Thursday 19 March 2020

EVAL Q2

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

This blog post covers:
  • Our target audience
  • BBFC - Big 5 vs Indie
  • How it would be distributed as a real media text
How does your product engage with audiences?

In this powerpoint, we discuss the range of audiences we expect our film opening to attract.  We discuss age, gender, economic grouping, nationality/region and sexuality.  We also take a look at the difference between the contrasting Warp and Working Title in regards to the size of audiences they get and for which reasons.


In this powerpoint, we have a moodboard of what we expect our male and female audience members to look like, and what they're into.
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TARGET AUDIENCE SURVEY RESULTS


We made a short video with clips, pics and audio from 3 movies/TV shows.  This was to see if our predictions of a 15-24 year old audience was correct.  We used SurveyMonkey to collect the data and our results are below the video.
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In this powerpoint, I've discussed the differences in BBFC ratings in Big 5 movies vs indie movies.
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As audience feedback goes, I have made sure I've received the most I can by asking for some feedback after every sample scene and rough cut.  This is shown in my SAMPLE SCENES post and my ROUGH CUTS post.

How would it be distributed as a real media text?

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Transcript

TYPES OF DISTRIBUTION
  • What are different types of distribution?
    • First to understand the different types of distribution, we need to know what distribution is.  Distribution is in the middle of the production, distribution, exhibition film cycle.  Production is the making of the movie and exhibition is the public screening of the movie.  To get exhibition, a production company will need their movie to be distributed by a distribution company.  Theatrical, television, personal home viewing and self distribution are all types of distribution.  Theatrical distribution is when the movie is screened in cinemas, television distribution is when the movie is screened on TV, personal home viewing distribution is when the movie is on DVD or Blu-ray, and self-distribution is when the production company takes distribution into their own hands, through social media for example.
CONGLOMERATES VS INDIES
  • What is the difference between the big5 and indie companies when it comes to distribution?
    • Indie companies have a much lower chance at getting distributors than a big 5 production company.  The big 5 conglomerate NBC Universal has a first-look deal meaning that if Working Title, the junior production company, produces a film, the NBC Universal distribution company will have the first look at the movie to decide if they want to distribute it.  If they decide they don't want to, they will have to find another distributor.  Indies rarely have the chance to be theatrically distributed unless it is in an arthouse cinema.  The main reason an Indie movie will have a much smaller release is because their budget is much smaller than a commercial movie.  Another thing that stops Indies getting a wide release is that Indies usually cover more sensitive topic, like the social realist movie Tyrannosaur directed by Paddy Considine and released in 2011, with the protagonist kicking his dog to death.  They also show much less commonly shown representations and both of these factors appeal to a niche audience.  
DIGITISATION/DISRUPTION/CONVERGENCE
  • Please explain what digitisation, disruption and convergence are!!
    • Sure so digitisation is the process of change that is moving away from analogue to digital.  A good example of this is older media being cassette tapes and new media is steaming.  Disruption is the consequence of digitisation and the impact of it on media industries.  Monetisation is a lot more complicated now as a lot of movies are now on streaming sites such as Netflix and Amazon Prime so there isn't such an easy way to monetise it which has a large impact on the film industry.  Convergence is the barrier between things disappearing, for example, a phone is no longer something just to call people on, we can now watch movies through netflix or other streaming sites on here, making it less necessary to go to the cinema, which is another example of disruption.
HOW WE WOULD DISTRIBUTE
  • How are you distributing Donnie of the Dead?
    • As our movie has a micro-budget, we're taking inspiration from Hinterland, which was directed by Harry Macqueen and released in 2014.  Hinterland has a budget of £8k which is a substantial difference to some of the Big 5 movies, such as the tentpole, meaning a budget of $100m, movie Green Zone.  Harry Macqueen managed to self-distribute by providing a QnA session at 5 arthouse cinemas for a week of screening.  He also had the movie simultaneously viewable on demand.  We will self-distribute our movie, through social media and getting in contact with distributors and having a QnA session deal.  
GANT RULE
  • What is the gant rule?
    • The Gant Rule is an observation that a movie will make approximately 10 times more box office in the US than the UK as there are around 10 times more cinemas and screens in the US.  However this would only really work for a big 5 company.  If a movie is set in England, the representation is usually a southern english accent, which is universally recognised.  A northern english, scottish or irish accent isn't understood as universally.  Indie movies usually show these different representations so they would rarely do well in America.  
DYER'S STAR THEORY
  • What Dyer's star theory?
    • Richard Dyer's star theory is that a media text will entice a larger audience if a well-known person or "star" is in it.  A lot of the time, big 5 companies will use Star-billing as a form of advertisement, so they could put the actor's name in big bold letters on a poster, or get the actors to do press conferences.  Indies don't have the budget to be able to hire an a-lister and use them for advertisement, which is another reason why distribution is a lot harder for them.
FRANCHISE
  • Are there any franchises in Warp or is it only Working Title?
    • Yes. Working Title can afford the IP or Intellectual Property for a franchise, such as Bridget Jones's Diary which was originally a novel and is now 2 movies.  Warp can't afford this as much, however, they have done in the past.  Submarine was a novel before Warp bough the IP and turned it into a movie.  Another example if a Warp franchise is This is England which became a short TV show.
CHINA
  • What is the deal with China and the film industry?
    • China is the second biggest film market in the world, however, the Chinese government has put a quota on the amount of non-Chinese films that can be shown a year, being 34 movies.  As this number is so low, Indie companies like Warp could never be screened in China especially with the niche social realist genre.  
COZ GREENOP
  • Who is Coz Greenop?
    • Coz Greenop self-financed and self-produced a horror movie named Wandering Rose which was filmed in Scotland for £30k in just 12 days.  With this micro-budget, Coz took a gamble and attended the Cannes film festival and also arranged a London screening.  Fortunately, Greenop's hard work and faith led him to getting distribution deals for DVD and VOD releases.  He also managed to get a US distributor, however, they did change the name of his movie from Wandering Rose to Demon Baby.

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