British Film Industry

Lace blackwood

Working Title• A British film production company, based in London, UK. The company was founded by Tim

Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. It produces feature films and several television productions. Eric Fellner and Bevan are now the co-owners of the company.

• Working Title Films was co-founded by producers Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. In 1992, PolyGram became the company's corporate backer. Radclyffe left Working Title, and Eric Fellner, a fellow independent film producer, joined the company.

• The company produced a variety of films for PolyGram's London-based production company PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, an Anglo-Dutch film studio.

• Films include: Bridget Jones Notting Hill Four Weddings and a Funeral Love Actually

US Film Industry

THE BIG SIX• The ‘Big Six’ majors, whose movie operations are based in or around Hollywood, are all centered in film studios.

• 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, and Paramount were once members of the ‘Big Five’ majors. Columbia and Universal were also considered majors, but in the next tier down, known as the ‘Little Three’. Walt Disney Studios was an independent production company during the Golden Age and although it was an important Hollywood entity it was not not a major.

• Most of today's Big Six control subsidiaries with their own distribution networks that concentrate on arthouse pictures, e.g. Fox Searchlight or genre films like Sony's Screen Gems. Many of these units were shut down or sold between 2008 and 2010.

• Smaller movie production/distribution companies, known as independents or ‘Indies’ are also recognised. The leading independent producer/distributors are Lionsgate, Summit Entertainment, The Weinstein Company, CBS Films, and former major studio MGM. They are sometimes referred to as ‘mini-majors’.

• The major studios today are primarily distributors of films whose actual production is largely handled by independent companies, either long-running entities or ones created for and dedicated to the making of a specific film.

Todays Big Six:

Time Warner, Viacom, News Corporation, The Walt Disney Company, Sony Corporation of America, Comcast/General Electric.

Monopoly and OligopolyMonopoly:

• A Monopoly is when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity. They are characterised by a lack of economic competition to produce the good or service and a lack of viable substitute goods.

• Monopolies can be established by a government, formed naturally or formed by mergers.

Oligopoly:

• An oligopoly is a market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers, called oligopolists.

• Because there are few sellers, each oligopolist is likely to be aware of the actions of the others. They work by rolling off each other, for example, the decisions of one firms influence are then influenced by the decisions of other firms etc. Strategic planning by oligopolists needs to take into account the likely responses of the other market participants.

Corporate and ConglomerateCorporate:

• A corporation is a legal entity that is created under the laws of a state designed to establish the entity as a separate legal entity having its own privileges and liabilities distinct from those of its members.

• There are many different forms of corporations which are used to conduct business. If a corporation fails, shareholders stand to lose their investment and employees will lose their jobs, but neither will be further liable for debts that remain owing to the corporation's creditors.

Conglomerate:

• A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations involved in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure. It usually involves a parent company and several subsidiaries.

• A conglomerate is usually a multi-industry company and are often large and multinational.

Funding The funding for the British and US Film Industries are the same or similar. They range from:

• Financial Aid – money which is provided to Film companies by the government, e.g. BFI.

• Private Capital – money invested by individuals

• Development Funds – money which is raised by things like the lottery.

• House of Cards Funding – many different individuals, companies and financial aids fund one film, however, if one company drops out with an investment, the whole company can fall i.e. like a ‘pack of cards’.