📗MEDIA film I DANIEL BLAKE Flashcards
(14 cards)
General information:
Ken Loach – director
– works with: Production done by - Sixteen films (small
independent films)
Partnered with Why Not Productions
Distribution and marketing
- E one productions
Funding
- BBC and BFI (British Film
Institute)-
Co-production between the
UK/France – set and released in 2016
Box office sales - £15 million worldwide
Budget 3.5 million for both production and marketing – low
budget
Marketing and advertising
Used traditional media
printed media, posters, trailers – did this due to their target audience being slightly older
Makes it more familiar for the audience
The Daily Mirror – eOne Productions - Reach PLC (previously known as Trinity Mirror Solutions)
- Gave away 10,000 free tickets to previously mentioned regional screenings
- Retweets by Ken Loach - *weareallidanilablake
- masthead and front cover takeovers, replacing the ‘I’ with the font of the movie poster,
- An editorial within the magazine, ‘written by Danial’, in the October 2016 issue of The Daily Mirror
- Created an enigma – Barthes’ hermeneutic code
- added to the genre of social realism as it felt like reality – verisimilitude
- Engages an older audience who are reading print newspapers
- Engaged left-wing stance and audience
The ideologies of the newspaper fit the ideologies of the film, meaning they’re not wasting money on marketing, as they are marketing to their very specific audience, keeping costs as low as possible Posters and trailers heavily focus on Ken Loach’s name as a way of engaging the target audience
- Also mentions the awards the film has won – the Palm d’Or award, given at the Cannes Film Festival, helps to connote the niche and engage the audience, which was a high-brow and cultural experience film – gave the film global recognition and helped to reach a wider, more acclaimed audience
Guerilla marketing techniques
- eOne projected quotes onto influential buildings, e.g., the House of Parliament – this gained attention and helped spread word-of-mouth advertising,
which helped to target British audiences and global audiences (through tours and it being shared online) and making the political message of the film
clear – appeals to the left-wing viewership
Ambient marketing
– hidden or not, a typical place to find adverts, eg through graffiti and protest style campaigning
- We are all Daniel Blake – protest outside London job centres – became one of their recognisable slogans – real-life situations in the UK reflected the film
eOne Production advertised for a regional marketing officer – based up north in Britain
- Their job was to market the film through reaching out to local workplaces, schools, agencies, hospitals, talking to real people working in public services, and going to local cinema screens to protest about the government and austerity
- low budget but good at targeting a regional British audience
Northern audiences were targeted especially because they were more likely to live in poverty and be anti-conventional due to the political issues from the 80s and early 90s – Margaret Thatcher’s police changes, which largely affected the north of England.
Curren and Seaton
The independent ownership of IDB might have reflected in more creative, less mainstream products
- It suggests that IDB isn’t just about profit and power, due to its funding from the BBC and BFI, it has a purpose to educate and inform its audience, resulting in a more creative and diverse film
- It ultimately is a film, and it is making a profit for the companies involved; it has a commercial nature to it
Premier
Quite unusual – took place in Newcastle, whereas usually it takes place in London – signifies that the north of England is more engaged than the south
- A good way of showing the left-wing ideologies
- The north of England is typically lives in more poverty
Invited Jeremy Corbyn to the premiere, which was a good way of targeting and engaging left-wing, anti-conservative audiences, as well as gaining more
publicity for the film because of his status - Extends the publicity as Jeremy will share his opinions via social media and online
Regulation
By making it available to download via online access, it makes it available to all and harder to regulate, as it is easy to avoid age checks – Livingstone and Lunt – could result in being pirated, which could be a negative for the film
- Use of digital downloads and digital streaming could negative effect on IDB, but also helps it reach a wider audience, which would be a benefit BBFC – British Board of Film Classification – awarded IDM a 15 certificate as they felt that some of the scenes within the film were too mental and that younger audiences may not fully understand the meanings within the film
- Some argue that it should have a lower certificate, as it serves as an educational film to showcase issues that aren’t commonly shown within the media
- This reflects Livingston and Lunt’s ideas that regulators like the BBFC have to tread. Fine line between protecting the public and offering us choice or benefits
- The company want it to have to have a lower certificate for their films to attract the widest possible audience
POLITICAL/SOCIAL CONTEXT
Left wing ideologies – shown through
- The films narrative
- Ken Loach’s political stance
IDB criticizes government policies on social security and welfare
- Policies placed within the 80’s and 90’s that Margret thatcher out into place – affected the north of England mostly.
-It critiques specifically the work capability assessment what are portrayed as inhumane and bureaucratic – individual needing benefits were treated as numbers and not human beings - The film portrays a group of underrepresented characters in Newcastle struggling in poverty to gain benefits and support.
Austerity (there were cuts in the welfare system) measures are portrayed through the struggles of the main characters as they navigate through the UK’s welfare system – an anti-austerity demonstration took place in France with large amounts of protesters - IDB shows social commentary about the problems that have been caused by conservatives and the conservative lead government
ECONOMIC CONTEXT
Low budget production – due to it being an independent social realist film – verisimilitude created as a result
- Due to this they used real life locations (real apartments and office buildings)
- Less well-known actors were also used to keep costs low
- Real people (not hired) used in the background of shots
- Large amounts of improvisation from actors
- Funding came from the BFi through national lottery and BBC
- Not for profit movie as the film was made to make awareness about the issues with the work capability benefits and poverty
Austerity – after the 2008 financial crisis, the government made big cuts to pull spending – benefits for unemployed support and disability payments were reduced significantly
- Success form the Cannes film festival helped to boost its economic performance as it made much more money than expected for a low budget social realist film
British social realism
- Realistic portrait of working-class life – focuses on everyday struggles and shows the harsh reality of especially the vulnerable
- Relatable characters - normal people facing real issues
- Naturalistic style – natural lighting and realistic dialogue
- Political and social messages throughout the movie or the whole point of the movie
- Low budget and independent
Funding and budget
BBC and BFI National Lottery - IDB to fulfil certain
obligations to gain the funding – both like to fund projects
which are
- Innately British
- Niche/alternative
- Culturally significant
- Educational
- Show British culture
The low budget of the film meant that there was no
money for large, extravagant sets or famous actors
Used – real sets, unknown actors, not a large amount of
extras (just used real-life people) – creates verisimilitude
Ken Loach
Award-winning social realism director – known within the uk
and globally
- Attracted individuals and companies to come on board
with the film
He is the film’s unique selling point, due to the lack of famous actors, they use his name to help promote the movie
- Bringing in his own presold audience
Well known for being left-wing/liberal and anti-conservative,
known for exploring the problems within Britain caused by
government policy
- As a director, his political views are reflected in the film
and its marketing materials, as shown in the narrative
and content
Due to his well-known nature and award-winning status, it
might be argued that it is a more mainstream film due to his
previous success, apart from that, it is shown to be fairly niche
