Evaluation question 4 for my AS media project

1. WHO WOULD BE THE
AUDIENCE FOR YOUR
MEDIA PRODUCT?
DISTRIBUTION
EXHIBITION AND CONSUMPTION
PRIMARY QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
PERSONAL CONTEXT

2. DISTRIBUTION
• Optimum
Releasing
- This is England
- Tyrannosaur
• Artificial
Eye
- Fish Tank
- Last Resort
• Vertigo Films
- London to
Brighton
The promotional and marketing campaigns I have chosen to analyze in this presentation are all films that have achieved at least
some popularity/attention in the mainstream media as I have found that the distribution companies seem to put less effort into
the campaigns for independent/social realism films as compared to the big budget films and I wanted to make sure I could
properly analyze the distribution process of these companies.

3. VERTIGO
FILMS
Vertigo films is a distributor that varies between independent and big budget blockbuster films.
For example, Vertigo films has distributed Social Realism film ‘London to Brighton’ (2006) and
popular drama film ‘Spring Breakers’ (2012).
The spring breakers film focused on a group of college girls on spring break who become entangled with
drug and arms dealers, therefore the promotion and marketing of the film must appeal to a young
audience, as that is the target audience of the film. Promotional photos were released of the female cast
members in bikinis and doing flirty poses which made it more appealing to its audience and may have
potentially gained more of a male audience, the film features James Franco who is also very popular by his
looks. Therefore, the film offers enough sex appeal and ‘eye candy’ for both genders.
These promotional images were
posted to the official Facebook and
tumblr pages of the film along with
captions like “boredom made me
bad” and “u got 2 b hard”. These
phrases used modern slang, text
speak etc. in order to appeal to the
millennial generation and make the
film seem modern and interesting
to the target audience. Therefore
the marketing/promotional
campaign for this film was very
media based, mainly using social
media and websites.

4. Another aspect of the film that the marketing and publicity campaign took advantage of was the star quality of the film. Actor
James Franco played a vital role in the film and actresses Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens played 2 of the 4 main characters.
These actresses at this point in time were known for their roles as innocent teen stars from the Disney channel, therefore the
films marketing in this area revolved around social media and tabloid buzz about their first ‘adult’ roles and getting rid of the
Disney image.
What is different about it, of course, is that by luring people in with mainstream stars, glossy
advertising and sexy bikini photos, Spring Breakers will have a much larger audience than any
Harmony Korine film ever yet made. People who know nothing of Mr. Korine’s body of work will
go see it because it they find James Franco and/or Selena Gomez sexy, only to sit through hours
of slow-paced weirdness that will make them feel feelings they’ve never felt before. Everyone is
going to hate it! Perhaps a few will even sue for false advertising. But they will not be able to un-
see what they see.
- An interesting
point made about
the advertising of
the film (though it
could apply to any
film) convincing an
audience to see
the film.
The film
received good
reviews from
critics after
being shown
at the Toronto
film festival.

5. Judging by my overall research, Vertigo films is not responsible for simply
distributing films marketed to teenagers, as they have also distributed family films
such as Streetdance 2 (2012), Horrid Henry: The Movie (2011) and even Pudsey the
Dog: The Movie (2014).
Vertigo films obviously uses different publicity and marketing strategies for
different theatrical releases based on the target audience for that particular film.
Hence, the campaign for Spring Breakers was conducted entirely on social media
and relied on articles by websites and magazines about the stars of the film, any
controversy raised by the subject matter and the film itself. Hypothetically, if
Vertigo films were to distribute my Social Realism film, it could be promoted and
advertised in a similar way to Spring Breakers. That way, it would appeal to its key
demographic and possibly bring more attention to it even as an independent film.
Aside from a few big budget project, Vertigo films tend to distribute independent
films, for example London to Brighton (2006)

