Olivia Goddard

Production Company Research

FILM 4

Film 4 is a free digital television channel available in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, it is owned and operated by Channel 4 that screens films. It started trading in the 1970s in Great

Britain, but changed its name in 2006 - re branded from 'FilmFour' switching from subscription to freeview (so you no longer had to pay for the channel when it got re-launched). When this change

was made it was less welcomed as expected because there were now commercial breaks. They created over 40 productions, a well known example of one of Film4's films is 'Trainspotting'.

Commissioning editor David Rose is generally able to offer £300,000 per project. Channel 4 also made significant contributions to film culture through its policy of regular screenings of minority-

interest films. It was originally dedicated to screening the kind of arthouse/independent programming.

Crown Film Unit used to be known as GPO Film Unit, but a few months into World War Two it was changed to a new name of the Crown Film Unit. It was a British company that was around from 1940 to 1952. The Conservative Government's

decision to close the Crown Film Unit in 1952 attracted its share of controversy - which was opposed by the Labour party. They had over 218 productions for

example a well known one is 'The Cumberland Story'.

CROWN FILM UNIT

Woodfall is an old company with its most recent film being in 1984 'The Hotel New Hampshire'. It had 25 productions and started trading in 1958, Great Britain that was formed by Tony Richardson. A well

known example of one of Woodfall's productions is 'Saturday night and Sunday morning'. It was mainly used by young film makers who rejected the heavy handed voice over and clear social

messages. They took advantage of new production techniques–– location shooting, natural light, from handheld cameras––to create a more vibrant sense of the texture of everyday life. According to John Osbourne, the purpose of Woodfall was "to show that good films, ones that showed British life as it really is, could be made cheaply." The films produced by Woodfall often approached subjects (from

interracial sex to schoolyard bullying) never before treated with such honesty.

WOODFALL