The King's Speech Questions

Who distributed the film in the UK and USA and what were the issues associated with the film’s distribution?

·         Weinstein Company, The (2010) (USA) (theatrical)

·         Anchor Bay Entertainment (2011) (USA) (DVD)
·         Anchor Bay Entertainment (2011) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
·         Momentum Pictures (2011) (UK) (all media)

• Was the campaign a grass roots or mainstream big event? How was word spread about the film? Virally on the Net? Mass advertising campaign with poster, trailers, etc?

The King's Speech was originally an independent film/arthouse film, but due to it's success at the various film festivals, listed below, the interest immediately increased and the film was turned into a mainstream film.

·        Telluride Film Festival
·        Toronto International Film Festival
·        Mill Valley Film Festival
·        Hamptons International Film Festival
·        London Film Festival
·        Leeds International Film Festival
·        AFI Film Festival
·        Bahamas International Film Festival
·        Dubai International Film Festival

There were a variety of posters as well as a few different trailers for the UK and America which were intended to interest the respective audiences. The King's Speech official trailer has 895,399 views onYouTube. The trailer was put up on YouTube on 28 Sep 2010, while the release date was three months later. This enables a large audience to watch the trailer and wet their appetite for the film which is to come out in a few months.

On the video description, it gives the following information:
Release Date: 10 December 2010
Genre: Drama | History
Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Colin Firth, Guy Pearce, Michael Gambon, Tim Downie
Director: Tom Hooper
Writer: David Seidler
MPAA: R
Studio: The Weinstein Company

It then goes on to explain the plot and a link to subscribe to the YouTube channel.

• How was “the talent” used to publicize the film? For instance,
TV and radio interviews with members of the cast, director, etc.

Colin Firth was interviewed on Piers Morgan’s American chat show: Piers Morgan Tonight. Show averages 978,000.

Colin Firth was also on The Late Show with David Letterman to promote The King’s Speech. Show averages around 914,000.

The main stars of the play are the subject of interviews just before and just after the realease of the film, with journalists taking turns to have a one-on-one interview with them as they sit in front of a advertising poster for the film. The interviews are shown on all different types of channels all over the world for different networks, which immediatley raises the profile of the film again.

Interviews like these were conducted with the stars; Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helen Bonham-Carter, as well as the director, Tom Hooper.

• Who was the main target audience for the campaign? Why?

The target audience for The King's Speech has a lot in common with its other target: the members of the Academy, who are set to cast their ballots for this year's Oscars. According to statistics compiled by The Hollywood Reporter, the average age of Oscars voters is 57.7 years old. With $180,443,023 collected worldwide so far on a $15 million budget, the film has been a definite hit, and if my theatre experience is anything to go by, that 57.7 age range is being reflected in the vast majority of the people who are seeing this movie. You can see, then, why this movie has suddenly started to dominate this awards season.

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Filming The King's Speech

Interview with the Cinematographer of The King's Speech, Danny Cohen

What was in your lens kit?We had a full range of Master Prime lenses. What's great about Master Primes is they have an insane range of lenses, from 10, 14, 16, 18, 21, 25, 27, 33—a huge spread, which gives you a good choice. What's peculiar is that even though the jump in the lens size is 3 millimeters, just by having that degree of choice, it can change the complete angle of view and how the face films. That range also meant that there was always the right lens for the right scene. You always go through a bunch of lenses first when setting up a scene to work out what the camera is doing in relation to the actor. Because of the range, we knew there would always be a lens that would let us film exactly what we wanted.

There are a few striking long shots in the film—the opening scene at Wembley Stadium, inside Westminster Abbey and the pivotal scene in Regent's Park. How did you shoot those scenes in contrast?
We shot most of the park scene on Steadicam because it was walking and talking. And with the Steadicam, we typically used a 21, 25 or 27mm lens.

What was the most difficult scene to shoot?
The time constraints imposed by the time of year when we shot this film was probably the most challenging aspect of it, not any one scene. We shot during the winter in London, so we knew it would be getting dark every day at 4 or half past 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Unless we were in the studio, where we could control the lights, we had to shoot everything with this in mind. On big-budget pictures where you can afford to shoot everything in a studio you always do, because there's just so much more control. In reality, on a smaller budget film, where the bulk of the work is on location, you have to go with the flow a lot more.

