Aa main film industry power point

 Section B
 Institutions and Audiences
 A case study of the Film industry
 1 Exam Question - 45 minutes

 Of these seven key areas, one will be the
focus of the exam question. For example:
“Discuss the issues raised by an institutions
need to target specific audiences within a
media industry which you have studied.”

 the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
 The importance/influence of the ‘big six’: Disney, Paramount, Warner, Universal, Columbia and 20t C.Fox.
 the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and
marketing;
 Internet, newspapers, radio, television, billboard posters, Social Media (Facebook/Twitter) etc.
 the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production,
distribution, marketing and exchange;
 Such things as Netflix, Love Film, 3D, home cinema, Digital camera/projector.
 the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;
 Eg. 3D, Digital Camera/projector, home cinema, Smart TVs, Laptops, Tablets , the effect of Piracy etc
 the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;
 Internet, Netflix, Love Film, home cinema, Smart TVs, Laptops, Tablets etc. , Social Media like Facebook and Twitter.
 the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by
international or global institutions
 How are we targeted? How much choice do we have?
 the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider
patterns and trends of audience behaviour.
 Where, When and How do you watch films? What do you watch? How typical are you? Piracy?

 To be successful in the exam you must be
able to confidently discuss any of the seven
key areas.
 You must make clear references to real
examples of films, directors, studios,
production companies, distributors and
exhibitors.
 You will be expected to show a good overall
knowledge of the Film Industry.

Production
Distribution
Exhibition

 The first three things you will
need to know about are:
 Production
 Distribution
 Exhibition
.

 Someone has an idea for a film.
 They create an outline and use it to promote interest in the idea.
 A studio or independent investor decides to purchase rights to the
film.
 People are brought together to make the film (screenwriter,
producer, director, cast, crew).
 The film is completed and sent to the studio.
 The studio makes a licensing agreement with a distribution
company.
 If the film has been filmed in celluloid, the distribution company
determines how many copies (prints) of the film to make.
 The distribution company shows the film (screening) to
prospective buyers representing the cinemas.
 The buyers negotiate with the distribution company on which
films they wish to lease and the terms of the lease agreement.

 The Film Distributors are responsible for marketing
and publicity.
 The better the publicity the more people see the film
and the more money that is made.
 The prints / digital downloads are sent to the cinemas
a few days before the opening day.
 The cinema shows the film for a specified number of
weeks (engagement).
 You buy a ticket and watch the movie.
 At the end of the engagement, the theatre sends the
print back to the distribution company and makes
payment on the lease agreement.

 Refers to the making of the film:
 Finding the idea
 Writing the script
 Pitching it to a studio
 Setting a budget
 Casting stars and employing a
crew
 Filming
 Editing

 For a film to go into
production it needs investors
to provide the necessary
funding.
 Box office is success is never
certain and so investors try to
reduce the risk of losing their
money by becoming involved in
important decisions

 Key questions that they will ask are:
 Is the film’s storyline similar to other
films that have made money recently?
 Does it offer easy selling points?
 Are there obvious marketing spin offs to
give added publicity?
 Is the star popular?
 Had the director had previous successes?

If the answer to any of theses questions is no
then changes will be made to the “package”
(the details of the film) to make sure all the
answers are yes! Otherwise the investors will
take their money else where.

 In recent years the big studios – Sony,
Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner
Brothers and Disney have dramatically cut
the number of films they make (up to 50%
less).
 At the same time they are increasing budgets
to the $150-$200 million range.

 On the release of each film they will spend at
least $100 million to promote a blockbuster
around the world.
 Only half of box-office goes to the Film
Studios (rest to cinema owners).
 Therefore a total budget of $250 million has
to have a box office above $500 million to
make a profit.

 In 2013 there are a large number of
blockbusters (19) which is far more than ever
before.
 In the past a maximum of nine blockbusters
have done well in any one year.

 Because it still makes financial sense for the
Film Studios.

 The top ten most successful films are
blockbusters.
 “Man of Steel” cost $225 million. First two
weeks box office = $400 million.
 “Fast and Furious” cost $160 million. Box
office =$666 million.

 The big studios have made up for the
dramatic loss in revenue from DVD sales
(used to be half their profits) by boosting box
office outside America.
 In the past international box office sales were
50%. Now it is 70% (2013).

 So sure are film studios of their Blockbuster
policy that they are mapping release
schedules for five years ahead.
 Robert Downey Jr has just signed to make
two more “Avengers” films with Disney
(release May 2015).
 Sony/Columbia has announced it will release
“Spider Man” films may ‘14, June ‘16 and May
‘18.

 Steven Spielberg said in July 2013;
 “There is going to be an implosion where
three or four mega-budgeted films are going
to go crashing to the ground.”

 George Lucas (creator of “Star Wars”) says
“It’s a mess. It’s total chaos. In future there will
be fewer but bigger cinemas and a revolution
in pricing. Tickets may cost $50 -$100.
Going to the cinema will become an event /
experience. The film will be secondary.

 Soderbergh has announced he will make no
more films for the big screen.
 He is tired of the studios’ blockbuster
strategy and the fact audiences lap it up.

 Paul Webster (Producer of “Atonement” and
“Anna Karenina”) says:
 “It is as hard as it has ever been to get serious
stuff of the ground. This is mainly because
films have become events and turned into a
spectacle. Big blockbusters are like stadium
bands playing big arenas. If you are trying to
do interesting things you are forced to ever
smaller venues.”

 He believes television is where the most
interesting stuff is being made. He cites
“Homeland”, “The Wire” and “Broadchurch”
to back up his view.

 Before a director can start filming a film has
to be “greenlit”.
 At this stage a project will generally be fully
financed and have most of the key elements
such as principal cast, director and
cinematographer in place, as well as a
screenplay which is satisfactory to all the
financiers.
 If it is not “greenlit” it can not go ahead.

 Figgis has been oscar nominated and his films
include: “Stormy Mondays”, “Internal Affairs”
and “Leaving Las Vegas”.
 He is annoyed that the British Film Industry is
‘defeatist’ in attitude and outdated in
structure.
 He claims it does not help young British film
makers.

 He says:
 “Film-makers cannot flourish and grow
unless you give them room to do so.”
 “Creativity cannot exist in a system of
committees”

 Figgis believes we are now producing
unoriginal films.
 The films made are either:
 Depressing working class council estate
films or historical costume dramas.

 Without a big star name it is impossible to get
finance.
 The British film industry will not fully
embrace the digital revolution – particularly
with regard to distribution.
 Our brightest and best film makers are forced
to go toAmerica.

 China and other developing countries provide
an ever increasing proportion of film
revenues – International markets = 70% of
cinema box office.
 Film Production Companies are increasing
aware that they need to produce films that
will appeal to market.

 For 80 years Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on
Hollywood Boulevard has been one of
America’s greatest tourist attractions.
 The biggest movie stars put their hand and
footprints into wet cement.
 It is symbolic that a Chinese television
manufacturer has bought the rights
$5million.

 The Chinese are investing far more in
American Cinema.
 September ‘12 the Dalian Wanda Group
bought ACM Entertainment – America’s
second largest cinema chain for $2.6 million.

 In 2012 China overtook Japan to become
biggest movie market after America.
 In 2012 box-office revenues shot up by 36%
to $2.7 million.
 2000 cinema screens built Jan-March ‘12
alone.
 By 2020 China will be biggest film market in
world.

 Film Producers are trying to satisfy Chinese
consumers and pacify their government
which regulates the number of foreign films
released (currently 34).
 American film producers release substantially
different versions of their films in China.

