Unit 26 - American film industry vs British film industry

British films are generally a smaller scale in production then most American Movies with much smaller budgets. This can be seen with smaller scale stunts and effects as well as lesser known actors.




A co-production is where a larger company mainly American provides funding and is the company that distributes it, however that only happens if 10% of both cast and crew are American. The UK uses these to allow for greater tax returns which are used by the larger American companies to get interested in the production of any sequels.


the factors that influence production are finance/budget. most British film productions either get funding from either the BBC, the BFI film fund, Film 4 or as stated previously funding from the larger American companies.




The tax incentives for Shooting a film in the UK is that there is 25% Tax return from the British Government for shooting in the UK, this would interest the overseas production companies because it means they can make more money out of the film's production.




The technologies used in production that influence production have differing effects such as filming and presenting the film in either 3D or Imax increases cost because of the equipment. DVD's are cheaper to make and purchase then Blu Ray disks which is due to the fact of it having more behind the scenes features then ordinary DVD's


Films are exhibitioned usually at cinemas or at film festivals. the reason that most of cinema chain lines present the larger films is because the larger production/distribution companies have got shares of that company meaning they can exhibit their films easier then the smaller companies. Films are usually distributed by one of the film's main production companies. The marketing plan for the film like the Avengers (Assemble) they had several solo films to build up to it, trailers, posters video games and cartoon shows. In America film promotion is massive, posters everywhere in towns and cities on giant billboards at the side of the roads, race tracks and Comic Cons. In the UK however it is slightly smaller scale.


Vertical integration is where one Company handles all three stages of the film's life which are Production, Distribution and Exhibition. Horizontal Integration is where different companies handle production, distribution and exhibition.


The regulatory issues of film distribution and exhibition is that it means that only a certain audience can see the movie for example the film Deadpool was rated R in America by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America, but in the UK it was rated 15 by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification