Successful media products are dependant on marketing and distribution. Many films find that advertising their film well is a good way of making money. They need to set the standard very high so they stand out and make a good impression and status for the film, this is so that the audiences are grasped and have more intention of seeing the film if it is advertised well. Marketing has a massive contribution to a film successfully making money, it means that the film is commonly more well known. The way in which they can justify in making sure that a range of people see/know about the film is to advertise globally. This initially means that you have to spend money to make money. Successful media is dependant on marketing to the correct people/ target audience.
Huge companies such as Disney use their size to promote and publish. A giant word wide company like Disney can fix itself to any type of film to give it credibility and therefore great media attention. As they are such a big company they have the ability to make a film well known and to release it to the public so that everyone is aware of the film. Working with such a large company would mean your film would become a lot more popular and it would make a very good impression. More people are likely to watch the film if they know it is partnered with such a big company as they already have high expectations associated with companies such as Disney, Universal etc. An example of this would be The Avengers, they put an estimated $100 million in promotions behind the $220 million film, in addition to Disney's own estimated $150 million marketing budget.
Smaller companies would usually converge to achieve something they would not be able to do independently. Once combined they can use the best resources in able to produce a high quality film. Small comapnies do not have the ability to attract the biggest budgets. When attracting big movie A listers it means straight away the film is more likely to appeal to a bigger range of people. When knowing there is a big star in the movie more people are likely to go and watch it as they will have high expectations and are more entitled to thinking the movie could have potential when including such a famous actor, this is a really good way to advertise.
The Grand Budapest Hotel was paired with; American Empirical Pictures, Indian Paintbrush and Babelsburg Studio. Grand Budapest Hotel had excellent views and was rumoured for selection of an oscar. The audience have described the film as "a brilliantly entertaining fantasy outing by Wes Anderson" and a "Absurd, funny exciting, violent and colourful film". When realising comments like that the public will be more drawn to the film and with such great reviews they are more willing/wanting to watch it themselves. Joining with different tyes of companies will effectively reach out to different people and will give a range of audiences. One way in which you can effectively advertise a film is through the internet. 3 billion people have the resources to use the internet, websites such as youtube are extremley important for film comapnies. This is because they can uplod film teasers or trailers, that are free to watch for the general public. A lot of the time it is free to uplaod to youtube so it is therefore a simple and cheap way of advertising. The Grand Budapest Hotel created their advertising through their own created website. It has little snippet props of the film which you can discover and look at yourself. Things such as Mendls cakes and Madame D's will. It is a really fun way to become intact with the film and get the audience involved. The Grand Budapest Hotel also created a repleca of the hotel that they would take round the the premier cinemas so that the audience can be part of their very own Grand Budapest Hotel. They get to experience what it is like, this is a brilliant and very unique way in advertising as it has never really been done before. It adds to the excitement of the film and will be more remembered by the public. The Grand Budapest Hotel also starred many A list celebrities such as Jude Law, Owen Wilson, Ralph Fiennes, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwartzan. All of these Actors have reoccured in all of Wes Anderson's films. Having such big stars in your movie means it will be a lot easier to promote. This film was also in association with Prada, this means it is targeted to a high class audience. These are people who would be the ones to use the cinemas that contain bars, and have meals whilst watching the film. Having a high class target market means more money is being made as the ticket prices would be higher and they are also selling food and drinks.
Dredd is a film that couldn't afford advertising. This is because the distributors did not think the film was good enough to advertise. They didn't believe that the film would make enough money therefore they didn't think it would be worth advertising. Dredd lost money at box office and was unsuccessful. They didn't give a range of options for the film. The film was only released in 3D apart from only a few cinemas in the UK that did it in 2D, meaning that you would have to travel long distances. This lost them a lot of viewings and money as no one could be bothered to drive far if they didn't want to see it in 3D. After a while, they completely cut off all 2D films of Dredd, this is very bad distribution. Not many people had heard or knew about Dredd because of the very little advertising it produced. Dredd got good reviews but unfortunately that did not increase the amount of money it made. There is no point in advertising to the wrong target audiences else the film will make no money.
Overall I agree with the statement that successful
media products do depend on advertising. I think this because if they are not
distributed or marketed the film will not become popular and make enough money
to be successful. Marketing has a massive contribution to making money, if it
does then the company and producer will get a good reputation which will help
in the future when they produce more films. In the long run advertising is a
good way to create attention towards the film. In my opinion this statement
will always be true. The importance of a global international audience is what
makes the success of the film without it the film industry would not make
enough money.
Katie, as you begin by mentioning Disney it might be wise to start with The Avengers as an example of a film distribution. Look into the various ways the films were marketed (mention the fact that all previous Marvel films have been designed to publicise the Avengers) and distributed (find facts about how many screens it was released on and the various formats it could be watched on at both the cineam and home)
ReplyDeleteIn your section about a high quality film try and give your own opinion as to what makes a 'high quality film' and specifiy a film you regard as such.
Try and extend your point about Dredd, find evidence for how well the film was marketed but how the distribution strategy let it down. Give specific details on screens and find out how much it took in DVD sales which meant a sequel was more likely. Also bring in the fact that it followed the film the raid which followed a similar story line.