The platform that media products are consumed affect their overall construction in quite a huge way. In this case with the film industry, productions such as Ill Manors, A Field In England and Spectre all stand out as clear examples as to why this is.
The Ill Manors Tag London campaign using the e-media platform, is another example of how platform can affect the construction of media products, this time with it specifically targeting social media through user-generated content (UGC). With the Tag London campaign, people were requested to make/posts tweets with the hashtag #ILLMANORS regarding their feelings on the current state of Britain - linking up particularly to the anti-establishment aspects of the brand with things like scenes from the London Riots being displayed in the Ill Manors music video. What this actually helped the record label (Atlantic Records) do was promote the album for the film in a way that was both cheap for them and more likely to generate attention for the product, with user generated content (UGC) being something more easy for people to associate themselves with rather than things from an institution. What's quite notable here though, is that with social media being a primary platform or base for promotion for this campaign, the target audience of young people for the film is already made quite clear with them being the predominant users of the platform making it easier for them to reach. This said though, older and more niche audiences as seen with products like A Field In England would be likely to be more difficult to reach through these means, showing how important platform can be in terms of construction.
While the print platform has been an increasingly dying media as the significance of technology has arisen over time, it is still a platform that is delved into as seen with films like Ill Manors. Examples of how print has been used in this is with the billboards for it, posters and also features in magazines such as NME and Men's Health. Generally across these, particularly the billboard and poster, the same title is used with the 'ill' appearing to be a trio of council flats. And while it can be said that a lot of these different examples can be viewed online, which they can be (adding to this sense of a dying media), the sense of consistency and synergy that can be seen between these products and other ones such as the album cover for the film score all help unify different aspects of the film together rather than just making them appear as different standalone things.
The name of this film is Spectre, directed by Sam Mendes. The notable stars that appear are Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz and Léa Seydoux.
It was released on October 26th 2015 in the United Kingdom and November 6th in the United States.
This film belongs in the action-adventure/thriller genre and some of the conventions that make this clear are the many weapons that appear in it, variety of different locations and also things like chase sequences.
Spectre received 'mixed to positive reviews as evidenced by it receiving 64% on Rotten Tomatoes and 60/100 on 6.9/10 on IMDB.
Broadcast
One of the initial remarks that can be made regarding the trailer for Spectre is that it is almost completely action-packed. Having scenes of explosions, high-speed crashes and brawls, the trailer is almost completely full of action which helps establish it as belonging in the action-adventure genre. However before this all gets truly underway we're presented with 'Leo the Lion' and 'Columbia,' representing the distribution institutions involved with the film. In terms of audience, the trailer is likely to target and appeal to explorers and aspirers. Explorers in the sense that the trailer takes place in a number of different locations, perhaps some that they may plan to go to themselves and aspirers with the number of items suggesting class presented in the video. These ranged from the watch on Bond's wrist, to suits and a lot more obviously the number of vehicles on show. In terms of representation, one of the things that stands out the most is how women in it are shown. With this, both Laura Mulvey's male gaze and John Berger's theory stating 'men act and women appear' without a doubt apply to this trailer, with women generally being presented as sex objects particularly in the scene where Bond unzips the dress of a love interest.
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This red carpet interview of Daniel Craig helps promote Spectre in that his confidence for the film and people's reaction when watching it are quite high, possibly developing a sense of hype in any potential viewers.
This appearance of some of the actors from Spectre on The Graham Norton Show works to promote the film since in hearing how tough aspects of the acting process can be with injuries being picked up, people tuning in may want to see how intense exactly the film itself is.
The video above is an advert from Land Rover and it helps to promote Spectre since to showcase their vehicle, they actually show scenes of it from the film itself rather than from any odd photoshoot.
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The broadcast promotion, especially in the chat show, does use stars to help create interest within the film and this perhaps pertains to the two-step model in which opinion leaders can affect the reactions of the audience to media texts.
Print
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'James Bond is back, stylish, camp and sexily pro-Snowden' (The Guardian)
'A swaggering show of confidence' (The Telegraph)
'The most disappointing James Bond film of the Daniel Craig era' (Polygon)
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This poster helps promote the film by not only putting the main character front and centre of it along with the title of it, but also in the sense that behind him is a masked character who has elements which could associate him as being the antagonist of the film, or at least a major part of it, already hinting at some of the story.
This billboard helps with the promotion of Spectre since although it is for watchmaker Omega, it has the logo/title for Spectre in it. Not only is this a sign of endorsement by the company, but it's also a reminder of the elegance that comes with the Bond films and that Omega watches will be actually worn by characters in the film.
This poster promotes Spectre in a similar way to the first one, although this time we're also introduced to a female character in the film. This in turn, may link to the concept of the male gaze by Laura Mulvey in which women are presented for men to look at.
