MEST1 Section B: A Field In England

MEST1 Section B: A Field In England

The Media Magazine article based on the arthouse film ‘A Field in England,’ discusses not just the distribution of that film in particular, but also the significance of it in film distribution as a whole. This can entail traditional methods such as billboards and adverts on TV, but now also can involve social media campaigns which we see in productions such as ‘Ill Manors’ with the Tag London initiative. It’s said in the article how important this distribution can be, particularly in terms of box office figures, but it’s also made clear that distributors have to understand a number of certain things before they can go ahead with starting their advertising campaigns such as the film’s audience and also working to build interest in the film prior to its release.

1. The release of A Field In England was quite different to what is usually seen with films since it released all on the same day not just in cinemas, but also video-on-demand, DVD and Blu-Ray. This was quite a radical move by the institution involved in it since the more typical/conventional film release involves a cinema release followed by DVD and Blu-Ray ones a few months later.
2. The advantages to this kind of approach is that it helps the institution reach the largest audience possible with all the different options that they provide them to go and watch it. With this it also gives a range of people to go and view the artistic aspect of the film created which is one of the primary purposes of arthouse cinema as a whole. At the same time though, it may appeal to those interested in the portrayal of drug usage in films due to its psychedelic nature, but fundamentally fans of the arthouse genre as a whole.
3. Disadvantages to the approach are that people may choose to just watch the film on Film4 simply because it's free. While the purpose of arthouse films isn't necessarily to make a huge profit, the intent of the institutions behind it is likely to still be able to make the money they put in back, so this is likely to be a disadvantage. Additionally with the different things offered by watching the film on a different platform, audience members may have trouble deciding which one to attend - 'people instantly tweeting that they want to see it in all of the ways on the same day.'
4. A Field In England would be possibly aimed at a more older generation of people. With the film being centred around the English Civil War, it's likely to peak the interest of people interested in aspects like history and maybe even elements of their heritage - things an older generation may find themselves wanting to know about.
5. In my opinion, it's unlikely that all films will be released in a way similar to 'A Field In England' mainly due to the already quite high prominence of the online platform. With things like VOD services becoming increasingly popular, other ones like DVDs and Blu-Rays will become essentially redundant so with this said, institutions would only be wasting their money doing a rollout on all platforms.

A Field In England: the appeal of arthouse film

A Field In England: the appeal of arthouse film

1. One of the suggested audience pleasures about arthouse film is that rather than being commercially-driven, it has an artistic appeal attached to it as suggested by the name of the genre. With this things like a deeper narrative and more unconventional approach to the story come about. Another appeal would be to be recognised as more of a 'highbrow' individual within society. Since the arthouse genre is usually considered as having something of a more sophisticated nature, just being known for watching films within it can usually lead to someone being recognised as in a sense, more upper-class/superior.
2. Some audiences can tend to struggle with arthouse film particularly due to the fact that they differ so much from Hollywood films, mainly in the sense that Hollywood ones have a more conventional sense of direction. This is in the sense that Hollywood films usually end with a resolution of all of the events that took place, something we see detailed in Todorov's theory of equilibrium. Arthouse films though, tend to end without this resolution being achieved, and this can be something quite difficult to get the grips with for a typical audience.
3. Arthouse can be said to appeal only to the middle classes and older audiences to quite a reasonable extent, predominantly because of this concept of 'culture capital.' With this being, as said in the article, 'a familiarity with ‘high’ cultural forms' which is predominantly with other arthouse films, it's less likely for audiences from say a lower-class background to have an intertextual understanding of what they're watching which means they're not getting the full gist of the film.
4. A Field In England is likely to appeal a more older generation of people. With the film being centred around the English Civil War, it's likely to peak the interest of people interested in aspects like history and maybe even elements of their heritage - things an older generation may find themselves wanting to know about. More importantly though, the film is likely to appeal to admirers of the arthouse genre as a whole, more middle to upper class audiences.

Ill Manors: e-media off-site research

Ill Manors: e-media off-site research

Facebook

1. The Ill Manors Facebook page has 29,857 likes.
2. The top is working to help promote the film across all the possible platforms you can get it from whether it be Blu-Ray, DVD, download or on demand. It does this using the exact same image of Riz Ahmed holding a gun behind the Ill Manors title.

