Case Studies.

FILM FOUR:

How film4 advertises films using different platforms:

When watching Channel4, or a branch of their TV channels, films are regularly advertised for Film4. Being a digital channel, films are often advertised in TV guid magazines and in new papers. On Sky, they also have a +1 channel to insure the viewer they will not miss the film.

How Film4 exhibit films:

Film4 has films that are put out into cinema for example; Slumdog Millionaire, East Is East, How I Live Now and also 12 Years A Slave. They also make short films which they show once a month on their website. Another way they exhibit films in at the Flim4 Summer Screen at Somerset House, this is a open-air cinema, throughout the year, they also show films inside.

 

House Of Cards:

A series already- BBC 1990's.

MRC approached different networks with the series but Netflix, hoping to launch its own original programme, outbid the other networks. Netflix looked at the data of their users streaming habits and concluded that there was an audience for the programme. The ordered 26 episodes to stream over 2 seasons. All of their episodes from season 1 were put together, you didn't have to wait for the next episode.

Star Trek Into Darkness.

The Production Company: Paramount Pictures

The Production Budget: Budget $190 million

The Distributer: Paramount Pictures

Box Office Takings: $228, 778, 661

PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, EXHIBITATION OF FILMS:

Blockbuster films are normally films that are based around something thats already widely popular- this could be a TV programme, book/ comic, or part of a prequel or sequel. These films are therefore wanted by the audience (mainly mass) and take in a large profit. The distribution of the film is mainly through marketing to publicise their film as much as possible, this is done by things such as soundtracks, merchandise and advertising with posters and teaser trailers- some films even have Twitter or Facebook pages. Because it is very important for films to be advertised sometimes this can cost as much as the production- only because they are trying to publicise through as many industries as possible. But by doing this, a high anticipation for the film is created- resulting in more box office takings.

The exhibiting of the film is normally rented from the distributer after they see their marketing, and decide whether or not they wish to show it in the cinemas. Since the exhibitors are in control over the viewing, they can chose which date the film comes out, the best possible time for blockbusters is in the summer. The exhibitors know this and therefore they determine the total box office takings, and the way the film is recieved by the audience.

 

CASE STUDY: THE KING'S SPEECH

Stars In The Film:

Colin Firth- King George VI

Helena Bonham Carter- Queen Elizabeth

Derek Jacobi- Archbishop Cosmo Lang

Robert Portal- Equerry

Richard Dixon- Private Secretary

Geoffrey Rush- Lionel Logue

Calum Gittins- Laurie Logue

Origin Of Film:

UK

Budget:

£8 Million ($15 million)

Box Office Takings:

Over $414, 000, 000

Director;

Tom Hooper.

Producer;

Gareth Unwin, Iain Canning & Emile Sherman.

Production Company;

See-Saww Films, The Weinstein Company, Bedlam Productions and UK Film Council.

Distribution Company;

Momentum Pictures (UK) & The Weinstein Company (USA).

Marketing Strategies:

Played at film festivals 5 months before the release to build up suspense of such big British history- everyone wanted to see how it would be done. After, loads of papers were talking about it and tipping it for oscars before it had even been released.

The film also had several posters and trailers.

CASE STUDY: THE BOAT THAT ROCKED

CAST:

Mr. Roberts- Michael Hadley

James- Charlie Rowe

Mrs. Roberts- Lucy Fleming

The Count- Philip Seymour Hoffman

Carl- Tom Sturridge

Quentin- Bill Nighy

Simon- Chris O'Dowd

ORIGIN OF THE FILM:

UK.

BUDGET:

£50 mil

BOX OFFICE TAKINGS:

In the first 12 weeks of its release, the British Box Office revenues were less that a quarter of its production costs- £6.1 mil. But overall, it took around £321,798,109.

DIRECTOR;

Richard Curtis (Love Actually and Notting Hill)

PRODUCED BY;

Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Hilary Bevan Jones.

PRODUCTION COMPANY;

StudioCanal and Working Title Films.

DISTRIBUTION COMPANY;

Universal Pictures and Focus Features.

MARKETING STRATEGIES:

Simple yet very bright posters were put up everywhere to attract attention to the film- in total, the film had 7 posters.

They also had Merchandise (CD and posters) but not that many were sold.

The film also has an app for Apple.

THE BLAIRE WITCH PROJECT CASE STUDY:

Origin of film:

United States.

Budget:

$20, 000

Box Office Takings:

The film made around $140, 539, 099.

