Films Advertising Through New Modern Technologies

Companys and Institutions have started using more modern technology to advertise films, such as social networking sites, movie websites, email websites and instant messaging programs.
Facebook uses fan pages for new and upcoming movies where Facebook users can 'become a fan', allowing the page to pop up in their friends news feed and 'suggestions' section. Films can also have an event set up, which is for the release date and people can click to attend or not and comments can be made on the page. Many pages hold competitions, for example the Twilight Saga New Moon. You had to join the page to be able to enter/vote in a competition to win tickets for the London Premiere of the movie. This is all below the line advertising as you must view the pages yourself and join the pages.



MSN's homepage has a link to their movie section, which hosts traliors of new films, reviews, cinema showing times, photos and news. For example 'Brothers', 'up in the air' and 'armoured' are all featured on the website, they also allow you to take a virtual tour of Twilight's 'New Moon'. This website mainly shows high budget films starring well known actors. On MSN's instant messenging programme, a pop-up method is used in the corner of the screen to advertise things such as music, but also new films. If you happen to move your mouse over it, it will enlarge an advertisement. This is all below the line advertising as you must access it yourself. MySpace also use their homepage to advertise things such as competitions, interviews, new music and new films. Films can have official pages, with photos, videos that can be added to your profile, news and blogs and a chance to comment on the film.


Orange phone company have Orange Wednesdays where their customers can text for a code to get two for one at the cinema on a wednesday, encouraging them to go and see new films. Other major phone companies have text alert systems that you can sign up to, to get updates on the latest films.


YouTube hosts HD traliors, uploaded by companies that use YouTube to advertise as it has more users. The companies have their own accounts and pages of which they can have a film related background to advertise as well. On the trailors/video blogs/interviews uploaded, users can rate and comment and review for feedback.

Class & Status Stereotypes

Higher,lowermiddle and class stereo type

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Distribution

LICENSING
Licensing is official or legal permission to own or do something, such as trademarks. They are also needed to certify films with the suitable age group e.g U, PG, 12, 12A etc. Licenses usually entitle the director of a film royalties paid for by the distributor everytime a film is shown. Major film companies, e.g Working Title & Universal, have the sufficient contacts and money to get their film distributed world wide.
PRINTS & ADVERTISINGThe quantity of prints produced depends on the film, whether it is low or high budget. Smaller budget films, i.e Dead Man's Shoes, will produce around ten prints to go around one country. Bigger films i.e 2012, with a larger budget, can afford to have around 1000 prints produced so that they can distribute it world wide.

A few methods of common advertising are methods such as posters on bilboards and buses and trailers and these are sent to press releases, interviews and cinemas. The larger film companies have more contacts and higher budgets, giving them an advantage with good press and bigger promotion methods. Above the line marketing, like magazine interviews and television adverts will heighten the publics awareness of the film and create hype.
DIGITAL DISTRIBUTIONDigital Distribution is involving computers like downloads etc. This works out better for independent film companies as it cuts costs on prints and will reach a larger audience as there are no limitations to sending it out.
FILM MARKETINGFilm companies release films on a Friday as the cinema's are most popular on a weekend, and avoid releasing it at the same time as another film with a similar genre/story line. An average of 10 films are released per week, making this more difficult. The film producers have to pay a fee to get the film on the market but a few film companies e.g Working Title have verticle integration which cuts distribution costs. It allows them to distribute it themselves instead of having to pay other companies.

Logistics Of Distribution

Logistics Of Distribution

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Comparing Marketing Techniques

Bridget Jones' Diary



used synergy marketing, where the company uses another companys successful products in order to promote their product. For instance, Bridget Jones' diary had adverts for the film on the wrappers of Galaxy chocolate and used Coca-Cola enterprises to be interviewed. Other products/companies that helped to promote the film were The Body Shop, Virgin Megastores, Atlantic and msn.com.
Most high budget films use a lot of visual marketing, which is advertising in the public. Bridget Jones used bilboards, adverts on buses, posters and television and cinema trailers. Lifetime TV also presented 30 clips to promote it.
Product placement is when products use the film to advertise themselves and in Bridget Jones, this technique is used by Galaxy chocolate and Wonderbra.
The Boat That Rocked


used synergy marketing by having a 60 song soundtrack and spotify advertising playlists for the film, as the film was strongly based on music.
They used visual marketing with posters, competitions, computer and phone wallpapers and trailers.
Two products advertised within their film which were Typhoo Tea and Roberts Radio.

James Bond, when advertising their film or advertising products within their film, went for a lot higher market things such as technology, Rolex, Aston Market etc. James Bond is worldwide known and mostly appeals to men, so technological products being involved with the film will relate more to the films audience.

