A production company is an entity that supervise the creation of a film. They help guide filming from its infancy as a concept to a final complete product. The organisation is also responsible for the financial and legal aspect of a film.
A production company does a number of things, for example the organisations helps with finding talented actors. They do this by hosting several auditions before a casting panel. The company is also responsible for budgeting which is an estimate of expenditure for a project, in this case the project would be the creation of a film. A film is generally an expensive task, due to the massive costs so within a budget certain elements of a film will be covered as they cover the majority of a production company expenditure. Here are a few examples.
Music: Production companies usually hire composers to source and also create music for the movie. Big production often hire A list musicians to create original songs for the film, for example Dream Works hired Christina Aguilera to a create the song 'car wash' for their move 'Shark Tale'.
Production costs: it is the cost of production a film. The costs cover production design, studio fees, catering, costumes, transportation and living costs and also crews wages.
Story rights: This is a fee incurred when a company wants to gain the right to produce a movie based on a theatre production, book, computer game, remake or sequel.
Cast: This covers the pay of actors, for example the actor Johnny Depp commanded a massive $53 million for his part in 'POFTC - On Stranger Tides'.
Director: This covers the cost of hiring a director. This job is very important as the director has to visualise the script and give instructions to the actors. For example, James Cameron was paid $248 million for his part in directing avatar, $171 million more than the lead actor Sam Worthington in the very same film.
The production company also helps with scheduling. A schedule is created as a timeline stating where and when production resources will be needed and used on a day by day basis. This allows the company to estimate the film completion.
Existing Film Production Company Research
DreamWorks Animation is one of the major players in the animation film industry. DreamWorks animation is an American based company that have created more than twenty feature films. They are well known for their successful Shrek and Madagascar projects. In addition DW animation also create television programs such as the show called 'The Pacific' which is aired on HBO. DW Animation current distributor is Twentieth Century Fox. A film distributor is a company responsible for the marketing aspect of a film. The distributor often set release dates of a film and are in control of the decisions on what format the film will be aired in to the general public, for example DVD, on demand or 3D screening, etc.
Warner Brothers would be the best company to distribute my groups film. Warner Bro's is the biggest film distributor and are based in California. They have been around for over a century and have created more than 900 movie and have sold over seven billion tickets that would be nearly one ticket for every living human being on earth today, so one could say they have the knowledge and power in order to market our film successfully.
In my group there will be four members, each member will hold down a specific role through out the project. The producer will supervise the making of the film and will aid the film crew when needed, he will also present the final product. The director role is to direct the film, this is the most creative role available as he will have to visualise the script. The camera person role is to operate the camera and other hi-tech equipment, this role is important as he will have to capture the composition accurately. In addition, their will also me editor. The editor is part of the post-production team, his role involves converting the raw footage into a single motion picture.
All the jobs that will be undertaken by the members within my group will appear on the closing title sequence, this is a way of acknowledging the main contributors of the project. As each role varies in difficulty, they will appear in order of importance within the title sequence the editor, director, producer followed by the cameraman.
The BBFC is an organisation that set certain guidelines in order to protect children and adults from being exposed to unsuitable or in some cases harmful content in films, videos and also computer games.
BBFC guidelines will influence my groups production. We will be creating content suitable for adults [18] as there will be guns and death involved which would not be suitable for a much younger audience. We will also have adhere to certain guidelines even when it comes to creating content for adults. We can not display content that breaches the criminal law, poses as a risk to society and also show highly detailed scenes of sexual activity which would only be suitable for the R18 group.
