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Crime and cinema have a longstanding relationship.

Going right back to early cinema one of the landmark silent films was The Great Train Robbery (1903). There is a shot in that film which is overtly referenced as the last shot that we see in the American crime film GoodFellas (1990).

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However, whereas we might argue that the criminal life that’s represented in the Hollywood-produced GoodFellas is somewhat glamourised and told in an overtly artificial way (think of how music is used...

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In 1950, when he was only nineteen years old, Jean-Luc Godard, one day to become one the great filmmakers, wrote a piece for the French publication Gazette du Cinema called Towards A Political Cinema. Even at this young age, Godard was aware of cinema’s power to communicate ideas.

Jean-Luc Godard examines a strip of film

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Film history describes a wide range of film movements that have each had an often-short lifespan that’s been quite specific but the legacies of which have endured....[ read full article ] »

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Cinema is always evolving.

The constantly changing quality of film styles is exciting and since the beginnings of film history many nations around the world have developed their own distinct cinematic style and this continues today in the twenty-first century.

During the early part of the twentieth century one country that contributed very significantly to the development of early cinema, was Russia and now, in 2013, almost a century later, the particular film style that emerged from Russia continues to be an...

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Introduction

National identity and cinema are inextricably connected around the world. Within this national cinema dynamic is to be found the question of what it might mean to ‘be British’, or, more specifically, English. It’s a question that’s the basis of a longstanding narrative that relates powerfully to our filmic identity and, more immediately, our identity as an island nation, physically and culturally (and economically) separate to the mainland of Europe.

If you watch, read or listen to the news...

Institutional Context | Notes on the Background and History of Ealing Studios

To understand the meanings, messages and values of any film as a text it’s important to also explore the institutional context from which it, or group of films, was produced. Context always helps us understand text.

In terms of studying the films produced by Ealing Studios (Ealing being a suburb of west London) we need to have some understanding of the studio’s institutional context in two ways: (i) in terms of British cinema during the 1940s and 1950s and...

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History of a British Studio

British film has often been considered a cottage industry, which means it functions only “at home”. While it has booms, such as the early days of a studio system with the Rank Organisation, it also has disastrous busts. Many of the country’s film studios cannot sustain themselves. Unlike Hollywood, where the studios would be vertically integrated institutions, in Britain, studios have mainly been facility bases – places where people can film.

However, one production company has...

Ewan McGregor is a major British film star who has appeared in a wide range of films that have been released globally since 1994. His career has combined performances in a range of lower budgeted feature films and work in highly budgeted, event films released by the major film studios. Over the course of almost twenty years McGregor has appeared in nearly fifty films.

Professionally trained as an actor at London’s Guildhall, McGregor hails from Scotland and the narrative of his career progression from provincial Scotland to being an...

AS WJEC FM2: Producers and Audience

For FM2, British and American Film each question is worth 40 marks, and there is 2.5 hours to answer three questions. The paper is made up from resource material and 12 page answer book. Candidates are asked to explore the relationship between film producers and audience.

The resource material can include:

• Home page of a fan website
• Table illustrating box office figures
• Poster of a film
• Front cover of a magazine
• Press release
• Cinema programme
• Blog extracts

Candidates will be asked to use the exam...

Marketing is not just ‘advertising’ a film, but is an umbrella term for the involved process, or strategy, of selling a product. The initial marketing strategy is to choose a target market - the target audience.

In the movies, this target audience is identified early on in the pre-production process, just as it would be with marketing any other product. The production studios will have a very clear and defined audience in mind for their film / movie / production / text. This then enables the studio to create a campaign based on the...

What is Piracy?

It (sadly) has nothing to do with pirates, eye-patches and parrots. Piracy can also be referred to as copyright infringement of audio-visual works. It refers to the ‘exclusive rights’ to reproduce or perform copyrighted work. Copy right means the ‘right to copy’ / reproduce. Copyright infringement can also refer to copying intellectual property without permission (written) from the copyright holder.

Intellectual Property (IP)

Intellectual Property can be regarded as:

1. Copyright - you do not have to apply for this....

There are two distinct ways of targeting audiences:

• STAR MARKETING
• GENRE MARKETING

Generic Typecasting

Generic typecasting can apply to British or Hollywood film ‘stars’, e.g. Arnold Schwarzenegger as the stereotypical Action Hero, Julia Roberts or Jennifer Anniston as the classic Romantic Comedy lead, Tom Hanks as ‘the good guy’ and Jim Carey as a the fool (Comedy genre). Johnny Depp, for example is known for his ‘character roles’, often as an eccentric male lead (Pirates of the Caribbean, Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the...

The basic concept of Synergy can be explained through this mathematical formula:

Whilst this may not make sense to mathematicians, in business it does, when we think of profit value. If you sell two separate products, for example a video game and a film, they could both do very well, giving you a profit of £200 million each.

However if the video game and film were linked, i.e. both Harry Potter projects, this is synergy because the profit value of each will be more, perhaps £300 million each. Therefore the product value of...

The main aspects of marketing are:

• PR: offline/online
• Media: budget, targeting TV, press, radio, outdoor, interactive
• Research: NRG, Fame, TGI
• Creative: trailer, POS, print, TV/radio, interactive, strategy.

The main aim of marketing is to draw people into the film, but also to target audiences who the company believe will make it a blockbuster.

Star Trek provides a very valuable franchise, which has spanned a large period of time. Overall (in terms of films and TV series), the franchise is worth £49.9m in total for the UK box office.

Paper 2 | Non-Hollywood Films Case Study | Shaun of the Dead

Synopsis

The Winchester, a typical London pub. Shaun (Simon Pegg), his girlfriend Liz (kate Ashfield), her two friends David (Dylan Moran) and Diane (Lucy David) are in the pub. Shaun’s best friend, the foul mouthed (and minded) overweight layabout, Ed (Nick Frost) plays the slot machines. Shaun is getting a hard time from this girlfriend; she wants to spend more time with him, be more exciting and do more than sit in The Winchester with Ed. She wants him “to live a little”....[ read full article ] »

Film Research Mark Sheet.doc

Research Your Favourite Film Sheet.doc

Most people in the world know that Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles where movies are produced but Hollywood is also an institution that dominates the world’s film industries.

Since the end of the First World War Hollywood has been an international film industry that has continued to expand through the appeal of its films and through protectionist support from the American government.

Hollywood has been very effective at spreading the message about the American Dream. A few countries, India for example, can beat Hollywood in their...

Associated Resources

• British Film and Hollywood Essay.doc

British Film has been dominated by Hollywood since WW1. Any essay that discusses UK Film has to reference the cultural and ideological dominance of the Hollywood Film Industry to such as point that many cinema goers often will never see a film in any other environment than a multiplex cinema. They may also fail to recognise that many other countries have very successful film industries - this reflects a concept called the Hollywood Hegemony. Many Hollywood films are able to synergise...

BBFC.org.uk Find out about film certification and censorship using this site.

SBBFC.org.uk Students’ British Board of Film Classification This site is aimed at media and film studies students and teachers covering the topics of Media Regulation and Censorship in the UK. The site was designed and is maintained by the British Board of Film Classification.

TMAP.org.uk Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel The Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel (TMAP) is the magazine industry’s self-regulatory body which ensures that the sexual content of teenage...

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