Film distribution and Marketing

Film distribution is a basically a process which makes a film available to the audience through a film distributor. This can be done in a number of ways; for example a theatrical release, a home entertainment release which is when a movie is made available for the audience on DVD or Blu-ray. A film could also be distributed on a television program which could include digital distribution.

A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for marketing a film. A distributor may be liable for setting a release date and making sure the film(s) are available for the target audience. Once a film has been developed and a few months of pre-production has initiated, the film distributor may start to consider a release date using strategies to make sure the film generates enough attention at the appropriate time. After this is established the distributor might present the film to exhibitors and negotiate agreements to have in shown in cinemas. Furthermore, their marketing campaign can go public; making sure it creates attraction towards their target audience, and launches the film.

It is very important that the film or the marketing/advertising fits the target audience. For example, if the film is to be aimed at 60+ years old it wouldn’t be ideal to have advertisements on the Internet as the older generation don’t use it as much as, teenagers. Therefore it would be more appropriate to place an advert in the radio or newspaper to ensure it reaches the target audience. Reach is about the amount of people or audience can reach out to, for example the budget may restrict the amount cinemas the film can distribute to. Reach is an important aspect of marketing and distribution, because every film will want to accumulate the biggest audience they can possibly get. Some films may not want to take the risk of losing money so decide to distribute in a small amount of cinemas, but it may not accumulate a large profit as it will be harder to access for some audiences.

A marketing plan is to make the film visible to the intended audience making them intrigued, and making sure the message/advert cuts through all competition. The marketing plan also has to compete against other leisure activities. Adverts are usually in an appropriate area, according to their target audience, to reach as many audiences as possible. The best form of advertising is word of mouth, as it is very easy to disseminate quickly and creates a ‘must see’ vibe. There are numerous strategies to market a film, with one being posters. These can be effective as they can be placed anywhere, and always manage to grab audiences’ eye. Almost every film will use a trailer, this is another good way to tease and excite the intended audience. These film trailers will usually consist of a preview of the film, but without giving away too much, so the audience are left with plenty of unanswered question and therefore creates talk within the audiences. The most recent and modern form of advertising, is the use of the Internet. This makes films easy to target a specific audience, for instance if the films aim is youths, it would make sense to put adverts of the film in websites like twitter, Facebook and YouTube, this in return will approach the desired audience directly.

The distribution plan plays a large part of the profitability the film makes. This is because the distributor has to decide how, and when to release the film in order to create the maximum amount of viewers. The distributor would have to use strategies and research to their advantage, to discover a clear preferred audience and the targets for the film. An estimated budget for release will be judged from what the distributor thinks the film will make in the box office; with the main objective to make break-even and/or profit. Nonetheless, films are expensive to launch and will most probably not make its money back just from theatrical release. So some distributors conduct marketing research, like test-screenings to get feedback and see where improvements could be made.

Advertising as said before is the use of posters, word of mouth, trailers, TV adverts etc. which the distributors use to sell and make interest in the product. Whereas publicity is to do with reviews, press conferences and articles for films. For instance, someone like the press could try and make the film noticed as much as possible, therefore ‘publicizing’ it. Film publishers might create press kits involving; cast, crew lists, biographies, notable facts and a synopsis specifically for journalists to explore and ‘publicize’. Furthermore, the promotions of films may also help broaden the possible audience through merchandising, partnerships and premieres. Merchandising is a great way to stretch the target audience and generate more profit; this is when a film company control merchandising programmes. These include toys, ring tones, clothing, stationary, calendars and pretty much anything. By doing this, it can create more talking points about the film and could become part of the popular culture. Another way to promote a film is through partnerships. These tie-ins help reach the maximum capacity of audiences and also make the film interactive by opening up competitions to the viewers. Additionally, Premieres can be used to hype and launch the film, with close access to film stars and the chance to grab photos and autographs. The initial goals for a premiere are to generate more profit and awareness but also to make viewers/audience feel special and give them an exclusive in sight to the film.  

