Questions you need to consider in studying Vertigo:
Here are the seven bullet points from the Specification from which questions are drawn:
Candidates should be familiar with:
- the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
- the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing;
- the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange;
- the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;
- the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;
- the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions;
- the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.
Past examination questions for Institutions and Audiences have been:
To what extent is production, marketing and distribution important for an institution's success in the British marketplace?
How important is technological convergence for institutions and audiences within a media area which you studied?
To what extent have audiences influenced and affected an institution which you have studied?
So you need to consider what you need to find out about Vertigo Films to answer these questions.
You need to find out from the company website http://www.vertigofilms.com/:
1. When was the company started and what sort of media does it produce?
You need to study two more films in detail made by Vertigo: 'Monsters' (2010) http://www.monstersthemovie.com/monsters.html and this year's upcoming 'Monsters 2'.
You need to find out about the film 'Monsters':
1. When was it first shown and where, to whom?
2. Awards it won.
3. Reception - how much money did it make at the UK Box Office? In DVD sales? Elsewhere through distribution in the UK?
4. Any special features that made it a success in the UK and/or internationally?
5. Digital Innovation in Distribution: Summarise the campaign by the social networking website Foursquare (www.foursquare.com) to add a new, exciting element to the PR campaign for the first 'Monsters' film: http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/uk-film-council-digital-innovation-case-study-monsters.pdf
Now view the 'Monsters' interview on the BFI website: http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4fc75e2b97cd7
Read a review of the film from its premiere here: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/bfi-london-film-festival-review-monsters-dark-continent-the-sequel-to-gareth-edwards-sci-fi-breakout-20141017
More info on the cast and film: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/sequel-monsters-dark-continent-starts-filming-johnny-harris-joe-dempsie-starring-20130325
Key Facts:
'Monsters 2' premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2014 and was set for release in November, but was put back to 1st May 2015 to avoid too much competition from other films.
The first trailer was released in September 2014: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturevideo/filmvideo/cinema-trailers/11070648/Monsters-Dark-Continent-first-trailer-released.html
It's a film director debut for Tom Green, who directed the TV series 'Misfits'.
2014 has been hailed the most successful year ever for UK independent films, with great success for 'Paddington' - the most successful British film of 2014; 'Interstellar', 'The Theory of Everything' which won an Oscar for British actor Eddie Redmayne and 'The In-betweeners 2'.
Concepts: exchange (i.e. what does the consumer give and what do they get in return?). With the traditional Cinema model, the consumer pays their money for a ticket and receives the cinema experience in return. Now there are many more options, from DVDs to downloads, LoveFilm, Netflix, BFI Player, Amazon TV...
5. Digital Innovation in Distribution: Summarise the campaign by the social networking website Foursquare (www.foursquare.com) to add a new, exciting element to the PR campaign for the first 'Monsters' film: http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/uk-film-council-digital-innovation-case-study-monsters.pdf
Now view the 'Monsters' interview on the BFI website: http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4fc75e2b97cd7
Read a review of the film from its premiere here: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/bfi-london-film-festival-review-monsters-dark-continent-the-sequel-to-gareth-edwards-sci-fi-breakout-20141017
More info on the cast and film: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/sequel-monsters-dark-continent-starts-filming-johnny-harris-joe-dempsie-starring-20130325
Key Facts:
'Monsters 2' premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2014 and was set for release in November, but was put back to 1st May 2015 to avoid too much competition from other films.
The first trailer was released in September 2014: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturevideo/filmvideo/cinema-trailers/11070648/Monsters-Dark-Continent-first-trailer-released.html
It's a film director debut for Tom Green, who directed the TV series 'Misfits'.
Notes from The UK Cinema, Audiences and Institutions A Level Study Day, 11/2/2015
2014 has been hailed the most successful year ever for UK independent films, with great success for 'Paddington' - the most successful British film of 2014; 'Interstellar', 'The Theory of Everything' which won an Oscar for British actor Eddie Redmayne and 'The In-betweeners 2'.
Concepts: exchange (i.e. what does the consumer give and what do they get in return?). With the traditional Cinema model, the consumer pays their money for a ticket and receives the cinema experience in return. Now there are many more options, from DVDs to downloads, LoveFilm, Netflix, BFI Player, Amazon TV...
