Researching The British Film

Industry By Ed Holdstock

Purpose/Synopsis

To see if the British audience can identify the difference between a British

and American film, using a series of different questions and film clips for

the audience to analyze and answer.

We would use qualitative questions such as ‘What makes a British film

British?’ And ‘Do you prefer British or American films?’ And quantitative

questions such as ‘How many films is British, percentage wise?’

Purpose – To compare and contrast British

films/film industries with American films/film

industries Audience – Main target audience, audience

variety, feedback.

Budget – Budget of films (high or low),

bigger or smaller production. Awards – Who

gets the most awards, Baftas, Oscars.

Audience figures (Market) – How many

people are watching/buying the films.

Attendance figures (Market) – Cinema

figures, success of cinemas.

Reviews/Market – Which films get the best

ratings/reviews?

Advertising strategies – Advertising

effectiveness.

Talent involved – Actors, directors,

producers, film crews.

Directors.

Revenue (Market) – Success rate of films,

gross profit.

Cinemas.

Actors – Cost of actors, actors involved.

Quality of films – Film ratings.

Productions.

Methodology – Possible methods of collecting this

data

BFI and other collective data sources

Internet

Books

Odeon

Film examples

Reviews

Questionnaires

Forums

Magazines

Newspapers

Audience polls

Market research

Primary research

Secondary research-Box Office Mojo

Surveys/Reviews

Questionnaires

Strategy

We will find out the answer to our research question by gathering an accumulative amount of data and research for both the American film industry and the British film industry.

Once we have gathered this data we shall lay it out side by side and compare and contrast the two industries.

We shall compare quantitative data figures, as well as sets of qualitative

data that we have gathered (primarily and secondarily).

We shall collate and outline such factors as the audiences, film backgrounds and the industry success rates etc. This shall give me a summary of how the different industries operate as well as their similarities and differences.

Primary and Secondary research

Primary

Questionnaires

Exit polls

Vox pops

Surveys

Film analysis

Secondary

BFI research

Researched statistics

Books and other sourced data

Box office mojo

Results

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Rotten Tomatoes

Metacritic

IMDb

Budget British/american Budget – British Films:

Gravity: $100 million

12 Years a Slave: $20 million

Trainspotting: $3 million

This Is England: $1.5 million

Snatch: $10 million

Slumdog Millionaire: $15 million

Budget – American Films:

Captain Phillips: $55 million

The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug: $225 million

Pulp Fiction: $8 million

Fight Club: $63 million

American History X: $20 million

Cloverfield: $25 million

Awards British/American Awards – British Films:

Gravity: Nominated for 10 Oscars. Another 100 wins & 59 nominations

12 Years a Slave: Nominated for 9 Oscars. Another 118 wins & 129 nominations

Trainspotting: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 19 wins & 15 nominations

This Is England: Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 12 wins & 13 nominations

Snatch: 4 Wins & 5 nominations

Slumdog Millionaire: Won 8 Oscars. Another 114 wins & 62 nominations

Awards – American Films:

Captain Phillips: Nominated for 6 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 62 nominations.

The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug: Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 19 nominations.

Pulp Fiction: Won 1 Oscar. Another 61 wins & 46 nominations.

Fight Club: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 5 wins & 13 nominations

American History X: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 9 nominations.

Cloverfield: 5 wins & 11 nominations

Talent actors british/american Talent - Actors – British Films:

Gravity: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris

12 Years a Slave: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael K. Williams, Michael Fassbender

Trainspotting: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller

This Is England: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley

Snatch: Jason Statham, Brad Pitt, Benicio Del Toro

Slumdog Millionaire: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Saurabh Shukla

Talent - Actors – American Films:

Captain Phillips: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman

The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage

Pulp Fiction: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson

Fight Club: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter

American History X: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo

Cloverfield: Mike Vogel, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan

Directors British/American Directors – British Films:

Gravity: Shane Meadows

12 Years a Slave: Steve McQueen

Trainspotting: Danny Boyle

This Is England: Shane Meadows

Snatch: Guy Ritchie

Slumdog Millionaire: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan

Directors – American Films:

Captain Phillips: Paul Greengrass

The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug: Peter Jackson

Pulp Fiction: Quentin Tarantino

Fight Club: David Fincher

American History X: Tony Kaye

Cloverfield: Matt Reeves

Gross Profit British/american Gross Profit – British Films:

Gravity: $269,429,937

12 Years a Slave: $128,108,604

Trainspotting: $16,491,080

This Is England: $8,176,544

Snatch: $83,557,872

Slumdog Millionaire: $377,910,544

Gross Profit – American Films:

Captain Phillips: $217,657,113

The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug: $893,793,502

Pulp Fiction: $213,928,762

Fight Club: $100,853,753

American History X: $23,875,127

Cloverfield: $170,764,026

Questionnaire

The questionnaire contained questions such as ‘Do you think

this film is American or British?’ and ‘What makes a British film

a British film?’.

We visited the Odeon in Knights park. We gathered secondary

results by asking the public, that had just watched a film,

varied questions. The results we received did not surprise us.

1. What would you rate this film out of

10?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Results 3 4 3 2

2. Was this film worth the money you paid Yes No

Results 12 0

3. Do you think this film is British or American? British American

Results 3 9

4. What makes a British film? Actors Producers Location Directors

Results 2 2 7 0

5. Do prefer British or American actors? British American

Results 9 3

6. Do you think the film 'Slumdog Millionaire' is British or American? British American

Results 7 5

7. Do you think the film 'Mary Poppins' is British or American? British American

Results 7 5

8. Where did you find out about this

film?

Television Radio Internet Newspaper Word of mouth

Results 5 0 3 1 3

Results More than 50% of the public asked though Mary Poppins was a British film, when in

fact it is American.

40% of the public asked thought Slumdog Millionaire was American, when in fact it

is British.

Everybody asked enjoyed the films they watched. And they are willing to pay the

expensive prices of the films.

People that are British tend to prefer British actors. And people that are American

tend to prefer American actors. The public are proud when they see an actor with

the same nationality in a film.

More than 60% of the people asked thought that the actors and location decided

whether the film was British or American.

Out of 12 people asked, only 20% preferred American actors.

33%

33%

17%

17%

What makes a British film British?

Location Actors Directors Producers

British 67%

American 17%

Both 8%

(Other nationality) 8%

Do you prefer British or American actors?

British American Both (Other nationality)

As you can see by the results, the public do not know what makes a British film British or an American film American. Many of the people asked thought that the location and actors decided what nationality the film was.

The budget for American films is allot higher than most British films, but there is no major difference between the gross profit.

The ratings for British films are higher than American films, out of the films that we have chosen.

British films tend to be more about quality. Whereas American films are about the image and budget spent.

British actors tend to win a larger amount of awards.

Overall, American films invest a greater amount of money into their films. But the money spent does not generate a worthwhile gross profit, compared to British films that generate the same gross profit.