Institutions

Over the weekend i researched Institutions which develop Teen Comedy films like the one my group are looking to create. I did this by looking up which institutions created films such as St Trinians, Wild Child and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. I also looked up a couple of major institutions such as 20th Century Fox.

All Information in my notes was researched on wikipedia.

20th Century Fox
Formed in 1915 by William Fox .
Became known as 20th Century Fox after a merger of two companies, Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures, founded in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph Schenck, Raymond Griffith and William Goetz.
The company's first film studios were set up in Fort Lee, New Jersey
New sound technologies came about and Fox moved to get the rights to a sound-on-film process.
In 1926 Fox bought a plot just outside Beverly Hills and built "Movietone City", the best-equipped studio at the time.
When Fox’s biggest rival Marcus Loew died in 1927, Fox offered to buy the Loew family's holdings. Loew's Inc. controlled more than 200 theaters and the MGM studio at the time.
MGM studio-boss Louis B. Mayer didn't want the merger to go ahead and used his political connections : the Justice Department's anti-trust unit to stop the merger from going ahead.
Fox was injured badly in a car crash in 1929 and just as he recovered was hit by the stock market crash which stole most of his fortune.
Fox lost 20th Century Fox and ended up in jail, Fox film ended up in receivership.
The new owners began negotiating the launch of Twentieth Century Pictures in 1935.

Twentieth Century Pictures

An independent Hollywood motion picture production company.
Created in 1932 by Joseph Schenck
Financial backing came from Schenck's older brother Nicholas Schenck and the father-in-law of Goetz, Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM Studios.
Films were distributed by United Artists

Teen Comedies

John Tucker Must Die
Satisfaction

Working Title
A British film production company, London, England.
Founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1984.
It produces both feature films and television productions.
Eric Fellner and Bevan are the co-owners of the company today.
Mainstream success came after the unexpected global success of Four Weddings and a Funeral, this film also launched one of their biggest stars, Hugh Grant.
Working Title tended to produce a lot of Romantic Comedies but have recently ventured into other genres of film.
In 1992 Working Title Films merged with PolyGram.
In 2004 Working Title grossed £17.8 million
Since 2007 all of Working Title’s films are distributed by the American Universal Studios.
Universal Studios own 67% of the company, the rest of the shares are owned by both the company’s founders and private investors.
Many of Working Title’s recent films have been co-productions with StudioCanal.
Working Title also own a low-budget film brand called WT2 or Working Title 2 which has produced films such as Shaun of the Dead in 2004.

Teen Comedies

· Wild Child

Ealing Studios

· A television and film production company, Ealing Green, West London
· It is officially the oldest film studio in Great Britan .
· The site was bought by theatre producer Basil Dean's Talking Pictures in 1929
· But re-opened as Ealing Studios in 1931
· In 1933, the company was renamed Associated Talking Pictures.
· By the time Basil Dean left the company in 1938, 60 films had been made at the studios. Dean was replaced by Michael Balcon from MGM.
· Balcon decided to return to the name Ealing Studios.
· In 1944, the company was taken over by the Rank Organisation.
· Over the war the comedies became what the studio was best known for.
· The BBC bought the studios in 1955 and created television productions there.
· In 1995, the studios were purchased by the National Film and Television School.
· It was then bought by Uri Fruchtmann, Barnaby Thompson, Harry Handelsman and John Kao in 2000 in an attempt to re-vive the studio.

Teen Comedies
· St. Trinians

Gold crest Films
· A British film production company founded by Jake Eberts 1977
It won two Academy Awards for Best Picture, for Chariots of Fire in 1981 and Gandhi in 1982.
After these successes the company decided to back more expensive productions with famous Hollywood stars. However these films often ran over schedule and budget e.g. The Mission (1986) and Revolution which were ultimately flops.
Recently Gold crest has begun to produce critically acclaimed films again.
Goldcrest Independent is Goldcrest’s newest venture. It was created to offer independent producers a chance to get their films made and produced worldwide.

Teen Comedies
· Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging
· Sex Drive
· Twilight?

Summary of Findings

Constraints

• Lack of funding
• Lack of expertise e.g. trained camera operators
• Lack of equipment e.g. lighting, props, special effects
• Stick to the BBFC’s guidelines for a 15 certificate
• Geographically – can’t travel too far so limited locations

All the Institutions researched have produced Teen Comedies but tend to produce a range of films of different genres, i would say the biggest competition would be from American studios as they produce a lot of Teen Comedies which are popular worldwide. In creating a British Teen Comedy we would be rivaling these American Studios for the British teenager's attention. A British Teen Comedy will enable British teens to relate more to the content as it will have references to their everyday lives which will hopefully appeal to them more.