RESEARCH: HOW THE CAMPAIGN WORKS

When distributors are looking at HOW they distribute their film, they have to focus on the cost of the campaign. According to the FDA website, there are two factors that distributors focus on when looking at the costs, these are;

1. The Above the Line costs - These are known costs for creating marketing material (such as posters and trailers), buying media advertising (like Websites and website banners, radio adverts or TV spots or newspaper adverting (online and on paper)) and creating an online presence for them (such as official pages on different social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter).

2. Below the Line costs - Publicity in the industry builds further awareness and interest in a film. Some distributors use authored articles or editorial interviews are sometimes more ‘trusted’ than buying media advertising for the film. With premieres, the cost of getting the stars and director to attend and hopefully generate press coverage all have to be covered without any guarantee that the press will write about the film. Such events offer special access to film stars for fans waiting alongside the red carpet for selfies, short videos and autographs. 

Digital 'prints' and advertising (P&A): 

When distributors have decided what selling points they are going to use for the film, they must determine how much to spend on publicity and advertising and on digital prints of the film to send to cinemas.

Three way in which distributors have to factor in when looking at cost:

• They have to credit how much they think the film will take at the box office.
• They have to consider how large the potential audience could be.
• How much money the film will generate in cinema ticket sales.

Distributors supply different cinemas (like the IMAX and the Everyman) with a digital file, when they are booking for that film to play in one or more of their screens. This digital file contains:

• The film
• The soundtrack 
• Subtitles 
• Audio description tracks 

Prints and Advertising example:

Types of release:

Most films release in the UK are launched on fewer than 100 digital copies. Only 5% of films are released with over 500 copies. 

Kezia Williams talks about blockbuster films, and she explains that marketing a blockbuster film is a unique challenge for distributors.
This is because they have to market it across the globe to appeal to larger audiences. This is why it is important to understand what the
main selling points are or the hooks, coinciding with the films themes, so that they can successfully reach their target audience.

In 2014, distributors spent approximately £350 million on advertising their films. Of this, around £190 million was invested in above-the-line media advertising, and the remainder on advertising production, cutting trailers, publicity junkets and materials, premieres, and producing and delivering DCP’s to be projected on screen.

Advertising:

The largest 'spending' of any P&A budget will be on advertising a film. In the UK, media advertising is very expensive. 
The main advertising avenues open to an distributors are:

• Posters
• Trailers
• Press advertising
• TV/ radio advertising
• Website adverting
• Billboard/ shell advertising
• Merchandise and cross platform promotion
• Social media advertising

The Poster:

Posters need to engage audiences by showing key aspects of the film that distributors think the audiences
will like, for example they would put key moments of the film, the stars, credits and often a taglines.  

The iconic image or design in a film’s poster is central to the film’s identity (Which shows the key aspects of
the film) and is an essential feature of its release campaign. A great poster is eye catching, and motivating,
so that it can gain the viewers’ interest in the experience that’s promised by the film.

when making posters for films, distributors have to plan how they are going to present the poster, depending on
the type of film. For an original movie, the poster must consist of bold images, a key message or branding that
will make the film stand out. For a squeal to a film, the poster has to recognisable to the franchise/ saga and it
has to have its own message that differs from the previous film, this is to continue to engage their audience.

The message can be shown on a poster in many ways:

• Quote(s) from the film that will inspire their audience and that will show the message of the film.
• Through the image(s) on the poster.
• The stars of the film (actors)
• The use of colours, sizing and style
• the certificate (rating)

Poster Analysis:

Types of trailer:

The film trailer is probably the most cost effective advertising technique available to the film distributor. When a trailer is being made it should reflect what the viewers might expect to see at the cinema, if they went to see this film. The trailer is usually made after the film is fully developed so that the trailer can show some of the main hooks of the film, which will create a 'want to see' attitude from the viewers. The trailer can give audiences a sense of genre, what the story is about, who is in the film and when it opens. 

Trailers can be classified in many ways:

• The teaser trailer
• The full trailer
• The TV spot
• on-set bios or videos posted by the cast or crew

Trailer analysis

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - the trailer is very effective because through the content, editing and sound, the trailer shows an interesting adaptation to the Novel 'Pride and Prejudice' that no one would have have thought to have done. Due to the reason that the film is based on a best selling Novel by Jane Austin, many history/ romance genre loving audiences are most likely to be attracted to the film. However, the film trailer highlights the film has zombies, so this shows the film also has horror, which will attracted those audiences as well. This shows that the trailer is grabbing the attention of a wide range of audiences. The trailer begins with orchestral music, showing the stereotypical women of that time period and it shifts to a survival against zombies, via a black out and narration about how the women in this story are going to have to change. This leads into an action pact sequence showing these women breaking the stereotype and are becoming strong independent women. This shows that the films main hook is the strong female figures, which grabs the attention of more female audiences. Furthermore, Lily James plays the main character in this film and the trailer mainly shows her throughout so audiences who like her in films will be drawn to see this different adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. 

