The British film industry

British film organisations

BBFC- An independent, non-government body which classifies and censors film, video as well as computer and console-based games released in the UK.

BFI- he official UK agency for international cultural relations. It's Film Department promotes new British films (features and shorts), internationally principally through festivals and showcases.

UK Film Council - Promotes understanding and appreciation of Britain's rich film and television heritage and culture.

British Academy - Aims to support, develop and promote the art forms of the moving image.

British Council - Government backed lead agency for film in the UK ensuring that the economic, cultural and educational aspects of film are effectively represented at home and abroad.

Main British Production Companies

Film4 -

The Inbetweeners

Working Title -

 About Time

Momentum Pictures -

Chalet girl

BBC film network -

Street Dance 2

Pathe -

Enemy At The Gates

British vs American

British films can claim 25% tax relief off of the government, meaning that the first 25% of profit made is not tied, this helps the British film industry as more people want films to include British actors, have British directors and be made in english, amongst other reasons.

Ex Machina- 32

The Avengers: Age of Ultron- 22

Star Wars: The Force Awakens- 23

The British appeal

British films tend to cater and appeal to only British audiences. This could be down to a number of reasons including story lines that are generally contextually British, this means that the story line or theme of the film is to an interest of British citizens as well as a point of knowledge they may have, which those from other countries may not have. However this can also be a reason for audiences of non British nationality to watch these films, as some people, stereotypically Americans, enjoy learning and watching media products set in, on or about Britain. Also due to British people being known for their unique, often than not dry and harsh, sense of humour British comedies do not generally appeal to a wide range of people that are from and live outside of the UK. British films do not appeal to an audience as wide as Hollywood blockbusters, as these types of films are normally 4 quadrant films, with high budgets, global stars and are normally based on subjects of which appeals to a large variety of people. Whereas British films usually accomodate the binary opposites of the features of Hollywood blockbusters (listed previously). Moreover the distribution techniques of British films do not follow the institutional practices of most if not all Hollywood blockbusters.

Audience types in British Films

Ex Machina- Aficionados, due to uncommon story line.

Suffragette- Aficionados, due to the subject it will not attract those who watch larger hollywood films.

Attack The Block- Mainstream plus, vaguely follows large hollywood movie types.

Macbeth- Aficionados, due to the subject it will not attract those who watch larger hollywood films.

Inbetweeners 2- Mainstream, the prequel was successful and appealed to a large audience.

Far From The Madding Crowd- Film Buffs1, not historically significant so it will only attract a small number of audieneces.


Why have a British film industry?

I believe that the British film industry has two main purposes. One of which is to develop the skills of Britain's in the film industry (for example: directors, actors and others), this then can lead to films that are not strictly British to be deemed British which will appeal to British people and therefore boost the UK economy via purchasing these films, regardless of the media they purchase and watch the film on. The second is to generate income from the actually film companies, this is done by excluding tax on 25% of profits that the film makes, which encourages film companies to produce and make their films in the UK. In juxtaposition this will lead to the services of other British companies being used, for example; caterers and carpenters (for sets), which creates a larger demand for these companies and reduces unemployment in the UK.

Ethnic representation in TV Dramas

Black characters

Luther- Luther

The Wire- Omar Little

24- David Palmer

White characters

Strike Back Vengeance- Sgt. Damien Scott

Thew Walking Dead- Daryl Dixon

Breaking Bad- Walter White

Chinese characters

The Walking Dead- Glenn Rhee

Agents of Shield- Melinda May

Lost- Sun-Hwa Kwon

Asian characters

Lost- Sayid Jarrah

Waterloo Road- Tariq Siddiqui

Homeland- Fara Sherazi

TV Drama generic conventions

You will find that TV dramas all have the following ingredients:

• Characters – even particular kinds of characters: eg, at its most simple, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ characters.
• Stories – they all tell stories, whether those stories involve adventure, crime or romance and they often, but not always, end happily.
• The stories are told against familiar backdrops: – eg, homes, police stations and offices (for crime dramas), hospitals (for medical dramas) – most of which are created in studios. However, most dramas also use outside locations to create particular effects.
• Camerawork – particular kinds of shots are used: eg, sequences involving establishing shots followed by mid-shots of characters, shot/reverse shots to show character interaction and, in particular,close-ups to show the characters’ emotions.
• Stories use dialogue to tell the stories. Occasionally, monologues are built in (as voiceovers, a character telling a story).
• Music is used to punctuate the action, create effects (suspense, tension) and underline emotional moments.
• Particular subgenres tend to have items which make them immediately identifiable – police cars, blue lights, operating theatres and scalpels, triage/reception areas in hospitals. Icons of the genre, they symbolise the (sub)genre.

