Film Industry


Exhibition & Exchange
-Where is the film being exhibited, type of cinemas/how many, release date and if it will be re-released.
- What people do with the film (exchange)- reviews, fan based videos e.g. parodies, Youtube exchange, downloading and streaming
-If it wIll be released in 3D as well as 2D, Imax and international release
-Where the premiere will be
-How many theatres and the role of celebrities
-Independent or mainstream film? who is the target audience?- will effect the release of the film (limited or wide)
-Prints of the film are rented to or hired by the exhibitors rather than being sold outright as with most packaged goods
-Distributor's sales team discusses with exhibitors the hold-over of current releases  (takes into account all the new releases in the market, any previews planned for the coming week- the competition and the screen average- average box-office gross receipts per screen of every film)
-Promotions and Competitions
-Trailers


Current Problems:
-piracy (the illegal distribution of media without the permission from it's owner)
-digital technology has made piracy easier, cheaper and improved the quality of content
-electronic files can be released in advance to a film's release
-The internet allows for pirate material to be distributed all over the world quickly
-the dominance of Hollywood over the industry
-weather and natural disasters can effect the release date of films
-concern about quality control of 3D
-cant afford/don't want to change to digital cinema (for smaller cinemas)
-digital cinema requires a different mindset and fresh skills (needs a degree of control) - allows counter programming for boarder audiences so there are tensions with the distributor who wants a film on as many screens as possible












UK Company Film-

Companies- BBC Films, Recorded Picture Company, Pinewood Studies, Wildgaze Films, Film4 Productions etc.

-Film- 'How I Live Now' (due to release 4th October 2013); Action/Drama/Thriller
Plot: An American girl on holiday in the English countryside with her family and finds herself hiding and fighting for her survival as the Third World War breaks out.

-Directed by Academy-Award winning director Kevin Macdonald (One Day In September, Marley, The Last King of Scotland).

-Screenplay by Jeremy Brock (The Eagle, The Last King Of Scotland), Penelope Skinner (‘Fresh Meat’) and Tony Grisoni (Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, ‘Red Riding Trilogy’).

-Cast includes Saoirse Ronan (from the host and the lovely bones), George MacKay (The Boys Are Back, Hunky Dory) as Edmond, Tom Holland (The Impossible) as Isaac, Harley Bird (‘Peppa Pig’) as Piper, Danny McEvoy as Joe and Anna Chancellor as Aunt Penn.

-Produced by/ production company: BFI Film Fund, Cowboy Films, Film4, Passion Pictures, Prospect Entertainment, Protagonist Pictures & UK Film Council

Distributed by: Magnolia Pictures, Momentum Pictures and different companies throughout countries such as France, Hungary, Australia and Portugal
Flim4 Productions recent films: ‘12 Years A Slave’ (co-production with Summit Entertainment, Regency Enterprises, River Road Entertainment and Plan B), ‘Cuban Fury’ (co-production with British Film Institute).
Soon it plans to bring out ‘The Inbetweeners Movie 2’ and its most famous films include ‘127 hours’, ‘The Inbetweeners Movie’ and ‘The Lovely Bones’ (Saoirse Ronan also starred in this film).
Cowboy Films: ‘The Last King of Scotland’ (2006) – won awards such as Academy Award and Golden Globe for best actor, ‘Marley’ and ‘Black Sea’.
Passion Pictures : ‘Happy Valley’, ‘Man Hunt’.

