The Life of a Film

RESEARCH TASK

Vertigo
About Vertigo
Vertigo is a UK Media company, founded in 2002 to create and distribute commercially driven independent cinema. Vertigo also owns The Post Republic, a state of the art post production company located in Berlin and is a partner in Protagonist Pictures, the international sales company joint venture with Film Four and Ingenious Media. Earlier this year, with LA based 3D experts Paradise FX, Vertigo made PFXE, Europe's most knowledgeable 3D facilities company.

Films
2010 Europes first 3D live action movie, STREETDANCE 3D. It entered UK box office charts at Number one. Vertigos co-production movie, AJAMI was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film and MONSTERS received a variety of awards, some of which were three British independent film awards. 2011 Vertigo produced and released HORRID HENRY, which was a box office hit taking 6.5million. Vertigo also worked with Hammer films in producing WAKEWOOD, which became one of the best horror films in years.

Vertigo
MONSTERS
The film it supposed to be about Monsters but you cant see any in the marketing materials. Therefore, the marketing doesnt give a clear view to the audience on what the film will entail.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/features/monsters_gareth_edw Cast interview with Gareth Edwards talking about his low budget film, which went on to win awards at the British Independent Film Awards
Science fiction road movie In the weeks leading up to the UK release date of 3 December 2010, a marketing campaign using social network Foursquare was released. VUE Entertainment and Cineworld Cinemas set up 'infected locations, giving users availability to exclusive Monsters content and the chance to win random on-thespot prizes

The fact that Gareth Edwards had a limited crew and budget for his film explains why the marketing materials are not as successful and wider ranged compared to Warner Bros. who sometimes have billion dollar budgets in major films

MONSTERS
PRODUCTION The film cost $500k to produce it was seen as a game changer in low budget films because of its use of CGI Vertigo funded the film because it fitted into their ethos for making low budget genre films Unlike most Hollywood productions, Gareth Edwards took the told of the writer, director and the cameraman The leads of the film were relatively unknown actors and the rest were all locals who played themselves in small towns across south America where they filmed No sets were made as real locations were used (filmed guerrilla style), no script was required so it was improvised and no props were used The cheapest professional digital cameras were used and an adapter was attatched to the SONY EX3 to change the depth of the field They had 104 hours footage to edit and it took 8 months to do so. It was edited on 2 laptops using Adobe software, ZBrush and Autodesk 4ds Max and special effects were bought online The equipment for filming cost around $15k

MONSTERS
MARKETING Edwards was interviews on Internet radio and TV shows to promote the film as there were no real stars in the film. Therefore, the filmmaker who created the film became the films talking point on online forums Vertigo used traditional marketing in Newspapers as well as free preview screenings offered in broadsheets to create favourable word of mouth reviews A marketing campaign using social network Foursquare was announced in the weeks leading up to the UK release date (3 December 2010). Cineworld Cinemas and Vue Entertainment set up infected locations also, which allowed access for users to exclusive Monsters content and the chance to win random on-the-spot prizes Vertigo used Hollywoods success in using online viral campaigns to reach a wider audience and set up their own Monsters website to market and promote the film. They also advertised on specialist film websites where they knew a niche audience would look, such as Spotify

MONSTERS
Distribution and Exhibition Vertigo engineered a platform release in Britain Monsters was nominated for six British Independent Film Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, and eventually won the Best Director, Best Technical Achievement, and Best Achievement in Production awards. At the 2011 BAFTAs, Monsters was nominated for Outstanding Debut by a British Director, but evidently lost to Four Lions. It won Best Independent Movie at the 2011 Scream Awards, and was nominated for Best Science Fiction Movie but it lost to Super 8. Opening weekend: $20,508 (USA) (31 October 2010) (3 Screens) 348,577 (UK) (5 December 2010) (164 Screens) As the film received film awards, you can consider it as a success at the box office and therefore, with the audience. The film had a limited release in America making $237k, appearing in less than 20 screens altogether The film premiered on Demand and on Xbox Live, Play station, Vudu and Amazon on September 24th before receiving a limited theatrical run on October 29th in the US

Warner Bros.
About Warner Bros.
It is a subsidiary of Time Warner and was founded in 1918 as Warner Bros. Studios and in 1923 as Warner Bros. Pictures, Incorporated. However, as late as the 1960s, Warner Bros. claimed 1905 as its founding date. Warner Bros. is a fully integrated, broad-based entertainment company and a global leader in the creation, production, distribution, licensing and marketing of all forms of entertainment and their related businesses. The companies library contains more than 6,650 feature films, 50,000 television titles and 14,000 animated titles, as well as over 1,500 classic animated shorts. The Media conglomerato, Time Warner owns Warner Bros. as well as DC Comics, NME, Radio Times, Time Magazines and AOL.

