Production Companies

Which Production and Distribution company

would be most suitable?

These are some well-known bands' documentaries with who they are produced by. I will use this to help me choose who I will use as my production company as the bands are quite similar.

The Rolling Stones: Stones in Exile

• Passion Pictures is a film and animation production company based in Rathbone Place, London's West End. 
• They have been responsible for much of the production of the visual element of the animated rock band Gorillaz.
• Among their releases is the 2004 documentary on britpop Live forever.
• Passion Pictures are one of the co-producer's on the film The Age of Stupid released in 2009.
• Pete Candeland of Passion Pictures also produced the opening and closing cinematics for The Beatles: Rock Band video game, released September 9 of 2009.

The Clash: Westway to the World

• Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. (SPE) is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony. 
• Headquartered in Culver City, California, USA, SPE comprises various studios and entertainment brands, including Columbia Pictures and GSN. 
• It has produced films such as The Karate Kid, Spider Man and Men in Black.

Madonna: Truth or Dare

• Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. 
• For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein. In 1993, the company was acquired by The Walt Disney Company. 
• Miramax was sold by Disney to Filmyard Holdings in 2010, ending Disney's involvement with the studio for the first time in 17 years. 
• Some films produced by them are Hugo the Moviestar, Tom and Jerry the movie and In search of Santa.

I do not think any of these would be suitable for my production as I think the most suitable would be 'Passion Pictures' however because the band is punk, i don't think I could use it because it is pink!

Ideas for Trailer

Ideas for my Trailer

Here are some of my original ideas that I would like to encase in my trailer. These are ideas I thought of after watching some trailers of conventional rockumentaries which are around at the moment.

^This is the idea I'd like to use^
However, originally I said i would use this at the beginning, i think it would be more effective at the end as that is where the title tends to be of the film. I could then afterwards flash this out and bring in the date it is released.

Evaluation of Questionnaire

Results from my Questionnaire

My results from 20 people are shown below:

Here are the main points i picked up from this research:

• Majority of target market watch documentaries (includes 'sometimes' and 'yes')
• Majority watch musical documentaries (15/20)
• All of the people answered yes/maybe to watching a music documentary about a past musician in the 80s
• HAVE TO HAVE interviews, sound effects, music, old footage

Questionnaire

Questionnaire for my Target Audience

Before I start work on created my trailer and additional products, I need to ask my target audience what they expect to find from a rockumentary trailer. Because although I have researched into different varieties, it is the people around me who will be my audience and I need to make it so they feel willing to watch it / look at it etc. I have put together on Google Docs, a quick questionnaire for anyone to answer. I am hoping at the end, my results will show a clear idea of what they are expecting.

Looking at Shots

Types of Shots used in a Rockumentary
that is one of my inspirations

Here, I have studied closer one of my favourite trailer rockumentaries called 'Talihina Sky' and the shot types used in the first three minutes. I will hopefully use this as guidance for my own trailer for a film.

**Please click images to view larger**

Codes & Conventions of Magazines

Research of Magazine Covers

 Created for Documentaries

Three of the biggest film magazines on the market are Empire, Total Film and Sight and Sound. All three of these review latest films and allow their readers to find out about all the films out at that moment. Here, I will look at each film in depth.

Empire

• In common with most British film magazines, Empire is populist in both approach and coverage unlike less irreverent and more 'serious' magazines such as Sight & Sound. It reviews both mainstream films and art films, but feature articles concentrate on the former.
• As well as film news, previews and reviews, Empire has some unique regular features. Each issue (with the exception of issues 108 - 113) features a Classic Scene, a transcript from a notable film scene. The first such classic scene to be featured was the "I could have been a contender" scene from On the Waterfront.

Total Film

• Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year (every four weeks) by Future Publishing.
• The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features. 
• Each month, TF provides a range of features, from full-length interviews and photo shoots with established and up-and-coming actors and directors, to major film previews and retrospective pieces. All issues contain the Total Film Interview — an in-depth chat with a celebrated actor or director, along with a critique of their body of work; the Abridged Script - a one-page parody of a recent release and Total Film loves..., a one-page celebration of a film, a scene or a performance.

