Research Task-The Life of a Film

Vertigo HistoryVertigo is a film production company that also owns The Post Republic, a production company in Berlin. The director is Nick Love who also directed Goodbye Charlie Bright, The Football Factory and The Firm. The producers include Allan Niblo (Human Traffic, Monsters and Street Dance 3D) and James Richardson (The Football Factory, It’s all gone Pete Tong as well as Street Dance 3D). Vertigo contrasts to common British production companies that focus on a limited audience and a storyline of poverty, drugs and prostitution. They differ from other production companies because they chose to focus on selling film products in a similar way to American companies, that entertain the audience.

The website:

http://www.vertigofilms.com/profile.php

STREETDANCE 3DStreetDance 3D was by far the most successful film produced by any British production company and was in the UK Box Office charts at No 1. beating Disney’s Prince of Persia! A key reason for the success of the movie was because of the audience that it was aimed at were interested that DIVERSITY, the winners of Britain’s Got Talent, FLAWLESS, the runners up and GEORGE SAMPSON, the winner of the second season of Britain’s Got Talent were part of the cast. In order to enhance the amount of people viewing the film, they advertised the movie in between commercial breaks between Britain’s Got Talent! Another way of assuring that they had a secured audience was that the fans of the Step Up films would go and see it because it is a movie about dance and a relationship. Another selling point was there website, every film has a website and theirs was outstanding in comparison to most other British funded and produced films. Moreover, the fact that it is in 3D required people to go and see it in the cinema and experience the very popular editing technique at the moment of making it 3D! So many films have gone 3D; Avatar, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Toy Story 3 being key examples-all of which are huge Hollywood blockbusters that have an already large fan-base, thus going 3D for Vertigo was a HUGE STEP!

The music within the film were all popular British singers that would be on the ipods on those going to see the film because their songs are aimed at that particular genre of people

Title stands out from the rest of the poster because of the light behind it and the capital lettering, also the light pushes the letters forward, reminding the audience that it is in 3D

Notice how they don’t have the names of the cast because the targeted audience wouldn’t know who they were so they use names of the Britain’s Got Talent finalists in order to get more attention!

A catchy phrase that captures the message of the film is common on posters

MerchandiseThere was a Street Dance 3D merchandise website that allowed you to buy T-shirts, caps, bags and posters. Having this website, automatically boosts the marketing and sales point of the film. The targeted audience that would wish to see the film are teenagers who like to dance and so would appreciate the merchandise that they can purchase.

The Street Dance logo gives the film a substantial company face.

Warner Bros. HistoryWarner Bros. is an American production company and is a subsidiary of Time Warner. The name honours the four main founding members; Jack, Harry, Albert and Sam Warner. They now own popular TV channels such as The CW (including shows such as Gossip Girl and The Ellen Degeneras Show) and WB Kids that has animated adaptations of comic book heroes such as Spiderman and Batman. Their revenue in 2007 was worth over US $11 billion and their operating income was US $845 million. They have created animated characters similarly to Disney Channel such as Bugs Bunny that have been used as a symbol of their product. They also have their own stores across the world and have produced films such as Batman: The Dark Knight and the Harry Potter sequels which were both such huge successes and therefore gave them a strong name for them. Each one of their films has its own website and one website that stood out for me was the one for Harry Potter because it included games, competitions and had links to things such as the Maraudus Map for the map of the site and the Sorting Hat, so the fans can find out what house they would be in.

Their website:

http://www.warnerbros.com/

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1) is the most recent in all of them and had an immense budget of £150 000 000 and within the first weekend received £18, 319, 721 in just 579 screens! Warner Bros. can use a huge amount of money in order to make the film because of the promised audience that they know will go and watch it. A significant reason for this is because before the films it started off as one of the most successful children’s book series ever written. Another point is that those who have grown up watching the Harry Potter films have grown up with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint and so that is a bonus because the producers can make the films scarier and riskier because the gross of the audience will have grown up as well. The franchise that was created from the Harry Potter films is more than any other film sequels. There are now cloaks, wands, broomsticks and other props that fans can purchase as well as the fact that each DVD includes interviews with cast and games that allow them to become apart of the magical world of Hogwarts. The targeted audience are people like my friends and I who have grown up reading the books when we were younger and then watching the films. The film was filmed in 3D, meaning that people have to go to the cinema in order to see it in the way that was intended, also it is in two parts meaning that the film is a cliff hanger and extends the length of the franchise because of the success of it.

The font is used in each film and the silver colouring creates a sense of mystery

The colouring of the poster hints that it is going to be scarier than the other films

They don’t need to put the cast names because of their success

It contrasts to the first film which had all of the cast, the school and the train on the poster to give the audience detail, which they no longer have to do

MerchandiseThe amount of merchandise produced from Harry Potter is huge; they have mugs, costumes, wands, bed covers, replicas, trading cards and more. The use of the merchandise gives the fans of the film an opportunity to purchase props and make them feel apart of the film. They have also teamed with Lego and Play station to create games and Lego pieces.

Warner Bros.Warner Bros. is a world renowned American distributing company that has become one of the largest in the world. It now has a store, TV channel, cartoons, merchandise and many huge blockbuster films such as Batman Begins and the Harry Potter franchise. It is a strong contrast to Vertigo which is an independent British distribution company.

VertigoVertigo is an independent British distribution company and over the years has produced films like This Is England and Football Factory. However, unlike many other British distributors, Vertigo uses the American sales tactics in order to entice an audience. Street Dance 3D is a key example of this and because of the success in its advertising, had a larger box office hit than Disney’s Prince of Persia

V.S