Media presentation

Film ProductionBy Thivyan, Simon, Janakan

Role of Film ProducerFilm producers prepare and supervise the making

of the film before presenting the product to a financing entity or in another word film distributor. The producer might be employed by a production company or be independent, yet either way they help the creative people as well as the accounting personnel.

Roles of the producer:

Offer creative suggestions to the director.Handle problems with actors or creative staff.Monitor production timetable and budget.Review video dailies, the film shot each day.Discuss order and selection of scenes with the director.Review the fine cut of the film after it is edited.In some cases, polish, revise and restructure the film to

create the final cut.Work with a distributor to secure distribution for the film.

This may include showing the distributors the final cut of the film.

Review the distributor's advertising campaign for the film.

Continue…The producer’s role is to work with the

director, find the cast (actor/actress) for the film, find investors from abroad or in the UK and decide the scenes (whether it should be in the film or not).

The producer is the only one who puts the most work by making sure the film is suitable for the audiences.

Film BudgetingFilm budgeting refers to the process by

which a producer prepares a budget for a film production.

The producer will write all the equipments (camera, props, editing, music etc) on a paper and add the costs next to it so when it comes to finding investors, they could show the paper and be ready to film the movie financially.

Foreign investmentForeign investment is when a company or an

entrepreneur gives the money to the producer financially to use it within the film.

The foreign investors have a huge role from the start to the end of the film as they are the ones who provide the money for the film but all the investors will get double the money they invest which is why companies decide to produce films so they could get a profit by investing.

The idea and the scriptA script is the most important part of a movie its a

written work by screenwriters for a film or television program. Scripts have the, movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters wrote in them. Scripts are usually wrote by authors or screenwriters and sent to production companies where there reviewed and made into a movies if good enough.

Scripts are changed many times before their used in movies, for example the Lego movie which recently came out took nearly 5 years to make due to extensive script rewrites and also the Simpsons movie which had over 160 script rewrites.

Attracting investmentmovies range in how much that money needs to be invested

in them. For example the movie avatar needed 300 million dollars to make, and the movie 12 years a slave needed 20 million dollars to make. Production companies need to attract investment, they do this by giving potential investors the script to the movie and if they like the script they can invest in the film.

Most Hollywood movies don’t need to find investors because there production studios can provide the money, but smaller independent company’s usually find investors. These investors could be anyone from the actors in the movie to other smaller production companies These investors become producers who have a say in everything that goes on in the production of the film.

Planning Before any film begins its important to plan it. Naturally every

project is different and the amount of planning will vary with how difficult the movie will be to make, this process can take between 3 months to 3 years. In this process there are often lots of set backs and problem that’s why this process can vary in how long it takes to finish.

A example of this is from the movie world war z when there was a last-minute script rewrite and creative issues that cost Paramount Pictures an extra $170 million

During the planning phase there are lots of things that have to be figured out for example: How the film will be marketed and sold, Casting Crew Leads and Actors, Script Breakdown, Budgeting and Scheduling, Production Design and Pre-visualization, Camera Tests, Location Scouting and related work

Its only once all of the planning is done the film can begin to make a film budget so it can obtain a budget for the film so it can begin production.

Above and Below the Line Costs•Above the Line Costs:• This is the line at the top of the film budget sheet. • They are fixed costs for a film. • Examples of a Above the Line costs are: • Actors, Producers, Writers and Directors this is because no matter if the film is over budget these cant change. If a scene is cut from the film the actors will still be paid the same amount. • Below the Line Costs: • This is the line on the budget sheet which separates the fixed costs such as Actors and Directors from the rest of the other crew. • Below the Line Crew refers to most of the cast people these are: Make-up artists, Graphic Designers and Hair stylists. • They are classed as Below the Line because they are variable costs. • If a scene is cut they wont be needed, so as a result wont be paid meaning they wont be in the budget .

Audience For A Film When the script of a film is written the Producer will have a

particular audience already in mind. The audience have to be able to connect to the idea of the film

or it just doesn’t work and the film’s vision and principles will seem blurred.

When producing a film the market place for it needs to be identified and totally understood. Otherwise if the film is in the same market as already good existing projects, then they will have a serious amount of competition which can be good but if they have too much it wont generate the money that was spent on making the film.

If a $20 million film was made but there isn’t a audience available for it. Due to many different reasons then, the budget can either be reduced or if the audience isn’t found then they may have to make the decision to totally cut the film!

Marketing for a filmWhen marketing film the finance for it needs to

be generated. Films are marketing in many different ways these

include: For a film to be marketed successfully it needs to

have many USP’s these include having marketable stars and having a big director.

When marketing a film in Britain they tend to make the film and then try to find out how the film will be marketed, this is compared to Hollywood were they only produce the film once they know the marketable things such as posters and the release date for the film.

This tends to be more successful compared to the British film industry as they are more decisive and know exactly who the film is aimed at and how.