Paranormal Activity

Cost:
Gross: $194 million worldwide

The Blair Witch Project

Cost: from £500,000-£750,000
Gross: $248,639,099
Production: Filming began in 1998 and lasted 8 days,
Marketing: Artisan spent around $25 million,  Internet campaign to make the story of the film seem real.
Distribution: first widely released film marketed on the internet.
Exhibition: Released 1999 after months of publicity, positively received by critics.


 

Bullet Boy Marketing Campaign

The campaign aimed its ads towards anything associated with the main character, Ashley Walters.  This included:

• R 'n' B and Garage radio stations,
• All National Newspapers with a significant space allocated to film reviews,
• Newspapers with a black perspective,
• A selective London Underground Campaign.

The film soon gathered a reputation of the only film that to tackle the difficult subject of contemporary gun and gang crime in Britain's inner cities.
 
Film 4 rated Bullet Boy 4.5 stars and said "Though Dibb cannot hope to encompass the whole subject matter in a 90-minute film, his focus on how gun culture affects the entire family unit is an intelligent approach, making the wider issue accessible - and subsequently harder hitting".

The Dark Knight

Marketing campaign
Warner Bros. launched a campaign for The Dark knight in 2007 showing off the movies branding and nothing much else. However, not long after the sites launch the bat symbol that dominated most of the screen was created into a link to "I believe in Harvey Dent"  a site in which a man was campaigning for District Attorney, our first glimpse of Aaron Eckhart, the man who plays Harvey Dent.
  A few days after the first link was produced a second link was encrypted into joker cards that were found strewn over comic book stores which linked to a new site called "I believe in Harvey Dent Too!" a site in which Aaron Eckhart is show again, but this time the image is vandalised with horrific clown make-up.  This image was taken down after the site had enough subscribers for updates and the message "See you in December" was left.
  Distributed $1 bills directing people to WhySoSerious.com – a site that would become the hub of the online campaign and which is taken directly, we’d later see, from the movie itself. The bills were distributed at the San Diego Comic-Con in July of 2007, pretty much ensuring the participation of the legions of geeks in attendance there. The site told recipients to be at a certain place at a certain time and then sent them on a scavenger hunt of sorts, with those participating getting Joker masks and, once the clues had all been assembled, the site debuting the teaser trailer.
  WhySoSerious was briefly taken down, with the URL forwarding to Rent-A-Clown, which listed the
names of those that had participated in the San Diego game as employees.

  The ARG then entered a bit of a dark period between the end of July and the beginning of October, when WhySoSerious was relaunched, this time showing a pumpkin with a bat-shaped mouth, a direct homage to the Loeb/Lee Batman graphic novel, a book that prominently featured a pre-Two Face Harvey Dent. That focus on Two Face is important here since, over the course of October, half and only half the pumpkin would slowly rot, resulting in a disfigurement that immediately evoked the long-time Batman villain. The connection was only strengthened by the fact that, as was widely believed, something would happen on Halloween, when the candle would be burnt out completely and the rotting process complete.

That’s exactly what happened, too. On November 1st the site changed yet again, this time containing a hidden message that, once deciphered, led to RorysDeathKiss.

That site – whose name is notable since that’s the false name the movie was shot under while in Chicago – challenged people to gather in groups and take pictures of themselves in Joker-esque makeup in front of national monuments and other recognizable locations.

Those who did so – a process that involved offering a mailing address – later got physical copies of The Gotham Times while the rest of us got the paper’s website. In the paper were various stories of crimes committed, news on the mysterious Batman and other items of interest to the Gotham citizenry.

Not one to leave anything alone, though, the Joker created his own version called the TheHaHaHaTimes, featuring the same stories, though in this case versions that had been given a makeover by the lunatic.
It’s at this point that what had been a fun little diversion explodes into a fully realized alternate universe. Sites called WeAreTheAnswer, GothamPolice, GothamNationalBank, RememberingRegina, GothamCab, GothamCityRail, GVAFoundation, AcmeSecuritySystems, SaintSwithunsChurch and GothamUSD all pop up as a result of the stories in the paper. GothamCab’s site eventually then led to BettysHouseofPies.

