Audiences and Institutions

Hollywood vs. UK Cinema

Hollywood Cinema
Starter:
Two adjectives to describe Hollywood film


Hollywood Cinema
In order to understand British Film, it is important
to compare it to Hollywood film.
Why?


Hollywood Cinema: Conventions
What do you associate with mainstream Hollywood film?
Create a spidergram in pairs


Eddie Izzard
British vs. Hollywood Films
Hollywood Cinema: Industry
Originated as a distinctive product of the Hollywood Studio
System from 1930 to 1959
The American film industry has dominated global film
production ever since
Similar model still widely used today



Hollywood Cinema: Industry
Emphasis on industry (money) over art
Major companies undertake production, distribution and
exhibition
Factory production-line approach
Has come to mean mainstream (non-controversial)


Horizontal Integration
Ownership of the same type of company / product
A butcher may become successful and decide to buy more shops
Vertical Integration
Ownership of different types of related companies /
products in order to maximize profit and control the market

A butcher may decide to buy the farm that rears the livestock
and the restaurants that uses the meat
Hollywood Cinema
In pairs, discuss and make bullet point notes on the
following:
Style (consider the 5 areas of film language)
Narrative
Character
Genre
Audience


Hollywood Cinema: Style
Artifice rather than realism (artificial reality or heightened
realism)
Studio sets rather than real locations
Artificial lighting (back lighting)
Use of music to emphasise tone, mood and atmosphere and
to heighten emotion


Hollywood Cinema: Style
Fairly short scenes and tendency for rapid editing (to keep
audience interested)
Use of slo-mo; dissolves etc
Lots of special effects
Emphasis on glamour
Emphasis on escapism
Emphasis on entertainment

Hollywood Cinema: Narrative
Prioritises story using straightforward narrative techniques
Easily understood by widest possible audience
Avoidance of any narrative complexity
Continuity editing to hide constructed nature of film
production



Hollywood Cinema: Narrative
Linear cause and effect narrative
One main narrative strand
Emphasis on action (moving narrative forward)
High degree of narrative closure usually a happy ending
If not happy, then at least satisfying


Hollywood Cinema: Character
Relatively small number of characters to maximise
audience involvement (identification and empathy
with main protagonists)
Characters have clearly-defined motivations for
their actions (realism?)
Emotional involvement with characters and their
predicaments
Characters have hero qualities (they are ego-ideals
rather than real people)
Heavily reliant on the star system


Hollywood Cinema: Genre
Recognisable generic features -audiences predict actions
and events
Fulfil audience expectations (generic unity)
Pleasure
Passive audience?


Hollywood Cinema: Audience
A number of formal features:
Feature length (85 + minutes in duration)
Designed to maximise its potential audience both home and
abroad
Mass-market, global appeal



Hollywood Cinema
Carry out your own research on:
Classical Narrative Cinema
Apply what you have learned to a recent American film of
your choice.

British Cinema
the American hegemony over
cinema in Britain has frequently
been blamed for preventing the
development of an authentically
indigenous cinema Tom Ryall
In Britain, most of the films tend to be seen as
independent