-The creative team included Director of Photography Franz Lustig, Production Designer Jacqueline Abrahams, Costume Designer Jane Petrie and Editor Jinx Godfrey. The music was composed by Jon Hopkins

PRODUCTION:

  •  The film is produced by Charles Steel and Alasdair Flind of Cowboy Films and John Battsek and Andrew Ruhemann of Passion Pictures. It was co-developed by Film4 and the UK Film Council and co-financed by Film4 and BFI Film Fund
  •     Based on the award-winning young-adult novel by Meg Rosoff (published in 2004) – same title. It received generally positive reviews and won the British Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the American Printz Award for young-adult literature.
  • Budget-  Low Budget  (used new unknown/rising actors apart from one) The Director (Kevin Macdonald) revealed: “It's always nice to have the same people that you are familiar with and shorthand with obviously to be around you. I actually can't on "How I Live Now" because it's very low budget and because it's kind of come together very suddenly, a lot of the people I've worked before are not available. A lot of them are busy…"
  •   Nationality- UK
  •   Main Producers – Charles Steel, Alasdair Flind, John Battsek and Andre Ruhenmann ^
  •   About the cinematographer (Franz Lustig) – He often had to work fast, using available light, amid the changing weather conditions of the Wales countryside
  • About the Cast - Casting was underway during the early moths of 2011 when the director was also announced.

At first, Macdonald did not want to cast Saoirse Ronan because he didn't think she suited the role as he wanted an American who was unknown however Saorise was Irish, already been in some big movies and was older than the character was supposed to be. Although when Macdonald met her and she read a scene, he loved her instantly.
"Originally I wanted to cast 15 and 16-year-olds and couldn't find them," says Macdonald. Instead, he cast Saoirse Ronan, 19, star of The Lovely Bones and Hanna and George MacKay, 21, a rising London-born star who has three films coming out in the space of a week – For Those in Peril and Sunshine on Leith as well as How I Live Now.
There was also a rumoured relationship on set - Macdonald lucked out with his lovers: "What happened during the course of film, and I'm hoping that I'm not speaking out of turn, is that they fell in love and it was very easy. It was Saoirse's first proper boyfriend and, in a way, I think she was living through the same thing that the character is going through. I suspected what was going on but they kept it very quiet."



  •    How & Where it was filmed -
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Colour: Colour
Camera: Arri Alexa M, Arri Alexa Plus, Arricam LT, Arriflex 435, Canon EOS C300
Kevin Macdonald decided to shoot his film in Wales during the summer and the Wales Screen Commission helped the production find the film's main farmhouse setting in Carmarthenshire in the south of the country. Other locations where they filmed included the back lot at Dragon International Studios at Llanilid and a training village used by the Ministry of Defence in Sennybridge.
Penny Skuse of Wales Screen Commission said: "Wales has an amazing variety of stunning landscapes and contemporary environments in which to film". He also commented that it is easy to get around which tends to surprise producers: "In south wales especially, you can go from modern citysccapes to sweeping mountain vistas within 45 minutes".

Filming Dates: 25th of June 2012- August 2012

DISTRIBUTION:
  • Distribution company in UK- Momentum Pictures,  USA- Magnolia Pictures (On 25 July 2013, Magnolia Pictures acquired the US rights to distribute the filmMomentum Pictures- (also known as Momentum) is one of the leading independent motion picture distributors in the UK and Ireland and releases approximately 20 theatrical films a year, with several dtv releases. In 2013 it released ‘Safe Haven’, ‘Diana’ and ‘21 & Over’Some of Magnolia recent films include ‘A Dark Truth’ and ‘Mr Nobody'.  Protagonist Pictures sold ‘How I Live Now’ internationally.
  • Release Pattern - UK release date: 4th October 2013, 8th November in USA and Austrailia & in the USA on 15th October 2013 the film was also shown at the Chicago International Film Festival.
  • Marketing & Promotion – On the official FB page they included many competitions and exclusives such as interviews with the cast plus the opportunity to win merchandise including signed posters. The also had a motion picture soundtrack with all original music by Jon Hopkins apart from 3 songs (some of these appear in the trailer). Soundtrack uses same image as the film poster.


