mix's all the sounds together and try's to match the sound to the picture very well with a lot of precision, time is taken when this is being done. Adr is used for a range of reasons, for singing backing tracks or voice overs; they are then used later as dubs. Digital effects and titles are now added, when the film is nearly completed they would then start on the credit, the credits mention everyone who has taken part in making the film. Credits are usually placed in the beginning of the film and the end of the film. Digital effects are then added. You then have the producer who supervises post production to make sure everything has turned out the way that they wanted it to be. Onto the final stage of the picture editing is where the telecine operator a.k.a the colourist is the person who edits and adjusts the colour and precision of the picture. They are mainly used to help the film look all together smooth and in uniform with every scene. Onto the final mix this is when they do all the dubbing, and set sound and mixer volumes. This is done by the sound mixer. Now that the picture is locked and everything is finished and the final cut has been made. The film is now ready for duplication.

Sales

Now that the film is finished they need a distributor. The sales agent is who the producer talks to; they are key person in the commercial success. The sales agent qualities are that they know how to market and know what buyers want and know how to sell it to them in a good way. To then help the film they start to create a trailer, knowing where to cut the trailer is a tricky job but when done right a good trailer can help boost how many people come to see your film. The trailer is made to show the film buyers the marketable parts of the film. Onto the sales toolkit this is where the producer and the sales agent get everything together which they are going to sell to the distributors. Such as the DVD, the trailer and the sales pack. They then take the film to the market; the market place is very crowded and extremely competitive because everyone is always trying to get their film out there. A high profile screening can be a good way to generate attention for your film. The stars will help bring attention to your film by doing previews and screening. Getting people in the industry talking about your film is a good thing. Now onto deals the producer now has a good deal which has gained a distributor, they can now negotiate on the money and deals and distributors around the world.

Marketing

The marketing team help to sell to sell the film to distributors. Moving onto the audience this is main part to the film because you need to know what they like in order to create something successful. The marketing then runs test screenings to the audience to see their response they usually are asked to fill out a questionnaire afterword’s explaining what they liked, didn't like etc. Film marketing is about word of mouth, word of mouth is a good way to get your film out there because people listen to other people’s opinions. There are many ways you could advertise a film, bus ads, bench ads, trailers etc. They tend to place advertisement in places where people pass every day and where they know people are going to see it. When advertising you want something eye-catching and something memorable so the person will remember it. Press and free media coverage which are television, radio, newspaper and magazines can help create a good word for a film. The Internet new marketing models are using the Internet to promote your film as much as possible. The final part of marketing is selling the film to the exhibitors. In order for the audiences to see the film you have created you need to negotiate a deal with the cinemas the distributor to put it in the cinema.

Exhibition

Having a high profile premiere will give you a lot of media coverage. Fame helps sells films the bigger the star the more publicity your film will get. Famous stars have loyal fans that follow everything they do and support everything they do especially a film so that's a bonus for a film. The UK has more than 3,500 cinema screens. British people tend not the visit the cinema as often as American people so good marketing needs to be done to attract people to go there. Not much money is made from the ticket but from the food they sell e.g. popcorn or drinks. Cinemas rely heavily on making money from beverages and food. Distributing the prints supply the exhibitor with them. The more places the film is shown the more prints they need. The box office performance has data about the film and is collected often. The revenue they start to measure how much it is making in total and in certain dates and places. And finally recoupment once the distributors have been given their share. The financiers can lay everything all out and look at recoupment schedule.

Other windows

Hospitality sales such as having tour movie played on aeroplanes can bring in a lot of money. DVD and Video UK audiences spend more on DVDs than cinema tickets, so success can be boosted by this. The same thing can also happen by having your film shown on TV. Having a branch off game can make you loads, especially because you’re aiming it a children and teens. Once this film has made a profit people can finally get paid for what they have done. And finally films can be pre-released so if films were once very successful now in the future if it is released again it could be very successful.