 American film Producers are changing the
content and tone of the films they produce.
 For Producers it is the non-American
(especially Chinese) teenager who counts
now.

 “Iron Man 3” had different scenes and
characters added in specially for the Chinese
market (leading actress Fan Bingbing).

 In addition the actor Wang Xueqi was
included alongside Robert Downey Junior in
the version of the film screen everywhere.

 “Iron Man 3” has taken $1.2 billion at the box
office.

 “World War Z”
 The plot was changed to avoid upsetting
Chinese censors.
 The scene that suggested the Zombie plague
originated in China was cut from the exported
film.

 This American film (from writers of “The
Hangover”) has been significantly re-worked
for the Chinese market.
 For America it is about three College guys
(including a Chinese student) who bond over
‘boozing’ and ‘bonking’.

 For the Chinese market it has been re-edited.
 Chinese audiences will see a moralistic film
about the dangers of the hedonistic west and
the need to embrace one’s roots!
 The market for Films in Russia and Brazil is
growing fast too!

 Katherine Butler is the Head of Film 4’s Low
Budget Feature Department.

 Katherine Butler took on her role in 2009.
Film 4’s Low Budget Department has turned
out award winning titles including
“Tyrannosaur”, “Dreams of a Life”, “Kill List”
“The Deep Blue Sea” and “Berberian Sound
Studio”.

 “The Guardian” said:
 These films stand for a bold new wave of
British film making: cinematically confident,
generically ‘tricksy’, compelled by disturbing,
ambivalent subject matter.

 Direct quotes from Katherine Butler 31/12/12
“The Guardian”.
 “You are always going to fail.”
 “With risk comes failure as well as success
and if we’re doing the films for the right
reasons then you can learn from mistakes and
move on.”

 Butler said, “In 2009 I saw several micro-budget
films that were already pushing
boundaries with strong directorial voices.
Every year since then two or three really
strong, self financed pieces come through
because technology is enabling that to
happen.”

 Katherine Butler maintains:
 “The job for places like Film 4 and the BFI is to
nurture people coming through this route
(micro-budget films) and to help enable film
makers who have already found their voice to
continue to work with the most freedom in an
industry that is a business as well as a place of
artistic endeavour.”

 “What counts as a low-budget for Film 4 –
less than £2million – can still mark a massive
increase for a previously self-financed film
maker, without introducing the kind of
pressure that tends to stifle
experimentation.”

 Katherine Butler says;
 “Low-budget is a very risk friendly
environment. It is an engine room for
innovation. We want to work with directors
again and again. Providing a home for new
directors is very exciting.”

 She maintains:
 “There are always films like “Tyrannosaur”
and “Kill List” which don’t do the highest box
office but are so acclaimed they become
stepping stones for their directors and have a
long life.”

 Finally she says:
 “It is the up and coming directors who get me
excited. These film makers are so confident in
the way they take genre on, whether it’s
comedy, thriller, horror or documentary. They
are pushing at boundaries, evolving
recognisable forms of cinema into something
their own…….”

 “That’s what excites us. The search for a new
generation of directors with the ability to
take British cinema to the next stage.”

 Katherine Butler stresses:
 “Pushing at boundaries is a key priority – low
budget is the only place you can do that so
you have to be working with directors who
want to take that risk with you.”

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-
25977033

 In starting to plan a marketing campaign, the
film distributor has to decide how it will present
a film to a potential audience.
 They need to decide what sets this film apart
from all the other films that are released – they
look for a film’s ‘unique selling point’ (USP).
 If, for example, the distributor is handling an
adventure film, they will need to look for aspects
of the film which set it aside from the other
action adventure films.

 After this they will look at such things as who
stars in the film, are there new and
spectacular special effects in the film and
who is the director?
 Taking all of these into consideration, the
distributor will then decide which elements to
stress in the marketing campaign (posters,
trailers, etc.) i.e. how to position the film in
the market place.

 From the information you are given could you
say what you think is the USP of three new
films of your choice?
 Go on imdb and find a print of hand out that
goes with them with three films

 Marketing is one of the most important aspects
of a film’s distribution and there are many
different ways to market a film.
 Make a list of the different the ways you can
market a film.
 Posters
 Trailers
 Online and mobile content
 Special Screenings/Premieres
 Interviews/ articles
 Merchandising
 Festivals/ Awards

 www.launchingfilms.com/releaseschedule
 Choose a film that has either been released
this week or is just about to be released.
 Create a PowerPoint presentation that covers
as much about the marketing strategy for
that film as possible
 Make a note of whether your chosen film is
British or America
 Record the name of the distribution company

 Distribution is concerned with ’getting the
film out there’.
 Publicity and Marketing are key features of
the distribution process.

 Every major Hollywood studio and movie
distribution company has an internal
department devoted to promotion.
 The promotions department is responsible for
designing and implementing an effective,
cohesive advertising campaign across several
different media platforms.
 These include: theatrical movie trailers,
newspapers, magazines, television, radio, the
Internet and billboards.

 The Film business is cyclical and seasonal by nature.
 Major studio releases are clustered during the
summer, Christmas and long holiday weekends like
Thanksgiving, Memorial Day and Labour Day. Some
important films are released in January to coincide
with the Oscars.
 With so many high profile movies fighting for the
same audience, movie marketers need to figure out
how to make their films stand out from the pack.

 In recent years, the general tactic for the
major studios has been to "go big.“
 For expensive, blockbuster movies, the
marketing campaign alone can cost as much
as half of the total production budget. So if a
film costs $80 million to make, the distributor
might spend $40 million on advertising and
promotion.

 The hope, of course, is that all of this
marketing money will pay off in ticket sales.
One of the most important indicators of the
success of a movie marketing campaign is the
gross box office sales from the first weekend
of a movie's release.
 Opening weekend sales are a direct reflection
of how much buzz and excitement has been
generated by the promotional campaign.

 Every movie is different.
 The promotions department must figure out
what type of campaign will be the most effective
at reaching the target audience.
 This requires researching the tastes and media-consuming
trends of the target audience.
 Based on this research, the movie marketers
decide how much of their budget to spend on
each different media outlet.

 The main responsibility of a publicist is to get
positive press coverage for his client.
 To do this, the publicist needs to create and
maintain good relationships with journalists
by sending them original, insightful, timely
story ideas that involve the client in some
way.

 Publicists handle all interview requests for the stars of
the film – form newspapers, magazines, TV Talk
Shows etc.
 To protect the client from any surprises, publicists will
ask the journalist exactly what the story is about and
what questions s/he plans to ask.
 In some cases, the publicist will ask to be present at
the interview to make sure that the client doesn't
comment on sensitive issues or make remarks that
could look bad in the papers.

 Publicists often organize press tours for
actors, celebrities and authors. The publicist
makes all the travel arrangements for the
client, sets up locations, arranges for press
passes and even accompanies the client on
the road.

 As the release date of the film draws closer, movie
marketers try to get early favourable press coverage in
newspapers, magazines and on entertainment TV shows.
 The main movie publicity tactic is something called a
press junket.
 At a press junket, journalists, entertainment reporters and
movie critics are flown out to a special location for a day or
weekend of interviews with the stars and creators of the
film. The actors, directors and screenwriters sit in separate
rooms and the reporters are brought in one by one to ask
their questions.

 Press junkets are highly controlled
environments where interviews are often
attended by a publicist, who make sure
interviews never veer from positive topics.
 If you've ever seen a TV interview with an
actor sitting in front of a poster of their
movie, that's from a press junket.

