Film4 Distribution

• In 2002 Tessa Ross was introduced to the company and become the controller of Film4 and Channel 4 Productions.
• The company needed to boost annual investment after almost going bankrupt and they managed to do this through third party partnerships.
• After this the company will no longer distribute its own films. They are now partnered with Studio Canal and Warp Productions.

• Film4 make and distribute around 6-8 films per year.
• They set up a low-budget studio with the film council and distributers Optimum and Warp X which were their digital production house.
• As the company work across TV and film drama this allows for economies of scale and cross-fertilisation so therefore this ablest hem to think carefully about where to position each of their films.
• Ross see's Film4 as a part of a wider creative community e.g Working Title, The BBC and BBC Films
• Warp X and a Film4/UK film council joint project with the Sheffield bases indie 'Warp'- this means that they can definitely finance three low budget films each year

Working Title Distribution- Hot Fuzz

• Hot Fuzz is film which is based around the story of a London 'cop' which is transferred and paired with a new partner. Whilst at work the pair stumble upon a number of events and suspicious incidents. 
• The film was released on the 19th February 2007 in the United Kingdom
• The film was produced by Big Talk Productions, Ingenious, Studio Canal, Universal Pictures and of course Working Title Productions.
• Distribution company's that distributed the film were Universal Pictures and Working Title
• The film starred big names such as Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Martin Freeman
• Budget= $16 million
• Gross Profit= $80 million

Film Four Production Practices

Film Four is an independant British Film Company which is owned by Tessa Ross. The company was founded in the year on 1998. After the recent 50% rise the company now has a budget of £15 million per year.

Film Four's philosophy is to experiment, innovate and cater for audiences not addressed by other channels. They tend to look for a distinctive films which will make their mark within a competitive cinema market. The company tend to focus on films which are based around social realism. One of Film Fours' huge successes was the film Slumdog Millionaire; this is not your typical film.

The company have said that they would like to produce films which are 'British Talent Led'. Film's that are shown on the FilmFour channel are usually around 2 years old from the original theatrical release. Film Four are joined with 'sister channels' such as Channel 4, E4, More4 and 4music.  Originally it cost £6 per month to view the channel until it changed on the 26th of July when the channel then changed to a free air service.

The Film Four website allows visitors to preview and read up on the new films which they are produces throughout the year. This contains key information such as producers, director and cast.  http://www.film4.com/features/film4-in-production

The website also suggests and post pages containing the top 50 films they suggest you see. These come under different genres for example; 'Top 50 horror films to see before you die' and another example would be 'Top 50 British films to see'.

Film Four have recently partnered with 'Filmflex' which is now a Film4 on demand service. It will supply a selection of films to rent online, with a lot of them available on the same day as the DVD release. 500 films will be available at launch to rent from 50p-£3.99.

Working Title Production Practices

Working Title is a British film company which consists of co-chairpersons; Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. The company was founded in 1984. The company have been described as having the most powerful figures within the British film industry. The size of the company is reflected by the number of staff. There are only 42 full time staff which are also split between the low budget sister company; Working Title 2.

The Working Title philosophy has always been to make films for an audience- by this they mean play in a multiplex. The company are linked with the Hollywood company; Universal Studios. Universal own a 67% stake in the company and many of its recent films are co-productions with Studio Canal. The rest of the shares are owned by the company's founders which are BBC films and private investors.

On average Working Title make 4 films each year. More than 85 of Working Title films have grossed over $4 billion worldwide. The company are recognised due to their catologue of wide genre. Mainly for their punchy romantic comedies. Some of Working Titles' successes are About a boy, Notting Hill, Dead Man Walking, Billy Elliot and Hot Fuzz. On the other hand the company has experience the flop of films, for example, Wimbeldon and Thunderbirds. Working Title are known for working with fresh new talent and directors. Names that can be recognised within WT productions are Joe Wright, Stephen Daldry, Shekhar Kapor and Stephen Frears.

Working Title 2 creates films as an independent film company. The films that they create are of a low budget. Something that they are known for is their long history with American actors playing leading roles within their films.

On the Working Title website, they reguarly offer video blogs and updates of films that are currently in production. These can be found here; http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/features/video/id/194/hello-world-from-simon-and-nick

Film Habits Questionnaire

Film Habits Questionnaire

Magazine Prelim- Production.

I began the production part of my task by getting into a pair and going off to take photos for each others magazine covers. We had to take a mininum of 12 mid shot photos as this then made us able to choose from a wide selection and not wasting any time having to take new photos. I chose to take photos of one of my friends agaisnt a white background, as when it came to putting the footage onto Photoshop this would allow me to see easily what i had to cut out. This part of the task was fairly straight forward.

After gathering my photos and uploading them to the computer for the next part of my production i started to edit and create my front cover on Photoshop. I began by cutting out my photo using the Magnetic Lasso tool, which i found a simple task. I then began to create layers and started to add detail to my cover. I added the Masthead and chose to colour it in a lightblue, similar to the school colour. The background i filled my cover in with was just plain black, and the reason for chosing this was that it complimented the two other colour i chose to write in. These colours were, light blue and white so overall i stuck to a three colour palet which was black, blue and white. I had to decide on a font that i was going to put my masthead in. I knew i had to choose something thick so it was eye catching and easy to read but also something that looked quite smart and presentable. After i had picked a  font for the Masthead, i then went on to choose to others for the other coverlines that matched well.

So after deciding colours and fonts i then started to use the layers to put my magazine cover together. I added a date, price and bar code to make it look complete. Something i struggled with throughout using Photoshop was forgetting to add a layer with every new thing that i did. Apart from that i feel that i used the program as well as could have as i hadn't had much experience of using it before. The skills that i picked up throughout the production stage were using quite a few of the tools on Photoshop and also how to make my magazine look more proffessional by editing the smallest things. For example making sure that the text is aligned correctly etc. I feel that by doing this task i will have much more knowledge that i can put towards my final product to make as well as i can.

This is what my final product looked like.

Magazine Prelim- Pre Production

For this task we were asked to create a front cover and a contents page suitable for a school magazine. Included on our magazine had to be a mid shot photo which had to be taken by ourselves. This could be a photo of our self, our someone one else depending on who we wanted to be on the front of our magazine.

The first stage in pre production was to design our front cover on paper. This had to include the photo, each headline and also any extra details. I drew a picture of what i wanted my photo to look like and what expressions i wanted this to include. I also labelled who i wanted my magazine to be aimed at and which type of people would be actually interested in reading my magazine. I thought of many different ideas for my Masthead and finally decided on the name 'Rumour'. The reason i decided to use this name is because i thought that it fitted in well with the concept of a magazine and also the concept of a school.
Skills that i picked up throughout the pre-production process was that my design has to be detailed so i knew exactly what i wanted to do when i got onto creating the cover on Photoshop. I also realised that i had to know what audience i wanted my magazine to be suitable for, so i could then develop coverlines and photos which were appropriate.