WeAreTheAnswer, a site for community participation in fighting crime, eventually led to a new page on the GothamPolice site, and the BettysHouseofPies site led to GDPIAD, which featured an audio clip of two corrupt cops who had previously been mentioned in the Gotham Times being arrested. This side of the campaign would take a brief break, with the last thing offered being another audio clip, this time of one of a confession by one of the arrested officers.

All this while the Joker was leading people down a path from the Ha Ha Ha Times to Whysoserious.com/Personalityprofile, Whysoserious.com/mausoleum, Whysoserious.com/theperfectgetaway and eventually to Whysoserious.com/outoftime.and then Whysoserious.com/Steprightup.

It’s the last one that would have the most immediate pay-off since it contained instructions to pick up packages at 22 locations nationwide at a certain time on December 4th. Inside that package was a birthday cake with a cell phone baked into it.

There was also a new page branching off of the Step Right Up section of WhySoSerious, a section that featured a countdown clock to December 4th, that revealed the first teaser poster for the movie. At that time in the mainstream campaign, the first five minutes for the movie were being shown in front of IMAX prints of I Am Legend.

The release of the poster, and the end of this particular story arc in the campaign, came just a few days before Heath Ledger’s passing.

Whether motivated by his death of part of the plan all along – I tend to believe the latter simply because this had to have been designed ahead of time for it to be this well coordinated – the ARG then took a shift from pranks being committed by the joker and his band of ner-do-wells toward the campaign of crusading district attorney candidate Harvey Dent.

The IBelieveinHarveyDent site, the first of these micrositesdownloadable posters and campaign signs were added there, with his “supporters” being encouraged to then take a picture of themselves with the signage and then submit it to the site.

The campaign even came off the Internet in the form of the Dentmobile, a van that went around the country to various locations where the campaign had organized rallys. In some cases the rallies were met with less than enthusiasm by the actual police of some cities. Materials like Gotham City voter registration cards and other campaign materials were handed out and mailed to some of those who had registered on various sites so far, a new issue of the Gotham Times among the swag mailed. Of course the Joker responded with an updated version of the HaHaHaTimes, showing a consistency from the previous effort as well as signaling clearly that despite Ledger’s death, the character was living on in the campaign.

The battle for the District Attorney slot game heated as sites like one for Dana Worthington, another contender in the race, and one for incumbent DA Roger Garcetti popping up. At the same time supporters of justice in Gotham launched sites for the Maiden Avenue Report and the action group Citizens for Batman. Gotham Cable News also came on the online scene, profiling the candidates and providing more depth to our understanding of the political battles in the city.

Concerned Citizens for a Better Gotham, a front group for those solely interested in maintaining the corrupt status quo, sent out half-burned Dent campaign buttons at the end of March, just before players in the Joker-centric part of the game would get a message that, after visiting a page on Acme Security Systems’ site, would turn out to be from Lt. James Gordon informing them he knew who they were and they worked for him now. This came after those who had previously received Joker cell phones were told to go to various locations via the Clown Travel Agency, where they now received Joker-colored bowling balls and a new phone. It was on that phone that Gordon contacted them.

That coincided with the launch of the site for the Gotham Police Major Crimes Unit, a division headed by Gordon and committed to rooting out corrupt officials and tackling other, well, major crimes. More police officers would then be implicated in dirty dealings, with many of these cops and other officials trying to turn the debate against Dent and portray him as the crooked one, an assertion vehemently denied by ADA Rachel Dawes in a press conference that was distributed on the Maiden Avenue Report’s site.

Dent himself was then scheduled for a press conference but that had to be bumped when two of the cops accused of corruption tried to prove their innocence by taking hostages, a situation that Dent himself was able to negotiate an end to.

The investigation being run by Jim Gordon continued through text messages and more incriminating documents being added to various sites, culminating in Operation Slipknot, an effort to keep corrupt officials and cops from leaving the city. This involved having participants call the Intercontinental Hotel and having packages re-routed to them instead of their intended recipients. This led to the fall of Concerned Citizens for a Better Gotham, the sham advocacy group.

The Joker came back on the scene again by updating the It’s All Part of the Plan portion of WhySoSerious with information on coordinating local meetings at certain places. Upon meeting, the players were tasked first with finding numeric clues and then entering them on the site. That led to a carnival-esque duck shooting game at Sitting Ducks and then, after a countdown of a day or less, to a new Happy Trails page that contained the new theatrical trailer for the movie.

