Research On Sky Box Office.

Sky box office was launched in 1996 by BSyB which is a pay-per-view selection of channels. Although the main focus is movies, after its release in the cinema’s and befor they ar released on DVD, viewers are able to purchase and watch the movies on their televisions, Sky Box Office also shows sporting events on occasion for example, WWE and Boxing is frequently broadcast on Sky Box Office. On 1 February 2011, Sky Box Office was rebranded as Sky Movies Box Office.

Sky Box Office promo logo 1998

Films can be purchased directly through a Sky remote control. This can be accomplished by pressing "Box Office", purchase an event, confirm the order and enter the PIN if prompted. This system is an easy direction to film lovers.

WWE

Since 1997, the channel has also shown World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) (formerly World Wrestling Federation) events. From 1997 to 2003 it showed UK only WWF PPV events. However, when the deal with Channel 4 to show 4 WWE events (Royal Rumble, Backlash, Fully Loaded, and Armageddon) broke down in 2002, Sky picked up the 4 events and showed them on Sky Box Office, with a charge of £14.95 (or €21.95 in Ireland). As of 2006, eight WWE events are shown on the channel. The other five WWE PPVs are shown on Sky Sports. The price is now £14.95 even for WrestleMania, despite the fact that in the USA the WWE charges $54.95 (£35), and more for High Definition).

Four dedicated Sky Box Office channels were launched on 1 December 1997 on Sky Analogue. At this time multiple showings of selected movies, shown in advance of their broadcast on Sky's existing subscription movie channels, were added. Initial movies includedThe Long Kiss Goodnight and Courage Under Fire. However, at least one hour pre-ordering was required, and for most movies one purchase at £2.99 only bought one viewing. There are now over 70 Sky Box Office Channels available with multiple films screening

With the move to Sky Digital in 1998, where the Sky Digibox provided a data return path, events and movies - the latter now copy protected - could be bought minutes before or even during the event either by telephone or through an on-screen menu and PIN system.

Sources: Wikipedia

By Fergine Nzita

Possible Channels For Our Film.

Sky Box Office

Sky Box Office would be a possible channel for our film as it gives our production company a pay-per-view advantage. However, Sky Box Office is reported to be falling behind on pay-per-view customers as online DVD companys such as LoveFilm are making it cheaper and more accessible to watch films.

Film4

We feel as though Film4 could be one of the best places to broadcast our film as they are involved in themed weeks and seasons and if they were to have a Horror theme, our film would fit perfectibly as it would be a good chance for all horror lovers to come together and watch it. Film4 is also available on digital television and freeview, making it more accesible to more people. For example, being in university, you will not have SkyDigital in your rooms, however a FreeView box is affordable, making our film more accessible to others.

On Sky Movies however, our film will be less available, as a Sky customer, I am not subscribed to Sky Movies because it costs alot, many other people are not neither, narrowing our chances of a broader audience.

BBC

BBC does not have adverts thats are not to do with the BBC so an advert on our film will not be on the cards so less people are aware that it will be on, What I find is I would search the channels and a film would be on the BBC however, because there was no heads up about it, I would of missed an hour and not be bothered to watch the rest. The BBC would probably be at an advantage of broadcasting our film as they dont have any breaks and advertisement.

ITV/ITV2

ITV and ITV2 would be a good place to watch our film as they have advertisements for what is going to be on in the next week or that night. Just like Film4, ITV2 has theme's that last for a week or even a month on films of a particular genre therefore, if they did a horror theme, our film would be perfect to watch on their channel. ITV normally has a saturday night movie as regularly as possible, that is the reason we believe our film would be best watched their as it could be featured as a premiere and advertised well in order to pull in a bigger audience. What is also good about the ITV is that, many people spend most of their Saturday nights on the channel because of the popular television shows they host. For example, Take Me Out which pulls in an average 6million viewers and X Factor which has a minimum audience of 9million, after the show or during advertisements, they could be shown our film trailer and know that the film is being broadcast on ITV that very night, and possibly not change over. ITV's popularity therefore, enables for a mass audience.

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a sibling of Film4 so films on this channel are very regular on the weekend and occasionally on a Friday night. Channel can be well known for their films. In 2009, the broadcast Slumdog Millionaire only a year after its theathrical release which is rare for a cable channel to do as it should be only available on Sky Movies and DVD. Over 8 million viewers tuned in to watch the film on Channel 4. As they have already proved they can make headlines, Channel4 would be great for broadcasting our film because the advertisement so that people are made aware of the film will be done well and the channels popularity will also help to gain more viweres.

