sightseers research task

StudioCanal
What was StudioCanal's original purpose? 
The original function was to focus on French and European productions, but later made strategic deals with American production companies. StudioCanal's most notable productions from its early years include Terminator 2: Judgment Day, JFK, Basic Instinct, Cliffhanger, Under Siege, Free Willy, and the original stargate movie. In those days, it was known as Le Studio Canal+.
Which big 6 company has connectios with StudioCanal?Studio canal is a spin of of canal+. Studio canal are very closely linked to one of the major 6 film companies, universal studios.
How large is StudioCanal's film library? studio canal have a small film library of 10 films having been founded in 1988.

BFI film fund - 
The purpose of the BFI film fund is to invest lottery money into film development, production and distribution in the british film industry. The budget is set to rise from £26m to £30m by 2017.

Film4 Productions
Who owns Film4 Productions?
channel four television corporation
When was it 're-established'?
It was re-established in 2006
Which TV chanel is it connected to?
Film 4 

Big talk pictures 
- total cross for all big talk films was $313,717,990
- they specialise in british films
- big talk was founded by Nira park. 

Which formats is the film available on?

TV, VOD, Magazines, National and Specialist Press, Outdoor – Underground, High Impact Online Display, Video, Social.

How was it released in the US (formats and release pattern)?Didn’t have a release date at the time, and now it does. Sightseers will show you a love story like no other whenever it hits theaters on May 10.

How was it marketed how did StudioCanal help?

Gave away the movie for free. "It’s kind of counter-intuitive to give a movie away for free. But at the same time, if you’ve got a million people talking about it, that’s’ a pretty amazing bit of marketing. And if you’ve got big resources, you’ve got to use them."
sHow was twitter and facebook used to market the film? 

Created a Facebook and twitter page and kept up on information on the film. They made fake posters for the "missing dog". This made the film feel more realistic.

They set up deck chairs, camping chairs and trams to go with the theme of the movie at the premier.How was Stella Artois involved? What is a Stella Artois bursary?
At the premier they were sponsored by stella artois and it was hosted by the drink too. 
Stella Artois Bursaries are unique funds that directly support the film community.

The Grand Budapest Hotel Essay

"Successful media products depends as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices" to what extent would you agree with this statement,  within the media area you have studied?

I think film success is largely bound on the distribution to a particular audience and marketing. I think that these two elements are the most vital aspects to the film becoming a box office success. Different films have different distribution levels depending on the size of the company for example 20th century fox, they have a significant amount of control and influence due to them being such a big company they can distribute films on a global scale, this makes sure that films can be accessible by all audiences. 20th century fox is one of the most widely recognised and respected brands in the film industry, they have connections all over the world so they can insure that the film is marketed well in the media and on television. 20th century fox is well known for making successful films such as the Simpsons movie and the X-men franchise so it was a good company to use because a lot of people will go and watch it based on it being made by 20th century fox. The avengers is a film famous for its advertisement campaign. The advertisement for the avengers was very clever. Films prior to it were released for example iron man trilogy, thor, hulk etc. By these films being released it made people very exited and more eagerly awaiting the release of the avengers. The film made over $1.5 billion at the box office which is very good considering they had a huge budget of $220 million.


 A film that backs up my point that distribution and marketing are vital is the film DREDD. The film was produced by entertainment distributors and lionsgate production. The film was never going to be huge success because the budget was only $45 million, This meant they could not advertise the film as well as they would have liked because they just didn't have the budget, and they were not able to compete with films that have a much larger budget. The advertisement of the film was not the key issue. However the distribution of the film was very poor, it was only available in 3D in the majority of cinemas which put people off because 3D is not the success story it once was. This meant that a lot of people would have to travel far away to watch the film in 2D which is a huge inconvenience. However the films lack of success can not be blamed solely on poor distribution, the film was released near the time of the film 'the raid' which has an extremely similar storyline which again put people off watching it.




The Grand Budapest hotel had various marketing techniques to promote the film, the film was released in blue ray, this was popular because it allowed the customers to watch the film in multiple formats including regular dvd and blue ray players. The film was also promoted by releasing memorbillia from the film online for example fake moustaches and recipes from the cakes sold in the film. Large scale models of the hotel used in the film were transported to cinemas around the world so that it gave the customers a feel of what the hotel was like. These three key concepts were vital to the films $172 million box office profit, which is very good because it was a low budget film of $31 million. This film is a great example that if a film is marketed and distributed properly then a film of a low budget can be a success.


