Case Study: Monsters

Monsters (2010) is a sci-fi thriller directed by Gareth Edwards. It was distributed by Vertigo Films and had a production budget of £500,000 – fairly low compared to most Hollywood films. Edwards shot Monsters on a prosumer digital video camera in a guerrilla style. Edwards edited and post-produced the film in his own bedroom using Adobe After Effects. Monsters is a perfect example of the film-making process, and shows that anyone can make a film. Monsters was such a strong debut for Edwards that his next two films, Godzilla (2014), a reboot of the infamous Japanese legend, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), a prequel to the billion dollar franchise of Star Wars, were massive blockbuster films making over $750 million domestic total gross altogether. Edwards went from editing films in his bedroom to directing a Hollywood blockbuster in four years.

Managing a Low Budget Film

To keep the budget cheap, Edwards chose to film somewhere cheap. The film was shot in Central America which is not very costly to film in. He used his own software himself to post-produce the film. Local extras were used who would be in the film for free. The crew was only seven people in total. Small, unknown actors were used and Edwards used his imagination to maximize the circumstances.

Marketing

Edwards not only had to compete with Hollywood, but had to deal with starting this ‘intellectual property’ from scratch. Monsters wasn’t based on anything but had a general enough title to provoke interest. The genre could also be a problem – while it was clear the film was science fiction, it was also a horror/romance/road trip film. Edwards had to find a target audience whom this would all appeal to. He used technology to do this. Vertigo Films received funding from the UK Film Council to develop innovative digital marketing. The idea was to encourage UK film-goers to support British films. They used themes and designs from the film to create ‘Infected Zones’ in Vue and Cineworld cinemas in six UK cities where smart phone users could scan QR codes in bars and shops to access additional content and discounted tickets.

Stage 1: Teaser – a press release was sent to film magazines with information about the marketing campaign so audiences knew about it.

Stage 2: Adventure – random prizes were awarded to people who logged in and accessed the website for exclusive clips.

Stage 3: The Big Reveal – the week before release, 10 ‘swarm sites’ revealed discount codes for advanced tickets.

Stage 4: Swarm – groups who checked in at an ‘infected zone’ could access group discounts and exclusive film content.

US Release

The film was distributed by Momentum Pictures in the US rather than Vertigo. Momentum released the film on-demand via their website instead of a theatrical release. Their website reached a niche audience of monster films. This was perfect for reaching the target audience of the film.

Success Criteria 

The film has taken $4.2 million (lifetime gross) altogether – this is a major success for a film with a budget of £500,000. It also spawned a sequel, Monsters: Dark Continent. Vertigo Films developed a reputation for producing critically-acclaimed and technologically advanced films on a low budget.

Case Study: Iron Sky

Iron Sky (2012) is a Finnish sci-fi action comedy directed by Timo Vuorensola. The plot involves an alternate timeline where the Nazis escaped Earth after World War II and come back to Earth in 2018 to wreak havoc. The film was produced by BlindSpot Pictures, a low-budget independent film company based in Finland. Their only previous project was a short spoof of Star Trek called Star Wreck, released via YouTube.

Funding

BlindSpot set up a fundraiser to fund some of the film’s budget, promising rewards for funding. The fundraiser, via the website wreck-a-movie.com, gathered €1 million, on top of the €7.5 million they had already accumulated from traditional sources such as film funding agencies. On the website, donaters could also buy shares in the film and access sneak preview content aimed at showing aspiring film-makers how to make a film, from scripting to story-boarding, CGI and video diary. This is known as participatory cinema. Crowd-sourcing allowed BlindSpot to supply bonus features to patrons for cheap or even for free, such as naming characters or designing spaceships to be used in the film. This gives fans a sense of ownership over the film, meaning they would be likely to tell others about it leading to word-of-mouth publicity.

Symbiotic Marketing

BlindSpot also launched branded Iron Sky merchandise to raise more money towards the project, distributed by EMI. A comic, video game and smart phone game was released in conjunction with the film. You could also design your own merchandise with a downloadable design kit with prizes for designs used by BlindSpot. This meant people were designing merchandise for free.

The film-makers also used social media to attain viewers. They had 75,000 subscribers on YouTube, 53,000 fans on Facebook and a website with weekly content updates with 55,000 regular visitors. This allowed them to interact with Iron Sky‘s niche audience and spread the film’s name via the internet.

Distribution

Social media was used to encourage distributors to release the film in as many countries as possible. There was a button the website titled ‘DEMAND TO SEE IRON SKY’ which, every time it was pressed, would send an email to your local cinema asking them to screen the film.

The film was distributed by Revolver who promised a big release strategy. They decided to only screen Iron Sky for one day in the UK, worried about a poor performance. This would be disastrous for the box office, in addition to it being on a Wednesday when people go to the cinema least. A DVD was rush released with no special features. Fans on social media pressured cinemas to show it again for a longer period, and it worked.