Films
The company produces and distributes a wide-ranging line up of some 18-22 films each year, employing a business pattern that minimizes risk while maximizing productivity and capital. Warner Bros. Pictures either fully finances or co-finances the films it makes and keeps worldwide distribution rights. It also creates its distribution and marketing operations by distributing films that are completely financed and produced by third-parties. The Studios 2011 line up includes Sucker Punch, The Hangover Part II, Green Lantern, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Happy Feet 2 and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. New Line Cinema, which has been part of Warner Bros. Entertainment since 2008, relates its development, production, marketing, distribution and business affairs activities with Warner Bros. Pictures to increase film performance. Features of New Lines 2011 release records, distributed by Warner Bros., include Horrible Bosses, Final Destination 5, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas and New Years Eve.

The Dark Knight

Directed by Christopher Nolan Production and budget There Unique Selling Point (USP) was that it was the first time ever that a major feature film has been even partially shot using IMAX camera It was based on the DC Comics character, Batman and therefore, its part of Nolans Batman film series (sequel to 2005s Batman Begins) Compared to Monsters, where it took 6 weeks to film, the filming took 7 months It had a great success in the box office, setting the record for the highest-grossing weekend opening in the US with over $158 million and becoming the 6th highest grossing film of all time CGI was used on Twoface with three 720-pixel HD cameras set up at different angles on set to fully capture the performance in Monsters, only one digital camera was used

The success of a film like The Dark Knight will influence sales of related games and comics. The game Batman: Arkham Asylum By Rocky Steady Games was the biggest selling game of the year.

The Dark Knight

Marketing After Heath Ledgers death on January 22nd 2008, Warner Bros changed it promotional focus on the Joker, adjusting some of its websites devoted to promoting the film and posting a memorial tribute to Ledger on the memorial ribbon on the photo collage of Whysoserious.com the publicity surrounding the death of Heath Ledger also marketed the film Warner Bros released prints, adverts, trailers and interviews Viral marketing and ARG were also used to market the film, which included: Internet based reviews, leaked publicity and stills on the net and different reality games designed to attract younger viewers into the cinema

Examples of Marketing On May 15th, 2008 The Dark Knight roller coaster was opened, which cost $7.5million to make it simulates being stalked by the Joker Mattel made games and toys, action figures, etc. which began commercial distribution in June 2008 Cross-market convergence was also used when Warner produced toys in conjunction with Lego 42 Entertainment launched Whysoserious.com, which sent fans on a scavenger hunt to unlock a teaser trailer and a new photo of the joker The film also marketed heavily off word of mouth from the thousands of Batman fans perhaps supported by Astroturfing

The Dark Knight

Distribution and Exhibition For Warner Bros, the distribution process allows them to frontload their films in the maximum amount of cinemas due to the demand after the successful marketing campaign, Heath Ledgers death, pre-sold elements and the films mass target audience Anti-piracy strategy made, which involved tracking people who had a pre-release copy of the film at any one time The Dark Knight was distributed to 4,366 cinemas in the US and Canada This number also included 94 IMAX cinemas, with the film estimated to be played on 9,200 screens in the US and Canada all IMAX cinemas showing the film were sold out for the opening weekend Ticketing services online also sold enormous numbers of tickets for show times that arent so popular on the opening day The film grossed $67,165,092 on its opening day Warner Bros re-released the film in traditional cinemas and IMAX cinemas in the US on January 23rd, 2009 at the height of the voting for the Academy Awards, in the hope to further the chances of the film winning Oscars

The Dark Knight

Exhibition 11,191,824 was grossed in the UK on the opening weekend Box office in the USA earned $533,316,061 it was at the multiplexes for 10 weeks In the UK, it was at the multiplexes for 9 weeks at grossed 48,685,166 in total at the box office The Worldwide gross at the box office was $1,001,921,825