Author: BRWC

How Is Facebook Impacting Box Office Numbers in the Movie Industry? By Frankie Wallace.

Today, a lot of people get more of their news from social media than from traditional news channels. That goes for everything from current events and breaking news to pop culture. While movie marketing used to exist solely in movie theaters, magazines, and TV commercials, today we can learn about the latest and greatest movies as we browse our social media feeds.

All sorts of businesses use social media marketing to their advantage, so why should the film industry be any different? Facebook is the most popular social platform for advertising, possibly because it has such rich ad-creation tools. Now that Facebook owns Instagram, the photo-sharing app may become just as useful for ad targeting.

Sony Pictures and Facebook Marketing

Sony Pictures is a heavy user of Facebook marketing, and they’ve seen a lot of success with it: 

• For The Angry Birds Movie 2, they have a video with one of the characters participating in the trending #bottlecapchallenge.
• One of their ads for Spider-Man: Far From Home has the words “#1 Movie in the World” integrated into a scene as a “thank you” to fans for helping it perform so well at the box office.
• To celebrate Independence Day, Sony Pictures had Zendaya, star of Spider-Man, thank vets around the world.

The reason Sony Pictures has had such luck with Facebook advertising is that they look at it as a focus group. For years, Hollywood has used focus groups to research performance, but Sony saw Facebook users as a type of easier-to-access, larger focus group. 

Facebook Ads and Movie Marketing

Facebook ads can be used at all different stages. To market a movie, Facebook ads can increase brand awareness through trailers or drive sales by encouraging ticket purchases. Facebook ads can also be targeted to all sorts of demographics, which means box office movie marketers can aim ads at specific ages, genders, locations, and interests.

Moreover, Facebook marketing, both organic and paid, can be used to boost other types of promotions. Experiential marketing is a popular way to promote movies now, for example. Movie marketers will create an experience that engages audience members, and from there, the participants will be more inclined to actually see the movie. For example, Coke offered customers the chance to win seats at the Skyfall premiere. Facebook ads can promote these types of marketing campaigns – it’s not a direct route to the movie theater, but it’s a way to promote a wider-reaching or more impactful marketing campaign.

How Hollywood is Growing Disinterested in Facebook

Despite some success with movie marketing, certain studios aren’t so keen on advertising with Facebook any longer. Instead, studios are growing more interested in other social media platforms, like Pinterest, Tumblr, and Twitter. At first, it seemed that advertising on Facebook was much more budget-friendly than running a TV ad. However, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to reach any audience, let alone the right audience, with Facebook ads. Targeting can be tricky to master, and a lot of money can be wasted when trying to figure it out. It’s also unclear if liking an ad or promotion on Facebook actually leads to better box office numbers.

Getting Hollywood Back on Board

One solution may be to provide movie studios with more insight and data. Facebook analytics have to show how ads and marketing efforts lead to actual sales. This is especially important now because the current Facebook algorithm is pickier about what audience members see. That means that movie marketing campaigns aren’t being seen as broadly as before, making it harder for them to reach their target audiences.

Additionally, Facebook can educate users about how to create more engaging content. When a movie page has a lot of followers and likes, and when those fans engage with what’s posted, the algorithm will show followers more of that page’s posts. The key is to create engaging content that gets audiences interacting with and responding to what’s posted. 

Facebook Marketing Strategies for Movie Studios

There are a number of ways to create more engaging Facebook content when promoting a movie. One of the best ways is to feature the big-name actors and actresses everyone wants to see. Videos featuring the actors as themselves (not their characters) are highly engaging because viewers love to see their favorite stars talking right to them. 

Movie studios can also add more box office value to a movie. This is similar to how retailers upsell and cross-sell to promote more sales. For example, if a movie is being released to DVD or will be on a streaming network, a marketing campaign can promote a new, extended scene or show the after-credits scene a lot of people missed in the theater.

Videos are an excellent type of media for movie marketing on Facebook. Not only is video marketing hugely effective and engaging, but movies have more options than simply showing the trailer. They can show a cut scene or an introduction to the movie from one of its stars, even if it’s an animated movie (Disney does this a lot). Videos tend to be shared, too, which improves organic marketing.

What movie marketers have to be careful of is not putting all of their eggs in one basket. While a large part of their audience may be on Facebook, many potential moviegoers may not have a Facebook account at all. Privacy concerns are leading plenty of Facebook users to shut down their accounts, which means that marketers have to use alternative methods to still reach them. Facebook should be a component of movie marketing for many studios, but not the entirety of it. 

How is Social Media Use Depicted on the Big Screen? By Frankie Wallace.

Few things define the modern era quite so well as social media. Companies like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and even newer contenders like Box.net clutter the social media landscape, providing a way for everyone to interact, escape, chat … and post an endless stream of photos of their pets and food.

But how does the reality of social media make its way onto the big screen? Do movies accurately depict this complex, convoluted world in a way that is in any way reminiscent of the reality? The answer, as might be expected, is all over the board, with some films showing very accurate representations, others going far afield with fictitious, hardly plausible scenarios, and still others coming to quite possible but highly unlikely conclusions. 

