This blog explores US influence (financial + cultural), Anglocentric (ie, primarily English) representations, digitisation, ownership, industry developments, audience, media theories, tracking key news + events, with Film/Media A-Level/undergrad students + educators in mind. Examples often include Sheffield's Warp (Indie) and London/LA-based Working Title (NBC-Universal subsidiary), ie This is England/Four Lions v Bridget Jones/Green Zone! Please acknowledge the source/blog author: Mr D Burrowes
Look out for earlier posts here or the DBHorror blog on Brigid Cherry's study of UGC in film, specifically how fans have massively extended the official texts of the Scream franchise with fan-fiction, fan-art and more - and she was writing a few years ago now; continuing convergence has enhanced the scope for doing this.
Indeed, the focus of this article (hyperlink below) is on unofficial UGC, fan-made games - including the Friday the 13th example that the franchise producer liked so much that he made it into the officially licensed game! We've also seen browser-based Flash games, like Shaun of the Dead Pacman (actually created by film producer Working Title, unusually, NOT the distributor StudioCanal/Universal), used as smart marketing strategies - showing that convergence is long established within film distribution and marketing.
If producing film coursework yourself, mock up a game cover or screenshot - a neat way of showing audience engagement. If producing a full (whether short or feature) film could you go the extra mile and produce an actual game? It's not THAT difficult or expensive to do in this highly converged era!!
See the links list (screenshot to right; scroll down the blog to find links lists on the right side) for other examples of filmmakers showing gutsy determination despite very limited resources to produce and gain distribution for full-length feature films. Especially Coz (Corrie) Greenop (Wandering Rose, or Demon Baby in the US market) and Harry MacQueen(Hinterland). Coz used a broken back to inspire his £40k horror, and social media to get distributor meetings in Cannes, leading to a US DVD release and a multi-million 2nd feature. Harry, an actor, a £10k inheritance to shoot a social realist drama, and a limited theatrical distribution deal with Curzon Cinemas' screenings with Q and A's for members plus Ilkley Film Festival.
This new example has the spirit of Shane Meadows' infamous five day shoot, £48k Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee about it...
Spotted a rather excellent example for all of you of fast, determined real-world media production. A Canadian director has scripted, cast, location scouted, costumed/set dressed, filmed, edited/post-productioned, cut a trailer and now released (self-distributed) through VOD platformsCorona. A little exploitative perhaps, but nonetheless when it's easy to make excuses for yourself you could maybe ponder this example. He's done this all in March.
China had 4 of 2019's top 20 WORLDWIDE films. In September 2020 it was easily the world's biggest cinema market with the US covid-hit. Read an excellent analysis here.
As of the end of 2019, China now has 69,787 cinema screens, up 9,708 from 2018, according to the Communist party mouthpiece the People’s Daily, which added that more than 1.7 billion tickets were sold. The propagandistic publication went so far as to deem the current moment a “golden age” for the Chinese film industry’s development, as “the market bubble fades… and Chinese films continue to steadily improve.” (Variety: China’s Box Office Hit New Heights in 2019, as Hollywood’s Share Shrank. Good detail on how the Chinese market is shifting towards homegrown hits)
Mulan shows how far Disney will go, self-censor, to maximise the Chinese market (Guardian).
Disney is so damned big it even owns one of its main TV subscription rivals, Hulu. The mighty mouse movie company now gets 50% of its revenues from its multiple theme parks, but is also as much a TV company as it is a film company - from its subsidiaries like ESPN (sports channel) to zeitgeisty series making baby Yoda a global phenomenon, there's more to Disney than movies.
It's buying spree was seen as crazy by some - but bear in mind that Marvel cost them $4bn ... and the last Avengers movie alone raked in $3bn from the box office, never mind its value in driving $5.99/month subscribers to Disney+.
It's even managed to get back into China, having been banned for years because of pro-Tibet movies it now has a Shanghai Disneyland (but it's 57% owned by the Chinese government!) and since 2016 it has been getting movies distributed there again. Their Mulan remake has changed a lot of aspects to avoid upsetting the Chinese government!
This article ends on an intriguing notion - because their stock market value has dropped by over $80bn since the coronavirus hit (a third of their value) ... could Apple sweep in to buy this giant???
"Universal Pictures has a broad and diverse range of movies with 2020 being no exception. Rather than delaying these films or releasing them into a challenged distribution landscape, we wanted to provide an option for people to view these titles in the home that is both accessible and affordable," said Jeff Shell, CEO of NBCUniversal, in a statement. "We hope and believe that people will still go to the movies in theaters where available, but we understand that for people in different areas of the world that is increasingly becoming less possible." [MacRumors]
It's unclear how (if??) NBCUniversal have cleared this with cinema chains (all posed to be forced to close in the USA, already shuttered across much of the world), but they've announced a new streaming option for titles currently/recently on their theatrical run.
The price is $20 per movie, not quite the cost of two cinema tickets.