Harvey Dent’s campaign continued on through all of this, with his election soon being announced on the newly launched Gotham Cable News site, featuring the news program “Gotham Tonight.” The Gotham Times also made Dent’s win news and pointed to Gotham City Pizzeria’s site, a site that gave away a handful of free pizzas around the country. That pizza place’s site would later be hit by the Joker and point to WhySoSerious.com/MyHero, where people got their first glimpse of footage of Two-Face, footage that was shortly taken down.

The Joker then sent phone-owners a puzzle that leads to LaughTillItHurts page on WhySoSerious, a page that would eventually feature security camera footage of a Gotham bank.

Gordon’s Operation Slipknot would continue on, as would the Joker’s campaign of chaos, with the addition of a RedBalloons page, featuring another carnival midway-type game, to WhySoSerious. Gotham Cable News also continued adding Batman sightings and other news to its site. The Joker would take credit in a message sent to supporters that he was responsible for killing a mobster, a murder Gordon was investigating.

Eventually two more games were added to WhySoSerous, Operator (which involved all the cell phone owners) and PunkDrop. When the latter was completed a new poster was revealed.

Messages left on a variety of sites coupled with software keys that were decoded by participants led to the discovery of events being organized July 8th in Chicago and New York, an event that turned out to be the displaying of the Bat-symbol on the Sears Tower and Woolworth Building, respectively, events that were live-streamed on the web for those not able to make it.

WhySoSerious updated one more time with a new Overture page that counted down to 10PM on July 10th. At that time an email was sent to the Joker’s army that lead to a list of times and locations for free IMAX screenings of the movie, events that quickly sold out.

Just days before the movie, those with Joker phones got a call from a person supposedly being held hostage within Gotham National Bank, a call that ended with what appeared to be the Joker’s laugh before ending abruptly.

Just a couple of days before the end of the campaign all of ARG’s sites were defaced by the Joker, with the odd eyes and faces being pasted over all the pictures and his signature “hahahahaha” scrawled all over the screen, marking what appears to be his last laugh at the people of Gotham.

To sum up, here’s a list (as complete as I can make it) of all the sites that have been involved in this campaign’s storyline, in no particular order.

Made by: Warner Bros.
Made in: 2008.

Bullet Boy

Released 2005
Directed by - Saul Dibb
Written by - Saul Dibb, Catherine Johnson
Production Companies - BBC Films, UK Film Council, Shine
Distributors - British Broadcasting Corporation

Old Hollywood - Impact on Audience and Industry

Old Hollywood's impact on its audience:

• The films seen by the audience were predictable due to the genres that each film studio stuck to.
• Audiences found it easier to select a film due to their film studio preferences.
• Films seen by the audience may have been short cut in order to save time for more films.
• Audiences had lots of films available.
• Film studios stuck to a certain genre.

Old Hollywood's impact on its industry:

• There was a higher workload, due to the amount of films that were to be produced in a small amount of time.
• There was always work due to the sheer amount of films being produced and also the use of contracts which workers down for a long period of time.
• Due to certain actors working for certain film studios, they eventually specialised their acting to suit the studio's genre of choice adding more realism to the acting in their films.

The Producer Unit System

The Producer Unit System

1931-1940

Central producer still maintained high degree of control over all of the film production at a given studio, but it was difficult to keep tabs on the growing number of films. It is also difficult for central producer to be an “expert” in every genre - Various studios’ central producers began assigning assistants to take over a degree of control over smaller groups of film. - Specialisation increased -Different directors under central producer specialised in various genres of films

-Films of a particular studio beginning to all “look alike”, influence of central producer decreasing the individuality of the films -Central producer replaced by a number of producers ( “associate producers”) -Desire to decrease costs; with a smaller number of films for each producer to supervise, he could keeper tighter control over costs -More different kinds of movies produced; producers made movies within their Specialisations

- Producer-Unit system adopted by all Big 5 studios, which allows them to make more film more efficiently than during the silent era. - Part of general increase in Specialisation & departmentalization at the studios - Increased the division of labor. Jobs in other departments also became more specialised. New jobs created by new technologies of sound & color (technicians, dialogue writers, voice coaches)

The Dark Knight cover analysis

The Dark Knight is Promoted through both stars and genre:

