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  • Subjects
  • History & The Arts
  • Free courses
  • The business of film
  • Week 3: Where do films go to?
  • 2.2 The changing life cycle of the film

Course content

  • Week 1
  • Introduction
  • 1 Cultural and economic value of film
    • 1.1 What is the cultural value of film?
    • 1.2 Value and the creative and cultural industries
    • 1.3 Why should we support film?
  • 2 Why film matters to the economy
    • 2.1 Money spent by inward investment films
    • 2.2 The benefits of inward investment
    • 2.3 Should we protect home-grown production?
  • 3 Thinking about the value chain
    • 3.1 The film business value chain
    • 3.3 The value chain stages and power
    • 3.4 Who has the power?
  • 4 Week 1 quiz
  • 5 Culture, economy, value and power
  • References
  • Further reading
  • Acknowledgements
  • Week 1 quiz
  • Week 2
  • Introduction
  • 1 Where do films come from?
    • 1.1 Where films come from
  • 2 Development stages
    • 2.1 Making sure your project is legal
    • 2.2 Why development is so important and so hard
    • 2.3 The development budget
    • 2.4 From idea to screenplay
    • 2.5 Money upfront: ‘pre-pre-production’
  • 3 What does the public funder look for?
  • 4 Week 2 quiz
  • 5 Building the case
  • References
  • Further reading
  • Acknowledgements
  • Week 2 quiz
  • Week 3
  • Introduction
  • 1 What distributors do
  • 2 The distribution life cycle of a film
    • 2.1 A journey through windows
    • Current section:
      2.2 The changing life cycle of the film
    • 2.3 The marketing plan
  • 3 Theatrical performance
    • 3.1 Analysing the box office
    • 3.2 How profitable is the theatrical release?
    • 3.3 What do the numbers look like?
    • 3.4 Marketability versus playability
    • 3.5 Case study – the release of Spooks: the Greater Good
  • 4 Week 3 quiz
  • 5 Digital solutions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Week 3 quiz
  • Week 4
  • Introduction
  • 1 Sources of funding
    • 1.1 Three principal sources
    • 1.2 How does distribution finance work?
    • 1.3 Why there is public funding for film: culture
    • 1.4 Why there is public funding: the economy
  • 2 The bank loan
    • 2.1 The complexities
    • 2.2 Fragmentation of the value chain
  • 3 What factors shape the finances?
    • 3.1 Market value
    • 3.2 Case study: Spooks – the financial package
  • 4 Week 4 quiz
  • 5 Film value chain and innovation
  • References
  • Further reading
  • Acknowledgements
  • Week 4 quiz
  • Week 5
  • Production: the cost and complexity of films
  • 1 The producer’s role: ‘make our days’
    • 1.1 Job roles and how they are paid
    • 1.2 Retaining people
  • 2 The schedule
    • 2.1 Breaking down a scene
    • 2.2 Scheduling the film
    • 2.3 Other costs and considerations
    • 2.4 The final budget
  • 3 Making your film bigger than it costs
  • 4 Week 5 quiz
  • 5 Producer and project
  • Acknowledgements
  • Week 5 quiz
  • Week 6
  • Introduction
  • 1 Looking back
    • 1.1 The first of the Bond movies
    • 1.2 When it all went wrong on Dr. No
  • 2 The cost of independent production
    • 2.1 Who holds the power?
    • 2.2 The future
  • 3 End of course quiz
  • 4 Better business, better films
    • 5 End of course round-up
  • Take the next step
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • End of course quiz

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Level 1: Introductory

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The business of film
The business of film

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  • Week1
  • Week2
  • Week3
  • Week4
  • Week5
  • Week6

2.2 The changing life cycle of the film

In this video, Alex Hamilton describes how technology and economics are producing pressure points along the value chain.

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Video 3 Alex Hamilton describes the changing life cycle of the film
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Transcript: Video 3 Alex Hamilton describes the changing life cycle of the film

ALEX HAMILTON
Cinemas have tended to look after their window pretty well because they feel that a delay before the film could be watched anywhere else is absolutely critical to their business. If the film is available in the home or on a platform, on a mobile, on a tablet, and the cinema, it's felt that that actually reduces the ability to get people into cinemas to watch the film. So I think there's a general consensus through the industry that people want to protect that window to an extent. But it is rubbing up against other interests.
 Now, other interests may want to- including distribution companies- may want to see that window shortened because what happens is a distributor often spends millions of pounds on the theatrical release window, then finds their film gone from the theatrical release, gone from cinemas in four to six weeks, but they can't actually exploit it anymore for another 10 or 12 weeks. And that actually creates an inefficiency. What's also happening is there's further pressure down the chain and that entities like Amazon or Netflix or Sky would like to access movies earlier. So that also puts pressure on the home entertainment transactional window when the film is only available to buy or only available to rent.
 Now the company who are clearly challenging that sequence most of the moment are Netflix, who are signing up top draw talent to produce films that will debut on their service. And at the moment, they're saying that actually they won't actually exploit the film in other windows. So there's a little bit of a ambivalent relationship between the studios and the distributors who create, produce, and distribute content, and the likes of Amazon and Netflix who are hungry for that content, but also want to have it more quickly and are going into the business themselves of producing and distributing content. So there's unique selling points for their platforms.
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This system of controlled release has developed not by accident, but because the industry has created a system intended to make as much money as possible from an individual film.

For example, people see a film in cinemas because they enjoy the cinema experience, but also because they can’t yet see the film in any other way. Windows evolve and change over time. VoD only started taking off quite recently, in the 2000s. The airlines used to be a much later window, back when only one film was available on a flight. But now, having individual screens on planes has increased the demand for films and brought the window forward.

The system – sometimes referred to as an economics of scarcity – is vulnerable, however, in an age of digital technology. Pirated DVDs are attractive when commercial DVDs are not available in shops. So more and more independent films are released in different ways – for example, VoD alongside cinema.

PreviousPrevious 2.1 A journey through windows
Next 2.3 The marketing planNext
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