There is a smoky haze pervading most of the outside scenes, characteristic of London at the time. How difficult was that to simulate and shoot?
It was pretty challenging during the Regent's Park scene or Harley Street scenes to get the scale of that smoke, which essentially was smog, just right. We were quite lucky in Regent's Park that it was quite a still, windless day. We had lots of smoke machines, but if there had been any wind, it would have all disappeared instantly. The light was absolutely perfect—the angle of the low winter sun through the smoke just created these long beautiful shadows. We really lucked out. The low light at the end of the year is a bit more atmospheric, which really worked for us. If you shoot in spring or summer, the light's higher and harsher. The down side, however, was I think it was one of the coldest films I've ever worked on. It was a freezing winter last year in London. But again, that coldness in the exterior shots translates into the film you watch. On the outside, here was this cold, upper-class heir to the throne. But on the inside, there is a warmth and a humanity.

Do you prefer to shoot on film?

I've been really lucky that the bulk of my work in the past five years has been on film. I'm a bit spoiled really and not in the real world, I admit. I've shot some films on HD and shoot commercials on video, but the bigger projects, like the next Johnny English film with Rowan Atkinson I just finished, have been on film. I just think you have a lot more flexibility when you shoot on film. HD is good for certain things, but there's a simplicity and texture you get when you shoot on film. Money plays a huge part in what you shoot on these days. Everybody approaches the question of what format to shoot in with a completely different point of view. As a cinematographer, I think you still get the best images from film.

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Movie Marketing Key Words

Awareness
 what marketing seeks to create - when audiences know something about the content of a film (stars, plot premise etc) and when it is going to be released
 
Buzz
 Positive word-of-mouth

Distributor
 Business entity that buys the rights to sell a film to the cinema, video and TV markets. All blockbuster movies are made with the distribution rights pre-sold or arranged as big studios have their own distribution arm. Smaller, or independently produced movies often have to wait till they are completed before anyone will buy the distribution rights

Exhibitor
 Cinemas - usually large chains of cinemas (eg UA in Hong Kong, Cineworld or Odeon in the UK)

Merchandising
 The process of manufacturing, distributing, licensing and sale of T-shirts, toys, posters, key-rings etc that contain characters or designs from a movie
 Platform release  A limited opening at key cinemas to develop word of mouth. Once a good buzz has been achieved, the movie will open at more cinemas (wide release)

Press kit
 The pack given to journalists containing such things as still photos, press release, biographies of main personnel. Some press kits are unusual and inventive, and contain small gifts as a not-very-subtle persusasive tactice to get the journalist to be nice about the film

Primary Audience
 The main target audience of a film, those who are likely to go and see it on its opening weekend, or even start queuing up six months before it is released

Secondary audience
 The audience who will only go and see a movie after they have heard about it - either from friends or from reading reviews - and have been persuaded that it is worth seeing. They will not risk it on its opening weekend

Tagline
 The one-liner summing up the story which appears on posters ("Same planet. Different scum" etc)

Teaser Trailer
 A short trailer which does not give very much at all away about a film. It is designed to arouse curiosity and may appear a long time prior to the release of a movie (6-8 months)

Tie-ins  Promotional campaigns (Happy Meals, car tvcs - you name it) where another company gets together with the film company and they promote their products jointly
 
 
Trailer 
A 'sample' of the best points of a film which works to create awareness in audiences. Can be anything from 30-180 seconds long

Twitter bombing 
Moviegoers now tend to tweet the moment they leave a theater, and the mass of their opinions can have an instant, harsh effect on ticket sales. This effect is noticed when early screenings on the opening day for an anticipated movie sell well, but later screenings are empty. 
Viral 
use of pre-existing social networks (E.g. YouTube) to "spread the word" about a movie. Like a virus, a short video clip can pass from one consumer to another. This UK Cadbury's advertising spot became a global viral phenomenon, thanks to YouTube.
Word-of-mouth 
The general public attitude to a movie - what people tell each other about it. This is thought to be the most important ingredient for box office success

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AS Media Key Words

Horizontal Integration
A company's ownership of radio, television, newspapers, books and magazines. News Corp is a good example of this, as Rupert Murdoch who owns the company also owns 20th Century Fox, and various popular newspapers.
This helped with the creation of the Hollywood 3-D blockbuster Avatar.