Iron Sky is a great example of exchange of collaboration between producers and consumers. It meant costs were decreased for the film-makers and gives fans an insight to independent film industry. The film took €9 million at the box office and managed to spawn a possible universe of films: Iron Sky: The Coming Race reaches cinemas in 2019 and the third film in the saga Iron Sky: The Ark‘s release date is to be confirmed.

Case Study: Fortnite

Fortnite is an online multiplayer action game available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC and most recently, Nintendo Switch. It was developed by Epic Games and was released initially in July 2017 at an RRP of £30. An expansion was then added – completely free to anyone who wanted to play: Battle Royale. This update pits 100 players against each other in a free-for-all brawl involving building, crafting, resourcing and of course, shooting. By 2018, the Battle Royale mode had accumulated over 40 million players worldwide, spawning a craze of dances seen in the game to become popular with the game’s main demographic: children. Despite the game’s violence and use of weapons, its bright colours and cartoonish qualities attract many children to play the game and in some cases, become addicted. Its apparently addictive qualities were a feature on ITV’s ‘This Morning’ prompting 60,000 comments from concerned parents on the Facebook page. Andrew Reid who is a researcher of games at Glasgow Caledonian University, reported via the BBC that the game was not ‘addictive’ but was ‘hard to stop playing’. Despite many people’s concerns, Reid also cited its ‘positive characteristics of play’ such as interactive elements, social co-operation in the 50v50 team mode, and a ‘truly engaging experience’ for players. It’s fair to say that Fortnite was a moral panic, like with many other supposedly violent video games. After Eric Harris, a perpetrator of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 cited the video game DOOM, saying, when referring to the massacre they were planning, ‘It’ll be just like DOOM‘. This caused a moral panic within parents specifically, accusing video games of causing violent  behaviour in children. This has been disproven in multiple studies – one being from the University of York from January 2018 that said they ‘have found no evidence to support the theory that video games make players more violent’. Even still, compared to many modern video games such as 2016’s reboot of DOOM or Grand Theft Auto, Fortnite is not much more violent than some Saturday morning cartoons.

History of Epic Games

Epic Games was founded in 1991 in America by Tim Sweeney. They developed the popular Unreal Engine which powered many games. They have multiple successful games, such as Unreal Tournament, Gears of War and Infinity Blade. Gears grossed $100 million in 2006 – this isn’t the first major cult success for Epic Games. They have offices in the US, UK, Japan, Korea and Germany.

Is Fortnite still going strong?

According to analytics firm Superdata, it made $225 million in March 2018 alone. It has spawned many online personalities to stardom, with the most popular Fortnite streamer known as ‘Ninja’ playing with the rapper regarded as the biggest in the world, Drake on a stream earlier in 2018.

Fortnite is still growing in popularity. According to Statista, the game had almost 125 million players in June 2018 – an all time high for the game.

Why is Fortnite so popular?

Fortnite being free-to-play means anyone can download and play. Also, its offbeat style and humorous marketing as well as bright cartoonish graphics makes it popular with kids, who generally become obsessed with something that appeals to them. Popular YouTubers have been playing Fortnite and spreading the word, with Epic Games even sponsoring some creators. Epic also adds content consistently giving players a reason to return. The game also doesn’t suffer from being ‘pay-to-win’. While there are ‘microtransactions’ in the game, the in-game items that you buy don’t give you an advantage to other players.

How does the game make money?

In regards to the microtransactions, players can buy the in-game currency, ‘V-bucks’, with real money. With V-bucks, players can purchase outfits, emotes, dances and item skins for their in-game character. They can also buy the ‘battle pass’, which lasts until the end of the season and allows you to access exclusive challenges, clothing and items. There are 100 tiers and each costs 150 V-bucks. You can also earn V-bucks in-game. The battle pass costs 950 V-bucks, which is equivalent to about £7.99. There have been many cases of children purchasing V-bucks without knowing they’re charging money from their parents’ bank account. One child even spent over $3000 without knowing. This is how Fortnite makes money, and it’s genius.

 

Case Study: Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner 2049 was directed by Denis Villeneuve and is the 2017 sequel to the critically acclaimed sci-fi noir, Blade Runner, originally released in 1982. The film follows Officer K, played by Ryan Gosling, as he discovers a mystery which could change the way humanity sees artificial life forever. The film was released to critical acclaim with an 87% Rotten Tomatoes score and an 8/10 audience score on IMDb.

Marketing

There have been brand partnerships and even an upcoming mobile game to market the film. In 1982’s Blade Runner, the entertainment company Atari was heavily featured in the world among advertisements and technology that characters saw and used within the film. In 2049, Atari advertisements return, despite the company’s fall from popularity. Michael Arzt, CEO of Atari Connect said that 2049 has allowed the brand to connect with audiences aged 35 or older who may have grown up with the popular games console Atari 2600 which was featured in the sequel’s predecessor.

