Higher Media Studies Production Unit Module 1: Getting Started Lesson 1: Introduction to Production.

Higher Media Studies Production Unit

Module 1:Getting Started

Lesson 1:Introduction to Production

What Examiners Want Part 1, Section 2 of your Higher exam, will ask

you to write about your own production experience and prove that you have thought about:

Choice of medium Target audience Appropriate technical and cultural codes Associated problems and solutions

This course will help you to think about them.

The Blindingly Obvious

Films are made for audiences. Film-makers must be aware of their

audiences from the beginning of the process.

Film-makers must therefore know their audiences and what they like to watch.

What’s your favourite film?These people represent different tastes in film: what do you think they are likely to enjoy watching?

Can you identify the type of genre these films belong to?

What Genres are out there?

Family Entertainment Horror Romantic Comedy Teen Comedy Action Adventure Thriller Drama Science Fiction

People are markets…Think of some reasons why the two individuals in the photos might go to the cinema to watch these films.In your answer, refer to:Subject matterCastGenreDemographics

Who watches films?

social

grade

social status occupation

A upper middle class higher managerial, administrative or professional

B middle class intermediate managerial, administrative or professional

C1 lower middle classsupervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional

C2 skilled working class skilled manual workers

D working class semi and unskilled manual workers

E those at lowest level of subsistence

state pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers

Marketing professionals use these basic social groups, but who among them watches films? Difficult to tell?

So a more descriptive way of classifying can be used…

A - affluent achieversB - thriving greysC - settled suburbansD - nest buildersE - urban venturersF - country lifeG - senior citizensH - producersI - hard-pressed familiesJ - have-notsK - unclassifiable

Which of these groups are more likely to

a) Watch films at the cinema?

b) Watch films on DVD?

c) Watch film on TV?

Top 5 US Box Office 2006: to which genres do they

belong?# Title Gross

(US) Budget

1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest  $423M  $225M

2 Cars  $244M  $120M

3 X-Men: The Last Stand  $234M  $210M

4 The Da Vinci Code  $218M  $125M

5 Superman Returns  $200M  $270M

Worldwide Box Office So, what genres of films are the most

commercially successful of all time?# Film title $ Budget released Distributor

1 Titanic (1997)  $1.84B  $200M  1 Nov 1997  Paramount Pictures

2 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)  $1.13B  $94M  1 Dec

2003  New Line Cinema

3 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)  $1.06B  $225M  24 Jun

2006  Walt Disney Studios

4 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)  $969M  $130M  4 Nov

2001  Warner Bros. Pictures

5 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)  $922M  $115M

 19 May199

9 Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

UK and US Box Office- 1 week

Title Latest Wknd   # Theatres Gross incl. previous weeks

The Pursuit of Happyness £2,527,181 402 £2,527,181

#1 at UK Box Office: 19 January 2007

Stomp the Yard $13,300,000 2,051 $41,564,000

#1 at US Box Office: 19 January 2007

What does that prove?The previous slide showed the difference in US and UK box office.

The US has a huge cinema market, with two major effects:

1. American producers can make bigger budget films.2. Because the country is so diverse, producers are more

geared to making films that appeal to the biggest market.

The UK has a much smaller domestic market and so producers here have to fight harder to raise

money for film production. They either make lower budget films, or big

budget films with American money.

But what about…?

Sometimes, there are people who don’t want to watch the big blockbuster, and so there are producers who decide to make films for them.If a film is not a blockbuster, it can still do well at the box office and make a profit. The key is that the producers have to know that the audience is out there.

And her…?Released in 1999, The Blair Witch Project became the must-see movie of a generation.

With a production budget of $35,000 and box office receipts of $140 million, Blair Witch grossed 4000 times its budget: it is the most profitable movie in motion picture history, and found its market of young, adventurous film-goers who were looking for something new and fresh.

Conclusion?

All producers must think about their audience

From Hollywood blockbuster to Scottish short, producers have to understand:

Who the audience is How to find the audience That the script in development makes a

difference