There are two ways in which one can consider the term
independent- films which are produced through no
affiliation with the Major and Mini-major studios,
or films which are produced with transgressive (or non-
mainstream) ideologies, themes and values.
In America, some independents include: Fast Food
Nation (Linklater) documentary investigation into the
corruption of Fast Food companies, Little Miss
Sunshine a black comedy about a dysfunctional
family, Milk (Van Sant) a drama about a gay rights
activist, Do the Right Thing (Lee) an realist
exploration into race issues in the Bronx.
These films were made outside of the Hollywood
industry and are transgressive of the dominant
ideology.
Do we have a film industry
We do not have a film industry in the same way that
Hollywood is structured.
Working Title is the only mainstream, large production
company, they are attached to Universal and thus have
guaranteed distribution/ exhibition and the other
benefits of the Conglomerate system.
Films include United 93, Notting Hill, 4 Weddings
and a Funeral, Billy Elliot. They make 3 types of films:
Major projects, mid-projects, risks. They tend to
produce films for commercial reasons and have a
relationship with the Coen Brothers, producing most of
their contemporary films.
TV & Film
Great correlation between the Film and TV industries:
BBC Films and Four Films regularly produced films in
the UK, though Four Films often finds itself falling in
and out of bankruptcy.
Both, often focus on independent films (in terms of
ideological messages) particularly Film Four.
Actors/ filmmakersDaaaring
British film stars often go over to Hollywood to really
define their career, stars like Robert Carlyle though
are dedicated to the British cause. Filmmakers: Shane
Meadows, Ken Loach, Jake West, Neil Marshall,
Neil Jordan, Danny Boyle, Gurinder Chanda, Lynne
Ramsey, Guy Ritchie, Kenneth Branagh, Nick
Broomfield, Antonia Bird, Richard Curtis, Stephen
Daldry, Noel Clark, Mike Figgis, Saul Dibbs, Paul
W.S. Anderson, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Alfred
Hitchcock, David Lean, Michael Winterbottom,
(Pavel Pawlikowski)
To get a film financed
sell the script to an established small production house,
find finance through the film council/ BFI (pitch your film
and will need to have an already well established
profile as a short-filmmaker, awards etc), loans/
private investments, co-productions with various
British companies, European, US- Canal + in France
for example, US Studios.
Need to secure a distributor before production, where
possible otherwise could find yourself hanging with now
distribution arm, many British films are left on the
shelf after production with nowhere to go.
These demands on British films often means they do
not get marketed as successful and distributed as
widely, often popular in Europe- Ken Loach is a
particularly favour amongst French cinephiles, co-
productions with US/ Europe and romanticised British
films are more likely to sell abroad.
American films have dominated global cinema for many
decades now. Such is the high number of Hollywood
productions being shown in cinemas across the UK
that this has perhaps proved a stumbling block for the
progression of British film.
But how can two industries that share the same
language and westernisations as each other be so
different?
British film has always had its ups and downs
Is British Cinema in Crisis?
Seems to be perpetually in crisis!
1927 Quota system brought in to compete with
USA films, resulted in quickly made, poor quality
films.
1930s: New talkies Americanised cinema
1970s: struggle against the American
blockbuster at box office
1980s: collapse of Goldcrest films; falling
audience due to video
1990s: demise of FilmFour
On the other hand
1940s and 50s Audiences would go three or
four times a week
1970s: After 2001 A Space Odyssey Britain
becomes the centre of the special effects
industry (Star Wars, Alien, Harry Potter)
1980s: Tax Breaks plus Channel Four
investment
2000+: Investment from the UK Film Council
(UKFC) lottery money.
BFI Funding
Unfortunately, the British film industry has never been
capable of generating worldwide commercial success
on its own.
This is partly down to the major power, success and
control of



The basic fact is that the British cinema market is too small
for the British film industry to successfully produce
Hollywood-style blockbusters over a sustained period


UK Film
Industry
Hollywoo
d
with great power comes great responsibility.
This is something that Armando Iannucci, director of British
political satire film In The Loop is not necessarily
comfortable with.
He is on record as saying The bigger the budget, the
more people have a say. This is one of the reasons why
he did not accept funding from the US for this film so as not
to jeapordise his creative input.
Stuart Hazledine is a British screenwriter working in the
Hollywood systemif a writer goes to a production company
with a spec script, and the producers like the idea but not
the screenplay, they will simply buy the spec script from
the writer and hire a proven screenwriter to develop a
script based on the original idea. This is in complete
contrast to the support given to British writers and directors.
Hollywood is either too interested in remakes and
adaptations or set on making money from the films
made by established individuals. Of course Hollywood
makes room for newcomers otherwise the industry
would not move forward, however in Britain there
seems to be more focus on bringing through talented
film makers.

The UK Film Council has a Development Fund
which supports writers who are working on a feature
film script that has great potential
The ultimate difference in the two is money the studio system.
This is where a company invests money into a film and recoups the
money it takes at the box office.
. The process of writing/making/producing a film in either place is basically
the same. How you make them are the same.
The difference is the creative freedom that comes with more money
available for production. -
What elements?
bigger names you can get attached to the film, not just the cast, but
directors, composers, cinematographers etc.
You have a better budget for things like special effects and post
production.
Filming in certain locations can be very expensive and big budget films
can spend more money to be able to shoot in expensive locations.
As well as higher production budgets than British films, Hollywood movies
have significantly more money to spend on marketing and distribution.
YOU CANT IGNORE!!! the key to the popularity of American goods
in overseas markets was their talent for boastful publicity.

And often with the difference in money can cause inherent
differences in feel, scope, and tone of the film. Hollywood
blockbusters can be massive, where Brit films are more intimate.
Hollywood films have general themes on a big scale, where as Brit
films are often very small, almost personal stories.
Also Hollywood films are often made intended for an international
audience, but Brit ones are made primarily for the UK and if they are
successful internationally for them (ie in the US or Europe) that's just
a plus, not always a goal.
A final difference is often that Hollywood films rely on action and
special effects, but Brit films rely on dialogue and story. Many
classic examples of successful Brit films are that way. (Four Weddings
and a Funeral, Full Monty, Kes, Waking Ned Devine, The Damned
United, Cemetery Junction etc etc)

http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2009/12/hollywood-vs-
britain.html

Write me a letter.
How do your expectations of British films produced by
Working Title differ from your expectations of British
films produced by Warp Films?

Why?