Year 13 Homework

Your timed exam questions are due back to me by the end of today. Over Easter and Spring Break, you can practice writing a timed response to the other questions from this week:

1. Media and collective identity - how does one affect the other?
2. "Media simply reflect collective identity; they don't create it." How far do you agree with this statement. Refer to one or more groups of people in your answer.

Year 12 - Easter/Spring Break Homework

Both case studies need to be fully completed by the first day back after Spring Break. Also, you need to have actually studied the full documents and know them inside out to the point where you can write about them in the exam. We will be reviewing them and focusing on how they are examined in the first lesson back.

If you need a paper copy of either case study, please see me as soon as possible.

Year 12 Warp Films Case Study - Submarine

Institutions and Audiences – Case Study 2

You are going to put together a detailed case study on Warp Films and Submarine.

There is some information already contained within these notes, but you need to work through it and highlight the key areas. Any information that is missing you must research yourself and add to this case study.

Your deadline for this is …….

RESEARCHING WARP FILMS

You need to have a good understanding of how the company works so make sure that your case study includes the following information..

O     How is Warp Films set up ? – is it part of a conglomerate? A multinational company? A subsidiary company?

O     What competition does it have in the marketplace? Who is their main target audience?

O     How has globalisation helped the company to expand and widen its target audience?

O     Can you find any examples of industry convergence?

O     Have there been any recent film trends in their production? How successful have they been? How successful are they in maximizing the potential of their film products through synergy?

O     What distribution methods do they use? Have they done anything innovative with digital distribution?

Warp Films is an independent film production company based in Sheffield & London, UK, with a further affiliated company Warp Films Australia based in Melbourne, Australia.

History

Warp Films was established by Warp Records founding partners Rob Mitchell and Steve Beckett. It was initially created with financial support from NESTA and had a remit to produce a number of short films.

After the death of Rob Mitchell in 2001, Beckett decided to continue with Warp Films and enlisted the expertise of Sheffield friend Mark Herbert (who had just produced the critically acclaimed first series of Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights for Channel 4) to run the company.

The first film, Chris Morris' My Wrongs#8245-8249 & 117, was shot in 2002. It won the award for Best Short Film at the 2003 BAFTA Film Awards and became the first short film DVD single in the UK market.

Through the star of My Wrongs, Paddy Considine, Herbert met director Shane Meadows and asked them to generate an idea for a film. Herbert raised the funding and the result was Warp Films debut feature, Dead Man's Shoes, directed by Shane Meadows in 2004.

Shot in 22 days on a tight budget, and produced from Warp Films’ Sheffield office (at that time a shed in Herbert’s garden), it earned a BAFTA nomination, was nominated for a record eight British Independent Film Awards, won the Hitchcock D’or at the Dinard Festival, and won the Southbank award for Best Film. It received strong critical acclaim and has been hailed as a landmark in British cinema. It was ranked #27 in Empire magazines list of the best British films ever

Film	Year	Director	Notes
My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 117	2002	Chris Morris	Short film
Dead Man's Shoes	2004	Shane Meadows
Rubber Johnny	2005	Chris Cunningham	Short film
Scummy Man	2006	Paul Fraser	Short film/Music video
This Is England	2006	Shane Meadows
Grow Your Own	2007	Richard Laxton
Dog Altogether	2007	Paddy Considine	Short film
Fur TV	2008	Chris Waitt
A Complete History of My Sexual Failures	2008	Chris Waitt
Arctic Monkeys At the Apollo	2008	Richard Ayoade
Donkey Punch	2008	Oliver Blackburn
The Mighty Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour	2009	Paul King
Curtains	2009	Julian Barratt	Short film
Hush	2009	Mark Tonderai
Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee	2009	Shane Meadows
Bunny and the Bull	2009	Paul King
All Tomorrow's Parties	2009	All Tomorrow's People & Jonathan Caouette
Exhibit A	2009	Dom Rotheroe
Four Lions	2010	Chris Morris
This Is England 86	2010	Shane Meadows & Tom Harper	TV
Submarine	2010	Richard Ayoade
Tyrannosaur	2011	Paddy Considine
Kill List	2011	Ben Wheatley
This is England '88	2011	Shane Meadows	TV
The Organ Grinders Monkey	2011	Jake & Dinos Chapman	Short film
Snowtown	2011	Justin Kurzel	Warp Films Australia
The Minor Character	2012	Richard Curson Smith	TV
The Snipist	2012	Matthew Holness	TV
Care	2012	Amanda Boyle	TV
Swimmer	2012	Lynne Ramsay	Short film
The Midnight Beast	2012	Ben Gregor	TV series
Berberian Sound Studio	2012	Peter Strickland
The Stone Roses: Made of Stone	2013	Shane Meadows	Documentary
Southcliffe	2013	Sean Durkin	TV