Media Male Gaze

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Promotion Strategies

Above The Line marketing is marketing on a grader scale e.g trailers, bilboards and posters in magazines, on television and on the radio. These are ways of marketing that let you know about the film without you purposely going to find out about it. A film that uses these Above The Line methods is Star Wars, a very successful and big budget film.
Below The Line marketing is marking on a smaller scale e.g viral marketing, websites and youtube. With these methods, you have to take it upon yourself to find out about the film, for example you'd have to access a website yourself.

2012- budget: $200 million - $4 million spent on advertising
The Men Who Stare At Goats- budget: £25 million
Bunny & The Bull- budget: less than £10 million

The internet is a huge and successful way of promoting film release. Paramount's marketing executive used eventful.com to have movie-goers demand that new film 'Paranormal Activity' play in their local town. The town with the most votes would win a booking and if the film scored one million votes, then the film would be released nationwide, so the film release was decided by the public. These days, more marketing producers are finding more adventurous ways of promoting their film instead of just hard-selling methods on audiences.

How does the budget of a film of an institution affect the production practises used to appeal to the target audience?

The budget of a film institution affects the production practises used to appeal to the target audience because if a film has a higher budget, it can appeal to a broader audience e.g using higher profile actors to give them a bigger reputation and attracting more of an audience, making the film over-all more successful. For instance, in This Is England, it opened with many clips of historical events of the time (the eighties), which would appeal to the older audience who experienced the eighties. The film focusses on a young actor, who is a likeable character and so appeals to a wider audience again. If the film used bigger known actors it would widen the audience even more, but using unknown actors reactes more realism and makes you feel as if you're watching real life, so this way suits the film more.

Higher budget films can create purpose built sets which are more relevent to the film and make it look more professional and more appealing.

Hot Fuzz was a high budget film, which affected the actors they could hire (Simon Pegg, Nick Frost) which attracted people to it and it used a range of professional sets. The higher budget allowed the film to take on a range of genres like action and comedy, broadening the audience even more.

Dead Man's Shoes however was a lower budget film and did not have the money to appeal as much of an audience. The film would have appealed mainly to British, working class adults as it was based on violence, drugs, working class and swearing, making the age range older and making it unappealing to higher class people.

Low & High Budget Properties

I have learnt that low budget films, to keep their cost reasonable, do not use many/any extras and so the films usually look as if filmed in very desolate areas. Their sets usually have a basic feel and natural lighting is used to avoid having to pay for purpose built sets and special lighting equipment and if they use any special effects, they are usually very basic.

A high budget film invests in extra's and flashy settings (purpose built sets etc). The sets are professional looking and recogniseable actors/actresses are used to widen the 'bullseye', the viewing audience. This gives the film a good reputation and makes people more interested to watch it and people will have a higher expectation of the film.

Working Title & Warp Films Research

AOs
Production Practices to appeal to audiences
Distribution and Marketing strategies to raise audience awareness
New technologies to help target specific audiences
Audience and how they challenge institutions

1. Working title are a British film company that produce feature films and some television productions. Warp films is a sister company to Warps Records which is based in Sheffield. Working title is independent and Warp films is part of a conglomerate with Madman entertainment and they have agreed to make at least two films together in the next three years.
2. The ownership of the company affects the budget of the film because if two companies are working on one film, they can make it a higher budget film or if a company is rich. If the company is not so successful on it’s own then it will have to use a lower budget.
3. Working Title has produced films such as; About A Boy, Atonement, Billy Elliot, The Boat That Rocked, the Bridget Jones movies, Dead Man Walking, Hot Fuzz, Love Actually, Nanny McPhee, Pride & Prejudice, Shaun Of The Dead & Thunderbirds. Warp Films have produced films such as; My Wrongs, Dead Man’s Shoes, Rubber Johnny & This Is England.
4. The film Bridget Jones Diary was produced by Working Title and had an estimated budget of $26 million and made £282 million. The film This Is England was produced by Warp Films and had a budget of £1.5 million and it made £315,000 profit.
5. The production budget of Back To The Future had a production budget was $19 million and the film profit was $381.11 million
6. Working Title get their funds from C4 and BBC and Warp Films were funded by NESTA in their early stages and went on to be funded by the UK Film Council, the National Lottery, FilmFour and regional funding bodies.
7. Because Warp Films budget is quite low, they make short films like music videos etc and they only produce English films.
8. ?
9. The target audience of both film companies are British young adults.
10. The main genre of Working Title films are comedies and family films.

Film Budgets

We researched the film budgets of Hot Fuzz (£8 million) and Dead Man's Shoes which was £723,000