 

Teaser Poster

 

Final Poster

 

 

 Teaser Trailer

 

Full Trailer

 

 

 

Cabin in the woods was distributed by ‘Lionsgate’, which was released in a total of about 40 different countries. The film also had 2811 screens on the opening weekend in USA. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Initial Group Ideas

Lewis: A man who starts to see abnormal things to point at which he starts to question and confront it. Eventually it drives him to insanity and is sectioned, whilst his family find out that these ‘visions’ were actually real. But it is too late and the man is found dead is the psychiatric centre. 

Oscar: A man who suffers from split personality disorder finds himself seeing things that are extremely unusual and random. For example people wearing masks and dead people. He eventual kills on of these people, as a result of this he ends up taking his own life.

Alex: Two main central characters. Story based around one with the other being his hyper best friend. Their school teacher is a mass murderer where he overhears them talking about what they’re doing at the weekend. They are with a group of friends where they go to a forest drinking where 1 friend gets killed by the murderer. The group spot him where he chases them and they get away. There is havoc.

Layna: I would prefer to have a simple, traditional idea; inspired by classic trailers such as Halloween, The Shining etc. dated back from the 1980’s. This trailer would include the use of “creepy” ‘mask’ and stereotypical weapons such a knife, axe etc. My ideal location would be at night time, ‘lost’ in the woods. I’d like to create the killer as an uncontrollable psycho that doesn’t reveal his identity or voice at any time.

‘Silent Hill: Revelations’ film trailer analysis

This particular trailer grabbed my attention because it’s unique to the horror genre. I think this due to its unrealistic nature; it’s as if it’s a ‘nightmare’.

The trailer starts off with what seems to be a nightmare; a series of places that have an evil touch to them, which then, follows with a female waking up disturbed. We are then shown the school the girl belongs to; this is a good setting as it’s an everyday normal place that wouldn’t expect anything bad to happen. The school corridor suddenly transforms into a dark mutated alley, following many other horrors by using the darkness as a fear of the unknown. As the plot is to do with nightmares the settings are endless; the idea that evil can attack whenever, however and where ever making it conventional to the horror genre.

Another way this trailer uses the codes and conventions of the horror genre, is through the camera, lighting, sound and framing. For example, to build tension for the viewer the shots are cut quickly from one to another. Throughout the trailer we are issued with plenty of close ups to show the person’s emotion, which is predominantly fear. The time between each shot is very quick and sharp to build the tension, and also suggests the film consists of lots of action. Most of the camera work revolves around Adelaide Clemens (Heather), implying she’s the protagonist, with the majority of the shots reinforcing the fact she is alone and isolated. This trailer follows most horror trailers in the sense that, the lighting is always low key and dark, to connote the evil/darkness surrounding the characters. The trailer begins with a series of weird unknown sounds to support the unusual things going on in the shots. It then moves onto Clemens normal life, (equilibrium) like school, which is supported with a slow/calming piano track for a short while. Then throughout the rest of the trailer we hear the repeated weird sounds till the end of the trailer. Then to fit most horror trailers, there’s a moment of silence to make the audience concentrate to then make them jump.

It is easy to distinguish ‘good’ from ‘evil’ in this trailer, because conventionally evil is ugly and abnormal, whereas good is a typical and normal family. Another way it fits the horror genre well is the exaggerated use of darkness to make the audience aware of the evil, darkness and isolation being displayed. Silent Hill has a unique touch as it’s a horror but uses very unrealistic monsters as such, and the idea that the location around Clemens, dissolves/transforms into a whole new location. We are shown a carnival nearing the end of the trailer, which challenges the stereotype of what we all know to be a fun, innocent childish place, which follows a complete different view. The carnival was shown almost as a deathtrap with evil lurking round each and every corner.