100 Mad Max: Fury Road facts

The war between Iran and Saudi Arabia delayed filming
It was intended to be an animated 3D film but ended up being a 3D live action film.
There was an original idea for a new film in 1987 and then in 1996, there were many delays and the film idea and concept took 19 years to generate.
Filming first concluded in 2001 (November)
They had to go back and film additional scenes in November 2013.
Warner Bros panic and insist someone write a script in 2003.
The stars and cast for the movie were signed up in 2010.
The film was going to be shot in Australia's blue mountains but due to rain, greenery began to grow making it inappropriate for filming, as it did not fit into the films mise en scene.
$43.7 million was spent on TV advertising.
Some of the crew spent up to 10 months in Nambia.
Fury Road was based on a simple camera philosophy.
It took 16 years to develop from story board to draft.
An edge arm was used to film 95% of the film.
An edge arm costs $500,000.
They used freestylers and stunt riders as the motorcyclists.
The film editor, Margaret Sixel, had 480 hours of footage to create.
Cameras had to be dust and water proof.
A special 3D camera had to be designed to fit through the rig window.
The cameras used also had to have active cooling systems to ensure they did not overheat.
Brandon McCarthy worked with George Miller to produce the story board.
Charlize Theron shaved her head for the role in Fury Road, which then resulted in a wig having to be worn for her role in A million ways to die in the west.
140 vehicles were used in the film.
The phantom camera was used to film the last crash sequence.
The phantom camera takes 300 frames per second, for an incredibly smooth image.
The final edit of the film lasted 120 minutes and contained approximately 2,700 individual shots.
Constant weather delays and various location issues, caused filming to be delayed a large number of times.
CGI was used in 20% of the film, and was generally only used to enhance the landscape and weather, removing study rigging and the removal of Furiosa's (Charlize Theron's) left arm which appeared prosthetic in the film.
During filming Charlize Theron wore a green screen glove which allowed her characters prosthetic forearm to be edited in at a later date.
The film had good editing style, by using "Eye Trace" and "Cross-hair Framing" techniques during shooting, they could keep the important visual information vital in one spot, which i the Centre of the Frame.
The film was shot in sequence, which is rare, and the storyboards were completed before the script.
As they prepared to shoot the film, George Miller had no script. He had over 3,500 storyboards that had taken him more than 10 years to get the story mapped out with his precision.
Mad Max: Fury Road was to be released thirty years after the last film, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
Tom Hardy would act as his character of set to keep in character. this caused him and Charlize Theron to not get along.
An in-house positives and VFX crew set up at production company Kennedy Miller Mitchell, dubbed Fury FX, was also crucial in planning and realising hundreds of effects shots.
Mel Gibson was going to have a role as a drifter in the film, but this never came to fruition.
The use of photographer techniques for the Citadel location, and for others in the film, was actually inspired by Jackson's initial use of an on-set aerial photography drone from Sensefly that he had intended to employ just for ground reference photos.
They used Photoscan to build terrain models, and then, experimenting with the software.
The budget for this film is estimated to be between US$100 million and $150 million.
They followed real dynamics and physics, since a great deal of crash reference footage the director had sourced tended to show that movement. This was based on Miller's initial ideas.
They used a robotic foot to flip the car in the opening chase of the movie.
This robotic foot was installed in Max's (Tom Hardy's) vehicle and was remotely controlled.
The foot once activated tipped the car (whilst moving), creating the rolling affect seen in the film.
Duplicated of actors where added in post production to make the crowd seem larger.
Jackson incorporated a dust element shoot for swirling action close to camera and streams of sand blowing off the vehicles, this was to ensure the toxic storm looked somewhat grounded.
Fury Road repeated its No. 1 position on the strength of a slightly lower estimated $7.5 million spent on 957 national airings across 42 networks.
The final car chase consists of a lot of characters and a lot of switching vehicles and concurrent action.
The previs had to carefully track where everyone was at a particular beat and help work out the transitions so the characters would be at the right place at the right time.
The rig which crashes in this scene was not done by using cgi.
The rig with the speakers and guturaist was fully functional.
