Harry Potter: The philosophers stone
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The series was funded and distributed by Warner Bros. and consists of 8 fantasy films. Georgette Turner was the location manager for Harry Potter, in charge of finding the perfect locations for the film. The cast consists of Daniel Radcliff, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton and many more, who were casted by Janet Hirshenson. Steve Kloves began working on his adaptation of the very first Harry Potter book, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” in the late 1990s. Adapting the stories for film has been a delicate process all along, as faithfulness to books adored by millions has always had to be balanced with the conventions of Hollywood blockbusters. The pre-production and production process took around 14 months in total to complete and it cost around $130 million from Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Warner Bros. had initially planned to release the film over the 4 July 2001 weekend, making for such a short production window that several proposed directors pulled themselves out of the running. Due to time constraints, the date was put back to 16 November 2001. Finance was a big part of Harry Potter’s pre-production and the smallest of changes such as deadlines could have altered the spending by thousands. The original budget for the film was around $125,000,000 and it made a box office profit of $970 million. Budgeting for a film is crucial as it gives the producers and directors a strict path to follow.
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What might be the advantages and disadvantages of a single camera production?
Advantages
- cheaper to film apposed to multipe camera techniques, as only one camera needs to be purchased/hired
- easier to set up and move around as there is only one camera
- only a small crew is needed to operate a single camera
- quicker to film
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Disadvantages
- having only one camera in a shoot can present a challenge with the films continuity
- it is time consuming to cover all camera shots and angles meaning you would have to repeat shots more than what a multi-camera set-up would
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London to Brighton case study
Produceres: Paul Andrew Williams, Alistar Clark, Ken Marshall, Rachel Robbey, Still Mill Pictures Director: Paul Andrew Williams
Distubution: Virtigo
Discription: This British crime drama thriller film is about a 12 year old runaway girl named Joanne, who is lured by a prostitute, Kelly, into having sex with a violent mobstar. The mobser also happens to be an elderly paedophile and after the mobster is killed, the gangster's son forces Kelly's pimp to find the girls. The film follows the girls as they escape London in the wake of what has happened.
Overview: London to brighton is a typical product of low-budget British filmmaking, a cross-gener piece made on a shoestring budget with mainly unknown actors. Due to the use of 16mm as the recording format and the unavoidable complecations that resulted from the limited budget, the first capital investment was consumed before the film was sutible for distribution. With only a rough cut and score completed, the produceres turned to the UK film council. The UK Film Council awarded Still Mill Pictures a significant cash booster to complete production. With the film finished and the UK Film Council's full support, a domestic distribution deal was obtained with Vertigo Films and a targeted festival campaign was started. Originall an £80,000 total budget was planned, but this turned out to only cover thr filming, first edit and scoring. Eventually the UK film council came in with an additional investment of £184,566 to finish the legal requirements and getting the film ready for distribution. Therefore in order to get it to screens it cost £260,00.
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Shifty case study
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Producers: Rory Aitken, Film London
Directors: Eran Creevy
Distribution: Metrodome Distribution
Discription: Shifty is a British urban crime thriller. Set on the outskirts of London and filmed in Borehamwood, Shifty follows themes of friendship and loyalty over the course of 24 hours in the life of a young drug dealer, the charismatic Shifty.
Overview: Shifty was made in 2008 under the microwve scheme. The microwave scheme was set up to widen the participation and access for young London based filmmakers, the scheme offeres support for films to be made in 18 days and with a budget of less than £100,00. Shifty was the second microwave scheme film to be released. It is a typical British 'success' story, and was filmed using a shoestring budget. The story tells 24hours in the life of a young 'friendly neighbourhood crack dealer' and doesn't adhere to the stereotypical workings of previos British, working class, grimmy gangster films.
The Theory of Everything Case Study
Producers: Anthony McCarten, Lisa Bruce, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner
Directors: James Marsh
Distribution: Universal Pictures
Discription: The Theory of Everything is a British film released in 2014. It was adapted from the Anthony McCarten memoir 'Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen' by Jane Wild Hawking. The memoir is about her relationship with her ex-husband, his success in physics and his diagnosis with Motor Neuron Disease.