     3. 

This post can be said to appeal to the Ill Manors target audience since it's a promotion of another film that is supposedly similar to it. By saying 'Liked iLL Manors? Then you'll love OFFENDER,' the notion is brought about that the two films share certain aspects with each other so the target audience of Ill Manors who 'like' this page are essentially bound to like Offender equally as much.

This post can also appeal to them since it is a direct link to another one of the Ill Manors products - the music video. This would catch the eye of the target audience since it has links with the film established by the appearance of actors like Riz Ahmed and Ed Skrein in it but also just through the subject matter of it all.

The post above definitely would appeal to the target audience as after having watched Ill Manors, they may have liked it to a point where they feel inclined to take it home with them, so the provision of the opportunity to buy it on DVD or Blu-Ray not only appeals to them but also benefits the institution itself.

Appeal to the target audience can also be scoped out here as the posts relates to the creator of the institution itself - Plan B. Having been the spirit behind not only the film but also the album, the target audience may feel the need to know things such as his inspiration behind making them - things we see in the NME magazine entry.

Lastly, this post helps appeal to the target audience as it links them to a song that details the story of Jake, as said in the description itself. The audience would want to listen to this track to get another insight into why he did the things he did in the film among other things.

4.

A sense of synergy we can see displayed here is with how NME covered Plan B in their piece titled: 'Plan B attacks David Cameron over last year's riots.' The main link between this image and that article is that there's a sign saying 'PLAN B CALLED DAVID CAMERON A C**T!' and these views are the exact same that are seen in that same article.

This post could be said to link to the DVD extras of Ill Manors particularly in the sense that it discusses the emergence of 'untrained actors.' This is something we're shown in the extras with people like Sasha Gamble and Lee Allen not having any prior experience in acting but still being cast in the film.

The post above links in with the trailer in the sense that the exact same phrase we see in the beginning of the trailer is used in the description: 'We are all products of our environment. Some environments are just harder to survive in.'

Twitter

1. The Ill Manors Twitter feed uses the Ill Manors brand to promote the film by having things such as tweets and also retweets from publications made by newspapers, but also notifications as to any notable things happening with the promotion of the film. An example of this is a tweet made by the account saying: 'Tune in to @BBCR1 #Radio1 now and listen to @4PlanB first play of @iLLManors - few minutes to go! @revolveruk.'
2. #iLLManors, #PlanB, #PlayingWithFire, #Loveit, #RealMovie...
3. One of the posts by a celebrity that the Ill Manors account retweeted was made by Anouska Mond. As an actor playing one of the main characters in the film, this retweet will appeal to the audience in the sense that it provides them with an opportunity to follow the actors as they anticipate its actual release. The same thing can be said about Riz Ahmed, who also has a post of his retweeted in which he says: 'Follow the cast of@iLLManors - @anouska_mond @edskrein @RyanDeLaCruzUK @SeanSagar @FirelynxMr @7kivanc7 @GeorgiaFarthing @nickdsagar .' This links exactly with what was said above with it giving the audience a chance to get updated by the cast of the film. One more celebrity that the account retweeted was Ashley Thomas, or rapper Bashy. With his tweet saying: 'RT @4PlanB: RT @iLLManors: Win tickets to the iLL Manors WORLD PREMIERE! Find out how: http://on.fb.me/Win-iLLManors-PremiereTickets … #PlanB #Win #WorldPremiere,' it's clear that his post appeals to the audience in the sense that they are given an opportunity to win a competition and get tickets to the first screening of Ill Manors before anyone else - sense of incentive on its own.
4. The feed uses pictures to help promote different aspects of the Ill Manors brand whether it be a performance by Plan B/Ben Drew himself, accolades given to the film or people doing things like showing themselves downloading the Ill Manors album.
5. Examples of the TagLondon campaign lie mainly in retweets of posts from a dedicated account called @taglondon. With this we can see that for the campaign alone, the institution developed an account to help promote these tweets on. In addition to this is an actual picture of one of the projections of the tweets near the London eye, perhaps as a way just to encourage more people to post the hashtag.

     6.

DVD release

By retweeting a post made by an institution that does reviews for DVDs, probably among other things, people start to anticipate the release of the DVD a lot more than they probably were before the post.