For the final scene the speakers were loosened to allow them to fall when the rig jerked.
The first teaser debuted on December 10th of last year.
Miller wanted to use real dust for the end, so they went one floor up on a balcony and put a whole bunch of dry wall rocks and dust and crashed them down and filmed it at 240 fps for the slow-mo bit at the end, because they did not want to use CG.
There were four television spots that each offered a token glimpse.
The frenetic pace and complexity of the shoot in Namibia meant that backgrounds and skies were not always consistent from shot to shot.
3D shooting rigs developed for the film were scrapped.
Whenever they changed the sky, they tried to make it as graphic as they could.
Warner Bros. demanded a script during the pre-production stage.
The problem they had with Namibia was that there was a strange fog which rolled in most mornings.
Peter Jackson’s WETA handled visual f/x, makeup and costume designs for Fury Road.
Whipp believes that trickiest part was the day to night section.
Whipp was able to use a 'mishmash' of tools to make the sky replacements work.
Hardy and Miller, have been working on a way to establish a human story within the action-filled movie.
A positive of postvis process was when shots are half a second to a second long the postvis was virtually good enough.
Hardy’s focus and determination to create a character is what will elevate Mad Max.
Mad Max: Fury Road got entered as development hell, and people believed it would never escape.
Hardy and Miller worked on a way to establish a human story within the action-filled movie
There was a $100 million to $125 million budget at his disposal.
The cast were chosen in 2009, including Tom Hardy.
George Miller also made Happy Feet 2.
Warner Bros. and Miller agreed to a full 12-month delay so he could continue work on Happy Feet 2.
There is assumed to be another Mad Max, after filming Fury Road called, Mad Max: Furiosa.
Tom Hardy apologised to Miller for being frustrated with what Miller wanted during shooting, he apologised at a venue.
Tom Hardy took over the iconic role from Mel Gibson.
The woman Furiosa (Charlize Theron), was the hero of the story which is normally the male.
This made it popular with female film critics.
Mad Max was one of the most pirated films.
In the U.S., box office revenue was the second-best on record, after 2014 hit a seven-year low.
Mad Max: Fury Road outruns Hot Pursuit for the title of top-spending movie of the week.
The top five movies pirated globally piracy also performed well in theaters.
Seale shot most of the film on Arri Alexa cameras, supplemented by far less costly Canons for the crash shots.
Mad Max generated $374 million at the box office worldwide.
Concerns diminished when the complicated 3D shooting rigs developed for the film were scrapped.
Mad Max had 22.90 million shares on torrent networks.
Apparently, Miller also used post techniques to degrade the footage, increasing it's grain and contrast, and crunched the focus digitally. He did not want clean shots, he wanted the audience to feel as if they had sand in their eyes.
Mad Max remained on top of both national home video sales charts for two consecutive weeks.
Period of time between June 21-September 9 2015, the five most pirated films - led by Warner Bros. was Mad Max: Fury Road, were downloaded on torrent networks worldwide 85.34 million times.
Fury Road generated 48% of its second-week sale from Blu-ray Disc.
The jacket Max (Tom Hardy) wore, was a replica of Gibson's jacket in the Mad Max's he had the role in.
In Variety Movie Commercial Tracker Mad Max beat out “Hot Pursuit” for the title of top-spending movie of the week.
Miller was looking for someone with 'an animal charisma'. Miller says about Tom Hardy, 'he felt so much like the character.'
Tom Hardy heard about the film on the casting circuit, but 'didn't think I'd be in the running'. He assumed it would got to an Australian actor.
Former Skins star Nicholas Hoult, 25, hadn't watched the original films before he was asked to audition, but when he did, he 'was blown away by the fact that so many things I'd seen in pop culture were basically based upon this world that George created.'
Max Max had 1.75 million pirated downloads over summer.
One reason for the piracy uptick may simply be that Hollywood released more popular movies this summer. In the U.S., box office revenue was the second-best on record.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley admits that it was a tougher shoot than 2011 Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
The three original Mel Gibson films are cult properties without a lot of pull with general audiences.
Its foundations are laid on a past franchise, but Miller hopes the movie marks a new direction, and has already penned two more films, should this one be a success.
"Oh what a lovely day" is the films famous quote
Tom Hardy, during the scene when is attached to the vehicle, it would of been difficult for him due to the dust, sand, etc.
The Alexa plus 2D camera was used.