 The distribution of a film (or
movie) is the process through
which a movie is made available
to watch for an audience
 This can happen in a variety of
ways:
 a theatrical release,
 a home entertainment release
DVD-video or Blu-Ray disc)
 or a TV broadcast.

 More than ever, publicists network with
online bloggers and read and respond to
comments on popular social networks.
 In addition to a standard press tour, they
might arrange for a live, online Q&A session
with a popular fansite or interviews with
podcasts.

 The theatrical trailer is often the first chance to
promote a movie to its target audience.
 Starting up to a year before the release of a
major studio movie, distributors run movie
trailers that are meticulously edited and
audience-tested.
 The idea is to give moviegoers a taste of the
laughs, special effects and plot twists of the
studio's upcoming releases, while leaving them
wanting more.
 It's an art form that's usually handled by special
trailer production houses

 About the same time that the first trailers hit the
theatres, the Film Studio will unveil an official Web
site for the film.
 Typical movie Web sites allow visitors to: view
multiple versions of the trailer, watch behind-the-scenes
interviews and mini-documentaries, read plot
synopses, download cell-phone ringtones and
desktop wallpaper, play games, chat in forums and
even pre-order tickets. The official movie Web site is
only the beginning of a much larger Internet
marketing campaign.
 Look up the website for “Iron Man 3” and 4
 http://uk.marvel.com/iron-man-3/#/trailer-4

 Weeks before the film opens nationwide, the
promotions department starts an all-out publicity
blitz.
 The idea is to bombard the public with so many
images and promos for the film that it becomes a
"can't miss" event.
 Film marketers will plaster the sides of buses with
huge ads, place billboards all around the city, run tons
of teaser trailers on TV, place full-page ads in major
newspapers and magazines, and the movie's stars will
show up on all of the major talk shows.

 The Internet is proving to be a prime spot for
publicity blitzes.
 Promoters can place interactive ads on the Web
sites most trafficked by their target audience.
 They can also release behind-the-scenes clips,
bloopers and other viral videos on video-sharing
sites like YouTube.
 Or they can release different media clips and let
the fans create their own trailers.

 Another popular strategy is to use highly visible
product tie-ins and corporate partnerships.
 In the weeks leading up to the release of "How
the Grinch Stole Christmas," images of the green
Grinch appeared on packages of Oreos, boxes of
Froot Loops and cans of Sprite.
 Even the United States Postal Service got into
the act, stamping letters with special "Happy
Who-lidays!" messages.
 For marketing children's movies, the Holy Grail
for publicists is getting promotional gifts in
McDonald's Happy Meals.

 Brand and film partnership marketing seems
more integrated than ever before

Read more:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227105
#ixzz2ryW1VsEx

 In many cases, brands are taking on the
personalities of the movies, actually enacting
the ethos of the films in their marketing and
product experiences.
 At the same time, brands are being woven into
scripts as vital characters of their own
Read more:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227105#ix
zz2ryW8XGkb

 http://gigaom.com/2013/08/12/can-iron-man-save-
a-brand-robert-downey-jr-tapped-for-htc-
ads/

 One final movie marketing strategy is the
publicity stunt, an orchestrated media event
where someone does something incredibly
silly, dangerous or spectacular to draw further
attention to the opening of the film.
 An example is when the promoters of "The
Simpsons Movie" transformed dozens of
nationwide 7-Eleven convenience stores into
replica's of Springfield's own Kwik-E Mart.

 Films are released in “release
windows". This keeps different
instances of a movie from competing
with each other.
 In the standard release, a film is
first released in the cinema
(theatrical window),
 After approximately 16 and a half
weeks, it is released to DVD (video
window).
 After an additional number of months
it is released to Pay TV and On
Demand services and

 A simultaneous release takes
place when a film is made
available on many media (cinema,
DVD, internet) at the same time
or with very little difference in
timing.
 What are the pros and cons of a
simultaneous release?
 Consumers have more choice
 Producers only need one marketing
campaign

 A straight to video (DVD/BluRay)
release occurs when a movie is
released on home video formats
without being released in cinemas
first.
 STV releases used to be seen as a
sign of poor quality
 Have become a more profitable option
in recent years. Especially for
independent moviemakers and
companies.
 Research Task
 Find out all you can about the first
ever “Tesco Films” Release.

 Makers of smaller-budget movies are also
putting to the test new release strategies.
 Films are premiered on VOD (Video On Demand
– Pay Per View) systems and received a limited
theatrical release one month later.
 Some major studios have considered making
movies available to VOD services shortly after
their theatrical release for a premium price.
 Find out all you can about films that have been
released in this way.

 Originally a six months duration
 Today been reduced to little more
than four months.[
 Movie studios have reportedly been
pushing to shrink the duration of the
theatrical window.
 Cinema owners have fought fiercely
against this.
 Why do you think studios are in
favour but cinema chains are against
shrinking the
theatrical window?

 When we refer to “film exhibition” we are talking
about how the pubic actually watches the film.
 The cinema release of a film marks the final stage of
one part of a film’s journey from idea to audience. It
also
 marks the beginning of a new journey from cinema to
small screen. After its cinema release the film will then
 be available on pay TV, free to air TV, as well as
television. Each of these “exhibitions” of the film
offers
 the possibility of generating profits for both the film’s
distributor and producers.

 Each group will be responsible
for discussing the pros and cons
of their form of exhibition
(watching a film).
 You will present your findings to
the rest of the group and as a
class we will try to decide which
way is the best.
 The options are: Cinema,
Television (VOD), DVD, Online –
either through a pc/laptop or
mobile phone

• Cinema
• DVD/BluRay/Downloads
• Subscription Television
• Free to air television

 Of the “Film Value Chain” where do you think
that films make the most money?
 Why do you think this is?

 There are several different
types cinema :
 Multiplex
 Imax
 Art-house
screens

 Cinema Chains:
 Odeon
 VUE
 Everyman
 Curzon
 Empire
 Cineworld
 (see printed sheet)

 How does the range of “cinematic
experiences” offered vary between
the Odeon/VUE and Curzon/Everyman
chains?
 Do all cinemas within the same
chain show the same films? If not
why not?
 Do you think all these cinema
chains attract the same types
audience? Why

 Which of the films currently showing in
cinemas have made the most money?
 Look up this website.
 www.screenrush.co.uk

o In recent years the production budgets
for British films have been falling
o Was £2-3 million – Now £1-2 million
o There has been an expansion in films of
very low budget - known as ‘micro-budget’

o Shifty was made in 2008 under the
Microwave scheme (UK Film Council)
o Microwave was set up to widen participation
and access for young London-based
filmmakers
o The scheme offers support for films to be
made in 18 days and with a budget of less
than £100,000

 The film was written and directed by Evan
Creevy
 It is the second Microwave film to be released
 Released on 24th April 2009
 Opened with 51 prints through independent
distributor Metrodome

 Opening weekend – took £61,000
 After 3 weeks down to 12 prints after
taking over £131,000
 Final box office - £143,000
 Note: that the release used both
traditional celluloid and digital prints

 However, the cinema release for a film such
as Shifty is mainly a marketing platform not a
revenue generator
 The majority of the revenue will come form
the DVD/Blu-Ray rental and direct sales,
television, cable and satellite

 “Shifty is an action packed 24 hours in the life of a
young crack cocaine dealer on the outskirts of
London. The sudden return home of his best friend
sets in motion a chain of events that see Shifty's
life quickly spiral out of control. Stalked by a
customer desperate to score at all costs and with
his family about to turn their back on him for
good, Shifty must out-run and out-smart a rival
drug dealer intent on setting him up. As his long
time friend, Chris, confronts the dark past he left
behind him, Shifty is forced to face up to the
violent future he's heading fast towards.”

