Sunday, 30 October 2011

Media Assignment On British Films

Due to the sheer size of the world and in comparison how insignificant the UK looks compared to the likes of America and the amount of power and fundings that it holds to make films it can be a struggle to make films in the British Film Industy successful or at least known because basically it is a dog eat dog world. Very competitive. For the amount of money Hollywood films on average are given to make one film would probably be able to create around 4-5 films in the UK. With America it would only need one highly successful film to cover the costs of many other fails in the past. Whereas the UK doesn't have that luxery. Just one failure in the British Film Industy could cause major money problems and effect the makings of many other films to come after it.
The British Film Industries have kept a successful name making high quality films because they keep to strict rules under the British Film Act. This was to ensure a competitive, successful and vibrant UK film industry and culture and to promote the widest possible enjoyment and understanding of cinema throughout the nations and regions of the UK.
The British Film Industry is still blooming because the new century has so far been a relatively successful one for the British film industry. Many British films have found a wide international audience due to funding from BBC Films, Film 4 and the UK Film Council and some of the independent production companies, such as Working Title, have secured financing and distribution deals with major American studios. Working Title scored three big international successes all starring Hugh Grant and Colin Firth with romantic comedies that are an extremely popular genre in countries like America.


Two films that had Working Title behind them are Love Actually and Pride & Prejudice which were both mainly set in the United Kingdom. Love Actually has one of the most recognisable British actors of this era, Hugh Grant. The film itself presents many examples of mis en scene. Mostly being the scenery, the busy London roads including the classic British black taxi's. Another studio that are behind these two films are StuidoCanal which headquaters are in France but they focus on European productions like ones that are created in the UK. Throughout the movie there are many non-diagetic sounds like the choice of background music. The writtens and produces of the film cleverly picked out suitable songs. Such as 'All you need is love' written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney from one of the most famous British bands of all time, The Beatles.


Pride & Prejudice is from the off an obvious British film down to its historical British literature background. Being originally written by the famous English author Jane Austen in 1813. The film itself screams British down to the beautiful mis en scene of the classic victorian clothes worn by the actress Keira Knightley, a famous British actress. The whole set up of that film is an accurate view on life in England in that time era. Down to the way the actors and actresses spoke, the sounds give the film a major boost in the film being a perfect example of a film in the British Film Industry. The whole persona that is presented in this film by Keira Knightley shows us what it was like to be a woman of the 1800's that is in love. Non-Diagetic sounds consist of music composed by the English Chamber Orchestra with help from Dario Marianelli and Jean-Yves Thibaudet on piano. A very detailed classic touch to what would have been listened to back in the victorian times. Also the fact that this film caries a historical value upon it makes it a success. People from all over the world who are interested in Jane Austen or British history would want to view this film.
 


My third film that I have picked is 'Bend it like Beckham' that also stars Keira Knightley. Its plot is around the love of football from unlikely people. Such as character Jesminder Bhamra played by Parminder Nagra. It has a very British topic, as football is a very popular sport in the United Kingdom. So it would appeal to many people within the UK and other places such as American that have their own slant on football but may still be interested in the English football game.
Bend it like Beckham's were made by BSkyB, British Screen and Helkon. Sky is a very famous satellite broadcasting company and its headquaters are in London, United Kingdom. This would inflict that the film has a very British way about it. In my opinion this film is trying to break stereotypical views upon the typical Punjabi people. This films topic may help people that are in the same situation that the main character 'Jesminder' is in. It may even give young teenagers hope that they can be themselves even though their families are strict and have strong relgious views.
The soundtrack to this film goes hand in hand with the plot of this film. Music consists of both very British songs by famous artists such as Blondie and then in contrast to that there is also Punjabian music by Malkit Singh.
Link to the rest of the soundtrack here.




Things like that make the likes of the British Film Industry stronger than ever. New technology is making it much easier to make films go around the world and get international with ease. Because an actor of a new British film could be interviewed on an English show and nearly instantly after the interview is shown on television it will be up on youtube for the whole world to watch at their own
Although distribution teams do a fantastic job at getting these films out in the public eye there are more powerful ways to help spread the word in society nowadays.
Sites such as
twitter facebook youtube and tumblr help spread the word of a new release of a film. The internet holds great power in the making or breaking of a film. Within the twitter community things can nearly instantly become a 'trending topic' and then from there many people will hear about it on such sites as DigitalSpy which contains the top news that is sometimes filtered from the likes of twitter. This goes hand in hand with facebook, since you can post a video you see on your facebook page to your twitter account with 5 clicks of your mouse. That then means that with you posting the video could result in a chain reaction of people re-posting and re-tweeting the video if they like the look of it.
Things like that make the likes of the British Film Industry stronger than ever. New technology is making it much easier to make films go around the world and get international with ease. Because an actor of a new British film could be interviewed on an English show and nearly instantly after the interview is shown on television it will be up on youtube for the whole world to watch at their own leisure.