A1 - The financing of Major, Mini Major and Small Scale Films

Georgia Linnard

For this task, I have been asked to research the financing of blockbuster, mini-major and small-scale
films. A blockbuster is a high-budget production aimed at mass audience, defined by its production
budget and large marketing efforts. Mini-major is a film studio of a size between a major studio and
a smaller independent studio. A small-scale is made by a small independent studio. A major film has
a huge budget- arguably around £40 million or more, a mini-major has a median budget around £20
million and a small scale is has a small budget usually around £5 million or less. Jurassic park was a
huge success due to the director being so popular, it’s also a film that covers a lot of generations
who are interested and the fact that it is intriguing because it is something that people have never
experienced in this world. It is also got lots of action scenes which entices people.

Blockbuster – Jurassic park (1993)

The director Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest
filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically
acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, producer or writer since launching the summer
blockbuster with Jaws (1975), and he has done more to define popular film-making since the mid-
1970s than anyone else. Jaws were a major success and therefore Universal has seen his efforts and
skills as a director and would have wanted to have him be a part of their next film again being
Jurassic Park. He influences Jurassic park and he is partially the reason why Jurassic Park is a
blockbuster movie because he is one of the best film producers in Hollywood.

The budget for creating this film was $63,000,000 (estimated.) This was the total spent in one
weekend in the USA; for example on the 13 th June 1993, $50,159,460 was spent. The total profit
they made from creating this film was $402,453,882 in the USA. The worldwide gross profit that the
film made was $1,029,153,882. The fact that the gross profit is so large, it shows that Jurassic park
was a massive success and that it gained lots of attention perhaps due to the marketing of the film
(having the money to market the film internationally). They need a large budget for this film because
they planned to make it a worldwide film and it did go worldwide, they had hundreds of different
distributors which is why they made such a large profit. Universal funded the film and as
conglomerate they had the money to make this film successful. Their money was spilt for many
different reasons:

The equipment they used to film Jurassic park was $500,000-$750,000 to buy the cameras and to
rent the cameras it would have been $4000.00 a day. The camera they used was a Panavision primo.
The advantages of the Panavision primo are the specific design adaptations, maximizing image
quality while delivering Primo quality and character. They also used negative and theatrical ratio for
the different effects in the film because they wanted to make the film realistic so that the audience
can feel what the characters are feeling. The sound mix was by Dolby Digital (Europe) | SDDS (3D re-
release)/Datasat (3D re-release. They used Dolby because they are specialists in sound so because
Dolby are a part of many, many films that are around, they are well known for their good sound so
Steve Spielberg also wanted to use them. This benefits the producers because the sound of the film
is top quality, drawing more attention to the film, Dolby is well known for their great sound. The
cinematographic process involved Spherical and Vista Vision (visual effects.) Vista vision is a new

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simple, compatible and flexible system of producing, release printing and exhibiting motion pictures.
The benefits of VistaVision is that it produces the best visual effects which is what they need to make
the dinosaurs look real and give a specific effect to the audience to make it feel like they are there.
The colour of the film was Eastmancolor. From my research, I found out that Eastmancolor is a trade
name used by Eastman Kodak for a number of related film and processing technologies associated
with colour motion picture production which was introduced in 1950 and was one of the first widely
successful "single-strip colour" processes. The colour needed to be bright and vibrant because
Jurassic Park has an audience of family and young children so due to the fact that this is why it
needed to be colourful so that it suits the target audience. Because of all of the crew members
helping to create this film, the budget was well established. This is so that money is spent in all the
correct places so that the film becomes better and better.

The main people in the cast were Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough,
Samuel L. Jackson, Bob Peck and that’s only some of them! The reason for such a big cast is because
it’s a blockbuster film; they need a lot of cast to make it a film. It’s also because they need people in
certain parts of the film to be in that location to make it look realistic for example its set in a theme
park so therefore they need all this cast to make it look real. Jeff Goldblum has been in many films
such as Independence Day, Thor, Jurassic world and many more so they may have paid him to be in
Jurassic park because he is well known so it will make the film more popular because people like the
character. Before Jurassic park, Jeff Goldblum was in the fly created in 1986. Aside from his work in
film, Goldblum has had an extensive career in television and theatre. Goldblum is known as a
comedic actor and therefore he was an excellent choice for Jurassic Park as his character was a
comical character role in the film.

