Audiences and Institutions Essay: How do Institutions Target Specific Audiences in the Industry you have Studied?

First Page: Question, marking and comment page
Pages 2, 3, 4, and 5: Essay

What Made Animal Kingdom a Marketing Success?

Animal Kingdom is a very low budget film - it was made with a budget of fewer than 5 million pounds as opposed to big-budget blockbuster movies like Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides which has a budget of between 150 and 250 million pounds. This means that there is more room for profit, but less room for the development of the film.

The main thing that made Animal Kingdom a marketing success was the use of social networking sites. By posting news and information about Animal Kingdom on Twitter, Facebook, etc. it allowed the makers of this film to directly target people who want to see these films.                                                                    

In addition to this, Animal Kingdom has only been screened in small, independent cinemas - and in only a small handful of them. This is not a disadvantage, however. Mostly, the people who wish to see small, independent films like Animal Kingdom choose to see them beforehand - they have the intent of going to see this film, rather than turning up, seeing that it looks good, and watching it. There will be people who come across it this way, but mostly people will make the personal decision to see the film. The result of this is that people who want to see this film (possibly because of directed marketing online, as aforementioned) will probably go out of their way to travel a further distance to an independent cinema showing the film. This attracts people from a wider area to the cinema - nullifying the possible disadvantage of less cinemas screening the film.

Another very important part of Animal Kingdom's marketing was its focus on the Sundance award it claimed. As a prestigious, famous award among the film industry, this signifies Animal Kingdom as a better film than most. When looking through a list of films, this can really make Animal Kingdom stand out. This award presents a very important marketing tool that Animal Kingdom used well to stand out from the crowd. The fact that it richly deserves the award helps as well.


Finally, the trailer for this film is an often overlooked, brilliant part of the film's marketing. It is a very stylish trailer (personally, one of the best I have ever seen) that effectively gets across the main information about the film. A great choice of music (All You Need Is Love by Air Supply) also assists greatly as it not only improves the quality and entertainment of the trailer, but it makes it memorable. It is so memorable fue to the brilliant use of the music. It comes in after the hard-hitting words "Protection, Manipulation, Morality, Survival, Loyalty" and provides an effective change of pace. The fact that the trailer is so memorable improves the widespread knowledge of the film as people watch the trailer and are interested by it.

Overall, Animal Kingdom was a marketing success because of clever, effective marketing methods that marketed the film brilliantly to the audience that would want to watch it.

The trailer for Animal Kingdom that I mentioned:

"Senna" Trailer Analysis

This trailer is very important for marketing the film "Senna". While Formula 1 fans would probably already know about this film and be planning on seeing it (like me), non-F1 fans would need to be persuaded. This trailer does that by focusing a lot on the person as well as the racing (like the film, actually). Also, the trailer manages to quickly tell (the main parts of) the story of Ayrton Senna to everyone, even people who do not know anything about F1. By adding extra things, like some of the controversies, accidents and successes from  Senna's career and life, the trailer gives viewers more reason to see the film than they probably had before they viewed this trailer.

"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" Trailer Analysis

This trailor markets "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" to it's target audience. As the film is mainly targeted towards the European market, the trailer focuses on European aspects of the film, such as the A-list European actors. There is quite a lot of time in the trailer which is devoted to images of the actors, or their names (e.g. Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy). The trailer also mentions the talented European film-maker, Tomas Alfredson. As well as this, the plot has a lot of focus in this trailer. The narrator clearly describes the plot, and a lot of effort is put into making it sound as dramatic as possible, while it is accompanied by suitably dramatic shots that strengthen that focus on the spy/secret agent storyline.

In addition, the sound plays a very important role in this trailer. Tense, dramatic music is used that feels like it is building up to an event. This, along with the aforementioned narration and film clips, really makes the trailer feel like it is building up to a climax. As the trailer does not give you the answer to the mystery (obviously), you want to go and see the film to find out what happens.

How has Working Title adapted to changes in the film industry?

The Biritsh film company Working Title has had to adapt to all the changes in the film industry.

One significant way that Working Title has had to adapt to changes in the film industry is how it packages its films to appeal to the US market. As the US market is attracted to British A-list actors as well as American A-list actors, Working Title is using more famous British actors in its film. An example is one of Working Title’s latest films, Johnny English Reborn. This has Rowan Atkinson in it, a British actor adored by the American market. Also, it is packaged as more of a comedy, and appeals to home viewing. As home viewing (DVDs, Blu-Ray, TV, Pay-per-view) is now much more popular than the cinema (96% of films are watched at home now), this is an important adaptation that Working Title has made.

Furthermore, films like Senna appeal to cultures within the American market. There are many motorsport fans in the US, and so a film about one of the most iconic F1 drivers will sell well.

In addition, by making the film and DVD release of Senna a long time apart, it motivates people who want to see the film to see it at the cinema. As the DVD release was a year on from the release of the film, people who really wanted to see it went to the cinema.

Also, Working Title is having to adapt how it packages its films for the DVD market. A great example of this is Love Actually. There are several about the DVD packaging for this film that make it appeal to the DVD market. The most obvious is the “Christmas present” theme of the packaging. The packaging actually has a graphic of a bow round it, and it also has graphics of snow. This combined with the film being centred on Christmas, means that it becomes the perfect Christmas present. This, as well as the famous British and American actors listed on the front of the DVD’s packaging, makes the DVD’s packaging very effective. It is a great example of how Working Title has adapted to the fact that most films are viewed at home now.

As well as this, Working Title has adapted the way it has directed films to certain markets. An example of this is its recent film “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”. For this film, Working Title marketed the film towards the European market. They did this by using European A-list actors (like Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Tom Hardy), as well as a top class European film-maker (Tomas Alfredson). This, added to the fact that Working Title is a successful European film company, confirms that the film is targeted towards Europe. However, Universal did not fund this film. This is partly due to the European direction of the film. As "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is one of the first big films to be made completely in Europe without any involvement with Hollywood, this means less focus goes onto the Hollywood studios. As Universal Studios is based in Hollywood, this means less focus on them in particular (as they are backers of Working Title). This could be the main reason why Universal did not back this particular Working Title film.

In conclusion, Working Title has had to make some significant adaptations to keep up with the changes in the film industry. The film industry is ever-changing, and that can make it harder for smaller film companies to stay afloat. This is why Working Title has had to work hard to adapt to the changes within the film industry.