In the Hear of the Sea - this trailer is effective in that through the use of sound and editing the trailer is shown as more cinematic and it creates tension throughout the trailer. The trailer begins with natural noises of the sea but when the whale comes towards the boat and the boat begins to break there is a build up to a climax, where at the crescendo, there is the start of a cinematic score in the trailer. This film is based on the book Moby Dick and this is a huge selling point for the film because it draws in myth and history audience, as well as adventure audiences. The hook of the film is how the men survived after they encountered Moby Dick. In the trailer many famous actors are shown, such as; Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy and Tom Holland. By having these famous faces be shown in the trailer, they attract in audiences who enjoy watching them. Furthermore, the incredible use of CGI for the whale and the sinking ship animates the exciting but sad story and as it is so realistic it makes audiences want to see the film. Alternatively, the use of sophisticated and clear inter-titles, audiences and see who directed the film and the audience is encouraged to the see the film through clear titles such as; 'comes one of the greatest true stories'.

The 33 - this trailer is effective as through the use of sound and shots, it shows a true story of life or death for a group of miners in Chile, who were trapped in the mines with very little chance of escape. This heart-warming trailer makes the audience feel inspired and hopeful and it attracts audiences who relate to the film or have Spanish/ south american heritage. This film shows how the Chilean government did not act quick enough to prevent this incident and how the women of Chile felt the leadership in their government was not good. The hook is how the miner survived with very little supplies and light and how they showed unity in a time of crisis. This could be a metaphor to the audience to tell them to always work as a team rather than individuals in any struggle in life. The song, Say Something (I'm Giving Up On You), begins playing in the trailer when there is a news report about the incident. The use of this song is to create a sense of hope in a dark moment, not just for the people in the film, but for the audience too, so that they can connect with the film on a more emotional level. With the emotional and deep lyrics in the song, the audience is made to feel sympathetic for the miners and their families in the film, as well as in the world because this film is based on a true story. The film has only one major actor, Antonio Banderas, who plays the main character, which attracts his fan base to watch the film, whilst attracting other world wide audiences. 

The Trailer Maker

On the FDA website, I took on the task of trailer making, which enabled me to use my creativity and i could understand how to pick out key selling points to show in the trailer. the trailer maker used clips from the 'Suffragettes' film trailer and i could change the sequence of clips to make it my own and i could add a score in the background. This task did not allow me to put transition in between clips, which made it difficult to make the trailer run smoothly, however, it was enjoyable to do. Here is my finished trailer for the task.

On-line Marketing

Chris Besseling, Director of Marketing at Pathe UK, states that digital marketing needs to be at the forefront of distributors thinking. He says that social media platforms allow for millions of voices to be heard and that a film needs to work hard to maintain its deserved position in that space. Distributors are able to further engage their audiences through digital means, as they can use their digital platforms to interact with their audience on a general or personal level. For example, on social media platforms, film pages can discuss with audiences about current affairs and situations that are happening in the world. One major current affair is the BlackLivesMatter movement, which has had huge online coverage. in the fight for justice for Black people, the actor John Boyega joined in a peaceful protest, in London, and made an emotional speech about how black people need to look after each other. Many film companies have been supporting the movement and have create video content in support. with this interaction, companies are gaining more attention by the audience, which will publicise the film better.




Kezia Williams discusses that digital is an important element of engaging an audience because everyone uses it in everyday life. she further explains that it is hard to distinguish the difference between digital activity and non digital activity as it cross over everything we do in our day. On the internet more audiences are looking at trailers rather than seeing them at a cinema because they use social media and websites everyday. with this in mind, distributors have begun to post trailers on online websites such as Rotten Tomato and IMDb so that they can get the attention of their audience. Furthermore, distributors will post film hashtags or tweet about aspects of their film so that they can engage their audiences on different social media platforms, like Twitter and Facebook.

RESEARCH: WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE

On the FDA website, Kezia Williams, Head of Theatrical Distribution at Entertainment One UK, explains that defining the target audience will affect the ‘where’ and ‘how’ of the marketing campaign; 

For example: 'Where should the distributors promote and advertise their film on social media?' and 'how should they would promote the film to appeal to and to engage their target audience?'

Kezia William explains, in the video, that distributors will start to define their audiences by comparing other films with their films. 

