The British film industry: institutional context

3) What is the 'cultural test' to see if a film counts as British?

A culture test is used to check if the film is British, if it doesn't quality as a co-production. In the test, the are four different sections which are : Cultural Context, Contribution, Hubs and Practitioners. In order to pass this, the movie must get a score of 16 out of 31 points.

4) Complete the task on the Factsheet, researching the films listed and finding out what they score on the cultural test: Sweeney, Attack The Block, The King's Speech, We Need To Talk About Kevin and Skyfall.

• Sweeney - this movie itself scored 16 just on the context part of the test which automatically meant that this was a British movie.
• Attack the Block - This is a British movie as it is using British characters and is based in Britain. Also the storyline is based on 'Broken Britain'.
• Skyfall - This is linked to British intelligence and just like all the other movies above, it also uses a variety of British characters even though sometimes it is based in another country other than the UK.
• The King's Speech - This is portraying the royal family which instantly is known to be a British movie.

5) What is the main problem for the British film industry?

The British film industry has been production led rather than distribution led. This means that many UK films are made but, in order to get the film exhibited, the filmmakers have to sacrifice the distribution rights by selling the film to a distribution company

6) What are three of the strengths of the British film industry?

• Several important British Film studios, e.g. Pinewood studios
• Third biggest film industry in the world
• British films also take 5% of world box-office takings.

7) What are the two options for the future of the British film industry?

• Relying upon co productions with American companies as they don't have the finances
• To make low budget films targeted at a niche audience where the film-maker is able to retain all profits.

MEST1 Section B: The British film industry

What makes a film British?

To find out whether a film is British or not is by looking at the criteria down below. This is only the main things that the audience and people within a movie look out:

• Whether the actors are British or not.
• If the location of the movie is in Britain
• Is it related to a normal British lifestyle
• Does it contain stereotypical British items, e.g. a London Bus

Also, to find if the movie is actually British, the movie is firstly gone through a British culture test that the government have organised themselves.

Hollywood and British Production Context

Hollywood

• High Budgeted movies
• Heavy reliance on popular celebrities for casting 
• Spectacle driven stories

British

• British Culture
• Can be occasionally high  budgeted movies but also have the odd low budget movies. A high budget movie would be the Harry Potter sequel and a low budget movie would be 'Kill List'.
• Character Driven

James Bond

The James Bond franchise started in the early 1960s which was roughly the time when all the popular American movies were beginning to be released.

1970 and 1980

• In the 1970s there was an increase in showing sexual content (act of sex and sex linked to violence)
• Also, in the 1980s the was an big rise in videos and the 'video nasty's scare' which meant that the content of the movies would become more extreme.

Groups represented in British films

One of the main groups that have been represented in British films is the middle class people. There is more women than the men because of the less superiority of women between themselves and men.
Another one would be the typical 'trouble-maker' which is mostly portrayed in a younger character who would always be getting into trouble.

Audience Appeal

One of the audience appeal for British film would be the competition with Hollywood movies and also the character, e.g. the royal, posh, luxurious life. The fact that most of the shooting may be taken in London (one of the most popular cities in the world), people would think that it is a more well known film and watch it because of the location.

January assessment: learner response

Question 2 (Mise-en-scene)

The mise-en-scene contributed to the impact of this film through the use of glitter. The usage of glitter suggests that it is a way of having a shattered glass of the car. This goes really well with the lighting because it shows the different colours of the glitter, e.g. yellow or even red which links to the effect of having an accident. Also, the glitter could also represent that this is happening in the dark due to it sparkling (glitter) and suggests to the audience that you should always be careful, especially in the dark. To conclude, audience must be more aware by this as not wearing the seatbelt, especially in the dark, can have an impact on your life. The seatbelt can decide whether you'll be at home or even in the hospital.

Another way in which the mise-en-scene is contributed to the impact of the film is through the use of the characters expressions and the way they had taken their actions. At one point of the extract, the main character that was driving had a smile on a face and then all of a sudden, his face expression had changed instantly. He had a depressing face. This suggested that it was leading to him having a car crash and didn't think he would've survived. After that, his family immediately took action and used their arms as a seatbelt which will protect the main character from any severe injuries. Once they did that, it saved the character from the momentum and then everyone was happy. The impact from this is that family is always there to help you, no matter what. This is telling the audience that you need to be extra careful because you may not always be lucky where there is someone that will protect you because on day, you may be by yourself.