Monday 24 April 2017

Film industry 1 - Whiplash (industry)

Exam question
What are some of the key factors which influence the kinds of texts that get made today?

Starter: 
Write terms and phrases that you associate with the concept of ‘Independent Film’.



Whiplash is a 2014 American drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle, depicting the relationship between an ambitious jazz student (Miles Teller) and an aggressive instructor (J. K. Simmons). Paul Reiser co-stars as the student's father. The film opened in limited release domestically in the US and Canada on October 10, 2014, gradually expanding to over 500 screens and finally closing after 24 weeks on March 26, 2015. Over this time the film grossed $49 million, against a production budget of $3.3 million.

Whiplash premiered in competition in the US Dramatic Category at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 16, 2014, as the festival's opening film. Sony Pictures Worldwide acquired the international distribution rights.At the 87th Academy Awards, Whiplash won Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Supporting Actor for Simmons, and was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture
Whiplash Cast
Miles Teller as Andrew Neiman, an ambitious young jazz student at Shaffer who plays the drums
J. K. Simmons as Terence Fletcher, a jazz instructor at Shaffer
Paul Reiser as Jim Neiman, Andrew's father, a high school teacher
Melissa Benoist as Nicole, a movie theater concessionist, who becomes Andrew's girlfriend
.
Directed by Damien Chazelle 
Premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2014
Developed from a short film (more on this in future lessons)
Limited release in US and Canada in October 2014
Expanded to over 500 screens by March 2015
Budget was $3 million, took over $48 million internationally ($13 mill in US, $35 mill internationally).
Chazelle likes genre movies - says it uses the conventions of the sports genre - lots of lows building to a high
Regulation issues - Chazelle encouraged to tone down some of Fletcher's insults

Production companies

Bold Films
is an American independent film production and finance company dedicated to providing an artistic haven for filmmakers

Blumhouse's 
model is to produce movies independently and release them wide through the studio system (started with low-budget horrors such as Paranormal activity)

Right of Way

owned by Jason Reitman, who directed Juno
At the 87th Academy Awards, Whiplash won Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Supporting Actor for JK Simmons; nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture.
Set in NYC, but mostly filmed in LA over 19 days

Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics - the art-house, "independent" film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment

 This is a definition of Independent Film taken from Wikipedia:
An independent film is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced and/or distributed by subsidiaries of major film studios. Independent films are sometimes distinguishable by their content and style and the way in which the film-makers’ personal artistic vision is realised. Usually, but not always, independent films are made with considerably lower film budgets than major studio films. Generally, the marketing of independent films is characterised by limited release, but can also have major marketing campaigns and a wide release. Independent films are often screened at local, national or international film festivals before distribution (theatrical and/or retail release). An independent film production can rival a mainstream film production if it has the necessary funding and distribution.

Task 1: 
Read this article from the LA Times about the making of Whiplash and answer the question that follows.

Source – LA Times
– John Horn January 15, 2014, Doing whatever it takes for a spot at Sundance Film Festival

Directors trying to get their films to the Sundance Film Festival seize on any break they can get to show their films there. “Whiplash” went from a short to a feature in a year to try to make the cut.

There’s a tradition of Sundance Film Festival directors turning their short films into fulllength features but few have successfully attempted what Damien Chazelle was trying to do last year. After winning the short film jury award the writer-director was determined to convert his 18-minute film into a full feature for this year’s festival.
Chazelle’s timetable was its own whiplash: to meet deadlines, Chazelle had to shoot and edit the full film in nine weeks — roughly one-third the time needed to put together an average movie. With no time to spare, Chazelle at one point staggered back to his Los Angeles set to keep shooting hours after suffering a concussion in a traffic accident.

The role of Sundance in helping independent films make it… Sundance is the nation’s top festival for movies made outside the studio system. It has helped launch the careers of numerous directors, including Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino. Distribution deals can top $10 million, and Academy Award winners like “Little Miss Sunshine” can begin here. It’s no surprise then that filmmakers will go to extremes to join the fold. 
Inside downtown Los Angeles’ Palace Theater, the production was shooting late on a Saturday night, and the crew didn’t go home until 4 a.m. Sunday. After filming wrapped and Chazelle raced to cut the movie, editors grabbed naps on couches, sound mixers lunched in hallways, coffee machines churned out endless lattes and almost everybody got sick. “Those were killer days,” Chazelle said. “No one was sleeping.” 