Reaching Me:

Genre and audience:

Keiza Williams, eOne distributor, explains the importance of understanding who is the target audience, so that they can successfully market the film. She explains that they need to establish what motivates them, what their interest are and what drives them to going to the cinema.   

The distributors will examine comparable films, so that they can understand what the best distribution method is for distributing their film. They then create a set that they can look back at data and research to identify who the audience was for those films. 

Distributors collect data on audiences by Demographs which shows whether the audience is male or Female and their ages. The distributors also look at Box office data, which is;

• regionality 
• how each cinema performs 
• was there a specific cinema chain people went to?

Furthermore, distributors do this research to understand their target audience and by interaction with them, they can engage their target audience with their film. Many use bespoke research to focus on different groups, within their target audience, so that they can interact with them in a way that is tailored to their interests. When using this research, they can understand the core audience and persuadable audience. Alternatively, if a distributors is promoting a film based on a book/novel/game, they can use the data on who was interested in these, so they can focus on appealing to them first.

Chris Bessling, Director of Marketing at Pathe UK, explains how distributors need to research to support the release strategy. He further explains that this is because the film industry is massively high risk due to the unpredictable anomalies at box office weekly. This is why distributors mostly rely on historical data. Historical data allows distributors to compare the success and failures of older comparable films and who watched these films? This data uses age demographics, social groups and box office trends/ ratings that help distributors to understand who their target audience is? And how they can reach them?

The Hook and the audience:

Reaching the target audience:

Marketability and Playability:

Marketability - the ability to use the films potential to be marketed effectively and successfully, e.g. having a good selling point/ hook, such as key stars, genres and directors/producers and this can be turned into a strong advertising campaign.

Playability - refers to audience reaction to the film. If an audience is satisfied and pleased by what they have seen then they will encourage friends/ family to go and see the film. This allows the film to grow and sustain itself in the marketplace.

RESEARCH: WHAT SETS A FILM APART

I watched a video on the FDA website, in which Kezia Williams, the Head of Theatrical Distribution for Entertainment One UK, discussing how the distributor picks out the film's unique selling points or hooks. 

Kezia Williams explains that distributors can start picking out the unique themes, hooks and selling points from any moment in the film campaign. She says that distributors can start by looking at the script and picking out key engaging or emotional moments of the film that they think will grab the audiences attention. Furthermore, she says that distributors can also start picking key moments out when the filming begins to at the end of the film production, because then the distributors can visualise the key moments they want to use for the films campaign. 

In this video, Chris Besseling, the Director of Marketing for Pathe UK, discusses how he looks to find the key selling points or hooks as early as possible and how the selling point will be different for blockbuster films and non-blockbuster films. 

RESEARCH: MOVIE TRAILERS WEBSITES

On the lifewire website there is an article about the 7 best movie trailer websites and from this list I use 4 of these website. These being;

• iTunes Movie Trailers
• IMDb 
• Rotten Tomatoes
• YouTube

As an Apple user, I get weekly updates from iTunes about new films and TV programmes. Once I have watched a film I get new suggestions from iTunes, linking to the similar genre, and I am able to see trailers of the film. I use iTunes the least because I prefer to watch films on other streaming platforms, such as, Netflix and Amazon Prime.  

I use IMDb to see trailers that I cannot access on websites such as YouTube. Alongside some of the trailers I can see the cast/crew who made the film and reviews about the film. recently I used IMDb to watch the trailer for Top Gun; Maverick. 

I use Rotten Tomatoes to see reviews and ratings, however recently I have used it to see trailers for all types of films. As a Marvel fan, I watched the trailer for 'The New Mutants' which is a very different film created by marvel. The film shows a dark side to super powers and is the first marvel film under the horror genre.

I use YouTube to watch interesting videos such as people playing games or doing new challenges. However, YouTube is the website I use most to watch film trailers. I will watch trailers on film company YouTube Channels or I will watch a compilation of new trailers on a YouTube Channel that reviews films. for example; I watch trailer compilations by Mojo to see what the rating of new films and to see the film trailers to make my own opinion.

FDA Yearbook 2020:

In these pages below, from the Yearbook, there is information about how audiences use specific websites like YouTube and the importance of social networks, like Twitter. The page below also explains how IMDb is not just a website that people get information about films (such as a films cast and crew) but is also a place where viewers can view trailers for new films, for example; Joker and Avengers: Endgame.

RESEARCH: THE ROLE OF THE DISTRIBUTOR

I used the FDA site The Film Space to research the role of the distributor. 
I watched a video of Mark Batey, Chief Executive of the FDA, who discusses how distributors have to consider the 'what, who, when, and how' in acquiring a film and marketing the film for successful distribution.

