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SECTION B (25 marks) Answer one question from this section.
Either,
3.
Read the following extract from :m article about Hollywood's export business, and then answer the question that follows.
. . . despite all the money we 'foreign' audiences now generate, the attitude of the Hollywood studio Golden Age of the 30S, 40S and 50S has survived. It may be that Hollywood these days recognises that its own (North American) audience has grown about as much as it can and that the majority of the revenue now comes from the international market (60 per cent or more in the late 1990S compared with 30 - 35 per cent at the start of the 1980s). Moreover the international market is the only significant area of continuing growth. But the production policy - and so the films that are made - continues to be determined by the audience Hollywood knows: the American audience.
(From Nick Roddick, "What You See is What You Get" in Sight and Sound Education Supplement, 1998)
Question: Discuss what you feel are important issues raised by this extract about the film 'product' Hollywood supplies to UK audiences. In developing your answer, make reference to any case study work you have undertaken on recent Hollywood films.
Or,
4.
Read the following extract adapted from an article from Sight and Sound magazine, and then answer the question that follows. '
INDIE EXPOSURE Kate Stables asks ifwebsites are the new film festivals in the exhibition chain So you want to get your independent debut film on the big screen? Babak Forutanpour, creator of film website ReelUniverse.com is outlining for me the formidable odds against it ever seeing a theatrical release. First of all come the 4,000 U.S. movies produced annually, of which around 3,000 will go undistributed. Then there is the 15,000 strong stockpile of unscreened films already out there, not to mention the upcoming huge explosion of product that low-cost digital filmmaking tools promise to unleash. How are you going to make your movies visible? By exhibiting it - or trailing it, if it's feature length - on a web site and hoping it generates some heat.
In the last year the web has thrown up around 30 online film sites including iFilm.net, AtomFilms, Mediatrip and Dfilm. Such sites have now become key in creating the kind of profile that will mark a movie out from the crowd. It may take a few submissions to land a slot, bu路t any film of reasonable quality currently stands a high chance of finding a home. Film websites start out as a marketing tool in the eyes of film-makers, a shop window on the way to greater things. My guess is t':1at they should more properly be regarded as a new window in the exhibition chain - since realistically this is the only exhibition the majority of independent films will ever attain. (Sight and Sound, April, 2000)
Question: Discuss the issues raised in the above article in relation to distribution and exhibition of low budget films in the U.K. today. You may develop your discussion by reference both to details from the article and to your own knowledge of the subject.