  • DVD release date was 10th Feb – both USA and UK
    ( promotion of this on the FB page)

Film Poster:

Movie Stills:







Trailer:




The film was planned to be released during the fall. The deal was negotiated by Magnolia/Magnet SVP of Acquisitions Dori Begley and Director of Acquisitions Peter Van Steemburg with CAA for the filmmakers.
In August Additonal Galas and Special Presentations have been announced for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2013 and 'How I Live Now' is among the list. The film's world premiere is set to September 10th but a second showing is scheduled the day after.
In October British distributors Entertainment One have revealed that they are planning to bring the film to Blue-ray. The preliminary release date set by the distributors is February 10th 2014. 

 Facebook Page (and news updates towards the release of the film including opportunities to ask questions to the cast and the director plus other related events)


 






 The Facebook page also posted a selection of quotes from the film and book nearly everyday to frequently update facebook users who had 'liked' the group.

EXHIBITION:
  • Box Office Figures-

USA:
Domestic Total as of Dec. 1, 2013: $60,213
Opening Weekend: $28,547 (#48 rank, 68 theatres, $420 average)    
% of Total Gross: 47.4%
Widest Release:               68 theatres              
  In Release: 24 days / 3.4 weeks
United Kingdom:
Opening Weekend : $372,072    
% of Total Gross: 49.9%
Total Gross : $746,312 - 20/10/13   ( around £223,318 for opening weekend and £447.938 for total gross )


  • Competing in cinemas with – For Those in Peril and Sunshine on Leith (George also starred in), The Crash Reel, Emperor, Filth, Getaway  (shown in multiplex cinemas)
    Classification BBFC- 15 (contains strong language, strong sex, violence and threat
  •  Nominated awards -  British Independent Film Awards 2013 British Independent Film Award - Best Actress:  Saoirse Ronan  & Most Promising Newcomer : Harley Bird
    London Critics Circle Film Awards 2014 ALFS Award        
    Young British Performer of the Year : Saoirse Ronan & Young British Performer of the Year : George MacKay 
  • 'How I Live Now' received a lot of mixed reviews. 
Here is one from the London Evening Standard:

"Henry James is not the last person to believe that Americans coming to Europe risk getting into trouble.
In Meg Rosoff’s 2004 prize-winning young adult novel How I Live Now, 15-year-old Daisy flies in from New York to stay with her cousins at their bucolic farmhouse and no sooner has she fallen for the sexy older brother than a nuclear bomb devastates London, unspecified insurgents overrun the countryside, and a state of emergency is declared. She blames herself.
Kevin Macdonald (Touching The Void, The Last King Of Scotland) has directed this adaptation which, like most films made for teenagers, is presented as if it will make equally solid fare for adults. It won’t, but in its own terms, it works well enough.
Daisy, urban, punky and sulky before she turns native, is played by 19-year-old Saoirse Ronan — and she’s brilliantly watchable. Her pale, perfectly symmetrical face, bleached blonde hair and ice-blue eyes are so striking: she looks almost like an idealised figure, a kouros, without even trying.
She holds the film — otherwise lacking in strong performances — together. Edmond, the cousin she falls for (George MacKay) isn’t ever quite fleshed out, despite his rustic sweaters and tame hawk. The mother of the family (Anna Chancellor) appears only in one scene, before leaving the kids to their own devices.
After all those big budget post-apocalypse movies we’ve seen recently, the vision of a post-nuclear England here looks almost cosy, more like a re-run of the Home Front in the Second World War, complete with Spam, than anything more sci-fi. Macdonald is evidently much happier with pastoral idyll than he is with action sequences.
But that suits the story which, beneath the opportunistic trappings, is familiar: an American ingénue comes to appreciate that a good heart and rough living in the West Country is worth a lot more than the world she has left behind. Score one for the Old World then, even it has been blown up and overrun."

Another, more positive review from The Australian:
I HAVEN'T read Meg Rosoff's 2004 novel How I Live Now, and knew nothing about it before I saw Kevin Macdonald's screen version, which has been adapted for the screen by Jeremy Brock, Penelope Skinner and Tony Grisoni.
As a result I was completely unprepared for the narrative that unfolded, and that's the best way to approach this unique and for the most part very powerful movie experience. Accordingly, this will not be a long review and won't delve into too many plot details.

