Friday 4 October 2013

Warner Bros.




Warner Bros.

- American producer for film, television and music entertainment. The name was originally Warner Brothers during it's first few years of production, but was then shortened to just Warner Bros. The company itself is a subsidiary of Time Warner (as of 1967). The company was independent up until 1967 where 

- Founded in 1918 by the Warner brothers; Albert, Harry, Sam and Jack, who already owned a thriving theatre business. 


- The company has its headquarters in Burbank California, and New York. Warner Bros. is one of the Hollywood 'Big 6' companies, and has several subsidiary companies including Warner Bros.;

     - Entertainment
     - Studios
     - Pictures
     - Television
     - Animation
     - Warner Home Video
     - New Line Cinema
     - TheWB.com
     - DC Entertainment

- They where the pioneers of films including music and synchronised sound back in 1925 known as 'Talkies' or 'talking pictures' the brothers had to expand their operations in order to cater for these facilities for their productions. Harry however famously opposed to this expansion, proclaiming 'Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?'.


- Warner Bros. owns half of The CW Television Network.

- Warner is a member of the Motion Picture Association Of America (MPAA), a company that represents the Hollywood Big 6 studios.



Thursday 6 December 2012

Warp Film Facts



Warp Films;

Warp Films is an independent Uk film production company. It is based in Sheffield and London, UK, with a further office in Melbourne, Australia.

- Originally founded by Warp Records founding partner Rob Mitchell and Steve Beckett.


- Created initially with financial support from NESTA, with a remit to produce a number of short films.


- After the passing of Rob Mitchell in 2001, the company continued to run with the help of new partner Mark Herbert ( A sheffield friend of Beckett's)who had just produced the critically acclaimed first series of Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights on Channel 4.


- The first film released by Warp was Chris Morris' 'My Wrongs' in shot in 2002. 


- My Wrongs won the BAFTA for best short in 2003, and was the first short film on British DVD on the market in the UK.


- Star of My Wrongs Paddy Considine, Herbert met with director Shane Meadows and asked them to work together and come up with an idea for a film. Mark Herbert worked on the funding, and resulted in Warps first feature release 'Dead Man's Shoes' in 2004, directed by Shane Meadows. 


- The film was shot with a tight budget in 22 days, produced from Warp Film's Sheffield office - A shed in Herbert's garden at the time. The film recieved a BAFTA nomination, a record eight independent British film awards, amongst many other recognised nominations and awards. Receiving strong critical acclaim, now hailed as a landmark in British film.


- Rubber Johnny (2005); The experimental 44 page book and short film produced by Warp still continue to shock and amaze audiences, containing music from Warp Records artist Aphex Twin. Director of Rubber Johnny was Chris Cunningham.


- The Companies biggest success to date is 'This Is England'; The story of Shaun who is adopted by a local crew of Skinheads after his father is killed in the Falklands. It has gained many awards and nominations since its release in 2007, including the BAFTA for Best British Film, and in the same year Warp received it's third BAFTA for 'Dog Altogether'Paddy Considine's directional debut, winning the Best Short Film Award.



- Three months after This Is England released in cinemas, Warp's third feature film, 'Grow Your Own', was released by Pathe. This film was Warp's first collaboration with BBC Films. The film was directed by Richard Laxton, written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Carl Hunter, and produced by Barry Ryan for Warp Films.

In 2004, Warp Films made a significant expansion its capacity. Robin Gutch joined Mark Herbert and Barry Ryan to devise the Warp bid for the Low Budget Film Scheme tender put out by Film4 and UK Film Council. The Warp bid was backed by Optimum Releasing, Screen Yorkshire and EM Media. Warp won the Tender against competition and Warp X was formally set up in 2005 as a low-budget digital 'studio' to develop and produce films with focus on new talent and commercial potential.


- In total Warp Films and there subsidiary Warp X were nominated for 18 British Independent Film awards, for their films Tyrannosaur, Kill List and Submarine. 


Warp Films successfully ran a crowd-funding campaign to fund four short films shot at the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival by Vincent Moon, using the website Kickstarter.com. The project reached its funding goal on 15th October and the films are currently in post-production.


Warp Films is currently developing several television products with Channel 4, the BBC and Sky. Warp Films' development slate currently includes projects with Shane Meadows, Chris Morris, Tony Grisoni, Paul Fraser, and Gregory Burke amongst others. 