They are clearly online innovators, seeking to flip the narrative of disruption into their own favour. I haven't seen any reports on how successful Prima was (if you don't remember, find the tag on this blog), but that for-the-filthy-rich-only model now has its own scruffy cousin.
The disruption of convergence and digitisation was meant to be in favour of the little guy, according to web 2.0 evangelists like David Gauntlett and Malcolm 'long tail theory' Gladwell, but the dead hand of the big five has not loosened at all from around the throat of the global film industry. We're not seeing a spurt of Indie growth like the late 60s or late 80s/early 90s - though in both cases most of the new auteurs became studio insiders and the upstart companies got bought up.
The pandemic could have as big a long-term impact in disrupting traditional practices and behaviour in its estimated 18 month run as a couple of decades of digital - more specifically, online - disruption has managed. All the big 5 have delayed their tentpole releases and productions (same for TV) are grinding to a halt.
Universal are trampling over the theatrical release window in a way that Disney tried with Alice in Wonderland - only to back down when the major cinema chains threatened a complete blackout/boycott of the movie. It could be that the pandemic lockdown builds up a renewed appetite for expensive cinema screens ... or that people get very used to their home cinema setup. And just how long can the Bond and all the other tentpoles be held back? Will all the studios ultimately copy Universal's innovation as this lockdown looks set to continue for many months???
Elberse did a pretty good job of demolishing Gladstone's widely accepted long tail theory, but there's life yet in the notion that reduced storage, reproduction, manufacturing and distribution costs (notionally zero if streamed) make back catalogue highly valuable.
Wind back to the 60s/70s and it was common for TV and radio shows to be wiped so the expensive tapes could be reused. There were no DVDs or channels dedicated to re-runs, and the global TV market was not fully formed. Lots of Dr Who episodes have been forever lost that way.
Just as the music industry experienced a boom, up to 1999 (the year of Napster...), through fans buying CDs to replace their cassette and vinyl copies of albums (we see the reverse in 2020!), the movie industry has ruthlessly exploited fans with its editionalising strategy - the vanilla DVD, Blu-Ray, special edition, unrated cut (MPAA ratings are voluntary), collector's edition, ultimate edition, directors cut - check out the release of 1979s slasher archetype Halloween as a good example.
Then there's the boxsets - and even the likes of Warp get involved in that (with its epic 10 Years of Warp boxset and This is England collections), while the various Working Title rom-coms appear in near-infinite boxset permutations, including franchise sets like Bridget Jones. Which are heavily pushed through their social media every Valentine's, Mother's Day and Xmas (Love Actually anyone?).
4K, which in time will be replaced again with 8K, is the new wheeze, with multiple older movies getting the remastered (the music industry's fave wheeze for repackaging and re-selling new copies of albums fans already own) 4K release for DVD/Blu-ray and even, for some, limited theatrical re-release.
This ISN'T the same as the main BFI (formerly UK Film Council) funding stream that channels government funding and national lottery funds to provide GRANTS (generally non-repayable) to Indie filmmakers to ensure variety of representation and the viability of a UK Indie sector in the face of the big 5, American stranglehold on British cinema and audiences.
It IS a source of funding - but one more comparable with Film4/Channel 4/BBC Films who will pay for rights to screen productions. The BFI backs the fund but DOESN'T provide funds. This is a for-profit investment fund, pitched as an attractive investment opportunity that takes advantage of the government tax incentive of 30% tax relief for film investors that meet criteria of being 'British productions'.
They emphasize how SVOD, subscription video-on-demand, services like Netflix have created a boom in TV/film production markets.
Lets be clear - an R or NC17 (MPAA) or 18 (BBFC) rating is nearly always a box office kiss of death. On the big 5 front it's grown ever less likely as a tentpole or even mid-budget level release rating thanks to the dominance of censorious Disney, with its 33.3% share of global box office achieved through PG-13 or lower.
But - there are no rules in the crazy industry of film, just conventions, and the belated trilogising Bad Boys threequel has surprised most with its x5 budget global take, clearing all costs with its x2 domestic take alone. Will Smith's still fresh it seems.
This article looks in depth at the history of R-rated hits in the US. I've blogged before on the commercial death knoll that is the 18:rating. Usually...
Shame on you - but Clerks, Mall Rats et al are widely available. The story of Clerks is a truly inspiring one - a guy with fewer resources than the typical teen reading this post who somehow combined a scrappy job with scraps of film reel to cut the dialogue heavy Clerks...shot where he worked.
And giving birth to Jay and Silent Bob. Smoothie boochies.
Smith has gone on to establish the cult success of his View Askew universe/company label, briefly dabble with Hollywood millions, quit film-making, resume low-budget film-making, have a heart attack, drop more weight than some of you weigh, and bring his uber-positive post-attack outlook to a reboot of his underground franchise. As heavily documented on Facebook. Smith ain't no kid anymore - his kid is grown up too.