Uses and Gratifications Model - why people watch British films:
- Information/Education: how other people live, issues affecting the UK;
- Social Interaction: 'crowd pleasers' (social viewing), Oscar nominations (conversation point); e.g. 'The Inbetweeners' was released to coincide with exam results days.
- Personal Identification: national pride, solidarity, aspiration, glamourisation, reinforcing/rejecting values, e.g. Heritage Cinema (such as 'The King's Speech'), which often flourishes in times of instability. Also 'Fish Tank', 'Belle' (successful in the US)
- Pure Entertainment: spectacle, escapism, adrenaline (thriller/horror), catharisis (emotional intensity) - 'The Dark Knight', 'Star Wars', 'Interstellar', 'Bond' films, 'Harry Potter'.
- International audiences watch for similar reasons, but also because they are fascinated by historical/literary figures and contemporary celebrities such as Margaret Thatcher and the Royal family;
Targeting Audiences
For ease, we can divide cinemas into three types:
- 'Arthouse' - small, independent cinemas which show low budget, foreign and speciality films, such as the BFI cinema or the Picture House chain;
- 'Multiplex' - large, part of a chain, often in a shopping centre, showing mainly blockbusters and mainstream films;
- 'Crossover' - 'Prestige' cinema such as those films with Oscar or Bafta nominations, covering 'classier' or serious topics, non-Hollywood genre films, big actors in low-budget/eccentric productions, e.g. 'The Imitation Game', 'The Theory of Everything'.
British film sub-genres
These categories help us target audiences:
- Franchise e.g. Bond, Potter, Star Wars, Batman
- 'Heritage' - historical dramas, e.g. Pride and Prejudice, The King's Speech, Belle (featuring long shots of estates, pans across grounds, beautifully symmetrical shots, signifying order and calm lives, really loved by US audiences)
- Social Realism e.g. Kes, Fish Tank, Wasp, Ay Fond Kiss, This Is England,The Selfish Giant (some audiences like to be confronted with the darker side of life, moral ambiguity, underclass characters)
- Horror e.g. Hammer, Hellraiser, 28 Days Later, The Woman in Black
- 'Urban Fairytale' RomCom e.g. Love Actually, Bridget Jones' Diary, One Day
Case Study: Vertigo Films
Production
Vertigo was formed in 2002 to produce and distribute two films: The Football Factory and It's All Gone Pete Tong. These are two subculture movies, one about football hooliganism and the other about Ibiza rave DJs. One of its founders, Allan Niblo, had previously produced 'Human Traffic'. He states that Vertigo aims today to be a 'Commercially sustainable independent film company' which identifies new talent (actors, writers, directors) and ensure those films get distributed.
The 2010 film, Monsters, was a directorial debut for Gareth Edwards. It was a low budget film for a sci-fi ($500,000). It made £237,301 in the UK and $5,402,429 internationally - a great success. This was a springboard for Edwards' next move to the fim Godzilla, which had a massive £160 million budget.
How it was made: Sci-fi is popular with lots of people for its fantasy, escapism and big spectacles. This film saved money by using lots of improvisation, a very small crew, cheap location of Mexico, edited by Edwards on his laptop after each day's shoot. It was successful enough to create something of a franchise - Monsters 2 The Dark Continent is due to be released in May 2015.
Vertigo went on to build its own post-production 3D studio in Berlin.
Distribution and Exchange - Cross-media synergy
Vertigo makes much of its money from ancillary sales, such as DVDs, pay-per-view, TV. 'The Football Factory' is the biggest-selling British independent DVD ever. The company is very aware that it needs to keep up with the times and that film consumption is changing. For sales and distribution the company has a section called Protagonist in association with Channel 4. The company believes that 'the key to success is offering a range of product' and avoids limiting itself to 'prestige' films of genres and audiences.
Cross-media synergy is a big part of this. Vertigo has recently teamed up with the BBC and SyCo (Simon Cowell's production company) to develop film projects around Britain's Got Talent winners. So far this has spawned 'StreetDance3D (Giwa, Pasquini, 2010, the first British film to be made in 3D, with a budget of over £3M and grossing over $17.5M at the UK box office) and Pudsey (2013). Vertigo also has distribution and production deals with Channel 4.
Marketing
Those first two films were easy to market to a male demographic of football fans/rave fans; but their themes - gang violence, loyalty/betrayal, drugs, the cost of hedonism - are universal so easier to market to a wider audience.
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