1. Lecture 2: Film Production, Distribution and Exhibition
Professor Michael Green

2. Previous Lesson How to succeed in an online course.
How this course is organized.
What we study in an introductory film course
Form
Content.

3. This Lecture The Technology of Moving Images Film Production
Film Distribution and Exhibition
Case Study: Jaws (1975)

4. The Technology of Moving Images
Lesson 2: Part I

5. Movies, Technology and Business
As your authors, Bordwell and Thompson, state, film requires a lot of technology: cameras, lights, sound equipment, and computers to edit and create digital images and sound.
Film also requires companies, to make the technology, to invest money, and to distribute and exhibit movies once made.

6. A Film Camera
Runs undeveloped film through at 24 fps (frames per second).
The shutter opens and a lens focuses light, bounced off what the camera will record in front of it, onto the film, creating the photographic image.

7. Still Pictures Move
As we watch a film, we are looking at a series of still pictures.
Movies, however, trick the human eye into seeing movement.

8. Apparent Motion
Film is projected at 24 fps (frames or still photos per second).
Each of those 24 frames is shown twice,
creating 48 still photos projected per second.
Showing still images that fast makes them seem to move. An effect called Apparent motion.

9. Celluloid
Film became possible with development of celluloid, a flexible material that could run through a camera and projector fast enough to create apparent motion.

10. Projector
Works the opposite of a camera, sending light out through the film to put an image onto a screen.
Film runs through projector at 24 fps, and each frame is shown twice to create apparent motion.

11. The Negative Is made when film is shot by the movie camera.
Filmic images are recorded on chemical emulsion on the film’s surface.
A copy of the negative made in a printer is called a print.
Digital video records photographic Images in binary codes, not in chemical emulsion with light.

12. Sprockets
Film is moved quickly through the camera, printer, or projector by
small teeth, sprockets, that grab it by the holes on its edge and move it ahead.
The sound track is also on the edge of the film, in this image on the right side. 12

13. Film Gauge
Refers to the width of film. Films shown commercially are usually 35 mm.
The bigger the gauge, the better the image quality. Some epics such as Lawrence of Arabia were shot in 70mm.

14. Example of 70mm Film
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Directed by David Lean

15. Digital Cinematography
Digital cinematography doesn’t employ film stock.
The image is captured on an electronically charged sensor and recorded to tape or a hard drive.
Still filmmakers must make choices about color, exposure and tonal contrast that are comparable to those offered in film.

16. Part II: Film Production
Lesson 2: Part II

17. Four Phases of Production
Scriptwriting and funding
Preparation for filming
Shooting
Assembly

18. Scriptwriting and Funding
Two roles are central in this phase: Screenwriter and producer
Tasks of the producer are financial and organizational
The chief task of the screenwriter is to prepare the screenplay or script.

19. The Tasks of the Producer
Nurses the project through the scriptwriting process
Obtains financial support
Arranges to hire the personnel who will work on the film
During shooting, he or she acts as the liaison between the writer or director and the company that is financing the film
Arranges distribution, promotion and marketing
Monitors the payback of money invested in the production

20. Modes of Production Large Scale Production
Studio Filmmaking
Warner Brothers, Paramount, Disney
Exploitation and Independent Production
Small Companies
Miramax, Focus Films
Small Scale Production
Personal Filmmaking

21. Independent vs. Studio
An independent producer unearths film projects and tries to convince production companies or distributors to finance the film.
A producer may work for a distribution company and generate ideas for films.
A studio may hire a producer to put together a particular package.
Recent independent films include Winter’s Bone, Get Low, The Kids are Alright and Precious.

