BAFTAS 2013 - Research

What is BAFTA? BAFTA is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in cinema, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.

What are the awards? EE British Academy Film Awards, British Academy Games Awards, British Academy Television Craft Awards, British Academy Children's Awards, Arqiva British Academy Television Awards, British Academy Cymru Awards, British Academy Scotland Awards, BAFTA in Scotland New Talent Awards, The Britannia Awards

Who won what? Adapted Screenplay - Silver Linings Playbook (David O.Russell)
Make up and hair - Les Miserables (Lisa Westcott)
Animated film - Brave (Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman)
Original film music - Skyfall (Thomas Newman)
Cinematography - Life of Pi (Claudio Miranda)
Original screenplay - Django Unchained (Quetin Tarantino)
Costume design - Anna Karenina (Jacqueline Durran)
Outstanding British contribution to cinema - Tessa Ross
Director - Ben Affleck (Argo)
Outstanding British Film - Skyfall (Sam Mendes, Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan
Documentary - Searching for Sugar Man (Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn)
Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer - Bart Layton, Dimitri Doganis (The Imposter)
EE rising star - Juno Temple
Production design - Les Miserables (Eve Stewart, Anna Lynch-Robinson)
Editing - Argo (William Goldenberg)
Short animation - The Making of Longbird (Will Anderson, Ainslie Henderson)
Fellowship - Sir Alan Parker
Film - Argo (Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney)
Short film - Swimmer (Lynne Ramsay, Peter Carlton, Diarmid Scrimshaw)
Film not in the English language - Amour (Michael Heneke, Margaret Menegoz)

How many 'British' winners were there?

British winners included Daniel Day-Lewis (for Best Actor in 'Lincoln') and Jacqueline Durran (for Best Costume Design in 'Anna Karenina'). Skyfall won Best British Film and Best Film Music, Swimmer won Best Short Film, Searching for Sugar Man won Best Documentary, Les Miserables won Best Sound, Best Costume Design. A lot of the BAFTA winners were from America or other nationality but there were still a lot of British winners.

Tessa Ross (one of BAFTA winners)
Tessa Sarah Ross (born 1961), is a BAFTA award winning UK film executive who is the Controlller of Film and Drama at Channel 4. She is also a director of the Royal National Theatre and a governor of the National Film and Television School.
She has been the executive producer of several notable British films including; Billy Elliot (2000), The Last King of Scotland (2006), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Four Lions (2010) and The Iron Lady (2011). In the 2010 New Year Honours she was awarded the CBE for services to broadcasting. At the 66th British Academy Film Awards on 10 February 2013 she received the award for 'Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema' that is presented annually in honour of Michael Balcon. The award was presented to her by the director Danny Boyle.
In February 2013 she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.

Essay question

Who holds the most power in terms of influencing what films get made and seen?
There are varied stages in the film production cycle. Production, distribution, exhibition and marketing all have different influences on what films are made to be like with the help of audiences, consumers, studios, production companies, writers, stars, directors and all importantly the producer. It is arguable that all of these hold power in the influence of what films are made and seen and in this essay I will explore the ways in which different people influence what films are made and seen.

One arguement, which I myself think is the strongest, is that the audience holds the most power of what films get made and seen. Arguably, the people who physically make the films (producers/writers/production companies/directors) are majorly influenced in what they make by the audience. If the producers for example see that a film such as Harry Potter is doing well through box office stats, they may try to make their film similar to Harry Potter knowing that there is an interest in the fantasy series. At the end of the day, the audience will only go to see a film if they have some sort of interest in it, for example a film such as Twilight had many people interested due to the books which were written before the film was created, so when they film was created, it caused people to speculate in what the films were going to turn out to be like, which meant that they went to see them due to the interest they had in them.

On the other hand, it could also be argued that the studios also have a lot of the power as they choose where the films will be distributed. For example, if the studio decides to distribute a film to a cinema which isn't popular and easy to get to, it could put potential consumers and audience off seeing it which would decrease the amount of people going to see a film. Studios also have the power of what times a cinema shows a film so they could choose different times at different cinemas in order to get more people to see a film in whichever cinema they are closest to, for example Odeon might show a film at 15.30 but Vue might show it at 15.15 which gives the consumer more choice to go to a more convient cinema.

