CONVERGENCE drones replacing helicopter shots

See this article about Les Miserables (urban French thriller/drama, NOT the WT adaptation...).

Skyfall and Jurassic World were early adopters of these metallic dragonflies; Time estimated in 2018 that the daily cost of using a drone in a film stood at between $4,500 and $13,000, compared to $20,000 to $40,000 for a helicopter. Now the airborne images seen in every YouTube travel video risk creating a homogenous style of cinematography. If any amateur can achieve that effect, how will movies set themselves apart?

TERMINOLOGY - key terms and theories

 I'll build this up over time.

WORKING TITLE The High Note 2020

8m trailer views just on the Focus Features channel alone by 26.8.20:

VERY BRIEFLY...

• $20m production; limited cinema release - $19.99 PVOD (NBCU keep higher % than box office)
• Co-production: WT/Perfect World - a Chinese co
• Leads aren't A-listers yet but features Ice Cube as antagonist
• Unfortunate hero's journey? White Dakota Johnson seeks to push out Ice Cube
• Zeitgeist/generic: riding on success of many recent music biz hits (Yesterday! A Star is Born)
• Real-world singer (like Yesterday) used on OST; vinyl release
• Feelgood ending/American dream (Billy Elliot...) - note the prominent Vogue quote: "perfect entertainment"

Scroll to the bottom for some sample paragraphs employing a range of terminology ... which will help with the crossword I've done on this film...

LINKS:
INDIEWIRE ANALYSE PVOD ECONOMICS
BOXOFFICEMOJO
WIKI
Official Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

WT page

A-LIST 20 million fees often from Netflix, The Rock biggest star

I've frequently cited the rough figure of $20m to hire a true A-lister to star in a movie, and figures just released bear this out. Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Adam Wahlberg all hit this mark recently.

The big surprise comes from who's paying these fees - yes, Disney's name pops up but it's Netflix which is responsible for around 25% of the fees recorded in the annual Forbes report.

Note that they issue separate reports, a week apart, for male and female stars. This article therefore only considers the male stars.

The Adam Sandler case shows the rise of the exclusive production contract too - a throwback to the era when studios controlled stars under exclusive contracts, but with the power reversed. Also comparable with the Vegas residencies by the likes of Britney Spears in the music industry.

$250m for four Adam Sandler movies, in a world where Ed Sheeran is of equivalent standing in the music industry - we live in truly dark times. But I commend reading this short article to grow your grasp of the film biz and it's warped star economics!

Dwayne Johnson tops Forbes list of world's highest-paid male actors.

WORKING TITLE Yesterday 2019 10m on Beatles rights alone

BASICS: 

BOX OFFICE + HOME MEDIA REVENUE $26m budget

$73m USA, RoW $80m (incl UK $18m), total $153m. 3rd biggest hit on its release in the US, 2nd in the UK (Toy Story 4 the tentpole ahead in both territories). 

It added $80m in DVD, TV + streaming (home media) ... so far.

LEGENDARY/MARKETABLE writer and director: Richard Curtis, Danny Boyle. Its actually based on a 2012 screenplay by Jack Barth, a 1st-time writer! But Curtis took all the credit (and money for that)

MUSIC STAR CAMEO PUSHED IN TRAILER: 

Ed Sheeran had an important role (Coldplay's Chris Martin turned it down)

NOTABLE PRODUCTION COSTS, MARKETING SPEND...RELEASE STRATEGY:

$10m on getting rights to Beatles songs from Apple/Sony. 

$75m marketing spend. Lucked into a lucrative summer holiday release to avoid a rights case with Paul McCartney (music rights reverting). See the explanation of how writer etc get ripped off on net points.

NARRATIVE TWEAK AFTER TEST SCREENING:

Love triangle plot was cut with the other love interest after hostile test audience responses (this made Patel less sympathetic)

TYPICAL LOW AGE RATING: 

PG-13; BBFC 12 ('infrequent strong language, drug references, moderate sex references'). Summer holidays release.

WT page.

Wiki snippet on the release date strategy - put into the more lucrative, high profile summer season to avoid paying out to Beatle Paul McCartney ...

Yesterday was initially set for a September 2019 release, but was moved up to 28 June 2019, largely as a result of a copyright suit filed by Paul McCartney. The rights to some of the earlier Beatles songs used in the film would revert to McCartney in the autumn of 2019, and Sony Music wanted to get ahead of it.

The first official trailer of the film was released on 12 February 2019. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on 4 May 2019

It would be the 3rd biggest hit on its release in the US, and 2nd in the UK (Toy Story 4 the tentpole ahead in both territories).

