Presentation on the Film Industry.

This is the presentation I done that gives a little bit of information on the British films: London to Brighton, Red Road and This is England.




LONDON TO BRIGHTON

Production

The production for London to Brighton was done predominantly by Steel Mill Pictures. ‘London to Brighton’ was, in fact, the first ever film to be produced by Steel Mill Pictures and it was funded by ‘private equity’ and money from the UK Film Councils New Cinema Fund.

Producers: Alastair Clark, Rachel Robey and Ken Marshall.

Marketing

'London to Brighton’ was advertised using ‘below the line’ marketing – meaning that there had been no promotion or advertising planned (in this case, thanks to the lack of funding.) However, once released, the film was exhibited in many cinemas and screenings and ended up winning multiple awards – such as Best Achievement in Production (Raindance Awards), the Golden Hitchcock award, New Directors award, Most Promising Newcomer award, Festival Prize Best Feature Film and the July Prize UK Feature.

The film was also nominated for many more awards, including the Carl Foreman award for Most Promising Newcomer, British Actress of the Year, British Newcomer of the Year and British Producer of the Year amongst others.

Thanks to awards such as these, and positive reviews from many sources such as The Guardian (“a cracking debut feature with enough clout to kick the door in”) encouraged many to watch the film and played an enormous part in making the film a success.

Exhibition

On the official ‘London to Brighton’ website, they have listed the screenings of the movie. The film was shown in many parts of the country, being screened in Brixton, Brighton, Leeds, Southampton, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Manchester and Ipswich amongst many more.

There was an ‘Odeon Tour’ for the film in which the film was shown in various Odeon cinemas at varying times. Odeon showed the film in Norwich, Oxford, Port Solent, Preston, Rochdale and Salisbury on just the first leg of the ‘tour’ and ended up being exhibited in many other Odeon cinemas around the country. There were also many screenings that included Q&A sessions with the director to increase the interest in the movie.

RED ROAD

Production

The film was produced by Sigma Films in Glasgow and also by Zentropa in Denmark. Both the producers and directors had never filmed anything before. The casting process for this film was carried out whilst the script was still being written – this was to do with the fact that the producer wanted to ensure all of the directors were thinking along the same lines and wanted to head in the same direction so the film could be shot with little tension.

The directors then became deeply involved with the script writing, and changes such as the increase in number of characters were made.

Location was extremely important, and as none of the directors were familiar with the Glasgow area, they had no idea of any of the reputations. They ended up choosing the Red Road flats as a location as they believed the flats were visually striking and looked quite imposing – something that fit the theme of the film extremely well.

Executive Producers: Paul Trijbits, Claire Chapman, Lenny Crooks, David M. Thompson, Gillian Berrie and Sissie Graum Joergenson.

Producer: Carrie Comerford.

Marketing

In a similar way to 'London to Brighton,' 'Red Road' wasn't marketed much and were part of mostly below the line marketing. The film won 21 awards in total (including Most Promising Newcomer, Best Actor in a Scottish Film, Best Actress in a Scottish Film, Best Director, Best Film and Best Screenplay amonst many others.) On top of that, the film receieved anotehr seven nominations including the British Independent Film Award.

Reviews were another extremely important factor in the marketing of the film. The Guardian wrote that the film had " real and believable characters brought to life by very good actors: it's an undoubted success!"

Unfortunately, I couldn't find much on the exhibition of Red Road.

THIS IS ENGLAND

Production

During the casting of 'This Is England,' held auditions at special workshops designed to find the perfect actor for the lead role all over the country. The actor who plays the lead in This Is England was eventually found at The Space Project - in fact not one of the workshops set up for this purpose, but actually a scheme run for disadvantaged children with many of the members having been excluded from school.

To create the correct time period, those that worked on This Is England had to work within a very tight budget to create costume as well as decor and other props and parts of the set that would give away the time frame if not proeprly disguised. The actors for the film even had their hair cut and styled into Eighties styles (with one of the actresses having waist long hair shaved completely.)

Producer: Mark Herbert.

Marketing

This Is England is similar to the previous films studied - they had little above the line marketing (other than a trailer) and greatly depended on below the line advertising like the winning of awards and good reviews that would encourage people to watch the film.

In total, This Is England won eight awards including the BAFTA Film Award for Best British Film, British Independent Film Award and the Young Audiences award and were nominated for another 14 which included the BAFTA Film Award for Best Screenplay among many others.

Exhibition

This Is England has been exhibited throughout the country. The director of the film (Shane Meadows) has also attended many Question and Answer sessions in order to increase the popularity of the film.

The film has also been shown at many film festivals, including the British Independent Film Awards, and the Rome Film Festival (where it won awards in both.)