RESEARCH: BIFA

This week I have been Following the BIFA nominations through my twitter feed. BIFA celebrates achievement in independently funded British filmmaking.

I have recently been researching the British Independent Film Awards after having visited the British Film Institution. At the BFI I had learned about, and watched the trailer for, a film named American Honey, directed by Andrea Arnold, and at the time of the research into the BIFA, American Honey was nominated for an award.

I am particularly interested in American Honey because it is somewhat similar to an independent film that I am producing: it is relatively low budget, it features (almost) all unknown actors and it is defining our generation. I learned about the film American Honey at a study trip to the BFI on November 2^nd where I attended a talk, Introduction to the Film Industry: A Level Study Day, hosted by Rob Miller.

At the BFI I also learned that American honey counts as a British film as it features a British cast, and has a British director, Andrea Arnold – famous for producing Fishtank (2009) which had a budget of £1.3 million (compared to Star Wars: the Force awakens’ £203 million).

 It is an example of the BFI’s/ Film4 funding model. American Honey’s key themes involve youth and their lifestyle hedonism (living for the moment in a care freeway), love and betrayal, which are themes and issues not usually covered by mainstream cinema.

Similarly to American Honey, our film will not feature expensive sets as they are shot on location as it has extremely low production values. Part of how its social realism approach was achieved was the style of the film and depiction of urban youth, which is echoed in our film.

Media consumption

There are numerous types of cinema available to audiences in the UK, for example; Multiplex cinemas – which are defined by having multiple screens in the same building, used to show various types of films to try and appeal to a greater and more varied audience, examples of these types of these cinemas would be Odeon, Cineworld and Vue cinemas. Another type of cinema are the Independent cinemas – for example the Curzon cinema which is host to foreign films, independent films and more mainstream films, these types of cinemas typically appeal to niche audiences. Additionally there are; Boutique cinemas – which are typically lavish and expensive; Pop-up cinemas – for example, the Luna cinema which frequently hosts open air screenings of older films (i.e. Die Hard); Repertory cinemas – such as the BFI in London southbank which hosts classic and contemporary films; Film festivals. I often attend multiplex cinemas to see new releases as they are more convenient for me to attend as there are multiple cinemas within a short train journey that I could go to.

There are three larger cinema chains, including; the Odeon, which is the largest cinema chain in the UK; Cineworld; Vue. However three of the smaller cinema chains include; Empire; the Everyman; Curzon cinemas. The larger cinema chains typically cater less to the consumer than the smaller cinema chains are they have mass market appeal whereas, for example, the Everyman offers alcohol and food to be brought to your seat.

Multiplex cinemas, such as Odeon, were designed to be able to show a variety of films to try and appeal to a mass audience however there are several independent cinema brands such as the Tyneside in Newcastle; this cinema is host to both independent, such as I, Daniel Blake, and large budget movies, such as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This cinema is also a host to foreign films; older movies (for example Dark Victory); themed programmes such as ‘Enjoy the Silence’, which includes 4 films, a meal, yoga and a voucher for coffee. Cinemas such as this may appeal to audiences because of it’s catered to their preferences as the building also includes a bar which can also be used to order tickets. The Tyneside also caters to people who aspire to get into filmmaking as they teach courses on cinematic themes, including filmmaking, at on-site studios.

 

IMAXs around the world are still commercially successful because of the experience they offer, on the way to the BFI I walked past the London IMAX, at the time it was showing Doctor Strange; I understand why it would be subjectively better to see the movie in an IMAX cinema as the IMAX includes a wrap-around screens and sharp image. A trend that has been slowly increasing is the popularity and utilisation of IMAX screens, originally IMAX screens were used at science museums however it is now being used to screen blockbusters and mainstream cinema as the technology required to make films at IMAX resolutions is incredibly expensive. The IMAX cinemas offer a unique experience that immerses the audience into the film in a way that standard cinema screens aren’t able to.