I think that if a film such as avengers has a huge budget it is going to be a success and people will watch it no matter what the marketing campaign is like. However for films such as The grand Budapest hotel the marketing is far more important and if its done correctly it can be a huge success.

the big 6 - universal studios.

The conglomerate company that owns universal studios is Comcast, which is the biggest mass media broadcasting company in the world. Comcast is one of the biggest companies in the world, it provides most of the united states cable tv and home internet. it also owns NBC since 2011.

other companies that universal studios own are , E!, entertainment television, the golf channel, and NBCSN.

Films we would associate with universal studios, - harry potter, the dark knight, fast and furious.

universal studios | Create Infographics

disability

Representation of the disabled. 

typical stereotypes of the disabled.

incapable - In the media many disabled people are presented as being incapable of performing normal day to day activities for example walt jnr in breaking bad has cerepal palsy and he cannot do normal things such as drive a car and go shopping by himself for trousers. 

vulnerable - Forest Gump is very vulnerable in the film as ever since he was younger he is always getting picked on, also he is easily influenced so people can make him do whatever they want.

lonely - tony from skins is very lonely after his accident, he is frequently left out from going out with his friends which is a huge contrast from before the accident when he was the social hub of the group.

unintelligent - Lenny from of mice and men is presented as being very unintelligent, as he cannot make his own decisions and has to have George to often make his decisions for him, and when he does make his own decisions they are often bad decisions e.g. killing curleys wife.

ugly - Layla from tracy beaker who has cerepal palsy is presented as being unattractive, and this is often a stereotype for disabled people.

 

In this scene the disabled girl who is hit by the frisbee is portrayed as being extremely vulnerable, the first reason for this is because she is unable to quickly move out of the way of the frisbee like a normal person could. Another way the girl is represented is incapable of sticking up for herself when she gets hit, she has to have her friend to back her up as she may have a problem speaking and doesn't have the confidence to stick up for herself.  

regional identity

scotland 

accents - strong glaswegian accents often hard to understand.

location - rough streets of glasgow, also great architechture in many old places e.g. edinburgh. scottish highlands.

slang - 'we' = little.

clothes - kilts, tartan print clothes.

pastimes - bag pipes, eating haggis, drinking scotch whiskey, irn bru.

attitudes / behaviour - hating english people, being aggressive, drunks.

liverpool

accents - high pitch, annoying, scouse, common.

location - rough council estates, run down, not much money invested, old docks.

clothes - tracksuits, adidas trainers, typical working class clothes, baggy.

pastimes - football, shoplifting, stealing car wheels.

behaviour / attitudes - cheeky, chavs, easy going, left wing, witty.

Newcastle

accents - geordie, hard to understand.

location - huge city, some rough estates.

slang - eg howay, toon.

clothes - tight clothes e.g. geordie shore.

pastimes - going to the gym, drinking, partying, clubbing, partying, watching newcastle united play.

behaviour - friendly, outgoing, party animals, attitude.

Irish

accents - irish accents quite strong, sound happy.

location - busy cities, although lots of greenery and countryside.

clothes - green clothes, leggins, hats.

pastimes - drinking whiskey,  drinking guiness, river dancing.

behaviour - happy go lucky.

London. 

accents - polite, posh in the west / north. more common in south / east.

location - big city, big buildings, busy.

clothes - expensive clothes, well dressed, smart.

pastimes - shopping, going to bars / out for dinner.

Essex

accents - very loud, annoying.

location - medium sized towns, nice houses.

slang - Oh my god, reem.

clothes - fake tan, tight clothes, revealing clothes.

pastimes - clubbing, spending money, getting a fake tan hair etc.

behaviour - bitchy, confident, can be academically challenged.

cornwall / south west.

accents - Stereotypical farmer accent, sounds very country-esc.

location - beaches, lots of countryside, little seaside towns. busy when its warm.

pastimes - drinking, fishing, surfing.

behaviour - friendly, welcoming of tourists.

yorkshire

accents - calm, relaxed.

location - countryside, lots of old buildings in the big cities / towns e.g. leeds / bradford/ huddersfield.

slang - 't' instead of 'the'.

clothes - baggy, sports wear e.g. elleese, football casual clothes.

pastimes - football, walking their dogs.

behaviour - friendly, outgoing.

Birmingham.

accents - sounds dull, boring, brummie.

location - big city, very busy, places are ugly.

clothes - chavs, hoodies.

pastimes - clubbing, drinking.

behaviour - aggressive, rough.

welsh 

accents -strong friendly accents.

location - big cities in south, up north more countryside and farms.

clothes - rugby kits, red white and green clothes.

pastimes - picking daffodils, looking for fossils, playing rugby.

behaviour - drink a lot, friendly.

why did dredd fail at the box office?