Five

Channel 5 is not as popular as it used to be. We also feel as though the channel's only watchable programmes is Five News, the Wright Stuff,Neighbours and all the CSI's. On a more positive side, Channel 5 does have weekends dedicated to film and does feature a range on horror movie's. As our trailer depicts, our film would include a lot of blood therefore could suit CSI fans who like mystery, blood and gore.

By Fergine Nzita

Distributing Our Film.

In terms of broadcasting our film, there are many different ways this can be produced where viewers can access our film.

Cinemas

The cinema is one of the most important and most popular film viewing there is. It allows for people to view trailers before hand in the cinema to get a good eyeful of any new film releases e.g. Teaser Trailers and Official Trailers. When if comes to broadcasting our film, it would probably be best to advertise and have an official release date if it was to be in the cinema. There would have to be trailers of our film in between screenings so people are aware what film is to come.


DVD
There is a straight to DVD film release that can be popular too. This makes the film available in most retail stores like HMV and supermarkets. Films that are released internationally and didn't do too well will tend to be released straight to DVD as there wouldnt be any need for a theathrical release in case people don't go and see it. An example I could give is Spread starring Ashton Kutcher. The film was not well released in America therefore, was released straight to DVD in the UK.

Television
Straight to television films can mostly be found on Channel 5 in the afternoon as they tend to broadcast these movies regularly. These films can be received positively but can sometimes cause a stir as they tend to focus on real life stories most of the time. An example of this is the just recently finished Amanda Knox film which is based on the murder on Meredith Kercher who was murdered while studying in Italy. The film stars Hayden Panetierre. This film is a straight to television release in the United States.

As our film is in the horror genre, horror tends to carry a lot of hype between friends, colleague's, partners and even family members on for example "who is brave enough to watch it" therefore, having a theatrical release would be best for our film because, horror carrys many different viewing attitudes and being in a cinema heigtens the fright and the adrenaline that comes with it, making people prefer it to watching a horror movie in their very own living room. On television, adverts and breaks can ruin the whole experience. On DVD it could carry a similar effect when watching the film as there are no breaks and you could dim the lights however when watching horror, you would like to share that experience with other people in a cinema just like the creators of Paranormal Activity did when they filmed their audience's reation throughout the film, it makes everything seem really exciting.

Technologies Used for Research.

In order for us to make our traielr, magazine front cover and poster, we has to do a lot of research. We had to use many technologies in order for us to be able to edit our trailer and the photographs.

To start with we had to do research on our chosen genre of film, which is horror, then we had to research in more depth so we research into our sub-genre, which is psychological horror. We knew what we wanted our film plot to be about we just needed to know in more detail what it had to contain and the conventions of this type of film. For this we used wikipedia and google to do our research. Google was the biggest help as it linked us to other helpful websites. Wikipedia also informed us of a lot of helpful things but we couldn't rely on it as anyone can edit the information put on there.

Marketing Statistics On Advertising.

Warner Bros.
Inception is a 2010 science fiction film, which was written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. It was released in July 2010. It's is a young specialized spy who steals valuable information from the unconscious mind and also plants ideas into powerful peoples heads to get what he needs. The film grossed $23.7 million on opening day of July 16th and by the end of the weekend it had made $62.7 million. This film was very popular and an important reason for this was how much marketing was used around it. From around spring 2010 a viral marketing campaign started for the film. A manual was sent our to many different companies that contain many weird and unknown images to do with Inception. As time came closer to the release of the film, more advertisements were released, posters, websites, trailers and phone applications all relating to Inception; this created an instant ''buzz' around the film months before the release. They also released a behind the scenes feature on Yahoo Movies on June 7th 2010 to promote the film. Altogether Warner Bros spent around $100 million on marketing Inception.
Warner Bros.

