"Broken" Case Study

On the 27th March, Broken producer Dixie Linder came into our college to speak to us; she spoke to us about the process of making Broken as well as some other features in the British Film Industry.
Broken is a British drama starring Tim Roth and Cillian Murphy, that had an official budget of £2.2 million.
Media Ownership
In terms of finance, Broken was funded by a few different companies; BBC Films, BFI, Bill Kenwright Films and LipSync productions.
The BFI, British Film Institution turned the film down three times, at which point Linder told them she was going to give up trying to get them on board; however, she wrote a further time, as did the director, and they finally relented.
Initially the film had included Colin Firth playing Skunk's dad Archie, meaning that the film was part funded by an American company; however, he pulled out and took roughly £2million out of a potential budget with him, as the American financier lost faith.
It was difficult to attain funding initially, Linder tells us, because of the fact that it was the director, Rufus Norris, would be creating his first film; he had originally been a theatre director.
It was difficult to get the funding for Broken, Linder says. She talks of how they had to go to Everton boss Bill Kenwright in order to get the last amount of funding - they got the money on the Friday and started filming on the Monday.
Another method of funding which the film used was the use of tax credits; the fact the film is British means that the company get back some money to use in the film. Also, they used a deferral of money in order to pay a lot of the actors and distributors - this is where the actors charge a reduced fee and then get money back alongside the films success. This is a method of getting low-budget films with recognised actors off the ground.

Cross Media Convergence and Synergy
There was a soundtrack released alongside Broken featuring the songs from the film. They were in fact sung by main actress Eloise Laurence, who played Skunk, and Electric Wave Bureau - an outfit featuring Damon Albarn of Blur. However, the production side of the company do not actually make any money off this. Linder told us that it is likely that this is because EWB did not take much money from the budget, and likely looked to profit off royalties.
Eloise Laurence and Damon Albarn performed together at one of the film festivals which the film was shown at, which helped to generate more of a buzz around the film as it emphasised Albarn's role within the film.

Technology
The film was shot on 35mm film despite the film that this was a more expensive method of shooting, predominantly due to the fact that is was much more aesthetically pleasing and created the right effect that the director wished to convey in the film; for instance, a slightly grainy effect.
They used shortdated film to help reduce the costs of shooting. This is film which is close to it's "use by date" and hence cannot be kept for long, thus meaning it is sold as if in a clearance. It was tested before use for peace of mind.
They used DCP in order to reduce some costs. This is the Digital Conversion Process, where film is converted to a digital format in order to be shown in cinemas. This makes it a lot cheaper for cinemas and hence makes it a little easier for the studio to sell the film.

Technological Convergence
The studio used Twitter to help them to market the film to a younger market. Icon Stephen Fry tweeted about the film to his 5.5 million followers, which was supposedly helpful in marketing the film, due to the fact that it is essentially word of mouth publicity; however, Linder has her reservations as to how much this actually helped to promote the film.
They also relied on reviews in less modern forms of media; for instance, Tube newspaper Shortcuts gave the film a very good review, promoting to 700,000 people. Heat magazine's editor Charles Gant writes a popular column about the "winners and losers of British film", and included Broken as a winner, boosting awareness of the film to 1.3 million readers.
The Guardian did not like the film and wrote it a very poor review. This has stuck with Linder, who believes this to be down to the fact she expects British newspapers to support the British Film Industry, rather than be harsh about it.

Targeting of Local & Global Audiences
Linder indicated that there was definitely targeting of audiences in terms of the actors they cast; for instance, Tim Roth attracted an older audience looking for a gritty, British film. Irish star Cillian Murphy attracted an audience for more independent films.
They carried out marketing through things such as Tim Roth's appearance on the Jonathon Ross show. He is a popular actor with an older audience and this kind of marketing was extremely cheap compared to having adverts run at prime times, or for instance showing the trailer in the ad break for the show; Linder told us that there was very little money available for marketing and that the budget was stretched as far as it could go anyway.
Research showed that the film was most popular among women in their thirties.

Proliferation of Hardware and Content
Broken competed with other films but it was shown in the cinemas for a considerably shorter period than films such as Les Miserables.