Mid-tier budget film distribution model (Snow-piercer)

The film Snow-piercer, a South Korean based undertaking initially premiered in Seoul on July 29, 2013, it was meet with a very positive reception. After, the film was screened at various predominate film festivals across the world, such as the Berlin International Film Festival with more than 500,000 admissions per year, the Edinburg International Film Festival, and most importantly the Los Angeles Film festival, where American audiences first got a glimpse of the film; one could only conjecture that this was done to promote the film via word of mouth and while traveling around the world is expensive it is significantly cheaper when compared to conventional means of advertising. Following this, the film was eventually released on various home media platforms across the world like: Netflix, DVD/BluRay, and video on demand. On June 27, 2014, nearly a year after its original debut, its ambitious approach finally got it in to just eight theaters in select cities, some being, Miami, NewYork, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc. and after sometime, following positive reviews, it expanded to accommodate 150 theaters around the United States.
              This distribution model was obviously very successful, Snow-piercer boasted a 217% return on "only" a 40 million dollar budget. The marketers behind the film were extremely intelligent but most of all patient. The method of releasing in its own country and then waiting to garner some form of following though all these film festivals to then again rerelease across the world is completely unorthodox but the results are impressive.

Creative Critical Reflection (Question #1) *DRAFT*

I believe my product defies some conventional methods but not all, my media film project uses the cinematic technique of "breaking the 4th wall", here the main character, or any character for that matter directly addresses the audience watching as single entity; this is something that is rarely seen in movies or other forms of media since it is very difficult to use effectually. In retrospect, I would say that my group did not use it as well as originally intended, unfortunately. Besides that, I believe my project doesn't diverge too much from the conventional ways of making a film in terms of production, maybe a few lines of improvisation but nothing too major.
          My project also manages to capture and document, to an extent, the spirit of youth and excitement. Aaron being the young charismatic character that he is, or again originally made to be, highlights the life of the kids in the same age group. Regardless of social standing,the essence of youth is something that is applicable and relatable to all; "Aaron's World" serves as a snapshot of one of the many instances that is found through out the world. While it may not represent any vexing issue in short intro, I do firmly believe that if given more run time, the film may possibly show the issue of maturing into a responsible adult and turbulence encountered due to it.

3rd Quarter Film Draft

Revisions synapsis and review (3 revisions in one)

Voice over

After a long debacle and discussion we unanimously agreed to scrap the idea of a voice over, we felt that it would take away from the surprise of Aaron realizing the camera is extant being and it would it would diverge from our original goal of being coherent.

New scene addition

We continued with this because we knew with the addition of more dialog and more cinematic techniques we could possibly make it more fluid and tad bit more pleasant to watch. With this it establishes a reason why we stop so abruptly; Aaron supposedly forgot his wallet, but the hidden goal to introduce himself. 

Excerpt from the scene

New Script

With the loss of our female character related to uncontrollable external issues, we had to essentially amend the entire script to meet these new conditions. With this we made Jacob Aaron's wingman to their double date. Aaron then with the corner of his eye sees a camera man sitting nonchalantly in the back of his car, and immediately devices a plan to meet this invisible figure. 

Revisions problem !

Today I got news that our female actor that was playing the role of Aaron's girlfriend could no longer be in our film

Analyzing commercials/promotion techniques in relation to our film

The day following the Super-Bowl we as class decided to dissect the various commercials broadcasted during the game. In doing so we made sure to identify the target audience and how they accomplished to "lure" said demographic.


Doritos

Audience- Middle aged men, generally those with children or nearing parenthood.
Techniques used- Humor, using an older male as the main subject in the commercial.


Heinz Ketchup

Audience- established families/matured citizens
Techniques used- In the commercial there was an extended family portrayed in costumes of available Heinz products (like ketchup, mustard, barbecue, etc) with wiener dogs dressed like hot dogs. This advertently makes the commercial to be amusing, it also able to sensationalize feelings of a family partly due to relating certain products to a corresponding constituent in the family (the young child being a ketchup packet, the mother and father being mustard and ketchup, respectively).


Mountain Dew Kickstart

Audience- teen(13-19) to young adult (20 - 23), males
Techniques used- The cast of characters are diverse and seemly very young, they along with the commercial it self use very modern social colloquialisms (the word 'awesome' for example). The characters are seen playing video games, an activity usually carried out by a young male demographic. Finally the ad is seen using a hashtag for further online promotion through social media.



Application to our film

I would probably have a similar take as to the Mountain Dew commercial, obviously with a complete reworking so that we would promote our film. Perhaps making a hashtag out of a very quotable moment from the film, or something along those lines for social to play a huge role on advertising. By doing so we mitigate costs and specially target our selected audience.