Dredd is a film about a dystopian future of America where crime has taken over the fictional place of mega city one. Its a violent metropolis with over 800 million people and 17,000 crimes reported daily. The high rise tower block 'peach trees' is run by a gang mama clan who are known for their violence. they are producing a new slow-mo drug which makes the brain work at 1% of its normal speed. The only force of justice are the judges, especially judge Dredd. They work as judge, jury and executioner. The judge has taken on a new recruit who has psychic power. The Judges are called in to Peach trees

Producer: Alex Garland

Distributer: Lions Gate Entertainment

Script Writer: Alex Garland

Budget: $45 Million

Box Office Gross: $13,414,714 

Directors and Actors: Pete Travis (Director). Karl Urban (Judge Dredd, also starred in Star Trek and The Lord of the Rings), Olivia Thirlby (Cassandra Anderson, also starred in Juno and No Strings Attached), Lena Headey (Madeline 'MaMa' Madrigal, also starred in Game of Thrones, 300 and St. Trinians) 

The distributers for the film played a huge part in the film getting known and they were; Entertainment Film, Distributers and Lionsgate. Lionsgate are a Canadian or American entertainment company who have distributed lots of huge hollywood films for example  the hunger games, and the power rangers, Both of these are fairly big films therefore Alex Garland  thought going with Lionsgate was a stable choice. The script writer was  John Wagner who has worked on A History of Violence. He worked alongside another script writer called Carlos Eiquerra who worked on Comics Britannia. Both of those films are set in the pasts and seeing as DREDD is set in the future this may have been one of the reasons that the film was not as successful. 

The stars of the film Dredd include new Zealand actor Carl Urban who announced his main part in Dredd at comic con in 2010. Comic con is a huge comic book event and convention that’s all about superheroes so it was an ideal place to announce the news seeing as the film is an adaptation of a comic book.  Carl announced his role in LA.  Also it would get the people interested in the concept of the film because he would be able to talk about what the films going to be about. Carl urban actually earned earned the film company $30 million dollars in pre sales because a lot of people were interested in the concept and it was at comi con, As well as this the distributer paid $7million dollars to show the film in the UK because they thought it would be a big hit. This is surprising because Dredd was actually filmed in Cape-Town in Johannesburg so typically Dredd would of been thought to be an American dominated film. 

Production 

There was two key production tasks in the film, the first being the slo-mo sequences which the film heavily relies on for its special effects considering the film is based around a drug that makes the brain go into slow motion. The same slo-mo sequence was used in never let me go. The lawgiver gun also had to be created to look realistic, this gun was created for the first film in 1995 and it has appeared in the comic book aswell so its very iconic to the character of judge Dredd. There were many issues surrounding the drugs, violence and bad language that the film cannot go 2 minuets without. The film was never going to be a PG due to the gang members heads getting gruesomely blown off and the heavy use of illegal drugs. They wanted to keep the film at an 18 however many consider an 18 certificate to have a huge negative impact on the films sales because it has a smaller target audience. 
Filming of Dredd began on the 12th of november 2010 and it took just around 12-13 weeks to film. The films were shot digitally and in 3D using Red MX, S12K and phantoms flex high speed camera. This is so that the audience has the option to watch the film in 3D as well as 2D. various camera rigs had to be installed for these cameras to be used. 

Post - production. 
The tower blocks of mega city one were an issue for the production team as they tried to replicate the tower blocks from the comic book, the inital idea was to make the tall new buildings look like they were overpowering the old world, however by copying the comic book ones it just made the city look small. They then made the set very spread out so the tower blocks looked very overpowering and taller, thats why in the film in the shot above the city everything is extremely spread out. Another issue was that there were dissagreements between the main editor and some of the production team and executives, somone had to take over at late notice, the main editor then just oversaw the production of the film and there was a statement of 'unorthodox collaboration' which meant the original editor still got credit.

Distribution and marketing.
Dredd was shown in 2,506 cinemas and 2,200 of them being in 3D, therefore there wasnt really much choice whether the viewer saw them In 2D or not, this caused various problems, to start with many people do not like 3D anymore, the novelty has worn off and it has just become another short lived trend, and also it costs extra to watch a film in 3D and some people would of refused to pay it when they could watch a different film for less. To advertise the film they had to do a lot of their marketing virally, and also did a huge presentation at comic con to the under 25's which was their target market for the film. The film won an award for their trailer called the 'golden trailer award' this meant that when the trailer was being shown it would say it had won an award and may tempt people to go and watch the film.

