Media Essay

“Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices”

To some extent, I agree with the statement made as within the film industry, the distribution and marketing of the film is the most vital component that contributes to the films overall financial success. In order for specific films to achieve high box office figures, the film has to provide the widest and most effective forms of distribution and attract the largest audience possible. This is vital for larger production companies such as Walt Disney Motion Productions, who are exceedingly famous for their execution and perfection in the control and influence of the production of the films made. This is due to the control and heavy influence that the production company has on the audience, allowing them to distribute their films globally- in a successful manor. And because of their successful and respected status as a production company, they’re able to collaborate with TV companies, printed media as well as various other globally recognised companies. This allows Disney to further widen the film’s success and audience.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures are a huge company that distributed and produced Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which meant that they were able to advertise the film very easily. The large budget allowed them to advertise Star Wars in multiple ways, which catered to a variety of different audience types. The printed and online media advertisement (posters, Facebook pages, adverts, trailers etc..) This production company has an exceptional experience with producing films that achieve good reviews and a high box office figure. This is due to the fact that a variety of different element combine, allowing Disney to receive a lot of power, respect, influence and money. When marketing Star Wars; The Force Awakens, Disney used their knowledge and experience from previous success in films to create one of the most successful marketing campaigns yet. Disney also used its franchise to their advantage, as before the film was released Disney rereleased all of the six previous Star Wars films, making them available to stream online on movie sites such as Netflix. This meant that the original audience were able to reminisce and remind themselves of the old films, which got them more excited for the upcoming films. However, the use of new actors meant that the franchise was started again, which further attracted people to watch the new film. Disney Motion Pictures were able to collaborate with different companies and businesses, massively impacting the overall marketing of the film. This was made apparent when Walt Disney Motion Pictures marketed Star Wars: The Force Awakens by amalgamating with Lego, by releasing Star Wars Lego figurines and a variety of other Lego franchise. This not only promoted Star Wars: The Force Awakens, prior to the release of the film, by educating children about the upcoming film. The use of children’s toys also allowed the buyers- parents in most cases- to almost guess at what the films going to be about, based on the toys and franchise released. This essentially worked as a teaser trailer, as it got people excited and talking about Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

 

Not only did Disney market and promote Star Wars by collaborating with Lego, but they also made a deal with Google, which enabled them to produce a customised search bar. This allowed anyone using the internet to choose if they wanted to join the ‘dark side’ or the ‘light side’. And because Google is a multimillion dollar earning company, that has attracted over 300 million people since released. This massively impacted and widened the target audience, as if they hadn’t heard of Star Wars they were given the choice to click on the search bar and find out more. Disney further promoted and advertised the upcoming film by releasing an app on the Apple App Store, due to Apple’s control on today’s generation, the release of the app attracted an enormous group of people, encouraged a greater amount of people to look into the film. Although all of these forms of marketing massively increased the amount of money the film earnt, the most successful form of marketing was the release of the two teaser trailers, both of these trailers attracted and excited a global population due to the unanswered questions in the trailer, almost acting as a cliff hanger. The trailer was not only released in English but also in Chinese, which widened the audience, making it a global audience. This was important as it shows the importance of marketing, as without advertising a film, less people would know about it. This is why the control Disney has on a global audience massively impacts the sales of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

 

Disney also used social media as a good way to market the film. And due to social media being a fairly new invention, a large minority of today’s population use and rely on it for daily life. Therefor if used to market or promote films, a large minority of people are able to witness this in the comfort of their own home, making this a more flexible form of marketing. Disney were able to use popular social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr to enabled them to showcase the upcoming film (Star Wars: The Force Awaken.) This was a very knowledgeable strategy due to the brobdingnagian number of people who uses social media. This not only tackled a wide range of the audience- due to it being promoted and marketed on all forms of media- but it also meant that it was difficult to have no knowledge about the upcoming Star Wars. This has an extensive effect on the success of the film, as attracting and informing a larger audience will result in a greater amount of people attending the cinemas and purchasing the film when it is actually released.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was distributed by Disney Motion Pictures, the film was not only available in cinemas, but also through online downloads, via Blu-ray and DVD.  This meant that people could fundamentally watch the film anywhere. Lucas films- the sole production company and distributer of the film- was bought by Disney making it a vertical integration. However there were some aspects of horizontal integration as other distribution companies were involved E.G. Bad Robot. Bad Robot is owned by J.J Abrams (the director of Star Wars: The force Awakens). This had a significant impact on the success of the film, as J.J Abrams is a very famed film producer and director who directed a variety of action films such as Star Trek and Mission Impossible a lot of experience in film making. In addition, Abrams is also a well known and highly respected person in the film industry. This would have been a selling point for the new film as those who recognise his name or have enjoyed his previous films, will be eager to see his latest creation. Both of the films he directed or produced fulfilled a high box office figure and attracted a large audience and were successful films in the film industry. Which means that J.J Abrams is seen as an iconic director and therefor will further entice a larger audience when releasing Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Similarly, Kathleen Kennedy is an immensely famous film producer as well as being the president of Lucasfilms, who produced a variety of prominent films such as ET, Jurassic Park, Sixth Sense and War horse, which are both widely known around the world. This further attracted more people as they associate Kathleen with the success and popularity of the other films that she produced.

