Alex Hooseman

Successful media products depend 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 agree with this statement that media products depend on marketing and distribution to the audience as a crucial element to film finance and the films overall success at the box office. In an attempt to produce the largest amount of money possible, companies within the film industry need a large a wide distribution, whether it is the distribution company, for example 20th Century Fox, an element of The Big Six, to advertise the film through trailers, posters merchandise so that money can be generated from countries across the world to increase the chances of a profit to be generated, or hardware copies of the film through DVD and Blu-Ray as the numbers of items can be controlled and therefore can be crucial to a films success by influencing the audience to purchase items to promote and advertise the film. Also there is Video On Demand or VOD to consider as a another tool to boost the overall profit and success of a film because the film can be viewed using many different service providers such as Netflix or Sky On Demand as this allows the film to be viewed for free but these service providers pay the production companies to allow the film to be viewed using this method.

Large production companies have the capability to distribute their films globally. This allows the film to be viewed by all audiences from different countries across the world and accessible at their original release. Well-known companies such as companies within The Big Six such as 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros, have the capability to promote their films and merchandise by the use of television commercials in between programmes. This occurs on television channels such as ITV and Channel 4 in the UK. This again ensures that the film can be a potential success by presented the audience with brief insights through trailers in between programmes on popular television channels. This draws in the attention of the audience, and if there is interest, persuade them to watch the film either at cinema or contribute to the success of the film by purchasing hardware or additional merchandise available.

A film example to support this is the 2012 blockbuster hit, The Avengers or Avengers Assemble (this title was mainly used in the UK and Ireland). This film was directed by Joss Whedon, a highly regarded screenplay writer and director and was produced by Kevin Feige. The production company that made this film was Marvel Studios and the distributing companies that help to promote the film include Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures (since Marvel is owned by Disney) and Paramount Pictures. The films budget was a newsworthy $220 million, a common total amongst comic book superhero films. The large total of this film could be due to the high expectation of the film by the audience as the greatest heroes of the franchise unite as one or by having additional money from the distribution companies for advertisement from Paramount Pictures, a company with in The Big Six. The methods of advertisement that this film offered include many online film trailers, television trailers, movie posters, action figures and merchandise and hardware DVD and Blu-Ray copies of the film. After time from the films original release, services providers such as Netflix and Sky On Demand, so that the audience could watch the film via the comfort of their own home. The use of trailers and other methods of advertisement are available on such a large scale due to large budget that created the film. The budget also allowed the film to be viewed globally, thus allowing an increase in attention from all audiences from different countries to add to the total profit. The film from the beginning became a large potential success and this became evident when the box office gross hit $1.518 billion.

A counter to this film is the 2012 film Dredd 3D, a science-fiction, action film that was released in 2012 and was directed by Pete Travis. The producer for Dredd is the famous novelist, Alex Garland who was the executive producer of Never Let Me Go two years before the creation of Dredd. Hype around the film came to light at Comic-Con in July 2012 when the film was first debuted. An award winning cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle, was introduced into the creation of Dredd to capture the actions and representation of Judge Dredd in a way in which fans would appreciate. Even with these positives, the film failed at the box office. With a reasonably small budget of $45 million, the film was still appreciated and accepted by fans and critics. Although the expected hype of the film did not come to reality when the film was released, neither was the reaction from critics and fans, leaving the film with a loss of $4 million and a total box office of $41 million. The distribution companies of the film include Lionsgate and Entertainment Films, companies that are not highly regarded and well known. This could have impacted on the number of screenings for the film as the low budget prevents the film from being viewed on a vast scale. Additionally, advertisement for the film was minimal as the only an exclusive and official trailer were released as well as a single movie poster. This became an issue as the film was not widely publicised and therefore did not gain as much attention from the audience as predicted. Hardware copies of the film occur when the film was released predominantly on Blu-Ray as not only does this item allow the audience to view the film in high definition, but in a choice of either 2D or 3D format. This allows the audience to contribute to the overall profit of the film without having to go to a cinema. Lastly, this film was not four quadrant as the age certification was 18, compared to Avengers Assemble which had an age certification of 12A which ensures that the film is four quadrant. The age certification of Dredd became an issue as the numbers of viewers became limited therefore shortened the numbers of viewers in cinemas. The actors/actresses that starred in the film are fairly unknown to most people and are not considered to be A-list stars. Karl Urban takes up the roll of the infamous Judge Dredd with Olivia Thirlby standing beside him as his apprentice, Judge Anderson. The reputation of Urban in this film was considered to be important as he starred in previous film franchises such as The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek. This is important as his reputation on him is on his shoulders to bring the character of Dredd to life. This in comparison to Avengers Assemble were virtually all of the cast were well-known, in which included Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Scarlet Johansson and Chris Evans.

