The Kings Speech Case Study

Britishness:

Britishness is the state or quality of being British, or of embodying British characteristics, and is used to refer to that which binds and distinguishes the British people and forms the basis of their unity and identity, or else to explain expressions of British culture—such as habits, behaviours or symbols that have a common, familiar or iconic quality readily identifiable with the United Kingdom. The main symbol of the United Kingdom is the Union Jack. This brings England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland together.

Britishness sprung into political and academic prominence in the late 20^th century, but its origins lie with the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Although Britishness was used to refer to Britons collectively as early as 1682, historian Linda Colley asserts that it was after the Acts of Union 1707 that the citizens of Great Britain began to assume a "layered" identity—to think of themselves as simultaneously British but also Scottish, English, and/or Welsh.

Britishness in the Kings Speech:

The Kings Speech shows a lot of patriotism in the film itself about the United Kingdom and how the population of the country treated one another. For example in the film you would see most male actors wearing suits with blazers and ties to show professionalism as well as the posh look of the English. The way in which the English spoke was also recognised by the film producers and directors as they inherited this accent and way of speech into the film to give a realistic effect of the time when the film was set. Even tiny details were added into the films sets and scenes to show the britishness of the film.

Exhibition:

Exhibition is the distribution of a film through a process which a movie is made available to watch for an audience by a film distributor. The kings Speech was released on the 24^th December 2010 for USA audiences and the 7^th January 2011 for UK audiences. The film was a massive success with its budget only being around $15 million estimated and returning in the box office with $138 million meaning the films profit was almost 10 times the actual budget.

Appeal:

The film had many appeals to audiences around the world but the two main appeals was that it was a full British film meaning it was all about Britain and the Royal Family. This would help attract attention from the UK public as well as the USA public who seem to like British Royal Family films. As well as Royal Families it also presented commoners such as Lionel logue who was seen as a less fortunate man who had nothing going for him but still seemed to live his life to the full.

Film Reviews:

There were many reviews of The Kings Speech for example http://www.rottentomatoes.com  gave the film 94% out of 100 only 6 of the highest score.

Some Top critics gave reviews such as “The Kings Speech is the rare work of art that’s also an immense crowd-pleaser” also “The King’s Speech is admirably free of easy answers and simple, happy endings; it’s a slewed, awards-ready version of history, but one polished to a fine, satisfying shine”. Comments and reviews like these give the films praise and more recognition than ever before meaning they can gain more views and profit.

Award nominations and Oscars:

It received nominations for 12 Oscars including best picture, best director, best supporting actor and actress, best screenplay, best editing, best art direction and costume. It won 4 Oscars for best picture, best director, best Actor (Colin Firth) and best original screenplay. It was also nominated for 14 BAFTAs of which it won 7. Mark Kemode comments that Oscar and BAFTA nominations and awards are often expected when playing a monarch for example with Judy Dench - Shakespeare in Love Helen Mirren - The Queen etc. and especially when the story is about humanising the monarchy. 

Production Issues:

The king’s speech is an excellent example of a film which is individual that can receive major success around the UK and global audiences. All of this without helps from major studios and distributions studios. The company which produced the film is see-saw which is a British/Australian company which helped the film by sealing deal with other companies such as the Weinstein brothers.

The Finance:

Prescience saw the film's potential early on and became the key financier of the film. The Weinstein Company and Momentum Pictures were also large investors for the film. The UK Film Council gave See-Saw £1 million for the production. Together they created the budget of $12 million. 

Distribution and marketing issues:

Good marketing techniques were used in this films distribution. For example on posters that were made for the film words are used to comment on the film as well as the words are seen as connotations for the English meaning it’s kind of a hidden symbol for the film. The posters also show a British theme with a Royal Family theme as well by I believe this because the posters show a gold colour scheme with background images of iconic parts of  London England. On the posters some of the comments address the audience directly meaning they can be part of the film in which some audiences like this type of marketing. Finally on the posters there is all the information needed for the Audiences about the film with the cast at the bottom of the posters as well as dates included. 

As well as posters trailers have been released for the film meaning the audience is widened because overall 26 million of the 70 million odd in the UK watch television every day meaning that the film now would gain a wider range of audiences because more people would of seen The Kings Speech marketed. The trailers include music which is patriotic to the UK with war music to show what the films about and the struggle George VI went through.

Major issues facing British Film Makers:

There has been an evolution and revolution to British film makers around the world. With evidence showing that British films can do well if promoted and produced right they can be massive. This shown by the Kings Speech, there are more opportunities for British film makers and they can have their go in the spot light. Even if they do not go so well there are many more films out there to produce.

So overall British film makers have the same chance of producing a massive film as a Hollywood producer because it’s not just all about budget, stars or special effects it’s also the developing of a film along with the directors actions.