Example Controlled Assessment

Film: The First Movie Director: Mark Cousins

Year: 2009 Production Details The idea for The First Movie came from the director Mark and producer Gill who separately went to Kurdistan. They decided to make a documentary film set in Kurdistan that followed the children who lived there and looked at how they were affected by growing up in a place of war. The film was produced by two small companies CONNECTfilm in Scotland and Screen Siren Pictures in Canada. Both companies are small and are well known for making documentary films. Trish Dolman from Screen Siren Pictures has produced numerous award winning documentary films. It was difficult to research the exact budget because it was so small. The movie was made using hand held cameras in a village called Goptapa. To get the film made, Cousins had to contend with 45-degree heat, regular power cuts, the language gap, killer scorpions, Iraqi secret police and, most disturbingly, what he calls the ubiquity of guns.

Distribution Details The main distributors of digital prints to cinemas of The First Movie in the UK and US were More4 (UK) and Seventh Art Releasing (USA). In the UK on the 14th December 2009 the film had its London Premiere. Following this premiere, the film was shown at Film Festivals around the world and, dependent on interest in the countries the film could then be released on a small scale into small cinemas. The First Movie was released in digital format to cinemas only. The marketing budget for The First Movie was so small that, initially, there was no money for the usual commercial cinema advertising campaign. The director even said there would only be a DVD if the film made enough profit in the cinemas. When the film was eventually marketed on a small scale, marketing included posters in cinemas, showings at film festivals and word of mouth. In the UK, the DVD distributor was Dogwoof. Exhibition Details