There were lots and lots of different distributors to make this a blockbuster film. There were
distributors like universal pictures, universal studios, united international pictures and many more.
There were so many distributors as Universal has excellent contacts from being a large conglomerate
and therefore these distributors made the film go worldwide and which is why they made so much
of a gross profit. The "Jurassic Park" franchise has so far made more than $4.4 billion at the
worldwide box office for Universal Pictures, which is owned by Comcast (CMCSA). The reason for so
many distributors is because they filmed in several locations. This links to universal as conglomerate
and their large finance options which in ratio links to their worldwide mass audience.

The location of where Jurassic park 1993 was found at most of its locations on Kauai, the smallest
and most beautiful of the four major Hawaiian islands, despite the best efforts of Hurricane Iniki,
which flattened the sets. This is relevant to the film because its set in a theme park to link to its
family audience, they needed to accommodate in the budget for location scouts meaning that they
paid people to go and film before planning the film. Apart from interiors and many of the night
scenes, which were filmed on soundstages at Universal Studios in North Hollywood. It was perhaps

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cheaper to go with universal as well as they helped massively, it was cheaper to pay them a lump
sum for them to help with the film. The prologue was filmed in Limahuli Garden. Jurassic park filmed
in 16 different locations some of which being the universal studios. A range of locations were
needed in order to make the film realistic and intentions to give detail to the audience and make it
pleasurable for its target audiences which is aimed at families and young people. For example part of
the film had to look like a jungle and therefore perhaps they filmed at the Hawaiian islands to make
it look realistic for audiences to feel escapism.

The transport to transfer equipment from one place to another was chaotic for these people in the
filming cast. This is because this film was filmed in so many different locations so they had to
transport the equipment to different places so that they could continue filming. Because the budget
is so large, the producers were able to afford to film in 16 different countries. This is also results to
the fact that it is expensive to film in different countries as it involves travelling and paying for lots of
people to join. Transportation Company were so necessary as they needed all of the equipment,
props, costumes etc to make the film successful otherwise there would be no purpose filming at
another location without the use of other mise en scene to make it look realistic.

The pre-production that Jurassic Park" (1993) was that they used lots of computer-generated
imagery, or CGI, and mixed it with live action due to the fact that there are only 14 minutes of
dinosaur visual effects in "Jurassic Park," about four of which were made with a computer, but its
lasting effect on movies has been monumental. Vista Vision made the film successful because linking
to the fact that it was the first dinosaur film out, they had to be very particular with making the
dinosaurs look realistic so they paid lots of money from the budget to the visual effects. Without the
special effects there would not be a film for Jurassic Park and the film wouldn’t be as successful as it
had to include dinosaurs and it had to look realistic. It was the first successful dinosaur film so it had
to shock audiences which are what had happened. Without Vista Vision’s expertise then the film
would not have been as believable which was why the film was so successful.

Jurassic park did undertake risk assessments such as holding equipment steadily, the weather,
location, the crew would have had to of been injected before flying because it’s important to plan
ahead if the weather was bad and you were unable to film or if something happened to the location.
Also other risks that would have needed to be considered would be for the crew to get injections to
avoid diseases/viruses. They would need it because the producers have to ensure as well as
themselves that they are safe otherwise it would delay filming if a main role became sick or could no
longer be a part of the production which would cause major finance issues, as they would need to re
rent locations, gain further permission, pay other actors etc.

They had filming dates between 24th august 1992 – 30th November 1992 and had production dates
from July 1990 – August 19992 and the 28th May 1993 to finalise some production bits ready for
release. This would have impacted the budget as it shows how long the film took to film and how
much money was spent across the entirety of a year. The sound mix used was mono. A mono mix is
simply one channel. You combine (or sum) the left and right channels into a single channel. Having
mono sound makes the sound be heard clearer. They would have had to pay for a sound mixer and
engineer to organise the sound to help add to the success of the product. The sound impacted
hugely due to it being very loud during action scenes, orchestral music which creates the suspense in
the film. It was also fast paced tempo music during the scenes in the film.

