The three programmes follow the life of the new James Bond film, ‘The World Is Not Enough’, from its conception through to its première in November 1999. Key to this process is the relationship between the ambitions of the film-maker and the restrictions imposed on these ambitions by budget. In the case of the Bond film, the final budget was in excess of $1 million. The first programme looks at the genesis of the idea and the ways in which the film-makers begin to construct the script and then build on this to cast the film, design sets and find locations.

Behind this activity lie the restrictions imposed by the budget and the necessity to make a film which will go into profit.

In looking at the idea of profit, it is important to remember that a film needs to take two and a half times its budget in order to go into profit. Thus, ‘The World Is Not Enough’ will need to take $2.5 million at the box office before it goes into profit. As the previous Bond film, ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’, took $3.5 million, it is a reasonable assumption that this new film will also take something in this region, leaving a profit of nearly $1million for the investors to share.

It is necessary to explain to students the concept of genre and the ways in which we read films generically as well as the ways in which film-makers use conventions of genre to communicate with the audience.

The aim of these web notes is to act as a guide through the whole film making process. In order to carry out many of the exercises you will need to have seen all three programmes. From the outset you will need to collect as many reviews of the new film as possible, as well as any articles and features on both Bond and the new film which appear in the run up to the release of the film. It would be advantageous to have seen at least two other Bond films, preferably starring different actors in the role of Bond.

There are many James Bond websites which can be visited. It is useful to look at the official website at www.uip.co.uk as this will show how the film distributors are presenting the film themselves. Examples of the storyboards from ‘The World Is Not Enough’ as well as other materials can be found at www.filmeducation.org

This Programme

This programme is not a ‘making of’ but looks in detail at a key scene within the narrative and the challenges that this makes on the director. By focusing on a specific scene, issues of scheduling, budget, location and special effects are studied in detail as well as methods of constructing the scene and putting all of the elements together. Film-making is seen as a series of compromises between competing demands and this programme demonstrates a couple of these in all their potentially nightmarish detail. Interviews include Michael Apted (director), Neal Purvis and Ronert Wade (scriptwriters), Simon Crane (stunt co-ordinator) Mara Bryan (visual effects supervisor). Key issues collaboration within a film compromises made in film making methods of filming one particular sequence