How important are social networks to producers and audiences as a form of film promotion?

How important are social networks to producers and audiences as a form of film promotion?

Social networking is very important in many different ways to audiences and producers. One of the major ways for audiences is that they can pick and choose what they want to see in the cinemas. The audience can pick what trailers they want to watch and can sometimes create their own trailers like the Avatar trailer, which let the audience fashion, their own trailer. As well as websites like Kickstarter where audiences can put their own money into projects that they want to back. An example of a film that was funded through Kickstarter was Kung Fury the producer wanted $200,000 but raised $630,019. It was promoted through Facebook and other social networking sites. This shows importance of social networking platforms because the audience always knows what they want.

Another importance for producers of using social networking is that it is easier to promote films online. These days trailers are now premiered online and don’t premiere in the cinema you can see this from the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer that reached 30 million views in 24 hours. This shows that films are easier to promote online. There are many different ways producers promote their films online one example is that they share preproduction of the film and how its doing this adds interaction between the producer and the audience. Another example is that the producer will release free stuff online an example is the Avatar OST an this promoted the film another would be the Star Wars cover for your profile picture on Facebook which will promote the film with your friends and is an example of synergy between Facebook and Star Wars. The director can have direct contact with the audiences as well as the audience having direct contact with the director. An example of this is the Star Wars 8 promo that was posted on the Star Wars Facebook page this creates excitement for the next Star Wars film as well as creating conversations with different people on other sites such as Reddit.

One negative of promoting online is that bad publicity could ruin your film. If you release a trailer and it gets bad publicity it could lower your expectations of the film or you may not go and see it at all. This is down to the studio not being able to control what happens online or what people’s perception of the film is like and then this spreading on social networking websites. Bad publicity will put the majority off the film but will not put off all of the films fans. An example is the Batman vs Superman where t was leaked that the owner of DC Films slandered the film and suspended the further DC universe expansion this publicity put a lot of people off the film or lowered the expectations.

Another positive for audiences is that social networking is part of their everyday life. Mostly everyone has a phone and mostly everyone has social networking social networking tailors advertising to a person as well as the person tailoring their own experiences. This makes it easier for word of mouth about a film to carry on through Twitter and Facebook because of audiences always having their phones on them. This makes it easier to promote films online because people that are interested in the film will click on the advertisement and those that aren’t will scroll past. This also links in with publicity because if the promotional material is good about a film then people may have good reviews about it but if it’s not then it is quite negative on the studio.

Social networking can be used to find future filmmakers and this is very important for the audience. An example of a film that started on YouTube was Pixels which was a 5 minute short video which was turned into a multimillion project in the 2015 release of the film. The film was not a total success but shows a start of a trend of films that started on YouTube and then turned into blockbuster films. The audience watched the video and shared it and this is how it got the attention of studios.

A further positive  for audiences is that they can tailor their expectations from watching trailers and make the decision whether they want to see the film or not. Every film has more than one trailer, they can watch all of the trailers and change their expectations for the film. These days studios make the trailer more revealing for the big franchise films and tell the plot points and the basic storyline, this makes it more easier for the audiences to decide whether to see it or not. For example the trailer for Captain America: Civil War which mostly told all the plot points and improves people’s expectations. Another positive for directors is that they can manipulate the trailer and promotional material to make the film look better than it actually is. An example of a trailer is the Godzilla (2014) that told the audience that Bryan Cranston’s character was an important character however he dies in the first 30 minutes of the film. This is an example of a director manipulating a trailer to seem better than it actually is.

Social media can be used throughout the life cycle of a film, this is very important for producers and audiences. Producers can publish everything from a film, from the start of filming to distribution and even after the film has been released. Audiences can take part in this cycle as well being a catalyst for the films advertising even after it isn’t being shown anymore. People on Twitter can tweet about a film and this advertises it to others. The producer can post photographs from the set on the first day of filming as well as releasing sneak peeks and interviews with cast members. This makes the audience feel more excited for the films release and it improves their expectations. This type of advertising may attract more people to view the film at home and it might remind them of the time they saw the film and may excite them again.

People that use social media are more likely to go and see a film than people that do not use social media. This shows the usefulness of using social media and how it has been used to target people on social media. People that use social media are 5 times more likely to go to cinemas than non-users. This links back to how using social media is a cheaper way of advertising. It is cheaper because posting one picture on a social networking site and having it shared by a lot of people rather than having a billboard, which is very expensive. This is very important for indie cinema because they do not have the budget to promote the film and example is “This is England” which only had one poster. In this age they could post that one picture for free online and have it shared by a lot of people. They could use the budget that they would spend on promotion on the film itself.

Social networking can be like a virus because once one person has it, lots of people get it this is called viral marketing.  This is very important for both audiences and producers. For producers it makes it really easy to promote a film on social networking because it can be spread all around the world and the audience acts as a carrier for it.  An example of this is “Lots-O’-Huggin’-Bear” from Toy Story 3 which the producer created an advert for which made the toy seem real and this was a marketing strategy for Toy Story 3.