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Mini major – John Wick (2014)

The ultimate death of his beloved wife, john wick, the expert former assassin, receives one final gift
from her, a precious keepsake to help John find a new meaning in life now that she is gone. But
when the arrogant Russian mob prince, Yosef Tarasov, and his men pay Wick a rather unwelcome
visit to rob him of his prized 1969 Mustang and his wife's present, the legendary hitman will be
forced to unearth his meticulously concealed identity. Blind with revenge, John immediately
unleashes an orchestrated maelstrom of destruction against the sophisticated kingpin, Viggo
Tarasov, and his family, who are fully aware of his lethal capacity.

The budget to make this film was $20,000,000 (estimated). The opening weekend in USA
$14,150,000, 24 October 2014, a wide Release and it had a gross profit of $43,037,835 in the USA
and the worldwide profit was $130,888,901.

The equipment of the making of this film used two different types’ of cameras; Arri Alexa M, Cooke
S4 and Hawk V-Lite Vintage '74 Lenses and Arri Alexa XT, Cooke S4 and Hawk V-Lite Vintage '74
Lenses. This would have been a significant part of the budget so instead of using a variety of
cameras, they spent lots of money on only two cameras.

The casting for this film has people in John Wicks such as for example; Keanu reeves, Alfie Allen,
William Dafoe, and Dean Winters. These people aren’t very well known from the public which is why
maybe the film isn’t as popular as Jurassic park however the film has made a huge profit of
$43,037,835.

The distributors from my research are not listed but because it’s a mini-major film, there would have
had to of been some sort of distribution involved. The filming and creating of this film was all around
the same area in New York USA so they wouldn’t have spent lots of money on distributing
equipment etc. This is because it’s a mini major film; they may have not had a lot of money left over
after buying equipment and arranging locations of filming so they decided to do it in one state in the
USA.

The transporting for this film was not bad because it was all filmed in one state so it was just case of
the people filming knowing what place to be in in that state, so therefore the crew had time on their
hands to perfect the film instead of worrying about locations of where to film. They spent lots of
money on buying two decent cameras so that the filming would look good, they didn’t need any
facilities for them to accommodate for the filming schedule. Each of the people filming as a group
have to undertake a risk assessment because it’s now a health and safety regulation so its best if
each crew working on a film do undertake risk assessments.

Small scale - The Texas chainsaw massacre (1974)

On route to visit their grandfather's grave, five teenagers drive past a slaughterhouse, pick up (and
quickly drop) a sinister hitch-hiker, eat some delicious home-cured meat at a roadside gas station,
before ending up at the old family home... where they're plunged into a never-ending nightmare as
they meet a family of cannibals who more than make up in power tools what they lack in social skills

The budget that Texas chainsaw had was $300,000(estimated) and had a gross profit of $30,859,000.

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The equipment they used to film Texas chainsaw was equipment like the camera they sued was a
Bolex HR 16 Eclair ACL16. The bolex is £190/£200 and the Éclair is around £130. To film the film they
bought the equipment as they didn’t have a lot of money that they needed to look after meaning
that they had enough to buy the equipment as well as make the film.

The cast for the making of this film was large; there were many different characters to make the
story of this thriller. The cast included Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, William Vail, Teri McMinn,
Edwin Neal, and Gunnar Hansen. These are the main characters of the film itself. These character’s
compared to Jurassic park which is my choice of a blockbuster movie doesn’t have very popular
people in it like celebrities which is maybe why it isn’t as much of a big film as Jurassic park.

This film Texas chainsaw was only distributed around America so when conducting research, there
were no distributors listed. The location of where this film was filmed was in 10 different parts of
Texas. For example; Bagdad cemetery, when filming they did not do any studio work. When
transporting equipment, it wasn’t too hard as it’s a mini-major film, it was filmed all over the place, it
was just filmed in one state which makes it easier for the film makers and the people involved in
making the production therefore they did not have to transport all over the place.

They filmed on the following dates; 15th July 1973 – august 14th 1973 so this only took a month or
so to film because they had planned their filming and well and everything went to plan on them
particular days. The makers of the film did not need to pay for prop houses etc because they done it
freely and did not use a studio or was in need of one. They scheduled to film in a month which took
a lot of planning beforehand to make sure they were organised enough and that they could
realistically do it in one month which they did. They did not carry out risk assessments as far as my
research shows.

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