Sightseers Research Task

Studio Canal
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+.
Studio canal is a spin off of canal+. Studio canal are very closely linked to one of the major 6 film companies, universal studios.
Studio canal have a small film library of 10 films having been founded in 1988

Big Talk Pictures

The total gross for all Big Talk films was $313,717,990.

They specialise in British films.

Big Talk was founded by Nira Park.

Film4 Productions
Channel four television corporation owns Film4 Productions.
It was re-established in 2006
Film 4 is connected to Film4 Productions.

Bfi Film Fund
The purpose is to invest in lottery money into film development, production and distribution in film industry.
The budget is set to rise from 26 million to 30million by 2017.

The significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences
The film is available on TV, VOD, Magazines, National and Specialist Press, Outdoor – Underground, High Impact Online Display, Video, Social.
It 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.
It was marketed by giving 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."
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.
At the premier they were sponsored by stella artois and it was hosted by the drink too.

1. The film came from a short comedy sketch which was made and then turned into a movie.
2. Filmed by british people, funded by british people, the actors are british, the film places are british and the storyline is british.
3. Ben Wheatley has directed other fins such as Kill List, Down Terrace and A Field in England.
4. Sightseers got shown on 10 cinemas and for 1-2 weeks in the US.Averagely scored 69 out of 100 based on 22 reviews. 
5. The British Independent Film Awards was where Sightseers was nominated for 7 awards and won the best screenplay in 2012.
6. At the box office Sightseers made $2,102,166.

"Cross media convergence and synergy are vital processes in the successful marketing of media products to audiences." To what extent do you agree with this statement in relation to your media area? 

Cross film convergence is when a film accidentally uses another media to promote their product. In this case it is a movie. This can be on many ways of media which can include Twitter. On Twitter, films would make there own account or the distributor would make an account which then they can produce tweets which would therefore be promoting their movie. They can link things to their adverts or other promotion strategies which can also get the movie out there. Another way would be Facebook, which you can also produce status' which can also promote the movie. Finally, another way is YouTube which is for adverts of the movie which can generate viewers and that will be promoting the video. 
There are many advantages for this as lots of people use social media accounts and anyone can view their tweets/status'. Also, users of the social media accounts can retweet or share other things which can be  good way of promoting movies as it will get the movie out there. Also, if the movie produces a trailer then the movie could use YouTube to promote it which would be a good way of marketing the film. The disadvantages would be that there can be fake accounts which can make people believe something about the movie which can give it bad press or potentially lose viewers.

Media essay

"Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon a good production practices."

To what extent would you agree with this statement, within the media area you have studied?


I am going to explain my opinions on whether films relies on there advertising methods/strategies or on there reviews from the critics. I will find an example of this for both so it can help back up my answer to this. Also, I will explain my views on this throughout this essay.

The film Transformers goes huge on the advertising for their films so it gets the public aware that they have a new film in there sequel coming out. This is a method that attracts potential viewers at the cinema as the more they see it advertised, the more they will be likely to see it and not forget about it. Some of the advertising strategies that Transformers use are; posters, trailers, adverts at the cinema and on the TV, they have a big premiere for the movie which boosts its popularity and many more. The film will have to make sure that they distribute the film to the right audience which in this case would be 'Mainstream' and this will have to be there target in their advertising campaign. Therefore, if the film tried to advertise it to a different audience then it would be a waste of time as they will not want to watch the film unlike the category 'Mainstream'.The film also is a blockbuster movie as it includes all of the 4 rules to becoming this. Number 1 is that the film must have a newsworthy budget which it certainly has as in its first movie it had a budget of $150 million. Also, it now in its last movie has a budget of $210 million which is phenomenal. Rule number 2 is that the film has spectacular visuals and if you have ever seen one of these films you will know that this has visuals that will blow your mind. Rule number 3 is that the film must not be a comedy and Transformers isn't one of them. Finally, rule number 4 is the film must include an 'A-list' star which this film definitely does. If this doesn't get there target audience speaking about the film then I don't know what will. The critic reviews for the Transformers reads As of October 2014, based on 176 reviews collected by the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Age of Extinction has received an overall rating average of 18%, with an average score of 3.8 out of 10. This rating is awful considering the amount of money spent on the film and that it is a blockbuster movie. The film made at the box office $318,759,914 which is a huge amount and it backs up the fact that if you advertise well to your target audience then you can make a lot of money and the viewers don't look for the critic reviews as if they did then I am sure that they would not go for this film with its poor ratings.

The second film is Dredd that I am going to look at. Dredd had a pretty poor advertising campaign which in my opinion goes by a well-known saying which is 'failing to prepare is preparing to fail'. They didn't get the film out there enough in my opinion for it to become a big hit which it wanted to do. They had to advertise their film to their target audience which would be 'Film Buffs' and they would try for some 'Mainstream' viewers to come and see the film. If Dredd would have done this with their advertising campaign then the films success may be a different story. The film Dredd didn't make it in to the category as it didn't meet the 4 rules, for one it had a budget of $45 million instead of the $100 million to be in the blockbuster criteria. The visuals are good but not spectacular, it hasn't got an 'A-list' star and the criteria it does fit it that it isn't a comedy. The budget is one of the reasons that advertising and marketing didn't take off I feel as they never had a newsworthy budget and couldn't afford all of the strategies of advertising the movie to its full potential. Also, unfortunately for Dredd a film called 'Raid' was released before in that calendar year which was very similar to the film Dredd which also stumped its potential of making more money at the box office. The film had average to good film ratings form critics who reviewed the film. It garnered a 78% approval rating from 146 critics, with an average rating of 6.5 out of 10, on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. CinemaScore polls are reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a 'B' on a scale of 'A+-F', these ratings are fairly good. The film made $41 million at the box office which is $4 million less than what the budget was meaning that the film made a loss at the box office which i believe was due to the advertising on the movie, Dredd.

In comparison of both of the two films that I have studied then I think that Transformers definitely had the biggest success which is pretty obvious. I think that the success is down to their advertising campaign as Transformers went big on their advertisement/marketing unlike Dredd who made a pretty poor attempt of advertising which was due to budget. Also, I think that the majority of viewers don't care about the critic reviews as you can tell because Transformers had a 3.8 out of 10 while Dredd had a 6.5 out of 10 which is a fair bit better and Transformers was so much more successful. Therefore, advertising/marketing is the main way to have success with the film and for making the most you possibly can at the box office which is the goal you are aiming for.

Overall, I agree with the statement that the a films success relies upon how well it is advertised to its target audience and how easy it is for that audience to access, rather than whether it is regarded by critics as a 'good' film.