Unit 25 Film Studies

2.1 Describe the relationship between films and their production contexts with some appropriate use of subject terminology.

Film budgeting is something that a film maker or production manager does in order to prepare and plan the budgeting for a film. They will usually make a document that is several pages long, which contains all necessary information for the budgeting such as what money is needed for and how to cut costs. This document will then be used to gain finances from private investors, sponsors/product placement, the film studio or the filmmaker him/herself. A budget is normally split into 4 sections and the way a movie is budgeted can affect the film drastically. To explain this I will be using the example of myself through the process of creating a short film compared to a big professional company.

The first section is above the line. This includes the costs of anything involved in a production before principal photography begins, such as salaries. Fortunately, in my case there are no above the line costs that we will need to pay as the 3 of us who are creating the film won’t need to be paid as we are doing it on voluntary terms, which could also mean any of us could drop out at any point. We are also using local actors who won’t need to be paid but won’t give as good a performance as a big actor who will cost a lot of money. As you can see, the fact that we are paying little to no money means we are also getting a lower quality product than we would if paying for professionals.

The second section is below the line. Again, we haven’t had need to spend money in this section as of yet as the cast won’t need to be paid and we will be using equipment provided by Red Dreams (where we work), which does also mean the quality of the product will be low as we won’t have professional equipment or actors. However, we may require an external make-up artist, who will need to be paid and we may have to pay for any travel and food/drink for the cast and crew. Bigger production companies will normally spend a lot of money in this section as the entire cast will normally need paying, professional equipment will normally be rented out at a high price for the days of the shoot and there will be a much bigger cast and crew so catering will be much more expensive, but they will get a better product in the end.

The third section is post production. We also don’t need to spend money here as everything we need will be provided free of charge by Red Dreams. We already own the editing software we need (Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects), which are professional standard programs. We also have a team of sound technicians who can help in the production of a score. We will not need any CGI effects added into the film as we are going for more of a realism feel. As mentioned previously, the lack of money being spent here also drops the quality of the product. A big production team will normally spend a lot of money in this section on things such as external professional composers and external editors/effect

specialists. One big way to cut the costs of this section is to write a film that uses little in the way of special effects, as that will normally take up a huge portion of a budget.

The fourth section is insurance. This will also be mainly provided by Red Dreams as we are able to use their insurance for being in public. However, we may have to pay things such as damage costs if any occur as we will be fully reliable for any equipment we use. Also, if we don’t get actors to sign a contract (which we will) we will have to pay for any damage caused to the actors. Bigger companies will normally have to pay for the insurance of the cast and crew (which can be expensive due to how many people there are) and equipment insurance (which will also be expensive due to the high cost and quality of equipment used).

3.1 Describe the relationship between producers and film audiences with some appropriate use of subject terminology.

In order to either draw in a specific audience or create an emotional response, a producer will do specific things that will draw that response from their audience. This is an important part of film making as if the film doesn’t draw a response from the viewer then the majority of the films meaning and message will be lost, overall making it a generally bad movie. I will also be using the example of my film as an example for this, as well as referencing recent blockbuster, Guardians of the Galaxy as an example of a big production movie.

The first thing to be considered when drawing an audience is what you film is about and the themes revolving around it. In order to draw a wide audience we have made our short film about dating, more specifically, online dating. This is something that has had quite a big growth in popularity in the last couple of years, making it relevant to the time it is made and relatable for a lot of people, more specifically, people aged from 15-30. Guardians of the Galaxy is a fantasy film, which mostly targets males aged 13-40.

Another thing to consider is the characters. The main characters in our film are a 20-odd year old man with confidence issues and a 20-odd year old woman who constantly dates via social networking. These are characters that are relatable to a lot of people in today’s society, meaning the audience can relate to them and feel similar emotions to them, which helps to bring out a strong emotional response. Guardians of the Galaxy, a film of a dominantly male genre, has a strong female character who even overpowers some of the strong male characters in the movie. This attracts the females to watch the movie and helps to create a connection between the female audience and the character.

The visuals are also to be considered. The use of certain colours can draw out different responses from the audience as they help to send out signals to the audience about what is going on, e.g. red shows danger, pink shows romance and black shows death. Certain locations can also help make a movie more relatable to an audience. My short film is mainly set in a pub, a place where the majority of people go so the audience can relate to what is going on as pubs are a common place for meeting people. However, Guardians of the Galaxy uses location in a different way as the majority of the movie is set in space, a place where

none of the audience will have been. This helps to create an escape for the audience as they can watch this and be in a new place; a place where the stresses of reality don’t exist.

Finally, the way the film is shot and edited is to be considered. Our short film will consist of a lot of close-ups and shot/reverse shots. The reason for this is that the close-ups help to show the emotion of the characters of the movie, helping the audience to relate to them more e.g. viewers can see when a character is happy and may passively feel that happiness themselves. The shot/reverse shots will also help to show the emotions of both characters, allowing the audience to compare their emotion. In Guardians of the Galaxy, there are a lot of long shots that show the environment, as well as fast editing during fast paced action scenes, to make it look more exciting for the audience and slow edits during emotional scenes to help portray the emotions the characters are feeling. The contrast between the editing pace also makes it easier to tell what the editor is trying to do with the way he is editing, making it easier to get that emotional response from the audience.