We went to the BFI Studio in London and had a presentation even with someone called Rob Miller that talked about the Film Industry and the different aspects of it.
First of all he compared and evaluated both Independent and mainstream films. I learnt that the purpose of producing and independent film is for the viewer to ask questions and also challenges them, compare this to mainstream where they are just for the viewers entertainment. An example of an independent film is Frank which is a low budget film only costing £1 million, has less established actors, black comedy which is a difficult humour and is an unusual genre that may put audiences off watching it. Compare this to the New mainstream blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens that has a high budget of $200 million, made by one of the 'big six' (Disney), amazing use of CGI and SFX, well known actors that allows a good market campaign and is also and event movie.
Elaborating on the 'big six', when we think of past films that were huge sales films like Captain America, Harry Potters and Frozen they were all produced and promoted by one of these. This shows the difference in the marketing in which the big films are more heavily advertised because they have the money to advertise it everywhere compared to independent film where they are a lot less advertised.
There is currently a lot of money in Television because of Netflix and Amazon as examples.
When creating a film the producers have to take into consideration what they are interested in as well as the target audience they are trying to reach. Furthermore, it was explained that in the film industry to make the film recognisable you need a distributor and they do the following:
- Pay for advertisement
-Negotiates release date
- Chooses which film to distribute
- Decides on number of prints/ copies
The main aspects of film marketing; television, cinema, trailers press, outdoor, online. Trailers are by far the most expensive way of advertisement but the most effective in some ways with consumers wanting to see moving pictures and clips of the film, so it gives the audience a preview of what to expect.
Following this we the discussed the effectiveness of the Spectre trailer:
- Action: explosions
- Familiarity with franchise and star marketing
-Enigma created leads people want their questions to be awnsered
- Romance: classic James Bond scene
- Good vs Evil: classic theme
With all this into consideration they are expecting it to be the biggest sales film of the year but have tough competition with the very popular new Star Wars film coming out in December.
Exhibition/ Exchange:
-DVD/ Blue ray sales are decreasing
- Most popular consumption of films it watching it at home
- Online film consumption like Netflix and Lovefilm that are again available at home
- Streaming of films increasing