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 a low budget British film and the high budget American film.
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.
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 produced by Warner bros animation this particular film 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 an 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. The idea of the main characters appearing on stage
is very common because many BBC Films become successful on stage.
During the production phase of the film there were many
similarities and differences between the two production companies, first of all
BBC Films 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 BBC Films 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. This shows the
vast different ways in which American producers try to sell the film compared
to British ones. 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.
BBC Films Mrs Browns Boys had a budget of around £3.4
million this is nothing compared to Warner bros animation The Lego Movie’s $60
million budget. This shows how the American film industry are more willing to
spend more on films and take more of a risk compared to British films. 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. As a
result of Warner Bros animation having more funding in this particular film compared
to BBC Films the director would have more control in the American film compared
to the British film.
Lastly the amount of CGI that had to be used in Warner bros
animation 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. Also the fact Warner Bros animation is the animated section of Warner
bros this shows it’s more advanced and specialised in CGI and technology,
whereas BBC Films are a general production company which means they aren’t specialist
and are basically average at everything involved in producing and distributing
a film which is exactly the case in my two case studies.
Both The Lego
Movie and Mrs Browns Boys D’Movie had huge marketing and advertising campaigns. First of all BBC Films didn’t have to spend
as much on Mrs Browns Boys marketing campaign mainly due to the fact that they
already 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 the production company
usually 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 Warner Bros animation’s The Lego Movie had a huge advertising and
marketing campaign because 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. To keep distribution costs down they didn’t give
the target audience actual Lego pieces for free, instead they made sets of the
film up and these are sold separately which is good because the film is
actually staying to it’s roots of actually building Lego compared to
exaggerating the use of digital technologies which could had been done by
Warner bros animation which would have ruined the brand image of Lego.
Furthermore the type of distribution used by BBC Films 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. BBC Films used these types of products to
distribute the film because it attracted the target audience a lot more than
other types would have done, for example if they had released something which
could have been built this wouldn’t have attracted Mrs Browns target audience because
they are a lot older compared to my other case study The Lego Movie. Both production
companies identified their films target audience and really recognized this and
found it important for the films distribution, synergy, exhibition and exchange
to be successful.
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 Warner bros animation’s The Lego
Movie were a lot better at using distribution to engage the films 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
because the generally the American film industry have a lot higher budgets for
their films compared to the British industry, which is the exact case for my
two case studies. For example Warner bros animation had the budget to produce
their own song and video game meaning the exhibition phase for The Lego Movie
was a lot grater compared to BBC films and their film 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. This again also backs my point up about the huge significant difference
between American and British films because again in this case the American
production company for the film had a lot more money to spend on more high
profile actors compared to the low budget British film. 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.