The Facebook log of his promotion around the movie continues. The screen count is very similar to This is England and Tyrannosaur, peaking at just 17. SEVENTEEN. And yet Forbes business magazine, in an excellent column well worth following (as good as the Guardian's box office columns but US-centred), did a feature on the movie's theatrical run. WTH, eh?
Smith has multiple strings to his bow, including his comic books and extensive merch line. I've paid for an autographed poster or two myself. Then there's the phenomenon of his podcast series, recorded live in front of adoring, paying audiences, and his separate An Evening With... shows. That's on my bucket list.
Smith has toured with the tiny handful of prints, often doing a director Q&A at $47 a ticket. No movie has racked up more weeks of $60k+ screen averages. Smith has long been sneered at by elitist critics dying to salivate over the next 'difficult' therefore worthy movie to cross their mighty crania, seen as a cheap, crass pop culture stoner. Well, the slimmed-down post-heart attack stoner Smith strikes back with this underground, slow churn success, with marketing heavily centred on his well-followed social media.
See https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbean/2020/03/07/jay-and-silent-bob-reboot-shattered-box-office-records-and-nobody-noticed/
And at some point - when you're old enough - don't just watch Clerks but also a feature on how it was made.
Then look up my other posts on other micro-budget films, some with very limited theatrical releases - including one Harry Potter scion who took a £10k inheritance and cut a movie, each of its few screenings either linked to the Curzon Cinemas membership scheme (regular director Q&As as a benefit) or film festival appearances - I asked him a few questions myself at the Ilkley Film Festival.
If you happen to be working on a coursework evaluation question about how your opus might be distributed ... add Smith's astonishing underground success to case studies like those mentioned above and the awesome tale of how Coz Greenop spun a ricked back and consequent months laid out in a caravan in Scotland to a movie debut via Cannes meetings set up by social DMs (messages - he didn't stick a fashionable boot in).
I wrote this for the MusiVidz blog, but I make frequent links to the film industry - particularly the marketing of WT's Cornetto Trilogy (Sean of the Dead and Hot Fuzz especially)...
Ozzy's career tracks back to blues band Earth in the late 1960s so he has accrued an age diverse following, maintaining a credibility and aura of cool that attracts a large youth audience on top of his long term fan-base.
The age profile largely skipped the over-45s that are fairly core for Ozzy (who built a new teen following in the 80s with his solo success after being kicked out of the mighty Sabs), but the free 8-bit retro game playable through his website is a great example of smart marketing exploiting the potential of convergence - and reminds me of the Cornetto Trilogy's equally smart use of a similar strategy. A decade ago!
Modern console games, at the top end, have production timescales (years) and budgets ($100m - >300m) directly comparable to the tentpole (or blockbuster, to use Elberse's term).
Nonetheless, just like VFX/SFX and cinematography (helicopters displaced by drones), convergence means formats, genres and post-/production techniques which define the spectacle of the box office giants are available at the bottom and lower end of the scale.
Just look at the striking range of digipaks, websites and music videos, not to mention blogs and alt vids, produced by students at StG (and IGS previously) using cheap or free tools like Wix, blogger, FCPX and free plug-ins and TrueType fonts from the likes of DaFont.com.
Sean of the Dead and Hot Fuzz had Space Invaders and Pacman versions on their promo websites (produced, unusually, not by the distributor Universal/StudioCanal but by the main production company Working Title through its main website developer RedBridge).
Just like the Ozzy game today (and his new album has been a huge success, so it's working!), this reflects a smart modern four quadrant approach. The 8-bit style has retro appeal with such games going back to the 80s and 90s (while Pacman and Space Invaders go back to the late 70s and 80s arcade machines). Such appeal doesn't just narrowly exploit direct identification (uses and gratifications), a much younger demographic also find appeal, through fashionability, irony, hipsterism, lo-fi - there are many possible explanations and labels which partly intersect with Simon Reynolds' influential 'Retromania' book and concept.
The multi-layered nature of the semiotics of these retro games includes another easily overlooked layer of the 'endless chain of signification', or signifiers, that Baudrillard proposes with his reality-questioning simulacra theory - we're all in The Matrix now, endlessly reconstructed, immersed in and perceiving through a semiotic soup of media signifiers and intertextuality.
Roll back 15 years as the smartphone concept began to evolve and millions were paying £2-3 (and equivalent currencies) to download 8-bit 'polyphonic' ringtone versions of the latest pop chart hits, and restyled classics - even sparking its own original music with the Crazy Frog phenomenon. That market spanned tweens to mid-30s. Entirely new sounds for the youngest users, but offering nostalgia for the games played by the older users (or 'consumers' to use that classic denoter of passive audiences) simultaneous with novelty through their converged devices.
