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Film Distribution and Marketing
Film Distribution and Marketing
· What is meant by the term film distribution?
Film distribution is the process of making a
film accessible and available to be viewed through exhibits like cinemas, DVDs,
downloads, and streaming by target audience members. The distributor obtains the right to the film
to release to the public, and market the film.
·
What does a
film distributor do?
A film distributor is responsible for the marketing of a film
in order to create a revenue. They have the task of identifying and delivering
the widest audience for every film, as well as thinking about why they’d go and
see the film. After estimating the revenue potential of the film’s release, the
film distributor then has to develop the plans and partnerships in order to
build interest in the film. One of the most important jobs is getting the
audience so interested in the film that they want to go and see it when it’s
released in the cinema. Along with this, film distributors have to persuade
cinema operators to actually play the film. Overall, film distributors are in
charge of gaining the largest audience possible, and using things like
advertisements to promote the film. They have to make sure that they will make
a profit after paying for advertisements. A film distributor does their best to
make the film as successful as it can be.
·
How does
reach relate to film distribution?
The reach
refers to the total number of different people exposed to the medium, and who
have an opportunity to see/hear the ad during a certain time period. Reach may
be represented as an absolute number or as a fraction of a given population
(e.g. ‘men’ or ‘those aged 25-35’). I think reach relates to film distribution
a lot, especially when it comes to age. If a film is targeted at teenagers and
young adults, the advertisements and promotions would be plastered on social
networks online because that’s where that specific target audience would be
most likely to see it. Whereas, if the target audience was adults aged 30-50,
then the advertisement would be more likely to be on billboards, and bus ads
because that’s where the TA would be most likely to be exposed to the medium. Most
of the time, it’s better to have a larger reach because you want as many people
being exposed to your medium as possible. This is why it’s also important to
have primary and secondary audiences because it allows you to focus on the main
target audience, whilst still attracting other groups of people.
·
What is
meant by the distribution plan?
A
distribution plan is created by the film distributors to outline how they plan
to make the film available to audiences and how they plan for the film to
become successful. This includes when to release the film, the teasers and
trailers, and where to advertise and release the film to gain the optimum
success. They use statistical research and marketing knowledge to plan the
audience for the film and set targets for the film’s release. The distributors
will estimate how much the film will cost to make and then will have a budget
to work with and make sure a profit is made. Most films don’t make a profit
from cinema releases alone, but make most of their profit from DVDs and
streaming. Therefore, it’s the distributors job to make sure these things are
released perfectly.
·
What is
meant by the marketing plan?
The marketing objective is to create visibility and awareness
whilst engaging people’s interest. Distributors must compete with other films
and products to gain a significant marketing space. It’s important that people
see the film advertised in lots of different places because it then raises the
question of ‘why was this film picked to be advertised on that one billboard?’,
and it sparks more interest in the film. Since we, as humans, are very easily
persuaded by peers, the word of mouth is a very important part of marketing. A
personal recommendation from a friend can be one of the most powerful reasons
for wanting to see a film in cinema. Distributors must aim to reach as much of
their target audience as frequently but cost-effectively as possible. This gets
people talking about it, and that’s how word of mouth recommendations start. It
has to appeal to a large group of people in the first place. Obviously posters
and trailers are the two most important forms of advertisements for films. People
are stimulated most by visual concepts. A lot of the time people determine how
good a film will be by the trailers and posters, which is why it’s important
for these things to be of a high quality. Over the past decade, online services
have become more important in marketing. Most films now have official websites
which show the trailers, stills galleries, production information and
behind-the-scenes footage which really keeps audiences engaged. The use of the
internet allows audiences to feel more part of the film, and a lot of films now
offer small video clips as the film is being made. This is a way to keep the
film in people’s minds, and keep reminding people when the film is going to be
released. Merchandising is also a large part of marketing, and tends to create
a large profit. It’s particularly successful with family film. Preview
screenings are used as a way to satisfy the demand to see a film as soon as possible
and boost the opening box-office. All of these elements together complete the
marketing plan, which is very important in creating a successful outcome of a
film.
·
What is the
difference between advertising, publicity, and promotion?
All three of
these things work together to market the film in the best possible way to make
the biggest profit. Though, these things are all very different ideas.
Advertisement is getting the film out there for the audience to view. Publicity
is something the distributors have no control over because it’s how the
public/audience react to the advertisements put out. And promotion is to pull
even more people in and increase the public awareness of the film. All three of
these things work together to market the film in the best way possible.
·
Find a
teaser poster, teaser trailer, main poster and main trailer for a horror film. Who was the distributor and in how many countries
was it released? Can you find how many screens it was shown in on the opening
weekend?
Animated Teaser poster:
Teaser trailer:
Main movie poster:
Official red-band movie trailer:
The US distributor for Green Room (2015) was A24, and the UK distributor was Altitude/Picturehouse. On the weekend of release, it was shown on 3 screens in the USA and made around $87,000. By the 5th weekend it was shown on 777 screens in the USA and had made around $411,000.