The online consumption of film and television is a rising trend across the world as these ‘video on demand’ services allow audiences to access films and television programmes anytime as they are not restricted to a week-by-week schedule. Instead these services offer a service where the audience can choose to watch an episode or they can binge on several episodes consecutively, this practice of watching shows allows the audience to get instant gratification from cliff hangers as well as increases the audience’s attention retention and the audience’s information retention as instead of forgetting information over the course of a week.

PLANNING: Interviewing Our Character

For my character in my film opening entitled Gone, we decided to give our protagonist a questionnaire in order to develop his character further. We looked at an article written by Charlie Sierra about such questionnaires, and he quoted a book written by Pen Densham (an Academy Award nominated filmmaker) entitled "Riding the Alligator". In one of the chapters in the book, he provides a check list of questions every writer and director should ask of themselves when they are developing their characters. The purpose of this is to outline a deep understanding of your characters for both the actors and director, and for motivating your character’s choices or actions.

As my film opening features only one character in a world without anyone else, we decided that rather than a questionnaire interview, we would use a video diary of our character asking himself and answering the questions as if he is communicating through the camera to anyone who might find it, which is a creative way to handle the questionnaire whilst still keeping with the solitary theme of the opening.

Script:
DAY 10: 10 days since everyone disappeared. I've been running out of the food at the house and i'm going to have to find more. Everyone must come back. I don't know why they're gone.

DAY 37: 37 days since everyone disappeared. I've been looting the food from the supermarkets. Still no sign of anyone. I'm starting to lose hope that anyone is out here and that it's only me.

DAY 70: 70 days. All I can think about is my family. Where did they go. I'm so sick of living this life. No one is going to come for me. I'm going to die here all alone.

DAY 99: I've managed to recover slightly from my mental relapse. I might finally start to get used to nobody being here. Local food supplies are starting to dwindle though, and more and more animals are appearing around the area. Never hit me how tranquil it all looks.

DAY 112: My fires have certainly improved since this all started. I hunted for the first time, yet it felt strangely empowering to have killed the animal. Poor thing. It's been tough adapting to this world on my own, but I think that I can finally make a life for myself here.

Art of the Title: Deadpool

The title of Deadpool begins with the logo of the intellectual property owner; Marvel. The establishing shot of this title sequence begins with the camera panning back from a close up of a man, the entire scene is a continuous, mid-action, freeze frame of a scenario that appears later in the film. The camera continues to pan around the car showcasing the mercenaries and Deadpool in the car being fought/ fighting in various different ways; the first mercenary we are shown has been attacked with a car lighter; the second mercenary we see in a close up of his face being sat upon by Deadpool as the camera pans from the man’s face; the third mercenary is briefly shown having his eyes being poked out as the camera pans past him; the next close up we see is that of Deadpool himself, this is the first time that the audience is introduced to the protagonist and so the camera stays on the close up of his face for the longest time out of any character so far to allow the audience to familiarise themselves with him; the final mercenary never has their face shown as they are wearing a motorcycling helmet. 

After the slow pan through the car, the camera finally pans back allowing the audience to see the entire scenario of the burning car and motorcycle as they both go hurtling through the air before a, presumably, spectacular crash before the scene is obscured by a drawing of Deadpool decapitating a someone with the text “Hi! I’m Deadpool”, aiding any fans unfamiliar with the source material as to who the man in the costume was. Throughout this lengthy title sequence this movie ironically doesn’t credit the people who contributed to the film, acting, writing, directing, and instead subverts the audience’s expectations by instead crediting them by ‘Written by: the real heros here’ or ‘Directed by: an overpaid tool’.

PLANNING: THE TOP LINE AND BIG QUESTION

I watched a very useful presentation created by FutureLearn, an online MOOC on film making, featuring Frank Ash.
 
