Convergence and new technologies in distribution.

Digital technology in distribution.

Internet - It has it's advantages at being able to advertise and market the film to an audience worldwide. A disadvantage of this could be the chance for people to illegally download the film for free, taking money and potential profit away from the production company (Working Title Films) and the distribution company (Universal).

Cinema - This could be an inconvenience for the audience as in the more modern times, people don't want to have to watch a film elsewhere. They usually want to see this in the comfort of their own home, not feeling uncomfortable around other strangers. A reason people do want to go and see a film at the cinema's is that they want the full effect of surround sound and big screens.

Digital Downloads - An easy convenience for the audience, but don't receive the same full effect.

What were the issues for the production company during the production phase?

Easy Shoot?

They made it an easy shoot for everybody by remembering through the casting period that the smaller parts were just as important as the bigger parts.

Location.

All the filming was done in the UK in local Cafe's, Pinewood Studio's, The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square London and on the beach in Brighton. On 28th April 2008, scenes were shot on Roupell Street in Waterloo, London with the Kings Arms re-named the Red Lion for filming purposes. The film's production exceeded £30million. They didn't want to sacrafice the quality of the film just to save money.

Casting.

They took a while to decide what actors/actresses they wanted as they knew that small parts were just as important. They knew that all actors had to get on with one another and once they had a rough idea of who they wanted they all rehearsed on the boat to test their compatibility. The casting also enabled the producers and director get an idea what the film was going to turn out like, this was shown through the actors they had picked.

Script.

Hilary Bevan Jones assisted Richard Curtis with the script, and once reading it through all at once, then she was able to make changes to make it funnier and talked it through with Richard Curtis.

Production.

Richard Curtis - Director.

Eric Fellner - Producer (Made the plan and bought this idea down from starting with 4-5 ideas).

Hilary Bevan Jones - Producer (Assisted Curtis with the script).

Danny Cohen - Cinematography.

Emma E. Hickox - Editing.

Tim Bevan - Producer.

Ronaldo Vasconcellos - In charge of budget for the film.

Technological Issues.

A Technological issue that the film came production and distribution came across was the fact the film was too long. It came in at nearly 3 hours long but has to be cut down to just over 2 hours solely for timing issues.

What are the pre-production issues for the production company when making films?

Casting.

Main Roles:

Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Count. (Previously starred in The Invention Of Lying and Mission Impossible III).

Bill Nighy - Quentin. (Previously starred in Doctor Who, Hot Fuzz and Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End).

Rhys Ifans - Gavin. (Previously starred in Nanny McPhee and the big bang and Hannibal Rising).

Katherine Parkinson - Felicity. (Previously starred in St Trinians Two and How to lose friends & alienate people).

Tom Sturridge - Young Carl. (Previously starred in Vanity Fair and Gullivers Travels).

The Producer(s).

Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Hilary Bevan Jones all produced 'The Boat That Rocked'.

They all worked from the beginning to the end, including the plan to the script to the making of the film.

The Director.

Richard Curtis, wanted to create a film based on the 60's style of music and the pirate radio stations that play the music, he wanted to introduce the characters above into a comedy film.

Music.

The soundtrack features songs from The Turtles, Jimmy Hendrix, Duffy, The Kinks, Box Tops, The Beach Boys and Dusty Springfield. The soundtrack features 32 songs on two discs. The Film itself has a 60 song playlist.

What are the pre-production issues for the production company when making films?

Genre of 'The Boat That Rocked'.

- Richard Curtis decided he wanted the film genre a cross bewtween 'Animal House' and 'Titanic'. But overall was classed in the comedy film genre.

Whose idea was the film?

- The person beginning the plan behind the film was the producer (Eric Fellner), but the director and writer who built upon this was Richard Curtis from Britain who created the idea of 'The Boat That Rocked'.

The idea was mainly from director and writer, Richard Curtis but he was helped along the way with several writers and producers to help him build on the script and idea, including partner Emma Freud.

Where did the idea come from?

