The King's Speech Case Study

The kings speech is a very  British film, the film tells the story of a man who became King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates, George ('Bertie') reluctantly assumes the throne. Plagued by a dreaded stammer and considered unfit to be king, Bertie engages the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue. Through a set of unexpected techniques, and as a result of an unlikely friendship, Bertie is able to find his voice and boldly lead the country through war.

Britishness...  
The director of the film was Tom Hooper, he was born and brought up in London. Most people to the modern day would define a British film to be a ‘British’ film with reference to obvious cultural elements such as a setting in the UK or a focus on British people abroad. A predominantly British cast, a story-line about some aspect of British life. However, there's are two ways that a film is able to qualify, either under Schedule 1 to the films Act 1985, examples include the Bond and Harry Potter films, or by satisfying the terms of an international co-production agreement to which the UK is a party.2 Under the Films Act, for a film to be certified as ‘British’ by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, a number of tests must be met:3

• The maker test: the film must be made by a company that is registered and centrally managed and controlled in the UK, in another state of the European Union/European Economic Area or in a country with which the European Community has signed an Association Agreement;4
• The production cost test: 70% of the production cost of the film must be spent on film making activity in the UK.

Exhibition...

The box office in the UK doesn't really pay attention to mainstream medias cinema box office. However, The King's Speech made £3.52 million on the films opening weekend. The films reception of the film was a range of different views.

 "The King's Speech takes a rather different view of Britain and the 1930's, though it's not entirely inconsistent with Auden's judgment and isn't in any sense what is sneeringly called heritage cinema. It is the work of a highly talented group of artists who might be regarded as British realists – Tom Hooper directed the soccer epic The Damned United; Eve Stewart was production designer on Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy and Vera Drake; Jenny Beavan was responsible for the costumes worn in Gosford Park and The Remains of the Day; the cinematographer Danny Cohen lit Shane Meadows's This is England and Dead Man's Shoes; Tariq Anwar's editing credits range from The Madness of King George to American Beauty; and the screenplay is by the British writer David Seidler, who co-wrote Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream."

 The kings speech is a very British film as its about the royal family at the begging of the second world war. 

Production Issues...
The film had a budget of 15 million. it was marketed extremely well due to the fact that the marketing campaign was spread by word of mouth that had been generated by the press, A few other techniques were used to keep the conversation going. The three production companies were:

• UK Film Council
• See-Saw Films
• Bedlam Productions
• Momentum pictures
• The UK film council was an income of money from the national lottery which was shortly closed down after a few weeks of it's release date.