Another example of Horizontal Integration in simpler terms is if a hot-dog seller decides to sell burgers as well as hot-dogs. 


Vertical Integration
Vertical integration is when a company can produce, distribute and exhibit a film as it owns various forms of media. Vertical integration is when a company expands its business into areas that are at different points of the same production path.
An example of this could be Apple, as they have created various versions of the iPod as well as the iPad. 


A car company that expands into tire manufacturing would be an example of vertical integration. A company such as this is often referred to as vertically integrated.


Above the Line Marketing
(ATC)  advertising which has to pay for the space eg TV, Press, Print, Cinema  or radio space, all of which costs money. Refers specifically to advertisements related to things people can see. 


Below the Line Marketing
(BTL) Below the line refers to things that happen in the background. Flyers, email marketing, word-of-mouth, inner circle marketing, etc. that is not easily detected by your competition. 


In other words, ATL has a higher public branding effect, BTL does not have that much of a public branding effect - ATL is often used to generate mindshare, BTL is used to generate loyalty and repeat readership.


Above the Line & Below The Line Summary


In a nutshell, while ATL promotions are tailored for a mass audience, BTL promotions are targeted at individuals according to their needs or preferences. While ATL promotions can establish brand identity, BTL can actually lead to a sale


Synergy Marketing
Cooperative interaction among groups, especially among the acquired subsidiaries or merged parts of a corporation, that creates an enhanced combined effect.


Basically it means that a team effort will produce a better result overall than if the individual members of the team are working singly or where different individuals work cooperatively to produce a single outcome. This has been taken from the premise that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.


Viral Marketing

Marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message.

Viral marketing depends on a high pass-along rate from person to person. If a large percentage of recipients forward something to a large number of friends, the overall growth snowballs very quickly. If the pass-along numbers get too low, the overall growth quickly fizzles.

The King's Speech generated a lot of buzz and excitement due to the showings in various film festivals.

Smaller institutions, and especially independent films like the King's Speech depend on this kind of marketing, as it is far cheaper, and sometimes a lot more effective than the big companies marketing campaigns. 

Conglomerate

A corporation that is made up of a number of different, seemingly unrelated businesses. In a conglomerate, one company owns a controlling stake in a number of smaller companies, which conduct business separately. Each of a conglomerate's subsidiary businesses runs independently of the other business divisions, but the subsidiaries' management reports to senior management at the parent company.

By participating in a number of unrelated businesses, the parent corporation is able to reduce costs by using fewer resources.

By diversifying business interests, the risks inherent in operating in a single market are mitigated.

Subsidiary

A company whose voting stock is more than 50% controlled by another company, usually referred to as the parent company.

As long as the parent company has more than 50% of the voting stock in the subsidiary, it has control.

DSN - Digital Screen Network

Digital screening cuts the cost of releasing films (a digital copy costs around one tenth of a 35mm print). That's why UK Film Council and the Arts Council England have created the Digital Screen Network – a £12 million investment to equip 240 screens in 210 cinemas across the UK with digital projection technology to give UK audiences much greater choice.

HD - High Definition

Better quality of film and sound.

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The King's Speech Marketing Campaign

As an independent film, the King's Speech was not able to use a huge budget of Hollywood levels to market it and get it recognised. With a budget of only around £8million - £12 million, it could not compete with major blockbusters with backing from massive institutions such as Universal or 20th Century Fox.


Instead, the King's Speech used viral marketing to draw attention to the film - and it proved just as effective, if not, more. The film was made just in time to enter it into several film festivals in the hope that national newspaper journalists will enjoy it and write about it in their papers. 


Luckily, the reception of the film was brilliant, and even before the film had been released in cinemas, people were talking about it and saying how good it was, whilst tipping it for many awards including some Oscars. 


Other methods of marketing include the posters and trailers. 


The posters are very clear and simple. The two shown here present the audience with the two main characters and stars of the film. The pictures are close ups of both the Kings and Lionel Logue, his speech therapist. 


The top one has big, bold words from reviews in newspapers which describe the film. Of course, they are all highly positive quotes of the film and they encourage the audience to go and see the film for themselves. 


