Audiences & Institutions:The Women in Black

Marketing and Distribution

Film Distribution and Marketing

An audience is able to view a movie due to the process of film distribution. This makes it an extremely important task which has to be carefully executed; this means a professional film distributor will handle this. They will make the decisions about the marketing strategy, the media that the audience will be able to view the movie on and the release date of cinema screening and home viewing/DVD. Films can be shown to the public in various ways, most commonly films that are thought will be popular amongst the majority of the population will be shown in cinemas; whereas other films, possibly with lower budgets will go straight to DVD release. However, with new platforms like Netflix and Amazon many films are being released straight to these as ‘exclusives’ or are quickly released after cinema screenings have stopped showing them. For both streaming and cinema, film promotion is key to encouraging the audience to watch.

Historically, all blockbusters and popular films were only shown in cinemas. However, the growth in technology enabled television to show films to a larger audience. In 1971, U-Matic and cartrivision videocassettes were created, which allowed movies to become available to audiences in their own home.  Further development lead to streaming, which has enabled mass-audiences to watch films from all around the world, within their home or whilst on the go.

Mass-media productions are marketed to meet their estimated ‘reach’. This refers to the number of people that are exposed to the actual marketing. This can be achieved through many ways like, magazines, posters, interviews, billboards, social media and trailers/TV adverts. Reach is not the number of people who will actually consume the product but is the number of people who may see or watch the marketing.  Reach is sometimes generalised into specific groups, such as ‘female’, ‘children’, ‘those aged 18-25’; this can sometimes help estimate of how many people who may go watch or purchase the film. Reach is one of the most important statistics used in advertising.

To achieve efficient and effective marketing, companies use marketing plans in order to do this. A marketing plan outlines actions the company may take to advertise and market their product; this is usually planned around a specific time, for example over the course of a year. Within a marketing plan there will also be a description of the current marketing position, target market they wish to reach and what they will do in order to accomplish their marketing goals. Marketing plans need to start with consumer needs, through this they are able to create an effective advertising plan to meet the target audience whilst making sure the company ‘breaks even’ or makes profit. This means a marketing plan also needs to include; budgets, sales forecast and projected financial statements. It sometimes also includes the strengths and weaknesses of the company, its organisation and its products.  As a result of this, companies are able to overcome any weaknesses and are able to promote their product in a manner that will meet the target audience’s needs and also benefit the company. Alongside this, a distribution plan is also put into action to find out how and when a film should be released. This is aided by the target audiences’ needs and by looking at how other movies of the same genre have also been released. They also need to be careful with the decision about when they release the film to make sure it isn’t released the same time as their competition (other films in the same genre). When making a distribution plan, budget is also very important because the company will need to detailed plan of how they will cover the release of the film.

Additionally, advertising, promotion and publicity are very important factors to the marketing and distribution of a film. These all persuade the audience to go and watch the film and each play a different role. Advertising brings the audience’s attention to the film, through posters, magazines, billboards etc. Publicity is also important, although this is mostly out of the company’s control. The media is able to promote the film either through good or bad press, which again brings it to the audience’s attention and makes people talk out it via social media. Promotion is used alongside both advertising and publicity as it is supporting the product and trying to increase public awareness about the film.

One example of successful marketing and distribution is the action horror film World War Z. Directed by Marc Forster and written by Matthew Carnahan and Drew Goddard, the film tells the story of Gerry Lane, who is sent on a mission to investigate a disease that is turning humans into rampaging zombies that are destroying mankind. The film was released in 76 countries worldwide, starting with the first release date in the UK on July 2^nd 2013 and ending in Venezuela on August 23^rd 2013. In the US the film was released in 3,607 screens on the opening weekend (23^rd June 2013), in which it made $66,411,834. The advertising for the film, for example the poster, doesn’t give too much away about the film but included the release date. In addition to this, it includes the Hollywood actor Brad Pitt’s name; this would also encourage a range of people to go see this film and would have been one of the reasons as to why the opening weekend was so successful. 

Ideas for Trailer Shots

Moodboard

This moodboard shows images that gave our group inspiration for the trailer and for particular scenes we would like to include. The overall theme of the moodboard reflects the type of horror film we intend to produce.