In what way do the institutions involved in your films try to connect with and empower their audience?

In the modern day media, all marketing and other products are split into the three very distinct platforms of e-media, broadcast and print.  E-media is the most current of the three platforms, but all three are still very important and provide the user with different gratifications such as social interaction within e-media or diversion within broadcast (uses and gratifications). The three films which I have chosen to study for my case study are Bridesmaids (high budget American film); I Hive It A Year (2013) (high budget British film); and Vicky Christina Barcelona (low budget film). They are all narrowly connected by the idea that they all represent woman from romantic comedies in a different way.

There are many ways in which the films in my case study use e-media very effectively to connect with and empower their audience. Social media is a very large part of this. For example, I read an article called “Twitter saved my movie”, and it was an interview with the director of Bridesmaids, Paul Feig. It spoke about how Bridesmaids was gaining negative publicity pre-release, and its target audience were skeptical about how good the film was going to be. It was said that the film would be just another stereotypical romantic comedy (although this was not the case), and this was not going to suit the demographic. Consequently, Feig took to twitter to interact with the target audience, and gain opinions on how the film was actually going to perform, as oppose to the online backlash that it was receiving. This is a really useful example of how those involved in Bridesmaids connected with the audience. They used this social networking opportunity to their advantage and it definitely paid off, because the film went on to gross well over $200 million in the US. This is also a great example of how those involved can help to empower their audience, because the audience are likely to be empowered here if they feel as though they have played an active role in making  a film a success. Without twitter, the film may not have been so good because the demographic could have put off watching it/buying it due to the negative reports that it had even before it was released in June 2011. I Give It A Year has also taken advantage of social networking to connect with their audience, particularly through Facebook. They have a Facebook page which gives audiences a range of gratifications such as social interactions and surveillance, by allowing them to leave comments and look at products for other films which are to be released with the same actors/actresses/directors. A connection is consequently built between the institutions and the audience, which leaves the audience feeling empowered. Social networking sites promote the ideology that with advancing technology and idea, audiences are taking a more active role in media texts.

It is not just social networking in the e-media platform which help audiences to become connected. The interactive official websites of my movies also do this job, and connect with a wide range of people all the way from E class (students for example) to the upper A and B classes (according to the classification of employment). Bridesmaids and I Give It A Year both have very interactive websites with links to external websites, but Vicky Christina Barcelona does not. This film has not been so successful, and has had a much lower profit, which suggests to me that through the institution not taking full advantage of this e-media oppurtunity, they have jeopordised the film's success. It proves how important interactive websites can be in the marketing of a film.

Pod casts are also a vital part of the e-media platform. Bridesmaids was reviewed in a podcast by Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode, where they described the film to be an "anti-bride wars". They went on to say "it is funny, and I did laugh". This provides the audience with an alternative view point on a film, and will empower them especially if critics agree with their viewpoint. Reviews are a very crutial part in the success of a film; a bad review may completely ruin a film's success chances. They also provide a controversy and discussion which can increase the film's sphere of influence. Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo also reviewed I Give It A Year, although their review wasn't as good as their Bridesmaids one was. They said that a "major fall is that I didn't believe in the characters in the first place".

Broadcast media is most common in modern day film marketing through film trailers. Vicky Christina Barcelona had two trailers released: the first was a teaser and the second was the officially recognized one and much more effective. As with other trailers, these provide the audience with intellectual pleasures and the chance to solve the enigma codes they are presented with. This engulfs the audience with the intrigue and could propel them to create blogs, buy into the merchandising, or take part in online forums and social networking which could in turn increase the film's success. The I Give It A Year trailer was not only promoted through sites such as YouTube and in cinemas, but it was given some television air time too, broadening the demographic and deepening the audience pool. Trailers not only empower their audience through the intellectual pleasures they provide (curiosity may be the relating category according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs), but they connect with the audiences in a different way to e-media products. The connection the audience feels when accessing e-media products (such as a Twitter page) is very much to the institutons and the film's success (or not, as the case may be). However, with a trailer, the connection is with the story and the characters. The trailer is often the first chance the audience has to engage in the story, and so if they connect to it or personally identify with the characters, they are much more likely to go and watch it.

Print media must not be forgotten. With changing times and advancing technology, e-media is fast taking over, whilst print can sometimes be ignored. However, it is still a vital part of modern media, and can be very influential. Bridesmaids had an article written about it (a double page spread), in Media Magazine. It connects with the audience in an intellectual way, because it was critical about the film and the stereotypes which it challenges. They describe the film to be "the hangover in heels", and say that it "boldly goes where no other chick-flick has gone before". They also say that "Bridesmaids offers an alternative selection of witty woman". Overall, this article sings the praises of the film, and empowers the audience by giving them the ability to see deeper meanings to the film which may not otherwise be noticed. Simple feature articles such as Total Film or Empire articles can offer audiences excitement and anticipation for the text by correlating photographs and camera shots of the film with superlatives such as "the best" or "the newest". The I Give It A Year Total Film review credits the writer for challenging the usual movie wedding days that go wrong, creating an excitement and want to go and watch the film when it is released.

Regarding synergy, the films compiment the form of DVD's with bonus features well. Audiences may select and reject ifferent sections of the narrative or even recieve the ultimate pleasure of watching it all. The idea of audiences selecting and rejecting texts is a rather recent idea in response to on demand broadcasting. Subscription based SKY has services such as SKY Movies, allowing audiences to watch films when they want. Apple products take this idea one step further, providing the audience with the chance to watch the film when they want, but how they want to- on a phone, iPad, iPod, computer etc. Synergy is also present in soundtracks which have been released for all three of my films. Furthermore, gourmandbreaks.com introduced a "Vicky Christina Barcelona Tour" in recent years, giving audiences the opportunity to take a trip around Barcelona, visiting all of the sights and filming locations that we see in the movie. This allows audiences to connect with the film very deeply, by actually seeing the location and being part of it. This is also an example of post-modernism, where the boarders between fiction and reality are blurred; reality has been copied so many times that we loose sight of the original.

In conclusion, with the technological revolution and the welding of different media platforms, audiences now have a much higher chance of being able to connect with the institutions behind their favorite films. They are consequently given the opportunity to feel empowered by the media products which they are accessing. In my opinion, e-media is becoming progressively more important, because it not only stands alone, but provides another way for audiences to access previously broadcast or print products. Institutions who do not take full advantage of this through social networking, communicating with their audience, and creating a website, risk allowing their film to not be successful on a large scale. It is much harder to make a film into a brand that involves audiences without e-media.