The poster gives very little away, and although could be seen as plain, it is effective in emphasising the words which describe the film. The words are all in capitals, which again, draws attention to it and suggests that what is being said is important.


The way the two men are dressed shows their high status and importance of them in society as well as the film's story.


The title of the film uses interesting typography, which looks royal and important, with a King's crown for the dot above the "i" in King. This again highlights the fact that this film is about a king and an important speech.


The fact that in the second poster, the words "God" and "King" are both equally sized in comparison to the "save the" in between again shows the status of the King and the importance in society that he represents. 


Finally, the posters clearly show the main actors and actresses that star in the film as well as, most importantly the release date, so the audience knows when the film is out for them to see.

The trailer is also very important in the promotion and marketing of the film as it is played again and again on television screens all over the world. There are also various versions on YouTube for anyone with the Internet to watch and comment on to a massive audience. 

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The King's Speech Profile

Synopsis
The King's Speech tells the story of the man who became King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates the throne, George (Bertie) reluctantly becomes King. Plagued by a dreadful stammer and considered unfit to be King, Bertie engages the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue. Through a set of unexpected techniques, and as a result of an unlikely friendship, Bertie is able to find his voice and boldly lead the country through war.
 
What is the Genre?
The King's Speech is a period drama, so it had to be authentic - combining regal opulence and scruffy, depression-era London.


Who is the Target Audience?
The original target audience was the members of the Academy - those who vote for the nominations in the Oscars. According to statistics, the average age od Oscars voters is 57 years old.  As The King's Speech was not a mainstream film but instead an independent and art house film, it relied on the reviews on the film at the various film festivals that it was entered in. Due to it's excellent reviews at the events, there became a general buzz of excitement, and the film went mainstream.


The film was initially given a 15 rating by the British Board of Film Classification for its release in the United Kingdom, due to scenes where Logue encourages the King to shout profanities to relieve stress. At the London Film Festival, Hooper criticised the decision, questioning how the body could certify the film "15" for bad language but allow films such as Salt (2010) and Casino Royale (2006) to have 12A ratings despite their graphic torture scenes. 


Following Hooper's criticism, the board lowered the rating to "12A", allowing children under 12 years of age to see the film if they are accompanied by an adult. Hooper levelled the same criticism at the Motion Picture Association of America, which gave the film an R rating, preventing anyone under the age of 17 from seeing the film without an adult. This rating was not appealed. 


In his review, Roger Ebert criticised the R rating, calling it "utterly inexplicable", and said, "This is an excellent film for teenagers". In January 2011, executive producer and distributor Harvey Weinstein said he was considering having the film re-edited to remove some profanity, so that it would receive a lower classification and reach a larger audience.


The film was re-released in the USA on 1 April with a PG-13 rating, replacing the original R rating.


Director
Tom Hooper was the director. He has directed films including Elizabeth I, which was about royalty like the King's Speech, as well as the Damned United, which was again, based on true events. 


In both the King's Speech and the Damned United, Tom Hooper filmed at Leed's United football ground, Elland road. At the start of the King's Speech, when the Prince is giving a speech in Wembley, it is actually filmed at Elland Road. It was chosen because of the resemblance it had to a 1925 version of Wembley stadium.


Budget
The UK Film Council, which is to be cut, contributed £1 million to the overall budget.

However, 

The lion's share of its £10m budget came from the Aegis Film Fund, a consortium of private investors that also contributed to another Firth release, St Trinian's 2.

The film also received money from the film's UK distributor Momentum and the London-based post-production company Molinaire.

Some credit should also go to the European Commission, which contributed £480,000 towards its distribution costs via the EU Media fund.

Distributors

The film is distributed by Transmission in Australia and by Momentum Pictures in the United Kingdom. 

The Weinstein Company is the distributor in North America, Germany, Benelux, Scandinavia, China, Hong Kong and Latin America. 

The film was released in France on 2 February 2011, under the title Le discours d'un roi. It was distributed by Wild Bunch Distribution.

Box Office

In the UK and Ireland, the film was the highest earning film on its opening weekend, it took in £3,510,000 from 395 cinemas. The Guardian said that it was one of the biggest takes in recent memory, compared to Slumdog Millionaire (2008), which, for example, two years earlier earned £1.5 million less.

In total, it has so far made a worldwide total of over $400 million.

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