 The film was distributed by Metrodome who
marketed the film in the following ways:
 Spent about £50,000 on prints,
administration and advertising
 They felt that the film was similar to
Kidulthood/Adulthood and wanted to reach a
similar audience – known as Urban Genre
 They wanted to reach a young, urban
audience

 However, to maximise the reach of the film
Metrodome produced three trailers all tailored
to appeal to different audiences
 It was felt that the film could also appeal to the
middle-class Guardian reading audience
 The trailer targeting this audience featured a
more classical style soundtrack whilst the ‘urban’
trailer featured a hip-hop style soundtrack that
didn’t actually feature in the film
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsI1hPcNU9
s

 How to attract the young
‘urban’ audience?
 This audience is highly
proficient with New Media
Technologies
 Therefore a low-cost high-tech
campaign would be
the best way to reach the
target audience

 http://www.filmeducation.org/shifty/introduc
ing.html (also on the blog)
 Introducing Shifty
 The Production Context 1-4
 The Production Context 5-8
 Marketing Shifty
 Watch/Read the transcripts – prepare to
present the information to the rest of the
class

 To reach the target audience, adverts ran on
pirate radio stations
 Fly-posters were used
 The poster was simple & eye-catching with a
bold yellow background
 ‘Business cards’ representing the character of
Shifty as a drug-dealer were distributed
which included the website

 A viral marketing campaign was used via
email
 Emails were sent to various opinion formers
in the media (e.g. The editor of Time Out
magazine)
 The email appeared to be from an official
community organisation that had identified
the recipient as a possible drug dealer
 There was a link at the bottom of the email to
the official Shifty website

 There was a complaint to the Advertising
Standards Authority and the email was
banned
 However, the publicity actually helped to
raise the profile of the film
 A further viral campaign suggested that
recipients ‘frame a friend’
 Again the links took you to the Shifty website

 The website included a competition whereby
music from the film (by Molly Nyman and
Harry Escott) could be downloaded and
remixed to create a new track
 The website stated:
 ‘We’re looking for remixes in a wide range of
styles, from dubstep to classical, the choice is
yours’

 The remixed track could then be uploaded
and the producer of the best track would win:
 ‘£500 and time in a studio to complete your
track with a professional producer’
 Music was also recorded by the star of the
film Riz Ahmed who is also a professional
musician
 Some of the tracks could be downloaded free
from the website

 A music video was also created that was
uploaded to Youtube
 There were also pages on Facebook,
Myspace, Bebo

 The marketing of the film represents an
example of cross-media convergence with:
 Posters
 Radio (adverts on pirate radio)
 A website
 Social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace,
Bebo)
 Email – viral marketing

 Music – MP3 downloads
 CD – the soundtrack
 Youtube – the music video
 Cinema and television trailers (also on
Youtube)
 DVD/Blu-Ray
 www.shiftyfilm.com

 Discuss the issues raised by an institution’s
need to target specific audiences within a
media industry which you have studied.
 50 marks
 Discuss two case studies – 1 Hollywood Block
Buster, 1 Independent film

 Production practices that allow texts to be
constructed for specific audiences.
 Distribution and marketing strategies to raise
audience awareness of specific products.
 The use of new technology to facilitate more
accurate targeting of specific audiences
 Audience strategies in facilitating or
challenging institutional practices.

 What did the Distributor Metrodome find
attractive about Shifty?
 What kind of challenges does a film like Shifty
present in marketing terms?

 Contemporary newspaper report

 An artist filmmaker she has received a number of Arts Council awards
and made films that challenge, in different ways, how stories are told and
which often cross the boundaries between fact and fiction.
 Her work has been shown at major international festivals, at galleries,
cinemas, on Channel 4, Film4 and has received many international
broadcasts, including The Sundance Channel.
 She has been the recipient of the Arts Foundation Fellowship for
documentary film.

 Morley’s first narrative feature film
“Edge” - made on a micro budget - was
premiered at The London Film Festival
in 2010 and is due for a 2012 release.
“Dreams of a Life” is her first
documentary feature film.

 http://www.watershed.co.uk/dshed/filmmake
r-focus-carol-morley-cairo-cannon


 http://dreamsofalife.com/diary

 The film’s world has been expanded by a
website, (www.dreamsofyourlife.com), and
now a new mobile game Would Anyone Miss
You?, both created by digital agency Hide &
Seek.

 What’s your connection to the British Council?
 Over the years the British Council have done a great site dedicated to
international film festivals and I’ve always used that to find out about festivals
and when to apply.

 On the lucky occasions my films have been
accepted I’ve applied for British Council travel
grants for flights to attend them - and they’ve
always been memorable experiences.
Attending festivals abroad, meeting
international filmmakers and connecting to a
global filmmaking community is a highlight
at the end of making a film and the British
Council has been instrumental in sending me
to these festivals.

 Dogwoof was founded in 2004 by Andy
Whittaker and Anna Godas, and originally
concentrated on foreign films, including such
titles as Don’t Move, Fateless, El Lobo, and
Esma’s Secret.[1] They recently began to
distribute documentaries such as Black Gold,
Crude Awakening, and The Devil Came On
Horseback.[1]

 In July 2005, the company experimented by
distributing James Erskine's EMR
simultaneously in Cinemas, on the internet
through Tiscali ISP, and on DVD through its
Home Entertainment division.

 The move was notable since most films are
released through different distribution
channels on a staggered schedule, giving
each channel an exclusive release window.
Exhibitors were especially fearful, as many
feared that they would eventually lose their
exclusive release windows for more
mainstream films.

 In 2010 Dogwoof announced a deal with
technology company Cisco to build social
media websites using the Cisco Eos platform
for each film release. Dogwoof was the first
European customer for Cisco Eos. The first
website launched was Good with Film.
 Dogwoof also distribures social-issues
documentaries such as Dirty Oil, Food, Inc.
and Burma VJ.[6]

 Box Office
 Opening Weekend: $3,085 (USA) (3 August
2012)
 Gross: $6,595 (USA) (10 August 2012)
 Company Credits
 Production Co: Cannon and Morley
Productions, Irish Film Board, Soho Moon
Pictures See more »
 Show detailed company contact information
on IMDbPro »

 The website featured a narrative and questions
from award-winning writer AL Kennedy
alongside photography by Lottie Davies.
 Dreams of a Life’s plans were created by Film 4
senior commission editor Katherine Butler and
multiplatform commissioner Hilary Perkins as
Film 4’s first cross-platform commission before
Film4.0 launched but should offer an idea of the
types of plans that Higgs will work on going
forward. (The BFI and the British Council backed
the SXSW initiatives.)

 “The feature documentary is a project in and
of itself, and the digital properties work with
the themes of the film but exist in and of
themselves as well. It’s about telling stories in
parallel places,” Higgs says.

 “What’s been wonderful from the stats of
[Dreams of Your Life] so far is that we can
demonstrably show that we brought a new
audience to the feature documentary,” adds
Higgs, who took the post of head of the new
Film 4.0 in September 2011. “Tens of
thousands of new audience members came
across the film, but that’s because it was a
quality creative experience in its own right.”

 The website was an intense 25-30 minute
experience for each visitor so having more
than 16,500 users “is a really big win,” Higgs
adds.
 The website and streetgame can be used
anywhere the film is being launched. “You’ve
got this brilliant toolkit when you’re selling
the film. It’s a wider-world toolkit that any
distributor can plug in and use in their
territory.”

