Evaluation question 3

BY JAC K A RC H E R

WHAT KIND OF INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT

AND WHY?

Evaluation Question 3:

WHAT DID WE DECIDE??

• We decided in the end for our production to be produced and distributed by independent companies. This was so that we would adhere to the convention of social realism films being produced by independent companies.

• In addition, having the film/opening sequence produced by independent companies cater for the fact that our narrative includes challenging ideologies, such as our production dealing with issues that arise from social deprivation.

WHAT DID WE DECIDE?? (CONTINUED)

• This consequently challenges the somewhat ‘sanitised’ output that Hollywood provides. Independent production also corresponds with our niche target audiences. However, the problem with independent production, although conventional, these companies tend to not be horizontally or vertically integrated (as they are too small of companies to produce other media products). This is highlighted by the studio system of Hollywood, as Hollywood tend to work with large, American conglomerates such as Universal Studios and Warner Bros.

WHAT COMPANIES DID WE DECIDE TO USE AND WHY??

• In the end, we decided that Pathé would distribute our film and BBC Films will produce it.

We decided to use these companies because they have worked with each other previously and both companies have experience in the use of technological convergence to market their films. In addition, the BBC Film production team often seek partnership and potential co-production teams with other independent companies like Pathé and therefore we felt that these were the appropriate choices at the time.

WHAT COMPANIES DID WE DECIDE TO USE AND WHY?? (CON…)

• Another reason why we decided to co-produce our production with BBC films is that they are often funded by companies such as the British Film Institute (BFI). Therefore we knew that if we were to work with BBC films, we would get funding from the BFI and also other funding companies such as “Creative England” and/or BBC films themselves (which is a good incentive!!)

All these successful companies potentially on our side for funding…BRILLIANT!

WHAT HAVE BBC AND PATHÉ WORKED TOGETHER ON IN THE PAST?

•PRIDE (2014) PHILOMENA (2013)

WHERE ARE THERE EXAMPLES OF TECHNICAL CONVERGENCE WITH THESE

FILMS?

• For ‘Philomena’(2013), technological convergence allowed BBC Films and Pathé, alongside ‘The Wienstein company’ to fund and enable their film to be advertised on billboards, websites and also release trailers etc.

• In addition, technological convergence enabled the film to be released on DVD and Blu-ray. This shows how these companies have collaborated with each other in order to create a better quality version of the film, which is an incentive for more people to buy the movie and generate a profit.

HOW ABOUT EXAMPLES OF TECHNOLOGICAL CONVERGENCE IN ‘PRIDE’?

• ‘Pride’ (2014) also had sufficient funding and co- production from BBC Films and Pathé and were therefore also able to release their film on DVD and Blu-ray. This also shows how these companies have collaborated with each other yet again in order to create a better quality version of the film, which is an incentive for more people to buy the movie and generate a profit.

• As this film was also independently produced, their marketing was more focused on web 2.0 advertising for converged devices, however they still used the traditional advertising techniques such as posters etc.

HOW ABOUT FOR “THE LONGING”?

• For our production “The Longing”, dependent on our budget in the real world, I think it would be beneficial to release the film on DVD and Blu-ray as this will expand out our audience possibilities, as more people would be able to watch the film if it was released on both formats. However, the problem with technological convergence is that it can be expensive, and as our production would be independently produced, like ‘Philomena’ and ‘Pride’

SO…THE VERDICT. WERE THESE COMPANIES THE RIGHT CHOICE?

• In my opinion, having Pathé and BBC films to distribute and co-produce “The Longing was a good decision as these companies have worked together before via technological convergence and other methods. Therefore, they would have sufficient experience in aiding us to market our product via below- the- line marketing such as the use of web 2.0 on Facebook pages, Twitter accounts etc.

• This type of cross- media marketing would be beneficial for our product as web 2.0 is now more commonly found on everyday converged devices such as mobile phones.

SO…THE VERDICT. WERE THESE COMPANIES THE RIGHT CHOICE? (CONTINUED)

• As these devices are readily available nowadays to our younger audience and our older sophisticated audiences (as they may have disposable income to buy the latest converged technologies), this will enable our product to be digitally distributed to as many audience members as possible, aiding the success of our product. This is incredibly important for our independent production, as the digital distribution of our product’s marketing is reliant on our audience being part of Gaunlett’s ‘making and doing’ culture and active participants.

AND...

Furthermore, using these companies would allow us to gain sufficient funds from the British Film

Institute (BFI) and/or “Creative England” to further advertise our product.

ANYTHING WE COULD HAVE IMPROVED ON??

• Personally although I think that using BBC Films and Pathé was a good decision, I believe that we could have possibly considered/ used British Independent companies that specialise more with the social realism genre. This is because although companies such as BBC Films tackle social issues, these are often not based in the social realism genre and therefore their techniques would not be conventional to our genre. I think we should have considered the company ‘Warp Films’ to produce our film for this reason.