Overview: The film was directed by James Marsh and was based on the book written by Jane Wild Hawking, which was then adapted for film screenplay by Anthony McCarten. There was an estimate budget for the film of $15,000,000. And it managed to make $35,887,263 in the USA and £31.9 million in the UK. Worldwide the film earned overall $122,873,310 with it's biggest markets including both the UK and USA. The production companies that were involved with the making of this film are Working Title Films that were in association with Dentsu Pictures and Fuji Telivision Network.
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Life in a Day Case Study
Producers: Liza Marshall, Scott Free Productions
Director: Kevin Macdonald, Loressa Clisby, Tegan Bukowski
Distribution: National Geographics Films
Discription: On July 24, 2010, Internet users across the world participated in the Life In a Day, as the first 'YouTube' documentary, which would be made up of entirely crowdsourced material. Participants filmed their lives on July 24, 2010 and uploaded their videos via YouTube.
Overview: Produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin MacDonald, over 80,000 users uploaded content in hopes of being selected for the documentary. MacDonald assembled twenty 'researchers' to sift through the footage and the film, which has already been pre-selected for Sundance(US Film and Video Festival). To help reach remote areas of the world, the producers teamed up with NGOs who helped individuals participate to capture their stories. The documentary made overall $252,788 in box office.
What is the difference between 'croudsourcing' and 'crowd funding'?
Crowdsourcing:
the practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting
the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the internet.
Crowd Funding:
the practice of funding a project or venture by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet.
Veronica Mars Case Study
Producers: Dan Etheridge, Rob Thomas, Danielle Stokdyk
Directors: Rob Thomas
Distribution: Warner Bros, Television Distribution Hulu Originals
Discription: Veronic Mars is a film spin-off a television series that was cancelled in 2007. Warner bros. owned the rights to the television and did not want to fund a film version. The film creator Rob Thomas decided to fund the film through crowdfunding webside Kickstarter. Warner bros. agreed to fund the distribution and the marketing of the film, and release it via Warner Digetal Distribution if the project attracted at least $2 million in funding, effectively using Kickstarter to measure the audience for the film. The film opened on 270 screens in the US, and was available to rent or buy via TVOD sites such as iTunes. Many fans who had pledged money would recive digital downloads. The film had a limited UK theatrical release (aprox. 11 cinemas), and was available to rent or buy from TVOD platforms. Almost 100,000 fans pledged meaning the producers would be able to update them reguarly on the release of the film. The film opened on Friday 14th of March and had earned $1 million in theatrical box office by the Saturday in the US, and was on course to earn $2.5 - 3 million over the opening weekend.
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Why is pre-production so important?
About the film: A police chief, a marine scientist and a fisherman spring into action after a white shark terrorises the inhabitants of Amity, a quiet island.
What went wrong: By the time shooting commenced, Gottlieb, who was in charge of rewritting the script, was rewitting the script while they were filming, often finishing scenes in the evening ready for filming the next day. Other writers, like John Milius, were brought in to assist and the actors themselves ended up contributing their suggestions and improvising key lines.
Art director Joe Alves and effects designer Bob Mattey spent the best part of six months building three mechanical great whites, each designed to fulfil a specific function; one could be towed along for full frontal shots, while the other two were mounted on platforms, and meant to be filmed from the left or right-hand side. The Sharks worked reasonably well on dry land, but the seawater damaged with they're complex isides. They're waterproof skin proved to be anything but, and the salt regularly corroded it. As Producer David Brown pointed out,the Sharks also had the habit of sinking to the bottom of the sea. As a result of this the film was filmed in 159 days went it was predicted to take 55. The lengthy production gave them time to consider how best to edit the film around their malfunctioning shark, while a continuity error in which footage of a real shark was captured attacking an empty diving cage, prompted Spielberg to have Hooper live to see the end credits, instead of being eaten by the shark, as scripted, he’d managed to vacate the cage and swim to safety. However all of these errors could of been avoided if pre-production was better planned, such as testing out the Sharks before filming and having a plan B if they didn't work. Also the screenwitters should have finished the script before filming rather than rushing to get it finished while filming.
Vertical Integration
Vertical integration is a strategy whereby a company owns or controls its suppliers, distributors or retail locations to control its value or supply chain. Vertical integration benefits companies by allowing them to control processes, reduce costs and improve efficiencies.
Horizontal Integration
Horizontal integration is the process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain. A company may do this via internal expansion, acquisition or merger. The process can lead to monopoly if a company captures the vast majority of the market for that product or service.