The setting is England in the near future. Daisy, an American teenager played by the talented young Irish actress Saoirse Ronan (so good in Atonement and Hanna), flies into Heathrow to spend the holidays with her English cousins. Security at the airport seems more stringent than usual and disturbing news stories flash across television monitors but Daisy, who apparently has had a bitter row with her father and stepmother, is in a foul mood and the jerky, hand-held camera that records these scenes is as alienating as she is herself. Despite her attitude, her cousins welcome her warmly to their idyllic home in the countryside; Edmond (George MacKay), is the oldest and clearly used to being in charge as his mother (Anna Chancellor) is frequently absent, though his precocious brother Isaac (Tom Holland) seems capable of taking care of himself and sister Piper (Harley Bird) is a charmer. These kids, together with their friend Joe (Danny McEvoy), do their best to make Daisy welcome, but the events of the summer are destined to challenge all of them.

I won't describe the film any further, except to say Macdonald succeeds in creating a terrifying atmosphere of menace and danger and that, as the film proceeds, the shaky camerawork calms down to record the exceptional events that overwhelm these young people (Franz Lustig was the cinematographer).

All involved give very fine performances and the structure of the film is perfectly balanced. I don't know how closely this sticks to the source material, but How I Live Now succeeds in being disturbing, inspirational and strangely beautiful.
  • Success – difficult audience (not too young because of sex and violence but older audiences may not have been interested)



Guardian : While Rosoff's novel was published with different covers variously designed to attract both teenage and adult readers, the movie's producers are clear that "we've fully embraced it as a teenage love story aimed toward a teenage audience". Ronan certainly makes an engaging heroine who will click with the same fans who embraced The Hunger Games, but the harsh 15-rated grimness (piles of rotting corpses, sexual threat, fleeting but harrowing violence etc) limits the film's potential audience. (ON THE AUDIENCE)


International Film Company- 

 Companies - Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures

Film- 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire' (due to release 22nd Novermber 2013), Action/Adventure/ Sci-Fi
Plot- Katniss returns home after winning the Annual Hunger Game with Peeta where they then have to embark on a 'Victor's Tour' of the districts. Along the way, Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering but the Capitol remains in control as President Snow prepars for the next Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell which could change Panem forever.
Produced by: Lionsgate