From the Wiki (based on the Deadline article linked below): 

As of May 2020, it has been estimated that the film will have generated $68 million in global television revenue, in addition to $10.4 million in net revenue for home video and streaming. This adds up to a total estimated home media revenue of $78.4 million.

notes for now...

DEADLINE ANALYSIS: How studios appear to rip off cast/crew with NET points

Lot of good financial insight - the budget is $26m, but for those seeking a share of profits its listed as $41m ... the difference is the large ($15m!!) tax credit from the UK government, which remains counted as a cost for calculating net profits.

To put even a mid-budget WT film into perspective, the $10m they spent to get rights to use some Beatles songs is more than the full budget of almost all non-WT UK film company productions in any year.

$4m was spent on prints; $23m on distribution fees, and a whopping $75m on marketing spend.

Indiewire noted: 

In the end, Boyle used 17 Beatles songs — and contracted with Apple for rights to use 15-18, without having to specify which ones.

BOX OFFICE SUMMARY (BoM)

Until you begin to consider the hidden costs, it looks really good...

Of the $26m budget a $73m USA take and $80 RoW (rest of the world) for a $153m total. Peaked at 2,755 theaters in the US, a sizeable but not top line hit.

Released June 28th (USA), running to Sept 5th, so out for the summer holiday months.

The movie is marketed, and credited, as written by Richard Curtis, whose name sells given his links to multiple major rom-coms with WT. However, the original screenplay dates to 2012, and, as Uproxx note, the writer Jack Barth is furious at how Curtis and WT squeezed him out, ensuring he didn't profit from this major hit.

his script, Cover Version, was acquired by Working Title Films and eventually became Yesterday, from legendary British filmmakers Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary) and Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, Steve Jobs, 28 Days Later).

“I wrote the first treatment in 2012 and in 2013 and I gave it to my agent. She gave it to a producer named Matt Wilkinson,” Barth says, of his script’s initial journey. “Matt tried to get it going as a project that we would fund for maybe $10 million, a low budget film, plus whatever it cost to clear the Beatles rights, which would’ve been a lot. [Wilkinson] got a guy named Nick Angel at Working Title, who’s a professional music clearance guy, working on the Beatles clearances. In the course of doing that, years later, he mentioned it to Richard Curtis because they’re friendly. Richard said, ‘That’s a great idea, I want to do it’ because he had a deal with Working Title/Universal to make a couple of films. He wanted [Cover Version] to be one of the films that he made.”

The article picks up on the theme of net profit points, quoting an entertainment lawyer as saying that in 28 years of working he only knew of 3 movies to show a net profit (ie, after all expenses are deducted). Net points are essentially worthless. Gross points (which disregard expenses), can be lucrative. But Barth just wasn't considered beneficial to the marketing, and so the credit all went to Curtis.

“I contacted Universal Publicity and said, ‘Look, I’ve done some research and I don’t think there’s ever been a screenwriter who sold his first screenplay at my age,'” Barth says. “It’s an interesting angle, almost inspirational. I think it’s a great story. But Universal didn’t want it, they kind of had their marching orders — that it was ‘Richard Curtis and Danny Boyle, two great British filmmakers working together at last.’ I understand that in terms of cleaning up the marketing.”

THE ROLE OF TEST SCREENINGS

Great example here - a character and sub-plot (another relationship for the protagonist) were cut as test screenings showed the audience felt this made Patel a less sympathetic lead. (Cinemablend)

there was one subplot containing an entire character who was cut from the film, despite staying in Richard Curtis’ script and even remaining in the trailer for Yesterday’s theatrical release. It’s her picture you see at the very head of this story, and her name is Roxanne, played by Blade Runner 2049’s Ana De Armas.

Originally, Roxanne would have been the third point of the typical love triangle you’d see in a romantic comedy like Yesterday, coming between the romance of Lily James’ Ellie and Himesh Patel’s Jack Malik

.

TWO POWERPOINTS...

Yesterday crib notes from DB3igs

Yesterday from DB3igs

INDIE NETFLIX REALITY upfront fee for loss of rights. Michaela Cole's story

POINTS, REFLECTIONS FROM VULTURE'S* FEATURE ON WRITER/ACTOR/FILMMAKER/PRODUCER MICHAELA COLE (*RE-PRINT from NEW YORK MAGAZINE)

The long article this extensive quote comes from is a highly instructive read not just on the limits of the supposed liberating explosion of online distribution through Netflix, Amazon et al. I discovered it by clicking through another instructive article, Sundance, sunset: is the death of indie cinema imminent?.