In 2005, Warp Films produced Rubber Johnny, an experimental short and 42-page book by director Chris Cunningham, featuring music by Warp Records artist Aphex Twin. To this day it continues to shock and amaze audiences.

Warp Films breakout success came with Shane Meadows’ This Is England, the story of Shaun, a boy who is adopted by a local skinhead gang after his father is killed in the Falklands war. Since its release in early 2007 it has gained many awards including the Best Film at the British Independent Films Awards, the Special Jury Prize at the Rome Film Festival and Best British Film at the BAFTAs.

At the same ceremony, Warp Films received its third BAFTA as Paddy Considine’s directorial debut Dog Altogether won the Best Short Film award.

Three months after This Is England was released in cinemas, Warp's third feature film, Grow Your Own, was released by Pathe. The film was Warp's first collaboration with BBC Films. The film was directed by Richard Laxton and written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Carl Hunter, developed from stories Carl had uncovered in his documentary work about the travails of immigrants. Produced by Barry Ryan for Warp Films, Luke Alkin for BBC Films and Carl Hunter for Art in Action.

In 2004, Warp Films made a significant expansion in its capacity. Robin Gutch joined Mark Herbert and Barry Ryan to devise the Warp bid for the Low Budget Film Scheme tender put out by Film4 and UK Film Council. The Warp bid was backed by Optimum Releasing, Screen Yorkshire and EM Media. Warp won the tender against stiff competition and Warp X was formally set up as Warp Xin 2005 as a low-budget digital ‘studio’ to develop and produce films with focus on new talent and commercial potential.

During the Richard Ayoade’s debut feature Submarine starring Noah Taylor, Sally Hawkins and Paddy Considine premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 and was released in the UK during March 2011 by Optimum Releasing. It was distributed in the US by The Weinstein Company.

The film was met with high critical acclaim, and featured original songs by Arctic Monkeys front man Alex Turner, in his first effort as a solo artist. Submarine has won many awards worldwide, including the Best Screenplay award at the 2011 British Independent Film Awards. Richard Ayoade was nominated for a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer at the 65th British Academy Film Awards

Warp Films / Warp X productions, Tyrannosaur, Kill List and Submarine were nominated for a total of 18 awards at the 2011 British Independent Film Awards.

Warp Films successfully ran a crowd-funding campaign to fund four short films shot at the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival by Vincent Moon, using the website Kickstarter.com. The project reached its funding goal on 15 October and the films are currently in post-production.

Company

Warp X was founded in 2005 and produces feature films^[2]It is a digital film studio that produces feature films in the UK with budgets usually between £400,000 and £800,000.^[2] The studio serves as a format for new film directors to create movies for the first time on a lower budget scale with less expectation for high box office revenues on their initial feature foray.^[3]

The film studio began with support from organizations including Warp Films, Film Four, the UK Film Council, EM Media and Screen Yorkshire.^[4] The intent of the film studio's creation was to add energy and vitality to the film industry in Britain.^[5]

Warp Films and sister company Warp X produce innovative and distinctive content which is both commercially and critically successful. Their features, shorts and music videos share a unique voice and an identifiable, loyal audience.

Alex Marshall, Chief Operating Officer at Warp, explains why they wanted to get involved in Take 12: “Everyone is talking about digital and what it means for the film industry and we wanted to develop our understanding of these issues. We were particularly keen to find out more about the potential for digital distribution and how it could change the way we do things at Warp.”

Exploring partnerships

The Warp team has been working with its innovation partner to explore distribution ideas outside of traditional theatrical and DVD ‘windows’. Part of this process involved conducting interviews with people working in different sectors, covering areas including games development, PR, blogging and direct mail strategy. These interviews gave them valuable insights into how digital distribution works, the different players involved in the process and the potential for partnership working.