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As described above, this poster depicts the main character of the film, James Bond, along with things like the title of it and the 'coming soon' line all in the centre of it. Behind him is another character who appears to be a villain character (Propp). Overall what it communicates to the audience is that Bond is on another mission which could possibly be to take down this masked villain, and with the title called Spectre and the mask being a skull, links are already drawn perhaps establishing that the character in the background is the main villain. At the same time though typical of Bond, he'll be elegant while he does it and we see this with the white tuxedo he's wearing with a pistol in one hand.
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The brand for the film is identifiable mainly by the title 'Spectre.' However, the 007 logo with a gun next to it also contributes to this same brand image as it has been somewhat of an age-old element for any James Bond film. The gun along with the code number, is what helps give the brand an association with the element of espionage. This could be said to be similar to the Harry Potter films since although there'll be different titles for each one, the 'Harry Potter' part of the logo will remain the same.
E-media
Under the name 007, the Instagram page for Spectre helps promote the film as it not only shows clips from things like TV spots of it but also pictures of members of the cast as well. The same goes for the Twitter account which shows not only things like links to the soundtrack of the film, but also behind-the-scenes footage for it too.
The website for the movie uses brand in that the same image of Bond with the masked individual behind him is used again, adding to this sense of continuity and synergy between different products of the film. There's also synergy in the sense that there are links to go and purchase it on Blu-Ray and DVD and also watch the video for the theme song for it by Sam Smith.
An e-media campaign for Spectre took place on Snapchat using the 'Discover' channel as a means for doing it.
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Audience
The audience for Spectre ranges all the way from 10-year old kids to people in their 50s. Along with this it's mainly likely to appeal to mainstreamers, aspirers and explorers, the latter particularly for the globetrotting adventure that the film is.
With things like the Discover channel campaign, Spectre targets the younger members of its audience effectively since social media is something largely used by them. At the same time with the Omega watch campaign, older viewers can be said to be targeted since they're more likely to be purchasing a watch of such a kind.
An audience pleasure that can be possibly obtained from Spectre is personal identification in that British viewers will get a sense of national pride and solidarity in watching a character from their country do what he has to to protect people around the world. Another one is the sheer entertainment factor with the action from both chase scenes and shootouts.
The Bourne series is something this audience would particularly enjoy, with it depicting a spy working for a secret service, albeit this time in the US. However as a 12, the younger audience may be locked out from watching it so perhaps a film like Kingsman: The Secret Service would be more appropriate.
Institution
Spectre was produced by Eon Productions and they've been responsible for the production of all the James Bond films. With this, the target audience for the company can be said to range all the way from kids from around the ages of 10/12 to people in their 50s.
It was distributed by both Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and Columbia Pictures. The former is known for distributing films like 21 Jump Street and Rocky Bolboa while the latter is known for the Spider-Man series and also the Men In Black series.
Both companies can be said to have quite a large target audience with the amount of different films they have helped distribute ranging from films like Spectre to The Pink Panther and Spider-Man.
The budget for Spectre was $245 million.
Spectre was largely successful with it getting a box office of $880.7. This success was likely largely because of the sheer popularity of the Bond brand with it spanning over decades as a film series.
Earning $63.8 million in the UK and $73 million in the US, it's likely Spectre earned more in the States because of the fact it opened on more screens there - 3929 as oppose to 2500.
Spectre was given a 12A age rating, and this was very important in reaching its broad target audience since it then allows kids (under the supervision/guidance of adults) to also watch the film. Anything older than this and a relatively large segment of their target audience could be gone.
Representation
The main representation of characters in Spectre is one of class, in which everyone be it hero or villain has a sense of it to them. At the same time though, another representation is that characters in the film that aren't British are typically villains, giving off this idea of British superiority.
The film provides quite a positive representation of 'Britishness,' with the Secret Service working to solve issues that could potentially affect the world, providing them with somewhat of a saviour-like appearance.
This differs from Ill Manors in the sense that Britain isn't necessarily shown in a negative light in the way that Ill Manors did. Rather it's shown as state ensuring the safety of all of its citizens.
As stated before, one of the ideologies made clear within Spectre is that Britain is a place of class. Whether that's suggested by the suits or the cars, it's shown as somewhere of quite an upmarket nature. As well as this, it's shown to be somewhat of a superpower with the fact that secret service are able to do all these things through their agents and stop global threats.
Case study comparison
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Similarities:
All set, at least in part, in Britain
Ill Manors and Spectre both had online campaigns
Differences:
Budget amount
Promotion by other brands e.g. Spectre and Omega
Portrayal of Britain
Release platforms (A Field In England)
Target audience - A Field In England appealing to a more older audience as oppose to Spectre's particularly broad one