Although, not all large distribution and production companies receive critical acclaim from the audience and as such, can be overlooked or targeted by critics and fans in an attempt to attract a larger audience by witnessing a film that could potentially be a failure due to be distributed by a small company. A film to support this is the 2011 film Kill List directed by Ben Wheatley. This film was produced by Rook Films, Warp X, Film4 Productions, Screen Yorkshire and the UK Film Council. Rook Films was founded by Andy Starke and Ben Wheatley in 2008. The production company run a blog that features details and insights into films that they have produced, include A Field in England. Rook Films co-produced Kill List along with Warp X. Warp X produces feature films in the UK with budgets between $400,000 and $800,000. Kill Lists budget was $800,000. The studio serves as a format for new film directors to create their movies on a lower budget scale with less expectation for high box office results. This is evident in the case of Kill List, the director, Ben Wheatley, had only created one other film before Kill List. The film before Kill List was Down Terrace (2009). The lower expectation of the film occurred when the overall Box Office became $462,206. This company was supported by organisations such as Film Four, UK Film Council and Screen Yorkshire. The intention of the film studios creation was to add energy to the film industry in Britain. Film4 did not originally broadcast many blockbusters, but nowadays broadcasts many mainstream Hollywood films. As Channel 4 also owns a film production company, Film4 Productions, it shows many of its in-house productions. Some films are now edited to make them suitable for pre-watershed screenings, a decision which was criticised by viewers on the channel's now defunct internet forum. However in the case of Kill List, there were virtually no censored sections to the film and therefore editing to remove this was not required. This is unless the film is viewed via Channel 4 or Film4s channel. Screen Yorkshire is a distribution company that supports and encourages new and existing filmmakers in short film production, script development and training. The companys intention is to develop the talent in the region, attract people and productions to the area and encourage technical and creative innovation. This is evident in Kill List as Southern Yorkshire became the prime location for shooting and filming of the film. The UK Film Council direct short films and feature films. The production company also help filmmakers of all experience levels develop their ideas and screenplays into viable feature films, be they fiction, documentary or animation, up until the moment they were ready to get production finance. Neither of these production companies are largely known but they do have common links to producing short films with low budgets. The distribution companies to this film include Optimum Releasing, a British company and IFC Midnight, and American company. Optimum Releasing is owned by Studio Canal and the company operates as a StudioCanal's releasing subsidiary in UK. IFC Midnight IFC Midnight is the companys genre label featuring features horror, sci-fi, thrillers, erotic art-house, action and more. This relates to Kill List as the genres for the film are both horror and thriller. Even though the film was a failure at the box office, the film received a 76% rating and Certified Fresh rating from the critic website, Rotten Tomatoes. Also the film received positive reviews such as The best British thriller in years from LoveFilm and The scariest hitman movie I have ever seen from Box Office Magazine.

Marketing is a key aspect in generating a profit of a film. Marketing comes in the form of physical elements such as film trailers, posters, merchandise etc. This is to promote the film in order to generate more profit along with the money from the audience watching the film. The 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel used film trailers to give insights into the films offerings as well as posters and DVD hardware as both basic DVD and Blu-Ray. The idea of producing film trailers for this film is to be economical as this does not damage the environment as well as introducing the characters and the plot of the film. This film targets a niche audience of young adults as this is because the age certification is rated R in America and other countries whereas in the UK, the certification is 15 and also the acting and unique filming style of the director Wes Anderson because the type of filming changes between the two different time periods displayed to create an artistic and also different method of filming. The trailers had grabbed the interest of the audience as the film was screened in an estimated 1,467 cinemas globally. Technological convergence is used in this film as musicians and technologists forge together to produce a soundtrack for the film. This film features music from various artists, so they work alongside editors and technologists to produce the songs and import them onto the film. When the film is released, the soundtrack of the fil is released on services such as Itunes. Technological convergence is used here as the editors and artists that created the soundtrack can create a partnership with Itunes in order for the audience to purchase the songs. This again adds to the total profit of the film. The distributors of the film were Fox Searchlight Productions, a sub company to the larger 20th Century Fox. This distribution company has a recently large sum of money in which went towards the creation of film trailers for publicising and advertising the film to the audience and towards producing DVD hardware so that the audience can view the film at home. The budget for this film was $31 million and due to the marketing techniques used, the film made a box office gross of $172.1 million. This is a $141.1 million profit and is still increasing through DVD purchases and VOD.

In conclusion, a films success depends on the distribution company and marketing techniques to have the maximum chance of making a profit and getting global attention from audiences across the world. A large distribution company has the ability to screen a film worldwide and increase the attention of all audiences as well as the support from marketing by the use of trailers, posters and merchandise to promote the film to increase the chance of it becoming a potential success. These two elements are vital components in what produces a film and generating a profit as these are used to promote and screen the film in many cinemas to increase the chances of a film becoming a success. If the film does not become a success immediately, profit through hardware and merchandise after a period of time will provide the film with additional gross to increase the total box office gross of a film. This increases the chances of a film becoming successful.

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