Here’s a brief breakdown of how Hollywood is handling the social media world.

Let’s Get Real

Right off the bat, it’s worth taking some time to look at some of the more realistic representations out there. Screenwriters and directors often love a deep, emotional, realistic take on a subject, and social media has provided the perfect canvas for several such movies to pop up over the last decade.

Jon Favreau’s ‘Chef,’ for instance, while technically a culinary-focused story, revolves around a botched tweet sent in anger by a chef after receiving a negative review from a popular critic. While the event helps to move the plot forward, it also serves as a not-so-subtle reminder of the dangers of hitting “send” when all the world can see what you’re posting.

The 2010 documentary film ‘Catfish’ is another movie that takes a deep dive into the darker side of life online — particularly the fact that you can never be sure who it is that you’re actually talking to on the other end of your internet connection. The movie traces an online relationship that, while not horrifying or deadly, ultimately proves to be filled with countless lies and deception, a feeling that many social media users are far too familiar with. 

And then there’s the 2018 comedy-drama ‘Eighth Grade’. This one’s a bit of a social media double whammy. On the one hand, it takes a close look at eighth-grader Elsie Fisher, whose life largely revolves around social media, especially her vlog. In addition to the subject matter, though, the film is the directorial debut of Bo Burnham, the stand-up comic that fittingly got his start on Youtube. Not only does the movie tackle the concept of social media in life, but it is literally written and directed by a product of the social media world itself.

Fiction and Abuse

While many movies focus on realistic takes, often social media ends up appearing in films as a sort of “real life boogeyman,” and with good reason, too. The potential for the rampant abuse of social networks is a well-documented phenomenon. For instance, it’s estimated that as many as 30% of divorces originate on Facebook, while the obvious threats of lying, abduction, etc. have been around for years. The potential for conflict, abuse, and violence is very real. But enough exposition, what are the movies saying about it?

Cyberbullying between students has been drawing more and more attention in recent years. It’s a subject that the 2010 drama thriller ‘Trust’ addresses as it follows the relationship between a teenage girl and an online abuser who meet in a chat room. The movie provides an uncomfortable take on the darker side of cyberbullying and emotional manipulation, showcasing just how easily vulnerable souls can be deceived and manipulated through the online world.

The 2013 drama thriller ‘Uwantme2killhim?’ also provides a discomforting take on the subject. It demonstrates how far online deception and lies can go in inducing not just emotions and fake relationships, but even straight up violence and misguided revenge.

While not “Hollywood” proper, another stellar representation of the effects of social media can be found in the highly lauded Netflix’s offbeat sci-fi thriller series, ‘Black Mirror’. The episode ‘Nosedive’ follows a woman living in a world where your online reputation is everything, and we mean everything. Bad scores can quickly spiral into the loss of prestige, friends, and social status, and even very real things like what kind of home you’re allowed to purchase. The final scene, where two characters oddly but lovingly belt out profanities at each other between jail cells as they vent their final freedom from the bonds of social media is absolutely profound.

Less profound, but still worth mentioning, is the way that social media and the internet, in general, have found their way into the horror genre. The 2015 film ‘Unfriended’, for instance, follows a paranormal entity that is kick started by a Skype group. Going even further back, the 2001 Japanese thriller ‘Pulse’ immediately puts its finger on, well, the pulse of how terrifying the concept of the internet could truly be.

Learning From Hollywood

There’s no doubt that Hollywood has had its fair share of takes on the social media issue. From horror and violence to melodramatic middle schoolers and everything in between, the modern phenomena has been thoroughly addressed at this point. Perhaps the biggest takeaway should simply be the fact that we should take some advice from those brave few that still avoid using the internet by occasionally taking a break from social media ourselves, along with all of the emotional turmoil that it creates in our lives.

Pulp Fiction: What Makes It A Good Film? By Jacob Tucker.

Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ stands out from other films made in the late 20^th Century – back in 1994, no-one had ever seen a film quite like it, and its success brought a wave of post-modern cinema. The stage had been set in the 1970s and 1980s with the rise of summer blockbusters, but nothing quite like ‘Pulp Fiction’ had been seen before 1994 (there was certainly nothing similar of such high quality, or such mass appeal).

The non-linear structure had been done before (including by Tarantino himself, in his first film ‘Reservoir Dogs’), but had never been used with such clarity. It’s not used as a gimmick, or as an editing cop-out – it forces the audience to piece the story together as they watch, allows for dramatic irony (as with scenes with Vincent after he is shot in the movie but before he is shot chronologically), and transforms a relatively standard plot into something captivating. The technique has been used since ‘Pulp Fiction’s’ release in many other critically-acclaimed cult films, including David Fincher’s ‘Fight Club’ (my personal favourite film).

An obvious point to make regarding why exactly this film works so well is the quality of acting throughout. Every character feels genuine, every line of dialogue is utterly believable (with the slight exception of parts of Tarantino’s extended cameo, but I’ll give him a pass!) and the chemistry between every single actor is beautifully realized. In my opinion, the best acting in the movie comes from Bruce Willis – his anger at his girlfriend leaving his watch behind is almost palpable, and the way in which he searches for a weapon with which to save Wallace makes it an immensely satisfying scene.

