The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug online marketing grid

Using the internet to promote a movie release in the UK

Example 1

• What is it? UK Facebook page
• What is the source? www.facebook.com
• Above/below the line? Below
• Who is it attempting to reach? Those with a Facebook account
• How is it a valuable marketing opportunity? Free, easy and instant to update, potentially unlimited audience

Example 2

• What is it? Mail online article about the making of Middle Earth
• What is the source? www.dailymail.co.uk
• Above/below the line? Above
• Who is it attempting to reach? Daily mail readers, younger adults
• How is it a valuable opportunity? Easily accessible online, potentially unlimited audience

Example 3

• What is it? Youtube trailer
• What is the source? www.youtube.com
• Above/below the line? Below
• Who is it attempting to reach? Youtube users, young people
• How is it a valuable opportunity? Free, potentially unlimited audience, easily accessible website, very popular website

Kill Your Darlings online marketing grid

Using the internet to promote a movie release in the UK

Example 1

• What is it? Youtube trailer
• What is the source? www.youtube.com
• Above/below the line? Below
• Who is it attempting to reach? Youtube users, young people
• How is it a valuable marketing opportunity? Free, easily accessible, potentially unlimited audience

Example 2

• What is it? Cut up art exhibition
• What is the source? www.standard.co.uk
• Above/below the line? Above
• Who is it attempting to reach? Adults, newspaper readers, art fans
• How is it a valuable opportunity? Potentially large audience, website is easily accessible

Example 3

• What is it? UK Facebook page
• What is the source? www.facebook.com
• Above/below the line? Below
• Who is it attempting to reach? Anyone with a Facebook account
• How is it a valuable opportunity? Free, easy and instant to update, easily accessible website, very popular website

WEEK 3 Case Study 3 - Desolation of Smaug Distributing and Marketing to the UK

I saw a ten second teaser trailer for the Desolation of Smaug on channel E4 at around 10:30pm. E4 is a channel watched predominantly by teenagers and young adults so the advert was most likely aiming to reach this sort of age group.

Whilst at the cinema at around 8:30pm I saw a full trailer for the Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. This is a great way to reach film fans as they would not be going to the cinema if they were not avid film watchers. The certificate of the film I was watching was a 12 so the right age group for The Hobbit was being targeted (12+)

WEEK 3 Case Study 4 - Kill Your Darlings Distributing and Marketing to the UK

10 Questions: The Desolation of Smaug

1. UK Release Date?

 13th December 2013


 2. Institutions behind the films production and distribution?

 MGM, New Line Cinema, WingNut Films


3. What's the film's production budget?

$250 million


4. Nationality of the film?

 USA and New Zealand


 5.What kind of production is it?

 3-D Studio Production


 6. Any connection with other films?

Part 2 of the Hobbit trilogy


 7. Who's the director?

Peter Jackson


 8. Any star names in the cast?

Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, Martin Freeman, Ian Mckellen, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly


 9. What is the film about?

The Dwarves continue their quest to reclaim Erebor from Smaug.


 10. Who will this film appeal to?

 Lord of the Rings fans, those who liked the first film, adventure/drama/fantasy film fans, fans of the actors, Peter Jackson film fans

10 Questions: Kill Your Darlings

1. UK release date?

6th December 2013

2. Institutions behind the film's production and distribution?

SONY Pictures, Killer films, Benaroya pictures,

3. Production budget?

$2 million

4. The film's nationality

American

5. What kind of production is it?

Independent low budget

6. Any connections with other films?

No

7. Director?

John Krokidas

8. Any star names in the cast?

Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, Elizabeth Olsen, Michael C. Hall

9. What is the film about?

Kill your darlings is an American biographical drama about the murder of David Kammerer committed by Lucien Carr in 1944 which brings three writers together to spark the Beat Revolution.

10. Who will the film appeal to?

Daniel Radcliffe fans, drama/thriller fans, fans of the actors, fans of John Krokidas films

WEEK 2 Case Study 4 - Kill Your Darlings Distributing and Marketing to the UK

I saw a film poster at Euston and Highgate station whilst travelling on the Northern Line. People of all age groups travel on the London Underground however the main group of people who this poster would reach is people travelling to and from work. 