• Dreams of a Life (2011)
• Director – Carol Morley
• A low-budget British film
• This was a difficult film to market being an unusual combination of
documentary and actors recreating or approximating the real events
surrounding the life and death of Joyce Vincent

 WTohuisld is a tnhyeo dnees cmriipstsi oyno uo?f tNhoeb foilmdy f rnoomti ctehde wwehbesni tJeo:yce Vincent died
in her bedsit above a shopping mall in North London in 2003.
Her body wasn’t discovered for three years, surrounded by
Christmas presents she had been wrapping, and with the TV still
on. Newspaper reports offered few details of her life– not even a
photograph.
Interweaving interviews with imagined scenes from Joyce’s life,
Dreams of a Life is an imaginative, powerful, multilayered quest,
and is not only a portrait of Joyce but a portrait of London in the
eighties—the City, music, and race. It is a film about urban lives,
contemporary life, and how, like Joyce, we are all different things
to different people. It is about how little we may ever know each
other, but nevertheless, how much we can love.

• This was a difficult film to market being an unusual combination
of documentary and actors recreating or approximating the real
events surrounding the life and death of Joyce Vincent
• The website operates like a game to try to appeal to a wider
audience other than just the ‘art-house’ audience who would be
the usual audience for such a film
• By having the game format the website was designed to also
appeal to the ‘geeks’, gamers or web-designers. This is an
audience that art-house films usually find difficult to reach
• This audience found the website and it was reviewed by the
gaming community many of whom then saw the film.
• The film was therefore able to reach an alternative, difficult to
reach, audience that wouldn’t normally see such a film

• The film premiered in the USA at the South by SW
Festival – which specialises in unusual and independent
films and is considered to be a ‘cool’ place to show a
film.
• At the festival the marketing team played a ‘street
game’ taking pictures of people sending messages.
These were then uploaded to the
‘wouldanyonemissyou’ website. The use of iPads to
show the pictures caused some interest and helped the
increase in ticket sales.
• In the USA it was marketed using the website
• www.wouldanyonemissyou.com

 Summary – Problems in marketing
• Difficult to market film
• Hard to reach audience
• Low budget – can’t afford large advertising campaign
(posters, TV slots etc)

 Effective Marketing Strategies:
• Different marketing for UK and USA
• Conventional website
• Innovative website – the ‘game’
• Appeals to hard to reach audience
• Use of iPads
• US website made use of publicity from South by SW
festival
• Effective audience interaction – enabled audience to
personally relate to the themes of the film

 Carol Morley came to prominence with her
documentary The Alcohol Years, a BAFTA nominated,
GriersonAwarded, festival winning film that was later
released on DVD to critical acclaim.
 The film masqueraded as an autobiography but
became as much about the people in it as Morley
herself - and was seen to define an era (the 80’s) and a
place (Manchester).

 Directed by Gary Ross
 Produced by Nina Jacobson
 Based on The Hunger Games by
Suzanne Collins
 A co-production from Lionsgate and Color
Force
 Distributed by Lionsgate

 When the film released, it set records for the opening
day and opening weekend for a non-sequel
 Opening day - $67.3 million
 Opening weekend $152.5
 It is the first film since Avatar to remain in first place
at the American box office for four consecutive
weekends.
 The movie was a massive box-office success by
grossing $685 million worldwide against its budget of
$78 million, making it the third highest grossing film in
the United State in 2012.

 The film was a success before it was officially
released.
 On February 22, 2012, The Hunger Games
broke the record for first-day advance ticket
sales on Fandango, topping the previous
record of Eclipse (Twilight). The sales were
reported to be 83 percent of the site's totals
for the day
 The film sold out in over 4,300 showings
across the United States.

 The Hunger Games is what studios call a
“tentpole release”.
 The term refers to a film that the studio
expects to “prop up” the studio for that year.
 In other words, they think it’s going to make a
lot of money!
 For Lionsgate – “The Hunger Games”
 For Summit Entertainment – “Twilight”

 Lionsgate has generated this high level of
interest with a marketing staff of 21 people
working with a relatively tiny budget of about
$45 million.
 Bigger studios routinely spend $100 million
marketing major releases, and have worldwide
marketing and publicity staffs of over 100
people.
 The studio has been able to spend so little
largely because Mr. Palen has relied on
inexpensive digital initiatives to whip up
excitement.

 Early promotion for “The Hunger Games”
started in spring 2009, when Mr. Palen flew to
New York to meet with publicity executives
from Scholastic to learn about the book
franchise.

 While some studios have halted once-standard
marketing steps like newspaper ads, Lionsgate used
all the usual old-media tricks — giving away 80,000
posters, securing almost 50 magazine cover stories,
advertising on 3,000 billboards and bus shelters.

 However, the campaign’s centrepiece has
been a phased, yearlong digital effort built
around the content platforms cherished by
young audiences:
 Near-constant use of Facebook and Twitter,
 A YouTube channel,
 A Tumblr blog,
 Iphone games
 Live Yahoo streaming from the premiere.

 The campaign really
sprung into action in
May 2011 when the
Lionsgate team started
methodically releasing
information about the
casting of the film via
Facebook and Twitter.

 Twitter became an integral part of the
marketing campaign for “The Hunger Games”
 Fans anticipating the film could actively
engage with Lionsgate via social networking.
 It was an easy way for fans to be constantly
updated on the progress of the film and thus
build momentum for the release of the film.

 In July 2011 the first official poster was
released via Facebook.
 Later the same month the first look at
photographs of the cast on set were released
over twitter.
 Early in August the official release date for
the second film “Catching Fire” was released

 They had a stand at
Comiccon
 Gave out copies of a
new poster to fans

 In August 2011 came a one-minute sneak
peek, introduced online at MTV.com. People
liked it but complained — loudly — that it
wasn’t enough. “We weren’t prepared for
that level of we-demand-more pushback,”
Mr. Palen said.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsVNNHs3RZE&feature=player_embedd
ed

The footage did include a Twitter prompt through which fans
could discover a Web site for the movie, TheCapitol.pn.

 The Capitol is where
the Hunger Games
take place. The site
allowed visitors to
make digital ID cards
as if they lived in
Panem, the movie’s
futuristic society; more
than 800,000 people
have created them.

 October included
another Twitter stunt,
this time meant to
allow those ID makers
to campaign online to
be elected mayor of
various districts of
Panem.

 November ‘11 marked the iTunes release of
the main trailer, which received eight million
views in its first 24 hours.
 Again, Twitter was used to build up hype prior
to the release.

 In January 2012
posters were
released that
featured the main
characters of the
film.

 On Dec. 15, 100 days before the movie’s release,
the studio created a new poster and cut it into
100 puzzle pieces.
 It then gave digital versions of those pieces to
100 Web sites and asked them to post their
puzzle piece on Twitter in lockstep.
 Fans had to search Twitter to put together the
poster, either by printing out the pieces and
cutting them out or using a program like
Photoshop.

 A 100-piece
online puzzle.
 “The Hunger
Games” trended
worldwide on
Twitter within
minutes.
 “It was a silly
little stunt, but it
worked — bam,”
Mr. Palen said.

 A lavish Tumblr
blog called
Capitol Couture
dedicated to
the movie’s
unique
fashions.

 “The Hunger Games
Adventures” was
released on the
same day as the film
and took the form
of a social
networking
platform

 One important online component involved a
sweepstakes to bring five fans to the movie’s
North Carolina set.
 Notably, Lionsgate invited no reporters: The
studio did not want consumers thinking this was
another instance of Hollywood trying to force-feed
them a movie through professional filters.
“People used to be O.K. with studios telling
them what to like,” Ms. DePalma said. “Not
anymore. Now it’s, ‘You don’t tell us, we tell
you.’ ”

 Capitol TV arrived in February 2012
 A YouTube channel designed to look like the
official network of “Panem”.
 It combined sneak previews of film footage
and user-generated “Hunger Games” videos

 “You’ve got to constantly give people something new
to get excited about, but we also had another goal in
mind,” Ms. DePalma said. “How do we best sustain
online interest until the DVD comes out?”

