Revision Tasks - Section A: Producers and Audiences

Section A is notoriously difficult to predict and tends to leave us guessing at what might appear on the paper. However, certain areas have appeared over the past few years which continue to be important to this section:

- The state of the British film industry
- Hollywood cinema today - high concept, franchise, the opening weekend
- Film stars and audiences
- Film and technology - emergence of 3D, Imax and digital
- Marketing
- Distribution
- Exhibition
- The Studio System
- Film and the internet
- Fandom

What is most critical for you is being able to keep up to date with developments in the American and British Film Industries (you should have been using your scrap books to do this for the last few months) as the examiners tend to report most positively about those candidates who are able to engage with current films and film issues.

It is imperative to move beyond the stimulus material you are given with the Section A questions and think about your wider film knowledge - this will be more likely to get you higher marks than making reference to the stimulus material alone.

 

 

For revision you will find it useful to research the following topics:

Film consumption: Social practice of participation. Cinema going vs home viewing. Pros and cons of each.

Movie trailers: Consider conventions and intentions of film trailers, look at a couple that you might be able to write about in exam.

Independent cinema: what does the term mean? Consider its market share, the positive impact independent film has on film market, how independent films and cinemas are funded.

Multiplex cinema: Where do they tend to be and why? Why are they popular? How are they trying to stay competitive?

Blockbusters: what does the term mean? What do we expect from storylines, characters, the ‘look’? Consider additional merchandise and how this affects profits.

Golden Age of Hollywood and its end with the Paramount Case 1948. Consider the ‘Big Five’ and ‘Little Three’ and Vertical Integration. Strengths and weaknesses of this type of production line organisation.

Hollywood today: Consider production, distribution, exhibition of Hollywood films today. How stars are used etc

Film reviews: Consider the job of a film review, how do they differ depending on their market, what differences would you expect to see in, for example, a Sight and Sound review as opposed to a review from The Mirror newspape?

The Star System: Consider the film industry’s use of stars during cinema's Golden Age of Hollywood and how it is different today, the role of a star in terms of profits/ selling a film. What makes someone a star? Choose one film star and some details about them ready to write about, both a modern day star and someone from Golden Age of Hollywood e.g. Errol Flynn, Julie Garland.

Rise and fall of British cinema: Consider the role of TV in the success of British film in the 80s and 90s. Role of Film Four in promoting British Film. Consider funding of British films and their increasing popularity.

 

 

Practice questions:

Spend at least twenty minutes writing carefully researched responses to these questions; they may provide a powerful foundation for the questions in Section A of the exam paper.

1) What do you consider to be the major differences between the classical studio era and Hollywood today?

2) Discuss how far genre is still important for Hollywood in deciding which film projects to put into production and distribution.

3) What is the importance for audiences of the images used in movie posters and DVD covers?

4) Is the best strategy for the film industry in the UK to concentrate on low budget films?

5) Are star images today constructed by the industry or by fans?

6) What is the significance of a large film company like Warner Bros being part of an even larger media empire?

7) How important are film reviews in determining whether or not people choose to see a film?