22. Kinds of Producers Executive Producer Line Producer Associate Producer
Arranges financing/obtains literary property
Line Producer
Oversees day to day filmmaking
Associate Producer
Acts as a liaison with labs and technical personnel

23. The Screenwriter Writes the script, which goes through several stages:
The Treatment
A synopsis of the work
Drafts of the script
Revisions
The Shooting Script
The Final Version

24. Preparation for Filming
Director Christopher Nolan rehearsing Memento (2000) with Guy Pierce

25. Preproduction
Producer and director set up a production office, hire a crew and cast the roles.
They prepare a daily schedule based on continuity, which is the most convenient order of production.
Writers make screenplay revisions.
Art department draws Storyboards
Production designer creates the film’s settings.
Set decorator/set dresser
Costume designer
Previsualization with computer graphics

26. Storyboards for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

27. Clint Eastwood directing
Shooting the Film
Clint Eastwood directing
Blood Work (2002)

28. Shooting

29. Director’s Crew Script Supervisor First Assistant Director
Continuity
First Assistant Director
Plans shooting schedule, sets up shots
Second Assistant Director
Liaison among the first AD, the camera crew and the electrician’s crew
Third Assistant Director
Messenger for director and staff
Dialogue Coach
Feeds performers their lines
Second Unit Director
Films stunts, location footage, action scenes

30. Other aspects of shooting
Cast/Actors
Director shapes performances
Visual Effects Unit
Stunts
Animal Wranglers
Camera Operator
Key Grip
Supervises grips who carry and arrange equipment and props
Gaffer
Head Electrician
Boom Operator
Microphones

31. Thelma Schoonmaker, who has edited many of Martin Scorsese’s movies
Assembling the Film
Thelma Schoonmaker, who has edited many of Martin Scorsese’s movies

32. Postproduction Editor
Works with the director to make creative decisions about how the film footage can best be cut together to tell a story.
The editor’s job can be a huge one.

33. Post Production terms Rough Cut Final Cut Outtakes
The shots loosely strung in sequence, without sounds effects or music.
Final Cut
The finished film, still without sound
Outtakes
Unused shots

34. Sound The sound designer builds the soundtrack, which is made up of
Dialogue
Sound effects
Music

35. Distribution and Exhibition
Lesson 2: Part III

36. Risk and Reward
Companies that distribute films form the core of economic power in the movie industry.
They can afford the large economic risk of funding, marketing and distributing movies to viewers around the world.
Studios rely on tent pole pictures which “support” the smaller movies that don’t succeed throughout the year.
When successful, the profits are enormous.

37. Hollywood Studios Six companies are the world’s largest distributors:
Warner Brothers
Paramount
Walt Disney
Sony/Columbia
Twentieth Century Fox
Universal

38. Ancillary Markets DVDs Cable, Broadcast Television
Movies to Airlines and Hotels
Online/Video on Demand
Clothes
Toys

39. Profits
Ancillary markets are where films make most of their money, sometimes recouping the losses from a film that did poorly in theatrical release.
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) did moderate box office in the theater, but really found its audience on video, paving the way for theatrical sequels, which now had a built-in audience.

40. Exhibition

41. Kinds of Exhibition Theatrical Non-theatrical Commercial movie houses
City art centers
Museums
Film Festivals
Non-theatrical
Home video
Cable
Online
Media devices

42. Television Television keeps the theatrical market going
In 2004 distributors earned about ten billion dollars worldwide from theatrical distribution and about 23 billion from home video.

43. Production of Jaws
Lesson 2: Part IV

44. A Watershed Moment
Jaws was a watershed moment in the history of film. Along with Star Wars, it is credited with ushering in the era of the blockbuster (which we are still in). It changed the way that films are distributed and exhibited.

45. The Production of Jaws Based on a bestseller by Peter Benchley
Rights acquired by producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown
Spielberg tapped as director
His second feature film after The Sugarland Express and the TV film Duel

46. Why Jaws?
Jaws is a famous production that highlights both the problems that arise during the creative process of filmmaking as well as the innovation necessary to overcome those problems.
Watch the first clip from The Making of Jaws documentary.

47. Problems The film was pushed into production early
It was a technical nightmare
The shark almost never worked
Slow production with a lot of pressure from the studios
Watch the clip

48. Solutions
Although a great deal of planning goes into movie production, much of it is also improvised on the set because it is impossible to completely plan for unforseen issues such as weather, technological failures, etc.
Often, filmmakers figure out things as they go along.
Watch the two clips. 48

49. The Outcome Jaws became the highest grossing film ever at that time.
Proved the success of “repeater” business.
One of the first films to open “wide” on many screens at once as opposed to being slowly “rolled out.”
Watch the clip.

50. Next Lecture: Narrative and Rashômon
End of Lecture 2
Next Lecture: Narrative and Rashômon