Evaluation- Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Who Is Our Films Audience??

As our film is a British social realism/chickflick we decided the audience that would best fir our film is teenage girls. This is because the central character of our film is a girl, therefore a girl audience will empathise with her and understand her more emotionally than boys.

Similar Types of Film to Ours

Looking at our film I would say the genre is British social realism or drama, if we were to make the rest of the film, and also a little chickflick, simply because of the main character being a girl with a dilemma. When Rosy and I decided to make our film opening we took our inspiration from films such as MeanGirls and Pitch Perfect, which both contain comedy and humour. Our film does not, therefore I would place it in British Social Realism. This is because of the British looking teen, and her setting, grey sky. Its slightly like This Is England, however not set in the 80s or 90s. The reason for it being a British Social Realism is because of the lighting, character and story, the characters problem is  mental issue, she struggles with it, making the film a drama.

Films that inspired us:

• MeanGirls
• Pitch Perfect
• Easy A

Films that are similar to ours:

• This Is England (British Drama)
• Trainspotting (black comedy/drama)
• Easy A
• Billy Elliot

I think the film Billy Elliot is quite similar, firstly because of the British essence of it, its a film that’s purely about lifes struggle for acceptance. This links to our film because the girl has the problem with herself, she shares a problem like Billy Elliot. Also the lighting and dullness of the sky making the colours in the film also dull but representing real life.

 

 

Evaluation- Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I have made a presentation on the programme Prezi to display who our audience is for our film opening.

http://prezi.com/l1tsnx8z4far/who-would-be-the-audience-for-your-media-product/

Evaluation- Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Here is our sound cloud recording, written by Jess Morris and said by Rosy Louis

Distribution Case study: Attack The Block

Attack The Block is a British Monster movie which was made in 2011. It is written and directed by Joe Cornish in his directorial debut and it comes from the same writing and production stable as other horror/comedies such as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

• The target Age for this film is 15-34 year old men and women of all classes, but particularly teenagers as this is an action monster movie with some comedy in too.

The film was released on 11 May 2011 in The UK, in 66 theaters. On its opening theatrical weekend in the UK in May 2011, Attack the Block made £1,133,859, putting it in third place only slightly behind American blockbusters Thor and Fast and Furious 5; also in the opening weekend Attack the Block had the highest cinema site average by almost twice of the other films. On a screen-by-screen basis, Attack the Block was the week’s strongest performer.The Production Company was Big Talk Pictures, StudioCanal, UK Film Council,Film4 Productions. The film was distributed by StudioCanal.

• The Films Budget was £8M and in the BoxOffice it made £3,831,475.

The films a narrow range of not very well known actors which were south London city teenagers, except for Nick Frost which was an advantage as it brought international Nick Frost fans to this film.

• The films lifetime Worldwide gross was $5,824,175.

The close date of the film being available in cinemas was September 29, 2011, which gave people plenty of time to see it in cinemas.

StudioCanal chose to promote Attack The Block through social networking sites such as Facebook, which would cost nothing but still get people talking. This was good as the films existence was spread through these sites through them talking about the release.

As Film4 Productions had also contributed to the production of Attack The Block, the film also aired on Channel 4 and Film4 without any added cost, which would have resulted in an increasing awareness of the film and gaining extra profit, as well as an option for the public to rent the film on Film4oD.

Digital distribution will become significant in the consumption of Attack The Block, as it will allow for enough money to be made back if it hasn’t already done so, and was also important during the marketing stages of the film, as although little money could be spent on an extravagant promotion campaign, the use of online methods meant that information could be spread quickly.

US distributors were concerned that American audiences might not understand the strong South London accents, and may have even used subtitles if it were to be released in the United States. Cornish acknowledged this during the SXSW Q and A. When he asked the audience, “Can I ask you guys something? American distributors are nervous about language, the slang” the audience said they could understand it.

• The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in the UK on 19 September 2011.

Play.com have an exclusive Blu-ray and DVD double play edition, with a glow-in-the-dark sleeve, featuring the bio-luminescent jaws of one of the creatures.