• Christian Bale (Batman) sells the film with Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
• Christian Bale stands alone on the cover yet he is stood strong indicating independence.  Both Christian Bale and his character (Batman) promote the film.
• The genre of action is promoted through the use of colour, setting and the characters shown. 

http://www.moviemarketingmadness.com/blog/2008/07/movie-marketing-madness-the-dark-knight/

The Dark Knight is also promoted through both stars and genre in its posters and trailers:

• Michael Caine promotes the film during its teaser trailer. The colours and shattering of the batman symbol during the clip indicates action. The other trailers show all of the main characters and stars throughout the clips.
• The posters tend to stick to the colours of blue, black, red and white; this combination works well with the genre of action.

Top Genres of all time

Most of the Films below tend to either be: Action, Sci-fi, family films or films that re-tell a true story e.g Titanic, which also has a romantic theme to it.

Released	Film Name

Total Box Office
1	2009	Avatar	$760,507,625
2	1997	Titanic	$600,788,188
3	2008	The Dark Knight	$533,345,358
4	1977	Star Wars Ep. IV: A New Hope	$460,998,007
5	2004	Shrek 2	$441,226,247
6	1982	ET: The Extra-Terrestrial	$435,110,554
7	1999	Star Wars Ep. I: The Phantom Menace	$431,088,297
8	2006	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest	$423,315,812
9	2010	Toy Story 3	$415,004,880
10	1994	The Lion King	$414,548,100
11	2002	Spider-Man	$403,706,375
12	2009	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	$402,111,870
13	2005	Star Wars Ep. III: Revenge of the Sith	$380,270,577
14	2011	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II	$379,750,747
15	2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	$377,027,325
16	2004	Spider-Man 2	$373,524,485
17	2004	The Passion of the Christ	$370,782,930
18	1993	Jurassic Park	$357,067,947
19	2011	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	$352,358,779
20	2002	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	$341,784,377

Spiderman 3 - Case Study

Codes and conventions of Spider-man 3:

• The font in which Spider-man is written and the metallic colour of it,
• The bold red and blue colours link everything to Spider-Man,
• The shots of sky scrapers link well with Spider-Man,
• The use of intense "thuds indicate the action in the film",
• The fast paced trailers link the film well with the action genre,
• They emphasise the romantic feel to the trailers, maybe so it will appeal more to women.
• The posters are split into two parts: Dark when spider-man is in a black costume, and lighter when he's in his original costume, indicating the duality in the new film.

RKO Studios

RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) was founded in 1929 as RKO Radio Productions Inc and was known as one of "The Big Five" during Hollywood's Golden Age.
    RKO Produced films such as: King Kong (1933), Rio Rita (1929), Check and Double Check (1930), Top Hat 1935 and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949).
   In 1957, the original RKO Pictures stopped production and closed two years later until it was brought back in 1981 as a production subsidiary by RKO General. However, in 1989 the company sold its remaining assets. such as its right to recreate classic RKO films and its trademarks to new the latest owners who now run a small independent company, RKO Pictures LLC, who don't produce films, but distribute them.

Sean Penn

Films most known for:
    Mystic River, 21 Grams, DogTown and Z-Boys, Milk.
    Each film has some sort of accident, in which he has to recover.  Or he has to fight for something he believes in, this gives off a message that Sean Penn generally plays a loyal character who's willing to fight for what he thinks is right.
How he was treated in the Film industry:

   Fans and critics were enthused about his obvious talent and he next contributed a stellar performance alongside Timothy Hutton in the Cold War spy thriller The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), followed by a teaming with icy Christopher Walken in the chilling At Close Range (1986). The youthful Sean then paired up with his then wife, pop diva Madonna in the woeful, and painful, Shanghai Surprise, which was savaged by the critics, but Sean bounced back with a great job as a hot-headed young cop in Colors (1988), gave another searing performance as a US soldier in Vietnam committing atrocities in Casualties of War (1989) and appeared alongside Robert De Niro in the uneven comedy We're No Angels (1989). However, the 1990s was the decade in which Sean really got noticed by critics as a mature, versatile and accomplished actor, with a string of dynamic performances in first-class films. (1986), which was savaged by the critics, but Sean bounced back with a great job as a hot-headed young cop in

