How do horror films produce and distribute
their content?
Audience expectations of new horror media products are ever
changing, as the demand for better quality films have been raised by the
introduction of digital technology. Industrial and independent films both have
an aim, as business models, to make 3 times their budget in order for their
films to be classed as successes, taking into account their budget commensurate
target audience to ensure that people will actually watch their products. UK
audiences have continued to have an insatiable interest for film, with UK
cinema admissions of 127 million last year, the second highest total in the
last 10 years. Whilst industrial film has a target of making
their products out of an ultra-high budget (tentpoles) to allow for the best
quality possible to attract core audiences (12-29 year olds), independent film
produce their products out of a smaller/less spectacle budget , relying more on
stars and genre appeal to entice audiences of mainly males aged 15-24. Time Warner is a major conglomerate in which has two particular subsidiaries relating to independent and industrial film, these are Vertigo Film and Warner Brothers.
An example of a horror film produced by vertigo film is 'Monsters' (Edwards, 2010) which had a budget of $500,000 and reached a total of $4,242,978 at box office. The film was devised, storyboarded and directed by Gareth Edwards, who also worked as the visual effects artist with the help of Allan Niblo and James Richardson of Vertigo Film. The filming equipment cost approximately $15,000, with the budget being way under £500,000. The film was able to be made on such a low budget due to the use of prosumer cameras to capture digital video rather than more expensive 35mm film. Also, any settings featured in the film were real locations and the extras were people who happened to be there at the time of filming. The film was shot in Belize, Mexico, Guatemala, Cost Rica and Texas in the United States over three weeks, with 90% of the filming crew being comprised in one van (keeping costs low). As the low budget production didn't run to a camera dolly, Edwards had to compromise by sticking the camera out of the van window, cushioned on some bundled up clothing. As most of the extras were non actors anyway, Edwards abandoned the idea of scripting the film and instead had a loose paragraph describing the scene with just a few main points; how the actors carried this out was left up to them. Edwards added all the special effects himself using off-the-shelf Adobe software, ZBrush and Autodesk 3ds Max. The first assembly was over four hours long, but was trimmed to 94 minutes after eight months of editing. Once the film was locked, Edwards had five months to create all 250 visual effects shots and underwent this process in his bedroom.
In the weeks leading up to the UK Monsters release date of 3rd December 2010, a marketing campaign using social network Foursquare was announced. Monsters was distributed at Vue Entertainment and Cineworld cinemas set up infected locations which gave users access to exclusive Monsters content, along with the chance to win random on-the-spot prizes. There were four main stages to the marketing campaign, these were:
Stage 1 - the teaser press release was sent out to notify online publications of the Foursquare initiative. Information about the film was fairly vague at this stage, with fans only being made aware of infected zones being created in select Vue and Cineworld venues across the country as well as a number of independent zones.
Stage 2 - users were engaging with the promotion, logging into infected zones across the country. Random prizes were awarded to those who emailed the email address left in all infected zone tips. To reward earlier entries, an exclusive clip was made available through Foursquare. The exclusive clip also warranted a second press release which helped entice publications to push to the Foursquare profile for readers to catch a sneak peak.
Stage 3 - ten swarm sites were giving users discount codes. This was done via the full trade press release as well as a general press release which generated further new stories.
Stage 4 - the campaign unleashed limited infected zones that, when checking in as part of a group or 'swarm' and unlocking a badge, allowed bulk discounts on tickets. All press release messaging included links and information if the Foursquare presence. The activity was covered by select press invited down to Vue Westfield.
An example of a horror film produced by Warner Brothers is 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' (Bayer, 2010) which had a budget of $35 million and reached a total of $117,729,621 at box office. With quite a high budget, principle photography began on May 5th 2009 and officially wrapped on July 10th 2009. Platinum Dunes chose to film in Illinois due to pleasurable filming experiences in the state when the company produced 'The Amityville Horror' and 'The Unborn'. Platinum Dunes also received a 30% tax break for filming in the state. For the representation of the main character 'Freddy Krueger' producers were looking for locations which were old and decaying, finally settling on the Ryerson Steel Warehouse on the west side of Chicago. New Line contracted with two high schools in Illinois, Elk Grove High School and John Hersey High School to use their locations for scenes in the remake. The studio contacted schools across the nation looking for one that had a swimming pool and also casted 200 extras for various school scenes, including one in the pool, but required that all auditioning students be at least 16 years old. According to Fuller and Form, Warner Brothers suggested that 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' should be released in 3D, with the recent surge in 3D films showing increased box office revenue.
In March 2010, the National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA) released two new Freddy Krueger action figures; one ore burned Freddy and one based on the new burn design from the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' remake. In addition, NECA also released a replica of Freddy's clawed glove. In conjunction with the film, an online game was released where the user attempted to keep the young girl awake so as to keep her away from Freddy. Warner Brothers supported an aggressive online marketing campaign for 'A Nightmare on Elm Streets' theatrical release. A variety of banner ads appeared on numerous websites promoting the film. 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' was released on April 30th 2010, to 3,332 theatres and approximately 4700 screens, making it the twelfth widest opening for an R-rated film in the United States. It was released on DVD and Blu ray on October 5th 2010, with the DVD's only feature being 'Freddy Krueger Reborn'. The Blu ray special features include the DVD's featurette along with a deleted scene, an alternate opening and ending and the 'Maniacle Movie Mode'.
In conclusion, independent film producers are restricted to a low budget and so are limited to the qualities they can include within their film such as picture quality. This is affected due to the use of low quality camera's used within the film making process, which are enough to produce a picture that an audience can see and are within the films budget commensurate. Also, as a result of a low budget, independent film producers don't have the money to market and distribute their films to global cinemas affecting their box office. A lack of advertisement is a problem for many independent companies as it means that promotion of films is limited, even to their target audience, resulting in a loss of previews for the film. However, industrial film producers have hard money from big companies and so have enough money to film on better quality cameras and producing better picture quality films (including 3D). The industrial industry is then able to add to the dynamic genre of the evolutionary of film, including homage from previous successive films. Due to the revolution of the internet, previews are released and leaked onto the internet before the films release date in cinemas. This leads to an increase in piracy of the films and results in a loss at box office.