 

Evaluation- Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film is largely based around teenage girls and their problems and how they deal with them

Gender: Females

her clothes are feminine as she wears a skirt and cardigan, this represents her character, she is a normal girl on the outside, you cannot notice her fears and worries. She has natural makeup, displaying how she doesn’t like to be in the spotlight. Her green converse are battered and dirty, suggesting she spends alot of time outdoors as that is her way of calming herself from her anxiety.

In our film opening our character is lonely, she is by herself, this suggests she isolates herself from other people, she likes to be by herself, this is shown when she rushes outside and sits by a tree listening to her music. Her music is her life and keeps her happy and calm.

This character represents the outcast people who feel they are too ashamed or frustrated to share their problems, they keep it to themselves, this is not the way you should handle your worries, however people still do it and it just leaves them sad and worrisome. This character however has found a way to handle her anxiety, she listens to her music, this brings her piece of mind back down to earth where she can wind down and let her fears float away. She represents alot of teenagers across the world who have to handle with conditions such as mental problems, anxiety, fear. The character simply teaches that there is a way to handle it, you must find what works for you, what keeps you calm and happy.

This short film has a setting partly indoors, but is mostly filmed outdoors. There is a meaning of this. The outdoors is a place of nature, there are birds, trees, flowers, grass and sky. The calming sound of bird songs and the whistle of the wind links to the characters anxiety issues as the outdoors provides her with somewhere where she can go which makes her feel happy and herself. She is not a teenager who spends her time on social media, is obsessed with ipads and technology and is wrapped up in her own selfishness. She is a girl of nature who just longs for her anxiety to not get the better of her and embarrass her.

 

 

Distribution Case Study: A Field In England

How was a Field in England distributed?

A Field In England is an experimental, genre busting film set in the English Civil War and Directed by Ben Wheatley. The date that A Field In England was released, was on the 5th July 2013 in cinemas, VOD, DVD,  and free terrestrial broadcast on Film4. The beauty of this idea is that this particular film was released on all platforms, therefore making the awareness of the film large as you are releasing it on many platforms a larger amount of people are going to see it or notice it. This film’s budget was £316,879 with £112,000 Publicity and Advertising spend supported by £56,701 from the BFI (British film Industry) and was fully financed by Film4. This films release plan was enthusiastically supported by Channel 4, Film4, Picturehouse Cinemas etc. This film budget was fairly low at £316,879 reduced the financial risk and created room for freedom and invention

• The Film was shown in 17 cinema screens and on the opening weekend the film took  £21,399 from the 17 venues.
• 77% of the cinema audience said that they knew that the film was going to be available in television, however still proceeded to view it at the cinema, as you get the cinema experience and excellent quality.
• During the Film4 free screening the film averages 367,000 viewers.
• The total television reach of the film was 918,000 viewers, 1.8% of the population.
• The combined HMV and Amazon DVD and Bule-Ray sales reached 1462, with Blue-Ray outselling DVD.
• The Primary cinema audience was 18-25 year olds, and frequent cinema goers in the 25-35+ bracket which would possibly have been aware of Wheatley’s work. The film audience was expected to skew towards men. A Field In England was aimed at the same demographic group as Shaun Of The Dead and Attack The Block.
• Interviews with the executives suggest the film would not have bettered from being released on single platforms at separate times.

The marketing plan was to build interest across all platforms, including social media channels and related websites, as well as TV channels. From this Wheatley and the whole cast supported the release plan and mobilised their active social fan base by advertising on twitter and other social media sites. This whole release idea was not an afterthought but an integral part of the development. This was a fresh approach to release and looked promising. Aswell as having a television channel, Channel 4 has its own DVD label (4DVD) which also distributes to transactional  VOD platforms such as iTunes, this was an excellent link which gave the film companies which supported it. The Channel was enthusiastic about the approach, the idea of compressing the windows was seen by both sides as a good way of enhancing the value of their respective platforms as it makes people hurry to see the film and forces them to go before its taken away.

