SUBMARINE

RELEASED: 12th September 2010BUDGET: £1.2 million

UK BOX OFFICE: £0.6 millionWW BOX OFFICE: £2.03 million

SUBMARINE OFFICIAL TRAILER

• First Impressions?

• Genre?

• Narrative?

• Target Audience?

• Production values?

• Success?

• Alternative Poster:

(not used in campaign)

• Initial impressions?

• More or less effective?

• Why?

UK Film Success?

• “What are the reasons that British Films are not as commercially successful as Hollywood Films?” Make notes on based on the Hollywood and UK Film Industry powerpoints that give evidence to support your views.

• Homework write an essay that succinctly answers the question and uses evidence to support your views.

• Remember to engage with Text, Audience & Institution.

SUBMARINE Narrative - Plot Summary

• Precocious Oliver struggles with being popular in school but when a dark-haired beauty takes interest in him, he's determined to become the best boyfriend in the world. Meanwhile, his parents' already rocky relationship is threatened when his mother's ex-boyfriend moves in next door. Oliver makes some unorthodox plans to ensure that his parents stay together and that Jordana still likes him.

SUBMARINE - NARRATIVE

• The plot summary of the film sounds unremarkable.

• List what you consider to be unusual elements of the film’s narrative.

• Consider narrative structure; storytelling devices; narrative pathways; 5 Act structure; any other narrative tropes you find interesting.

• Be prepared to feedback to the class.

SUBMARINE - GENRE

• Whilst the film is categorised as a Comedy / Drama – it does not comfortably fit the genres.

• List what you consider to be the traits that fit within the comedy genre, and then list the drama traits.

• What other generic elements can you see at work in Submarine? List them and be prepared to feedback.

Complete the spidergram as we revise Submarine

SUBMARINE

RELEASED: 12th September 2010BUDGET: £1.2 million

UK BOX OFFICE: £0.6 millionWW BOX OFFICE: £2.03 million

SUBMARINE OFFICIAL TRAILER

Submarine – Genre & Narrative • IMDB classify the film’s genre as a Comedy /

drama / romance. It is also a literary adaptation of a contemporary novel.

• The narrative is that of an unconventional ‘coming of age story’ with the plot synopsis being: “15-year-old Oliver Tate has two objectives: To lose his virginity before his next birthday, and to extinguish the flame between his mother and an ex-lover who has resurfaced in her life.”

• The text employs unconventional narrative techniques, employing self-referential post-modern techniques and consciously borrows from French New Wave - it does not always follow traditional continuity editing styles, which may impact on the film’s relative successes and the breadth of its potential

target audience.

BFI Review of Submarine (pt1)- Narrative & Genre

• Submarine, another directorial debut, this time from Chris Morris’s The IT Crowd co-star, Richard Ayoade, again shows Warp’s dedication to fostering new filmmaking talent.

• Based on the 2008 novel by Joe Dunthorne, this rudely updated Catcher in the Rye relocated to Swansea, is about fantastical, solipsistic 15-year-old schoolboy Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts), whose chief concerns are trying to lose his virginity to his brusque girlfriend JordanaBevan (Yasmin Paige) and keeping his parents from splitting up.

BFI Review of Submarine (pt2)- Narrative & Genre

• Ayoade absorbs the style of the French New Wave, directors Wes Anderson and Michel Gondry, with distinctive visuals and deadpan humour, displaying the same maturity and confidence of his influences. Referencing Les Quatre Cents Coups explicitly, like This Is England, it captures the delicate moments of adolescence when idealism and truth collide. Stories of youth have played an important role in Warp’s own coming-of-age tale, and represent their commitment to independence, risk-taking and cultivating their own voice.

SUBMARINE – CHARACTERS& REPRESENTATION

• In order for films to succeed characters have to engage the audiences.

• Consider the representation of the principal characters: Oliver; Jordana; Graham: Oliver’s parents and the setting – Swansea.

• Do they conform to stereotypes? Do you engage with the characters? How do you think audiences would engage with them?

Representations

• Director Richard Ayode uses colour symbolism to help characterise his cast.