And then, a week before Thanksgiving, Chazelle’s phone rang, with Sundance programming director Trevor Groth on the line. Even though Chazelle’s quickly assembled version of “Whiplash” was missing its score and submitted late, it had been accepted into Sundance, where it will kick off the festival on Thursday. 

Sundance as a market for distributors 
Among the audience will be scores of distributors, who will hopefully launch a bidding war for the $3.3 million “Whiplash.” Compared with the sometimes raw quality of many films at Sundance, “Whiplash” stands out as accomplished. The making of “Whiplash” dramatizes the larger world of independent film itself; a tale of why seizing momentum is nearly as important as having a great story to tell, and how the tiniest breaks — in this case, a new investor writing a small check on a hunch — can translate into a huge opportunity. 

“This entire movie has been built by amazing people who have given up everything else in their lives to get it made,” said Helen Estabrook, one of “Whiplash’s” producers. 

If Chazelle’s original plan had worked, “Whiplash” would have been in theatres by now. The filmmaker played drums for a heartless New Jersey school band teacher, and was inspired by the experience to write a script about an even more autocratic jazz conductor at a conservatory. “My predominant memory of the band was terror,” Chazelle said of his teacher. “So it gave rise to this boogeyman character.”

Short film to feature film Estabrook and executive producer Couper Samuelson tried to raise money for the production in early 2012, but a tale about a jazz drumming student from a filmmaker with only one film — an acclaimed, black-and-white musical called “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench,” which Chazelle started as a Harvard undergraduate — didn’t attract a single backer. Unwilling to abandon the project, the producers instead decided to take one scene from the screenplay and turn it into a short, a demonstration not only that Chazelle could direct but also that the story “would play like a thriller,” Samuelson said. With banker Nicholas Britell, a pianist and fellow Harvard alumnus, willing to bankroll three days of filming for $23,000, Chazelle hired veteran actor J.K. Simmons as the despotic teacher Terence Fletcher, and cast Johnny Simmons as drummer Andrew Neyman. Samuelson paid for the short film’s drum kit himself, and Estabrook used her own money to soundproof a classroom at a local school as a rehearsal studio. It won the Short Film Award at Sundance 2013, and the feature version of “Whiplash” had new life.

With Chazelle’s short film now central to his sales pitch, the movie was sent out again for financing in early 2013, with the seemingly impossible goal of making this year’s Sundance. “We just wanted to keep our foot on the gas,” Estabrook said.

Distributor finance Independent financier Bold Films, which had backed the acclaimed crime drama “Drive,” made the most aggressive bid for “Whiplash” and offered $3.3 million. Chazelle recast the drummer part with Miles Teller (“The Spectacular Now”), and shot the film on digital cameras in 19 days in Los Angeles, and one day in New York. “Cost is no longer this massive obstacle,” Samuelson said of the benefits of digital production, which eliminates processing time and film costs. “As long as you have the will, you can get it done.” 

Chazelle wrapped filming on 11/10/13, and “Whiplash” was shown to Sundance’s programmers on 8/11/13. Thanks in part to the reputations of the film’s producers (independent film veteran Jason Blum, is also a “Whiplash” producer) Sundance programmers were willing to extend their deadlines. 

Having been accepted into Sundance meant that Chazelle again had to race to finish “Whiplash” completely, and once again the team worked late into early mornings, sacrificing weekends and holidays to polish the movie to a high gloss. But at least they knew at that point the effort had been worth it. “We just figured,” Samuelson said, “that we’ll sleep when we’re dead.”

Exam question
What are some of the key factors which influence the kinds of films that get made today?

To help you structure your answer use the ‘PEE’ as suggested below:

P What is the point you want to make? How does it link to the big point?
E Which example are you going to use to help prove your point?
E In what way will you explain how this example proves your point?


Begin with a clear introduction – and refer to the question!


write in paragraphs – and refer to the question!


end with a conclusion – and refer to the question!




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