Building sustainable film businesses: the challenges for industry
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Product placement
- Embedded branding
- Brand association
- Section 8.0 l How digital innovations are changing the film business world
- Section 8.0 l How digital innovations are changing the film business world 8.3
- Figure 6
Unlike broad studio release marketing, social media enables the independent producer to identify the demographic specifically. For example, the makers of the Academy Award-winning documentary Bill Cunningham New York identified 90 fashion bloggers or ‘influencers’ and reached out to them about the film. They watched the campaign spread virally after that. The UK theatrical campaign cost €24,000 compared with the average €122,000- €244,000 it costs to release a movie in Britain. The opportunity is for producers to target communities of people interested in what their film is about, and go after them precisely.
relationships with brands and the advertising world There are three levels of branding in the film world of use to independent producers trying to create sustainable film businesses:
Although product placement has long appeared in mainstream Hollywood movies, the relationship between brands and independent production is more problematic. Vans, the teen shoe brand, fully financed indie skateboarding move Lords of Dogtown (2005), putting up its entire $650,000 budget in exchange for 80% ownership of the film – and ensuring every character wore its shoes 15 . The problem with film from a brand’s point of view is that by the time a film is released, any product starts to look out of date. Film does not have the immediacy of television. Embedded branding A subtler use of branding is embedding the brand’s values in a film. For example, the entire thrust of the film Castaway (2000) is that Tom Hanks, who plays a Fed-Ex employee, must deliver his package despite being marooned on a desert island. One example of this kind of embedded branding in independent cinema was Shane Meadows’ Somers Town (2008), which was fully financed by Eurostar. Mother, the London-based advertising agency, approached Meadows to make a film celebrating the opening of the new St Pancras International train terminal. At no time is the Eurostar brand visible – although the film does culminate in a train ride to Paris. This softer use of branding, reflecting values often found in independent film – difference, defiance, unusual family groupings – would seem a more productive seam to mine than blatant product placement. Brand association Brands are also involved with cinema through sponsorship of allied events, promotions, premieres and festivals. Orange, the French telco, has become synonymous with cinema including through its sponsorship of the BAFTA awards, while champagne brand Moët & Chandon has struck a two-year sponsorship deal with the British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs). In both cases the brands are associating themselves with the glamour of the film industry. Providing a producer has the right kind of film to attract a corporate sponsor, it is not hard to imagine a brand sponsoring its premiere in the same way that Audi sponsored the US premiere of Iron Man (2008). In fact, evidence of brand associated funding of Studio films can be found worldwide by observing how McDonald’s have linked with a variety of Disney (and other) family films to promote Happy Meals. The commitment made by a production to permit this kind of association generates funding for both the production and distribution of a film. Section 8.0 l
film business world Building sustainable film businesses: the challenges for industry and government 32 15. Scmitt, Bernd H, Rogers David L, Vrotsos, Karen ‘There’s No Business That’s Not Show Business’, Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2004. Section 8.0 l
film business world 8.3 Evolving patterns in windows, formats and other forms of ‘distribution’ Cinemas are being squeezed by distributors giving them increasingly less time to show films exclusively. Six years ago the theatrical ‘window’ was shortened from six months to four months. Since then Hollywood studios have pressured exhibitors into accepting ever-shorter theatrical windows as they rush to recoup their investment in as short a time as possible from DVD sales, pay-per-view and other formats and outlets. Things came to a head in February 2010 when three UK exhibition chains refused to screen Alice In Wonderland after Disney announced it was releasing the film on DVD 12 weeks after the theatrical opening, rather than the industry standard of 17 weeks. While the typical four-month window is appropriate for Hollywood-style blockbusters, it is less so for smaller, independent films with a more limited P&A budget. There have been steps made towards innovation in this area – including for example the North American VOD release of Gareth Edwards’ Monsters (2010) one month before its US theatrical release. Windows experimentation is more relevant for low budget films because their box office visibility is generally lower and their theatrical runs are generally shorter. For example, Dogwoof, the UK documentary distributor, released the Academy Award-winning documentary Bill Cunningham New York on DVD just one month after its theatrical release to capitalise on publicity. For independent producers, the shorter the window between theatrical and other platforms the better: consumers can be alerted to the film’s availability on other platforms, capitalising on the theatrical release campaign and improving cash flow, while removing the need for a separate DVD marketing campaign.
Distribution windows (months after theatrical) Theatrical DTO Digital rental SVoD Physical retail/rental PPV/VoD PayTV Free TV Post- theatrical VoD Subscription Free 4.5 4.5 3 (7.5) 4.5 (12) 12-15 (24-27) 1.5 (6) 6 (12) 15 (27) US time line UK time line Source: Screen Digest Building sustainable film businesses: the challenges for industry and government 33
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