The idea for Richard Curtis was original, as it didn't link back to any other type of media such as a comic, or TV episodes. But a main element that he did get the idea from was the type of music played in the 60's and the representation of Pirate Radio's playing this music.

Who wrote the original script?

Hilary Bevan Jones, who is a producer was approached by Curtis to improve the script. She helped by suggesting ways in which to improve the script, she says, 'It was important to read the script through first time all in one hit', she then worked back into the script and suggested ways in which it could be funnier for the comedy film.

Financial Backing.

Ronaldo Vascancellos, the co-producer of the film was in charge of the budget. But the producers were also allied with 'Universal Pictures' so that means they were able to have a direct line to finances as well as a way of distributing the film.

Kidulthood: UK Film Council.

Some of this budget was funded by the UK Film Council
How much was given to the film for production and distribution? What criteria did the film have to meet to be awarded the funds?

Kidulthood was awarded £10,000 by the UK Fim Council for the production of the film. They were elegible to be granted this because
They were also awarded £76,295 for the distribution and exhibition of the film. They were allowed this because

Kidulthood: Finance

Kidulthood had a production budget of £600,000. This budget was mostly provided by director Menhaj Huda and producer friend George Issac.
Why would this film have found it difficult to get finance from a production company?

Menhaj Huda directed the film 'Kidulthood' aiming for the finance target of budgeting the film at £800,000. Working with his friend George Issac Menhaj was able to get the total finance up to only 650,000, but he still thought this would be enough to make and produce the film. A problem that they would probably have come across was even though they were working with the production company 'Stealth', this was going to be their first movie, and exhibition companies wouldn't know how the film was goin to turn out.
Another problem that Menhaj would have come across that because his budget was lower than he thought after paying the writer's fee, the producer's fee, and some legal fees, he had to make cuts elsewhere. "We decided to shoot on 35mm and finish on High Definition, so if the film was a complete pile of rubbish we wouldn't be wasting money on getting a print". By doing this the quality of the film wouldn't be as good if they had the higher budget, but it would have been cheaper this way definately for them if the film was a flop and didn't make any money.

Film Editing.

This is an original machine that was used to edit films. 30 years ago editing of films would have been done by physically cutting and pasting pieces of the film together. It would then have been threaded onto one of these machines in the picture, called a 'Moviola'. The shots were then put into rolls to create and print the final outcome of the film.

Now at the present day we have digitally advanced film editing. Today most films will be edited on systems such as Imovie or more advanced programmes such as final cut pro.
With the advance in technology today, the film does not need to be physically cut and sliced to be placed together, the negatives of the film does not even need to be touched, because now all film technology used is digital.

Today with the advance in technology, we can use programmes to edit such as,
-Imovie, Final Cut Pro, Premiere Elements, Final Cut Express, Movavi, Xpress Pro, Cyberlink Power Director, Sony Vegas Movie Studio, Sony Vegas Pro, Avid Technology, AVS Video Editor and many more, the are a wide range of programmes that can be used to edit, all a range from simple programmes to more advanced for regualr users.

Technological Convergence - Instead of now having to cut and stick the negatives together ourselves, we can now to edit connect a camera to a computer and not only be able to load up the video but able to cut certain pieces we want and put things together all with the click of a button. These editing programmes also allow us to add things into the film such as titles, sound and sound effects, building up this raw material all through the use of a computer. This is also alowwing us to stream our videos through a computer to a projecter instead of being on a DVD disc and put in a DVD player.
Through this it is easier for audiences to view it on computers. It can also impact on the audience jsut by making it more pleasurable to watch as this type of editing makes the film flow easier and has these advanced use of titles and sound etc, overall the quality has been improved so much, and the audience can see this is the improvement of the quality of picture in the film and the upgrade of editing in 3D for movies such as Avatar, and the choice of using surround sound, giving the audience an expirence where we feel as if we are in the film.

This is an example of improved media technology, Avid. There are mutiple controls and ways to edit and cut and add new elements to your film, much easier than cutting and sticking the film together yourself!