So, Ozzy's simple lo-fi game works for the youngest to oldest end of a potential fan-base, exposed to plentiful lo-fi games built in to phones, linked to platforms like Facebook (Angry Birds!), on cheap 'emulators' which make 80s, 90s and noughties games from long defunct platforms like the PlayStation predecessor Sega MegaDrive and Spectrum 48k (it had 48k...KB... of memory - beaten by the Commodore 64!), and accessing these through tablets, phablets, phones - and computers of course!
It offers direct nostalgia for different generations, whether for the original games or the later intertextualised but new polyphonic ringtone market.
And one final way in which this generates appeal, or functions as a marketing tool. Alongside escapism, another uses and gratifications category (and you could work in all four), like Kim Kardashian's massively money-spinning freemium hit Kim Kardashian's Hollywood, it offers identification through faux agency - you be Ozzy!
The existence of this game reflects how nostalgia has a notable role in the current zeitgeist, whether experienced as direct fond remembrance, hipsterism like the vinyl resurgence among the young, irony or the rejection of slick high-budget productions - and there have been multiple music genres over recent years based on using retro kit. Utter garbage to my ears, having grown up with bands like Depeche Mode and followed their development, using ever more sophisticated kit and techniques. But thrilling, novel and somewhat rebellious for a younger audience who have grown up in a converged era where an expensive 80s synth can be found as an option on Garageband or a phone app.
That faux agency is also comparable to the faux personal engagement of social media, whether that's the employee written postings of stars or the hidden hand of big 3 record labels behind the seemingly organic rise of artists like Lily Allen (back in the MySpace era - the Arctic Monkeys are arguably an example of 'authentic' growth through it) and Billie Eilish (SoundCloud and YouTube).
And - final point - disruption means that it's not just the production of the Ozzy game that's relatively cheap and affordable, but also the distribution. https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/play-ozzy-osbournes-new-8-bit-legends-of-ozzy-video-game/
The link above is how I encountered it, via my Google news feed on my Android phone (my initial no-frills draft of this post is being slowly tapped out on my phone through the Blogger app to boot). The article has the Ozzy site's hyperlink embedded - and that is all that's needed to effectively distribute the product. The audience to a large degree will work as distributors, sharing that link. From the Ozzy end, there's no need to pay for ads to promote the game (part of the album promo campaign) as it will spark e-zine features like the one I read, and I probably will share the link with a few folks I know.
I've taught tweenagers who have produced some impressive games using the free web platform Scratch. I've met a 20-something at a Photoshop course who made a work placement into a career by pitching to produce the social media for one of many record labels long ago bought up by the big 3 and resurrected for a reissue campaign.
What you can do through your Media coursework can be a hell of a pitch for a place on a competitive uni course or straight into a job/project. Or, as with the 2020 student productions for unsigned/Indie electropop artist Aem, 'actual' media and branding, not a simulacra. That Ozzy Osbourne website game is emblematic of the opportunities out there for creative, media/tech-literate folk with a bit of drive...like you? Whether for music, film or simply 'corporate' (for brands, businesses), there's a huge market out there for smart marketeers.
I've mentioned this quite a few times - and the excellent book that tracks Miramax's central role in 80s/90s cinema details many examples of this...
How film companies manage to massage expenses to claim that huge hit films actually made a loss ... thus not having to pay anything to those with 'points' (multiples of 0.25% shares) in profits.
Nice article on this: https://whatculture.com/film/11-incredibly-successful-movies-that-shockingly-made-no-profit
2019 was a record year for global box office take. The US market was down 4.4% but still over $11bn, with a global $42.5 box office. Naturally the big 5 will try to play it safe with fare that can appeal so widely, though there were multiple $100m+ US takes from original, non-franchise movies like Tarantino's latest, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, alongside the glut of global billion dollar franchise hits.
Disney took a third of the US market, and the top 5 biggest hits, with its nearest rivals back on just 11%. Surely therefore 2020 will see a mega-merger of 2 of these? Universal buying Paramount perhaps?
Disney had 7 of the 10 biggest 2019 hits ... AND 7 $1bn+ global hits. They've also released an Xmas movie, Noelle, exclusively on the Disney+ platform (no theatrical release). Just as notably, also in November, they did the same for a Lady and the Tramp remake. That same month The Irishman became the highest profile Netflix release, a tentpole level production with huge buzz. It was given a minor theatrical release in some Indies/arthouse cinemas (the chains boycott Netflix), ensuring awards eligibility.
US box office was slightly down (3.6%) on 2018, the 5th time it had fallen this decade, but it's still almost $11.5bn. Disney's chunk of that is worryingly high.
It's not the particular article I want to draw your attention to, more the source. ScreenDaily and Variety, the industry magazines, carry such insights daily too btw...
I can't recommend reading The Guardian's box office columns enough. This Forbes column is much less accessible, Forbes being a high end business magazine so expects it's audience to be familiar with many business terms and concepts, and interested in in-depth analysis of figures. But it's a useful one to further your ongoing, independent development of how the film industry works, on a global scale.
