Film Industry Case StudyLauren Barrett

The Woman In Black (2012)

Director(s): James Watkins Producer(s): Richard Jackson; Simon Oakes; Brian

Oliver Produced by: Hammer Film Productions Screenwriter(s): Jane Goldman Main Actor(s): Daniel Radcliffe; Ciaran Hinds; Janet

McTeer; Liz White Release Date: 10 February 2012 (UK) Genre: Horror/Thriller Running Time: 95 minutes Distribution Companies: Momentum Pictures Budget: $15 million Worldwide Gross: $127,730, 736

The Woman In Black

Hammer Film Productions (Producer)

Hammer dominates the horror film market

Exclusive Media -> Hammer Film Productions

Momentum Pictures (Distributor)

Alliance Films, Inc (private) -> Momentum Pictures

One of the leading independent motion picture distributors in the UK and Ireland.

The Woman In Black~

Production Development – the film was announced in

2009, with the cast being announced in 2010 – allows the film to be hyped up more.

In order to understand and portray the character better, Radcliffe saw a psychologist.

Filming – the film was originally meant to be shot in 3D, but this idea was then scrapped.

Filming was completed in just over 3 months. Post Production – In order to qualify for a

12a rating in the UK, some of the more gruesome scenes were cut out.

The Woman In Black~

Production The film was based on the novel of the

same name by Susan Hill. Chroma Keying with a blue screen was

often used in The Woman In Black to help build up and create some of the settings such as the forest.

A lot of dark, black colours were used in the mise-en-scene of the film, a typical convention of all horror films.

The plot is very basic and easy to understand.

The Woman In Black~ Promotion & Advertising

A teaser trailer and a main trailer were made available on YouTube and on TV commercials.

A teaser campaign was launched. A Halloween competition was also launched on

YouTube to help persuade audiences to view the film. Interviews were also published on YouTube of the

cast and crew. Advertising campaigns were introduced to help draw

in the slightly younger audiences on various different platforms, such as the BlackBerry phone software, social networking sites, TV (Comedy Central, T4, ITV2 etc), music channels, online and magazines.

The Woman In Black~ Promotion & Advertising

Advertising campaigns were then broadened to attract a wider audience, such as on the underground, TV programmes and channels for older viewers, newspapers etc.

Posters were published in the underground, bus shelters and on billboards (with LED lights which enable the posters to ‘glow’ when it’s dark).

The campaign was also published in various ways in the UK’s press.

Radio stations also aired audio adverts which included comments made by the audience about the film and some of the actual auditory from the film.

The Woman In Black~ Promotion & Advertising

To gain publicity for the film, the main actor, Daniel Radcliffe, also appeared on many magazine front covers to help gain an interest in the film from potential audiences.

The world premiere took place in London at the Royal Festival Hall which gave fans the opportunity to view the film for the first time and catch a glimpse of some of the cast and main crew.

Once the film was released, the book moved into the top 10, encouraging more people to read the novel and therefore more people went to see the film once they had read the book.

The theatre version of the book also encouraged many people to see the film, and vice versa.

The Woman In Black~ Distribution and Consumption

The film was first released on the 10th of February 2012 to cinemas in the UK.

The film was released on Blu-Ray and DVD in the UK on the 18th June 2012, and on the 22nd of May 2012 in the US.

The film can be purchased and rented from iTunes. The Woman In Black can also be viewed on services

such as LoveFilm and Netflix. As a modern film, it is likely that The Woman In

Black has been filmed illegally at some point in the cinema; pirate copy films are very common as it is a cheap way for audiences to watch the film over and over again, but the quality is not good.

The Woman In Black~ Distribution and Consumption

It is often now for some websites to allow illegal downloads of the film for free, but again the quality is very poor and the film industry loses out on any profit.

NMT such as smartphones allow people constant access to the internet and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The problem with this is that some audience members can easily publish pictures and short clips of the film, as well as spoilers and opinions. This then ruins the impact of the film for other potential viewers, but can offer valuable feedback to the film company.

Particular messages are portrayed in the film, such as that of moving on after someone has died. Different viewers would takes these messages differently (encoding/decoding), where some may accept that children (or people in general) die all the time and it is something quite common, whereas others might argue that it isn’t a very nice idea and it shouldn’t be portrayed in such ways as in the film.

The Woman In Black~ Merchandising

A tie-in book version was published by Vintage Books

An album of the film’s original soundtrack, composed and produced by Marco Beltrami, was also made available to buy.

A key ring, mug and t-shirt has also been created featuring the official logo and some artwork from the film’s poster. VERTICAL SYNERGY

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Director(s): Marc Webb Producer(s): Laura Ziskin; Avi Arad; Matt Tolmach Produced by: Sony Pictures Entertainment Screenwriter(s): James Vanderbitt; Alvin Sargent; Steve

Kloves Main Actor(s): Andrew Garfield; Emma Stone; Rhys Ifans;

Dennis Leary; Martin Sheen; Sally Field Release Date: 3rd July 2012 (US); 30th June 2012 (Japan

Premiere) Genre: Superhero/action Running Time: 136 minutes Distribution Companies: Columbia Pictures & Marvel Studios Budget: $230 million Worldwide Gross: $752,216,557

The Amazing Spider-Man

Sony Pictures Entertainment

(Producer)

Columbia Pictures & Marvel Studios (Distributor)