Directors;

Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick

Producers;

Robin Cowie and Gregg Hale

Production Company;

Haxan Films

Distributed;

Artisan Entertainment.

Marketing Strategies:

The film budget was very low at only around $20, 000 however it made around $140, 539, 099. What they did was start a website on which they slowly released little parts of information relevant to the story. However, those with no access to the internet got low budget trailers, for example... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Hw4bAUj8A however, they were only showed to pupils on a college campus or on the sic-fi channel to save money. Also, those with internet access could go to the IMDB page where the actors were said to be 'missing, presumed dead.' Leaflets and posters were also put out saying they were missing. All of this played with the audiences minds making them wonder if its actually true, if the people are real and whether if its fake or not. Making it a real success as people went to see it to answer the questions.

This was one of the film trailers.

Example of one of the posters.

Since the film was made before all the social media out there, it shows us films can actually be successful by not using them, even though many films have tried to replicate their use of film campaigning and failed. They decided to use the likes of newspapers and only short trailers playing with peoples minds and giving them an uncertainty by not giving too much away. This therefore tells us a lot about production and distribution as it had a low budget and never advertised as much as big blockbusters today. For the production of the film they mainly used handheld cameras which saved them a lot by not using professional equipment, and they even gave them back after using them! So in conclusion your production and advertising does no had to be so big for the film to still be popular.

CASE STUDY: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES:

Stars In The Dark Night Rises;

Christian Bale- Bruce Wayne

Gary Oldman- Commissioner Gordon

Tom Hardy- Bane

Joseph Gordon-Levitt- Blake

Anne Hathaway- Selina

Marion Cotillard- Miranda

Morgan Freeman- Fox

Michael Caine- Alfred

Matthew Modine- Foley

Origin Of The Film;

United Kingdom

United States

Budget:

$250- $300 million

The Box Office Takings;

$1,084,439,099

Director;

Christopher Nolan.

Producer;

Emma Thompson, Christopher Nolan & Charles Roven.

Production Company;

Syncopy Inc., DC Comics, Warner Bros Entertainment & Legendary Pictures.

Distribution Company;

Warner Bros

Marketing Strategies;
The marketing for TDKR began in Dec 2011, 6 months before the actual release date. Empire and Wired released two fictional CIA documents, in a kind of Wikileaks style. The first one was of Dr. Leonid Pavel and a transcript of a conversation between the CIA and militants who seem to be holding him.

There was also another document which lead to a website being released of a map with marked cities- they were cities in which people could catch prologues of TDKR during the M:I Ghost Protocol screening- the prologue reveals Bane, and the scene involved the CIA extraction.
There was also a # on twitter which revealed a little pixel of Bane for every person who tweeted it.

Domestic And Global Appeal:

TDKR earned $448,139,099 in North America and $636, 300,00 in other countries i.e Hong Kong and New Zealand. In North America it took an estimated $30.6 mil at the midnight showing.

ESSAY ON BATMAN: RIPPLE SHEET:

BATMAN ESSAY:

I think that for a film like Batman which was already very popular before the film with a mass audience from the DC Comics, the production practices is more important than the distribution. However, that does not mean that the money should lack in the distribution because you want it to still do well globally. Luckily the budget for the film was very large being $250-$300 million which allows them to buy all the high end technology that they need like an IMAX camera, as well as the all-star cast and locations. Thankfully the film ended up with a total gross of over $1,000,000,000!

The films are owned by Warner Bros who also distribute it, and they also own many other companies like DC Comics, and Home Entertainment, this is known as horizontal integration. With the success of the previous two in the trilogy the third one had to wow the audience and it would seem they anticipated it due to the great advertising given to them.

The distribution of the film was huge! It ranged from social media, to cars and to even joining with Mars chocolate. By doing this they attract to many audiences which targeted a mass audience, their target audience was from the age 14 and above so they knew they had to do this. Their biggest success was the social media by using a Twitter hash-tag poster decoding revealing the secret new character, and the use of hidden graffiti targeting the die hard US fans. The cross media convergence and synergy worked hand in hand for the success of the film, with the creation of websites and special food and drink to get tickets to the premiere everyone around the world was on edge over the film. Over the years there have been many big studio films with good productions, which still prove to be flops at the box office. For example: Jack The Giant Slayer, which was also produced by Warner Bros but it seemed to be a failure. One factor of this was that the cast was not as well know as TDKR, they had big names such as Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway and Morgan Freeman. Also the advertisement was very limited compared to Batman. Embarrassingly, there have been films that were made with a extremely lower budget that did a lot better.