Sight and Sound

• British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute
• The magazine says it reviews all film releases each month, including those with a narrow art house release, as opposed to the more mainstream focus of its competitors.
• Every decade, Sight & Sound asks an international group of film professionals to vote for their greatest film of all time. Critics are asked to provide a top ten list
•  The Sight & Sound accolade has come to be regarded as one of the most important of the "greatest ever film" polls.

Poster Research

Research into the conventions 

of a documentary poster

**PLEASE CLICK ON SLIDES TO MOVE ON INSTEAD OF THE ARROWS**

Conventions of a Trailer

Main Conventions of a Trailer

• Voiceovers are used to tell the story and give credit information
• The stars of the film are showcased
• Key points are sometimes conveyed through titles
• Conversations between characters often consist of one line
• Dramatic camera angles may be chosen to show events or characters
• Action is interspersed with actor or director credits on screen
• Music plays an important role in creating atmosphere
• The film's title may not appear until the end
• The trailer builds to a climax, where it ends
• Montage (a series of shots from different points in the film edited together) is often used to highlight the most dramatic, humorous or fast-paced aspects of the film

Marketing

Marketing Campaigns for Documentaries/Films

For part of my finished portfolio, I have to produce a poster, film magazine front cover and/or a webpage. Before I look closer into what I would like to produce, I am going to research into different ways to market a documentary to see how important they are as marketing campaigns and how they draw in their audiences. I will look particularly into how the film companies encase language, audience, institution and representation into these products and who produces them.

What is a marketing campaign firstly?

The efforts of a company or a third-party marketing company to increase awareness for a particular product or service, or to increase consumer awareness of a business organization. A marketing campaign has a limited duration.
The marketing campaign plays a vital role in informing potential audiences about a film with the purpose of encouraging people to see the from at the cinema. The companies who own the film and loan it to cinemas to show for a period of time are called distributors. 
Distributors are keen for their films to be successful possible so they create a marketing campaign to raise awareness of the film and arouse interest.

Three Different Ways to Market a Film: 

Posters

• Here, I have the poster for the very first Pirates of the Caribbean.  
• It is an action/adventure/fantasy film made in 2003. 
• Looking at the poster, you can straight away identify three very famous actor/esses who are very well-known in the film industry. 
• This is marketing the film as being good because it has these brilliant actors in. 
• Johnny Depp, who is bang straight in the middle, looks directly at the audience, engaging them, making them feel apart of the cast. 
• The actors are shown in different camera angles
• Keira Knightley, who plays Eliszabeth Swann, is portrayed on the poster as lower socially-ranked as the three other men which is what most women would have been like in the era the film is based on. (Although in the film she often chafes at her own restrictions her social rank and gender impose on her)

Film Review Page

• 'New movies in order of merit' first film is POTC telling the audience that it is fantastic and deserves merits
• Title of the film is a subtitle, bold and is the second thing the audience tends to look at after the picture
• A4 picture showing one of the protagonists -  showing an event in the film - makes audience want to know what happens and who the man is
• 'Predicted interest curve' shows interest high
• 'movie of the month' want to see it to see why it deserves that 'award'
• the audience has 'precious little substance to cling to' in a black box to stand out, immediately seen by readers
• 'see this if you liked...' on the right to show readers mutual interests

Webpage 

• Website is interactive
• Games, quizzes, gallery available to do
• Trailer is immediately in the audience's eye view when they log on
• Again, interactive 'Join jack's quest..' Jack being the funny protagonist that the audience relate to
• Links to facebook/youtube/twitter pages to feed off the abundance of social networking interactions about lately
• Shows characters and quick link to where you can buy it
• Gives overview of the film
• Background is an exert from the film - as though you were in the film
• Colour scheme suits the genre

Why is it important for trailers to show us the genre and how is it established?

*VOICE RECORDING***

I have chosen to design a poster and front of a magazine as I think these are two hugely-used ways of marketing documentaries in the 21st century. Before I start to design these, I must look at the practical elements as well as the physical elements used to produce them.