“We learnt that there are no simple answers and that everyone is in the same boat, trying to understand the digital environment and what it means for their business”, comments Alex. “One thing that we were surprised by is how little monetisation there really is in digital at the moment.”

Developing test cases

Warp has developed a digital distribution and marketing plan for low-budget rockumentary Le Donk, which premieres at the Edinburgh International Festival in June 2009 prior to release in September. The plan includes audience targets for each digital media activity, to allow the team to explore the kind of audience that the film appeals to and the tools it can use to understand its audiences better.

Low budget studio Warp X – an initiative of The UK Film Council, Film4, Screen Yorkshire and Optimum Releasing – is also dipping a toe into the digital pool with All Tomorrow’s Parties, a music documentary produced by Luke Morris of Found Films. Warp and Found are creating an online portal through which audiences can access the film when it is released in September 2009.

Getting closer to the audience

“The main question for us is how we can use digital to find and get closer to our audiences”, says Alex. “Le Donk and All Tomorrow’s Parties are acting as live case studies, giving us a chance to test out ideas, measure effectiveness and assess the impact on sales targets. The insights and data we gather will enable us to develop an overall digital customer relationship management strategy.”

Kate Fewins is managing the distribution and marketing of both films for Warp. She says: “This is an exciting time for us. We’re really enjoying working with Huge in channelling our creativity into these alternative release strategies. We want to prove to others in the market that there are opportunities to monetise digital content. With the right strategy and the right partners, we’re confident that we can make this happen.”

RESEARCHINGSUBMARINE (2010)…..

You need to look into all aspects of the film production process including the following:

O     Initial idea and pitch – where did the idea for the film come from? Source material?

O     Target audience – who was the film aimed at primarily? Why do you think this target group was chosen?

O     Investment in the idea – contributors? Who ‘bankrolled’ the idea?

O     Budget-do you know how much was spent on distribution and marketing?

O     Cast and crew – any notable ‘stars’? Production background and credits?

O     Production – how was the film shot? Any special FX used? What technology was employed during the production of the film?

O     Post-Production – was CGI used in the post-production process?

O     Distribution – who distributed the film? When was this decision made – at the pitch stage or did the producers need to find a distributor once the film had been completed? How did this come about?

O     Marketing – how was the film marketed? Evaluate the marketing campaign. Did the distributors choose to go down the viral marketing route? How far did the distributors use new technologies to market the film? Where there any cross media marketing tactics used? How did they use new media technologies to target their audience more effectively?

O     Synergy / Merchandise / Tie Ins / Spin Offs – did the distributors utilise any of these options? How successful were they?

O     Release of the film – How was the film released? Was this a successful strategy?

O     Box office success – how successful was the film on its opening weekend? How successful was the film in the UK? How successful was it globally?

SUBMARINE (2010)

Submarine is a 2010 coming-of-age comedy-drama film adapted from the 2008 novel of the same name by Joe Dunthorne. The film was written and directed by Richard Ayoade, and starred Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Noah Taylor, Paddy Considine, and Sally Hawkins. Submarine is Ayoade's directorial debut.

Cast

•    Craig Roberts as Oliver Tate

•    Yasmin Paige as Jordana Bevan

•    Noah Taylor as Lloyd Tate

•    Paddy Considine as Graham Purvis

•    Sally Hawkins as Jill Tate

Production

The film was produced by Warp Films and Film4 Productions. Principal photography began on 26 October 2009 and filming finished in December 2009. Andrew Hewitt composed the score and musician Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys contributed five songs.

Casting

Around 100 actors submitted video auditions for the roles of Oliver, Jordana, and Chips. Michael Sheen and X Factor contestant Lucie Jones were originally cast in the film but dropped out due to other commitments.

Release

The film premiered at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010.Following a generally positive reception it was picked up by The Weinstein Company for a North American release.The film also played at the 54th London Film Festival in October 2010 and was played out of competition at the 27th Sundance Film Festival in January 2011. It was also screened along with 400 other films at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival the next month.