• WHAT? - Mark Batey explains that one of the key questions when either acquiring a film is WHAT the distributor thinks are the best selling points of the film are such as; WHAT type of film it is. Batey says that distributors do not need to know 'just what genre it is but are there any comparable films that have been out recently.'  This means that distributors have to research and compare the successes and failure of other film's audience numbers and distribution methods, so that they can plan the right distribution methods and this depends on whether the film is a sequel, a films based on books/plays, part of a franchise or a stand alone film. 

• WHO? - Batey discusses one of the main key questions is WHO is the audience for this particular film. He says that 'the most frequent cinema goers tend to be young adults, students and adults in their twenties.' Distributors use trends in cinema going activity to establish what audiences they are to target. However, distributors keep note of trends, which have recently been changing as explain by Mark Batey, who says, the audience can now 'range from 8 to 80' years-of-age.' 

• When Distributors are looking at the age range of their target audience they have to factor in the trends in the film industry, how many people have visited the cinema and the different technological advances and societal uses of these technologies. For example; the largest audience sector is from the 16-34 bracket, 91% of whom went to the cinema in 2018, making a total of 77 million visits. According to an OFCOM survey, they found that 48% of 12-15 year-olds picked YouTube as their favourite platform and 19% picked Netflix. However, according the observations by the FDA about the growing divergence on viewing patterns by age, the TV audiences have been getting older (over half of TV audiences are in the over-54 category). Due to this, distributors have been putting more trailers for their films in the adverts between TV programmes, so that they can grab the attention of older audiences.

• The FDA observes: The 'movies’ can hold various different appeals to people at different times, for example: a family outing; a party; a date; a girls’ night out; an afternoon or evening with a partner or friend; and a way to stay ‘in the know’ among social peers. Audiences comprise a complex mosaic of consumer segments, varying substantially film by film, week by week.

• WHEN? - Batey explains that distributors, when acquiring a film, decide on WHEN they are going to release their film and this is important because, depending on the type of film, it needs to be release at a time of the year where distributors think their audiences will most likely go to cinemas to see the film. Batey says that one main reason why distributors establish a release date is because in 'the UK about 700 feature films are released every year.' With this amount of films being released in a year, there is vast amounts of competition, mainly when trying to attract audiences to see their film. This is why it is crucial for distributors to release their film at the right time. 

The table shows the different films that were released in all the months of 2018. This shows that distributors have planned the release date carefully so that they can establish what month of the year is best to release their film. Distributors establish the successes and failures of film releases so that can understand what time of year is the right time to release that film.

• For the both 'The Grinch' and The Nutcracker and The Four Realms' distributors decided to publicise these films in November, so that they could release the films in December. The reason for the films being released in December is because the distributors know that with the Christmas market is the best time of the year to release new Christmas related films as they know that more families will go to the cinema to go to see the films.

• However, there are factors that distributors cannot control which can disrupt or help the distribution of their film. examples include a football match or a turn in the weather, as the cinema market is product-driven (meaning they can benefit from other product markets), expanding or contracting according to the films released into it and the extent to which they engage wide-ranging audiences. For example, the FIFA World Cup in 2018 competed for audiences with cinemas, across several weekends of the football fixtures. Alongside this, the third weekend in April had hot sunny weather after a long cold winter 

• HOW? - Distributors focal point is HOW they are going to distribute the film and they also regulate HOW much money they are going to spend on the different types of distribution for the film. Based on these two aspects, distributors form social media pages for the film (like Twitter and Facebook)and they create posters, teaser trailers and trailers, which they release months before the films release. This way they can monitor the money they use and gain more of their audiences attention. Alongside this, distributor set up actor Q&A's, which can involve Youtubers and other influential people, TV interviews and videos from on the set. They will post these videos on social media for the audiences to see and by engaging with them like this, the film will gain the attention of their audience.

• The FDA explains that distributors use different types of marketing strategies: the FDA estimates that UK film distributors’ investment in bringing 916 new titles to market in 2018 exceeded £350m. Around half of this is paid-for UK-wide advertising, using many digital, social and physical media outlets. The remainder of this is formed by other components, such as, advertising, poster and trailer production; publicity and premiere costs; and digital cinema packages to be supplied to cinemas in many formats. The FDA assert that although the UK is a large cinema territory in terms of box-office receipts, the high costs of marketing and distribution mean relatively low returns for the distributor. It is hard to 'cut through' in a congested marketplace and the fact that it is so crowded makes decisions on release dates very tough.

RESEARCH: INTRODUCTION TO TRAILERS

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