Saturday, 22 October 2016
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Friday, 30 September 2016
Wednesday, 28 September 2016
Questions: Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)
Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)
1. How does the start exemplify a common technical convention of the horror genre?
2. How does the setting fit in with the horror genre?
The setting of Halloween works well with the horror genre due to the fact it's very dark and eerie. The thundering and lightening at the start is also expected of a horror film because it's so loud and angry. It almost foreshadows the killer's anger we will later see. Along with this, we see Loomis and his wife driving up to a Psychiatric Institute, where Mike then jumps out on them and steals their car. Psychiatric Institutes, and mentally unstable patients are often seen in early horror films because back then mentally ill people used to be seen as literal monsters. This was portrayed in movies like Asylum (1972) and Nightmare (1981).
3. What iconography of "innocence" do we hear or see early on?
Some of the iconography we see in the beginning of the film creates an innocence, which counteracts the evil we usually see in horror movies. The iconography we see, which we associate with being innocent, include children trick or treating and dressing up in different costumes. The parents have dressed their kids up in costumes which they perceive as innocent, but we would associate them as being sinister. For example, the fact that Mike is dressed up as clown when he was a child. The parents saw that as completely innocent, but clowns are now deemed as being evil due to the amount of horror movies based around them. These movies are made to distort your views of something being innocent/good. More iconography we see in the beginning which suggests innocence is the fact that Laurie is clearly virginal. We can assume this based on the very conservative, dull clothes she's wearing.
4. What was the main industry impact of Halloween?
Halloween made a lot of impact on the horror industry at that time. Halloween was one of the first slasher films to really gain any recognition at that time. It also inspired many more slashers to follow after it. It was definitely the most noted slasher film around that time. Something that also meant this movie would be so successful was the fact it was so cheap to make. Halloween was produce on a budget of around $300,000, and it made around $267 million as of 2016. When the movie came out it grossed $70 million worldwide. This huge success meant that there was a very large profit. A lot of other film makers would've then realised that they could make cheap slasher films which would gain them a large profit because slashers were then becoming popular around that time. Obviously, this soon ended as slasher films became repetitive and completely predictable. The public lost interest in it.
5. Name some "slasher" films which followed on from Halloween.
6. What are the four plot rules of the "slasher" film sub-genre which Halloween began?
The four plot rules of "slasher" films which Halloween started include the traumatic past event which creates the psychopathic killer. This was because they had to include some kind of information on how the killer came to be, but they don't want to include a story that's too distracting from the movie's actual story line. The second rule would be that the killer eventually returns to the place of the event, usually at a specific time/date. Including this allows the film makers to use a calendar motif in the title of the movie, which seemed to appeal more to the audience. The third rule is that the killer stalks and kills a group of teenagers with some kind of weapon which would create a graphic death. The fourth rule is that a 'final girl' survives at the end and she tries to get rid of the killer, usually being unsuccessful. The killer is never completely gone, which leaves an open door for sequels if the movie is successful.7. Give three ways in which Laurie is androgynous.
Laurie would be considered androgynous for various different reasons, but a few include the fact that she actually fought back against the killer. In most movies, we see a male character trying to fight the killer/villain back because men are viewed as being stronger and more capable than women. Another reason Laurie is androgynous is that she's not sexualised like all of the other girls in the film. While all the other girls wear tighter jeans, lower cut tops, lots of makeup, and high heels, Laurie is presented completely differently. She wears loose, baggy jeans with oversized jumpers which distort her figure. She also wears no makeup, going for the natural look. Straight away, you can tell that there's something different about this character, and that she's probably going to survive longer than the other girls.
8. What does the extract mean by "a reactionary sexual agenda"?
Halloween has been accused of having a reactionary sexual agenda because it seemed to promote the idea that teens having sex were bad, hence why they were killed, and not having sex was good, which is why Laurie survived. A lot of people were led to believe that the filmmaker did this purposely to create the stigma that sex was bad. Halloween was published when the sexual revolution was still thriving, but some people were still very against it. The sexual revolution was a movement that strived to create the idea that all sex should be accepted. However, some people still believed that sex should be saved for marriage. It would seem that the director also held these views, hence why he killed off all the characters who were sexually active.
9. How does the director, John Carpenter, counter the suggestion that Halloween had a reactionary sexual agenda?
John Carpenter had addressed the accusations of Halloween having a reactionary sexual agenda and jokingly claimed that he never meant to end the sexual revolution. The idea behind why all of the teens die, apart from the one virgin, is that they weren't killed because they were having sex, they were killed because they were too distracted by the idea of it. It's the same concept that teens in modern society are too distracted by technology and the media. Laurie survives, not because she was a virgin, because she wasn't distracted by anything and she was able to notice Mike stalking her. Carpenter has also stated that Laurie was Mike's intended victim all along. This is obvious at the start of the film when Laurie walks up to the house Mike is hiding in, and he is clearly watching her. After that, there were various other incidents where he was watching her. And at the end, Mike finally attacks her when he enters her house but doesn't end up actually killing her.
10. Why does Mike Myers kill his sister?
Friday, 23 September 2016
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