Stars Selling Products

Rimmel - Zooey Deschanel
Loreal - Penelope Cruz
Una Thurman - Alfa romeo
Hugo Boss - Orlando Bloom
Avon - Reese Witherspoon
Clearasil - Vanessa Hudgens
Keira Knightley - Chanel

Star Powerpoint - Brad Pitt

Top 20 Stars at the Box Office

		Name	No. of Movies	Total Film Gross    Average film gross
1		Frank Welker	96	$6,279,159,825		$65,407,915
2		Samuel L. Jackson	85	$5,282,375,720		$62,145,597
3		Tom Hanks	44	$4,449,980,530		$101,135,921
4		John Ratzenberger	32	$3,912,466,989		$122,264,593
5		Harrison Ford	41	$3,784,518,909		$92,305,339
6		Eddie Murphy	36	$3,710,539,654		$103,070,546
7		Warwick Davis	18	$3,512,651,328		$195,147,296
8		Tom Cruise	35	$3,355,871,014		$95,882,029
9		Hugo Weaving	22	$3,353,109,744		$152,414,079
10		Alan Rickman	32	$3,332,856,277		$104,151,759
11		Jack Angel	28	$3,317,891,129		$118,496,112
12		Morgan Freeman	52	$3,279,026,218		$63,058,197
13		James Earl Jones	47	$3,261,150,733		$69,386,186
14		Robin Williams	58	$3,234,383,008		$55,765,224
15		Gary Oldman	34	$3,233,669,787		$95,107,935
16		Bruce Willis	62	$3,219,308,730		$51,924,334
17		Robbie Coltrane	33	$3,167,825,183		$95,994,703
18		Johnny Depp	47	$3,118,037,105		$66,341,215
19		Stan Lee	16	$3,071,203,283		$191,950,205
20		Mickie McGowan	25	$3,011,117,406		$120,444,696

Men In Black 3

Release date (UK) - 23rd, May 2012,

Director - Barry Sonnenfeld,

Writers - Etan Cohen (screenplay), Lowell Cunnigham (comic), David Koepp (screenplay), Jeff Nathanson (screenplay), Michael Soccio (screenplay).

Stars - Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin

Stars: Case study - Stars Now vs Stars Then

Cary Grant:
Most famous films:"Bringing Up Baby", "Gunga Din", "The Philadelphia Story", "Penny Serenade", "Arsenic and Old Lace", "None but the Lonely Heart", "Notorious", "To Catch a Thief", "An Affair to Remember" and "North by Northwest".
Box office success: Total Gross of films starred in: $204,443,253
                                  Average Gross per film:          $    9,735,395
Attachment to any Studios or Production Companies:  Signed with Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures,
Press and Public Persona:  A sophisticated actor.
Nominations: Twice for the Academy Award for "Best Actor" and five times for the Golden Globe for "Best Actor".
Awards: Honorary Oscar for "his unique mastery of the at of screen acting with the respect and affection of his colleagues".
Key roles and Character types: A sophisticated, light comedy leading man.
Genres of film: Light Comedies.
Roles within film making other than star: None.
Length of film career: 1932 - 1966 (34 years).

Johnny Depp
Most Famous Films: "The Pirates of the Carribean Movies", "Edward Scissorhands", "The Libertine", "Cry Baby", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "Blow", "Sleepy Hollow", "Donnie Brasco", "From Hell", "What's eating Gilbert Grape?".
Box Office Success: Total gross of films starred in : $2,887,768,954
                                   Average gross per film:           $     78,047,810
Attachment to any Studios or Production Companies: Sony, Paramout, Walt Disney, Fox, Warner Bros.,
Press and Public Persona: Family man with a musical streak.
Nominations: 3 Academy Awards,  Two BAFTA's, 10 Golden Globe Awards, Two SAG Awards, 11 Teen Choice Awards.
Awards: A Golden Globe Award, An SAG Award, 8 Teen Choice Awards.
Key roles and Character types: Both child and adult comedy.
Genres of film: Family
Roles within film making other than star: Director, Screenwriter and Producer.
Length of film career: 1984 - Present (27 years)

Differences between star now and star then: Star now has a lot more awards than the star then, Films that the modern actor stars in makes a lot more money, The contemporary star contributes more to the film industry than the classic star.