RESEARCH: SCOOPIT!

 I created my own Scoop.It account (here) so I could research film openings to help brainstorm ideas for my own project. I aimed to look at film openings from thriller and horror films to match the genre of film I wanted to create with my group. We were not as keen to include the supernatural element in our production and so most of our inspiration came from films that revolve around the concept of psychopaths and murderers rather than ghosts and monsters. 

RESEARCH: TITLE SEQUENCES

 Thor Ragnarok (2017)

• Production Company - Marvel Studios
• Distribution Company - Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Director - Taika Waititi
• Writers - Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle and Christopher L. Yost
• Producer - Kevin Feige, p.g.a 
• Executive Producers - Louis D'esposito, Victoria Alonso and Brad Winderbaum
• Executive Producers - Thommas M Hammel, Stan Lee
• Co Producer - David J. Grant
• Based on -  Mavel Comics by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby
• Director of Photography - Javier Aguirresarobe
• Production Designers - Dan Hennah and Ra Vincent
• Editors - Joel Negron and Zene Baker
• Costume Designer - Mayes C. Rubeo
• Visual Effects Supervisor - Jake Morrison
• Visual Effects Producer - Cyndi Ochs
• Music - Mark Mothersbaugh
• Music Supervisor - Dave Jordan
• Casting - Sarah Halley Finn
• Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Hopkins

Finding Dory (2016)

• Production Company - Walt Disney Pictures Pixar Animation Studios
• Distribution Company - Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures 
• Director - Andrew Stanton
• Co Director - Angus Maclane
• Producer - Lindsey Collins, p.g.a
• Executive Producer - John Lasseter
• Associate Producer - Bob Roath
• Writer - Andrew Stanton
• Screenplay - Andrew Stanton and Victoria Strouse
• Music - Thomas Newman
• Story Supervisor - Max Brace
• Film Editor - Axel Geddes
• Production Designer - Steve Pilcher
• Supervising Technical Director - John Halstead
• Production Manager - Becky Neiman-Cobb
• Supervising Animators - David Devan and Michael Stocker
• Directors of Photography - Jeremy Lasky and Ian Megibben
• Character Art Director - Jason Deamer
• Sets Art Director - Don Shank
• Character Supervisor - Jeremie Talbot
• Sets Supervisor - Colin Hayes Thompson
• Effects Supervisor - Chris J Chapman
• Rendering Supervisor - Humera Yasmin Khan
• New Technology Integration Supervisor - David Ryu
• Global Technology and Simulation Supervisor - Patrick Coleman
• Crowds & Additional Animation Supervisor - Paul Mendoza
• Crowds Technical Supervisor - Paul Kanyuk
• Sounds Designer - Tim Nielsen
• Casting - Kevin Reher and Natalie Lyon
• Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Ed O'Neill, Kaitlin Olson and Hayden Rolence

DIGITAL STORYTELLING

I watched an informative video where Frank Ash, the creative consultant from the BBC talked about digital storytelling - how to connect with an audience emotionally. This can be done by creating a storyline that they can relate to as well as maximising the sense of anticipation and suspense throughout the film. 

With this in mind, when planning my own production, I will devise a top line (one elegant sentence which sums up the film opening) and focus on the big question (what will happen next?).

I used the information from the video and turned it into a comic strip using ComicLife:

RESEARCH: DISTRIBUTION COLLAGE

 I watched a presentation on the FDA website by Kezia Williams, head of theatrical distribution at Pathe. She talked about how distributors work to create a successful new marketing campaign for each film, on the film distributors' association site. It was also explained by Chris Besseling, Director of Marketing at Pathe, that distributors market a film's USP (Unique Selling Point) such as its star cast, its provenance, its awards and good reviews to bring positive attention to the film.

The film I decided to research was 'The Lion King'. This popular live action film was released on July 19th 2019 and was a remake of the original that came out June 15th 1994. The storyline follows the adventure of the young lion Simba, the heir of his father Mufasa. Simba's wicked uncle plots to usurp Mufasa's throne by luring father into a stampede of wildebeests. Simba manages to escape and only Mufasa is killed. Simba returns as an adult to take back his homeland from Scar with the help of his friends Timon and Pumbaa. 

I investigated the different aspects of a marketing campaign and film distribution for this film. This consisted of film posters; the film website; film trailers; social medias such as Facebook; Twitter and Instagram as well as news articles; interviews; award ceremonies and cross promotion.  

Film Posters

The film had multiple film posters for the marketing campaign in order to capture the audiences eye and make them remember to watch the movie. This film had various film posters - some of which included individual character posters. These posters are greatly effective as they introduce us to the characters of the movie whilst also using famous movie talent to boost the marketing campaign like Chris Besseling talked about. Stars such as Beyoncé have a massive fan base and by placing her name on the poster, it automatically grabs the attention of any fan of hers and will make them want to see the movie that features their beloved celebrity. As well as Beyoncé, the film features more well-known actors such as Seth Rogan, who is famous for his role in Neighbours as well as Chiwetel Ejiofor who performed in Doctor Strange. These actors both have a relatively young fanbase as their other works have been in movies with a predominant teen/young adult target audience. This means that it is likely that younger generations will watch the film as there are cast members that they recognise. Equally, this remake of the well-known original that came out in the early 90s also attracts an older fanbase because James Earl Jones, who played Mufasa in the original, also plays Mufasa in this renewed version. By casting these actors and placing their popular names on the film posters, it entices a wide range of viewers to see The Lion King as they know it will be a good quality film with a-list actors and celebrities. 

