Evaluation question 3

Evaluation Question 3By Connor Cummings

‘What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?’

The film company that would be ideal in distributing anonymous is Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers have a reliable track record for distributing thriller/action films for

example the Dark Knight

Film Companies

Warner Brothers was founded in 1923 and is highly regarded as being one of the big players in film production/distribution. Their efficiency is highlighted through

the staggering $4.73 billion dollars made in 2014.

Warner Bros. Pictures Group produces and globally distributes a wide-ranging slate of some 18-24 films each year. This is highly successful for a film company as for a company making money, the more films produced, the greater the revenue made.

Warner Brothers made the most money from the iconic franchise, Harry Potter as the final film made $120,000,000

We would like Warner brothers to distribute our film as they also own particular franchises that are well known by their audience (see diagram)

Warner brothers is a successful film producer/distributor and this is why we would like them to distribute our film as it is regarded as

being one of the ‘big six’ in Hollywood

How would we market anonymous?Marketing of films has changed rapidly over the last 70 years. A lot of companies back in the 60’s only used

traditional marketing strategies e.g film posters and Billboards. This is an example of above the line advertising as companies pay for their films to be advertised. Due to the proliferation of technology and the

huge advancement from web 1.0 to web 2.0, companies now market films online through the use of viral marketing. Viral marketing has enabled greater audience interactivity and it is referred to as being a ‘Digital Word Of Mouth’ as it is entirely down to the audience to share upcoming film releases with others. We would

use viral marketing to promote anonymous because it is cheap and the information is likely to reach our audience due to the fact that technology and the internet are paramount in peoples lives today.

Social media - social media plays a large role in the way in which modern films are promoted. I feel that by targeting social media such as Facebook and twitter, we could inform our target audience of anonymous as social media is constantly expanding. Certain websites allow companies to create pages for people to like. We would create Facebook pages and twitter accounts for our target audience to

gain information on our film and this would give them the option to share posts with friends and family. What is so unique about Facebook is that if you enjoy a video, you can click share and this will instantly go on your profile. This will then

appear on other peoples newsfeed and so this snowball effect begins to increase as people gradually become more informed about upcoming releases.

Recently I used Facebook’s resources to create a Facebook page to promote our film. The setup was very quick and easy and even asked what our target audience is. This is very useful as I can automatically set who I want to see our

promotional material for the film. On the right is what the page looks like and here, our target audience can view content published by us.

Marketing Continued

We would also create online forums for people to join and discuss our film. A film that used this to the best of its ability was The Dark Knight as they created

whysoserious.com. This was entirely based around audience enjoyment as it led them on a treasure hunt to gradually reveal spoilers and unknown facts about the film. This maintains audience’s attention and so we would use a similar technique.

We would create a page dedicated to anonymous so that gradually we would reveal hidden material from our film to our audience to keep them ‘hooked’

Cinematic trailers are the most commonly used form of marketing as they sum up in a short space of time, what the audience should expect from an upcoming film. Warner Brothers created

the Harry Potter trailers to show scenes of fast action, tension and suspense to impress its audience and to compel them to go and see them in cinemas. This strategy of marketing was

proven successful for Warner Brothers as they made over $10billon from the franchise. The fact that they generated so much revenue highlights that the trailers and other marketing strategies used were successful as they made people want to see their films. This is another reason why we want Warner Brothers to distribute our film. For anonymous, we would create a reveal trailer and gradually we would reveal snippets to maintain audience curiosity. To increase audience

eagerness to see our film, we would release the reveal trailer 7 months earlier and on the trailer state exactly when the film will be in cinemas. This would be effective as through viral marketing,

our audience will continue to talk about the film online and what he might containIn my opinion, it is best to use both above/below the line advertising as there are people who still prefer to hear about films through traditional marketing methods. As we want our film to be heard to all of our

intended audience, we would promote anonymous using billboards and posters. The big film companies such as Warner Brothers and Sony advertise their films in other countries in busses,

newspapers, on radios etc to ensure that all potential audiences are well informed. In my opinion, advertising in train stations such as the London Underground is a good place to start our film

advertisement as public transport is used by millions everyday. We would target this by having film posters and video clips of the trailer on the trains so that people have the choice to view the content.

The fact that our opening consists of sequences in a familiar train station, could potentially attract some commuters to see this film as they would recognise some of the iconic locations incorporated in it i.e paddington, the London Eye etc. The photo on the right is an example of what our advertisements

would look like in the Underground escalators

Distribution to our audience

Because our film would be mainstream, I feel that we should stray away from using simultaneous distribution. Simultaneous distribution is when media products are

released all on the same day for different platforms. This strategy has proven successful for micro-budget films such as A Field In England as they are intended

more for a niche audience. However as our film is mainstream, we want our audience to witness the film in a cinema experience as it would be more engaging

due to factors such as surround sound. If we used simultaneous distribution, there is a risk of the majority of audiences choosing to watch the film first on a small screen. Watching on tablets can be convenient for those who want to watch in the comfort of

their own home, however we want the audience to engage with our film by being immersed in the atmosphere created through a big screen.

Stage 1 - Cinema viewing

Stage 2 - DVD release Warner Brothers would release our film through disk copies on DVD and blu-ray. This would be a convenient distribution strategy as many contemporary audiences have a personal DVD/Blu-ray player in their homes. Of course we would like to encourage our audience to view the film in cinema, however not everyone has the time due to them

having other commitments. The price of cinema tickets have increased and this along with food and popcorn may put a few audience members off as it has become costly. We

want all of our target audience to see anonymous and so by releasing the DVD, this would allow for any who missed the cinema viewing. We would release the DVD 4 months after being shown in cinemas to ensure that the majority of our audience see it in cinemas

first.

Stage 3 - Film on demand services

Once released on DVD, we would make our film available for online download through companies such as Netflix and Love Film. Both these companies charge their

customers £5.99 a month for access to a large variety of films, both old and new. We would also like to distribute our film through SKY tv as they have an effective policy of

getting latest releases to their customers within a 3 month time limit after cinema release. This would give our audience and opportunity to download anonymous and

watch on all of their devices such as games consoles, computers and mobile phones. Netflix and other online film distributors offer HD streaming and this is appealing to

audiences as they can watch cinema equivalent quality on their devices.

Stage 4 - Revenue streams and additional content To continue engaging our audience, I feel it would be appropriate to release shortly after the online streaming distribution, a variety of revenue streams.

This is an effective strategy used by many mainstream films as they increase revenue but most importantly, promote the film further to those who haven't seen the film. We could release a variety of memorabilia such as T-shirts to allow our audience to continue to be apart of anonymous. Warner Brothers would play a big role in distributing the revenue streams as they have an

online store that contains all revenue streams from their hit films. This online store is an iconic website as it displays the Warner Brothers website to attract

audiences because of the companies popularity. Further content that we would release would be a soundtrack of all the music used in anonymous so

that our audience could listen to their favourite songs from the film. Soundtrack