Essay

“Discuss the issues and patterns which enable your institution to thrive as a film business with a focus on the production process.”

     The main thing that helps a film business to thrive is the amount of funding it has for each film it produces. For example, Working Title films are part of a conglomerate of which Universal is the parent company. Universal is a huge American film institution which is known world wide. This therefore means that Working Title have an advantage as they can receive better funding and have access to widely known actors and other above the line costs. The fact that Universal and Working Title are linked also means that Working Title films will have more credibility and be more recognised by different audiences. Another thing that Working Title does in order to thrive as a film business is to use stock actors. For example; Emma Thompson, Simon Pegg, Renee Zellweger and Hugh Grant. These people are all very well known and successful actors. If a previous film by Working Title did well by using these stock actors then a future film with them in is more likely to entice an audience and therefore make the business thrive even more.

      Warp films are an independent film company. This means that they have to find their own funding when a producer has an idea for a film as they don’t have a conglomerate like Working Title do. In a way, it could be said that Warp have to work harder to promote and market their films or come up with a ‘must see’ idea in order to gain a profit. Warp generally gets their funding from government grants which they then use to make and produce their films. The main bulk of the profit that Warp makes is through ancillary sales rather than the film being at the cinema so this means that this is something they may chose to work harder on. One of Warp’s most famous productions is ‘This is England’ which was focused on a left wing ideology topic. This therefore meant that it made news headlines through its controversial subject matters including; racism and the struggles of the working class. Media coverage for this film meant that people wanted to see it and wanted to know what it is about and this meant that they watched it and helped it to succeed.

      Universal is a huge Hollywood production company that can make worldwide famous films with very high budgets, in comparison to Warp which is much less well known and has to work very hard to get a small budget for a film.  

      In conclusion, the production process is the most important thing in determining a films success.  All things from the script to the budget to the actors contribute to this.