The trailer gives a very good narrative without giving away too much and leaving the audience with plenty of questions to ask. First we are shown a compilation of unusual shots which follows with Clemens waking up to suggest the previous shots were a nightmare. This is conventional of horrors to introduce with the ‘disruption’ before the ‘equilibrium’. This then follows with the normal life of Clemens for an extremely short time, until it seems her nightmare is becoming real. Her dad is then taken which then makes Clemens need to face her fears/nightmare to retrieve her father.

From the trailer I believe Silent Hill’s main theme is nightmare, as is doesn’t seem realistic, but uses many creative ways to present evil. Other themes used in the film could be love between Clemens and Harinton as they are two teens of similar age. But like many horrors, Silent Hill will use themes such as fear, death, revenge etc.

Original Film Idea- Individual (Visions)

The reasoning behind the title ‘Visions’ is that the film follows a schizophrenic patient, whom happens to see and hear things which is because of his medical illness, or is it? This psychological horror would consist of plenty of twists and turns to keep the audience questioning.

To introduce the film I would show the schizophrenic patient in a mental hospital being forced into the clinic, with the patient typically trying to fight off the doctors and denying any illness. I would then follow the tradition of the horror genre by going back in time, to the equilibrium to give the audience a view of the protagonist’s life and the plot of the story. It would follow his everyday life, but then he starts to realise usual things taking place day by day, getting gradually worse leading to him having to take action.

After a visit at the doctors, the examiner recommends he is to do a video diary/blog. Moreover, he takes the advice and sets up multiple cameras. Whilst following through the close up cameras of his house, the audience can start to see through the schizophrenic’s eyes, with his visions coming to life. The visions become so severe, he is rushed to the hospital, and only to find out he is going to be sectioned.

This brings us back to the introductory scene, but this time with a scene during the same time with the family looking back at the video diaries, to discover he hasn’t got a mental illness but the visions are from an unknown source. But as the schizophrenic patient doesn’t know and is convinced he has a mental disorder, because he never had the chance to watch them back or send them to the doctor for analysis. 

The Representation of Women in Horror Films

Women are traditionally portrayed in horror films as the damsel in distress, due to the sinful acts, for example sex before marriage. These females will usually be killed off one-by-one; some of these deaths being quite sexual due to the objectivity of women in the horror genre.

A great example of how women are represented in horror is Halloween (1978). This consisted of a masked killer who escapes from a psychiatric centre to cause havoc in Haddonfield during Halloween. Slowly killing off the teenagers due to sinful acts, for example Bob and Linda whilst having sex. For instance, Carol Clover (publisher of ‘Men, Women and Chainsaws: gender in the Modern Horror Film’) would say Myers kills in response to his sister having sex. Therefore, he uses a phallic weapon (knife) to deal with his repressed sexuality. Clover would also mention the final girl theory, saying that Laurie fought back, and stabs her attacker with a knitting needle and again with a coat hanger. Clover’s final girl theory suggests the girl that’s a virgin with a masculine presence would be the woman to escape or fight the attacker back. Another film that backs up Clover’s final girl theory is Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). Sally doesn’t fight back as much as Laurie but manages to sustain injuries and escapes the killer and is rescued on the highway.

Another important film critic to be applied is Laura Mulvey due to her famous essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’. She and many other theorists suggested that commercial cinema puts the spectator into the position of a heterosexual male, because of the technical camera strategies objectifying women. This is called the male gaze, the idea that certain camera shots, angles and movements are used purposely to subject males to look upon women as objects.  For instance in ‘Friday the 13^th’ (2009) we are introduced with a group of teens that go camping in Crystal Lake. Within the first quarter of the film we are shown a half naked women being promiscuous to seduce her boyfriend. But, the camera is shown through the boyfriend’s eyes (point of view shot), immediately putting the male audience in the position of the boyfriend so they can relate to the situation. Furthermore, another example of the male gaze is when the teen girl is dancing sexually in front of the males whilst drinking wine. There are multiple angles, close ups and movements used in this scene to reinforce the objectivity of women in films. After these series of shots it cuts to the males reaction to encourage the identification of the males as the subjects.