It tackles in depth the angst and challenges of writing, creative projects and negotiating seeing these get to an audience, all within a detailed look at how race and class operate to set limits.

It's an account of a woman prepared to ask uncomfortable questions to challenge the but this is just how it's done mode who went on to become the first woman of colour to give the prestigious annual MacTaggart lecture (in Edinburgh to a who's who of the media industries) - previous alumni include the likes of James Murdoch.

So - well worth the longer read, but here's a particularly focused section on her experience dealing with film rights and fees, plus creative control. Given their amazing back catalogue, I'd say be grateful that the likes of Warp routinely co-produce with BBC/Film4 and only sell on ancillary rights later to, typically, a mix of streaming outlets.

-----

The MacTaggart Lecture became a blueprint for how she went on to conduct business. This time around, she wanted transparency from her collaborators. She learned the power of saying no. She declined to do a third season of Chewing Gum and an offer to have a production company under the now-defunct Retort. (“Something about it didn’t feel clean.”) When she first began pitching the concept for I May Destroy You in spring 2017, Netflix offered her $1 million upfront — $1 million! But when she learned they wouldn’t allow her to retain any percentage of the copyright, she said no. No amount was worth that. She fired CAA, her agency in the U.S., too, when it tried to push her to take the deal after she learned it would be making an undisclosed amount on the back end. Throughout the fallout with Netflix and CAA, Coel asked questions relentlessly. She is eager, almost giddy, to say she doesn’t know something (even if she may have an inkling) because of the way it forces someone else to explain it to her. She has discovered that the explanation is where people begin to falter and the fissures of conventional wisdom crack wider. It may be business as usual, but is it right? Is it good?

Coel recalls one clarifying moment when she spoke with a senior-level development executive at Netflix and asked if she could retain at least 5 percent of her rights. “There was just silence on the phone,” she says. “And she said, ‘It’s not how we do things here. Nobody does that, it’s not a big deal.’ I said, ‘If it’s not a big deal, then I’d really like to have 5 percent of my rights.’ ” Silence. She bargained down to 2 percent, one percent, and finally 0.5 percent. The woman said she’d have to run it up the chain. Then she paused and said, “Michaela? I just want you to know I’m really proud of you. You’re doing the right thing.” And she hung up.

“I remember thinking, I’ve been going down rabbit holes in my head, like people thinking I’m paranoid, I’m acting sketchy, I’m killing off all my agents,” Coel says. “And then she said those words to me, and I finally realized — I’m not crazy. This is crazy.”

In fall 2017, she pitched I May Destroy You to Wenger at the BBC, and he replied with an email the next day saying she would have everything she wanted: a seat at the table on the production side, full creative control, and the rights to the work. (HBO came on as a co-producer during development.) Coel was stunned. “I’d been so untrustworthy of the industry that I looked at the email and I thought, I need a day. I wasn’t happy,” she says. She took a beat. Then she went with it. “It’s an amazing email.”

INDIE MARKETING Insta skills from S Korea Tomboy run

#MeToo and pin badges: how Tomboy beat the odds at South Korea's box office.

INDIE MARKETING Insta skills from S Korea Tomboy run

#MeToo and pin badges: how Tomboy beat the odds at South Korea's box office.

TV and FILM AS INTERACTIVE GAMES CONVERGENCE

Some great examples in this LA Times article.

FRANCHISE BOX OFFICE the horrifying truth

Great overview which calculates the budget to global box office multiple of many current and older high-grossing franchises, and finds that horror truly reigns supreme in these terms. The overall leader should be fairly easy to work out, but you can also compare the tentpole franchises too.

Forbes analysis, May 2020.

A great opinion piece that attacks the cynical cash-in 3D boom that followed Avatar's nearly $3bn triumph, but also sharply analyses its own failings. Includes useful points on China too.

Screen Rant on how 2010s franchises failed to copy the good points of Avatar.

CONVERGENCE 8K cameras and prosumer price limits

This is kit which will retail for a fraction of specialised cinema cameras, but that is still likely to be several 1,000 to buy, so it's on that prosumer line. Like the bulk of film-making kit it's as likely to be rented out as purchased. It's a rival to the industry standard (budget level) BlackMagic models (a Sony Red with enough kit to shoot will be over $10k).

This line caught my eye....

“That’s not to say that 8K video doesn’t have its uses. Where 8K is useful for filmmakers is the ability to crop the frame. If I edit an 8K video file in a 4K timeline, I’m only looking at 50% of the total image size. This means I can zoom in by up to another 50% without losing any resolution. This gives me a tighter shot and also gives me a cut (a second camera, if you will) within the edit, which, at times, can be a lifesaver. This was the typical workflow when 4K arrived. Initially, people continued to deliver in 1080p, using the full 4K resolution to give them options within the edit,’ he added.