“Fast forward to today’s youth, and so much of what Atari and Blade Runner represented back then is benignly taken for granted by this generation,” said Arzt. “To them, gaming and technology have always been there. Today’s teens never knew a world without internet, smartphones and other tech. Whether it’s the awesome new Blade Runner 2049 film that is looking to reboot the legendary film into a franchise, Atari’s new Ataribox, re imagined games like Tempest 4000, or wearable tech like the cool new Atari Speakerhats, both brands are looking to appeal to this new generation while also maintaining a bridge to the fans that helped make them cool in the first place.”

Virtual Reality

The brand Johnnie Walker, featured in the original film and sequel, also partnered with the marketing team behind 2049. They helped create an immersive VR experience at San Diego Comic-con called Blade Runner: Replicant Pursuit, where players entered a Los Angeles 2049 street, complete with actors, a noodle bar and samples of Johnnie Walker whisky.

Product Placement

As well as Johnnie Walker products being placed in 2049 itself, they also released a limited edition whisky called Johnnie Walker Black Label The Director’s Cut. The bottle was picked by 2049‘s director, Denis Villeneuve. The brand is often drunk my Harrison Ford’s character, Deckard. 

Advance Publicity

To promote the film, three short films were uploaded to social media that led up to 2049. 

The first is the animated Blade Runner 2022: Lights Out, documenting the referenced “Blackout” in 2049. It is directed by Shinichirô Watanabe, director of Cowboy Bebop. 

The second is Blade Runner 2036: Nexus Dawn, starring Jared Leto’s character, Niander Wallace. He forces a repeal of the act banning replicants by showing how they are fully compliant with his demands.

The third is Blade Runner 2048: Nowhere to Run, starring Dave Bautista’s character, Sapper Morton. It is directed by Luke Scott.

Social Media 

The Academy Award winning cinematography by Roger A. Deakins was praised on social media, generating buzz for the film. People could also insert themselves into the official movie poster via the website. Warner Bros also created a Snapchat World Lens which dressed users in a hoodie and plunged them into the neon-clad, dystopian streets of 2049 LA. Snapchat took the world lens and opened it up to brands. They announced the availability of the new advertising product on stage at Advertising Week New York, along with launch partners Warner Bros, who used branded 3D World Lenses as part of their marketing campaign. 3D creations from the film, like the “Spinner” driven by Officer K, can be placed in the real world using augmented reality technology.

Production

London-based Territory Studios used Cinema 4D software to produce screen graphics and concepts. Cinema 4D has played a key role on high-profile VFX projects such as Avengers: Age of Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy.

“Cinema 4D and X-Particles were used to successfully produce screen burn, ghosting, glitching and colour degradation that brought an organic, chaotic nature to the aesthetic of the textural effects to let us show the audience that due to his low status, K is managing with outdated technology,” said Peter Eszenyi. “We also crafted fly through animations of the minimalist particle landscape that were based on the shots that were put onto the screen, rendered and processed through After Effects.”

The special effects in 2049 were so ground-breaking, they won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Format

Film studios used to market the 3D format as the best way to watch a film, such as Avatar (2009), but now the IMAX format has become more popular, but also more expensive. 3D is not as popular as it used to be.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins encouraged people to watch the film in 2D, saying this:

“My preferred version is the standard 2D widescreen version. A problem I have with some viewing systems is their use of silvered screens. The image projected on a silvered screen lacks saturation as well as density as it falls off from a hot spot in the centre of vision. This may not be so apparent for someone sitting in the optimum viewing seat but it is a compromise in terms of image quality wherever you are seated, though it maybe a compromise worth accepting if you are a fan of 3D.”

So – why did Blade Runner 2049 struggle at the box office?

With only a domestic total gross of $92 million (October 2018) and a first weekend gross of $32 million, compared to the $150 million production budget, 2049 failed in the eyes of Warner Bros executives. The problem is one of marketing – in spite of studio efforts to transform the Blade Runner brand from art-house cult classic to mainstream tent-pole film starring Ryan Gosling only appeals to one quadrant: adult males. The film’s marketing strategy, which kept the film’s plot mostly under wraps, failed to provoke interest in any quadrant outside the film’s limited built-in audience.

Compared to Happy Death Day

Blumhouse Pictures has been very successful with low-budget horror films like Get Out (2017) and Happy Death Day (2017). The horror/comedy wide genre appeals to not only adult males but particularly with females under 25 as well. Adverts for the film appeared in front of popular TV shows like American Horror Story, with a similar target audience to the film. The YouTube trailer has also been viewed over 157 million times due to being played over many other YouTube videos. While Happy Death Day only has a domestic total gross $55 million, lower than 2049, compared to its small $4.8 million budget, it certainly is an achievement for Blumhouse.

In conclusion, Blade Runner 2049 is an incredible, ground-breaking, critically acclaimed film and will undoubtedly develop a cult following over the years, but will unlikely get a sequel any time soon due to its poor performance in the box office.