Marketing and distribution essay

“Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices”.

To what extent would you agree with this statement, within the media area you have studied

 

The film I have studied is Star Wars: the force awakens and was released into cinemas in December 2015. The film was directed by an ‘A-list director’ J.J Abrams. I agree with the statement because I think having good production practices and successful marketing and distribution are both important factors when making a film. The force awakens had both good production practices and good marketing, for example they made the audience feel nostalgic by using actors from the original films. Harrison ford, mark Hamill and Carrie fisher all made an appearance which would make it appeal more to those who grew up watching the films, but also appealing to younger audiences by adding some unknown actors to play new characters such as Daisy Ridely as Ray and John Boyega as Finn.

For marketing and distribution, they advertised online using social media which is a good way promoting a new film to a range of different audiences but mainly under 25s.To ensure that Star Wars appealed to a range of audiences they made sure it was a four-quadrant picture, meaning it would appeal to both men and women over and under 25. It attracts bot parents, children, men and women so it would bring in huge amounts of revenue. Star Wars was mainly above the line marketing as this is also a way of targeting larger and more general customers, advertising will appear on TV, posters and souvenirs. They also had many tag ins and joined in with other franchises for example they released Star Wars cereals, posters, water bottles, sweets and colouring books this helps to make a film more appealing to much younger audiences. They also released a Star Wars Lego set which would have got children interested and talking about the film.

Star Wars is a successful media product and is available to watch on blue ray, DVD and download, this is so they can still generate profit once the cinemas are no longer showing the film. This links to distribution of films. The force awakens was filmed on both film and digital and Walt Disney studios were the official distributers. The film was also available to watch on Imax which would have made it appeal to a wider audience. Walt Disney studios motion picture have had experience with marketing and distribution of successful films which could be why the force awakens had one of the most successful and biggest marketing campaigns.

The trailer for the force awakens was not also gripping but was released in many different languages, widening the audience. This was an important part of marketing for this film as to create profit it needed everyone to be interested in viewing the new film. The marketing and distribution for this film was clearly successful as it made $2.6 billion. The revenue from this film meat they could pay the main cast members (Harrison ford, Daisy Ridely and John Boyega) large amounts of money for example Daisy and John received $450,000 each while Harrison got around $23 million. Even though John and Daisy have been in other films, people will start to associate them with the Star Wars franchise from now on.

 The film had good production practices which helped to make the films as successful as it was. They had a $306million budget which meant they could film in various locations such as Abu Dhabi and spend money on quality special effects and filming sets. Another way that they improved the nostalgic was by researching the original film to find out what made them so successful. When they found what made the originals so good they tried to recreate techniques that they used for example using real explosions rather than making them all using special effects, which is a good example of good production practice. Also, technology has advanced dramatically since the first films and as a result it made the force awakens a successful film because of high quality special effects.

In conclusion, I believe that marketing and distribution is equally as important as having good production practices. Both are vital components for successful film productions because if a production is lacking in one of the 2 areas it could mean the film is unsuccessful. A film could have good production practices but not so good marketing and distribution, which would mean the film would be lacking advertisement so therefore the film would get little publicity and result in no revenue. Productions heavily rely on both marketing and distribution and good production practices to make a successful film.  Overall I strongly agree with the statement as I think if a film needs to be successful, marketing and distribution need to be equally as good as the production practice.

Regional identity

Discus the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of regional identity using the following (50 marks)

• Camera shots, angles, movement and composition
• Editing
• Sound
• mis-en-scene

EAA: Explanation, analysis, argument 20 marks                                                                                            EG: Use of example 20 marks                                                                                                                             T: Terminology 10 marks                                                                                                                       

The establishing shot is of an outdated doctor’s surgery, lacking many of the modern items one would expect to see, this cultural code immediately positions the audience to regard the countryside as ‘behind’ in terms of technology and other advancements- this is a common stereotype of the countryside. The use of a wide angle allows the audience to see the contrast between the suit wearing Doc Martin (who represents the city) and the two boiler suit wearing tradesmen (who represent the countryside) Doc Martin is positioned higher in the frame, which could connote power and authority, whilst one of the two workers appear lazy; he is seated, overweight and eating. The room appears uncared for, it is lit using natural soft key lighting and through the use of mis-en-scene we can see that there are boxes piled up.

An insert shot shows an old fashioned police office where a police officer is hovering, which could infer that there is little or no crime in the country side and therefore the officer has nothing to do. Through the mis-en-scene the audience can see that the computer is off meaning there is no work to be done in the countryside, additionally the computer is outdated which could mean there is no need for new and modern computers as there is nothing for the officer to do.  This is a stereotypical assumption that there is no crime in the countryside and everything is slow and calm. A mid- close up is used on the police officer and it shows his surprised face, his surprised face could indicate that is rare for someone to enter the station.


The medium close up shot is of Doc martin and a woman who is trying to get his attention and talk to him. The Doc is closer to the camera and the woman is further away, also the doc takes up most of the screen which could mean that he has more power than the woman, the doc clearly does not want to talk to this woman as he keeps on walking away. Through the use of mise en scene we can see that the woman drives a car even in a small village, this could imply that she is lazy as usually everything in the countryside is a short distance away. During this scene you can hear seagulls in the background which is another stereotypical view that there is a constant sound of seagulls.

The next medium shot cuts to show the Doc helping out his aunt carry her vegetables; in this case the woman is closer to the camera which could mean that she has the most power in the situation. In this scene the woman talks to the doc about a teacher, the woman knows everything about the teacher which suggests that everyone in the countryside knows everyone as they live in a close community. The mise en scene suggests that most people who live in the countryside live in small cottages as this is what we see the aunt walk into, this is another stereotypical view of people who live in the countryside. Another stereotypical view point is that the aunt is carrying vegetables which would suggest that she works on a farm, this is a common stereotypical thought about people who live in the countryside which is that all people are farmers and grow vegetables.

I have under analysed the sound and editing in this clip, and I have also not mentioned Roland Barthes narrative codes. I should have explained more about the cuts that were used in the clip and explained why certain camera angles were used.