Our Marketing Plan - Individual

Marketing Strategies
What is a screening?
A screening is described as a displaying of a movie/motion picture.

Definitions

Stills and Postcards
Stills/postcards should be a striking, high resolution still image in bith portrait and landscape forms. This postcard will be a small poster which will be the main image that will publicise the film. To add to this, an image with text about the film could be around it, as well as shots from filming and the actors. These pictures and images, can then be passed out at festivals and even e-mailed to the press. If the movie has a website, it should be on there and possibly to download.

For the image to be more attractive, to make more people look at it, the image should be as striking and colourful as possible. As it will make it more likelier to appear in festival catalogues. This memorable image will be more likely to stick into peoples minds and make the film more memorable.
The most effective shots are usually close up headshots. If the poster is likely to offend anyone or be controversial, people will not want it in magazines or festival catalogues.

Tapes/DVD
For extra security there should definitely be more than one copy of the film. To enable any recipients of your film to watch it, a variety of formats should be used. E.g. QuickTime, DigiBeta, Beta SP, MiniDv and so on. Otherwise if the film is delivered and people are unable to view it, it is doubtful that they will contact you to tell you it is not working. Therefore it will go unwatched.


On the DVD it should be well labelled with:
Title
Length
Contact details
Aspect ratio e.g. 16:9 or 4:3

When labelling the dvd , it is better to use a marker pen than a sticker as stickers can sometimes interfere and make the DVD not work.
If the film is shown on a website online, the URL of the site could be placed on the back of the postcard, which is then handed out at film festivals.

Showreel
A Showreel is a approximately two minutes long edited montage of the film.

Film Prints
Many distributors prefer to have access to a 35mm print master, as this is referred as the easiest to format. The format that is generally asked for is NTSC rather than PAL.

Press Kit
A press kit should contain:
Film title inc Directors name
Cast and Crew list (everybody should be credited)
Length of the film
Year film was produced
Original Format
Country of origin
Synopsis
Logline
Funding and production details
Useful URLS
Copyright Details
Producer/Director contact details


Trailers and Clips
A trailer should be around a 30 second cut from the film which can be used to promote the movie online. This can be through social networking or the films actual website.

Websites
Creating a website is a very useful technique in creating films. All films now generally have websites, with teasers and posters. The website can be advertised in attracting potential viewers. If blogging is used, it can be an excellent way of gaining feedback about the movie. As well as acting as an online portfolio of the work that has been put together.
On the website, all cast and crew info should be found as well as stills from the movie.

Individual Marketing Strategy

Stills and Postcards
Stills from the movie itself, will be used to distribute the film, as well as the making of. This will give consumers an inside look at how the film was made. However before this, the postcard sized posters will be released. The postcards will have the URL of the video’s website in the space in which the address is usually put. This can then be cheaply handed out at film festivals and among peers to help spread the message of the film. To keep suspense, the URL will only lead to the trailer rather than the whole film.

Tapes and DVD’s
A standard DVD will be e-mailed to festivals, as e-mailing in different formats could possibly be risky, though creating DVD’s may be costly, In this case, the URL of the video or trailer could be e-mailed, which will cut costs significantly.

Showreel
The Showreel appears to be an interesting idea. A montage of images from the film would be entertaining. As the film itself is a drama, stills from filming, when actors are enjoying themselves and cast and crew are laughing, could help spread a more positive side to the film. To show even though the film conveys an important message, it was an enjoyable experience to make.

Press Kit
The Press Kit will contain all the information needed to be sent along with the DVD. As a simple spreadsheet of data will be dull, a more interesting way could be used as a format; Perhaps small postcards with information, with an image on one side and the info on the other.

Trailers and Clips
Trailers and Clips will be created to put on the website as a way of publicising the film so that people want to see more.

Websites
Two websites will be created for the film. On the first website will be exclusive official trailers, clips and stills from the movie to publicise its release. The second website will be a social networking site page on FaceBook. Which people will be able to join to find teasers and upcoming release dates.

Film Festivals

East is East Distribution

East is East is a based upon a proud Pakistani chip shop owner married to a white woman and having seven children, enforcing his strict religious rules upon them. However living in England has made them more and more British than he will allow. East is East was originally shown in theatres in 1996 in Birmingham then went to big screen and released into the cinemas after previews, Friday 5th November in 1999 on just 79 screens. It was only after three weeks that the film actually went wide and showed onto 246 screens. East is East then slowly staggered onto more screens (253-280).Directed by Damien O’Donnel. The reason for East is East’s staggered release is due to its lack of commercial potential, earning more and more for its first five weeks, which is rare as in most common cases films will do their best in the first three days. However, due to East is East’s positive word of mouth, more and more consumers went to see it, which would have made it a sleeper hit, as it wasn’t expected to do well. Otherwise it would have been shown on 400 screens alike every other movie premier.

The story was written by Ayub Khan-Din who gained his story ideas from his own family stating in an interview “the parents are drawn directly from my own family” He then goes on to explain the youngest child is based upon himself and many of the ideas and arguments are from childhood memories. Having the story almost auto-biographic would have made it seem all the more realistic as Khan-Din is able to relate to his own experiences – something he will know better than anybody else. This shows that his story was clear from the start.

East is East was distributed from Assassin films gaining most of its finance from FilmFour whose clever distribution and reputation was able to get East is East into cinemas. The film was considered a low budget comedy having a 1.9 million budget, then taking in over 10 million and a further £12,300,000 in rentals, Therefore, showing the power of British comedy. East is East had both positive and negative responses; from receiving a BAFTA to being banned in Egypt. East is East also showed in America with Miramax as their distributor whom made an obscured poster which showed a blonde white female with Asian characters seen in windows above her face.

East is East PR objective was: “To position “East is East” in the media and in the public domain as a must-see, hugely successful, critically praised, hip, British comedy for all and everyone to enjoy” East is East was successful not only due to its comedy factor, it appealed to a range of cultures as it emphasised the universality of family problems with a risqué twist. This was sure to be a hit with young adults as well as teenagers. East is East advertised in several magazines which aimed at; Teens, Women, Men, Film enthusiasts, Music magazines and student press, which would have targeted everybody with perhaps the exception of older generations. However the advertising on Radio and television would have caught a majority of peoples attention, which would have targeted every age group. As the theme of the story is family, East is East was targeted at every generation as each generation has a character to relate to. As well as each ethnicity due to its multi-cultural themes.

In conclusion, East is East was originally expected to be an average British film based on a multi-cultured family in the 70’s. However with excellent word of mouth it was able to be just as successful in terms of profit as Fight Club which had a budget of over 63 million, released the following week. Though Fight Club had higher revenue by millions, it also had a budget and cast East is East would never have been able to use. Nevertheless despite having The Blair Witch Project, The Sixth Sense and Fight Club released at similar times didn’t stop East is East being more successful than imaginable. Though the distribution was quite average; magazines and television, it had no unique ideas (e.g. Blair Witches internet viral campaign) which would have helped push it to the top therefore showing it was the story itself that sold the movie. As the actors were not particularly well known, which was a selling point for The Sixth Sense and Fight Club (having Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt) East is East had to work with unknown actors. Had East is East had a higher budget and better known actors it is possible to say it may have done better however as it was a English comedy originating from the theatre perhaps it would have done no better had any more money be put into it.