One of the key obstacles that this day and date strategy had to overcome was a cinema boycott, which is when the cinemas want the film exclusive to only cinemas and no other platforms to compete with. In this case for a Field In England, if the cinemas had boycotted it, it wouldn’t have made much difference  as it was only released on 17 cinema screens.

A Field In England had a significant advantage as the film maker had a strong and active fan base, who have a keen interest in new forms of communication and distribution. (12000 followers on twitter)

The support from Film4 was a major factor because it has the strength of being recognisable in UK television and Film as a brand which is associated with quality innovation. Channel 4 also offered another important means of marketing to a large audience. The exhibitor and distributor was Picturehouse Cinema, it helped devise, refine and execute the strategy. Picturehouse cinema had the major advantage of local loyalty towards its cinemas around the world as it has the reputation of good quality cinemas around the UK.

The aim of all parties was to build a single momentum around the film in all the platforms to make its opening weekend a real event. Making this plan work with such broad ambitions and many moving parts, was highly challenging and the end result was a considerable achievement.

• Premium pricing for iTunes was not possible as the was not an exclusive VOD window, Apple sets the prices of their VOD offers therefore the film makers have no say in the cost of the VOD price.
• The theatrical release for A Field In England was Picturehouse Cinemas, the company has existing relationships with Channel 4 and Film4.
• A Field In England creates ‘one pot’ where everyone shares the risks and rewards across all platforms so that everyone involved gets treated fairly.
• The film took a risk because it was released on DVD and VOD people could be made suspicious, questioning the quality because when a film doesn’t get released in the cinema first and just goes straight onto DVD it is usually because the film is not that good. This was one of the questions raised about the quality. To overcome this the directors ensured all platform release was marketed as a virtue, entirely in tune with a high quality unconventional film.
• Wheatley himself was a significant part of the marketing plan, playing an active role with helping support the film, he had an active use of twitter and took park in special Q&A screening.
• One aspect of the marketing project was an engaging website commissioned by film 4.0, in collaboration with Wheatley and Rook films.

The opening weekend picked up 2213 admissions with a screen average of £1295 from 17 sites finishing at number 20 in the UK chart.

Channel 4 research found the film averaged 367000 viewers during the free television screening.

• The release did not include subscription VOD services, such as Netflix and LoveFilm, these followed after.
• 54% of under 35s said online advertising and social media was the primary source of awareness , compared with 35% of the over 35s
• There was 100,000 embeds of the video in third party sites.
• The film was given heavy attention for such a low budget film.
• 58% of men say they would ‘definately’ recommend the film against 35% of women.
• Twitter accounted for the majority of mentions on social media sites with 94% of total traffic. The film trended number 1 on twitter on the friday of the release.
• 68% of the cinema audiences said they would be interested in a second viewing, 27% siad they would consider buying the DVD/Blue Ray, 14% on television and 10% at the cinema.
• The Q&A was a major draw for this film, which may have exaggerated the cinema interest.
• Social Media was the primary source of awareness amongst the target under 35s audience, there was only a minority of negative reactions.
• One promising by-product of simultantious releasing is that cinema, television and on demand audiences can all join the online conversation at the same time.
• On smaller scale some cinemas built in added value extras, such as Sealed Knot drummers and real ale (supported by sponsers).
• The key participants each ensured that their audiences were kept informed of developments throughout the distributionperiod. The use of social media was often exemplary, ensuring a high degree of interaction, showing how different platforms ‘engage’ audiences in different ways.

The art of momentum building:

• A sense of anticipation and expectation is essential to any event and this film succeeded according to all the measurable data.

Evaluation- Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

yourprezi

 

 

 

 

Makeup Video for Daisy Chain

This is the makeup video Rosy and I made of me doing Graces makeup before we filmed, we used final cut to edit it and add music etc.

New Ident

Rosy and I decided to make a new ident for our film opening to fit the theme, we decided on an elegant ident. This consisted of a branch which grows on the screen and a butterfly lands and sits on it, the words ‘Original Sin’ then appear next to the branch as the butter fly stays perched on the leaves flapping its wings. The butterfly then moves off over the words making them disappear as it flies past.