- The company celebrated it's 10th birthday in September of this year.



Films;


- This Is England;


Director: Shane Meadows

Producer: Mark Herbert
Writers: Paddy Considine, Shane Meadows

Budget: £1,500,000 (Estimate)

Opening Weekend: £207,676 (UK) (29 April 2007) (62 Screens)
Total Gross: £327,919


- Submarine;


Director: Richard Ayoade
Producer: Ben Stiller, Mark Herbert, Andy Stebbing
Writer: Richard Ayoade

Budget: £1,200,000


Opening Weekend: £244,476 (UK) (20 March 2011) (60 Screens)
Total Gross: $466,702 (USA) (14 August 2011)

- Kill List;

Director: Ben Wheatly
Producer: Clair Jones, Andy Starke
Writer: Ben Wheatly, Amy Jump

Budget: £500,000
Opening Weekend:$9,838 (USA) (5 February 2012) (2 Screens)
Total Gross: $26,297 (USA) (4 March 2012)

- Donkey Punch;

Director: Oliver Blackburn
Producer: Mark Herbert, Angus Lamont
Writer: David Bloom, Oliver Blackburn

Budget: £500,000
Opening Weekend:£144,953 (UK) (20 July 2008) (155 Screens)
Total Gross: £448,465








Tuesday 4 December 2012

Film 4 Facts



Film4 was originally known as Film four when established in 1998 as channel 4’s second channel but was for subscription only. 



  • Channel 4 is a production house company, who's funding comes from adverts/commercial funding.
  • FILM 4 - "committed to enhance the British film making industry by nurturing and funding new talent"
  • Film 4 has a niche (very specific small audience)
  • It was then followed by many other channel 4 further programmes who time shared the air of blockbuster films.
  • In 2006 film four modified its name to Film4 and also became a free digital viewing channel and started producing many adverts with celebrities in weird situations to stress and intrigue the audience that this is the only channel to watch free movies continuously.
  • Tessa Ross became the Controller of film4 in 2004 and head of TV drama for Channel 4. 
  • Film4 is very heavily linked with Channel 4. Channel 4 financed in the helping of production in such films as “The Crying Game” and “Madness of King George”. Channel 4 also decided that there side film channel would be made free on digital networks, therefore becoming the only free film program to boost ratings. 
  • Film 4 are currently on some large projects including Tyrannosaur, which Film4 backed in production and distribution closely working with Warp X and Inflammable films. This movie is an example of how Film4 help broadcast and produce English films and not just Hollywood Blockbusters as this was the first film ever to be directed by Paddy Considine. Also Film4 are in the final stages of distributing their own creation of Random originally a theatre play by director Debbie Tucker Green. It is being regularly advertised on channel 4 and competitions have started to try and attract people to see the film in cinemas.
  • Film 4 produces about 6 films a year and works along their subsidiary Warp X
  • Less of the budget is spent on distribution, because the films can be advertised on their own and parent companies TV channels.
  • They have won 5 Oscars in 4 years & 3 BAFTA's in 2007. 8.3 million AB Cl's a month, with an upmarket (42%) and male (55%) profile.
  • Successful Films include - Slumdog Millionaire/127 Hours/Four Lions/This Is England/Trainspotting
  • Film 4 work closely with specific actors and directors such as Danny Boyle's/Martin McDonagh/Steve McQueen/Peter Mullan/Chris Morris
  • Film 4 recently launched Film 4.0 - digital/online arena
  • Film 4.0's aim will be to find new talent and discover new ways of making, marketing and distributing films and engaging new audiences online in a multi platform environment.
    Films:
    • Johhny English - It was wrote in 2009, worte by the same people of James Bond which grossed $160 million. Rowan Atkinson starred and the sequal was released in september 2010.
    • Wild-Child - Budget of $20 million. Filmed at Cobham Hall. Was marketed on radio stations, social networking sites and TV adverts - was a financial flop with 2.2 mill opening weekend.
    • The Soloist - Based on true Story. Budget $60 mill. Based on books and articles/directed by Joe Wright. Produced by Gary Foster & Russ Krasnof. Grossed $31,720,158 mill. Paramount helped distribute through Dreamworks animation and Universal Pictures. Released a year later than planned, therefore lost oscar potential

    • Written by Stephen Hare

      Friday 16 November 2012

      Thursday 1 November 2012