The posting of this was effective since people would aim to go and get a signed copy of the Ill Manors, the signing providing more incentive, rather than just get a standard one like the majority of people.

This tweet made by someone actually in the queue for the signing of the DVD being retweeted by the account helps encourage people to go and get their own copy.

Instagram

1. The institution has used Instagram in a way that is quite interesting and unconventional in comparison to most others. Rather than actually have an official account on the social network, instead since both Instagram and Twitter make use of hashtags, the same hashtags that are used on Twitter also carry on onto Instagram.

    2.

This upload from one of the actors in the film himself, Nick Sagar, is effective in promoting Ill Manors in the sense that not only does it use a still from one of the scenes in the film, but to add to this the Ill Manors logo itself is also on display.

This post can also be said to help promote the film effectively not only by the usage of hashtags like #illmanors and #planb, but also through the fact that the actual poster for the film used as the image. Having reviews from critics on it as well as the name of the film, this user could've got the attention of her followers making them go on to watch the film - effective promotion.

This image of the Blu-Ray copy can also be said to help contribute towards the promotion of the film since it shows people other ways in which they can get access to it. Not only this but similarly to the posts above, is the usage of the hashtags #planB and #bendrew.

3. 

As is seen above the hashtags that are generally used on Instagram are #illmanors, #planb and #bendrew. It's evident that there is consistency in the hashtags used as these are more or less the same ones that we also see featured in Twitter. This aspect is particularly important since it means there's no confusion for people when searching for Ill Manors related content on Instagram, after using another network like Twitter - essentially the same throughout.

4.

YouTube

1. The Plan B YouTube channel was used to help promote the release of the film by having things like videos accompanying the music that played during the film. Examples of this include 'Playing With Fire' which followed Jake's initiation with the gang and 'Deepest Shame' which related to 'a day in the life' of Michelle. Through this, fans of Plan B's music who perhaps weren't aware of the film can become enticed in what exactly happens to these characters we see in the videos, therefore promoting the film quite effectively.
2. One of the examples of synergy is shown again with the 'Playing With Fire' video. Starting off with a scene straight from the film itself, the video helps establish a link in the film by setting up from the get-go that the lyrics of the song relate directly to this character. Another example of synergy in the channel is shown in the channel art itself. Retaining that same image seen with the album cover of Plan B smoking in front of the council blocks, the logo is what makes it clear that the channel is related to those same products.
3. The links to other social networks we see on the channel include Google+, Facebook and Twitter but also SoundCloud and iTunes to almost provide people with a gateway to Plan B's musical content.

Ill Manors e-media: website analysis

Ill Manors e-media: website analysis

1. Examples of the Ill Manors brand on the website screengrab range from the very logo itself to the appearance of characters that starred in the film and also the same sky that we can find in the poster for the film.
2. The website encourages people to interact with, perhaps through buying, Ill Manors products through not only a 'BUY NOW' section on the website, but also through it saying 'ON BLU-RAY, DVD, DOWNLOAD AND ON-DEMAND NOW' and more simply in the centre of the page below a window on a house: 'ILL MANORS BUY NOW.'
3. Plan B uses elements of social media in the sense that the layout of his website can be said to reflect that of a blog or in fact a social network like Twitter. This can be said especially with the fact that some of the posts on 'The Wall' are set out in a manner akin to Twitter - username up top and tweet below.  To top this off is the fact that there is a section called 'The Wall,' something popularised by social networks like Facebook.
4. This statement links essentially directly to the TEDx lecture in which Plan B discussed the usage of the derogatory term 'chav' by not just members of the public but also newspaper publications. He discusses the exact same thing here while also talking about him not condoning or justifying the riots. I agree with the claim he made in the article about this in the sense that through the Ill Manors products what he attempts to do is display the life that a lot of the participants in the riots went through and establish that as somewhat of a cause/reason they did what they did.
5. Social media is overtaking official websites mainly due to the fact that social media is just a lot more easy to access than them. Pre-installed on people's phones and something predominantly used everyday, the networks are a perfect place for institutions to promote their products on. As well as this is the fact that social networks offer most of the features that an official website would to an institution perhaps bar a few customisation options e.g. video and photo uploads.