6. ARTIFICIAL
EYE
Artificial Eye is the official distributor of the critically acclaimed 2011 film ‘We need to talk about Kevin’.
As the film is based on a novel, it will already have a ready-made audience of people who enjoyed the
novel and are interested in a film adaption. As the film covers mature themes, and was announced to be
rated R, the target audience would be for 18 to about 35 which is quite a wide demographic but it’s the
type of film (a thriller/drama/horror in a way) that could appeal to all types of people.
Considering all of these facts, the promotional marketing campaign (which was nominated for a screen marketing and
distribution award) presented the film as a horror film, going all out with the shocking and scary elements of the film and in our
modern society, the more shocking and scary the better. This idea not only makes the film more interesting to audiences, but also
makes sure that it reaches the correct audience age-wise.
• Use of red and green colours
connote horror, danger, gore,
uneasiness, etc. Typically used in
horror posters.
• First and second posters include
reference to the devil, red evil mask
and horns and tail, linking character
to devil, suggesting paranormal or
psychological element depending on
interpretation
• Third poster- pure fear, mother is
terrified, plus star quality AKA Tilda
Swinton
• The second poster also mimics the
poster for ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (1968).

7. When researching the promotional campaign of ‘We need to talk about Kevin’ I
found this film poster and noticed the obvious similarities between the title
character, Kevin, and Anthony Perkin’s Norman Bates from Psycho (1960).
The iconic movie still of Norman Bates looking into the camera is famous for
being an incredibly unsettling image, even in modern times, and the pose in
the modern poster is basically the exact same. The shadow on the face, the
positioning of the head, and even the right eye are exactly the same. It’s
understandable that you could compare these films as they both feature a
young male character who struggles with his relationship with his mother and
ends up turning to violence for whatsoever reason and both struggling with
mental issues, sociopathic tendencies for one and possible schizophrenia or
simple psychopathy for another. This similarity will also help the film gain more
attention or success as it will draw in the audience of classic horror fans or just
people who enjoyed Psycho itself. This is not the only poster to have done this,
another mimics the film poster of Rosemary’s Baby which again is another
classic horror film that could be heavily compared to this one.

8. Overall, Artificial Eye puts a lot of effort into campaigns for films such as ‘We need to talk about
Kevin’ in order to capture the attention and consumerism of their target audience. However it
seems to put less effort into independent films such as ‘Fish Tank’ (2009) for example, for which it
only provided a website, posters and a trailer, though it was shown at international film festivals
including Cannes.
Artificial Eye tends to distribute mainly independent films but sometimes these films can become
popular in the mainstream pop culture due to appearances from well known actors, such as
‘Nymphomaniac’ (2013) which featured Uma Thurman, Stellan Skarsgård, and Shia Labeouf. This
generated a lot of media attention due to the risqué content of the film and especially focusing on
Shia Labeouf who has become somewhat of a media spectacle during the past few years after his
artistic endeavors in film, performance, statements and art in general. (He also stormed out of a
press conference and arrived at the premier with a paper bag over his head saying “I am not famous
anymore.”)
Artificial Eye mostly distributes drama/thriller films and therefore we can infer that their films are
targeted towards a mature, but still quite young audience. It may not be the best distributor for my
film as it is a relatively simple film and as it has no known actors in the film it may not publicize it
very well.

9. OPTIMUM
RELEASING
Optimum Releasing is different to the other distribution companies as it does not tend to
distribute any mainstream or blockbuster films. It stays faithful to the Social
Realism/independent film genre and as conventional to the genres, stays very simple with
marketing and promotional campaigns using only posters, trailers and showings at film
festivals.
This low key technique worked for films such
as ‘This is England’ (2006) and ‘Submarine’
(2010) as they both received incredible
praise and success. Unusually, the reason
Submarine had a practically invisible
marketing campaign was due to the wishes
of the director, Richard Ayoade. He has
previously stated that he ‘dislikes self
promotion’ and therefore kept the film low
key and relied on critics reviews and word of
mouth.
Optimum releasing would fit my film as it seems to distribute a lot of Social Realism
pictures, especially ones that focus on/ could relate/ interest young people and
teenagers.

