British Film Production

Channel 4 Productions

Channel Four became popular in 1982, known for it's individual style of shows and cutting-edge programmes, even today it prides itself on going "somewhere we haven't seem British film go". Channel Four started to produce British films that appealed to a wide range of
audiences, it's first production was 'Walter' in 1982, which was directed by Stephen Frears. By 1984 Channel Four had co-produced over 20 feature films for the special slot 'Film
on Four' (now called Film Four). Channel Four films include 'Ghosts', 'Venus', 'Deep Water', and 'The Last King of Scotlan which won 35 awards including 1 Oscar. However, one of the most known films, channel four has co-produced, is in fact, Slumdog Millionaire; which one 8 Oscars and cost roughly £8.7 million. The institution has a couple of television channels and therefore can advertise their film productions on these channels without cost worries, moreover the television channels have websites which can also advertise films. These synergies will help distribution massively, there is even a programme on channel four which had chat show with a few members of the cast from the film 'Slumdog Millionaire' before it was shown. Things like this helps sell the production to it's audience.

Production of Slumdog Millionaire:

The original idea for Slumdog Millionaire first came about when the Head of Film and Drama at Channel Four read the proof of the book, which was called 'Q&A' by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup. 'Slumdog' was produced by a British production called Celador Films as well as Film Four, and directed by Danny Boyle previously directed 'Trainspotting' and '28 Days Later'. However, Danny Boyle only read the script when realising the scriptwriter was Beaufoy - the writer of 'The Full Monty' and one of the Boyle's favourite British film directors (as well as being a popular director throughout the business).

Gail Stevens, was also brought onto the cast, as he is well-known of finding new talent, and therefore helped find the cast of this film. The cast wasn't well-known and the children were picked from real-life slums themselves, which set controversy across the world. The music was a mixed soundtrack of an indian culture music and popular music, an add to advertising the film was the dance done by the main characters at the end of the film titled 'Jai Ho' which added to the excitement of the film and is a way of remembering the film.

The genre of the film is a hybrid - romance, crime and drama, this makes the film appear to a range of people as it includes many ideas and convections that go with the genres and therefore, will influence people to see the film. Christian Colson, is the producer of the film; the producer deals with the ideas, finance and organisation of the product. Usually the producers have to be able to take risks and have a good charisma (because they have to deal with many people).