It's a key point in grasping the industry (and coursework!) - the core youth audience, 16-34, account for almost 50% of all UK ticket sales (similar to USA), with a slate of global $bn+ 2019 releases putting this on track to be a record year.
Alongside this cinema advertising has grown into a £200m market. Cinemas continue to develop to offer more luxury and a brightened experience from a cinema visit, with the luxury, premium priced Everyman chain for example adding another 34 cinemas in the last 5 years
Hollywood blockbuster boom fuels record UK cinema advertising
Posters can be a little awkward to analyse, as we'd normally imagine any character pushed to the top of the frame to denote the shot type, but these are typically cropped out shots. (Specifically, we used a mix of poster/DVD cover)
4 WT posters were picked, brief points follow two examples ...
In each example, look closely at how basic framing (rule of thirds: place the important action/subject centrally) is used to easily signify the importance of characters (literally central to the narrative!)...
There are multiple obvious anchored preferred readings, but lets focus on the binary opposition...
This is signified through the colour blocks and the light/dark contrast of the two colours and the framing of the two lead characters (same actor).
Whilst this anchors a preferred reading of the brother on the white side as protagonist, and the brother on the blue side is signified/connoted as antagonist, there is also a skilful ambiguiety, or polysemy (narrative enigma!), encoded too: the 'good' brother is partially stood on 'the dark side' and is also wielding a gun! There is also equivalence drawn as it is a medium-long two shot; their gazes are similar, looking sideways off-frame ... though the divide between the two is cleverly anchored by their looking in different directions!!!
The connoted moral ambiguiety (not quite a fully anchored Proppian archetype of the hero) is in keeping with modern values as seen through the cultural impact of shows like Dexter, Sopranos and Breaking Bad and even some of the smash hit comic book adaptations, not least the Dark Knight trilogy.
Again, multiple aspects of a preferred reading are accessible, but lets focus on the anchorage of genre hybridity within this famously triple hybrid of zom-rom-com...
The 'zom' element is simply denoted through the literal use of zombies and the title itself, though their framing signifies who our protagonists are, whilst connoting Pegg as the central protagonist, or Proppian archetype of the hero.
Its a three-shot, not a two-shot, as an over-emphasis on the 'rom' component is not desired, and the 'com' is multiply anchored, including the female holding flowers and the bizarre 'weapons' wielded by all 3 (garden spade, cricket bad and chain), the bright colouring (playing on the blood red) and of course the bubble font of the title and the graphic of the hand within the 'A'.
Anyone who somehow misses the many signifiers to anchor this can rely on the tagline!
Can you apply this to the 2 additional egs below? Look at how Theory anchors serious drama, or how Bridget Jones's Baby anchors its hybrid genre (rom-com), and the primacy of the female audience for this (the com conventionally makes rom-coms more palatable for a secondary male audience!).
I've posted on the issue of women's under-representation at all levels of the film industry, including the nature or narrative significance of onscreen roles, since 2008.
In that time the Bechdel Test has become quasi-law in parts of Scandinavia and the #metoo movement has blown the lid of the routinised abusive behaviour of powerful men in the industry.
Changes, but still statistically the central issue remains pretty similar.
I'm doubtful that this move will achieve a momentous shift, and not entirely certain it's an entirely good thing: content analysis devoid of context - useful to add precision to analysis of overall trends but a fundamental impingement on storytelling freedom (of expression) potentially?
However YOU see it, it is a significant move, and as it's Disney, now seemingly headed for a 40/50% share of the global film market, who are partnering with Davis to trial and develop the AI (which scans scripts for gender terms and roles), it COULD lead to fundamental changes.
Though what will they do if the AI pings that their Marvel movies are fundamentally problematic...?
....
The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media was founded in 2007 after the actor – who won a best supporting actress Oscar in 1989 for The Accidental Tourist – became concerned about the male-dominated entertainment her young daughter was consuming.
At the summit, Davis added: “We don’t have enough female role models to inspire change. We need to see it in fiction to create the cultural change we need. If we see more women on screen as corporate leaders, scientists and politicians, there will be more women in real life taking up these roles.”
Geena Davis announces 'Spellcheck for Bias' tool to redress gender imbalance in movies https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/oct/09/geena-davis-institute-gender-media-disney-machine-learning-tool?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger
UPDATE: 1 OF 5 RECOMMENDED MOVIES TO STREAM ON BLOODYDISGUSTING.COM GUIDE, APRIL 2020. https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3611040/editorial-diving-weird-world-fan-made-horror-games/
Haunted by its synonymous shadow: spookily TWO ghost stories out (URL)
October 29th and still no box office hits for Ghost Stories - I wonder if the release of A Ghost Story, with a couple of US stars (UK release August 11th: Deadline), but a miserable flop (under $2m worldwide: The-Numbers; BoM), is undermining release plans? The-Numbers; BoxofficeMojo. Its extraordinary how often similarly themed/named movies emerge at the same time, something that helped undermine The World's End (WT) too. Ghost Stories has been screened at the London Film Festival, but its looking doubtful for a theatrical release.
