Wednesday 3 November 2010

HYPOTHETICAL BUDGET

IDEA 1



IDEA 2




IDEA 3


DISTRIBUTION

The purpose of creating a film is to entertain an audience; whilst a film in itself maybe clearly entertaining, the key to its success is through the quality of distribution and without it there would be no audience. Distribution is the means by which a film is presented to the outside world and marketed.
Before distributing, the film company would need to decide on the genre of the film, the target audience, whether the director/producer would be of an interest to the audience and whether there is a exploitable theme. All of these factors are important to the advertisement of a film, as any of these aspects could appeal to any type of audience. Distributors will also need to think about the timing of the advertisement of the film as to when the film will be screened; it will depend on the type of competition, for example, Star Trek was released inbetween Wolverine and, Angels and Demons; all of these films are of the same genre and having the film on at the very same time as these other films may have decreased the sale of tickets as they knew these films would be a competition.
Distributors will need to produce a marketing budget, and decide how much they are willing to spend; the more money spent on marketing, the more popular the film will be as a wider audience will be achieved. Star Trek’s marketing budget was just under £3 million. With a hypothetical film where budget is no object and the producers are high-profile the limitations for marketing methods are endless; there are many ways in which a high profile and high quality film can be distributed. Many new films will start at a well known world class, premier film festival markets such as Cannes and Venice, where only Hollywood and international films can be launched. Many top class global buyers and sellers will come together to create deals with film makers and distributors such as, Paramount, Columbia Pictures, IFC etc. these markets are closed off to the public because if the professionalism, and the profile of the films as they will all be coming out of Hollywood or international film companies. This is the very beginning of film distribution for high budget films.
All films will begin advertisements through adverts, posters and via the internet (viral marketing.) Focusing on the Star Trek, they had spent 50% of their budget on television marketing, the reason for this would be for the pure fact that the majority of home owners also own a television; therefore, the chances of the advert being viewed by millions of people many times a day are very high. A close thought of the advert television spot will important as well, depending on the target audience, for example, Star Trek would appeal to people over the age of 15 and the majority of the target audience would also be male, the advert would probably have been shown more in the evening because the target audience are less likely to be at home in the middle of the day on a week day, but on a weekend the times may vary slightly more. Star Trek released a teaser trailer in January 2008, to make the public aware that the film was coming, this may have caused people to look further into this via the internet where small advertisements may have been released; this would also become word of mouth that a trailer for Star Trek had been released, making more people aware of it. A teaser trailer is called a teaser because it “teases” the audience, it doesn’t give away any part of the story, it just tells us that the film is coming and adds to the hype of the film. A teaser poster was released in November 2008 at the same time the Regular trailer was released, which added to the hype and awareness of the film. The regular advert was released 4 months before the film screening release date, so it was a constant reminder for people to go and see it. Visual material distribution methods will be prioritised over audio methods, such as a radio review as visual are interesting and eye catching for any audience.
The use of viral marketing is quick, cheap and easy for any film distributor, whether it is for a high budget international film or for a cheap, independent film. All advertisements can be streamed and networked between friends and through many international websites such as; iTunes, YouTube and facebook. All films will also have their own website for fans to look at; however, these websites may not be released until after the film screening date has been released.
Featurettes of films are shown on television, these are usually found on channel 4; they will show the making of the film, and have an interview with the actors, director, producer etc. This will excite viewers and may appeal to more than just the films target audience. Press releases and premiers will also be shown as part of these featurettes. These are very much the same as Junkettes, when stars of the film will go through many different interviews with a lot press, these will then transfer to magazines, newspapers, radio etc.
Once the film has been released in cinemas radios and magazines will be reviewing the films which can either increase or decrease the extent of the films audience response. These will reach all members of the public as the reviews will be presented in many different magazines from teenage girls to middle aged men, this would also be the same for radio reviews. Some magazines offer free screenings as well for a small amount of people, this will be before the film is released, which will create word of mouth.
3rd party promos and interactive marketing is a very effective way of gaining more audience; such as phone games, wallpapers, computer games. And the most effective way is word of mouth, if a film gets a good review off a member of the public to their friends they are likely to go and see it.
All of these distribution methods contribute to creating a wide range of audience, and a good film response.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Three Ideas - Questionnaire 2.

Once I had thought up my three ideas and written them down, I thought that maybe my ideas wouldn’t have much of an appeal to anyone over the age of 24 because they do not involve any adult characters, and the story lines are very simple and would appeal much more to a teenage girl. I thought about changing the characters to a slightly older age such as mid twenties so it would appeal to a wider audience, however, I don’t know any males or females of that age that live close enough to me to work with, and would be willing to be in my film. I wanted to be sure that my assumption was correct, so I was able to continue with my focus group but with my correct target audience.





What age group would the characters in a romantic film have to be in, that would appeal to you?



Nearly all of the 16-20 category replied in 18-21 as they all said they can relate to it, however, one did say 22-30 as they said they enjoyed watching “PS I love You” and they were elder characters; they liked this because the story line was very mature but still funny and entertaining. Many of 30-50 people had responded to 30-40. Some people had said they like this age group because it’s not too young for them to watch, but it makes them feel younger when they watch it and it is nearer their age, but they’d prefer to watch younger people rather than people their age. I am happy with this result as I know have a much more specific target audience of 16-20 females.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

When shooting my short film, I will need to take into consideration all the health and safety implications before filming, this way I am able to organise what I can do to prevent anything from happening. I have done a health and safety report for all three of my ideas so I am prepared.

Idea 1



Idea 2.






Idea 3.




Once I have decided on my final idea i will be able to refer back to this health and safety plan, and will have future preparation.

REAL PRODUCTION BUDGET

In the process of making my film I will be playing all job roles as this is part of the assignment, such as; Director, producer, camera operator, sound operator and editor and due to this I will have no need to pay for any professional crew members.
I won’t need to pay for actors as I have asked my friends to act in my film and they have accepted this quite happily as a favour.
My locations that I have chosen to set my film in are all accessible to me so I will therefore have no need to hire out a space or pay to use a public area; I also don’t have the funds to do so but I have managed to set my film in easily accessible locations.
I am able to use college equipment such as a camera, tripod and editing software so this is also something that I will not have to fund; I will just need to make sure I have full permission to use this software and equipment.
There are still a few aspects of the filming process that I will need to either fund or take responsibility for and I have put together a table of what I need, why I need it and what it will cost me.


Idea 1


Idea 2


Idea 3