The two production companies I am going to be talking about
are Warner Bros animation and BBC films. First of all Warner bros animation
produced the animated film The Lego Movie and furthermore BBC films produced
the British film Mrs Browns Boys D’Movie. I will also be comparing the
production, distribution such as marketing, synergy and convergence and the
exhibition of the low budget British film and the high budget American film.
Warner Bros animation:
Warner bros animation is the animated section of the major
producer Warner Brothers. Warner bros animation is the successor to Warner bros
cartoons which created many famous cartoon series such as The Looney Toons. It
now focuses purely on the production of television and feature animation. The
founder of Warner bros animation is Hal Geer, who is a American producer and
filmmaker who most famously worked on Warner bros cartoon’s The Loony Toons.
Warner bros most famous and successful film that they have ever produced is the
series of Harry Potter films. Warner bros animation films usually have a budget
of around $40 million to $90 million depending on the profile of the film.
These expensive films usually make a gross profit of around $10 million to $30
million. However there has been the odd exception, for example The Lego Movie
made around $468 million gross profit and the film Space Jam made around $230
million gross profit.
BBC Films:
This is the feature film making part of the British
Broadcasting Co-operation. BBC films have produced some of the most successful
British films of recent years; this includes films such as Billy Elliot. It
also co-produces around eight films a year by working with major international
and UK distributors. The head of BBC films is Christine Langan, she is
responsible for the development and production of the company. BBC films are
based at the broadcasting house in London. BBC films produce films on a fairly small
budget which is usually around £2 million to £10 million and they very rarely
produce a film which produces such a gigantic profit they way Warner bros do.
First of all The Lego Movie is a huge profile American
blockbuster film which raised over $468 million at the box office. The film
it’s self was a basic idea by the directors to connect audiences together, the
way actual Lego does. In February 2014 Warner Bros animation released their
first animated film, which was more of a trial to see how they would compete
against giants such as Disney Pixar. The Lego Movie became a box office success
because of its large variety in target audiences. The context of the film was
to show how Lego can connect parents and children together during play time.
Ideology was presented by the directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were
they said in a interview that connecting people through Lego was the main aim
of the film. Because The Lego Movie had a wide target audience of anyone with a
connection to Lego a huge variety of comedy and stereotypes had to be used
to engage the large target audience.
Next BBC films Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie was high profile
British film which followed on form the television series meaning a huge fan
base was already built. It was a idea developed by the main character Brendan
O’Carroll back in the early 1990’s. the character Agnes Brown appeared in stage
plays, radio plays and books before the film was released. Around £9.2 million
was made at the UK box office on this film. This film had a target audience of
mainly British people meaning a lot more British comedy and stereotypes were
used to help sell the film.
During the production phase of the film there were many
similarities and differences, first of all Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie cast were
all family related and because they had previously all worked together on the
television series they all felt comfortable around each other and could act to
their best abilities. This high degree of realism was a huge unique selling
point for the film, whereas in my other film The Lego Movie the ‘star system’
was used to sell the film, huge household names such as Morgan Freeman and Will
Ferrell were added to the cast list to sell the film in a complete different
way. However using the family cast was a
lot cheaper to do compared to using the star system to sell the film.
Furthermore The Lego Movie was a animated film which meant virtual sets had to
be built. This was done using 3,863,484 actual Lego bricks on the computer
program Lego digital designer. Around 11 sets were built but they can help
boost the films synergy as it can help promote the film in different ways. In
contrast Mrs Browns Boys D’Movie was filmed in Dublin the capital of Ireland on
one main set to keep costs down, this shows the huge contrast between the high
budget animated American film and low budget British films.
Mrs Browns Boys had a budget of around £3.4 million this is
nothing compared to The Lego Movie’s $60 million budget. For Mrs Browns Boys
this produced many different challenges, for example the amount of extras which
were used had to be limited to keep costs down whereas The Lego Movie could
afford to do anything they wanted, a good example of this was when the script
had to be completely re written and as a result some of the plot was changed
which if the budget was lower could had caused many problems.
