Film Industry: Blinded By The Light case study

Our first close-study product is low-medium budget British film Blinded By The Light (Gurinder Chadha, 2019). We need to know how the film was funded, produced, distributed and promoted.

If you missed the screening of Blinded By The Light you can catch up with it here - you'll need your Greenford Google login to access.

The key notes from the lesson are here:

Funding
Blinded By The Light cost around $15m to make. Key points:

• Bend It Films developed the film with support from Levantine Films and Ingenious Media.
• Levantine Films is an independent production company that had a major success with Hidden Figures in 2016 which grossed $230m at the worldwide box office.
• The Ingenious Group is an investment company that invests money in projects that have the potential to deliver future profits.

Production
Key points for making Blinded By The Light:

• Adapted from a book called Greetings From Bury Park by Sarfraz Manzoor (a play on 'Greetings From Asbury Park' - a Bruce Springsteen album). The memoir outlined his experiences growing up in Luton in the 1980s and discovering the music of Springsteen.
• Co-written and directed by Gurinder Chadha who had a smash hit in 2002 with her film Bend It Like Beckham (Bend It Like Beckham made over $100m at the worldwide box office).

Distribution

Blinded By The Light was picked up by New Line Cinema at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival after a bidding war with various other major film distributors. The film had been well received by audiences at the film festival. 

• The all-night auction following the world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2019 guaranteed the film a major global cinema release which many films never achieve.
• Previously offered for sale at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival but did not attract a buyer at that point although UK distribution was secured by eOne Entertainment, a Canadian media company.
• New Line Cinema is an American production studio owned by Warner Brothers Pictures Group.
• The film was released in cinemas worldwide in August 2019. The DVD release followed in December 2019 distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment - a Viacom company.
• Deal with Amazon Prime secured in early 2020 for streaming in the UK - coinciding perfectly with the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020. When this streaming deal expired, the film switched to Netflix before also disappearing from there too. Currently, the film is only available to buy or rent in the UK. 

Reception and box office

• Positive word-of-mouth marketing but poor box office figures – just $18.1m box office against a $15m budget which means the film almost certainly lost money when factoring in the global marketing campaign.
• Rival studios argued that Warner Bros. should have begun with a limited release to build audience interest, and that the film's August date was too close to that of Yesterday, a film with some surface similarities (a British romantic comedy based on the music of the Beatles and starring Ed Sheeran). [Source: Deadline Hollywood].

Promotion and marketing

Blinded By The Light was backed by a major international marketing campaign: 

• Traditional marketing: trailer, film poster with review quotes etc.
• Premieres - London, Luton and Asbury Park, New Jersey (attended by Bruce Springsteen).
• Heavy social media presence – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube.
• Interviews with writer, director and stars across TV, radio, newspapers and magazines (see below).

Blinded By The Light: case study blog tasks

Create a new blogpost called 'Blinded By The Light case study'. Work through the following tasks to build a detailed understanding the of the film's funding, production, distribution and marketing. This will give you plenty of background information to use in an exam question on the film industry.

Background reading and production research

Read the following interviews and features on Blinded By The Light:

Writer Sarfraz Manzoor on the story behind the film - Guardian
Manzoor again on the promotion of the film and audience reaction
Variety feature on the best films from the 2019 Sundance Film Festival 

1) What is the story behind the production of the film?

2) What was the audience reaction to the film?

3) Why is the Sundance Film Festival such an important part of the film industry - particularly for lower budget films? 

Funding and industry contexts

1) What was the budget for Blinded By The Light and which companies contributed to the production budget?

2) Research the Bend It Networks website. What other films and projects has the company been involved with?

3) Research Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema on the Warners website here. Summarise the history of New Line Cinema in a short paragraph.

4) Read this Variety interview with director Gurinder Chadha explaining how the project came about - including budget details. What attracted Gurinder Chadha to the project and how did she manage to get the film made? 

Distribution

Read this Deadline feature on the distribution deal for Blinded By The Light and answer the following questions: 

1) Which company won the distribution rights after the all-night auction and for how much?

2) Which other companies were rumoured to be bidding for the distribution rights?

3) According to the article, what was the 'allure' of Blinded By The Light?

4) UK distribution was secured by eOne Entertainment. Visit the eOne About Us page on their website - what do they claim to offer under the heading 'Passion meets possibility?'


Marketing, promotion and reception

Watch the following clips to learn about the marketing and promotion of the film. 

Watch the trailer for Blinded By The Light:

Watch the film being promoted on The One Show (BBC1): 

Watch writer Sarfraz Manzoor talking about 1980s nostalgia and British-Asian identity:

Watch this 'fans dream' featurette produced by Bend It Networks:

1) What does the trailer suggest regarding genre and the potential audience pleasures of Blinded By The Light?

2) What TV shows and websites did interviews with writer, director and stars of Blinded By The Light? Why are interviews a good way to promote a new film release? 

3) What did film posters for Blinded By The Light feature and where did they appear? You may need to research this on Google Images. 

4) What social media accounts did Blinded By The Light use to promote the film? Note: some sites may be blocked if you are working in school - you will need to use your phone or complete your research at home.

5) Select three posts from the Blinded By The Light Instagram page and explain how they promote the film.

6) Go to the Bend It Networks YouTube channel. How does Gurinder Chadha introduce the channel?  What other content is on the Bend It Networks YouTube channel?

7) Look at the box office figures for Blinded By The Light from The Numbers website. How much did it make at the box office and why do you think it was largely unsuccessful?

8) Click on the tabs with further information (such as 'News', 'Box Office' and 'Video Sales'). Copy and paste some more statistics or sales figures to add to your understanding of the film's financial performance.

Due date: on Google Classroom