These feminist horror theorists are very important to film and are still being replicated today. Clover concentrates on the contents/plot of the film where as, Mulvey has a focus on the camera work in order to pleasure certain audiences. A theorist that backs up Mulvey is Jeremy Tunstall. Tunstall analysed existing research on gender representation in the media. His results showed four different key roles for women; being domestic, sexual, consumer and marital. From Tunstall’s research, we can say the media exploit women as sex objects, therefore reinforcing Mulvey’s views. A film which fits Tunstall’s meta-analysis is ‘The Shining’ (1980). This supports the portrayal of women being domestic, because Shelly Duvall isn’t shown to have an occupation making her only duty, the housework. ‘The Shining’ also neatly fits into Clover’s final girl theory. Shelly Duvall manages to escape her monstrous husband; whom happens to be trying to kill her with an axe.   

I particularly agree with Mulvey, as it is easy to understand and identify in any film or media text. It is also relatable, because I feel that prominently females are shown as sexually objects compared to males.

The Crazies (2010) narrative analysis

Vladimir Propp:

The villain- Government and infected- Government caused virus breakout, and infected humans are killing innocent people.

The Hero- David and Judy: Protagonists of story.

The Donor- N/A

The Helper- Deputy Russell Clank: Sacrifices himself to save protagonists.

The Princess- Judy: Judy is the reward in David’s eyes as she’s carrying their baby.

Her Father- N/A

The Dispatcher- Rory: Rory is the first noticeable infection which sends a message out to the healthy that something suspicious is going on.

The False Hero- N/A

Claude Levi-Strass:

(Binary oppositions)

Infected/Not Infected (Insane/Sane) - The humans that aren’t infected are constantly trying to fight off the infected; there is no escape.

Man/Monster- The infected seem to be quite monstrous, because of their soulless/ gormless characteristics.     

Life/Death (Normal/Possessed) - The infected are practically dead as it seems their personalities have been eaten away.

Government/Civilians- Innocent civilians loose lives from government’s mistake

Bordwell and Thompson:

In the crazies we know/presume some of the story as the plane crash isn't shown but we know this has happened when the plane and the passengers are discovered in the local river of Ogden Marsh. The viewers then establish that the government have created a deadly virus, which was in the progress of being distinguished, until it crashed into Ogden Marsh and disseminated through the town. After the disaster, the government had no choice to destroy the town and the people to ensure the virus doesn't spread any further. This is conveyed through a shot from a satellite, suggesting their watching the town; this is a great example of Bordwell and Thompson's theory, because the governments mistake has triggered a series of events. Another good example of Bordwell and Thompson, is when we are shown a shot of a babies room, but arent informed about Judy being pregnant. This shot suggests that Judy is pregnant without obviously stating it.        

Tzvetan Todorov:

Todorov’s theory doesn’t apply properly to The Crazies, as we are introduced with a chaotic opening scene from the future; also because we aren’t shown whether the equilibrium will be reinstated. The equilibrium is issues after at a baseball game, making it very clear that this was a perfectly normal town in which everyone knew of each other. This is conventional of the horror genre to have a non-linear approach making it hard for Todorov’s theory to fit.    

Equilibrium: The peaceful town of Ogden Marsh, expressed through a baseball game and following the normal lives of David and Judy. (This is only shown for a minuet part of the film)

Disruption: Government’s mistake, of crashing a plane carrying a deadly virus into Ogden Marsh’s’ water system. But this isn’t shown until later in the film. The viewer’s first notice a disruption when the un-responsive Rory Hamil, approaches the baseball game with a shotgun.  

Reinstate equilibrium- David and Judy attempt to repair the disruption by escaping to another town, which was successful. But, not knowing they were actually making the situation worse by potentially carrying the virus over to another town. The end scene let the viewer’s know that the government had detected this breach and have no other choice but to destroy the next town. This is typical of horror’s, to leave the audience hanging. They purposely make the viewer question whether or not David and Judy will survive.