 Lions gate revealed a new trailer for the film
at Americans Super Bowl in February 2012.
 The Super Bowl is the annual championship
game of the National Football League (NFL)
and is a huge event in America’s calendar

 Throughout March
2012 various
members of the
cast toured “malls”
(shopping centres)
across America

 Lionsgate joined Scribd, Donorschoose.Org, and Scholastic, for
The Hunger Games national literacy month campaign
 Throughout the month of September, any fan that read The
Hunger Games in the Scribd social reader application was entered
in “Read a Chapter, Win a Library” for a chance to win a
classroom library of books for one of the public schools served by
DonorsChoose.org.

 From left, Julie Fontaine, Tim Palen and Danielle DePalma, the movie's marketers.
 The art lies in allowing fans to feel as if they are discovering a film, but in truth
Hollywood’s new promotional paradigm involves a digital hard sell in which little is
left to chance — as becomes apparent in a rare step-by-step tour through the
timetable and techniques used by Lionsgate to assure that “The Hunger Games”
becomes a box office phenomenon

 Along the way the studio had to navigate some
unusually large pitfalls, chief among them the
film’s tricky subject matter of children killing
children for a futuristic society’s televised
amusement.
 The trilogy of novels, written by Suzanne Collins,
is critical of violence as entertainment, not an
easy line for a movie marketer to walk, even
though the movie itself is quite tame in its
depiction of killing.

 “The beam for this movie is really narrow, and
it’s a sheer drop to your death on either side,”
said Mr. Palen, during an unusually candid
two-hour presentation of his “Hunger
Games” strategy at the studio’s offices.

 A built-in fan base for “The Hunger Games”
certainly helps its prospects. More than 24
million copies of “The Hunger Games” trilogy
are in print in the United States alone. About
9.6 million copies were in circulation
domestically when the movie’s marketing
campaign intensified last summer, so
Lionsgate’s efforts appear to have sold the
book as well as the movie.

 They assigned one team member to cultivate
“Hunger Games” fan blogs.
 Danielle DePalma, senior vice president for
digital marketing, drafted a chronology for
the entire online effort, using spreadsheets
(coded in 12 colors) that detailed what would
be introduced on a day-by-day, and even
minute-by-minute, basis over months.
 “Nov. 17: Facebook posts — photos, Yahoo
brand page goes live.”)

 The film was released in March 2012 in both
conventional cinemas and digital IMAX
cinemas.


 Last summer, the Lionsgate team, including
Nina Jacobson, a producer, and Joe Drake,
then the studio’s top movie executive, started
debating how to handle the movie’s subject.
 The usual move would have been to exploit
imagery from the games in TV commercials.
How else would men in particular get excited
about the movie? But Mr. Palen was worried.

 This book is on junior high reading lists, but kids
killing kids, even though it’s handled delicately in
the film, is a potential perception problem in
marketing,” he said.
 One morning, he floated a radical idea: what
about never showing the games at all in the
campaign? Some team members were
incredulous; after all, combat scenes make up
more than half the movie. “There was a lot of,
‘You’ve got to be kidding. I don’t see how we can
manage that,’ ” Mr. Palen recalled.

 Eventually, he prevailed. “Everyone liked the implication
that if you want to see the games you have to buy a
ticket,” he said. Boundaries were also established
involving how to position plot developments; in the movie,
24 children fight to the death until one wins, but “we made
a rule that we would never say ‘23 kids get killed,’ ” Mr.
Palen said. “We say ‘only one wins.’ ” The team also barred
the phrase “Let the games begin.”
 “This is not about glorifying competition; these kids are
victims,” Mr. Palen said. A few months later, when a major
entertainment magazine planned to use “Let the Games
Begin” as the headline on a “Hunger Games” cover, Ms.
Fontaine, traveling in London, frantically worked her
cellphone until editors agreed to change it.

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/siliconangle/201
2/03/25/how-a-startup-powered-hunger-games-
into-a-global-social-phenomenon-a-money-
machine/

• Released summer 2012
• Prequel to the four previous Alien films
• Directed by Ridley Scott – director of first Alien film
in 1979
• Huge advance publicity – massive media/fan
speculation and sense of expectation.

• To fuel the sense of expectation four short ‘viral clips’ were
released onto the web
• These created a detailed back-story to the film
• The most significant of these clips used the increasingly well-known
and significant TED (Technology, Education, Design)
conference
• It featured a character from the film, Peter Weyland, making
a speech to the conference in 2023 some 50 years before the
setting of the film


FROM THE TED WEBSITE:
TED is a non-profit organisation devoted to Ideas
Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a
conference bringing together people from three
worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since
then its scope has become ever broader. Along
with two annual conferences -- the TED
Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each
spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in
Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the
award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open
Translation Project and TED Conversations, the
inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the
annual TED Prize.

 The TED website describes Weyland, the keynote
speaker, in the following terms:
 Peter Weyland has been a magnet for controversy since he
announced his intent to build the first convincingly
humanoid robotic system by the end of the decade.
 Whether challenging the ethical boundaries of medicine
with nanotechnology or going toe to toe with the Vatican
itself on the issue of gene-therapy sterilization, Sir Peter
prides himself on his motto, “If we can, we must.” After a
three year media blackout, Weyland has finally emerged to
reveal where he’s heading next. Wherever that may be, we
will most certainly want to follow.

 Viral clip 1
 http://blog.ted.com/ted2023/

 Viral clips
 Viral clip 2 – creation of the android David
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWmbqH
_z7jM

 Viral clip 3 –
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9PNTIZ
eJzY

 Viral clip 4
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnTWPH
9Bd1U

 SYNERGY
 These clips serve to created a detailed context for the
film and particularly appealed to the technologically
adept and followers of theTED conference.
 This represents an excellent example of SYNERGY
whereby both the film and TED benefit from being
associated with each other. The film gains credibility
from being associated with TED and brings in an
audience who might not normally be interested in the
film and TED gains by raising its international profile by
being associated by such a high profile and eagerly
expected film.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w_wmZr
ESxI
 Iron Man 3(2013)
 130 min - Action|Adventure|Fantasy - 25 April
2013(UK)

 Budget/marketing: $375 million
Projected global gross: $1.2 billion
 Revenue analysis: The film made a profit for
Marvel and Disney, even after gross
participants -- including Robert Downey Jr. --
took their fees, along with the $90 million or
so owed Paramount because of its previous
distribution deal with Marvel.

 Remember the film already has a fan base
(films 1 and 2).
 The publicists want to appeal to existing fans
and attract new ones.

 In July 2012, at the San Diego Comic-Con International, a new Iron
Man armour from the movie, the Mark XLII, was on display on the
convention floor, along with the Marks I-VII from the first two Iron
Man films.
 A panel was held, during which Shane Black, Robert Downey, Jr.,
Don Cheadle, Jon Favreau and Kevin Feige discussed making the
film, and several minutes of footage from the movie were shown.
 The first television advertisement aired during Super Bowl XLVII
on the CBS network in the United States.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEH05OYX0CA
 On March 25, 2013, Marvel and Disney revealed on the official Iron
Man Facebook page, "Iron Man 3: Armor Unlock," to reveal suits
Stark has made before the events of the film.[

 On March 25, 2013, Marvel and Disney
revealed on the official Iron Man Facebook
page, "Iron Man 3: Armour Unlock," to reveal
suits Stark has made before the events of the
film.
 This reinforces the notion that the character
exists outside of the film world.

