2. Development
Pre-production
Production
Post-production
Distribution

3.  Finding Finance
 Script development
 Stars
 Director
 Other Key Crew

4. SECURING FINANCE
-Can be complex and very lengthy
-Must attract potential investors
-Generate confidence in film’s ability to create revenue
-Returns can be enormous
-But very risky
-The higher the film’s profile, the more likely to attract
investors
-Blockbusters attract more than low budget
-Only one in ten films make significant financial return

5.  A script treatment - ten or more pages
concerning storylines, characters and
locations.
 Generic profile of film - help investors to
“place” film in marketplace (potential
audience)
 Proposed budget - rough guide to price

6.  Visual representation of key narrative
moments
 Key personnel - stars, director, DOP, etc
 Potential spin-offs, merchandising and tie-ins
- all its money making potential.

7.  100% financing - a studio or other backer
gives 100% of the film’s budget in return for
full ownership of the film.
 Multi-party financing - the independent
producer typically raises finance from a host
of sources.

8. Titanic $200,000,000
Spiderman 2 $200,000,000
Waterworld $175,000,000
The,Wild,Wild West $175,000,000
Van Helsing $170,000,000
Terminator 3 $170,000,000
Troy $150,000,000
With a partner, look at the list of the biggest film budgets and discuss what
factors do you think helped secure such huge amounts of investment in these
films?

9.  Finalising Script
 Scheduling
 Budgeting
 Casting
 Crew contracts
 Storyboarding
 Location
 Equipment hire

10.  Cinematography – DOP and the camera crew
 Production Design – Art direction and dressers
 Actors – Method and typical day
 Sound – Booms, fishpoles and DATs

11.  Costumes, Make-up and hair
 Special FX – green screens, etc
 Editing
 ProductionTeam

12.  Editing
 Re-shoots
 Sound mixing
 ADR
 Foley
 Music
 Laboratories

13.  Launching a film in the marketplace
 Distributor acquires rights to film
 Could invest in film at beginning
 Buy rights after film made
 Part of larger company and automatically
distribute film
 $60 billion global film entertainment business

14.  How and when to release a film - a crucial
decision. Want to avoid slow times or event
films. Cinema release date important for
DVD release.
 Target right audience - test screenings, p&a
campaign.

15.  How many copies of film to circulate?
 Saturation 700-1000 prints
 Arthouse 20 prints
 Timing - school holidays for blockbusters,
Jan-March for potential award winners
 Competition - too many blockbusters, too
crowded

16.  Can cost as much as the film
 Must create the “must see” factor - word of
mouth
 Marketing mix - posters, trailers, media ads,
internet, promotions, merchandising,
premieres, press junkets, previews and
festivals

18.  Hollywood makes approximately 120 films a
year
 High Production Values
high budget affords:
 Special effects
 Actors
 Great script
 Exotic locations
 New technology – camera work

19.  A high-budget production
 Aimed at mass markets
 Relies on vital merchandising
“the modern-day blockbuster has become far more than
just a movie. However strong the characters and
storyline, none of the new breed of blockbusters gets the
go-ahead unless it can justify itself in terms of its TV
spin-offs, sequels, merchandising opportunities and DVD
tie-in. It is no longer enough to get pre-programmed
audiences crammed into the multiplex when they could
be buying the toy, drinking the drink and wearing the T-
shirt too.”

20. Production Costs

21. Before: the deals ($30M)
Script & development: $10m
The script budget on a film is typically 5% of the total budget.
Writer David Koepp netted an eight-figure payday.
Plus:, a batch of four fresh writers, including Pulitzer prize-winning
novelist Michael Chabon
. In addition, it is likely uncredited but well-paid script doctors were
drafted in to rewrite certain scenes.
Licensing: $20m
Marvel owns the Spider-Man character. Since Sony bought the
movie rights in 1999, there has been ongoing bickering and litigation
between Marvel and Sony, pushing the licensing price up further.
Stan Lee, the co-creator of the Spider-Man comic character, acts as
executive producer on Spider-Man 2. Marvel pay Lee an annual salary
of $1m [£540,000], but Lee has threatened to sue for a share of profits
from licensing.

22. During: the shoot ($100M)
The big money is doled out to the stars, the director and the
producers are still paid a traditional weekly wage for the length of
the shoot. They are what's called "above-the-line" costs that the
studios are committed to paying before the cameras even start to roll.
Producers: $15m
Blockbusters spawn numerous producers : Spider-Man 2 has two producers, one co-
producer and three executive producers.
Director: $10m
In the age of studio-led blockbuster movies, the director has less and less autonomy,
and is often brought on board after the studio has already completed casting. If test
audiences dislike a scene, the director is obliged to cut or reshoot. For their pains,
directors can still command a hefty fee.
For the first Spider-Man movie, then Columbia Pictures chairwoman Amy Pascal
surprised the community by hiring Evil Dead director Sam Raimi, who was not that
well known to keep the costs down.

