Media Institutes

                       

Research Task 2 

These are the pie charts that I have created based on my market research about film and cinema. Some of the questions that I asked were how often do people watch films and what genre is the most popular. Overall, the data from these charts will help me with the second part of my exam.

            Research - Hunger Games catching fire

The production company -Color Force and Lionsgate Entertainment

The Production Budget-  $130–140 million

The Distributor- Lionsgate

The box office takings -$859,499,473

Case Study 1: Hollywood Production and distribution 

The Dark Knight Rises 

Box office takings:  $1,084,439,099

Origins of the film- The film is based on Batman comic books 

Stars

• Christian Bale
• Michael Caine
• Gary Oldman
• Anne Hathaway
• Tom Hardy
• Marion Cotillard
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt
• Morgan Freeman

Production Budget-$250–300 million

Distribution Company - Warner Bros. Pictures 

Production Company-  Warner Bros Entertainment- DC Comics- Syncopy Inc -Legendary Pictures 

Marketing Strategy- They used cross-media convergence-

Its domestic and global appeal- It performed well in the Uk and 16 other countries, including Russia and Germany. It made $27 million on its first night of showing.

’What do you think is more important for the success of a film, good production practices or distribution strategies?’ Use The Dark Knight Rises as a case study for your answer.

 The budget, actors and new technology help to make a film successful. This combined with clever marketing strategies inevitably make a good film. Methods such as cross-media convergence help to market a new film and have proven successful from years before.         

The case study that can be used for this is The Dark Knight Rises. They had both a significantly large budget of $250 million and also employed many clever marketing methods, by integrating parts of their film into social and raising fan awareness.

Production practices are important in the making and success of a film as this process provides the many for the film to be made at a high quality. However, distributing has a large affect on the success of a film as it can involve fans more and makes people more aware of the film. Fro example, The Dark Knight rises used many methods when marketing. For example, graffiti with clues to unlock a trailer and iPhone app with exclusive details and pictures were created. Many other methods, such as displaying pictures and teaser trailers on social media helped to engage the fans more and also made them a lot of money.

Overall, although both aspects of production and distribution are seen as very important in creating a successful film, it can be argued that the distribution methods are the most vital part in creating this success. Choosing the right methods and marketing correctly means the film becomes more popular as a hype is created. Whether or not the film is good due to a small production budget, the marketing and promotion of the film will still attract fans and cause them to watch the film regardless.

The Blair Witch Project

1.   What has happened? Three people who were making a short film went missing as they went to shoot out into Maryland’s Black Hills Forest.

2.    What background information is there? We know that the three people were interested or studied film production and this was a big project of theirs.

3.    Who are the people involved? The three people who went missing were Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams

4.    What evidence is there? 11 Film canisters and tapes as well as some footage

5.   What does the evidence suggest happened? The dairy written by Heather suggests that they lost the car as she is not sure where it was. This could be a contributing factor as to what happened to them. The bag that was buried.

6.  How can we find out more about what happened? Watch the film

The Blair Witch Project- Film information

Producer: Gregg Hale and Robin Cowie

Distribution Company: Artisan Entertainment

The marketing of the campaign of The Blair Witch Project was very successful due to its clever strategy. The company created a case study specifically containing important snippets of the movie. It was a jigsaw that the audience had to put together with evidence and interviews from the film. This marketing method enticed viewers as they became eager to find out the story and the truth behind the mystery. This suggests that marketing  and distribution of a film is of equal, if not more value then the actual production itself.  
 As here was no social media sites during that time, such as Twitter or Facebook, a basic website was set up instead. 
In terms of production, it was kept to a bare minimum with regards to expenditure. Only handheld cameras were used, keeping costs down. One of these cameras were also returned to save money and no real script was provided, but more of a guideline.
The film had a very small production budget of $22,000 and took in more than $248m at the box office, which, in effect, highlights how important distribution is within the film industry. 

The success of this film can be compared to the success of the Dark Knight Rises, which used similar distribution methods. The Dark Knight rises in comparison had a much larger production budget of $250 million, but like the Blair Witch Project, tripled in Box office takings. The Dark Knight rises used a clever marketing method and like the Blair Witch Project, gave out snippets and puzzle pieces of the film to tease the audience and encourage them to watch the film. 

Case Study- The Boat That Rocked

Analyse how influential production practices and distribution strategies were on the success of your given case study 

Production Practices:

Cast: The cast included famous British actors such as Nick Frost, Bill Nighy. As these people are well known actors, this attracted many viewers.

Budget: The budget was just over 30 million

Themes+ Storyline:  The film is set in 1966, it tells the story of a fiction pirate radio station "Radio Rock" and its crew of DJs, who broadcast rock and pop music to the United Kingdom from a ship anchored in the North Sea while the British government endeavors to shut them down.

Quality of script: In regards to script, many reviews described it as quite confusing which made it muddled for the audience. This was partly responsible for the lack of success as the film only received a small profit overall.

Director:  The film was directed by Richard Curtis who has directed traditional romantic comedies such as About Time, Love Actually and Four Weddings and a funeral. These films have generally done quite well at the box office, which contrast to The Boat That Rocked.

The main target audience for this film are a British audience due to the fact that the majority of the actors in this film are of a British origin.

Marketed In Britain as it was exhibited to attract the UK audience in may ways, by making it 

possible for it to viewed in most format, cinema, dvd/Blu-ray, TV (sky), HD (sky) and online (sky).In 

terms of  digital marketing methods, the film used Spotify to create playlists for each of the 9 DJs 

featured in the film. They did not have a viral campaign due to the older target market that they 

desired. This is because most viral markets are used by younger audiences. They had a teaser 

trailer.