 Disney also promoted the film at its domestic
theme parks beginning April 2013.
 The Walt Disney World Monorail System was
given an exterior Iron Man scheme.

 In addition, there is a simulator game, titled
"Become Iron Man," that uses Kinect-like
technology to allow the viewer to be encased in
an animated Mark XLII armour and take part in a
series of “tests,” in which you fire repulsor rays
and fly through Tony Stark's workshop.
 The game is guided by JARVIS, who is voiced
again by Paul Bettany. The exhibit also has
smaller displays that include helmets and chest
pieces from the earlier films and the gauntlet
and boot from an action sequence in Iron Man 3.

 In selected countries the Premier of the film was
shown in the 4DX format.
 4DX is a motion picture technology owned and
developed by South Korean company CJ 4DPLEX, a
part of the CJ Group. 4DX allows a motion picture
presentation to be augmented with environmental
effects such as motion, scents, mist and wind, outside
the standard video and audio. As such, it requires a
theatre with special equipment (in the same way that
IMAX theatres require special equipment/design).

 A smart phone video game titled Iron Man 3:
The Official Game, developed and published
by Gameloft, was released on April 25, 2013.
Gameplay is similar to Temple Run: the player
attempts to dodge objects to score points
and complete the level while still defeating
the Crimson Dynamo, Ezekiel Stane, Living
Laser and M.O.D.O.K.

 In January 2013, Marvel Comics released a
two-issue comic book.
 The story set between Iron Man 2 and Iron
Man 3, centres on War Machine and what he
was up to during the events of The Avengers
and why he was not present during the battle
in New York.

 Iron Man 3 was released by Walt Disney Studios Home
Entertainment in digital download form on
September 3, 2013 (5 months after Cinema Release)
 This was followed by the film's release on Blu-ray
disc, 3D Blu-ray, DVD, digital copy and on demand on
September 24, 2013.
 The home video release includes a Marvel One-Shot
short film titled Agent Carter starring Hayley Atwell as
Peggy Carter from Captain America: The First Avenger

 Twitter
 From April 5-10, Iron Man 3 was responsible for a
fantastic 13,315 tweets.
 The film was generating consistent chatter
thanks to the debut of a new scene that aired
during Sunday night's MTV Movie Awards.
 Additionally, the movie held its world premiere
in Beijing, China followed by Moscow.

 Through April 9 2013, Iron Man 3 boasted over 13.76
million fans on Facebook--a solid number for a second
sequel in a series of films. It continued to gain
momentum approaching the release date.
 By comparison, The Dark Knight Rises carried 11.69
million fans at the same point in the release cycle.
 Transformers: Dark of the Moon was responsible for
6.34 million

 Fan anticipation on Flixster followed the lead of the
other social networking sites with an incredible 99%
"want to see" score from almost 93,000 voters.
 Flixer is an American ‘social movie site’ for discovering
new films, learning about films, and meeting others
with similar tastes in films. The site allows users to
view movie trailers as well as learn about the new and
upcoming movies in the box office. The site is based in
San Francisco, California and was founded in 2007.
Flixster has been the parent of website Rotten
Tomatoes since January 2010.

 Iron Man 3 had a deliberate strategy to break China's
growing film market with a special Chinese version of the
film?
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324077/Iron-
Man-3-execs-changed-film-Chinese-audience-adding-4-
minutes-Chinese-actors.html
 When Marvel launched the international promotional
campaign for Iron Man 3, it did not choose Hollywood or
London's Leicester Square, but Beijing's Forbidden City.
 It was the first time a Hollywood film had ever been
celebrated inside the Chinese capital's Imperial Palace.

 Leading man Robert Downey Jr. did his part
to charm the Chinese press by calling out to
fans in the local Chinese dialect. He told the
press conference, "I'm interested in all things
Chinese and I live a very Chinese life in
America,".
 It was all part of Hollywood's attempt to woo
Chinese audiences and authorities

 Iron Man 3 was distributed worldwide by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures1
with the exception of China, where it was released by DMG Entertainment, and
Germany and Austria, where it was released by Tele München Group.
 The Chinese version offers specially prepared bonus footage made exclusively
for the Chinese audience.[ This version features a four-minute longer cut of the
film, with a scene showing Dr. Wu on the phone with Iron Man visible on a
television screen behind him, as well as a longer scene of Dr. Wu operating on
Stark. The extra material also features product placement of different Chinese
products.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG2nVGwPfCU
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39m85puOQok

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-
22188200

 China recently overtook Japan as the world's second-biggest
cinema market, as box office revenues surged
30% to $2.7bn (£1.8bn).
 Since James Cameron's Avatar took $222m (£145m) in
China in 2010, Hollywood has been desperate to crack
the Chinese market.
 Marvel has found a way through some of the red tape
by co-producing Iron Man 3 in China with DMG
Entertainment, a Beijing-based production company.
 "The concept of what people want to see and what
the government doesn't want to be seen isn't
understood very well," says DMG's chief executive
officer Dan Mintz.

 Chinese authorities allowed 34 foreign films
to be screened in the country each year.
 David Cameron achieved a diplomatic
breakthrough in January 2014 – the Chinese
will allow more British films to be shown.

 The Chinese authorities often request
changes to remove sexually explicit scenes,
violence and other topics deemed
inappropriate for the home audience.
 "Everyone is trying to figure out the
loopholes," says Mintz. "The pressure is
immense to crack this market and to
understand it."

 Marvel has even created a special Chinese version of
the action film with an extra scene featuring a new
character and storyline.
 The additional eight-minute scene stars Chinese
actress and singer Fan Bingbing and A-listerWang
Xueqi.
 "It takes a fundamental character from our movie who
isn't in it as much and extrapolates out his story," says
British co-writer Drew Pearce.
 "People didn't grow up with Marvel in China," says
Mintz, who set up his advertising and production
company 20 years ago. "Awareness needed to be
built."

 Mintz says China has "crept up" on Hollywood, explaining:
"Five years ago, it didn't matter if you took it seriously, but
that was the time they should have been figuring out their
strategy."
 Iron Man 3 is not the only film to take aim at the Chinese
market. The next Transformers movie is to be partly made
in the country, and James Cameron (“Avatar”) announced
a joint venture with two Chinese firms last year.
 Iron Man 3's main cast members did not film in China. But
Don Cheadle, who plays US Air Force colonel James
Rhodes, says he is keen to be a success in Asia.
 "If I become a big Chinese star, you can guarantee I'll be
shooting a movie in China," he says.