ANYTHING WE COULD HAVE IMPROVED ON?? (CONTINUED)

• For example, we could have more strongly considered or used companies such as ‘Warp Films’ that have produced films such as “This is England” which is a social realism product. This may, in the real world, have allowed us to put their production techniques into practise, such as the utilization of stock actors and the conventions of Shane Meadows and Paddy Considine’s directing.

• Both these directors have directed Social Realism films and have also directed these films for Warp Films in the past.

WHEN COMPARING “THE LONGING” TO A ‘SIMILAR’

PRODUCT (“THIS IS ENGLAND”)...HOW COULD WE

HAVE IMPROVED??

“THIS IS ENGLAND”

• The film was set at a controversial and cultural point in history (the early 1980’s in England, when Margaret Thatcher ran the country and there was racial unease.

• In addition, Shane Meadows, when producing the film, ensured that it reflected his personal experiences as a child (i.e. Violence and bullying) that was also relatable to other people too.

• Therefore, here we could have improved our production by considering more political issues of England in the current economic and social climate, and catering our editing to do this (maybe possibly by including high angle shots of Shannon- the character with African ethnicity, to connote the issues of racism, for example.) However, due to our independent production and thus our limited funding, the extent that this could be carried out would be limited.

“THIS IS ENGLAND”...

• Shane Meadows always tended to use non- professional/ stock actors (i.e. Those that were perhaps inexperienced in acting or were to feature in their first film. He would also train the actors via workshops and acting exercises. Thomas Turgoose (who played the main role of Shaun in the film, had virtually no acting experience.)

• Furthermore, auditions were a key part of Shane Meadow’s approach to casting. He mainly for “This is England” auditioned those that originated from similar environments that are shown in the film i.e. from inner city locations in order to capture a high level of verisimilitude.


• We could have improved this in “The Longing”. Although we used non-professional actors with virtually no acting/ filming experience (apart from Rosie Jones and Liam Wilkinson) to create verisimilitude, I feel that we were too quick when making decisions on actors (this was mainly due to time restrictions and lack of available actors). But, I think we still should have been more considerate when choosing our actors, possibly by holding ‘semi-serious’ auditions for a number of actors for each role. However, in the real world, this would cost a lot and affect our remaining budget.


• Shane Meadows also openly talks about how he found it difficult to produce his period piece, especially as many of his locations would needed to have been inner city areas where Satellite dishes would be... These were not around in the 1980’s England!! In addition, Warp Films and Shane Meadows had a small budget to produce the film.

• Shane Meadows was adamant in making every element in terms of mise-en-scene, appropriate for the film, again to create a high level of verisimilitude (that the social realism genre demands for.)


• For “The Longing” I think we understood that every element of mise-en-scene needed to be appropriate. However, this might have been forgotten when showing Laura stealing shower gel! Therefore I think that we should have chosen something more appropriate for Laura to steal and also show shots of the gang members using their converged devices (i.e. Mobile phones) more possibly, to reflect the trend of young people’s affinity to social media/ converged devices.


• Finally, a lot of research was carried out to find out the popular trends of people in 1980’s English, inner city culture. This is mainly what introduced the ‘skin-head’ theme in the film.

• Also, Warp Films are said to “Namely support artists and their visions”. This therefore shows how Warp Films are an example of the Auteur theory, as Shane Meadows was able to explore the issues associated with working class people and interpret these issues in his own way, primarily through his personal experiences.


• For “The Longing” I feel that we could have made more research into the common trends of teenagers/young adult in the working class in order to create verisimilitude. This therefore has shown our possible slight mistake with actors (previously discussed) as the majority of these actors come from more privileged backgrounds. However this would again mean more time and money would have to be spent consequently restricting our flexibility with our budget, if the film was to be produced in the real world.

• I feel that our production has also been an example of Auteur theory as we have also explored social issues within the working class, such as peer pressure and fear. We have shown this through our own signature style, of using many shots depicting the Laura’s plight at ‘comfortable distances’ from our audiences i.e. Medium shots, medium long shots etc. We have also shown this by having a female protagonist as our main character in the production.


• I feel that our production has also been an example of Auteur theory as we have also explored social issues within the working class, such as peer pressure and fear. We have shown this through our own signature style, of using many shots depicting the Laura’s plight at ‘comfortable distances’ from our audiences i.e. Medium shots, medium long shots etc. We have also shown this by having a female protagonist as our main character in the production.

THE WIDER CAMPAIGN…

SO…THE FILM IS TO BE RELEASED TO OUR AUDIENCE….HOW THOUGH!!!

• In order to follow the common conventions of film, the creation and distribution of a film is done in four main stages, these are:

•PRODUCTION- when the product is actually made.

•DISTRIBUTION- the product is marketed and sent out to the products’ audience.

• EXHIBITION- showing/revealing the product to audience members

• EXCHANGE- where the audience receive the product.

PRODUCTION• This involves 3 main stages:

• RESEARCH- the director(s), producer(s) and rest of the crew research into the genre, narrative type and conventions that they want to include within their product.