WEEK 2 Case Study 3 - Desolation of Smaug Distributing and Marketing to the UK

Papadopoulos & Sons Director Q&A

Marcus Markou, director of Papadopoulos & Sons, came in for a Q&A session with our class. I found this session extremely useful as we learn a lot about the production and distribution of films however I have never actually spoken face-to-face with a director about the processes he went through in order to get his film 'out there'.

The top 5 things I took away from this session are:

1. You don't need a big budget to create a very popular film.
2. Targeting specific groups within your target audience is an extremely effective way of creating word of mouth e.g. Marcus Markou directly contacted fish and chip shop owners living in London.
3. Casting big names puts you at a great advantage as it immediately attracts the fans of that specific actor e.g. Stephen Dillane.
4. It is difficult to predict what proportion of the budget is spent on actors and locations as each actor/location varies.
5. Social media is a great way to spread word of mouth about low budget films as it is a below the line method and has an unlimited potential audience.

WEEK 1 Case Study 4 - Kill Your Darlings Distributing and Marketing to the UK

A cut-up art Kill Your Darlings art exhibition is being held on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of November. I found this on the internet and due to the unlimited audience which the internet has, this advertisement is aimed at all kinds of audiences.

A Daniel Radcliffe interview discussing his nudity in the movie by Yahoo Lifestyle. Yahoo Lifestyle is an online news website which is able to reach all kinds of groups of people.

WEEK 1 Case Study 3 - Desolation of Smaug Distributing and Marketing to the UK

Papadopoulos & Sons

Written and directed by independent filmmaker, Marcus Markou, Papadopoulos & Sons is a British comedy-drama set in London. The story follows the wealthy Greek immigrant entrepreneur, Harry Papadopoulos and his family as they lose everything other than a fish and chip shop. The Papadopoulos family, along with Harry's stereotypically Greek brother, make the decision to move into the "3 Brothers" fish and chip shop where Harry learns to let go and embrace his Greek heritage.

Cast

Stephen Dillane as Harry Papadopoulos

George Corraface as Uncle Spiros

Georgia Groome as Katie Papadopoulos

Frank Dillane as James Papadopoulos

Ed Stoppard as Rob

Cosima Shaw as Sophie

The Trailer

Sweded Films

The term "sweded" has become a commonly used word for remade, low budget, unedited films since the release of the Michel Gondry comedy, "Be Kind, Rewind". The slang term was fabricated when the film's video store worker main character, Jerry (Jack Black), accidentally erased all of the video store's movies and decided it would be a good idea to make his own remakes of all of the films with the help of co-worker, Mike (Mos Def). After deciding to charge high prices for the amateur DVDs, Jerry made up the excuse that they were imported from Sweden; hence the term "sweded".

Sweded films must be based on a film which already exists, contain only hand crafted titles and be around 5 minutes long. As well as this, all sound effects must be created using only the human voice and no other instruments. Most importantly, for a film to fit into the 'sweded' category, it must be funny.

After watching quite a lot of sweded films on youtube, I have picked out two of my favourites:

The Avengers
I think that this sweded film works extremely well for a number of reasons; the sound effects are hilarious, the props are low budget yet effective, the characters are easily identifiable and the script is funny yet still true to the actual plot.

The Shining

This is a brilliant remake of The Shining. In particular, I love the first scene with the small yellow toy car being pulled along a wall. It is so effective because, in the actual film, the Torrence family are in a yellow beetle driving along a deserted mountain path and I think that this sweded version does a great yet comical job at replicating it. I also really like how the man playing Mr Torrence in this really exaggerates the character as it adds a comedy factor to the film. The use of lego to show the maze is also low budget yet very creative. I think that the use of a mirror towards the end of the film to create the illusion of two girls like the twins in the actual film is very clever. The soundtrack to this sweded film is also very funny as no instruments are used so it fits in well with the low budget aspect of sweded films.

Which film would I like to Swede?

I have had a few ideas of which film I would like to Swede such as Grease, Home Alone, Mean Girls and Cinderella. However I have decided that the most effective would probably be The Titanic. I would love to Swede The Titanic as there are so many iconic scenes within the film such as when Rose threatens to jump off the boat and when Jack drowns. I think that the The Titanic is definitely a realistic film to shoot at school because we wouldn't really need many props other than a blue sheet to replicate the sea and some cardboard to make the boat. When sweding a film, it is good to choose a film which lots of people know otherwise the comedy of it will not be conveyed and I think that The Titanic is one of the most well known movies of all time. 

