A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(December 2015) |
From Bedrooms to Billions | |
---|---|
Directed by |
|
Starring | Peter Molyneux Ian Livingstone Matthew Smith David Braben David Darling David Perry Jeff Minter Simon Nicol Chris Anderson Mel Croucher Jon Hare |
Music by | Rob Hubbard Ben Daglish Stewart Dugdale
|
Release date |
|
Running time | 124 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
From Bedrooms to Billions is a 2014 documentary film by British filmmakers Anthony and Nicola Caulfield that tells the story of the British video games industry from 1979 to the present day. The film focuses on how the creativity and vision of a relatively small number of individuals allowed the UK to play a key, pioneering role in the shaping of the billion dollar video games industry which today dominates the modern world's entertainment landscape. The film features interviews with major British game designers, journalists and musicians from across the last 30 years.
The filmmakers originally conceived of the project as a three-part television series, [1] but were unable to garner interest from either the BBC or Channel 4, both of which considered the project "too niche." [1] So the team, inspired by earlier success with their 2010 film Burlesque Undressed, turned instead to crowd funding.
The Caulfields raised approximately £80,000 through two rounds of crowd funding with Indiegogo [2] and Kickstarter [3] generating donations of $37,000 and £60,000 respectively. Further funds have been raised through direct donations, pre-orders for DVDs and soundtrack CDs via the From Bedrooms To Billions website which has allowed them to produce the film independently. [1]
From Bedrooms to Billions was originally scheduled for release on 30 May 2014. The digital version was eventually launched on 3 October 2014. [4] with DVD & Blu-ray versions released in March 2015.
In an interview in early 2019, [5] it was revealed that Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker had given the stars of Bandersnatch , an interactive episode of the Black Mirror series, a copy of Bedrooms to Billions to help prepare them for the roles, and to give them inspiration.
The makers of the documentary made two further films bearing the From Bedrooms to Billions name: The Amiga Years (2016) and The PlayStation Revolution (2020). [6]
Imagine Software was a British video games developer based in Liverpool which existed briefly in the early 1980s, initially producing software for the ZX Spectrum and VIC-20. The company rose quickly to prominence and was noted for its polished, high-budget approach to packaging and advertising, as well as its self-promotion and ambition.
Fan-funded music is crowdfunding for music. Often, fan-funded music occurs in conjunction with direct-to-fan marketing. Fans of music have the option to donate and collectively raise money with the goal of jump-starting the career of a given musical artist. The fan-funding of music occurs primarily through web-based services using a business model for crowdfunding. Fans are typically given rewards based on their monetary contributions.
The United Kingdom has the largest video game sector in Europe. By revenue, the UK had the second-largest video game market in Europe in 2022 after Germany, and the sixth-largest globally. By sales, it is Europe's largest market, having overtaken Germany in 2022. The UK video game market was worth £7.16 billion in 2021, a 2% increase over the previous year.
Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer are conservative Irish documentary filmmakers and New York Times best-selling authors. They have written and produced the political documentaries FrackNation, Not Evil Just Wrong, and Mine Your Own Business, as well as The Search for Tristan's Mum and Return to Sender. Their latest project, Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer, is a true crime drama film based on the crimes of Kermit Gosnell. Their book, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer, was an Amazon and New York Times best seller. They were married at the Basilica Church of St Mary Magdalene in Dublin in 1992.
Kickstarter, PBC is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of February 2023, Kickstarter has received US$7 billion in pledges from 21.7 million backers to fund 233,626 projects, such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, board games, technology, publishing, and food-related projects.
Anyone Can Play Guitar is a documentary film made by Jon Spira, examining the music scene in Oxford over the period starting 1978, but focusing on 1984–2007. The film takes its name from the song by Radiohead from their 1993 album Pablo Honey.
Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows people to solicit funds for an idea, charity, or start-up business. Indiegogo charges a 5% fee on contributions. This charge is in addition to Stripe credit card processing charges of 3% + $0.30 per transaction. Fifteen million people visit the site each month.
Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure video game developed and published by Double Fine. Broken Age was game director Tim Schafer's first return to the genre since 1998's Grim Fandango, and was released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One platforms. The game was developed in two acts; the first was released on January 28, 2014, and the second was released on April 28, 2015. A retail version of the complete game for Windows, macOS, and Linux, published by Nordic Games, was released on April 28, 2015. A Nintendo Switch version was released on September 13, 2018.
FrackNation is a feature documentary created by Phelim McAleer, Ann McElhinnery, and Magdalena Segieda. The film, released in 2013, claims to address alleged misinformation from environmentalists about the process of hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking.
Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony is a 2012 documentary film centering on bronies, the adult fans of the 2010 animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The film, funded through crowd-sourcing via Kickstarter, was originally envisioned to follow voice actor and executive producer John de Lancie to the 2012 Summer BronyCon in New Jersey. The project raised much more than anticipated, allowing it to grow in scope to bring on Lauren Faust, Friendship Is Magic's original creator, and Tara Strong, a principal voice actress on the show, as executive producers and to include additional convention footage from European conventions.
Video game development has typically been funded by large publishing companies or are alternatively paid for mostly by the developers themselves as independent titles. Other funding may come from government incentives or from private funding.
Bridegroom is a 2013 American documentary film about the relationship between two young gay men, produced and directed by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. Bridegroom premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 23, 2013, and attracted further press coverage because its premiere screening at the festival was introduced by former President Bill Clinton.
One Hundred Days: The Story of Architects Almost World Tour is a documentary about British metalcore band Architects' Daybreaker Almost World Tour, a promotional tour for their fifth studio album Daybreaker. The funding for the film was achieved through a crowd funding project on Indiegogo, where they had a target of £30,000 to reach, but they reached over £10,000 of that sum.
Video Games: The Movie is a documentary film by Jeremy Snead about video games. After Indiegogo and Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns in 2012 and 2013 respectively, the film was released in 2014.
Holy Ghost is a 2014 American Christian documentary film written and directed by Darren Wilson, to take the viewer to locations around the world to see if the Holy Spirit can really lead a film.
One Little Pill is a documentary film about the use of generic medications for treating and curing alcoholism. The primary focus is on the Sinclair method, which pairs these medications with continued drinking. It was produced by Zard Productions as a film project for the C Three Foundation and released on Vimeo and VHX for on-demand viewing in October 2014. As of August 2015, DVD-R copies are also available.
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over US$34 billion was raised worldwide by crowdfunding.
Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer is a 2018 American drama film based on real life events about Kermit Gosnell, a physician and highly atypical abortion provider who was convicted of first degree murder in the deaths of three infants born alive, involuntary manslaughter in the death of a patient undergoing an abortion procedure, 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortion, and 211 counts of violating a 24-hour informed consent law. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is a 2018 interactive film in the science fiction anthology series Black Mirror. It was written by series creator Charlie Brooker and directed by David Slade. The film premiered on Netflix on 28 December 2018, its release date only officially announced the day before. Netflix did not confirm the interactive nature of Bandersnatch until its release, though there was much media speculation.