MEST1 Section B: A Field In England

Media Magazine article on A Field In England in Issue 47- 100 word summary of the article: 

A Field In England is a low-budget Arthouse film by award-winning director Ben Wheatley. It was released on 5th July 2013 across cinema, DVD/Blu-ray, TV and VoD. Mark Ramey explores in this article that film distribution is a high-risk battle for revenue, with the major Hollywood studios packing the biggest punches. He states that without effective distribution, film product rarely finds an audience. The distributor’s challenge for a film launch can be summarised through: identifying the film’s audience, estimating revenue potential across all platforms, building awareness and maintaining interest, persuading exhibitors to present the film, persuading the audience to watch it. A distributor’s campaign strategy is therefore complex and costly work, involving thorough research and creativity. It is a campaign that will not stop once the film has launched, because early box office figures will further determine the strategic direction of a film’s release.

• How was A Field In England’s release different to typical film releases?

It was released on 5th July 2013 across cinema, DVD/Blu-ray, TV and VoD at once. Therefore, it was a simultaneous release. 

• What are the advantages to releasing the film across all platforms on the same day?

The advantages to releasing the film across all platforms on the same day is that it creates a hype about the film and all the publicity is geared towards one month and that leads to people wanting to watch it straight away and it might also help it be around longer in cinemas, and let people come to it without having that panic of being around for one week before it’s gone. 

• What are the disadvantages to this approach?

The disadvantages to this approach is that the audience might resort to the cheaper option to watch the film, e.g. on demand or on the TV in comparison to spending more money by buying the DVD or a cinema ticket. This will then lead to less revenue being made because majority of the audience will prefer the cheaper option and only a minority will be willing to spend the money when there is a cheaper option in place. 

• What target audience would A Field In England be aimed at? Demographics and Psychographics.

The target audience for this film would be mainly middle-class people aged 25-55. the pyschographic groups that this film would appeal to would be succeeders because they are mainly professionals and part of higher management. This means that they would enjoy to watch a film that is based around the 15/16th century. 

• Do you think all films in future will be released across all platforms simultaneously in future?

I think that all films will be released across all platforms simultaneously in the future because many people already download films illegally and watch them before they are available on a wider platform. Therefore, releasing it across all platforms at once would probably be beneficial due to the fact that the audience would rather buy the DVD or get it on demand to avoid the hassle of downloading it illegally because the quality is mostly poor. This will benefit the audience who doesn't prefer to go to cinemas or can't afford to.