Lastly the amount of technology that had to be used in The
Lego Movie was far greater than Mrs Browns Boys mainly because The Lego Movie
was a animated film however production time and costs were a lot greater which
was a challenge which Warner bros animation had to meet which they did.
Both The Lego Movie and Mrs Browns Boys D’Movie had huge marketing
and advertising campaigns. First of all
Mrs Brown’s Boys had a huge fan base extending back from the original TV series
and plays in the early 1990’s this meant that advertising had to be done only
to raise awareness of the film compared to most new films were they have to
advertise to raise awareness and to persuade the target audience to go and see
it, so as a result only basic forms of advertising were needed this included: TV adverts, trailers, radio adverts, billboards, posters
and newspaper articles but as I said
producers BBC Films gambled on the already existing fans of the already
popular sitcom Mrs Browns Boys going to see the film. In contrast The Lego
Movie had a huge advertising and marketing campaign the producers had to
combine: synergy, convergence, exhibition, distribution and exchange a lot more
compared to Mrs Brown’s boys. For example many products were released simultaneously
to promote the film a good example of this was when McDonalds released eight
limited edition Lego Movie cups with every Happy Meal that was sold.
Furthermore one similarity between The Lego Movie and Mrs Browns Boys D’Movie
was the care to detail that was involved in the trailers for the films. They
were both released to help outline the basic aspects of the film and try and
sell it to their target audiences however because their iconography was very
different, first of all in The Lego Movie there was more of a action/adventure
feel in the trailer because the more action events which occurred in the film
were shown compared to the many other elements in the in it. Whereas Mrs Brown
used the comedy aspect to help sell the film because this was made the TV
series so popular so was a huge selling point for the film. Furthermore the
trailer for The Lego Movie used a lot more diegetic and non-diegetic sounds
such as the over emphasis on elements such as fire in an explosion and the use
of music to help tell the story of the film. For example it was a fast paced
beat to show the action/adventure clips as more dramatic than what they are,
this is compared to Mrs Browns boys which predominantly used a narrative which
helped explain the story of the film a lot more. Both the film trailers used
mise-en-scene in roughly the same way. What I mean by this is that they both
showed and explained the main characters as much as possible to sell the film.
For example The Lego Movie used the star system a lot and the trailer was built
around this because they knew actors such as Morgan Freeman and Will Ferrell
would sell the film as the audiences would know what sort of film to expect.
The Lego Movie had two main
distributors these were: Warner bros pictures and Roadshow Entertainment.
Warner bros pictures are an American producer of film they have been very
successful over the years and have distributed many famous films such as Harry
Potter and Sesame Street. Furthermore Roadshow Entertainment is part of the
Australian media company Village Roadshow; they have helped distribute many
films such as the terminator and First Blood.
Mrs Browns Boys D’Movie had one main distributor Universal Pictures this
is classed as one of Hollywood’s big six distributors. They have distributed
many famous films including Jaws and E.T.
Next is distribution this is about how the film gets to the
target audience. For The Lego Movie this has been done in many different ways,
first of all synergy was used in a very creative way. This means simultaneous
products were released to boost the film. So in this particular case Lego
themed events were held in many different shops across the globe to raise
awareness of the film and promote the brand of Lego. Next McDonalds released
eight limited edition cups which came with every happy meal to also help raise
awareness of the film and its characters. The next aspect of distribution is convergence;
this includes combining two or mediums to promote the film. Because more
technologies have been released in recent years many different aspects can be
used to help sell the film. In the case of The Lego Movie a video game was
released to help the audience understand the story of the music better, also
many different videos on YouTube were released of the main cast talking about
their particular characters to help the audience gain a better understanding of
them, lastly a theme song was released this is called ‘Everything is Awesome’
this helps show the ethics of the film and that you should think positive on
life no matter what the circumstances. The next aspect of distribution is
exchange this is the unintended use of institutions media text by other people,
this has been unintentionally done by The Lego Movie because many copies of their
theme song ‘Everything is Awesome’ have
been released which helps raise awareness of the film. The last part of the
distribution cycle is distribution its self, this is getting the film to the
audiences and having a good marketing campaign. In the case of The Lego Movie
this was done very well for example of the 6th of February they had
their release date and the film was screened in millions of countries around
the world, however there was still more to come because other countries
couldn’t use the subtitles they needed the whole script to be read done by new
actors speaking their native language. Also over $400 million was made on the
film which shows how successful it was at box office.
