Uk cinema essay

Section 1.




Defining a British film 

Diversity makes a defining a ‘British’ film very challenging.  There are several official definitions of what makes a British film, the most obvious of which are that the film is shot mainly in Britain, the film is financed in Britain and the production company is British. These are all valid criteria which makes a British film. However there are in fact 32 different criteria and to be labeled as a British film a film has to possess 16 of the 32 definitions.  Here are some examples...

 V for Vendetta

British 

Reflects British themes and concerns 
British locations
Largely British crew 



Non-British 

Director James McTeigue is Australian 

Some of the producers are American 

Overall : British film 

Inception


British 


Director Christopher Nolan is British 
Some members of the cast are British 


Non-British 

No British locations 
Most of the cast is American
Produced by Legendary pictures which are American

Overall : Non-British film





History of British cinema

The UK film making process began in 1888 in Leeds by a man called Louis Le Prince who also helped patent the orginal process of developing film on to a celluloid film strip. Moving on from the very early days, the first feature length British film was called The Sign Writer which came out in the year 1897. Moving on,  the earliest British films that I have seen are the Hitchcock 1935 The 39 Steps and the Will Hay 1937 Oh Mister Porter which I think are both a testament to today to the origins of British cinema and capture what makes a British production great.  During this time through the 30's British cinema mainly focused on comedy whereas during the war stricken 40's documentaries were the popular choice as they were based on the home front. Some modern key British films include Guy Ritche's Snatch, Harry Potter (Films 1-7) and Batman Begins. 

Mainstream UK films

Mainstream Uk films are very successful not juts here in the UK but all over the world. Take Skyfall for an example made over 161,000,000 here in the UK but then wen on to make 804,000,000 overseas.  The mainstream film industry here in the Uk is worth over £4.2 billion though most of the cinema coming from the uk is Independent the mainstream Films take the large proportion from the box office with Independent films only making a meer 1.1 billion.

Independent UK films 

Independent British cinema as you could imagine is very different to main stream British cinema. 

Independent films are films that a produced outside a major film studio, independent films are usually distinguished both by the style and the artistic way the director chooses to show them.  Independent films have a considerably lower budget than Mainstream films and tend to have a limited release in comparison to mainstream films.  

Indpandant film examples 


 An example of a British independent film is Submarine which has many of the defining key themes which make up a british independent film as i mentioned above  its shot in a very artistic way by Richard Annandale ( Director ), it had a limited release in the UK to only 40 cinemas nation wide and only 4 cinemas in the united states and it made 256,000 here in the UK and slightly less in the US. 

Section 2.

 

Teaser poster.

Teaser poster 2.

The trailer

The website

The TV spot

Film review

 Exhibition

DVD

Multiplexes

 SynergyPremiere

Premiere

Convergence