Another Warner Bros film that used a huge amount of money on marketing was 'The Dark Knight' this is was of the most successful films in the world; grossing over £1 billion in the box office. There was a very huge budget on the making of this film $185 million, and also a large sum of money spent on advertising. This film had a buzz around it even a year before the release. 42 Entertainment started a viral market using the tag-line 'why so serious?' in May 2007 (a year and 2 months before the release). Websites, trailers, games, hunts were put out there for all the 'super fans' to begin to work for clues about the film. The joker was the main source of advertising, it seemed to be all about him and who he was and what he was going to do. However after the death of Heath Ledger the joker buzz calmed down and Warner Bros focussed more on advertising about Harvey Dent. Six Flags Great America and Six Flags Great Adventure opened a ride called 'The Dark Knight roller coaster' which cost over $7 million to make, with the idea of being stalked by the joker. So altogether over $200 million was used on marketing this film.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
Harry Potter and the half blood prince is 6 of 7 books in the series of Harry Potter. The film was released on July 15th 2009 by Warner Bros. All of the previous Harry Potter films had been a great success so Warner Bros were confident about this film and used a lot of money when it came to advertising. $155 million was used around advertising this film; there was already a buzz around this film as there had been 5 previous films and all the books were out and those to had read it was eager to see the film. Most of the money used for marketing was used on releasing trailers from around a year before the film premiered. More and more trailers were released as the released date approached and also 6 new posters were released in May 2009, two months before the release. Sneak peak clips were shown at the MTV awards and  The Ellen DeGeneres Show's official website, showing love-struck Ron.
Summary
Through research i can see that film companies especially rich, high profiled ones like Warner Bros use a lot of money to advertise and it seems to work as their films do incredibly well when released. They show that advertising is just as important as releasing the film because how else is your film going to create a buzz and make people want to watch it.

Marketing/Promoting Our Film.

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is a very effective way for us as a group to promote our film. It includes all types of online marketing, for example the promotion boxes that are placed at the side of nearly all websites.

One way to promote our film is through Facebook. Facebook is a good way to share and give opinions on pretty much anything between yourself and friends. It also allows for people to have the ability to creat and join groups of things that interest them and of things they like. If we was to market and promote our film on Facebook, it would mean that we are creating a fanbase for people who like us and our film storyline. We are also allowing for ourself to become more recognised. Facebook also allows for fans to write on our pages etc, for other people to see and become interested and post pictures and video's and our trailer which could then be spread via gropus of friends.


Other social networking sites that are great for film promotion is MySpace who famously let The Dark Knight have a takeover of the whole site. When it comes to the millions of people that use MySpace, it allows for a wider audience and for alot more people to become aware of the film. It also makes it look like a movie that is willing to branch out and go through all the stops to be noticed and do things that other films have not yet done which makes the reader and audience feel welcomed into something new. When it comes to promoting and marketing our film, a takeover would seem a slight bit over the top however, what MSN does is similar as they dedicate their background to a theme whether it is promoting a car, a film or even a new flavour of chocolate. MSN could be a great way of promoting and marketing our film as there are a lot of people who use MSN and would come across the advertisement.



MSN Live Earth theme, in promotion of the charity concerts


Billboards
A common way to promote a film whilst people are out and about. This would be a very simple and traditional in the world of film production. It will allow for people to spontaneously stumble across our film in the form of a massive poster.
There is also putting posters on things that are in everyday use to the public for example the bus stop and the side of a bus. Visiting the cinema you would catch posters pretty much everywhere which could help in any decision when planning a next visit to the pictures.























Other ways of promoting our film is through word of mouth. Apart from social networking sites, people generally talking about film is a very fast way for information to spread.
Information that needs to be spread could be read from another form of marketing which is magazines and newspapers where you will also encounter film critics who could have for example "Must see 2011". These sort of out there advertising will be very effective as people generally do read and pass on what they have read to others and that technique begins to grow. In terms of promoting our film and marketing in newspapers, we believe we could grow an even bigger base of fans.

Trailer
Our trailer could be shown on television as a way of marketing and promotion as part of breaks and other advertisement in between television programmes. A Trailer is one on the most important parts of advertising the film as it allows for people to decide the films genre, whether they would normally watch a film in that genre, if it portrays something different to what they would normally watch and have become attracted to, actors, graphics and storyline. All these points are important in a viewer deciding to watch a certain film. As well as trailers being found on the television, another way of promoting a trailer is on YouTube is available worldwide on the internet and is open to anyone and everyone. YouTube will allow for you to see how many hits and views the trailer has got, how many people are sharing you trailer outside of YouTube. These statistics would let you know the success of the trailer.



By Fergine Nzita

Developed Ways Of Advertising.

Here i have decided to continue my research into the ways of promotional advertising.Here i have focused on the more developed ways of advertising and how consumer audiences are targeted through the use of developed technological techniques.

Advertising online is an increasingly popular method for promoting a business. There are many forms of online advertising. Banner ads are image ads displayed on web pages. Google AdWords is another popular form of online advertising that matches an ad to an Internet user's search inquiry.