Trailers

The story of The Lion King is already very well known to most and therefore the trailer aims to entice the audience by highlighting the top quality CGI. The teaser trailer was released in November 2018 and focuses on the main concept of the film - 'the circle of life'. There is a close-up shot of Simba's paw stepping into an imprint of his fathers which clearly shows the audience that the film will be based on the life of Simba as he grows up to take the place of his father as king. In the official trailer that was later released in April 2019, it reveals a little more about the film but not so much that it gives everything away and so the audience is still eager to watch it. It is also filled with dramatic music that helps to heighten the emotion happening on-screen as well as includes songs that the audience can sing along to such as 'Hakuna Matata' and 'In the Jungle' highlighting the upbeat and comical moments within the film. The trailer is an extremely effective way of advertising the movie, especially by introducing a teaser trailer first, followed by an official trailer as it keeps the audience interested. 

Online and Social Media

The film does not have its own website but because it is produced by Disney which is such a huge franchise, it is more effective and efficient to use the official Disney website to promote the film. The website provides some information in a clear format which makes it easy for the audience to learn about the film. For example, there is a section with a simple synopsis of the film and the genre (Adventure, Drama), the age rating (PG) and the head producers' names. You are also told the various platforms that you can view the film and links that will take you to a choice of retailers where you can buy the movie. Finally, it also includes the several trailers for the film which is helpful as everything can be found in one place. It is also a subtle marketing strategy as by using the Disney website, it also promotes other Disney movies such as 'Mulan' and encourages visitors to subscribe to Disney+. 

The film is also promoted via social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. By using various platforms, the announcement of the film was able to reach a wide range of people of different ages. These social media accounts features updates of new trailers, posters and images that get released. A Spotify official playlist was created to further entice audiences even after they had watched the film. 

Advertisement and Publicity

Most of the first news about the movie came via casting announcements supplemented by various comments from Jon Favreau (the director) about what drew him to the movie. The big first publicity moment came when Disney bought footage from the "Circle of Life" sequence to D23 (The Official Disney Fan Club) in 2017, two years before the scheduled release date. This footage was chosen as the public's first look as it highlights the amazing quality and CGI used in the film. 

More clips were offered at CinemaCon 2019 which drew very positive reactions from industry and press. By releasing small clips at a time, the production company were able to create anticipation and excitement leading up to the official release of the movie. 

Earlier in July, a number of promotions for the movie were released such as interviews and talks with the cast. One of which included a chat and performance by JD McCrary and Shahadi Wright Joseph (the voices of young Simba and Nala). Later on, behind the scene footage was released and published on YouTube which allowed audiences to see how the movie was put together with the voice actors as well as organised press conferences that boosted the film's publicity even more . 

Press Conference on July 10th in Beverly Hills

The film had plenty of promotional partnerships such as:

• Dole - which put sticker promotions for the movie on its fruit and made a series of themed recipes available coupled with tips on healthy eating.
• McDonald's - which offered customers that bought Happy Meals exclusive movie toys. Each toy connected with the others so customers could collect them and recreate scenes from the movie. They also ran TV spots to promote those Happy Meals
• Pandora - offered a line of jewellery inspired by the movie that was supported by in-store promotions and TV spots. 
• Google - which included The Lion King as one of the three audiobooks read by Kristen Bell accessible exclusively through Google Home Mini. 
• ASOS- which released a collection of clothing inspired by the iconic sights, colours and charactes from the film.
• Luminess - which offered a collection of movie-inspired make-up in collaboration with Sir John.  

  

  Cross-Promotion
  

Since this film has been released, the social media accounts have been revised to suit and promote the new film by Beyoncé "Black is King" which is designed to showcase the beauty and richness of the cultures in the African continent. This film serves as a visual companion the the 2019 album The Lion King: The Gift which was a tie-in album curated by Beyoncé for the Lion King movie. There are central themes from The Lion King that are repeated throughout Beyoncé's film which she links to the concept of how the world could thrive when Black men step into kingship. This allowed the movie The Lion King to be viewed and interpreted in another way with more solemn themes that could be linked to the Black Lives Matter Movement that was circulating globally at the time. 

Overall

The marketing campaign for The Lion King was incredibly successful and despite the fact that it had to top the original movie which would be hard to do as it was so popular, it still received amazing reviews and earnt a 4.5 star rating. 

It won several awards including a Guinness World Record for the highest-grossing remake at the global box office in 2020 at $1.6 billion, surpassing Frozen. It is the seventh-highest-grossing film of all time. 

PRODUCTION PRACTICE: MONTAGE/TABLETOP SEQUENCE

"WHOLE WORLD IN A TABLE TOP"

Our brief was to create a title sequence using only a table top and props with a small part of live action at the end of it, using a given soundtrack. 

For research, in class we watched Delicatessen and To Kill a Mockingbird which both use table top sequences. The camera gets placed in a birds-eye-view shot and pans over a cluster of overlapping props to suggest a certain narrative. 

Preesha, Charlotte and I worked together to produce a title sequence that revolved around the story of a mother of two (Olivia Blake) who has gone missing and an investigation is taking place.

In session 1, we set up our table top, placing a black cloth over the table to use as a background. We arranged our props - which consisted of lots of newspapers; a briefcase; an investigation board; a passport; lots of dollar bills and a screwdriver. We used fake blood and smeared it onto the dollar bills and coated the end of the screwdriver in it to infer the idea that she had been murdered. We organised our props and guided the camera in a specific order so that the end shot would be of the main newspaper article with a printed picture of Olivia's face which was effective as we then placed the screwdriver down on top of it to heighten drama and tension. I also marked my hands in fake blood and as the camera was panning over the investigation board, I placed a pin into it.

We then uploaded our footage to iMovie where we added our soundtrack - 'Moonlight Sonata' by Beethoven which added to the creepy ambiance we were aiming for. We also added in credits and used a fade in and out effect to add mystery. 

FILM OPENING CODES AND CONVENTIONS

Film Opening Codes and Conventions from JessFoster8