MARKETING AND FILM PROMOTION

Marketing for a film is a vital part of the whole film process, and is often crucial to the films success. A good marketing campaign will build up enough hype and talk about the film- who’s in it, who’s the director, etc. that the film will evidently get a big enough audience to maximise profit. Film studios will invest in expensive marketing campaigns to maximise revenue early in the release cycle. FACT: Skyfall (2012) spent $29 million just on marketing! Marketing is done through Film Distribution companies and often matches production budgets, some argue that film distribution is an ‘invisible art’, compared to the more creative production and exhibition parts of the film industry chain; but is arguably the most important part of the film industry.

Traditional marketing and film promotion includes: - Trailers, sneak previews, film clips, outtakes - Film posters, magazine covers -slideshows - stills, trivia, and trivia games from the film, shown between movie showtimes. -Interviews with stars, cast, directors -Red carpet events -Press Releases -merchandising Film Production Film Distribution Film Exhibition -Film distribution is about releasing and sustaining the product in the market place through a variety of platforms. - Distributors buy the ‘Licence’ to sell the film (or Film Acquisition), based upon the films viability and it’s backing

MAJOR FILM STUDIO MARKETING Major film studio’s usually have very very very large budgets to spend on all aspects of the film’s production and distribution. Because they spend so much on the promotion and distribution, this therefore means they make the most money in box office, compared to that of independent films. Also major film studios often have control over all stages in the film industry chain, so have more budget for distribution. The table below shows the top ten major film distributors and the type of money they make-

INDEPENDENT FILM STUDIO MARKETING Independent films have a much smaller budget for the films production and promotion. Therefore independent films tend to be largely marketed online, and through word of mouth. Online campaigns use social networking sites such as Facebook, twitter, Youtube, etc. Independent producers have to forge links with distributors, who act as a ‘pig-in-the- middle’ link, in order to help promote their films. One film which used the internet to advertise their film in a very interesting way was Gareth Edwards ‘Monsters’ (2010) which used location based social networking site ‘Foursquare’ where the distributors created ‘infected zones’ which linked to prizes such as free cinema tickets, and film memorabilia.

OTHER WAYS OF MARKETING AND PROMOTING A FILM. other ways of promoting films, beside the traditional route, includes: Viral marketing - marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networking services and other technologies to produce increases in the films awareness. (E.G) Paranormal Activity’s filmmakers owe a lot of their success to hitting the social networks hard, especially Twitter. After the film's limited release, they encouraged viewers to "Tweet Their Screams" and write 140-character-long reviews. After Paramount saw the online interest, the studio announced they'd launch it nationally if the movie received one million "demands" on Eventful. They made people work for it and, therefore, gave them a vested interest before even seeing it.

Gimmicks - Film’s can do one off or unique events which they use to raise awareness about their films. For example the filmmakers of ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and Artisan Entertainment supported the ‘real footage’ effect in their film by building a website that backed the claim; they also circulated the rumours via online message boards. The film terrified audiences all the more when, in the back of their heads, they thought it might just be real. Also the recent blockbuster ‘Carrie’ created a marketing stunt on unexpected coffee house customers, which was all filmed, posted online, generating over 4 million views on Youtube. The lengths that these creators went to, including remote-controlled tables and spring-loaded books, all proved successful. Whether movie-goers wanted to see “Carrie” or not, anyone can agree with advertising done right.

HOW WE WOULD MARKET ‘EUPHORIA’. As we would have an independent film studio budget to work with, we would have to do most of our promotion online, and through other unique ways. We would use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, getting the cast to daily retweet and share film promotion, and interviews they have done with the media, and create conversations on forums, and comment feeds. To relate to our film storyline and audience we would perhaps put posters up in clubs and bars especially, however we would have to be careful with the possibility of coming across as promoting drugs. We could perhaps even work with organisations that work with drugs, for example ‘Talk To Frank’ and ‘Think’. One marketing ploy that I always find interesting and effective is when films/tv programs flash up images or very short clips during ad breaks, or use posters which give away very little, with perhaps just a Facebook page link or twitter username. This makes the viewer curious and would entice the individual to do some research and find the film. Big brother for example used to flash up the logo of the eye, weeks before the next series started, but once you saw this image, the viewers know that there will soon be new series.

However our trailer is the most important point in promoting our film as this is the product which will give most away about the plot, characters, genre, etc. When the audience watch a trailer they automatically can tell if it’s their type of film that they usually enjoy, therefore we would be releasing our trailer to mainly our target audience first. As mentioned before we would flash up quick images of the film or a distinctive logo for example between adverts on television or on the online adverts (which you could then click on and this would take you to the films website), and also the distinctive adverts on buses, walls in city centres, etc. We would then firstly release a sneak preview of the trailer, so a 30 second clip on youtube, sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. Then we would build up hype and talk, then release the full trailer online again in the evening on a Friday or Saturday night – to relate to the party/ young theme. We would again try and get as many retweets and shares as possible, perhaps asking celebrities with significant amount of followers to help share and retweet. After, if we had the budget, we would release onto TV adverts and other areas, perhaps even sound clips onto the radio.