23. Cast: $30m
Tobey Maguire landed the title role after first-choice Heath Ledger passed.
His pay for Spider-Man, $4m [£2m] leapt to an upfront $17m [£9m] for the
sequel,
Industry insiders estimate Kirstin Dunst was paid $5-$6m for Spider-Man 2.
New baddie Alfred Molina would be paid in the region of $1m [$540,000].
The rest of the cast will have picked up $3m [£1.6m].
Actors, agents and managers go home happy with a tasty 10-15% of their
clients' payday.
Below the line: $45m
"Below-the-line" costs are the physical production expenses of the shoot,
including crew fees. The costs of hiring and operating state-of-the-art
equipment, corralling and feeding armies of extras, occupying and vacating
locations, and, above all, employing thousands of high-salaried crew
members are enormous.
Principal photography on Spider-Man 2 began on April 12, 2003 in New
York, where the production spent three weeks shooting at various locations.

24. After: the edit ($70M)
Special effects: $65m
The lion's share of the post-production budget is now spent on
special effects. Editing remains a sizeable chunk but, along with
above-the-line costs, the effects budget on blockbusters is one of the
big spends, and is growing fast.
Music: $5m
No more than 2% of the budget.
Three-time Oscar-nominated Danny Elfman composed the music for
Spider-Man 2 for a fee nearing £2m.
Sony Music Soundtrax will put out the official soundtrack which
includes tracks by Jet and Train.
The first Spider-Man album debuted at no 4 on the US albums chart,
and sold more than 2m copies worldwide.

25. The sell ($75M)
Prints & advertising: $75m
The print and advertising costs are not actually
included in the production budget. Having
already spent $200m on making the film, the
studios will spend even more money on
marketing it!

26. Final Box Office figures:
$821m [£446m] worldwide!

27.  High production values
 Blockbuster
 Above the line costs
 Below the line costs
 Media conglomerate
 Subsidiary

29.  20th
Century Fox
 Warner Bros
 Universal Studios
 Walt Disney
 DreamWorks

30. 20th
Century Fox is a film
corporation which is one of the 6
major American film studios.
The organisation was founded in
1935 and has become of the
most recognised film studios in
the world the.
Examples of
their work
include:
• Avatar
• Star wars
• Ice Age the
Meltdown

31. Warner Bros is also one of the main
film studios that is based in California
and in New York City
The type of organisation that it is, is a
subsidiary
The organisation was founded in
1918 in Hollywood California
Some of their work
includes:
•The Dark Knight
•Harry Potter
•The Matrix

32. Universal studios is 1 of the 6
major American film studios.
The organization was founded
in 1912 by a man called Carl
Laemmle. The organization is
owned 80% by an American
company called General
Electric and the other 20% is
owned by a French company
called Vivendi
Some examples of
their work include:
•ET
•Mamma Mia
•Jurassic Park

33. Some examples of
their work include:
•Shrek
•Madagascar
•Over The hedge
DreamWorks is an studio
which produces animated
film which are computer
animated. The organisation
was founded in 1994. The
studio is based in California,
America. The organisation
produced animations is only
through Paramount Pictures.

34. Some examples
of their work
include:
•Pirates of the
Caribbean
•The chronicles
of Narnia
Walt Disney is a film studio
that creates films that
appeal to wider audiences.
The organization was
founded in 1983, and is
currently based in California.
The industry in which the
organisation operates is
within Motion Pictures

35.  The origins and development of the
American film industry are the period from
1895 to 1930.
 During this time the emerging industry
developed into an important popular
medium, organised into clearly defined
exhibition, production, and distribution
elements.

36.  The period from 1930 to 1949 in American
film is known as the Studio Era.
 By 1930 the American film industry was
dominated by five companies known as the
‘Majors’ or the ‘Big Five.

38.  All of the Big Five studios were vertically
integrated.
 Vertical integration – where a company is
organised so that it oversees a product from
the planning/development stage, through
production, to marketing, and distribution,
through to the consumer.

39.  During the studio era the Big Five owned the
production studios, the distribution
companies, and most of the cinemas in the
US. Production Studio
Distribution
Cinemas

40.  In 1949 the major studios were forced to sell
off the cinema chains that they owned by the
US government, after a court ruling that their
practices were monopolistic.
 The American film industry declined further
in the 1950s due to the rise of television.
 It wasn’t until the late 1980s that Hollywood
studios fully recovered.

41.  The American film industry is now dominated
by six major film companies.
 The contemporary Big Six account for nearly
90% of the North American film market.
 All of these companies are subsidiaries of
major media conglomerates.

42.  Who do you think are the Big Six film studios
in the contemporary American film industry?
Major Studio Subsidiaries
Warner Bros Pictures
20th
Century Fox
Paramount Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Walt Disney/Touchstone Pictures
Universal Studios

43. Do you know which
conglomerate owns which
film studio?

44. Conglomerate Parent Division Major Studio Subsidiary
Time Warner Warner Bros.
Entertainment
Warner Bros. Pictures
News Corporation Fox Filmed Entertainment 20th
Century Fox
Viacom Paramount Motion
Pictures Group
Paramount Picture
Sony Corporation of
America
Sony Pictures
Entertainment
Columbia Pictures
The Walt Disney Company Walt Disney Motion
Pictures Group
Walt Disney
Pictures/Touchstone
Pictures
General Electric/ Vivendi NBC Universal Universal Studios

46.  Pick a specific Hollywood production
institution and explain in detail how it
produces and distributes the films attached
to its name.