10. EXHIBITION AND CONSUMPTION
From my research, I have found
main cinema companies based in the
UK that are dedicated to showing
independent/foreign/ art films.
• British Film Institute Southbank (Since 2007;
formerly National Film Theatre est. 1951
• The UK’s leading repertory cinema, showing
classic, independent, and foreign films. (ones
that are free from westernization)
• A four screen cinema that shows about 2,000
films each year.
• Based in London.
• Arnolfini
• An international arts center and gallery
that offers contemporary art exhibitions,
musical events and cinema.
• Three floors of galleries including specialist
arts bookshop and a cinema which is
sometimes used as a performance area.
• Based in Bristol, receives funding from Arts
Council England.
• Cornerhouse
• Cornerhouse is a center for
cinema and contemporary
visual arts in Manchester.
• The Cornerhouse offered
independent cinema, and
contemporary art in the
galleries. Cornerhouse’s
contemporary visual art
programme was dedicated
to launching artists who had
not received institutional
recognition in Britain and
presented works in all media
with an emphasis in film and
video.

11. ONLINE STREAMING
Netflix is a mainstream streaming service and
is currently one of the most popular options
for streaming, so popular that they have
started creating and streaming their own
original programmes such as ‘Orange is the
New Black’ and ‘Making a Murderer’ and even
a tv series of the popular film Scream. Netflix
offers a large range of films in all different
genres, including independent films which it
has a section for. Netflix offers a lot of popular
and well-known independent films such as
‘Good Will Hunting’, ‘Pulp Fiction’ and
‘Election’. It also offers films that can come
under the genre of Social Realism such as
‘Half Nelson’.
Netflix is very interactive for customers as it provides them with suggestions
about what to watch after they have watched a similar film/tv show. It also
allows customers to rate films out of 5 stars and write/view reviews written by
others.

12. MUBI is a UK based niche online
streaming site that describes itself
as a curated online cinema that
shows cult, classic, independent
and award winning films. It is a
very little known website that isn’t
used by the average internet user.
The site has a group of film experts
who recommend a film per day to
users and the users have 30 days
to watch the selected film. MUBI
has a passionate international
community of film fans, students,
film-makers, festival-goers and
more.
The layout of the site when choosing a film is similar to Netflix, it shows the synopsis, rating,
and images from the film but includes extra information such as production credits and the
opinion of the experts. It also includes a section that allows people to review the film. As
you can see in the screencap, there are people commenting in other languages than
English, proving how this website contains a community of international people as opposed
to Netflix in which there is a different website/service for different countries.

13. IMDB, standing for the Internet
Movie Database contains a huge
amount of information related to
film and television programmes of
all genres including cast,
production crew, biographies, clips,
plot summaries, trivia and reviews.
It also offers news pertaining to
pop culture, film etc. Therefore,
people may visit the website to
look up a particular film or actor
and stay to read news or look at
other actors.

14. PRIMARY
QUANITATIVE
RESEARCH
For my primary quantitative research, I created a survey and posted it
on Facebook for people I know to answer the questions and find out
what my general demographic is. I found out things such as my
audience are frequent film watchers and tend to use online
streaming or TV to watch films, most of them are 16 or over and
basically the same age as the protagonist of my intro and they can be
persuaded to watch films through advertising/social
media/reviews/the people that are a part of the film.

15. PRIMARY QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
For my primary qualitative research, I asked members of my class to answer questions
about my storyboard in order to give me some feedback as to how an audience would
feel about my intro because they are more knowledgeable about film and media than
the average person that I included in my survey. I asked open questions such as “Do
you think the location/s of the scene fit the genre of Social Realism? How can they
create meaning?” or “What does the mise en scene make you think about the
character in the scene? Explain how.” These gave me detailed responses which allowed
me to make changes to my storyboard to make the intro more interesting to the
audience.

16. MY CONTEXT
I would have quite a few opportunities to show my intro at my sixth form, it could
be shown in assemblies or during active tutorial to the years 9-13 or shown in a
media lesson. It could be used as a learning tool for the younger years, either to
teach them about media if they are thinking about taking it for GCSE or A level or
to show it to them based on the subject matter and themes in a citizenship lesson
etc. to teach them about drug and alcohol addiction.
This intro could also be used to help students that take media in order to teach
them about editing techniques and how to create meaning in their own media
projects.