Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Distribution and Exhibition


- Distribution and Exhibition 

In this blog I have carried out research on the blockbuster film 'Star Wars' looking at distribution and marketing, I have been asked to research various methods of distribution and marketing, I will be discussing; the intended primary and secondary target audience , Box office revenue, Trailers and their importance, Social media impact, Posters and their effectiveness, merchandise and press junket  such as interviews and premieres.

As well as being a historically stunning and visually engaging film for centuries, in terms of special effects,  Star wars has been massively influential on Hollywood films, as before the 1950s it was not commonly used in films and Star wars made its breakthrough from this , nowadays the majority of  Hollywood films are appreciative of special effects. So, in a way Star wars are perhaps the pioneers i would say and has from the beginning been effective in distribution in their film , distributing a new scope of ideas about film. This shows that they have been successful in promoting their film because people who watch their films will be entertained by the amazing screen manipulation, this is good because it means that as there was not much of it in those days, people see it as something new and different and so would more likely be urged to go and watch it, in film more audience = more money, its that simple.

I reckon the primary audience for star wars would be males aged 11-38 years. This is because star wars is predominately a sic-fi / action based film franchise which makes it enjoyable for eleven year olds to watch as they will enjoy all of the light sabers and gadgets they'll see in the film. These things are all exciting and entertaining for young children and so will make them urge their parents to let them go to the cinema and watch it, also it offers escapism for young children, as they would escape from their normal lives into a world where there are storm troopers and light sabers with all the cool sounds that young children like to hear. With the more older viewers ranging from 20 years and older, who will not have their mouths drooling over light sabers, will enjoy the films as they could identify perhaps with the characters, for instance some of the costumes worn in Star wars are amazingly stylized. Some people who enjoy dressing up as a hobby or dress eccentrically for fun, therefore they will enjoy wearing costumes and props to comic-cons and special events.

Star wars hasn't reached blockbuster and won more than a dozen film awards for no reason. This means that the successful promotion of the film through distribution and marketing has been really effective in box office charts. All of the star wars films have been a success in the Box office, and the gross , this is evident from the table to the right where there is a list of the Star wars franchise history of hits. The table shows that 1999's The Phantom Menace was the biggest hit for worldwide Box office revenue. However, the most recent film produced 'The Force Awakens' has had no updates yet as it hasn't yet been distributed, but will on the 18th of this month. This is beneficial for an audience because after they see these figures, the first thing they'd want to do is go and pay to watch one of these films to see whether it was worth all that money, or whether the film is of a good enough standard for it to cost that great amount of money. Also, it will explain to them why the box office hits were so great.

This newspaper headline displays the effectiveness of the distribution on the Star Wars films. The headline reads "It's Empire day Today" referring to one Star wars' many premieres, this article can be considered  a distributing source in itself, newspapers are part of the media , and the public have complete access to it, which promotes the Star wars film. In the article there is also a mention of royal attendance at the premiere which again brings more audience members together. Those who are fans of the royal family and those who are fans of Star Wars, will watch the film as a result of the success they see.


This is the Toys'R'us advert , for Star Wars commercials. One of the most successful promotions come from retail shops , especially ones like this retailer who sell toys for children. They promote the film through advertising it on their TV advertisements and when children see this they prod their parents to buy it for them. Ironically the Star Wars film was released not long before Christmas, which makes it a bonus for Disney because not only will people be reasoned to buy it even more, but this season comes with bargains and deals, so people are more likely to buy it now. I would say that a young audience who watch this advert and see that the girl was only happy when she got her hands on a light saber will want to copy her to feel the same feeling. Another way of looking at this, is from an older audiences point of view, for instance the father figure we see in the advert shows us how proud he is when he saw that he made her happy. Fathers watching this will want their children to experience the same thing and them being 'media literate' will regurgitate what they've learnt from this ad and waste no time in buying Star Wars merchandise. Finally, something which i have noticed, is that the advert is called 'Like Father Like Daughter' which of course isn't the original say or the correct one.Could this advert be an attempt to widen Star Wars' audience members, from just boys who like fighting with sabers to girls also? I think the answer to that is yes. This therefore shows good marketing of the film, and at the same time an advantage to welcome other groups of people into enjoying the film.

Star Wars webpage- Where fans can buy films after watching a trailer 
Websites can also be an effective way to draw an audience to a film. It is a way of distributing the film. The screen grab above shows you what the Star Wars website looks like, there are icons at the top which include; videos , events, games + apps and community (forum). This helps the consumer get as much information about the film by for instance , going into a forum and seeing what others have said about the film. Websites also help to distribute because there are links to social media such as, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where users can share their experience of the website and what they saw to millions of other people. This way helps to get the word across to a wide board of people. Also, as generically mostly fans of the film are expected to visit the website, by sharing it on social media they're letting people who have probably never seen the film to consider it.


*SPOILER FREE PREMIERE*
The world premiere of the newly released Star Wars film , 'The Force Awakens', is a good example of how the exhibition of the film is important if you want to gain more audience members. the premiere holds many things that relate to the film. One of which was the charity that Star Wars has teamed up with Unicef as well as helped funding. The charity is called 'Force for change' which is a program for getting children active , which helps them unlock nutritional packs hat are sent to children in their world countries. I think this is a good way of exhibiting the film, through showing people that Star Wars are generous and innovative , people watching this will straight away feel the need to help or contribute because they're amazed by what Star Wars is getting involved with. In turn this helps the distribution of.

As well as this trailers can also be very effective for distribution of the film. In fact I reckon it is the best way of distributing a film, this is because trailers show you the whole film, in around two minutes, starting from the beginning then the middle (arc) then the end, it sums up the entire narrative which can help an audience decide on whether they want to watch the film or not. 


Another way a film could be distributed or to an extent even exhibited is through interviews or press junket. Often the cast of a film will appear on talk shows to talk about their new film, which alllows for the viewers to know and hear about the film if they haven't already. Recently Harrison Ford who stars in the blockbuster Star Wars, we see Ford being interviewed by Johnathan Ross on his show, asking him questions about the film and even playing a game with him. This is beneficial for an audience watching because they can talk about the interview on social media and the word of the new film can spread which is another way of distributing the film. The producers of the film will also benefit massively as they will be gaining more people who would want to watch the film, and therefore potentially more profit and revenue. This is aside the merchandise and other products the Star Wars put on offer, which people will also want to buy.
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