Online Marketing: Kill Your Darlings

Source: The Metro online article.
Audience: Young adults and commuters.
Strategy: Using the 'shock factor' that is the gay sex scene within the movie to attract attention and intrigue.


Source: British film blog article.
Audience: Film lovers
Strategy: Using Daniel Radcliffe's star power to gain interest and attention.


Source: The Daily Telegraph online.
Audience:British, middle-class, educated adults.
Strategy: Using Venice film festival and a review to inform the readers.

Online Marketing: The Hobbit

Source: The Metro online.
Audience: Young adults and commuters.
Strategy: Using Ed Sheeran to promote the film and the soundtrack.


Source: The Mirror online.
Audience: Working class adults, mainly male.
Strategy: Promoting the trailer.


Source: Feature article from The Empire magazine.
Audience: British film fans.
Strategy: Feature article to promote and inform on the movie.

Kill Your Darlings

UK release date:
6th December 2013

Institutions behind the film's production and distribution: 
-Production:
Killer Films
Benaroya Pictures
Outpost Studios

-Distribution:
Future Films (2013) (Finland) (theatrical)
Lumiere (2013) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
Sony Pictures Classics (2013) (USA) (theatrical)
Sony Pictures Releasing (2013) (Australia) (theatrical) 
The Works UK  Distribution (2013) (UK) (theatrical)
Paris Filmes (2014) (Brazil) (all media)

Film production budget:
N/A

Nationality of the film:
American.

Kind of production:
Low budget Indie film.

Connections with other films:
None.

Director:
John Krokidas.

Star cast:
Daniel Radcliffe - as Allen Gineberg
Jack Huston - as Jack Kerouac
Ben Foster - as William Burroughs
Dane Dehaan - as Lucien Carr
Michael C. Hall - as David Kammerer

Plot:
Set in 1944, a murder draws together the great poets of the Beat Generation; Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.

Target audience:
Fans of Daniel Radcliff and fans of drama, biographies, romance and thrillers.

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

UK release date:
13th December 2013

Institutions behind the film's production and distribution: 
-Production:
New Line Cinema,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM),
Wingnut.

-Distribution:
Warner Bros. - Worldwide:
-Warner Bros. Entertainment (2013) (Canada) (theatrical)
-Warner Bros. (2013) (Germany) (theatrical)
-Warner Bros. (2014) (Japan) (theatrical)
-Warner Bros. (2013) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
-Warner Bros. (2013) (Singapore) (theatrical)
-Warner Bros. (2013) (USA) (theatrical)
Cocinsa (2013) (Nicaragua) (theatrical)
Forum Hungary (2013) (Hungary) (theatrical)

Film production budget:
$250,000,000 by MGM and New Line Cinema.

Nationality of the film:
American.

Kind of production:
Big budget Hollywood blockbuster.

Connections with other films:
'The Hobbit: An unexpected journey' was the first of the franchise.

Director:
Peter Jackson.

Star cast:
Benedict Cumberbatch - as Smaug/The Necromancer
Martin Freeman - as Bilbo Baggins
Ian McKellen - as Gandalf
Christopher Lee - as Saruman
Andy Serkis - as Gollum
Orlando Bloom - as Legolas
Cate Blanchett - as Galadriel
Stephen Fry - as the Master of Laketown
Richard Armitage - as Thorin Oakenshield

Plot:
It is the continuation of the adventure of 'The Hobbit: An unexpected journey' as they begin on a quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, with the many fantastical creautres that they come across and also the ring which comes into Biolbo's possession. They must defeat the dragon Smaug. 

Target audience:
Followers of the first film, later trilogy (The Lord of the Rings) and the books will enjoy this film, but also those, of all ages, who love fantasy and adventure.

Interesting things I learnt from Marcus Markou

• Acting: That he has always had a passion for acting, and studied acting at LAMDA in his late 20s.

 -  This knowledge and deep understanding of acting allowed for a brilliant quality of acting, he knew how to make the comfortable and the acting was almost theatre style. Also, he allowed the actors to adopt the script with what they feel was right and realistic for their character.

• Trust: He talked of the deep trust he had to have and did have within his whole film crew - especially during adaptations of the script, he trusted them ll to 'juggle this process'

• Funding: He wanted a straight loan, from himself, no investors, which is very rare fr a film to be paid solely with their own money.