We decided to make the new ident because our old one really didn’t fit with our film and wouldn’t have flowed once put with the opening.

Kevin Smith- Red State (2011)

 Kevin Smith is a film director from New Jersey and his first movie was Clerks in 1994 which was filmed in the convenience store in which he worked but was only allowed to film there when the shop was closed at night however his film won the highest award at the Sundance Film Festival.

He called himself a “fat stoner” before he started making films, simply implying how if anyone works hard enough then they can do it, if they are determined.

He realised for his films to gain an audience he needed to advertise and distribute them in the correct way, get an exhibitor and just basically find people who know how to pitch a film in the best way possible!

Red State-

Red State is  an American horror action film , written and directed by Kevin Smith himself in 2011 , starring John Goodman, Melissa Leo and Michael Parks.

Smith started off in November and December 2010 distributing teaser posters which were released featuring characters from the movie. He released a teaser trailer for his film on 23rd of December 2010.

With this film Kevin Smith was originally going to auction off his film to a distributor at a controversial event to be held after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, however decided to distribute the film himself by purchasing then distributing it under the SModcast Picture banner with a traveling roadshow in select cities starting on March 5th at Radio City Music Hall, taking the film tour across North America before officially releasing the movie on VOD and DVD in September 2011 through Lionsgate,he also released it in select theaters again for a special one-night only engagement on September 23, 2011.

But was it successful?

Obviously there was mixed reviews in terms of the actual film itself and the plot etc however it seemed a success as it was watched and reviewed by many. In October 2011, Red State won the Best Motion Picture award at the 2011 Sitges Film Festival. Smith stated in his book that foreign gross from his Red State screening tour and millions from Video-on-Demand and Netflix streaming rights helped the film turn a profit from its $4 million budget. This just goes to show how important the distribution of the film is when finding its audience and getting the publicity it deserves.

Distribution of films and ‘A Field in England’

In lessons this week we have been looking at the distribution of the film ‘A Field in England’. With this particular film the distribution of it had to be carefully thought out, as without effective distribution , film product rarely finds an audience.

The distributers challenge for a film launch can be summarised as:

• Identifying the films audience as no film has a universal appeal so the has to be a specific type of person the film is aimed at.
• Estimating revenue potential across all platforms- for example sales from iTunes, cinema viewings, DVD sales etc.
• Building awareness and maintaining interest, advertising making sure people know about this new amazing film.
• Persuading exhibitors to present the film, using film sales and film festivals.
• Persuading the audience to watch it by making the adverts and trailers for it intriguing and exciting, also advertising it everywhere like on buses and within cinema buildings.

The top six distributors are also the major studios and these include:

• Sony Pictures
• 20th Century Fox
• Warner Bros
• Universal
• Disney
• Paramount

These studios occasionally make a tent pole film in which they take the risk as the film has to be huge, for example Harry Potter as the studio already knows its success therefore being responsible for it as a film wouldn’t be too much of a risk as the film is notorious for being greatly loved and already has fans.

A Field in England cost £300 thousand, of which £184 of this was allocated to media advertising, and the rest on film prints, advertising production, publicity, premiers and related costs. the average Hollywood movie cost approximately $100 million to make and a further $50 to distribute. A Field in England used typical UK co-production and found partners from UK TV in Film4 and 4DVD.

A Field in England used various platforms in their audacious approach to distribution generating media interest and debate about the future of the current Hollywood model with its staggered release windows which usually take months. This approach was a release in more than one platform which made sure the film found its audience and let people come to it without having the panic of being around for one week before its gone because another marvel movie fills the cinema screens.

Advantage of releasing a film just in the cinema:

• People like the cinema experience, the atmosphere of all the other movie fans around you appreciating the content of what they are watching. The film is a spectacle and every audience member appreciates it. Cinemas also have the excellent sound systems, food and drink, comfortable seating, big screens, imacs and also the 3D visuals. People like that as it i a trip out and doesn’t disappoint.

Disadvantage of Cinema

• Can be expensive, the food is usually over priced so that the cinemas make a profit, you would have to pay for parking if you drove, and if you include the price of the actual cinema tickets then a trip to the cinema can be up to£20 for two people. Is that good value for money? I think that VOD is better if your talking in terms of money.

