British vs. American Film

A2 media studies

British film

British production companies

- This is England- Tyrannosaur

- Submarine- Wild Child- Atonement - Hot Fuzz- Love Actually

- Prometheus- Sisters in Law- Lucky Day

- Shaun of the Dead- Attack the Block

- Harry Potter Films- I am Legend

Commonly seen in British film

Gangs/violenceDay-to-day Life

Poverty/ Financial Hardship

Different Cultures

Less known actorsDrugs/alcohol

Urban areas or fantastical locations

Funding

The BFI often provides funding for British films. They provide money to help promote less-known films and works closely with the UK Film Council.

This is government funding that helps with promotion, production, development and distribution. It helps get small films into film festivals and art houses and helps make the non-mainstream films more accessible to an audience. This is often a British film’s lifeline.Most well known for TV, these

companies have produced several British films. They provide funding and promotion and make small films bigger. They often advertise cheaply through their own channel and promotional bases.Smaller production companies

provide equipment and funding for British film makers and helps make the film a big success. Often receiving funding from ‘The Big Six’ that often own them.

British film often tends to focus on real life situations – mainly working class people to show the harsh reality of life in urban Britain. They are usually problematic and tell it how it really is. They often include swearing and drug abuse also. However, in extreme contrast to this, some British films are fantasy, include made up locations and exotic storylines, for example Harry Potter, however, Harry Potter still includes hardship, bullying and the struggles of life. In British film, they tend to show each area of the country differently in according to reality, and represent their lifestyle in films. Whereas, in American film, they take a small stereotypical percentage of Britain (‘Londoners’) and tend to represent them negatively as posh and stuck-up.

American Film

American production companies

Commonly seen in American films:

Computer Generated Images

Patriotic characters

AnimationLarge, famous locations

Big actors/A-list starsAction/explosions

American films generally focus on the ‘American dream’/fairy-tale ending storylines. American film companies tend to have large budgets in which to produce their films from, so more often than not, CGI, exotic locations and a large amount of advertising is often used. American films offer the audience a sense of escapism, because, unlike British film, American film does not show the harsh struggles of reality, rather quite the opposite. They are often referred to as ‘Blockbusters’ and have covered every genre there is to offer, unlike British film. American films get their funding from the production companies, often known as the ‘Big six’ – Universal, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Disney and Columbia – which own the majority of the smaller production companies too, for example, Universal Studios owns 67% of Working Title films.