Film Marketing & Promotion

-Infidelity

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 show times.-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 an extremely large budget 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 independent film which used the internet to advertise their film, was Richard Jobson’s ‘New Town Killer’ (2009). They created a Facebook page which they knew would appeal to their target audience.

The tagline ‘They lost half a million at cards but they’ve still got a few tricks up their sleeve’ again introduces the crime genre and hints towards the narrative.

The colours used in this poster make the images look stylised, in fitting with the conventions used throughout the film which help to create the post modern feel.

The poster gives the information of the four main characters (in the pictures) as well as the credits below the main image. The main image is central in the poster, this is because the major attraction to the film was the narrative, not the actors or the director.

The font used for the film title is the same as used in the trailer and film cover. By keeping the same font over the different medias helps the audience to remember the film, and associate the titles to the film when they’re seen.

Images of the four main characters give us information of the narrative. The four men are holding money, a gun and cards, suggesting to the audience immediately that the genre of the film is crime.

I like the idea of having a stylised image, as our film is also a post modern look at crime genre.

The block yellow background is very striking, we may use a similar idea for our film poster- and use a plain image on a plain bold background.

The title is the main focus point in this film, and under the titles, information of the director Tarantino is important to the marketing of this film. Although the poster is fairly bare, it is very striking.

The bright yellow colour of Thurman’s suit has been used again in keeping with the trailer. This also introduces the audience to another postmodern element that Tarantino has used, of using Bruce Lee’s signature yellow jumpsuit.

The fonts are bold and simple, to keep inline with the rest of the poster and the font used in the film trailer.

Although the tagline ‘Go for the kill’ is short and doesn’t give much information or detail of the narrative it is obvious that there will be murders and death as a major narrative structure.

The image of Uma Thurman as leading role is very important, central, and again simple without background imagery at all. The fact that she is holding a sword tells the audience that it wont be a standard gun action film, introducing is to the postmodern elements of the film.

‘Every dog has his day’ again doesn’t give much information towards the narrative at all, but does suggest that the ‘dogs’ will have ‘their day’, essentially suggesting they will die.

The poster is very bare, with little information. Having Tarantino’s name on the poster as the only real information about the film shows the trust in his name.

The black fonts with the white background matches the black and white colours of the men’s suits. The red blood smear at the top of the poster hints towards the violent narrative.

The very simple look of this poster appeals to me, so I may take some ideas for ours but I will ass more information on producers etc…

The image of the four men suggests the crime narrative, as suits are often associated with higher ranking gangsters.

The fonts are basic, much like Tarantino’s other films. However this is beneficial, as it keeps the poster from becoming too busy and so distracting from the imagery.