Tuesday 16 December 2014

sightseers research task

StudioCanal
What was StudioCanal's original purpose? 

The original function was to focus on French and European productions, but later made strategic deals with American production companies. StudioCanal's most notable productions from its early years include Terminator 2: Judgment DayJFKBasic InstinctCliffhangerUnder SiegeFree Willy, and the original stargate movie. In those days, it was known as Le Studio Canal+.
Which big 6 company has connectios with StudioCanal?Studio canal is a spin of of canal+. Studio canal are very closely linked to one of the major 6 film companies, universal studios.
How large is StudioCanal's film library? studio canal have a small film library of 10 films having been founded in 1988.


BFI film fund - 
The purpose of the BFI film fund is to invest lottery money into film development, production and distribution in the british film industry. The budget is set to rise from £26m to £30m by 2017.

Film4 Productions
Who owns Film4 Productions?

channel four television corporation
When was it 're-established'?

It was re-established in 2006
Which TV chanel is it connected to?
Film 4 


Big talk pictures 
- total cross for all big talk films was $313,717,990
- they specialise in british films
- big talk was founded by Nira park. 

Which formats is the film available on?

TV, VOD, Magazines, National and Specialist Press, Outdoor – Underground, High Impact Online Display, Video, Social.

How was it released in the US (formats and release pattern)?
Didn’t have a release date at the time, and now it does. Sightseers will show you a love story like no other whenever it hits theaters on May 10.

How was it marketed how did StudioCanal help?

Gave away the movie for free. "It’s kind of counter-intuitive to give a movie away for free. But at the same time, if you’ve got a million people talking about it, that’s’ a pretty amazing bit of marketing. And if you’ve got big resources, you’ve got to use them."
sHow was twitter and facebook used to market the film? 

Created a Facebook and twitter page and kept up on information on the film. They made fake posters for the "missing dog". This made the film feel more realistic.

They set up deck chairs, camping chairs and trams to go with the theme of the movie at the premier.
How was Stella Artois involved? What is a Stella Artois bursary?
At the premier they were sponsored by stella artois and it was hosted by the drink too. 
Stella Artois Bursaries are unique funds that directly support the film community.


Monday 8 December 2014

The Grand Budapest Hotel Essay

"Successful media products depends as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices" to what extent would you agree with this statement,  within the media area you have studied?



I think film success is largely bound on the distribution to a particular audience and marketing. I think that these two elements are the most vital aspects to the film becoming a box office success. Different films have different distribution levels depending on the size of the company for example 20th century fox, they have a significant amount of control and influence due to them being such a big company they can distribute films on a global scale, this makes sure that films can be accessible by all audiences. 20th century fox is one of the most widely recognised and respected brands in the film industry, they have connections all over the world so they can insure that the film is marketed well in the media and on television. 20th century fox is well known for making successful films such as the Simpsons movie and the X-men franchise so it was a good company to use because a lot of people will go and watch it based on it being made by 20th century fox. The avengers is a film famous for its advertisement campaign. The advertisement for the avengers was very clever. Films prior to it were released for example iron man trilogy, thor, hulk etc. By these films being released it made people very exited and more eagerly awaiting the release of the avengers. The film made over $1.5 billion at the box office which is very good considering they had a huge budget of $220 million.


 A film that backs up my point that distribution and marketing are vital is the film DREDD. The film was produced by entertainment distributors and lionsgate production. The film was never going to be huge success because the budget was only $45 million, This meant they could not advertise the film as well as they would have liked because they just didn't have the budget, and they were not able to compete with films that have a much larger budget. The advertisement of the film was not the key issue. However the distribution of the film was very poor, it was only available in 3D in the majority of cinemas which put people off because 3D is not the success story it once was. This meant that a lot of people would have to travel far away to watch the film in 2D which is a huge inconvenience. However the films lack of success can not be blamed solely on poor distribution, the film was released near the time of the film 'the raid' which has an extremely similar storyline which again put people off watching it.




The Grand Budapest hotel had various marketing techniques to promote the film, the film was released in blue ray, this was popular because it allowed the customers to watch the film in multiple formats including regular dvd and blue ray players. The film was also promoted by releasing memorbillia from the film online for example fake moustaches and recipes from the cakes sold in the film. Large scale models of the hotel used in the film were transported to cinemas around the world so that it gave the customers a feel of what the hotel was like. These three key concepts were vital to the films $172 million box office profit, which is very good because it was a low budget film of $31 million. This film is a great example that if a film is marketed and distributed properly then a film of a low budget can be a success.


I think that if a film such as avengers has a huge budget it is going to be a success and people will watch it no matter what the marketing campaign is like. However for films such as The grand Budapest hotel the marketing is far more important and if its done correctly it can be a huge success.