 The efforts from Marvel and DMG paid off as
they secured a release date in China - 3 May, the
same day the film came out in the US.
 Mintz is convinced that the Chinese market will
continue to grow and says it may one day
challenge Hollywood for supremacy in the global
movie market.
 "There's always been a number two, but this is
the first time anyone is challenging for number
one," he says

 http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=ir
onman3.htm
 http://www.slideshare.net/957323/iron-man-marketing-
13534159
 http://www.slideshare.net/vividproduction/m
arketing-campaign-of-iron-man-3

 This ‘Superhero film’ took an innovative approach to brand
partnerships.
 Public relations and product integration hit all new heights in this
sequel, where there was a lot of hype in the entertainment and
pop culture press about which car the film's hero, Tony Stark
would be driving.
 The partnership allowed Audi to align its new R8 model with the
film's protagonist, who adapts his superpowers to the changing
world around him.
 The movie's star, Robert Downey Jr. showed up at the U.S. premier
in Los Angeles behind the wheel of the same red 2014 Audi R8
Spyder that he drove in the film, taking product placement from
the screen to the real-world.
Read more:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227105#ixzz2ryWXN3UZ

 Marvel Comics putting out the film with Disney, started their
unconventional marketing strategy with the skin and hair care
brand, Kiehl's.
 Kiehl's retail stores were decorated with signage and product
displays featuring the characters.
 Marvel came out with a custom-made Captain America comic
book specifically set inside a Kiehl's shop. The comic book recently
ran as an insert in the Wall Street Journal and was offered to
customers when they made a purchase in-store or online.
Read more:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227105#ixzz2ryWOlrDm

 What is technological convergence?
 For the purposes of this essay I am defining technological convergence as ………
 Discuss the impact of technological convergence
on the way “Shifty” and “Dreams of a Life” were
publicised and distributed.
 Discuss the impact of technological convergence
on blockbusters such as “The Hunger Games”
and “Iron Man 3”

 Production.
 What problems/advantages do small
independent film makers have getting films
made? Be specific – “Dreams of a Life”, “Shifty”
and Film 4.
 What advantages do the ‘big six’ major studios
have?
 What effect does the power of the ‘big six’ have?

 Distribution
 What marketing strategies did small
independent films like “Dreams of a Life” and
“Shifty” use to attract attention and publicise
their films with a limited budget? NB Cross
Media Convergence.
 In contrast what marketing strategies did “Iron
Man 3” and “The Hunger Games” use with their
much larger budget.

 Exhibition – what strategies do the film
makers/Distributors use to get the films to you?
 How exactly can you watch the films?
 Cinema? Mainstream or Independent?
 Curzon on Demand?
 DVD?
 Sky?
 Smart TV?
 Netflix.

 It may have lacked a generation-defining event
movie like 1977's Star Wars, or even a
technological ground breaker like 2009's Avatar,
but 2013 was still the year of the Hollywood
blockbuster.
 This year, 26 films costing more than $100m
(£61m) each were released by the major
Hollywood studios - more than ever before. They
are likely to have raked in tens of billions of
dollars in worldwide box office revenues as a
result - close to the record $35bn (£21.5bn)
delivered in 2012.

 Some of the films did badly. The Lone
Ranger, starring Johnny Depp, barely made
back the $250m it cost to make. But the hits
outweighed the flops: Iron Man 3 took $1.2bn
in box office receipts around the world,
topping the charts and making it the fifth
highest-grossing film of all time.
 But despite the runaway successes, there are
concerns within Tinseltown that blockbuster
budgets are getting dangerously high.

 Bankrupted
 "There's eventually going to be an implosion,
or a big meltdown," said Hollywood elder
statesman Steven Spielberg in a speech
earlier this year. "Three or four or maybe even
a half dozen mega-budget movies are going
to go crashing into the ground, and that's
going to change the paradigm."

 It has happened before. In 1980, Heaven's
Gate effectively bankrupted United Artists.
The budget for the sprawling Western got out
of control, the film bombed, and the studio
was forced into a takeover by MGM.

 The irony is that Spielberg almost
singlehandedly invented the blockbuster
genre.
 When his film Jaws was released in 1975,
Hollywood realised that making a few big-budget
films a year that appealed to the
masses was more lucrative than making
dozens of smaller ones, and a business model
was born. Since then budgets have soared
and artistic merit has taken a back seat.

 Hollywood watchers say it's a statistical
certainty that another bomb to rival Heaven's
Gate, or even 1995's Waterworld, is around the
corner. But the difference, they say, is that
modern Hollywood studios are equipped to
cope.
 After a wave of acquisitions in the 80s and 90s,
the six "majors" that dominate global box office
are now parts of massive media conglomerates.
They have found ways to both boost profitability
of their films and mitigate the risks associated
with making such huge investments.

 HIGHEST-GROSSING FILMS OF 2013 WORLDWIDE
 Iron Man 3 (Walt Disney) - $1.2bn
 Despicable Me 2 (Universal) - $919m
 Fast & Furious 6 (Universal) - $789m
 Monsters University (Walt Disney) - $744m
 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Lionsgate) - $730m
 Man of Steel (Warner Brothers) - $663m
 Gravity (Warner Brothers) - $642m
 Thor: The Dark World (Walt Disney) - $620m
 The Croods (20th Century Fox) - $587m
 World War Z (Paramount) - $540m
 Source: Box Office Mojo

 The first thing the studios have done is
spread the risk by getting dozens of smaller
production companies to invest alongside
them, reducing their exposure to a potential
flop.

 Revenue streams
 The second thing is that they have made the
success of their films almost a sure thing.
 Recent research by British film academics John
Sedgwick and Mike Pokorny has found that not
only have blockbuster films become more
profitable over the past 20 years, they have
become more reliably profitable: in the late 80s
just 50% of major studio films turned a profit. In
2009 it was 90%. Flops have become rare.

 "[Studios] are ruthlessly good at getting
returns from their investments," Prof
Sedgwick says. "Hollywood has got better
and better at it. The more you spend, the
more you get back. It seems to me to be an
extraordinarily successful model."
 How have the studios achieved this?

 How have the studios achieved this?
 The first step has been to generate new revenue streams.
In the early days of Hollywood, 100% of revenues came
from ticket sales. Now it's just 20%. The rest of the money
comes from television licensing, DVD sales,
merchandising and other commercial deals.
 "Blockbuster films are not really films," says Charles
Acland, a professor of communication studies at
Concordia University in Montreal, and author of the book
Screen Traffic. "They are in fact very elaborate 'tent-pole'
business models that connect all sorts of different
commodities in all sorts of different industries."

 The second step has been to look beyond the
domestic US market, where cinema
audiences aren't really growing, and look
overseas to developing markets such as China

 Iron Man 3 earned two-thirds of its revenues
outside of the US. The Chinese version of the
film even had four extra minutes of footage,
featuring Chinese actors and half a dozen
Chinese product placements.
 Finally, the studios have become incredibly risk-averse
in terms of the types of films they
produce. Instead of taking a chance on new
directors and original ideas, they produce tried-and-
tested franchises, remakes and book
adaptations.

 Communal experience
 A look at this year's top 10 highest-grossing films
reveals just two original screenplays - animation The
Croods and 3D epic Gravity. In both 2012 and 2011
there were none in the top 10.
 As a mark of the power of the franchise, The Amazing
Spider-Man was released last year, and Sony has
already pencilled in dates for The Amazing Spider-
Man 2, 3 and 4 stretching until May 2018.
 That's on top of Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3 released
between 2002 and 2007.

 Hollywood faces challenges. Executives are
sweating over a virtual collapse in DVD sales in
recent years amid the growth of online
streaming services such as Netflix. The major
conglomerates that control the studios are
seeing profits faster at their television arms than
in the film industry, and are cutting costs.
 But perhaps the more worrying long-term
problem is what Charles Acland calls "aesthetic
bankruptcy". The blockbuster business model
necessarily leads to making bad movies.

 The perception that Hollywood peddles lowest common
denominator crowd-pleasers at the expense of "serious"
cinema means screenwriting talent is increasingly moving
over to television. This year director Steven Soderbergh
threatened to quit altogether.
 But while blockbuster franchises continue to bring in
billions worldwide, there is little sign that Hollywood will
change its ways.
 "If you want a shared communal experience of the film
that everybody's talking about right now, then you go to
the movie theatre," Prof Acland says. "The blockbuster is
very stable in Hollywood. It's not going to go away any
time soon."

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