IFC Midnight is acquiring North American distribution rights to supernatural thriller Ghost Stories from Altitude Film Sales. The film stars Andy Nyman, Alex Lawther, Martin Freeman and Paul
Whitehouse. Its based on the Olivier-nominated stage production and is
co-written and directed by Nyman and Jeremy Dyson. The deal was negotiated by Altitude’s Mike Runagall on behalf of the filmmakers with Arianna Bocco of IFC Films. The film is produced for Warp Films by Claire Jones (Sightseers, Kill List), and Robin Gutch (’71, Kill List) and is backed by Ultimate Pictures and Screen Yorkshire. Catalyst Global Media and Screen Yorkshire serve as executive
producers. Altitude Film Sales is handling worldwide sales. Lionsgate
will distribute the film in the UK/Ireland in Spring 2018. Ghost Stories has its World Premiere today (Thursday 5 October) at the BFI London Film Festival. [Screen Daily 5th October 2017 report, spotted by Richard]
Warp announced a new film in Feb 2016, already picked up by 'big 7' Lionsgate for UK distribution, with Altitude handling international sales
Pre-selling rights at the pre-production stage is common for Indies (legendary social realist auteurs Ken Loach + Mike Leigh have done this throughout their careers). German rights were also pre-sold to Tele München/Concorde after a pitch at the Berlin European Film Market in feb 2016
This is an adaptation of an internationally successful play, bringing some comparisons with Woman in Black (but note the IP is limited compared to Les Mis)
Warp's reputation for allowing creatives to retain control, not the accountants, saw Nyman reject interest from Hollywood studios (who immediately suggested star-based changes!)
Martin Freeman's casting led most reports; star of the $3bn Hobbit franchise this suggests a more ambitious/commercial approach from Warp ...
...BUT he's no A-lister (the IP and CGI sold the Hobbit, not a UK TV star!), and its no coincidence that as of May 2017 the UK remains the only territory with a distributor
Warp's online efforts at building interest and an audience through the pre-/production/post- stages has been typically lax ...
... BUT co-director/writer Andy Nyman has exemplified the ability of cast and crew to use social media to promote a production (eg the 5 crew badges Twitter draw)
... AND Altitude have been very active
Lionsgate UK, however, have yet to properly launch; their website contains only a coming soon message!
PRODUCTION ANNOUNCED AT A FAN FEST...
Okay, so its not the 80,000 packed into the Dallas Cowboys football stadium just to see a teaser trailer (1 strand of the epic Avatar campaign, arranged through ComicCon, the world's leading fan forum for such announcements), but Ghost Stories is following a smart path of pre-/production promotion, launching a 'concept teaser trailer' at FrightFest:
ScreenDaily (US) announce the production, Feb 2016
So much for the auteur theory! Empire (UK) also led on Freeman's involvement
Casting Martin Freeman seems a real coup for Warp - after all, he was the lead in the tentpole Hobbit franchise (combined budgets $675m, box office $2.9bn). However, IP was the key marketing factor there, and he cannot be considered an A-List star any more than Lord of the Rings star Andy Serkis can 'open a film' by himself. Freeman's presence does help with marketing though, and gaining distribution, but the lack of progress there is significant. Hollywood conglomerate Lionsgate picking the film up for distribution is a coup, as one of what many now argue should be called the big seven to reflect their considerable global success in recent years (expanding the traditional big six of Disney, Warner Bros, Fox, Universal, Sony, Paramount).
Is Hobbit Freeman really such a BIG star...?!
No star billing!
However, that is for the UK only (reflecting Freeman's greater profile in his home market, where TV show The Office made him a star, popular with men and women as his role centered on a romance narrative), Lionsgate are not, for example, picking it up for the US or any other territories. Many of Warp's films (especially on their digital subsidiary Warp X, or the also low budget Warp Australia) have failed to attain UK distribution, with fewer still getting theatrical release in the US or other markets.
Even when they have, the case of Tyrannosaur is typical of their struggles to make impact with films lacking stars, and typically centred on working class protagonists, often outside of the London setting that is familiar to an international audience. Tyrannosaur's US distributor sent 2 prints on a 4-month arthouse circuit, taking a mere $22k as part of a $450K global take (about 80% from the UK) on a £750K budget. Even more successful US releases have been relative successes only: both Four Lions and This is England took 3 months there to reach a $300K total, peaking at just 14 screens. This would represent a small % of a WT flop, with 8/9 figure takes their usual expectation, way beyond the 5/6 figure Warp takes!
