Task 4

Task 4
Independent film research - follow the Ill Manors marketing presentation and try as find as much as you can on production, marketing, technologies and the industry as well. Make sure you also look at how the film was received and who the audience was and find the reviews in rotten tomatoes and imdb,com as well as UK press articles.

Ill manors production, distribution, exhibition from sandraoddy2

prepare a similar slideshare/emaze for one of the following:

- Selfish Giant

- My Brother the Devil

- Wild Bill

- 71

- The Riot Club
- American Honey

-http://www.indiewire.com/2016/12/2016-british-independent-film-awards-winners-list-1201752373/

Awards season

Oscar nominations

http://oscar.go.com/nominees

Last year's Oscar winners - http://oscar.go.com/news/winners/oscar-winners-2016-see-the-complete-list


Golden Globe winners 2016 http://www.goldenglobes.com/winners-nominees
British Independent Film Awards Indie Awards 2016

Task 3.5

How can your film apply the key statements from the specification?

• the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice (qs jan10, jan11, jan13, jun 15) Only a major institution such as Warner Brothers could have made Godzilla. Warner Bros and Legendary financed the production. Unlike smaller studios, big conglomerates like Time Warner do not need the films to be a box office success. Read this: http://www.forbes.com/sites/siliconangle/2014/01/23/hollywood-is-godzilla-the-john-carter-of-2014/ - Warner Bros and Imax corporation agreement for exhibition
• the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing (qMay12) See definitions below

Technological convergence refers to the process where new technology is moving towards single platforms delivering multiple media outputs that can be used to reach audiences, for example, a PS3's primary function is video gaming but you can download and watch movies from Amazon Prime on it and also watch catch up TV and music videos. Convergent technology is technology that allows an audience to consume more than one type of media from a single platform.

Lots of aspects of the internet e.g. social networking, YouTube, online editions of newspapers and magazines are convergent but candidates cannot quote the internet as the sole aspect of their answer. Their answer needs to be linked into the media area they are talking about (Film, Music, Magazines, Newspapers, Radio, Video Games). E.g if they were talking about newspapers you could link in to their online editions and talk about how this differs from the traditional paper version and the opportunities it presents or if talking about film, candidates could, for example, point to facebook campaigns advertising a film or viral marketing spread via the internet.

Digital projection is convergent technology because films that are produced digitally have moved away from the physical film medium and can be supplied to theatres in digital format (lower costs for distribution versus higher start up costs for theatres switching to digital technology). As the film is in digital format there are also cost savings as potentially less work needs to be done on the film to get it onto Blu-Ray, DVD, internet trailers etc as no physical conversion needs to take place because the film is already in digital format.

 Cross Media Convergence is really a Business Studies term and refers to companies coming together vertically or horizontally (or both). The example often cited in exams is of Working Title making use of its parent company(s) to gain access to bigger stars and a better distribution network for their films.

Here are some key words from the exam specification that you will need to apply. Have a read through and see how you can use them in a sentence with your case study.

Synergy basically means working together to achieve an objective that couldn't be achieved independently. Cross-media convergence can help with synergy if companies are wise enough to take advantage of the links they have forged. Disney is an obvious example of a synergistic company from the top down from Film Studio to Kids' TV Channel (where it further plays and promotes its films) to the Disney Store (in the street and online) where your kids can pester you to buy all the merchandise and DVDs/CDs they've seen on the TV/Web or in the cinema. So two or more brands coming together to promote a specific event or product together, thus broadening their audience by reaching the audience of their partner brands as well as their own audience. E.g. Beats by Dr Dre headphones are made by Monster and marketed under the Dr Dre name. Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber have also released under the "Beats" name, therefore people who wouldn't usually buy Monster or Dr Dre products are now attracted to and buy into the brand. Lots of case studies for Grazia e.g. Grazia with Estee Lauder during London Fashion Week.

Tech convergence: Is where a single device enables the user to perform more than one (expected) task or role E.g. the iPhone let's users call, access Twitter, scan 3D barcodes and access augmented reality content, run app's made by Media instiutions, Take photo's, access websites. Thus, technological convergence means accessing and interacting with your chosen media in more than one way and being able to do so on one device rather than many.

Media Convergence: (Not 100% on this) Media institutions delivering their product on more than one media channel. E.g. A magazine firm (say) Grazia or Heat also having a web presence, Twitter, Youtube etc. Same concept but with a focus on media institutions instead of technologies.

For example the use of animation, CGI with real footage - all of Godzilla was mapped out using previsualization (previs) which helped guide the editor in piecing together sequences which often involved merging previs with completed shots. 

Task 3 - Blockbuster research and presentations

Task 3 - Presentations begin 23rd February

You need to choose a recent blockbuster film - Spectre, Star Wars the Force Awakens, Mockingjay pt2, Hunger Games, Avengers Age of Ultron, Fast and Furious 7, Jurassic World, Minions

You are going to prepare a presentation - emaze, prezi whatever you fancy. Some information is harder to find than others. Your first stop will be imdb.com, wikipedia and the film's website. Then start doing more in-depth research www.launchingfilms.com (Sight and Sound - guardian/independent reviews etc) and keep collecting everything you find for your film along the way. You need to know your film and the process inside out.

Your research should involve:

• Pre-production information (anything that leads up to the filming)
• film's press release
• Front cover - poster - release date
• historical context - any info about the background of the film
• General facts - release dates in UK, US - Production Company, Distribution Company, Director, Cast, Production costs, Marketing costs
• Institutions -The main institutions involved - production, distributor (what else have they produced, distributed) what is their tv involvement? examples of programmes what is their online involvement? what is their film involvement
• Production (stages involved in making the film) Info from director, screenwriter, producer etc look for interviews, locations, sfx, TECHNOLOGY
• MARKETING - this is a crucial section as a lot of the questions in the exam will cover this area. If you can find out the marketing budget great if not just focus on how much marketing there was. Any differences between countries? 
• Upload all the trailers from teasers to final. What were the dates. How many views do they have on youtube? Do you know what films they were attached to?
•  Posters, billboards, press, radio and tv interviews. Show clips - mention all of them. 
• MERCHANDISE Any games, clothing, happy meals, cinema prizes, competitions, universal studios or Warner brothers theme parks, board games, arcade games.
• Who are they targeting? What do the posters/trailers represent? 
• ONLINE presence - Facebook sites, twitter feeds - go back through them all and summarise. The website. Any virals? Online games? Mobile games. Unofficial fan sites/games?
• Did they win any Golden Trailer Awards? Any cross promotion like Godzilla and the snickers bar / doritos etc https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=godzilla+snickers+commercial
• Box Office figures in US and UK/around the world
• EXHIBITION AND EXCHANGE- think worldwide here when did it open? opening takings? what else was going on at the time, what time of year and what did that mean? what was its main competition? how many screens? premiere where? reviews popular and high-brow - Any 3D or IMAX or Impact screens? Where was the film most popular? US and UK comparison of takings. When did it become available on 3D, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital downloads. What other formats is it available in? What were the dvd elements? Where is it available for streaming? 

Task 2

• You need to memorise the names of the Big Six and also update this chart by creating a new one with all the films they released in 2016. They are also known as the majors by the film industry as they have their own team from pre-production to post and their own studios.

• It's not just the majors you need to know about you must also research Lionsgate, MGM, Dreamworks and Fox Searchlight. Create a similar chart with those headings.  
• Choose an independent film company and write what films they produced last year