Film Institute Research

From camera to television a film must pass many stages, capital must be raised to finance all areas, this includes actors fees. Which range from over line costs where only a percentage of final takings are handed over. This is popular with actors such as Ewan McGregor who likes to work on low budget films. Whereas other actors may demand underline costs which is a fixed fee, not variable with the success of the film. This can be very expensive, e.g. a world-class star such as Bruce Willis may gain $20 million from a film. These costs may be lowered with using “lower class” actors. After Actors there are many other negative costs, which a filmmaker must tackle, this includes production expenses, which make up 60% of costs. Other costs also include promotion where “ an average movie goes into 20,25,30 million dollars”- as quoted by Bernard Weinraub from the New York Times. Some films such as Titanic can run up costs of over $200 million depending on the extent of sets etc. Yet it is not the filmmaker who had to “cough” up this money, actually it was two separate film companies, Paramount and 20th Century Fox, who paid for all production costs, in the film “Titanic”. Smaller filmmakers may find help from the lottery, who have set up 3 “mini-studios”, which part finance films such as “Four Weddings and a funeral” set up by “DNA Films Ltd”. Other film financers include, banks, wealthy individuals or investment companies, yet to gain funding ideas must be original and almost secured success, all ideas are presented in the form of a treatment. Once the investor agrees it will then demand a return from profits of sales. Commissioning which is explained above fits into one of three categories when producing a film, this is pre-production, and involves other components such as casting and designing, yet before this can be achieved the film writer has to plan every element. Planning is very important in securing a films success, it includes planning where shoots are to take place the finances which will be spent etc. Once an idea is produced in he form of a book, script etc, it then goes on a journey of evolving. When planning a film the writer comes up with locations for shoots and the actors who will play in the shoots, apart from these are the other staff, which will be needed, such as makeup artists. Equipment etc must also be acquired, whilst also making sure that all operations are operating within the law.

Once an idea has gained finance it must then move from pre production to production. The actual production of a film is the actual filming of the idea, each year between 30 to 100 feature films are produced in Britain, yet only a minority ever make it to the cinema, so the quality of production is very important. Camera angles and shots need to be planned and preformed to perfection, this will give the film credibility, this was extremely evident in the film “Jaws”, where the viewer is fooled into believing and picturing the shark without actually seeing it. The production is the most expensive time in filming a film, due to the high labour needed, on a film such as “Titanic” this would include Kate Winslett down to the nannies who look after the children. If planning has not been to a high enough level it will become evident, as everyone must come together to produce the finished artefact, if a shooting schedule is typed wrong etc, filming may be held up wasting thousands of pounds.

Once pre production and