  • Other Lionsgate films- Twilight (recent- breaking dawn part 2 2012), soon releasing Divergent (in imax also) . In cinemas now – I Frankenstein (so normally action –foreign and independent films, has distributed many successful films – twilight, hunger games, saw, the expendables) 
  • Lionsgate announced that a film adaptation of 'Catching Fire' would be released as a sequel to the 'Hunger Games' with principal photography to take place in September 2012.
  • Simon Beaufoy was hired to write the script and wrote two drafts before leaving after Gary Ross the director of 'Hunger Games' decided not to direct the sequel (this was apparently due to a tight and fixed production and was announced on April the 10th 2012). The shooting timeframe was co-ordinated between Lionsgate and 20th Century Fox in order for Jennifer Lawrence to shoot 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'.
  •  On April the 19th it was announced that Francis Lawrence was offered the director position for the film (Bennett Miller, Joe Cornish and Juan Antonio Bayona were also considered).
  •  According to sources, the adaptation needed to be done filming by December 2012 to fit Jennifer's Lawrence's schedule however the shooting timeframe was then extended till March (including breaks due to holidays and award season) because of X-Men losing its original director so shooting for this film was delayed. Later it was reported that Micheal Arndt (Toy Story 3) was in talks to re-write the script. The film was then renamed 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ on May the 24th and Arndt was also confirmed as the writer. The film featured sequences filmed in the IMAX format.
  •  For casting, in July 2012 it was announced that Jena Malone would portray Johanna Mason as well as Amanda Plummer portraying Wiress etc. In August 2012, it was announced that Lynch Cohen would play Mags and Alan Ritchson would play Gloss. Sam Claffin as Finnick on August the 22th and Jeffrey Wright as Beetee on September 7th.
  • Budget: $130,000,000 (estimated) (first film was 78 million budget)
  • Nationality- USA
  • Produced by Nina Jacobson & Jon Kilik
  • Music by James Newton Howard, Cinematographer -Jo Willems ,Editing by Alan Edward Bell
  • Based on the second book in Hunger Games trilogy (science fiction young adult novel by Suzanne Collins) 
  • The three main characters (Lawrence, Hutcherson and Hemsworth) all dyed their hair for the film again. Lawrence went back into archery training as well as training to get into shape for the arena scenes.
    Jennifer Lawrence – been in X-Men, Silver Linings Playbook and more recently American Hustle
    Josh Hutcherson – journey to the centre of the earth, red dawn
    Liam Hemsworth – The Last Song, Paranoia, The Expendables 2
  •  Filming officially began on September 10th 2012 with shooting concluding for some of the cast on December 21st 2012. Filming resumed in January for the main cast (award season) and principal photography resumed and concluded in March. Shooting first took place in Atlanta, Georgia then Hawaii (for the arena scenes). The cast and crew has a busy schedule, working 14 hours a day and 6 days a week.The Disrict 12 scenes took place in Ringwood, New Jersey. Jennifer Larence said she would fly out to Hawaii on February 25th to shoot the final 9 days.
  • Reshoots were scheduled for April 13th in Atlana.
  •  Francis Lawrence estimated an hour of Arena scenes. Unlike the first movie, cameras were mounted to avoid the shaky-cam look. The Arena was shot in IMAX to distinguish them from scenes external to the Arena (this footage was through the use of 3 IMAZ 15 perf/65mm film camera)
  • Special Effects - 
    Double Negative – Arena jungle and Cornucopia environment, spinning island and tidal wave digital water work, finale jungle/dome destruction, fog, birds and the bigger Capitol sequences such as the Avenue of the Tributes (VFX supervisor: Adrian De Wet) 
    Weta Digital – Digital monkeys (VFX supervisor: Guy Williams)
    Method Studios – Victor’s Village and robotic cameras, Capitol train, President Snow’s party, Caesar Flickerman’s theater show and Mockingjay dress (VFX supervisors Stephane Naze and Matt Dessero)
    Rodeo FX – D12 and Victory Tour districts environments/set extensions (VFX supervisor: François Dumoulin) – to ‘transplant’ locations and put them in the hunger games  


Distribution: 
  • Lionsgate- both distributor for UK and USA in theatres
  • The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was released on November 15, 2013 in Brazil, November 20th in Finland, Sweden and Norway, November 21st in the United Kingdom and in IMAX on November 22nd in the United States.
  • On November 16th 2012, the first teaser trailer was released with The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 and revealed the official logo and tagline for the film. Lionsgate announced a sweepstakes competition where 12 fans would have their name listed in the film's credits. On January 11th 2013, Entertainment Weekly released a 2013 Preview edition of their magazine, with the first look of Lawrence as Katniss and Claflin as Finnick on the cover as well as several stills showcasing scenes from the film. On February 22nd, both Hitfix and the official Facebook page debuted two viral posters of the Victory Tour featuring Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss) and Josh Hutcherson (Peeta).
  • On January 28, 2013, CapitolCouture.PN, a promotional site for the film's fashion and culture, opened and could only be unlocked with a passcode. Once in, a picture of a blue chair appeared and told readers to check back on March 4th. On March 4, 2013, the site began to release portraits of the various characters.
  • Alongside the announcement of the teaser trailer premiering at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards, Lionsgate revealed a new website called TheHungerGamesExplorer. On April 10, the website was updated and fans had to tweet using the hashtag #HungerGamesExplorer to unlock new stills from the movie. A still could be unlocked every day leading up to April 14, 2013, the teaser trailer's release date. This website took place when Lionsagte parterned with Internet Explorer.
  • The teaser trailer debuted at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards on April 14, presented by Liam Hemsworth,and the trailer was be posted on TheHungerGamesExplorer after the ceremony.
  • On May 14, 2013, a new poster for the film was released.
  • An exclusive new trailer debuted at the San Diego Comic-Con International on July 20, 2013. An international trailer was released a few days later. Walmart released the first TV spot on their Facebook page on October 14, featuring Coldplay's song, "Atlas".
  • On October 27, 2013, during the fifth inning of game 4 of the 2013 World Series, the final trailer was released. Three days later, on October 30th 2013, a new IMAX poster for the film debuted.
  • Through an exclusive makeup deal, CoverGirl created Panem-inspired mascara, lip gloss, nail polish, eye shadow and nail decals which launched in stores October the 1st. A photo ad campaign featured images of models wearing looks for each of the 12 districts, themed to each of the different cities. The nine nail polish colors had fire-themed names such as “Black Heat” and “Pyro Pink,” while the decals had mini-flames dancing on each nail.