Another argument is that people who illegally watch films on websites such as Priate Bay also influence what films get made and seen. I think this is a strong arguement because if more and more films keep getting watched illegally, film production companies may not make enough profits meaning they might be unable to make films in the future. It could also mean that in the next film the production makes will have a smaller budget meaning the quality of films get worse and worse which might stop cinemas from showing them due to the quality worsening and people becoming disinterested in the films.

In conclusion, I think that all of these are important factors in what films get made and seen but I think that the audience has the biggest impact on what films get made and seen as they are the initially the beginning of the film production cycle as the majority of film making has to be based around what the audience/consumers want because if you make a film which has interest, it won't get seen which will mean all the money on the production will have been wasted.

Film distribution research

1. over one weekend, how many separate screenings are there? 79
2. how many films in total are being exhibited? 13
3. how many films are being screened serval times at the same cinema? 8
4. of these, how many are being screened at more than one cinema at the same time? 3
5. 
6.
7. what conclusions can you draw about film distribution in the UK? I have learned from this homework that cinemas usually tend to make sure that the cinema times of when a film is playing don't clash (and they rarely do), I didn't know this before but this is probably due to cinemas wanting as much customers as they can get at different types of the day without having much competition and different times are available at different cinemas to suit a person best. I've also learnt that the majority of films get shown more than once a day.

Notting Hill Case Study (1999)

Directed by     Roger Michell
Produced by     Duncan Kenworthy
Written by     Richard Curtis
Starring     Julia Roberts & Hugh Grant
Studio     Working Title Films
Distributed by     Universal Pictures
Release date(s) 21 May 1999
Running time     124 minutes
Country     United Kingdom
Language     English
Budget     $43 million
Box office     $363,889,700

English Cultural Representations
There is a typical British stereotype in Notting Hill. The typical British accent which most of the actors have, the scenery (London buses, red post boxes, black cabs) and also the typical stereotypical tea drinking.

'The Fear' essay

Discuss the ways in which the extract uses camera shots, editing, sound, mise-en-scene to construct the representation of social class.

Mise-en-scene is used to represent social class, as the props used in the scene show that the scene is set in a wealthy upper class place, and we can see this through the use of modern computers and decor (art, fancy chairs). You normally don't find pieces of art found around in places of which are lower class. The computer could be used to both show upper and lower class, as even though it is setting the scene to be upper class, it could also be used to hint at Ritchie's lower class identity as when he looses his temper with the receptionist, he looks like he is about to cause damage to the computer keyboard before his old friend walks in, implying that maybe he isn't aware of the prices of upper class items and doesn't treat them with as much respect as people who know the value of them would. The styling of the characters in the scene also portray differences in social, as the receptionist is made to look professional and classy, same with the doctor but Ritchie is made to look scruffy and as if he doesn't take much pride in his appearance  which could be relating to both what kind of personality he has, but the job he has and the social class he fits into.

Another way in which social class is represented in this clip is through the use of camera shots, angles and movements. One of the shot that is used a lot in this scene is a wide shot, which allows the viewer to see more of the setting and begin to make judgement of the area where the scene is taking place is. For this instance, in the wide shot the viewer sees a rather spotless room looks clean, with a lot of fancy furniture and technological equipment such as computers and electronic equipment which automatically shows the viewer that the setting is both extremely professional and trusted but also quite wealthy looking aswell. This is suggesting to the viewer that as the doctor owns this office, he is being portrayed as upper class, whilst Ritchie who has come to see him and already started causing mayhem is the lower class character.

There isn't much editing used in this clip, but there is some camera cutting to show more of the upper class 'posh' surroundings. This is used for the viewer to recognize the differences between social classes.

Sound is also a major element used to represent social classes in this clip, as non diegetic sound is used to show that the receptionist is higher class than Ritchie. We can see this through the tone and manner in which the receptionist speaks, compared to Ritchie who has a Scottish accent which is often seen as lower class, sometimes seen as 'uneducated' and 'rough', and he also speaks in an aggressive tone which shows he might be short tempered which is seen as a lower class trait.

In conclusion, I think that camera shots, editing, sound and mise-en-scene contribute into the representation of classes, but I think that mise-en-scene and sound contributed the most into creating upper class and lower class images for the characters in the scene.

Some Girls essay- Discuss the ways in which the extract uses camera shots, editing, sound, mise-en-scene to construct the representation of gender.