•They also did not utilize social media to its full potential. Although the film had 60,000+ fans on 

Facebook, the page was non interactive, not giving fans the options to post photos and videos.

•Power of the studio: Working Titles is a very successful in making British films, so this would be an 

advantage for the film.

•Overall, both aspects of production and distribution were highly influential on the success of The 

Boat That Rocked. The production was conducted quite poorly due to the bad quality of script 

and the excessive length of the film, which had to be cut down once the film was shown. Due to the 

lack of success, the film also had to be renamed to Pirate Radio, as they thought that this would 

increase sales.

•In terms of distribution, whilst the company was well established, the minimal marketing let them 

down as they did not communicate or interact with fans, which was a large disadvantage to them.

HOMELEARNING

 

Case Study	Production Practises	Distribution Strategies
The Dark Knight Rises- Successful	·         Had an all-star famous cast including Anna Hathaway, Morgan Freeman and Christian Bale ·         They had a large Production Budget of $250–300 million	·         Gave out pieces of the film ·         Hid graffiti in different parts of the city for the fans to discover clues ·          Used cross-media convergence such as: Viral campaign, Twitter campaign, Interactive Facebook Page, Tumbler Design app and IOS app with soundtrack
The Blair Witch Project- Successful	·         Small production budget of $22,000 ·         Handheld cameras were used-save costs ·         Unknown/non-established actors used for the film	·         Created a case study specifically containing important snippets of the movie- Jigsaw pieces- Helped to promote ·          Basic Website was set up
Paranormal Activity- Successful	·         Unknown Actors starred ·         Handheld cameras used to film- save money	·         Had focus groups for feedback ·         Exclusive screenings ·         Trailers showing peoples reactions
The King’s Speech- Successful	·         Had a cast of famous British stars, such as Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter ·         Small budget of $15million ·         Had a popular and interesting theme revolving around the British monarchy ·         Director was not known much- Tom Hooper	·         Entered in many festivals ·         Trailers ·         YouTube appeals
The Lone Ranger- unsuccessful	·         Had a well-known cast- Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer ·         Interesting storyline
The Boat That Rocked- unsuccessful	·         British Actors starred in the film ·         Budget was over 30 Million ·         Confusing script ·         Film was too long +boring storyline ·         Director- Well know-Richard Curtis	·         Had a teaser trailer ·         No viral campaign due to age ·         No interactive Facebook page

‘Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution as they do upon good production practices’- to what extent do you agree with this statement?

The above statement can be argued as a successful film, as proven from many case studies, show that there is a large requirement for both aspects of production and distribution in order to achieve success. For example, The Dark Knight Rises case study exemplifies this idea as they had good production practises and also utilized many types of social media within their distribution. In terms of production, the film had a large production budget of $250 million which allowed them to produce a quality film. The cast list also included well- established artists such as Morgan Freeman, Anne Hathaway and Christian Bale. The use of this gave the film an advantage already without the help of marketing as the audience gain a sense of familiarity from the actors, and therefore understands that the film will be worth watching. However, the Dark Knight rises also carried out one of the most successful marketing campaign within the film industry, as they were really able to engage the viewers in the storyline. In terms of marketing, viral Twitter, Facebook and Tumbler apps became available and stayed interactive, giving people the chance to upload and follow the progression of the film. Also, bits of graffiti were scattered around the city, so that fans of the film could discover clues and unlock a tester trailer. In reference to this case study, it is both the marketing and distribution and good production practises that made this film success. Both aspects had lots of money invested into them which helped this. If the actors were unknown and a smaller budget was used, the quality of film would be affected, whereas if the marketing budget was smaller, then people would not be drawn to watch the film as this immerse the viewers into the film.

On the other hand, this is not the case for Paranormal Activity as they their marketing and distributing were much stronger than their production methods.

During filming, only handheld cameras were used to save costs and unknown actors were used to play the main characters. They had a small production budget of $15,000, which is extremely low for a film. However, due to their marketing methods made a massive $193,355,800 at box office. The marketing offered exclusive screenings, teaser trailers and used focus groups in order to promote their film. This case study shows that even though a film may not have the best production practises, they can still be a success if they utilize the best marketing methods.

Overall, it is proven that a successful media product does depend as much upon marketing and distribution as they do upon good production practices as seen from the Dark Knight case study and The Kings Speech. Even though Paranormal Activity does not conform to this, in general both production and distribution play a very significant part and influence a film’s success.

To what extent does digital distribution affect the marketing and consumption of media products in the media area you have studied?

To a large extent digital distribution affects the marketing and consumption of media products as it has drastically changed the way people receive and consume products due to the development of new technologies such as portable tablets and smart phones. Evidently, digital distribution has positive effects on marketing and consumption as it faster for people to access due to the power of the Internet as well as being significantly cheaper as it is not necessary for hard copies such as posters. The recent progression in social networking has proved an advantageous resource as many people use sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which produces a viral effect in terms of distribution.

Case Studies

The Dark Knight-

The Boat That Rocked

Paragraph 1:

Use The Dark Knight case- > Created an IOS app, Viral Twitter campaign, Tumblr app and Facebook, YouTube they utilized social media and digital distribution to create awareness of the film targets a youthful audience using modern technologies. Encourages sharing

Paragraph 2:

Enables people to watch films on the go e.g. smart phones and portable tablets rather then going to the cinema, more convenient. Higher qualities and better experience using blue-ray, 3D TVs and surround sound systems.

Paragraph:

The Boat That Rocked example. Didn’t use digital distribution and was not successful. Consumption-> People didn’t want to watch it because awareness was not created and they do not hear about the film. Does not encourage global appeal and limits sales to the UK.