LO3

Producer and Audience

Different audiences are targeted by film producers in ways to ensure that the film is successful and makes them more money. The producer must find out what people want to see, in order for the film to be successful. The film must be marketed to the suitable audience for the particular film.

The 2011 film Captain America directed by Joe Johnson was released on the 19th of July and was expected to be successful with its $140 million budget. Captain America originally was a fictional superhero from comic books published by marvel comics. This meant that fans of the comics were the main target audience, and would want to see how the comic book superhero could make a film a success. The idea was taken for the film, and the storyline was similar. The main storyline of the film is about a poor homeless man from Brooklyn who transforms from Steve Rogers into Captain America. The film is set in World War 2 and the transformation of the homeless man is to help aid in the war effort.

Although the film was aimed at comic book fans, it was also a hit for women because of the main well known character playing Captain America; Chris Evan. Chris Evan played “the human torch” in the successful Fantastic 4 films. The producer of Captain America would have taken this into consideration, as he is already well known to fans of Fantastic 4 as a super hero character. With Fantastic 4 also being an original comic book, this makes him good for the role, knowing it is what people want to see. Although the audience could be seen as mainly for men, the producer would have targeted a female audience by using Chris Evan to play the main character with him being good looking.

The producer would have had to study the history of Captain America, as well as past and present super hero films in order to find out who his/her audience is. Also Primary, secondary, quantative and qualitative research would have been necessary for the film to be a hit. Below is the trailer for captain America. It was released in May 2011. Trailers are a good way to promote the film, and show parts of the film that will catch an audience’s attention and try to make them want to watch the film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JerVrbLldXw

Billboards are a good way to advertise a new film. Here shows a large billboard on a tall building. This is a good way for people to see it and it is hard to miss when driving or walking past. Billboards are mainly seen on next to busy roads and where many people are likely to see it. Billboards are a good advertisement technique because they are designed to catch a person’s eye, and therefore leaving them thinking about the film after they have gone past it. Only a few words are put onto a billboard advertisement so that if somebody is driving past at a high speed it still catches their attention. Bright colours and little writing make a billboard more effective.

Another form of advertisement of a film is YouTube. When using YouTube for music, movie trailers are often shown before the music video to advertise the film. So many people use YouTube which is a good way to get more people to notice the film and go and watch it at a cinema or buy it when it is released on DVD.

Facebook is an excellent way to advertise anything because over 500 million people have Facebook and half of them go on Facebook daily. The pages which people have viewed and ‘liked’ can be seen by the people who have also ‘liked’ them and their Facebook friends can also see this. If somebody was to like the page “Captain America” information and news about the film can be viewed and other fans who have liked the page can write comments and read people’s views and opinions. People can view what someone has ‘liked’ so it widens the range of viewers because more people might be interested in what their friends are.

The majority of people have at least 1 TV in their house, and most will watch TV at least once a day if not more. This means that an advertisement company will have no problem making sure people see what they are trying to advertise because of the large audience that will be watching TV.

The cinema is where a producer will want people to go to buy a ticket, and also watch advertisements for trailers before they see the film they have paid for. Making trailers look appealing is important so that people watching will want to then go and see that particular film in the future.

The target audience for Captain America is mostly people who are fans of comic books. The producers of the film casted Chris Evans as a main character, this is to attract women to want to watch the film because he is attractive. This makes the film also apply to couples. This makes more people want to watch the film therefore they will make more money.

Part 4

50/50 v The Thing

The Thing and 50/50 were both released within a month of each other in 2011 and i am going to compare which film did the best and made more money.

The Thing had a budget of $38 million and took in $27,428,670 on box office whereas 50/50 had a budget of $8 million and made $39,185,691 on box office. This shows that 50/50 made more money than The Thing, as well as working on smaller budget. This could be because the main character in 50/50 is Seth Rogan, who is well known for being funny and appearing in comedy films. Therefore the producer has used Star theory to boost the appeal for the film.

The Thing is about American scientists, who discover an alien buried deep in the ice of Antarctic which seems scary and interesting and in my opinion I would have thought more people would have wanted to see a film like this. Even though 50/50 is about a terminally ill man, the film was more successful and made much more money.

Comparing both trailers of the films in my opinion 50/50 looks the most appealing due to the producer using star theory to attract people to the film. People know that Seth Rogan is funny; therefore they will know that the film will have a lot of comedy even though it is about a terminally ill man.

Word of mouth is a good way to get people to watch a film because people trust other people’s opinions. This shows that maybe more people spread the word around about 50/50 rather than The Thing.

Part 5

All the films which Seth Rogan appears in are comical, so the public know that a new film starring him will be a huge hit because all the other films he stars in are. Although 50/50 is about a terminally ill man, the fact that Seth Rogan is a main character will still attract people to go and see it because of Reception theory and Star Theory.