MEST2: Arthouse film institution research

Production: Independent film studios

Donnie Darko

• Pandora Cinema (This production also made more low budget movies for the likes of Grind, $6 million and Man without a past which is listed below.
• Flower Films (II) (This production also made the film 'Whip it', $15 million).
• Adam Fields Productions (S.Darko, $10 million)
• Gaylord Films (Duma, $12 million)

Girlhood

• Studio Canal ('71, £8.1 million)
• Hold Up Films (Tomboy, $1 million)

The Man Without A Past

• Pandora Cinema (Listed above)

Oslo, August 31st 

• Don't Look Now (With this production company, Oslo is the only movie that they have ever created)
• Motlys (This production has many different types of movies but I cannot find the budget of that movies anywhere).

Killer of Sheep

• Berlin Film Festival

With the Flower Film production company, I believe that the most successful movie they have made is Whip It because it's budget was 15 million dollars which I believe is as high it will get when it comes to a high budget movie. 

StuidoCanal have made some really successful movies for the likes of RobCop but this is beyond being a low budget movie. However, they did also produce Krigen which is another low budget French movie that was recently produced in art house cinemas. 

Distribution: Independent film distributors

1. http://launchingfilms.com/step-step-guide/
2. 10 steps of film distribution

1. Introduction - This is where people start to gather their ideas and start to plan a movie which doesn't need to be the actual one; Just a rough idea.
2. Lord Puttam - This is the part where the makers of the movie start to make up who their target audience is going to be.
3. So what exactly do distributors do? - This is where all the profits are started to be planned; Why would the audience want to go watch the movie and how they can gather audiences.
4. Who are the distributors? - Who will take care of the movie without the production work going on.
5. Where all the pre production work takes place and who is going to be the people who distribute it. Is it a sales person etc?
6. This is the part where all of the distributors sign a contract with the producer of the movie where they are talking about rights of the movie and what they can and cannot do.
7. This is when the producer and distributors start to think when they will release the movie once they have signed the contract.
8. When the release date has to be decided.
9. The job of a distributor is to create visibility and to raise enough awareness and interest in a film to persuade potential audiences to buy tickets to go and see it.
10. This when they get the license to start producing.

3,4 and 5...
Donnie Darko

Distributor

• Pandora Cinema (World-wide)
• Metrodome Distribution (UK)
• Warner Bros

Cinema

Donnie Darko had firstly screened in the Sundance Film Festival and then during the opening week it was filmed another 58 times across many different cinemas in the United States. In the opening week, it grossed $110,494 and then after it had been showed worldwide, it grossed just under $8 million which meant that it had made a profit from it's budget.

Girlhood

Distributor

• Abordar (Spain)
• Strand Relseasing (USA) 

This movie hadn't been distrubuted in the UK, so the USA was the nearest thing that I could find.

Cinema

This movie has been very popular and has been shwon in many different cinemas and some of them being on of the most popular cinemas in the world, such as Vue. It had made a domestic gross of $60,000 which meant that it had also made a grand profit from its budget.

The Man without A Past

Distributor

• Sony Pictures Classic

Cinema

This is another movie that was released worldwide especially in France but wasn't published in the big cinemas. This movie also made a gross of $900,000 which had also made a huge profit from it's budget considering that they only spent less than $100,00.

Oslo, 31st August

Distributor

• Maison Motion (Taiwan)
• Soda Pictures (UK)

Cinema

The gross of this movie was just over $100,00 which is another profit considering they had an extremely low budget. This movie was also distributed in many arthouse cinemas all across London and also France etc.

Killer of Sheep

Distributor

• Milestone Films

Cinema

This movie had a budget of $10,000 and had a gross of $300,000 which is definitely a high profit as it was published world wide and highly in the USA and the UK.

6. Curzon Artifical Eye is all about releasing films to the UK audience by whether or not checking if they are suitable for the audience.

7.

From this trailer, I believe that I can use the hand held camera effect, to show that someone is coming towards the main character.

In this trailer, I think that I can use the black and white effect which will link really nicely to the short production we have in mind (film noir).

In this final trailer, I think that I can use the panning and zooming effect which gives the movie a little bit more tension and suspense to the audience.

Exhibition: Arthouse cinemas

The first arthouse cinema I have researched about is the Electric Cinema which is based near Notting Hill station in London (W11). This week in the cinema, they are showing two different movies per day at two different timings per movie which are 'Bridge of Spies' and 'Carol'. The different with this London arthouse cinema, comparing it to the popular cinemas such as Vue, is that this cinema doesn't show the big blockbuster movies, e.g. Spiderman and doesn't tend to make as much movie as the other cinemas because they are everywhere where as these Art house cinemas as only located in one place. As shown on the website, this cinema is to attract the younger audience. This is probably due to the layout of the cinema, as they have these comfortable seats and beds at the front of the cinema which is an attraction to more of a younger audience. 

Another arthouse cinema I found was the 'Everyman Baker Street' cinema which is on Baker Street in Central London. Therefore, I would imagine that this would be a very popular art house cinema as it is based in a popular place. The showings in this cinema is very cinema similar to the showing in the Electric Cinema but in the Baker street cinema, they are also showing a movie called Brooklyn. This cinema is a little different to the one I stated above because occasionally in this cinema, they would show some popular (non) arthouse movies that they may have show in the Vue cinema etc.

A case study in independent film production: Film London and Microwave Film

What is Film London?

Film London is a film and media agency, which is a promotion for London as a major international film-making and film cultural capital, which includes everything in the screen industries. It was created to promote London as one of the best capitals in terms of the media.

What is Microwave Film?

Microwave film is where the London Film association gives help and support to people who are trying to create their own projects and don't really have the funds etc to do these projects (they will fund for the films).

What is the London calling project and how does it encourage independent film making?

London calling is all about providing help and mentoring the people that are wanting to make films of their own but don't really know how to do so. Therefore, they will help them with the different techniques etc.This encourages independent film making because this is accessible to anyone who wishes to create a movie.

I think that this is suitable for an arthouse because of how this movie is based on a 'ghetto' Londoner and how many people around the world wouldn't really understand this particular movie as they would find it very strange and abnormal.

I would think this movie to also be an arthouse movie especially because this is similar to the one above. This is also about a 'ghetto' life and how most the people around the world wouldn't understand it and therefore wouldn't pay to watch it as it would be pointless for them.

• The first thing that I have learnt from this film is that we need to know what our story is about. This is by meaning that the audience know what the film is about, e.g. who is the main protagonist and where it is located etc.
• clear idea of audience is also crucial - who they're communicating to
• Understanding audiences and distribution- Who are the target audiences? This is a big thing that will help me out in the movie we are creating in our coursework.