  • An ambitious partnership has been with Net-a-Porter to create the Capitol Couture line, a collection of 16 ready-to-wear pieces designed by the film’s costume designer, Trish Summerville. The looks come straight from The Capitol, the society’s government center that basks in wealth and high fashion while the rest of the Districts struggle to get by. The collection of clothing, jewellery and leather goods is not yet available for purchase but was featured in the faux online magazine tied to the film. Summerville says that some of the pieces are very closely tied to the clothing worn in the film, while others are simply inspired by the characters.
  • Another digital partnership was the creation of a mobile game called Panem Run. Lionsgate worked with Reliance, the same company that did tie-ins for Pacific Rim and Real Steel, to create the game.
  • Hunger Games: Catching Fire comes out on bluray combo, dvd and digital HD on march 7th.
  • There was also a Soundtrack. The lead single was "Atlas", written and performed by British alternative rock band Coldplay and was released on September 6, 2013. The soundtrack was released through Republic Records and Mercury Records on November 19, 2013.






Movie Stills:




Promotional Methods:



 












 'The Sun' newspaper also include free hunger games: catching fire posters










Trailer:
 



Exhibition: 

  • 'Hunger Games; Catching Fire' received mostly positive reviews with most people saying it was better than the first film as it was more exciting and included a lot more action and intensity. 
  • Box Office: 
  • Opening Weekend: $158,074,286 (USA) (22 November 2013)
  • Gross: $400,088,390 (USA) (2 January 2014)
  • Audience:
    Catching Fire played to audiences across the world in all four quadrants. Crowds over 25 and under 25 were evenly split and although there were more female viewers than males (59% against 41%), more males turned up on the opening weekend than for the original 'Hunger Games'. 
  • The film was later released in conventional and IMAX theaters in the USA. The film was also shown in the 4DX format in selected international territories. It features motion-enhanced seating, wind, water sprays, strobe lightning, and scent-based special effects. The film was also shown in the X4D format, a similar technology by the company MediaMotion, shown exclusively in select Cinemex theaters. It was the first 2D film to be shown in the format. The film was released in 4,165 theaters in US alone and this was the widest release.
  • In Release: 94 days / 13.4 weeks
    (Still showing in theatres today)
  • Was PG-13, 12a because of fighting and intense scenes, e.g. battles and deaths.
  • Awards include Hollywood Film Awards for best song ‘Atlas’ and People’s Choice Award for Favourite Year End Movie
  • Special Features on DVD and bluray - Audio Commentary with Director Francis Lawrence and Producer Nina Jacobson
    "Surviving the Game: Making Catching Fire" Documentary (Blu-ray™ Exclusive), Deleted Scenes, Divergent Sneak Peek

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)