The British film industry: blog tasks

 Factsheet #132: British Film

Use our brilliant Media Factsheet archive on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) to find Media Factsheet #132 on British Film. You can find it online here - you'll need to log in using your Greenford Google login. Read the whole of Factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) Write a one-sentence definition of what makes a film British.

A film is British if the film  based on British such as being set in Britain  and having a storyline and cast based

2) What is the difference between a Hollywood production context and production context of a British film?

For instance the Hollywood production context means that most films made by Hollywood studios

have high budgets, a heavy reliance on celebrities both in the cast and crew and spectacle driven stories. Whereas the the British film production context are that films made within the British production context will in some way reflect British culture,

3) When did the James Bond franchise start?

1962

4) In terms of film censorship and graphic content, what began to change in British film in the 1970s and 1980s?

The 1970s sees a rise in British Films of sexual content, both the act of sex and sex linked to violence with films like A Clockwork Orange (Warner Bros, 1971) coming under a lot of scrutiny. The 1980s see the rise of videos and the ‘video nasty’s scare where filmmaking was becoming more accessible and more extreme content was being created and finding its way to Britain. And so a continual evolution of film censorship and classification in this country has happened since the 1980s that sees all films released in the UK to have one of 7.

5) What groups are often represented in British film? Give examples of films these groups feature in.

youth is portrayed in a very singular way in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (Warner Bros., 1971), the focus is on violence, anti-establishment and a compulsion to act in an  chaotic  way.

6) What does the Factsheet suggest might be the audience appeal of British film?

this factsheet suggests that the main audience appeal for British films are those of a younger ages young adults in particular with it being  being socially aware and taking place in popular cities like London.

Factsheet #100: British film industry

To complete our introduction to the British film industry, we need a little more background to the industries context.

Find Media Factsheet #100 on the British film industry. You can find it on the same link as above. Read the whole of the Factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) What is the 'cultural test' to see if a film counts as British? 

The test is divided into multiple sections

A - Cultural Context :

A1 The film is set in the UK 

A2 The lead characters are British citizens or residents 

A3 The film is based on British subject matter or underlying material 

A4 The original dialogue is recorded in mainly the English language 

B - Cultural Contribution:

B The film represents or reflects a diverse British culture, heritage or creativity 

C - Cultural Hubs:

C1 British studio and/or location shooting, visual effects or special effects 

C2 British music recording, audio post-production or picture post-production 

D - Cultural Practitioners:

D1 British director 

D2 British scriptwriter 

D3 British producer 

D4 British composer 

D5 British lead actors 

D6 Majority of cast are British 

D7 British key staff (lead cinematographer, lead production designer, lead costume designer etc.) 

D8 Majority of crew are British

2) Complete the task on the Factsheet - choose three of the films listed and research them to work out what they score on the cultural test: The Sweeney (2012), Attack The Block, The King's Speech, We Need To Talk About Kevin and Skyfall.

The Sweeney(2012) - 

Financing - 

Production/ finance companies: 

Vertigo films 

Embargo Films 

Exponential media 

Cultural test - 

Attack The Block - 

Financing - 

Film 4

UK Film Council 

Cultural rest - 

The King's Speech - 

Financing -

UK Film Council 

Molinare

Cultural test - 

We Need To Talk About Kevin - 

Financing - 

Footprint Investments 

Piccadilly Pictures 

LypSync Productions

Artina films 

Rockinghorse  Films 

Cultural test - 

Sky Fall - 

Financing  - 

Eon Productions 

B23

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures

Columbia Pictures 

Cultural test - 

3/30

3) What is the main problem for the British film industry?

he British film industry has been production led rather than distribution led. This means that many UK films are made but, in order to get the film exhibited, the filmmakers have to sacrifice the distribution rights by selling the film to a distribution company.

4) What are three of the strengths of the British film industry?

.British films take 5% of world box-office takings,

.outstanding creative skills of practitioner

.Outstanding facilities

5) What are the two options for the future of the British film industry?

 to rely on co-productions with American studios to keep the industry afloat 

to attempt to make low budget films targeted at niche, British audience.

6) In your opinion, which of these two options would best safeguard the future of the British film industry?

 I think that  the film industry should  di co productions  with he American studios  to keep the industry afloat as  they will be  the movies' that generate the most money and considering that the film industry is a massive part of  Brittan's economy  I think that it's essential  that they still continue to do it  while it would be cool to have low budget neiche films  but this  is extremely unrealistic as  they would struggle to generate money as people  don't want to watch low quality films  even if they are extremely creative.