Was it easy to secure funding for Oscar winning

film ‘The Artist’?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL8ckLgDh0Q

Connect

£How much money does the

average film cost?There is no such thing as an average cost of a film. They vary greatly dependent on a variety of factors, such as:

• The production requirements (do they require hundreds of cast, elaborate sets and locations, technical props, special FX and stunts)

• Rights. Do they have the rights to the screenplay? This costs money

• The previous success of the production company. Do they have a reputation? Do they have independent finance to contribute or do they have a financial backer?

• The amount of crew required• The length of production• The Distribution and exhibition costs

Discover

Blair Witch Project

‘The Blair Witch Project’ 1999 (Haxan Films) cost a tiny $60,000 (£38,000) to make. This was in part due to the production decisions they made:• It is filmed in one location (a wood – minimal location expenditure)• They used unknown actors (lower cost)• They used primitive filming equipment (hand held cameras, natural lighting)• Minimised crew costs – the actors filmed much of the film themselves as it is a

‘documentary’ style• The trailer uses minimal footage or effects

Warp Films have produced feature films for between

£400K and 3.3m

Discover

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWiz6reVupA

Match the budget to the film

• Explain your reasoning

The Inbetweeners movie

$920,000

X Men The Last Stand

$5.3 mil

Kidulthood $241 mil

Discover

Independent task:

• As we go through the information on funding, make a note in your books as to the different methods of funding available to film producer’s and production companies

Develop

Film Financing

• The producer (e.g. the studio or Production Company) must secure funding before the production of the film, before filming starts.

The problems with this is that it is hard to predict how much (if any) money a film will make.

Thee are various legal and procedural problems in securing rights to a film property.

Develop

Government Grants

• Grants are provided by Government Schemes designed to encourage creativity and new talent.

• A film production can benefit a country in a number of ways:– Employment opportunities– Development of Culture– Advertising a location to an international

audience.

Develop

Government Grants

• The UK Film Council offers subsidises to filmmakers in the UK meeting certain criteria.

• The National Lottery also offer subsidises and grants to UK-based filmmakers.

• The Escapist (2007) Parallel Films was funded by the UK Film Council, National Lottery and Irish Film Council.

Develop

Tax Schemes

• As mentioned before, there are benefits to a country in having a major film release shot on their shores.

• The UK introduced the Producer’s Tax Credit in 2007 to help entice film producers to the UK.

• The Producer’s Tax Credit offers a direct cash subsidy to producers choosing to shoot in the UK.

• This has helped to bring large scale productions like to the UK.

Develop

Tax Shelters

• Tax shelters in the UK allow those who invest in UK Films to pay less tax, provided the film is shot in Britain and employs a far proportion of British Actors and crew.

• As a result of this, many American Films choose to shoot at British Studios such as Pinewood and Shepperton.

• This also helped to attract large scale US productions to the UK.

• The UK Tax Shelter for Film Investment was discontinued in 2007.

Develop

Pre-Sales

• Pre-Sales involves the producers selling the right to distribute the film before it is made – this is the most common method of Film Financing.

• In order to secure their investment, distributors (usually Major American studios like Universal) will expect certain elements that are likely to guarentee success.

Develop

Pre-Sales

• These may include ‘Marquee’ names (Star System) or some kind of change to a film to make it more commercially tenable.

• If a ‘Star’ leaves the film for any reason, this would often result in the funding for a film being pulled, as with Terry Gilliam’s ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’ (2002)

Develop

Pre-Sales

• Pre-sales are usually done by territory; e.g. Europe, Australia…

• Pre-Sales can also be made of DVD or TV Distribution Rights

• This is especially likely to be the case if the movie studio distributing the film is part of the same conglomerate as a TV Station.

Develop

With a partner, look at the list of the biggest film budgets and discuss what factors do you think helped secure such huge amounts of investment in these films?

• Titanic $200,000,000 • Spiderman 2 $200,000,000 • Waterworld $175,000,000 • The,Wild,Wild West $175,000,000 • Van Helsing $170,000,000 • Terminator 3 $170,000,000 • Troy $150,000,000

Develop

Pit stop!

• Close your books.

• What have you discovered in today’s lesson?

Delight

Research task:Look through the top 25 most expensive films of all time listed in the article: http://www.businessinsider.com/most-expensive-movies-ever-made-2012-12?op=1

Create a table in your books listing the 25 films, their total expenditure and their gross takings. Using the internet, research and identify which film production company/s are responsible for creating each film.

Extension/Homework

Read through ‘the cost of making a Hollywood film’.Highlight and annotate the following:

• Any references to examples of costing • Reference to breakdown of costing – what does it get

spent on and how much?• Where do they source the finance from?• Note any differences between independent film

production and those made by large production companies/institutions.