Role of a production Company The production company are the most important people in all media. They are the people who can either make a film a success or a downfall. There are two types of production companies, mainstream independent or independent. Independent films have to find funding in order for their film to go ahead. The production companies have a lot of responsibility to deal with when working in this industry. They deal with things such as marketing, distribution and scripting. Normally production companies work with big media conglomerates which are all part of the success. A production company have many roles in advertisement; this can be by either, TV advertisement, film, radio, magazines and posters. They need to make sure that there advertising is done to perfection because if it isn’t this could have an effect on the film’s success. They are also in charge of fund-raising (if independent) scheduling and scripting. The bigger the company, the more money it has. This can affect the advertisement and the success of a media piece. For example the bigger the company the more money it has to advertise the film. If a film also has a good review some people look at the production company to see other films they have made and this is how the reputation of the film industry starts. This can also have the opposite effect, if a film is bad, the audience can look at the film company who made it and be put off their films. This is why there is so much pressure on production companies. Smaller film companies can also have just as much success as the bigger ones, but due to them not being as wealthy this could have an effect on the advertising which could then result in fewer views. Some people disagree and believe that smaller film companies have better ideas because there’s fewer people all working together, which can be true also. Some people also believe that even though small film companies can’t afford as much advertising as bigger ones they are still able to get the views and interest, which can be also true. In media, distribution is highly competitive, it is one thing being able to launch the film but it is another trying to make it stay popular. The distributors job is to introduce the movie to the market. Before doing this they must understand the target audience for the film. For example if a film was targeted at teenagers the distributors could ensure that they place posters of the film in places that teenagers are going to see. For example most teenagers use public transport, which means that some posters could be put in the bus shelters to catch their attention. These posters are normally a teaser of the film about to be released, it is normally released months before the actual film to give people a chance to discuss and come to their own conclusion about what they believe the film will be about. Also some posters could be put in college to ensure that they grab the teenagers attention. The target audience's likes and dislikes are also important when making a movie. Some other elements that will need to be discussed and taken into consideration are age, gender, lifestyle and media usage. Some ways of obtaining this information is through questionnaires, this helps the distributors understand their audience which then gives them the best possible chance in the film being successful because of this. If media consumption is very high amongst the chosen target audience, then research would be need to be done further to establish which sites where the most popular. For example if facebook was the most popular social networking site amongst the target audience then the distributors would have to ensure that advertisements for the film where featured on there as this will be targeting their
selected audience. During the distribution process they have to predict how much the film will roughly bring in in order for them to obtain a budget. Cost is one of the most important elements to take into consideration when you are in the distributing business, this means that advertising, and the marketing team have to watch what they spend in order to not overspend. With the development of global media, it is important that the target audience's tastes are monitored regularly. Interests and likes and dislikes are quite easily change. For example in 2009 Facebook was more popular than twitter and now in 2013 twitter is more popular. The date a movie is released is also very important because of how competitive the market for media is. Companies need to ensure that they do not release the same genre of movie at the same time of year as another. Something to consider if you are targeting young children/ young teenagers are school holidays. Most children watch the TV when they are off school to keep the occupied, which is why most distributors decided to promote their movies around this time as they will be seen by their target audience during adverts (If they are children) and also in the holidays you arrange trips with your children to keep them occupied or go to the cinema with friends, so this is also why it is important to advertise. Actors are something which can make a film become successful. If the target audience like a character in the movie, they feel as if they are able to relate with them and therefore they are more inclined to watch a film that they are in. It only takes one film that someone enjoys, for them to warm to the characters that were in that film. This makes it easier for distributors to seize the opportunity to use the well known actors. Distributors also use the face of celebrities featuring in their film (if they have any) on posters because they know that if their target audience sees a familiar face it will make them want to know what is being advertised. With the development of global media target audiences are able to follow there favorites celebrities on twitter. Following is when you keep an eye on what your favorite celebrities are doing through there own individual tweets (a short sentence on what you are doing/looking forward too) if interviews are put on twitter and or YouTube this makes it easier for the target audience intended to find them. Some distributors plan interviews with the celebrities on TV because the interviews give away a little but about the film and also the celebrities role within it. This gives the target audience familiarity with the film before it has even been released, wanting them to go and watch it. For example if a target audience was middle aged women, they may ask 'Loose Women' if they are able to interview one of the main stars in their program as this way they are speaking straight to there target audience. This is the job of the publicity. As previously mentioned, the film industry are very competitive. The distributor has to ensure that they keep competing against their competition. Trailers are a good source of advertisement, they include short clips of the scenes which is just enough for the audience to have a general understanding of what it is about. It normally includes some short action clips to keep the audience in suspense and normally ends on a cliff hanger.
When distributing a film the advertising is crucial. If there is little advertisement then this means that the audiences will be a lot smaller as not as many people will know about it whereas if there is a lot of advertising the audience size will be larger which will bring in higher revenue. This depends on what on what type of production company is in charge of the film. If it is Independent then they will have to find fund raising in order to obtain the money to advertise their film which means that the advertisement relies heavily on donations which may result in them not being as big as a mainstream independent production company. The most popular form of advertisement are posters or billboards, TV adverts or advertisement of social networking sites. There are also sometimes advertisements on drinks bottles advertising films and often giving you the chance to win tickets to go and see them. McDonald’s have started to advertise Disney films on their happy meals because they know that the target audience for Disney films are young children. They have the incentive of a novelty toy in them which makes the children more curious about the film. By McDonald’s advertising Disney films it gives the film recognition but also the food restaurant itself as children want to go back to get more toys in their meal. Test screening has been argued to be a good idea, this is where you give you audience snippets of the actual movie and then you receive feedback from them on what they thought, this can be done through questionnaires. This will help the distributors understand what the audience liked and what they dislike, so they are able to change and correct the dislikes in order to make it more successful. Production companies work alongside the Distributors. A distributors role includes controlling the marketing and circulation of a film, they control how a movie is shown and then find the correct way to advertise it. The distributors decide how long the film will be shown on screen for and and how much money it has made. They work out how many people have been to see it, if this is a lot then they will show it for longer and if this isn’t many then they stop the screening. Sometimes if it is a really popular film for example 'harry potter' or it is a sequel then they will ensure that they have it shown at more cinemas as they believe that a lot of people will watch it, so they will be able to make more money. This applies in the same way as to if the film was unpopular, instead of wasting money the distributors will take it down. Universal studios: is an American motion picture studio and is also one of the six main movie studios. It made films such as ‘back to the future’ and ‘jaws’