Social network marketing has been the fastest-growing form of Internet advertising. This includes using sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to promote a product or service. Many social networks have advertising available, such as Facebook Ads.

Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web for the expressed purpose of delivering marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial ads, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam.

Though, as seen above, the large majority of online advertising has a cost that is brought about by usage or interaction of an ad, there are a few other methods of advertising online that only require a one time payment. The Million Dollar Homepage is a very successful example of this. Visitors were able to pay $1 per pixel of advertising space and their advert would remain on the homepage for as long as the website exists with no extra costs.

Floating ad: An ad which moves across the user's screen or floats above the content.
Expanding ad: An ad which changes size and which may alter the contents of the webpage.
Polite ad: A method by which a large ad will be downloaded in smaller pieces to minimize the disruption of the content being viewed
Wallpaper ad: An ad which changes the background of the page being viewed.
Trick banner: A banner ad that looks like a dialog box with buttons. It simulates an error message or an alert.
Pop-up: A new window which opens in front of the current one, displaying an advertisement, or entire webpage.
Pop-under: Similar to a Pop-Up except that the window is loaded or sent behind the current window so that the user does not see it until they close one or more active windows.
Video ad: similar to a banner ad, except that instead of a static or animated image, actual moving video clips are displayed. This is the kind of advertising most prominent in television, and many advertisers will use the same clips for both television and online advertising.
Map ad: text or graphics linked from, and appearing in or over, a location on an electronic map such as on Google Maps.
Mobile ad: an SMS text or multi-media message sent to a cell phone.
Superstitial: An animated adv on a Web page from Enliven Marketing Technologies. It uses video, 3D content or Flash to provide a TV-like advertisement. Used to be known as Unicast Transitional ads as they were originally made by Unicast Communications but the company was acquired by Viewpoint Corporation in 2004, which then changed its name to Enliven in 2008.
Interstitial ad: a full-page ad that appears before a user reaches their original destination.
In addition, ads containing streaming video or streaming audio are becoming very popular with advertisers.

Email advertising:Legitimate Email advertising or E-mail marketing is often known as "opt-in e-mail advertising" to distinguish it from spam.

Semantic advertising applies semantic analysis techniques to web pages. The process is meant to accurately interpret and classify the meaning and/or main subject of the page and then populate it with targeted advertising spots. By closely linking content to advertising, it is assumed that the viewer will be more likely to show an interest (i.e., through engagement) in the advertised product or service.

Up above is a photographic image which shows a digital advertisement advertising a teaser trailer film production of the film Unborn.Here the trailer has been advertised on a smart phone, this is an example of a developed way of advertising which is effective and convenient to a targeted specific audience.By the development and growth of technology businesses are now enabled to advertise on smart phone software to promote there media product.

Up above is a photographic image which shows The Dark Knight film production being advertised on the Internet service MSN. MSN provides a variety of Internet services and entertainment sources to a wide consumer audience. Demographics show that MSN has successfully targeted a consumer audience with the variation of there products to the younger generation.This is another effective way which advertises have used to target a specific age audience which the film production has been demographically targeted at.

Up above is a photographic image which shows a film production website advertising The Pirates Of The Caribbean.This is an example of how developed technology can successfully advertise and promote there film product.The website is purposely aimed to enable targeted consumer and visual audiences to gather upcoming, new and present information on the film production.

Up above is a photographic image which shows the apple product itunes advertising and commercially selling film products to consumer audiences.This is another example of how developed ways of technology sucessfully promote and commercially sell media products to consumer audiences. Up above is a photographic image which shows another form of online advertisisng.The image above demonstrates how social newt working sites can also be used as a promotional way to advertise film products.The image above shows a screenshot of the social newt working site twitter promoting the Home Alone film production.This is another way which visually distinguishes the beneficial effect of advertising products on social networking sites.By the promotion on this type of media it creates an instant buzz method which creates an effect of spreading around worldwide on the web.

Up above is another photographic image which visually shows the use of Internet resources to promotion ally advertise to a consumer and visual audience a new film or upcoming film production.Here the oceans thirteen film has been digitally advertised on the social networking site myspace.This again is a beneficial format of advertising which has been used to promote the film as it creates an instant buzz and makes an awareness to consumer and visual audiences on the web.

Up above is a photographic image which shows a visual screenshot of the website and Internet service Youtube.This is another effective example of a way of digital advertising.From our other additional research it is evident that it is conventional for film production products to be digitally advertised and broad casted on YouTube.

By Kerry Treacy