• Each of the main characters has a colour which can be seen in their clothes and possessions. Oliver is blue, Jordana is red, Jill is yellow, Lloyd is eggshell brown and Graham is black. As Oliver gets to know Jordana more and more red sneaks into his palette.

Representations

• Oliver Tate

• 15 year old schoolboy

• An egocentric outsider

• Eccentric, atypical teen.

• But typical of the genre pursues sexual experience and tries to act older than his years.

Representations

• Jordana Bevan

• 15 year old schoolgirl.

• Fringes of the crowd.

• Atypical, unromantic.

• Has elements of the femme fatale – seduces Oliver for a revenge trip, mild pyromaniac tendancies.

Representations

• Lloyd and Gill Tate

• Middle aged couple

• Middle class.

• Articulate, educated.

• Stereotypically repressed.

• He struggles with depression, offers relationship advice to Oliver.

• She embraces an escape from the doldrums with an ex-flame.

Representations

• Graham Purvis

• Middle aged

• New Age Guru.

• Represents the Other.

• An outsider in a quiet community. Wears black yet embraces colours as a metaphor for the soul within us.

• A disruptive threat to the order of suburbia.

Representations

• Swansea, Wales

• Drab. Depressed.

• Typical of a drama.

• Kitchen-sink / Industrial mise-en-scene.

• None of the glamour or romance of a Brit Rom-Com or Hollywood teen-comedy.

SUBMARINE - INSTITUTIONS

• What are the institutions involved in the making of Submarine? Expand on this – what is the relevance of this?

• Which creative individuals were involved? What is the relevance of this?

• What digital technologies were involved? Again, how is this relevant?

• Compile notes, be ready to share.

SUBMARINE - INSTITUTIONS

• Directed by

• Produced by

Richard Ayoade

Ben StillerExecutive Producer

Mark Herbert

Mary Burke Andy Stebbings

Also on board…

SUBMARINE – PRODUCTION CONTEXT“Submarine is a book by Joe Dunthorne. Ally Gipps, whoworks at Warp Films, has known Joe for years, and Warpoptioned the book before it came out. I’d done a musicvideo for Warp, an Arctic Monkeys video, and they gave methe book to read and I really liked it. Warp then asked me towrite a script with a view to directing it. Joe and I metseveral times and talked about what might translate wellfrom the novel to a film.” Richard Adeoye

"When I first read the book in 2006, I fell in love with theoriginality of voice and unyielding wit in Joe's novel. It'snot a familiar British coming of age story, so I thought itwould be refreshing to see the work rendered as a film.The encyclopaedic nature of Oliver's character unveiledthrough his internal monologues, I felt would be a goodmatch for Richard's wonderful and detailed knowledge offilm. There was something beautifully timeless about thebook, and thought Richard's nostalgic directing stylewould bring that out. And of course, we all knew he couldexecute the comedy because he is one of the funniestpeople working in the UK today.“ Mary Burke

INSTITUTIONS - media ownership

• The film was made by Warp Films (Production) an independent British film company who have a reputation for involvement in innovative films like This is England (2006) and Four Lions (2010).

INSTITUTIONS - media ownership

• Warp Film are part of a company whosemedia and creative interests extend intofilm with the respected independentrecord label part of their niche, businessinterests. This is also an example ofhorizontal integration as the ArticMonkeys signed to Warps record label alsowrote the soundtrack for the film.

INSTITUTIONS - media ownership

• Ayoade is friends with Turner and hadalready, through Warp directed ArticMonkey music videos. The music has allbeen composed specifically for the film,which adds to the difficulty in placing itin a particular time period.

INSTITUTIONS - media ownership

Film4 is a founding partner of the Warp X digitalstudio, the company develops and co-finances filmproductions and is known for working with the mostinnovative talent in the U.K. in this case being WarpFilms and also the director Richard Ayoade.

Film4 invested development money in the film whilethe film is one of last projects invested in by the UKFilm Council who devoted New Cinema Fund moneyto Submarine. Additional funding reflecting theregional aspect of Submarine came from The WalesCreative IP Fund and the Film Agency for Wales

The UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental

public body set up in 2000 by the Labour Government

to develop and promote the film industry in the UK.