• Line Producer: This is someone who goes through the whole script, line by line, and works out the exact budget.

• Variables: Marcus said that the two most variable things in the budget are talent and location.

• Tax schemes: Tax schemes to offset tax in profits - this system does not work for independent films, as independent films must make a profit.

• Universal appeal: Marcus said that he used the idea of a Fairy-tale of sorts, as it gathers universal appeal.

• Sales Agents: You only get 40% of profit, after costs, which, for an independent film, would mean no profit. Also, he didn't want to sell the rights for his film for 25 years - he wanted it to stay his own. So, he did this task himself, contacting Distributors and screening it, but had no luck in the UK.

• Film festivals: Film markets and festivals are a great way to get Distributors, as with many films, and for example the award-winning and box-office hit Slumdog Millionaire, as many are not wanted until they receive recognition from these film festivals.

• Marcus's own marketing campaign: Marcus said that he wanted to, naturally, target the Greeks in London, and so set out personally calling up Greek Orthodox Churches, at Universities, to societies, with flyers   and social media and raising awareness in any way possible.

• Cinema booker: Marcus struggles with his booker for Cineworld to try and be booked into their prime locations, acquiring one through a friend who lived with the manager, which they eventually had to put to the largest screen, as it was so over-booked.

Papadopoulos & Sons Research

Marketing:

• Posters,
• A trailer on YouTube,
• A website set up by Marcus himself,
• Social media helped; Twitter, Facebook and other things.
• The film was also taken to various film festivals around the world, which raised awareness and its popularity.
• After the film won an award at a festival it began to flourish.

Distribution:

• Double M Films, Marcus's own company, independently released the film.

Papadopoulos & Sons - Research

Papadopoulos & Sons: initial research:

• A British film of 2012.
• Written and produced by Marcus Markou. 
• The cast include Stephen Dillane, George Corraface, Georgia Groome and Frank Dillane.
•  It takes place in London,  and tells the story of a self-made millionaire who looses most of his money during the latest banking crisis. this forces him to reunite with his older brother, and to embark on the adventure, as a whole family, of opening the old fish and chips shop him and his brother opened in their youth. It shows the journey of a materialistic man, who comes to realize what really matters in life. 

Sweded Homework

Sweded is the term used when a popular and often renound film is recreated, often as a spoof, with a low budget and a camcorder. It originated from the Michel Gondry film 'BE KIND REWIND' where the characters accidentally earase the movies at Mos Def movie rental store. They then remake the movie themselves, with a low budget and a camcorder, which then became more popular with their customers. The pair tell the customers that themovies took longer and costed more because they came from Sweden, which is where the term 'Sweded' first appeared. My idea for our sweded film is Haryy Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Here are a couple of my favourite sweded films.

Accident Video

We used a close shot of the football, with Mahalias feet stepping beside the football to open in an intriguing way. We then went on to use a master shot which pans across, establishing the whole scene and the relationships between the characters. This shot is extremely important, especially with our space being so broad in this video. Therefore there was clear continuity and this shot helps all the other shots with continuity, as that shot clarified everything about this video, i.e, Mahalia (left) is about to try and shoot a goal gaurded by a very scared Josh.
We then used a 'old west' style of juxtaposition of a close-up of each characters face, with their eyes being the main focus. The cross-cutting also emphasized the contrast in characters, and again it was continuous to the previous shot; Mahalia looking determined and Josh looking frightened.
We then used cross-cutting once more, to go from Mahalia kicking the ball, to it hitting Josh on the head. We used this not only because we weren't sure of the reality of getting a shot of the ball actually hitting Josh, but also because we wanted a clear mid-shot of his reaction, to add to the comical effect. We in fact had to take extra care with the shot, so that it was in Josh's general direction, making it believable that it could have hit him in the head.

In hindsight, we could have perhaps had our master shot in the beginning of our video, to establish everything from the start. We also should have been more careful with noises; throughout the video you can hear noises form a distant football match that was going on, which was useful and added a positive, authentic effect, although perhaps we should be careful to make sure all of the noises have continuity, and don't make the video look discontinuous, by suddenly skipping to a different noise, although I don't think that was a major problem. The noise at the end of someone speaking is in the future I would be more careful bout, luckily, it could seem fitting in this case, however next time, if there is noise, I would make sure it's relevant to the video and doesn't take away form it's continuity.