To Frank Ash, Creative Consultant to the BBC and beyond, it is important to focus on what the audience would want; what will interest the audience; How will the narrative develop?
Listed below is Frank Ash's advice to aspiring film makers:

TOP LINE DEFINITION: "Think about your favourite book or film or any ‘good story’ you recently watched online, could you sum up its narrative into ‘one elegant sentence’ to provide its ‘topping’" 

TOP LINE FOR OUR FILM - "A lone soldier returns from a devastating turn in Afghanistan and has become diagnosed with PTSD, where he is cursed to walk the streets of his old life with the nightmares of his life in the army"

BIG QUESTION DEFINITION: "What was its big story question, and how important was it to your appreciation of the text?"
 
BIG QUESTION FOR OUR FILM - "How do you pick up the threads of an old life?"

PLANNING: TREATMENT

The story is about a young person, a teenager, that has awoken to find that everyone is just gone, our opening is the person slowly coming to terms that they are entirely alone; beginning with the initial confusion, leading to the denial and finally the acceptance of their situation, being entirely alone. Our opening will begin at the start of this person's day, unnerved by the lack of traffic, their family presumably having already left the house and the eerie silence that hangs in the air. The person gets dressed, rides/walks into school only to find that their school is entirely deserted as well. At this point the character begins to panic, the weight of their situation begins to dawn on them and the surreal reality they have been thrust into. Their disbelief at this new world forces them to set out on their journey to try and find at least some other human, but also beginning their decent into isolation induced mania.

UPDATED TREATMENT:

The story is about a young soldier who has come back from war in Afghanistan. From the start, it is clear that the soldier is suffering from some form of PTSD, so much so that in the scenes they are shot with no other people as if they aren't there, whereas it is revealed at the end that people are there but the soldier's own feelings of anxiety and loneliness makes him think that there is nobody else there, whereas the reality of it as that it's all in his head, and that he is actually surrounded by people (thus depicting the damage that syndromes such as PTSD bring on people) Scenes include one which is shot at the train station when he has just come home, with Close Ups on the Soldiers face to represent his anguish and expression, as well as flashback scenes where he remembers life before he left to join the army.

RESEARCH: Business of Film

The cultural value of film:

When it comes to the public spending in the arena of the arts and culture, such as film, policy-makers need to be able to measure the importance and value of their professional opinions and intervention. David Throsby is an economist that specialises in the economics of art and culture. The diagram below is Throsby’s attempt to simplify debate. Throsby bases his opinions on a definition of value that encompasses cultural value.

The UK is home to the British Film Institute and was home to the UK Film Council before the BFI was created, these institutions have published numerous reports on the economic and cultural significance of film. The most recent of these reports, on the subject of the economic impact that film has on the country, found that film contributed £3.67 billion to the UK economy. 

Other studies on the cultural impact of film have shown that films can be more than just an activity, but they can be used to convey important personal or political messages for the audience to think about, they can also give new insights into other cultures.

 
Many films perform well at award ceremonies such as the BAFTAS and the OSCARS, these nominations and awards are, naturally, a sense of pride for the UK. This is one of the reasons why many stars in Hollywood are British. Another increasingly important aspect of film production is tourism; film tourism is the visiting of a place that features in a film or television programme, for example the Harry Potter series being set in England/ Scotland. Film tourism is becoming more and more popular. Approximately £840 million of tourism spending by visitors form abroad can be attributed to film-induced tourism.

 

Film is often attributed to be the influence for many other creative industries, as film requires skill in design and lots of creativity and film was the first creative industry to be supported by film incentives to show recognition of how important the film industry is.

In the film industry the term ‘Value chain’ is frequently used to describe the process that it takes to go from the initial conception of the idea to the final commercial product, the value chain is important for the production of the film as it includes the pre-production phase, establishing the budget, the actual production of the film and the marketing

Development -> Hire director, Option Agreement, Hire Casting Director, Certify as British,
                              Preliminary Budget, Secure Key Cast, Hire Writer

Finance -> Secure Development finance, Prepare estimates

Production -> Secure Rights, Pre-production, Principal Photography, Post-production

Distribution -> Broadcast license, Video/DVD/VoD licensing

Concept Origination -> Find Ideas.

Exploitation -> Download to Own, Cinema Exhibition, DVD Rental and Sales,

Creative Packaging -> Marketing Campaign