Advantage of releasing film in VOD (Video on Demand):

• This includes buying or renting the film from places like iTunes, Sky, BT Vision, Virgin or Amazon. You pay a one time fee and have access to the film for a certain number of hours, this is convenient, you don’t need to leave the house, you also have an instant service and because you have bought it electronically, there is no disk so it cannot get accidentally scratched etc. Also there are no adverts because you’ve paid for the film so they wont bore you with extra irrelevant things.

Advantage of buying the film in retail:

• This is buying the DVD, this has advantages such as you can watch it as many times as you please and there is no limit, also you can pause and stop it when it suits you. You also have control over the volume, when you watch it and where. There are also special features and maybe directors commentaries and if you are deaf you can get subtitles. You can also buy the film in Blue Ray which improves the quality, sounds and visuals. Some people appreciate it more than others meaning you can have almost a cinema experience in your own home.

Advantages of having the film on TV:

• First of all its free, all you have to do is tune in at watch it at the right time. You can also record it on your TV which means you can fast forward the adverts and watch the actual film whenever you want.
• It generates word of mouth because people might discuss it at school or work the next day ‘Did you see ‘bla bla’ last night?’. It simply increases awareness of the film, making it have a wider audience and be a big talking point. It would also be trending on twitter whilst being shown, again generating advertising.

Disadvantages:

• The quality is lower than that of a cinema screen or blue ray.
• The film might be played in daytime and if it is a 15, the censored parts will be cut out, possibly making the film not make any sense. This can be a burden if its your favorite film.

Typical Hollywood films tend to be released in the cinema first before released on DVD, VOD and TV. Huge Tentpole films like Harry Potter,  Avatar or The Hunger Games were all released in cinema with a big build up of advertising and lots of anticipation. These films already had an approved audience therefore taking the risk of releasing the film on one platform and having trailers and using posters on buses etc didn’t make the audience loose interest. However sometimes anticipation can be a down side of releasing a film as it subjects people to piracy which is illegal, the main reason why people illegally watch new films is because it may have been released in one country and not another, the simple answer for this problem is for release dates of films to be on the same day in all countries.

Digital Democratisation: the idea that digital technologies will disrupt the hegemony of the media industries, enabling the public to produce and distribute their own content and have a greater freedom of access to content.

Pop Up Cinema:

Film can be great in the cinema and at home, but it can be enjoyed in other countless venues or scenarios. Pop-up cinema is a creative and non traditional mode of exhibition, where films are screened in car parks, gardens, board rooms, community centers and pubs.

The Great British summertime provides an excellent time to do Pop-up cinema, screening both old and new films.

Here are a couple of examples:

Pop-up cinemas can be seen as Urban Recycling, as they re use disused settings, having a vintage feel of decadent interiors, popcorn, paper tickets all evoking the feeling of traditional cinema going rather than modern multiplex.

Filming ‘Daisy Chain’

In the half term break Rosy and I filmed our shots for out film opening Daisy Chain. Using my sister Grace as Daisy our main character, my garden as our location we set to work filming the shots on our storyboard. We came across several problems when filming here are the obstacles we overcame:

1. The camera ran out of charge after an hour of filming, stupidly I should have checked before we even started filming but it didn’t cross my mind unfortunately. But we simply charged the battery whist having lunch.

2. We needed a rather large audience for one of our shots, and we simply didn’t have that many people to hand. We still decided to film the shot just without the audience as we thought we might be able to edit them in.

3. Another problem was our location, our original plan was to use my garden for the outside filming, and the school for the stage filming. However, we came across a rather clever idea, in my house we have a little puppet stage, therefore we filmed this puppet stage close up, and then Grace’s face and if we edit it well we can make it look like she is in the stage.

Things that went right were:

1. The makeup and costume of our main character.

2. The weather for the outdoor location in the garden.

3. We managed to get all the filming done in one day.

4. We got all the shots we needed and extras, also filming each shot three times.