The British film industry

 The British film industry: blog tasks 

Factsheet #132: British Film

Use our brilliant Media Factsheet archive on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) to find Media Factsheet #132 on British Film. You can find it online here - you'll need to log in using your Greenford Google login. Read the whole of Factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) Write a one-sentence definition of what makes a film British.

The people making the film are British, is it funded from within Britain, are the cast British, is the film’s subject matter about Britain or British culture.

2) What is the difference between a Hollywood production context and production context of a British film?

• The Hollywood production context means that most films made by Hollywood studios have high budgets, a heavy reliance on celebrities both in the cast and crew and spectacle driven stories.However,the independent production context films tend to have low budgets, character rather than spectacle driven stories and a heavier reliance on word of mouth and viral advertising.

3) When did the James Bond franchise start?

1962

4) In terms of film censorship and graphic content, what began to change in British film in the 1970s and 1980s?

•  Rise of independent filmmaking-1970s 
• The return of studio-driven pictures-1980s

5) What groups are often represented in British film? Give examples of films these groups feature in.

6) What does the Factsheet suggest might be the audience appeal of British film?

• Any film made by a country for its own populace.
• The main characteristics that can be identified as appealing to a native British audience would include; the actors, British actors tend to be clearly identifiable as British and will often be associated with a particular genre of British film, for example Hugh Grant having an association with British romantic comedies.

Factsheet #100: British film industry

To complete our introduction to the British film industry, we need a little more background to the industries context.

Find Media Factsheet #100 on the British film industry. You can find it on the same link as above. Read the whole of the Factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) What is the 'cultural test' to see if a film counts as British?

If a film does not qualify as a co-production, it must pass the British Film Institute’s Cultural Test in order to be defined as British. The Cultural Test is divided into four sections and a film must score at least 16 out of a possible 31 points to be classified as British.

2) Complete the task on the Factsheet - choose three of the films listed and research them to work out what they score on the cultural test: The Sweeney (2012), Attack The Block, The King's Speech, We Need To Talk About Kevin and Skyfall.

3) What is the main problem for the British film industry?

Means that many UK films are made but, in order to get the film exhibited, the filmmakers have to sacrifice the distribution rights by selling the film to a distribution company.

4) What are three of the strengths of the British film industry?

The strengths of the British film industry is that its outstanding creative skills of practitioners (Directors like Richard Curtis have made films, such as Love Actually (2003))

• outstanding facilities (British studios, camera companies and digital post-production houses all attract investment from filmmakers around the world, especially the USA.)

5) What are the two options for the future of the British film industry?

• Firstly, British filmmakers could choose to rely upon co-productions with American studios to keep the industry afloat.
• Option 2, is to attempt to make low budget films targeted at a niche, British audience.

6) In your opinion, which of these two options would best safeguard the future of the British film industry?

In my opinion i think option 2 is the best as its not risky the British Industry could make 

• History and influence other companies to create movies with low budgets as that could also be very successful.The British film industry has a growing future potential which mans other movie company's will follow as there are no risk and are assured they will make profit.