Discuss the ways in which the extract uses camera shots, editing, sound, mise-en-scene to construct the representation of gender.
In the scene from 'Some Girls', we see many different types of sterotypes of gender and this is done through the use of camera shots, editing, sound and mise-en-scene. Overall females are represented as mature and more able but males are seen as immature.
Males are firstly represented as childish, this is done using mise-en-scene when Viva walks into her house after school and asks her father whether he has prepared her any snacks and he seems to ignore her as he is playing a video game. This is suggesting that he is irresponsible as he is a grown adult who even has children, but is playing video games. This is also a role reversal as Viva seems to be the mature one who has been at school all day taking responsibility for her life whereas her dad seems to have been at home all day doing nothing but playing video games.
Camera shots also contribute to how gender is represented in this clip from 'Some Girls'. For example, when the girls are in PE, their PE teacher is a female but is portrayed as a very strong dominant type, which is the usual stereotype for a male. This is shown through camera angles as when the PE teacher punishes Viva for answering back, she asks her to do press ups, and then the camera only shows her face when she demonstrates. Press ups are usually stereotyped for males and as the camera shot is a close up, she looks more of a male than a female as you can't see her body just her face.
Gender is also represented when Viva finds out that her dad is having a baby with his new girlfriend, which is also her PE teacher. She seems to be mortified when she finds out but is acting very grown up about it, this is shown through the camera angle that is close to her face showing her facial expressions. There is also a what seems role reversal when she is telling her 'step mum' to get rid of the baby which is what you'd expect from a mother to a daughter but this is the other way around. When Viva's dad and his girlfriend start explaining themselves to Viva, the girlfriend says that the baby was planned but he seems to be unaware that it was. This goes back to the stereotypical male and female views where the female is meant to be portrayed as someone who is meant to look after children and produce them and the male isn't meant to be too bothered or aware, as we can see in this clip. Shortly after this, the girlfriend says she has a 'to do' list and Viva's dad laughs at her and tries to make a joke out of it, this shows another representation of gender as females are seen to be more organised than males stereotypically.

Discuss the ways in which the extract uses camera shots, editing, sound, mise-en-scene to construct the representation of relationships.

In this essay, I will be looking at how camera shots, editing, sound mise-en-scene is used to construct relationships. Through the use of these, the viewer has a bigger understanding to their relationship and throughout this essay I will be showing how it constructs the relationships.

Camera shots play a big part in the construction of relationship in the clip from Cutting It. We learn a lot about the relationship of the two characters in a very short clip. For example, when they are both in the taxi, a lot of the camera shots are close up which reveals a lot about the characters as they are making a lot of eye contact and a close to eachother, we can clearly see they are more than acquaintances and instantly see they are very fond of eachother due to their body language in the shot types which were used. In one of the camera shots, Gavin plays with his wedding ring whilst he is waiting for his new wife Allie to leave her doctors appointment. His facial expression is doubtful in this camera shot and it shows a lack of trust in the relationship between them. It also makes us question their past relationship and what would have happened before for them not to trust eachother. It also shows a sort of lack of commitment in their relationship as Gavin begins to doubt their marriage as his new wife Allie is at a very serious doctors appointment which looks like its following on from many other previous doctor appointments.

There hasn’t been a lot of editing used in this seen, but when Allie is sitting in the doctors room, the camera shot is at a birds eye view which foreshadows her death because when she gets hit by the vehicle and is laying on the floor, the camera shot is a bird eye view. When Allie is laying on the floor dying with Gavin besides her, the camera fades to black which is insinuating that Allie’s death is like Gavin’s world ending and almost as if he can’t see himself in the future, which represents their relationship as strong and as if they are soul mates.

Sound has been used to contrast the representation of relationships. For example, when Allie is sitting in the doctors room, non diegetic sound has been used not only for the viewers tension to build up from not knowing what’s going to happen but to show the lack of trust in Allie and Gavin’s relationship. Its also suggesting that the viewer knows as much as Allie’s own husband knows about her health which isn’t suggesting that they have a strong relationship if they can’t even trust eachother with how they will react knowing their health status. Sound also represents relationship in a strong bond way when Allie gets hit by the vehicle and Gavin sees her. When Gavin realises what has happened, the viewer only hears a loud heartbeat and then when he runs to see her the heartbeat stops and we hear the background noise (cars beeping). This suggests that the bond they have in their relationship is what seems unbreakable and invincible because Gavin can only see Allie when she gets hit and it almost sounds like his heart is at risk if Allie dies.

Mise-en-scene also represents relationships. When Allie and Gavin have their hands on eachother we can see their wedding rings, this shows that they must love and trust eachother to some extent if they have gotten married to eachother.