The film made absolutely no money at all at the box office, the budget for the film was $45 million and it reached $41 million at the box office, to try and make some money the film company removed the option to watch the film in 2D and therefore people would have to watch the film in 3D and pay more for a ticket, leading to more money being made, i think this was one of the main reasons the film did not succeed as i mentioned before not everyone enjoys watching 3D or has the money to spend considering cinema tickets are very expensive these days. 18% of people are actually physically uncapable of watching a 3D movie so that would of damaged the views of the film to start with, this is one of the main reasons why no big block buster hits choose this strategy. Another major error of from the film company was when it was released, it was released after 'the raid' came out, and without knowing they both had very similar plots, a lot of people had gone to see the raid instead of Dredd which damaged the box office figures. Suprisingly the film did very well in the DVD sales, it sold 650,000 copies and blu-ray made up half of that figure so they made a lot of money from DVD's, this could be down to people refusing to watch it in 3D as it would be more expensive and proves that it was a bad marketing idea.

so how come Dredd did fail at the box office? there are many reasons for the film being a failure, the first being that it was an 18 certificate and that means less people can go and see it at the cinema, i think that if the film was a 15 it would of been a lot more successfull considering that the dvd sales were very high and peaked at number 1 which shows that it wasnt that people werent interested its just that possibly its because they couldnt go and see the film at the cinema. Another reason that the film wasnt very successfull is because the advertisement campaign was not very good, it was mostly just aimed towards british and american audiences and there was no real effort to market the film globally which cuts out a huge percentage of the population who potentially could be going to watch the film and making the film company more money. But i think that the main reason that Dredd failed was because it was never really a very popular comic book in the fist place, it is a marvel comic book and they have huge hollywood films such as spiderman, the avengers, hulk etc, these are all extremely popular and people love to go and watch these films at the cinema, and also were massive as comic books, but Dredd on the other hand never got to these stages of popularity, the comic book will always be in the shadow of these characters and their storylines.

comparing the film to other marvel comic book remakes such as the avengers there are clear reasons why Dredd was not as successfull, for example the avengers budget was $220 million whereas Dredds was just over $40 million, this shows that the more money you spend on a film the more you are going to make back, this is why the avengers made $1.518 billion at the box office while Dredd made barely $40 million. Also the avengers had huge hollywood actors starring in it, dont get me wrong Karl urban is a well respected actor but he has nothing on the likes of robert downey junior, Scarlett Johansen, jeremy renner, and samuel L jackson. Also all of these characters in avengers have had films based around them and made lots of money so a film that has all of these hollywood characters in was never going to not make money.
However Dredd did recieve some very good reviews, which makes people question why it didnt do very well, this again makes my point even stronger that dredd is not a classic comic book, whereas the avengers is.

male gaze

the video is anaconda by nicki minaj

In this screenshot we are presented with a picture of a girls bum, this will grab the attention of males and cause them to gaze, nick minaj often uses her body in her music videos to get people to watch it and take the attention away from her awful music. 

In this screenshot Nicki Minaj and the other dancers are spreading their legs in a way so that the audience can see inbetween them, this can be connected with pleasure and sexualisation of the women and objectifying them as sexual objects.

Nicki then goes onto expose her cleavage area by bending over in her low cut top, this can be connected with seduction and is associating herself with sex and pleasure again. 

the whole way through the music video nicki minaj and the other girls are all wearing very sexualised outfits that do not contain very much material, such as very tight bikinis and short hot pants that show off the sexual parts of the female body.

at about 3.10 in the video nicki minaj is seen to be wearing a french maid outfit, something that is very often used in a sexual way and she is bending over infront of the bar which is done in a very sexual way that can be assosiated with pleasure, and there is no material covering the back of the outfit making it even more over sexualised. 

in this part of the video nicki minaj is seducing drake in a sexual way my bending over right in front of him and touching him, she gives drake a lap dance which is associated with sex and pleasuring the opposite sex, also the room is dark so we don't really get to see much of drake which adds an element of mystery, drake looks like he is trying to resist nicki minaj but he knows he wont be able to.

Nicki minaj appears in the next clip In a red swimming costume which does not cover much of her body as she wants to reveal as much as possible, red is often associated with being the colour of sex which is often why women wear red lipstick, it can also represent evil which could mean that nicki minaj is not good for drake but still he wont be able to resist.