The document discusses the importance of marketing and distribution for the success of media products using two film companies as examples. Warner Bros. is a large studio that widely markets and distributes blockbuster films, contributing to their commercial success. In contrast, Recorded Picture Company uses more niche marketing and distribution for its independent, director-driven films aimed at smaller audiences. While production quality and practices are important, the document concludes that adequate production is most critical for a film's long-term critical and commercial success.

1. “Successful media products depend as much
upon marketing and distribution to a specific
audience as they do upon good production
practices.”
To what extent do you agree with this statement, within the media area you
have studied? (June 2011, past paper question)

2. Introductory paragraph…
In terms of the film industry, the practices of
marketing and distribution are as important as a
film’s production practices. They are the factors
which influence its success either critically or
commercially, and production companies decide
which process is important for their film. When a
film is mainstream and popular, good production
practices, marketing and distribution are as
important to the expectations of audiences.

3. Large film companies play a major role in the marketing and distribution of
several successful media products. One example of this is the American
media company Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. It has produced over
4413 films and was founded in April 4, 1923. A division of parent company
Time Warner, its production practices are incredibly vast, along with its
marketing and distribution of blockbuster films such as The Dark Knight
Rises (in the Dark Knight trilogy) and the Harry Potter film series. Since
they were based upon popular source material, these films became well-
remembered that they have attracted massive audiences universally
around the world. As in the case of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, its integrated
marketing campaigns, online and physically, have contributed to its
successful distribution in the USA and beyond, outlining how their style of
film promotion has radically diversified over the years of a new
technological dawn.

4. Being a massive studio conglomerate, Warner Bros. is able to
market horizontally and vertically as well as integrate with other
subsidiaries. As they have their own record label company,
studios, TV channels and shop (WB Store), WB is able to
distribute easily through these factors. Hans Zimmer’s Batman v
Superman soundtrack was released on WB’s own record label
WaterTower Music. Apart from this, viral marketing is also utilised
for some of its films to raise universal audience awareness by
releasing new teasers and trailers periodically, as well as keeping
people up to date with newly unearthed technologies and trends.
That way, wider audiences expand as new individuals are
introduced to WB’s range of films by integrated awareness.

5. However, in contrast to major multi-million dollar-making film companies like
WB, Recorded Picture Company uses different marketing and distribution
strategies. It is an independent director-driven production company founded in
1974 by chairman Jeremy Thomas, which has recently released the 2016
social science fiction thriller film ‘High-Rise’. Teaming up with HanWay Films,
Film4, and Ingenious Media, the production company distributed the film
through StudioCanal. Even though the main cast included big names like Tom
Hiddleston (The Avengers), Sienna Miller (Burnt), and Jeremy Irons (Batman v
Superman: Dawn of Justice), the film was targeted towards a smaller niche
audience because of its sophisticated subject matter adapted from the J. G.
Ballard book of the same name. It was advertised more in newspapers,
magazines and on posters so not targeted as much towards a younger
audience. Producer Jeremy Thomas had developed the project in the 2000s
with different scriptwriters and directors attached. His emphasis on the quality
of script was important when it came to the distribution of the film by
StudioCanal. This major point in production indicates that quality outweighs
quantity, which contrasts both Warner Bros. and RPC against one another.

6. Warner Bros. Pictures recently released ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of
Justice’, a good example of a tentpole movie to become hugely successful
commercially. With hugely famous names such as Ben Affleck (who plays
Batman), Henry Cavill (Superman) and director Zack Snyder, the film already
creates a huge tsunami of fans as the source material is based upon two of
America’s biggest superheroes created by DC Comics and they also want to
see it just for the actors involved. Batman v Superman had a huge $165
million marketing effort to promote the film worldwide, and the given budget
was $250 million. The film used a heavy amount of CGI to add to the
expenses of production to make it seem realistic. Compared to this
powerhouse of a production, Wheatley’s High-Rise (assumed to have a
lower production budget) with a minimal amount of CGI was filmed on
location in the seaside town of Bangor, Country Down instead of studio-built
sets as used in the other superhero movie. This shows that there is a clear
rift between success and production of films as there is no direct link
between the two factors of the film industry, regardless of the length of time it
takes to produce a media product and distribute it.

7. Conclusion
Looking at the basis of Warner Bros. as a major conglomerate in the ‘big six’ group of studios,
we can see that its vast array of films have been nominated for more than 200 Academy
Awards but have won just around 60 or so awards. In juxtaposition to this, RPC’s High-Rise was
only nominated for 4 awards, and this does not affect the critical and commercial success of the
film as awards do for Warner Bros. Pictures. Even with a monumental marketing and
distribution effort for a massive blockbuster film like Batman v Superman, that does not account
for a positive critical response. Instead, it just generates a new wave of audiences.
Adequate production practices are what it takes to make a film critically commercial to secure its
universal success. Quality is a factor that will cement a memorable film through the likes of
High-Rise and others (The Big Short is another example, where it has won the Academy Award
for Best Adapted Screenplay). As the quality of a film diminishes over time, we can see that
production is important because the audience of a film that has left the cinema will decrease
and nobody would want to watch a CGI-effects-filled whirlwind of grim and loud action
compared to a universally recognised film with a dedicated fanbase and lasting success
critically and commercially. It, overall, outweighs the methods of marketing and distribution.