Accident Sequence Analysis

To create narrative flow we started with a wide angle establishing shot to show the audience where the character is in the sequence is in relation to her surroundings.

Following the establishing shot, we used a close up shot to reveal more about what the girl is actually doing.

An over the shoulder shot is used so that the audience can see the action from the character's perspective. This makes the audience feel directly involved in the action.

Dialogue helps the audience understand what the protagonist is thinking. Just before the dialogue, we took an over the shoulder shot of the girl's watch which suggests that she is panicked by the time.

We used match on action between the shots when the girl realises that she is in a hurry and the shot where we see her footsteps approaching the camera to show the action from two perspectives.

The close up of the girl's feet running towards the camera puts the audience right into the action.

The sequence finishes with a mid shot of the girl's body lying on the floor. Just before this happens, a sound is heard which leaves the audience wondering what happened. The shot of the girl on the floor creates continuity as it reveals to the audience that the girl has probably tripped over something whilst running and has injured herself.

From shot 2 to shot 3 we seem to break the 30 degree rule. It is important to consider the 30 degree rule as it creates continuity by preventing the audience from confusion.

Opening Scene Continuity Analysis

"Crazy, Stupid, Love" Continuity Analysis

• The opening scene begins with an over the shoulder shot to show the scene from one of the characters' point of view. This makes the audience feel involved in the scene.
• The scene then cuts to a reaction shot to show the husband's reaction to his wife's proposal of a divorce.
• Shot-reverse-shot then follows, showing the conversation between the two people from each point of view, placing the audience in the action. Each of these shots is a close up to show emotion.
• Cross cutting is used to demonstrate how two scenes are happening simultaneously; the couple at the restaurant and two girls running around a house.
• At the house, the camera follows the older girl picking up a photo. The girl looks down at the photo in her hands however the audience cannot see what she is looking at. It then cuts to the photo to reveal what the photo in her hands is showing. The shot is a POV shot to put the audience exactly what the girl is seeing/doing. 
• More cross cutting is used to show the couple from the dinner scene driving in a car, showing how time has passed since the scene at the restaurant.
• An extreme close-up is used to show the husband's blank expression.
• In the car scene, shot-reverse-shot is used to show the husband from the wife's perspective and the wife from the husband's perspective. This reveals to the audience how the husband seems emotionless and blank whereas the wife seems agitated.
• Cross cutting is used once again to cut to the scene at the house reiterate how the two scenes are occurring simultaneously.
• Match on action is used as the girl opens the door to the boy's room to show the same action from two points of view; outside the bedroom and inside the bedroom.
• The clip then cuts back to the scene of the couple in the car and a mid shot is used to show where the two characters are seated in perspective to each other.
• Whilst the car is moving, the husband unbuckles his seatbelt, opens the car door and rolls out of the car. In the same shot, the camera arcs to show a reaction shot of the wife's reaction to her husbands rash decision.
• Throughout the clip, neither the 180 degree rule nor the 30 degree rule are broken. This ensures that there is a constant sense of direction and no jumps throughout the sequence.

Still Analysis

Photo Analysis



We were given the task to create a film still to correspond with a particular genre. The genre which this still fits into is horror. This shot shows a girl crouching in the corner of a basement as the silhouette of what appears to be a hand approaches her.

What we did to achieve this still
The shot is a high angle shot looking down on the girl. We used this shot to try and create the feeling that the girl is in a vulnerable position to go with the horror genre. We chose to use the cellar as the set for our shot because cellars have very eerie, haunting connotations which fit in well with the genre. Using a small light, we back-lit the hand so that it's silhouette was projected onto the wall. We positioned the light at a distance from the hand so that it appeared bigger than it actually was to create a dominating, intimidating presence.

The girl in this shot is in a position which makes her as small as possible. This gives off the effect that she is scared and attempting to stay hidden from the approaching presence. The girl is crouched beneath the hand which gives the hand a position of power which further adds to the effect that the girl is a helpless victim. Often in horror films the victim is in a position of 'no escape' so to create this feeling we positioned the girl in the corner of the room.

What is successful?
The use of light is really successful in this shot as it makes the hand stand out and appear very haunting. The cellar is a good location choice as in creates the feeling that there is no escape which really fits in with the genre.

What could be improved?
The girl in this still should be slightly more prominent. We could do this by adding a little more light to the shot or focusing the camera on her. Also, I think we should have moved the ladder out of the shot as it detracts attention from the main focus of the still.