Reception

Critical response

Submarine received very positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 87% based on reviews from 142 critics, with the consensus: "Funny, stylish, and ringing with adolescent truth, Submarine marks Richard Ayoade as a talent to watch." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 76 based on 37 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3/4 stars saying "Submarine isn't an insipid teen sex comedy. It flaunts some stylistic devices, such as titles and sections and self-aware narration, but it doesn't try too hard to be desperately clever. It's a self-confident work for the first-time director, Richard Ayoade, whose purpose I think is to capture that delicate moment in some adolescent lives when idealism and trust lead to tentative experiments. Because Craig Roberts and Yasmin Paige are enormously likable in their roles, they win our sympathy and make us realize that too many movies about younger teenagers are filtered through the sensibility of more weathered minds."

Box office[edit]

The film grossed $467,602 in the USA, plus $397,057 outside the USA, for a combined gross of $864,659.

Music

Main article: Submarine (soundtrack)

Original songs were written and performed by Alex Turner, the Arctic Monkeys frontman. The soundtrack charted at 35 in the UK Album Chart.

The original score was composed by Andrew Hewitt, long-time collaborator of Ayoade, recorded at Air Studios with The Composers Ensemble orchestra.

MOVIE MARKETING MADNESS: SUBMARINE

MAY 31, 2011 CHRIS THILK

We’re all just a collection of our various learned and inherited quirks, aren’t we? We react this way or that to whatever situation we find ourselves in based on how we’ve been taught through one means or another to react. Sometimes that’s in what are deemed socially acceptable ways and other times it’s not so much that. 

Nowhere do those quirks come to the forefront, particularly for guys, as when we’re dealing members of the opposite sex. The pressures put on us when a girl is in the room are extraordinary and so we wind up dropping silverware, tripping over our own two feet and otherwise making an ass out of ourselves. The good news is that this only lasts from age 10 to I’ll Let You Know When Even.

The quirks of one particular romance are explored in the new British film Submarine. Teenager Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) is trying to explore the ways of love with his classmate Jordana (Yasmine Page) but he is so genuinely odd that it’s a bit difficult. Part of his odd nature comes from what he perceives to be the demise of his parent’s (Craig Roberts, Sally Hawkins) marriage. So with a mix of insecurities, misinformation, ego and charisma Oliver sets out to woo Jordana in the best way he can.

The Posters The movie’s poster shows Graham half underwater, a wide eyed, bewildered look on his face. There’s not much to it but it’s clear that we’re watching his story of discovery in the movie. A slightly revised version was released later on that added critic quotes but other than that it’s essentially the same image.

The Trailers The first trailer, which debuted just after it showed up at Sundance, introduces us to Oliver as a very strange young man who likes to pretend he’s being filmed as he goes about his life. We see lots of his flirtation with Jordana but there’s also lots about his parents and what their story is going to be, both on their own and in their interactions with him. The trailer has all sorts of fast, unique cuts that build to a crescendo with the French music that plays in the background and it comes off as really interesting and funny.

In the second trailer, which is much more straightforward, we meet Oliver as he’s searching for some idea of who he is or who he’s supposed to be. He’s tried a number of quirks and such on for size but none have stuck. Then he meets Jordana and the two begin an offbeat and unusual romance, including his clumsy and preposterous attempts to seduce her, something that seems to be largely what he thinks he’s expected to do. It’s clear in the trailer that there’s the prerequisite period where everything goes somewhat south for the couple but hope is presented at the end that they work things out because their own version of love is just too strong and unique to not exist. It’s funny and amusing and works quite well.

Online There’s not much on the official site. The trailer is there and you can click links to some reviews of the movie on outside sites, visit the studio’s Facebook page and read about the source book but that’s about it.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions Nothing that I’ve seen.

Media and Publicity The movie premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, where it picked up some good word of mouth for director Ayoade and for Roberts’ performance in the lead role. That was followed by reports that after the Weinstein Co.’s purchase of the movie it was undergoing some serious recutting at the hands of Harvey Weinstein himself, who was apparently concerned the movie didn’t play as well for general audiences as it did for the festival crowd.

Overall There’s not much to this campaign so the overall effectiveness is going to be judged by the two components of its Sundance appearance and the trailer that was released. By those measures it’s a pretty good effort, getting people talking at the film festival and then working that general awareness into something more with the trailer. It certainly seems to have a unique rhythm, which as a movie is its greatest asset in terms of finding an appreciative audience. I wish there had been a bit more marketing work done but instead this seems like one of those movies that’s picked up after festival buzz and then unloaded into theaters on a wing and a prayer.