Throughout the film, the combination of superb acting and free-flowing dialogue makes the events that unfold feel real – the actors transcend their real-life selves (an even more impressive feat now, considering how well-known each of them has become) and become their characters. 

However, of course the actors should not get all of the credit; in fact, I would attribute the memorable and believable characters to Tarantino’s excellent writing quality. Somehow he’s devised a way of capturing the essence of a character in words, and uses these words in a way that no other director has ever replicated.

Not all lines contain symbolic meaning or literary references or self-aggrandizing complex vocabulary – he writes dialogue as it is said, and adds his unique flair. However, enough has been said about Tarantino’s realistic dialogue to fill a small library, so I will not dwell on it here – suffice to say; the movie is immeasurably quotable, and a treasure trove of wit.  

As well as subverting the standard of dialogue in films at the time, Pulp Fiction also subverts it’s own genre. Now, subverting expectations or tradition is not always a road to success (see Rian Johnson’s ‘The Last Jedi’ for a masterclass in how to do it the wrong way), but Tarantino uses the audiences’ preconceptions to his own benefit at many points throughout the movie.

The most shocking scenes are the ones which the audience expects, because they’ve seen films before, one thing to happen, and then something unexpected instantly breaks this layer of expectation. We did not expect Vincent to be shot by Butch. We did not expect Marvin to become a stain on a car-seat. We did not expect Mia, who had been presented as someone who could take care of herself, to succumb to a scarily accurate heroin overdose. But Tarantino knew we would not see these things coming – that’s why they were included, and that’s why they have the ability to shock us. 

I’d also like to talk about ‘Pulp Fiction’s’ humour. Now, I fully understand that examining a joke is a sure-fire way of making it unfunny, but it’s important to note that ‘Pulp Fiction’ is a very funny film. Not all the time, of course – if someone I was watching it with started laughing during some parts of that scene in the pawnshop’s basement, I would be quite unnerved.

Most of the comedy comes from small nuances in the acting, or from the wit of the dialogue. And it’s not all on the surface, either – I read through large portions of the script in preparation for writing this, and I (who has seen the film many, many times) noticed small, witty turns of phrase that I missed when casually watching. 

Now, the afore-mentioned non-linear structure. You could argue this was used simply because it was uncommon, or that it’s just the way that Tarantino likes to tell stories (most of his films at the very least have extended flashbacks). I would personally argue that it makes it possible for information to be revealed at optimum points – Tarantino can choose what the audience knows about any plot detail or character at any time, simply by changing the order of scenes.

Chronologically, the last shot in the film would be Butch and Fabienne riding off together on Zed’s motorcycle. This isn’t necessarily a bad ending – it’s a fitting conclusion to his arc, and providing the rest of the movie is also viewed chronologically, everything else has been tied up too. But it’s not unique. The ‘hero rides off into the sunset’ is a well-trodden path in books and film, and although it can still be satisfying in it’s own right, Tarantino wanted a more fitting ending for the film.

The film (from it’s non-linear standpoint) ends with Jules and Vincent walking out of the coffee shop after their confrontation with ‘Pumpkin’ and ‘Honeybunny,’ and facing an uncertain future. However, the audience knows what happens to Vincent after this, and so Tarantino has created a sense of dramatic irony. This, I would argue, is a more satisfying and fitting conclusion to these two characters’ stories than what we would have gotten in a linear version – Vincent getting shot by Butch. It’s a matter of preference, but it’s undeniable that the winding, fragmented structure of ‘Pulp Fiction’ was a key to it’s success. 

I’m glad Quentin Tarantino is a household name nowadays. I’m also glad he’s apparently only making two more films (including ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’) – obviously not because I don’t want more of his style and wit, but because eventually he would burn out. I would rather have ten amazing films than a mixed bag of twenty good and bad films.

Pulp Fiction is undoubtedly the main reason he’s well-known today – ‘Reservoir Dogs’ was mainly well-received, but would never have allowed his career to develop in the way it has. Samuel L. Jackson also got his start in ‘Pulp Fiction’ – he had a minor role in ‘Jurassic Park,’ but would have never become one of the best-known actors in the world without Tarantino. 

BRWC FiLMiX – PULPFiCTiON from BRWC on Vimeo.

I think ‘Pulp Fiction’ was the spark that lit the fire of the post-modern films that’s still burning. It showed that weird, graphic arthouse films could very easily fall into the collective public consciousness – it led the way for hundreds more unique films to get made.

Even directors who have since moved on to more standard summer blockbusters are likely to have been allowed to make their breakout movie due to the praise ‘Pulp Fiction’ received – Christopher Nolan, for example, may have never made ‘Memento’ if the precedent for non-linear films being acceptable wasn’t set by ‘Pulp Fiction.’

A similar effect may have happened to David Fincher and Wes Anderson, although that’s purely a theory. Even so, it’s impossible to deny that Pulp Fiction broke new ground, and will still be watched by millions of people a long time from now.