Pre-selling rights, the power of IP
Indeed, they have actually pre-sold the UK and German rights, with shooting not commencing until 6 months after Lionsgate picked it up, based on Freeman being attached and the marketing potential of the IP (intellectual property) of a hit West End play that also gained multiple international markets, from Russia to Peru! This is a financing model more typical of the very low budget social realist movies by British auteurs Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, whose lack of scripting routinely denies them access to UK grants through the BFI/UKFC, but who typically pre-sell rights to several European territories to fund their productions. Without the additional element of a hit book, however, it is questionable how far the theatre link will guarantee box office success. Working Title have had success adapting multiple hit books, not least the Bridget Jones franchise (and About a Boy, which WTTV have also adapted into an NBC TV series), and of course had huge success with Les Miserables - though its $61m budget and global distribution through parent company Universal, plus the multiple A-list cast, helped!
A significant genre change? Abandoning social realism?
However, this is actually a notable step away from Warp's typical genre base - most movies have blended in/hybridised a social realist approach to more saleable genres, from their debut feature Dead Man's Shoes (horror) to teen rom-com Submarine (although the Warp X fantasy with animation Bunny and the Bull was a clear exception). The Screen feature announcing the movie noted the Woman in Black comparison: a low budget horror fantasy that hit big, and this (alongside the IP factor with the promise of pre-built recognition), given Freeman's modest international profile, was probably key to the pitch, given the film industry's aversion to original ideas, which are hard to market. Warp's high concept, high budget TV co-production with Sky Atlantic, Lost Panthers, is another signal of a company preparing to give commercial returns a higher priority - but until we see the same routine level of narrow stereotypes in characters and setting, and US stars among their cast (the Working Title model), it would be premature to think this clearly signals a change.
The importance of creative relationships and the Warp brand
It must be noted that Warp are the production company while the company that will get the main co-production credit, Altitude, are exclusively handling sales. The importance of personal relationships in this large-scale, even at Warp's level, industry is clear to see: Altitude's founder, Will Clarke, was formerly a key figure in Optimum Releasing, UK distributor of many Warp releases (now StudioCanalUK, just another NBCUniversal subsidiary!).
Warp's typical funding (centred on grants plus pre-selling UK TV rights to either BBC or C4/Film 4) model, and low budgets, enables them to take more creative risks than Working Title (though their selection of an Indian director for historical epic Elizabeth, who confessed to know nothing of the monarch, shows they too can take risks). This reputation for allowing the creatives, not the accountants, to retain control, was behind Nyman's choosing to go with them. In reading the quotes below, from ScreenDaily, consider the experience of Coz Greenop, whose £30K Wandering Rose became Demon Baby at the hands of its US distributors, a title (and trailer) that rather misrepresented the film.
Speaking on a panel about the future of UK horror filmmaking, chaired by Screen, Nyman said there had been interest from US studios back in 2010, when the show was playing in the West End. But they decided to team with Warp in order to retain creative control.“There was a lot of interest early on from a couple of big American studios that wanted to do it, but they hadn’t even seen it,” said Nyman.... Nyman recalled changes suggested by US execs that ultimately convinced them to team with UK producers.“The first meeting we had with an American producer, they said we should take one particular character, turn it into a girl and it make it a breakout role for someone from the Disney channel,” said Nyman.“We thought, ‘Oh god, that’s not what we want to make’. We’d rather make the film for no money and have the freedom to express ourselves.”... “Ghost Stories is deeply British in all of its oddness and quirks, and Warp get that and support our artistic vision.”
If this had been a WT production, with a much bigger budget, surely there would have been similar pressure to add a significant US star?
The Lionsgate announcement came in Feb 2016, but there is still no release date or even evidence of press packages. Indeed, as of 28.5.17, the Lionsgate UK website remains a placeholder only, with nothing more than a coming soon message, suggesting it still hasn't completed setting up its UK distribution office!
Warp failing again to build interest in their own productions?
With the notable exception of Le Donk..., which provided customisable Christmas cards and a downloadable comic, Warp's use of web 2.0 tools has been surprisingly weak. In theory, the radically reduced costs of online distribution (with digitally equipped cinemas, something the UK leads the world on, able to stream films or play through hard drives/DVD/Blu-Ray) and marketing somewhat level the playing field with studio subsidiaries like their UK rival Working Title.
Remarkably, this is the extent of Warp's own promotion of their upcoming film!
Marketing is of course the principle domain of distributors, not producers, but Working Title have shown how a producer can successfully boost the marketing of a film independently from their distributor. The Cornetto Trilogy was boosted by clever, but cheap, arcade game adaptations (Shaun of the Dead Pacman, Hot Fuzz Space Invaders: fun for a youth audience used to mobile gaming, and nostalgic for an older audience who are also represented by the films' characters). They commissioned web designers RedBridge to boost their website with such marketing materials, accompanied by a wide range of stills and videos posted during pre-production, the shoot, post-production and all the way through the release phase, including Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's video diary. Films such as Paul, also starring Frost and Pegg (with the usual Working Title addition of an American A-lister, Seth Rogen, and also set in the US; the Brits were the true aliens of this sci-fi comedy hybrid) also benefit from Facebook pages run by both Universal and Working Title in multiple languages to directly target multiple territories (France, Spain and more in the case of Paul).
