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.