---

The same filmmaker discusses how 8k filming is problematic as it means very limited recording times on cards, and really needs a well-specced Mac Pro to cope, not a standard iMac/Macbook.

So, convergence, but only for that middle ground of prosumer as opposed to the mass consumer market that 4K capabilities on the likes of the iPhone have transformed.

QUOTE SOURCE: https://www.techradar.com/news/why-the-canon-eos-r5-could-be-mind-blowing-for-video-according-to-a-director

UGC FAN-MADE GAMES horror examples

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!!

https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3611040/editorial-diving-weird-world-fan-made-horror-games/

MICRO-BUDGET SELF-DISTRIBUTION Corona pre to post in 1 month

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 platforms Corona. 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.

Coronavirus: the movie is somehow already here – but are we ready for it?

I can't see any specific release details yet - perhaps he can't do it all?! Info should appear on the IMDB page. Or on his own website...

DISNEY China, convergence and franchising exemplified

UPDATE...

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)

FURTHER UPDATES: Barr condemns Disney and Hollywood for 'kowtowing' to China.

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???

Taking the Mickey: how Disney swallowed up all of culture.

Statista.com breakdown of China's surging global share

UNIVERSAL OFFER CINEMA STREAM and PANDEMIC DISRUPTION threat to cinema future?

"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]

FilmGuardian analysis

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???

SEE: MacRumors and As cinemas go dark, the film industry may go straight to Netflix.

LONG TAIL EDITIONALISING The 4K re-releases

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.

See these Universal examples...

https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/030920-1200

UK CREATIVE FUND BOOSTS TV/FILM CONVERGENCE with BFI

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.

https://creativecontenteis.co.uk/about-the-fund/uk-creative-content-eis-fund/

Colin Firth's own production company is among those that has successfully pitched for TV and film financing (risk capital remember, not a grant):

Colin Firth's film firm moves into TV amid streaming boom

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/mar/09/colin-firths-film-firm-moves-into-tv-amid-streaming-boom?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Gmail 

DISTRIBUTION Bad Boy Will Smith shows R/18 success is possible

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...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2020/03/06/bad-boys-for-life-box-office-will-smith-martin-lawrence-one-of-biggest-r-rated-action-movies-ever/

DISTRIBUTION Kevin Smith Indie breaks Avengers record?!

You probably haven't heard of Kevin Smith.

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).

CONVERGENCE RETRO MARKETING games on promo websites

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.

PRODUCT PLACEMENT there isn't always one bad Apple

Apple does not 'let bad guys use iPhones on screen'

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/26/apple-does-not-let-bad-guys-use-iphones-on-screen?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Gmail 

HOLLYWOOD ACCOUNTING how hits post losses

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

BOX OFFICE US quarter of global take Disney triple rivals

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?

See

https://variety.com/2020/film/box-office/box-office-us-misses-record-disney-dominates-1203453752/

STREAMING undercuts cinema while Disney surge

https://nypost.com/2019/12/27/streaming-services-cut-into-2019-box-office-profits/

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.

BOX OFFICE Forbes analysis

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.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2019/12/13/thursday-box-office-jumanji-richard-jewell-black-christmas-blumhouse-clint-eastwood-dwayne-johnson/

VERTICAL INTEGRATION New Comcast NBCU Sky studio complex

Sky to create 2,000 jobs with new Elstree TV and film studio

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/dec/03/sky-jobs-elstree-tv-film-studio?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Gmail

CINEMAS 16-34 are half the box office as records made

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

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/dec/02/hollywood-blockbuster-avengers-frozen2-boom-fuels-record-uk-cinema-advertising?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Gmail

NETFLIX gets vertical integration trifecta with NYC cinema

What does the first official Netflix cinema mean for Hollywood?

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/26/paris-theater-nyc-netflix-cinema-future?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Gmail

NBCU SUBSCRIPTION LAUNCH Peacock as Netflix rival

Netflix's growth slows as it braces for influx of competition

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/oct/16/netflixs-growth-slows-as-it-braces-for-influx-of-competition?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Good table of the many competing streaming offers at the end of this article

Apple hopes its new streaming service will make a splash

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/01/apple-appletv-hopes-its-new-streaming-service-will-make-a-splash?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

SEMIOTICS of 4 Working Title posters

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!).




...

WOMEN Disney back Davis gender script check

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