Furthermore the type of distribution used by Mrs Browns Boys
D’Movie is really different however also have many similarities. First of all
synergy was used in a very creative way. This means simultaneous products were
released to boost the film. In the case of Mrs Brown products such as a
calendar of actions shots from the film has been released, a fancy dress
costume of the main character Agnes Brown has been released and lastly many
T-shirts with the Mrs Browns logo or picture have been released to promote the
film and is a good of synergy by the producers and distributors BBC Films. The
next aspect of distribution is convergence; this includes combining two or
mediums to promote the film. Mrs Browns Boys have released a soundtrack of the
film this includes all the hit songs which were played during the film to
promote the particular film. Also an autobiography of the main character
involved in the film ‘Brendan O’Carroll’ was released shortly after the film
was made and released this helped promote the film because the people reading
the book will find things out about the film and then hopefully will be
persuaded to go and watch it. The next aspect of distribution is exchange this
is the unintended use of institutions media text by other people, this has
again been unintentionally done by Mrs Brown fairly similar to The Lego Movie
because they have a famous catchphrase of ‘That’s Nice’ which has been released
on many different platforms of media such as videos on the internet of people
saying it in humours ways and on products such as T-shirts which all helped
sell the film in its particular genre of comedy.
The premiers of the films
helped the exhibition aspect of the two films I have been researching, first of
all Mrs Browns Boys had the premier for the film in the Savoy cinema in the
capital of Ireland Dublin, this was done to show that it hadn’t forgotten its
original Irish roots which is a huge unique selling point for the film. In
contrast the high budget American film of The Lego Movie was first released in
Copenhagen were the premier was held, this is because of the history of Lego
and Denmark. The first pieces of Lego were first made in Denmark so the film
about of Lego would more than defiantly first be shown there.
In conclusion I feel that The Lego Movie are a lot better at
using distribution to engage the target audience and help sell the film,
however due to the fact Warner Bros animation is a lot bigger company compared
to BBC Films it’s not surprising because they are able to afford to trial
things and can bring out more and more things. For example they had the money
to produce their own song and video game meaning the exhibition phase for The
Lego Movie was a lot grater compared to Mrs Browns Boys. However they also have
many similarities, for example the television trailer was similar in the sense
of mise-en-scene and ideology however the more finer aspects such as editing
and iconography was very different due to the fact they different genre of
films. Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie is a comedy and the trailer had to portray this
also The Lego Movie is an action/adventure film which had to be portrayed but
in a complete different way. However the biggest difference in the two films
are the actual cast which were used, in The Lego Movie the star system was used
to help sell the film, however Mrs Browns Boys D’Movie used a more low profile
cast which produced a more realistic feel to the film compared to if they had
used the star system. Due to the fact the Lego Movie is an animated film they
are able to use the famous actors whereas because Mrs Browns Boys is more of a
sitcom, using these famous actors wouldn’t have the same appeal and if less
well known actors were used in The Lego Movie no one may be interested in going
to see it, so for both films the right actors have been chosen. Lastly because Warner Bros animation is a
global and international film the films they produce have to be aimed at such a
enormous target audience because if they weren’t only the areas were Warner
Bros is based would understand the comedy and stereotypes in the films meaning
sales would be lower as none of the target audience areas the films are being
distributed and exhibited too would be interested in them. Whereas in the case
of the BBC films it is a more national institution meaning the films it
produces can be more iconic and specific to certain areas because the area
their films are being produced in are the areas the films are being distributed
and exhibited to.