Click on the YouTube and this is what you get!
The YouTube link has been clumsily mis-entered - and never corrected
As of May 2017, over a year since the Lionsgate pick-up announcement, with shooting wrapped in Nov 2016, the Warp website presents a single image with a broken YouTube link, and a non-functioning hyperlink on the sole image itself. Click on the Twitter link and instead to taking you to the film hashtag, you get a tweet template. Click on a dropdown arrow and you get greeted with an illustration-free ream (3 scrolled PC screens worth) of grey text on a black background - which hasn't been updated for nearly a year ("shooting started yesterday...")!
They even seem to have messed up the Twitter element
This highly unappealing text, horribly outdated, is all thats below the dropdown arrow.
No BFI - but a grant through Screen Yorkshire
What is also notable is the lack of any mention of BFI (formerly UK Film Council), BBC or C4 involvement, some combination of all 3 being central to the financing of the entire Warp catalogue up to now. The film is listed on the British Council site as in post-production, but there is no mention of any link with the BFI. However, they have once again received a grant through Screen Yorkshire (set up as a regional wing of the national UK Film Council, whose role of distributing government/National Lottery funding to boost the film industry and film culture in the UK has been taken up by the BFI), so perhaps this isn't such a huge shift in production strategy after all. Warp shot the film over 5 weeks (compare with Le Donk's 5 days!) in in Yorkshire during Oct/Nov 2016.
Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the county of Yorkshire all offer funding for production, which is further stimulating growth. Screen Yorkshire’s £15 million ($19 million) Yorkshire Content Fund has invested in films like “Ghost Stories,” starring Martin Freeman, and TV series like “Peaky Blinders.” [US trade mag Variety]
Director Andy Nyman's tweets shows Warp how its done
Before looking at what Nyman has done, its worth reiterating that marketing is the domain of the distributor, NOT the producer. However, building interest from the earliest pre-production surely makes sense when these same production companies will eventually seek to persuade distributors to take a financial gamble on their title? WT are exceptionally pro-active in this field; Warp are fairly lax to date.
Social media, and the web 2.0 convergence it represents, is one means by which marketing can be carried out with low overheads, thus in theory enabling underfunded Indies to compete. It also enables creatives, such as Nyman, to take this on themselves - their careers are linked to the success of their work after all!
Nyman was tweeting throughout the shoot, providing snippets and images which could be shared by fans (of stars as much as the play), but also used by the media. This was a convincingly organic process, a seemingly unfiltered, 'genuine' insight into and access to the shoot, with star Paul Whitehouse pictured eating hummus on set for example. Nyman also offered up a random draw for 5 crew badges for anyone who tweeted badge to him - simple but smart marketing.
Nyman consistently uses the hashtag ghoststoriesfilm, which Altitude are also using in their 'official' marketing to potential distributors. As you'll see below, the badge competition required entrants to tweet ghoststoriesfilm, NOT andynyman!
Its interesting to note that Warp's retweet picked up fewer hits than Nyman's original - the company actually has a smaller online footprint than the creative (though neither are getting 1000s of hits, never mind the millions that Universal often achieve). Altitude have also been busy tweeting behind the scenes content to build interest and momentum, as they seek to pick up sales in more territories:
Simple, smart, effective - and extremely low cost!!!
You can see how this activity sparks media interest - Nyman is providing FREE content for media producers, no investigation or travel required, just monitoring a twitter feed; here's an example that Empire magazine (UK's leading film mag) featured at the top of their article:
Attending a screening inspired a near-100% AS coursework production last year, and with the host of guest speakers (actors, directors, writers, crew) doing post-screening Q+As, not to mention that most of these Indies won't gain distribution here beyond the festival, its well worth a look...
Not all have trailers, some are kickstarter funded; I've put together a playlist of what trailers I could find, + linked these or a web page. If you've never seen Educating Rita - take this chance to do so!!! Never Grow Old and Gwen look especially interesting, and Robert the Bruce has provoked much debate...
I'd done a couple of short posts on Baby Driver, and I'll try to keep this reasonably short too as an overview of useful points. As a very recent WT movie, and one that's essentially American, its a useful example. Lets start with the usual basics:
DIRECTOR:Edgar Wright [see his BoMojo record] BUDGET: $34m BOX OFFICE: UK $17m, US $108m, China $17m, World $227m [BoM] PRODUCTION COMPANY CREDITS:see screenshot from BoM DISTRIBUTION: Sony, UIP 72countriesSony in most markets, UIP in some, also WBros in Turkey + some local distributors like ItaFilm in Italy AGE RATINGS:BBFC 15, MPAA R, France 'Tous publics with warning'.