• PLANNING- the director(s), producer(s) and rest of the crew then decide shooting dates, what actors are needed when and then costume, props and locations will be needed for each scene of the product.

• PRODUCING- the director(s), producer(s) and rest of the crew then film their production and then edit it all together to create a final product.

• Companies (such as BBC Films, Pathé, British Film Institute and possibly Creative England- in our case) would fund these processes so that they may take place. Our company (JEE Media Productions) carried out the stages discussed above.

DISTRIBUTION• Due to our company (JEE Media Productions) being an independent

company and therefore not vertically integrated or a subsidiary, we would in the real world rely on a separate distributor (Pathé). This is especially as BBC Films often forms relationships with separate distributors like Pathé, as they are a branch of the BBC. Pathé are an independent distribution company who rely on below-the-line marketing due to the small scale of the productions that they distribute. This means that because we would get limited funding, we would not be able to afford saturated and/or above- the- line marketing, despite using cross-media methods.

• Some of our methods of distributing our product would be to use web 2.0 that will be seen by digital natives on converged devices and create Facebook pages and/or Twitter accounts which will be regularly updated to raise awareness of our product.

DISTRIBUTION (CON…)• Technology and the internet have become evermore popular and

available to people of all ages, and as our company/ product is seen as, in terms of “Anderson’s The Long Tail” near the bottom of the tail due to our product being for a niche audience, it is therefore essential to use below-the-line marketing.

• This is mainly due to the theory of Wikiomics (Tapscott and Williams) which states that “if companies do not adapt to audience power and web 2.0, they will fail.”. This then relates to the “Making and doing theory” by Gaunlett, which states that “Web 2.0 has empowered the audience to make their own product”, as the these theories suggest that using web 2.0 is essential to market a media product to the digital natives of today’s society.

HOW ELSE WOULD WE MARKET/PROMOTE OUR PRODUCT??

Examples of synergy marketing firms.

In addition, we would use synergy marketing. This is because as our media institutions (especially BBC) are horizontally integrated and the soundtrack for our production is a rendition of a rendition form a song from the recent film ‘Fast and Furious 6’ (2013) we would be able to promote our soundtrack and the film simultaneously using the tie- in method ( as our lead actor Rosie features in both the film and soundtrack!

Other methods of promoting our products would be to create a website dedicated to “JEE Media Productions” and “The Longing” that include blogs, videos and galleries associated with the product to raise awareness. Furthermore, we would use YouTube as another method of below the line marketing and regularly update the channel with news etc.

EXHIBITION/RELEASE PATTERN…

• This process will involve the film being released and showcased to independent film critics, rewards and review companies, such as the BAFTA awards and the film would be showcase in theatres/ cinemas and in small area of England (most likely urban areas) via exclusive/ limited runs.

• The reason why this would be the most applicable way of exhibiting our product is that other products such as “This is England” (2006) have gone through a similar process in order to gain the success that Warp Films have achieved from the film.

FOLLOWING FROM THIS... HOW DOES SOME OF OUR MARKETING FIT THE ‘AIDA’ SCALE?

• The AIDA scale is used in marketing and advertising that describes the usual sequence of events that tend to occur when a consumer engages with a, in this case, a media product! But, how does our media product’s marketing fit the AIDA scale?

•Attention: Via the use of synergy marketing (as Rosie plays our main character Laura and also is the main feature of our soul/chill-rap) and the online distribution and marketing of our product through the use of web 2.0 on converged devices, our audience will easily become aware of our production and what it involves.

• Interest of Consumer: As a result of catering our production to those 15 and over, despite our media product being aimed at niche audiences, our product is still available to the masses. In addition via the use of brand identity (movie posters, video updates and even independently produced trailers-although unconventional to independent co-production) being distributed online will gain the interest of our consumers, especially as society nowadays has become a ‘making and doing’ culture, according to Gauntlett.

CONTINUED...

•Desire of consumers: This could simply be satisfied by using persuasive language when distributing the product. However, we could also show snippets of our whole media product (if it was to be released in the real world) so that audience members are intrigued and almost feel obliged to watch the film. In addition, exhibiting our film via exclusive/ limited runs will allow our target audiences to gage whether this is the type of film that they will be able to satisfy their needs (i.e. According to Blumer and Katz uses and gratifications- personal identity, social interaction etc. And also Maslow’s hierarchy of needs- morality, self-esteem etc.

•Action: After viewing updates and promotional material from social media and web 2.0, alongside the utilisation of synergy marketing our audience should hopefully feel inspired to engage themselves with the (almost too) stereotypical representations within our opening sequence and therefore feel the longing (!) to watch the rest of the film, if it was to be released in the real world.

EXCHANGE…• Keeping our “Web 2.0” theme one of the best

ways to distribute our products to our audience is by digital distribution on online stores such as “Amazon” and “Netflix”. This is so that sales of our product are not limited due to inadequate shelving space in shops.

Education

Evaluation question 3