Monday 1 December 2014

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




A films success relies upon how well it is advertised to its target audience and how easy it is for that audience to access, rather than whether it is regarded by critics as a 'good' film.

There are some industries that base their retail prices on the cost of the production, however the film industry due to advances in digital production does not follow this as digital film allows for potentially infinite numbers of films to be distributed.

The pricing structure for films at the big multiplex cinemas is designed to benefit the big studios. Blockbuster films cost a lot more money than independent UK films do and if a cinema had 10 screens they wont want to waste space by putting on a cheaper film that no one will want to go and see. However if the cheaper films were put on at the cinema for a lower price people are more likely to see the film. This is then counteracted by the fact that the multiplex cinemas might not make the money back so don't pay for the independent films anyway. Critics say that all people should be able to go and see UK films priced cheaper at around £4 rather than £10 and then blockbusters at £10 because this would make the pricing to see the films more adequate in terms of people actually wanting to spend money to see the film of their choice.

The Lionsgate UK CEO, Mr Kamasa as told people that he has spoken to some of the UK exhibitors and found that they are going to be more realistic and flexible with the pricing to see films as they have realised that something needed to be done to slow down the halt in the admissions. Overall this will result in the significantly lower admission price in 2014 than it has in previous years. In previous years the admission prices to get to see films were generally overpriced and inappropriate. In the next year or so, admission prices are supposed to be improving further and this is because of the amount of blockbusters that have been made. These films include; The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, Avengers: Age of Ultron and also Jurassic World. The three films mentioned here are predicted to be very good films that will become very popular with a range of different audiences. Lionsgate, the British film company have released this year eight different films and these include: The Invisible Woman, Locke and things like that. These films will be continuing to support British films in 2015 which are going to be released. A film that the British are going to be producing for 2015 includes the film, Absolutely Anything. Again Kamasa is promising that the film company will invest in British content further hoping that it will move forward.

In my opinion I think that British films and then blockbuster films are both distributed and marketed for many different audiences and not just specific ones.  I think that the production practices that allow texts like films to be distributed and marketed includes being able to stream films off websites like Netflix, NowTV and downloadable websites like that. By putting new films and programmes also onto these sources would help advertising as the films won’t be on there all the time therefore people might get encouraged to go and buy the films on DVD or BluRay and this means that the companies will make more money from sales rather than just getting money from admission fees at the cinemas. Other ways that films are marketed to target specific audiences is the long trailers that are played before other films made by the same company. An example of this would be when you go and see a Disney film; there are normally adverts for another Disney film that is maybe coming out later in that year or in the following year. Other trailers could be for films of a similar genre from other companies. This would result in people becoming interested in other films, therefore wanting to go to the cinema again to go and see a different film as well as the one they have already paid to watch. This won’t only make the film industries more money from box office sales but also the cinemas as well.

In terms of access to see a film there are again I mention a variety of different sources of which can be used that are all marketed at different audiences. I begin by taking about Netflix, Netflix is a multinational used site and streamer that people can use on different devices like; phones, tablets, games consoles and also televisions. This is a reliability that some film industries use as these companies pay for the films and the rights for it to be shown. Another point about Netflix is that it is full off films for all different types of people and also all different genres and ages as well. The distribution and marketing of specific products like films or the types of products that they produce may change as a result to the change in cinemas. Cinemas are constantly changing and adapting to suit the needs of new audiences and all the different demands they have of a film. This then makes cinema companies not only change what they show but they are also making improvements on how your experience will be when watching a film itself. An example of how some cinemas are changing includes Cineworld and how they have introduced an optional monthly fee for customers who can pay and watch unlimited films for that month. As well as this, some cinemas are considering a re-release of certain films that did well during Blu-ray and DVD release. This is a certain type of engagement for audiences as having film be put back onto cinema screens could be an example of another marketing strategy. I think this because more people will go and see the film on its second release and maybe some people would go and see it again, this would gain some film industries more money therefore higher box office figures.

Depending on what marketing a film company use or how they distribute it to an audience will then depend on how much attention it gains from an audience. For example if a film was to have poor advertising, people would generally not go and see it when compared to a film that is advertised in many different ways. A similar effect would happen if the distribution was also poor. People won’t know how to access the film and it might not be available for some people e.g. people with less money to spend, going to the cinema.

An institutions success does highly rely on its advertising to its target market as if there was no marketing to see it wouldn’t gain people’s attention in the first place. However, if critics were to do an article about a particular film being good or bad that could discourage or encourage an audience to go and see the film. This would be though, marketing in itself as people would see the article and go and see the film due to something that they have seen like a trailer or an advert. Another example of why marketing and distribution is relied on for a film’s success is because for example; a trailer or a poster isn’t based on an opinion of another audience member. If a critic was to say a film was bad or good, that would be their own choice of words and might be different to someone else. This meaning that looking at a trailer yourself is also more reliable than making a decision based on someone else’s.

So, overall I do feel that a film’s success does relies on how well it is advertised to its target audience in some ways and also how easy it is for that audience to access, rather than whether it is regarded by critics as a 'good' film. Critics making comments can have an impact on people’s opinions but in my opinion it would be the marketing and distribution on a whole that would make the target audiences decisions.
 

1 comment:

  1. Mel

    Your argument is clear enough BUT it would benefit from specific examples. Consider the films we have studied and how they have been marketed and dsitributed. How were the specific audiences targetted and were these strategies successful (in the case of Dredd what happens when you market well but distribute poorly?).

    For each paragraph go back through you essay and add specific details for every film we have studied (Avengers, Dredd, TGBH etc).

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