The film was captured on 35 mm and 65 mm IMAX and was distributed digitally. By distributing the film digitally not only did it save the production company lots of money- due to filming traditionally being an exceptional expensive process- but it also meant it was transported more easily. If the movie was both filmed and distributed on film, although Disney Motion Pictures could afford to do so, it is still a very expensive process, the reason why distributing films digitally is cheaper than the traditional way of distributing film, is because 35mm IMAX is eminently fragile, which means that it’s harder to mend if broken. The film is run through a projector numerous times and then begins to degrade - often developing scratches and blemishes which lowers the quality of the film dramatically. As well as being cheaper and more durable, digital distribution allows the film to be shown on platforms such as iTunes as well as on aeroplanes and on online streaming. This will encourage more people to watch the film and those who may not be able to travel to the cinemas will be given the opportunity to watch the film before it is released on DVD, despite the film being shown on around 6000 cinema screens around the world.

Prior to the purchase of Lucasfilms by Disney Motion pictures, all of the previous Star Wars films were produced by George Lucas (the founder of Lucasfilms). When Disney took ownership of Lucasfilm on 30th October 2012, they began to work on the first film- that was previously owned by Lucasfilm- changing and keeping certain aspects of the film. Despite the speculation people were making about how the film would turn out, this attracted a new audience, due to hearing about the new film. This meant that the Star Wars was able to expand its audience. Disney has a reputation of creating magical and exceptionally good films due to the high budgets they have to do so. The magical aspect attracted not only traditional Star Wars fans but children and families, which meant that it created a wider audience for the new Star Wars film. To ensure that the marketing campaign the widest group of people possible, Disney participated in a lot of brand partnerships. The Disney team collaborated with Cover Girl- the makeup brand- this worked well to capture the female section of the four quadrants. All of these aspects contributed towards the achievement of attracting all people in the four quadrants at a global scale.

Aside from the distribution and marketing of the film, the production of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was of a very high quality. Due to the fall in quality and success of the previous films, traditional fans were left disappointed, which meant that those involved in the production of Star Wars; The Force Awakens felt as though they had a heavy responsibility to impress their fans. The production team therefor wanted to use their failure of the previous films to inspire them to introduce new and different ways of creating the film. The team looked at why the first films in the franchise were such a success and used these techniques in the upcoming films. When Walt Disney Motion Pictures, bought full access to all of the characters and story lines, they were able to initially plan what they were going to do to improve the franchise. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was purposely filmed on 35 and 65mm film, Disney did this as they wanted to incorporate all aspects of the older films, and increase success. Disney filmed on film- despite it being a difficult process- as they argued that by doing so it would not only link the new and the old together but would produce a better quality film. However, they later distributed the film onto digital which made it easier to screen onto more cinema screens, due to only 15 theatres in the world having the traditional format, in where traditional film can be showcased.

Due to the fact that the first initial films were created in 1977, time has moved on and so has the technology advancements. As in 1977 there was very little technology to work with, therefore as a substitution they used real explosions, created all the costumes for the characters and used painted sets. Although technology has advanced, some of the techniques used in 1977 still featured in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, for example real explosions were used when Ray and Fin were running through the desert to add authenticity to the scene. However, advancements in technology means that although costumes were still handmade, CGI could be used to computer generate characters like Maz. The use of painted backgrounds as well as green screens meant that the traditional and modern audience, were attracted to the cinema. The use of green screens attracted a modern audience as the use of new technology increased the quality and genuineness of the film; however the use of painted backgrounds brought back aspects from the first successful films attracting the original audience.

Disney Motion Pictures made the audience feel nostalgic by bringing back old stars like Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, attracting the older traditional audience. This brings in more money as an elderly audience has a higher rate of disposable income. However, by employing new actors such as Daisy Ridley and John Boyega that hadn’t acted in any other films, the actors have no associations to other films, starting the franchise again. This makes the audience continuingly associating the particular actors to the Star Wars franchise.

Due to Disney being a leading and popular global company, they’re able to spend more money on the production of certain films E.G. Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This was made apparent when Walt Disney Motion pictures spent $306 million dollars on the production of the film; this not made it easy to produce an exceptionally good quality film, including new technology, a vast majority of locations and outstanding special effects. But it also meant it was easier to market and distribute.

Therefore, in conclusion, I believe that this film’s success was equally dependent upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as upon good production practices. Although, marketing and distribution is one of the most important steps of the success of a film, as by advertising something a larger group of people are able to know about it. As seen by the drop in box office figures from the previous Star Wars films, the production practices are just as important.