The New Cinema Fund supported emerging talent and established filmmakers working outside the mainstream, focusing on the most innovative writing and the most gifted directors. The

fund had £15 million of Lottery money to invest over three years and funded eight to ten feature films each year. It had a strong commitment to supporting work from the nations and

regions, from black, Asian and other minority ethnic filmmakers and encouraged the use of

digital technology in the production, distribution and exhibition of films.

INSTITUTIONS - media ownership

"I think it’s probably hard for people to become aware of things unless there are famous people talking about a film, unless it’s a genre film I suppose, but for smaller independent films, it seems like the only route for people to

find out about it." Richard Ayoade

SUBMARINE - MARKETING

• https://uk.pinterest.com/ewilkinsoncol/avengers-assemble-and-submarine-marketing/

• Let’s look at the collection of marketing material for Submarine.

• How much of it is “above the line”? How much of it is “below the line”?

• What can you say about the marketing campaign in terms of its effectiveness?

• What would you say were the key reasons for the film’s success?

• Be prepared to share.

INSTITUTIONS –MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION

Film4 Productions, Film Agency for Wales, WalesCreative IP Fund, Red Hour Films and Warp Films.All of these smaller companies coming together toproduce Submarine helped make the film successfulby sharing experience and increasing the budget.

INSTITUTIONS –MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION

Much of the success of the film came from belowthe line advertising, attracting audience throughcritical acclaim via its success at the Toronto Filmfestival, meaning that its success mainly came fromword of mouth, rather than a huge marketingbudget.

Synergy can be said to be a contributing factorwhen it comes to the distribution of Submarine,although it was mainly it’s film festival successthat attracted distributors The WeinsteinCompany, it also attracted distribution cynicallyon the strength of the unusual involvement asExecutive Producer of Hollywood actor, BenStiller (Red Hour Films). The collaboration andinvestment of aforementioned companies gavethe film some pedigree.

INSTITUTIONS –MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION

INSTITUTIONS –MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION

The Weinstein Companydistributed the film in the USand Optimum Releasing tookcare of the UK, butconsidering Bob and HarveyWeinstein’s company inessence can be described as a‘Mini Major’ film distributor,this can explain the overallsuccess of the film in the USeven with a limited release.

28

Submarine was only distributed to 28 screens in the USconfirming the reluctance of The Weinstein Company toinvest too heavily in this British, low production valueproject, however it made an impressive $467,000 in the US.The Weinstein Company is large enough to cope with thedistribution of academy award winning The Artist (2012)and The Iron Lady (2012) but not competition for theoligopoly of Hollywood distributors including 20th CenturyFox, Universal Studios and Paramount

Optimum is a smaller company, mostly releasing

independent British films such as Attack the Block. They have

released many independent films meaning that the company has plenty of

experience to reach a wider audience.

Both these Distributors working together to release Submarine in the UK and US helped greatly to generate interest in the film and increase the overall audience of Submarine. Without Weinstien's involvement Submarine's audience wouldn't have

grown over in the US which means that Submarine may have missed out on a potentially bigger audience.

60 cinemas in the UK, then 100

INSTITUTIONS –MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION

• Submarine’s distinctive marketing campaign backed bystrong critical reviews and a soundtrack by Alex Turnerof Arctic Monkey’s fame has certainly helped thisquirky coming of age tale find an audience in the UK.

• Submarine like Four Lions offers hope that Britishcinema does produce a healthy slate of films each yearwhich can remain successful given the continuingdominance enjoyed by Hollywood films.

• Optimum releasing expanded the release ofSubmarine from 60 screens to 100 and it is likely tohelp with the final box office take.

INSTITUTIONS – MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION

& DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

• Unlike a film like The Dark Knight, Submarine had a small production budget of £1.2 million and an even smaller marketing budget.

• Therefore there were no expensive cross media platform promotions and it wasn’t filmed on IMAX. Due to it being a Warp production it was filmed digitally which fit within the budget.

INSTITUTIONS – MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION

& DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

• Digital copies of films are ten times cheaper than 35mm, so with the Arts Council England The UK Film Council created the Digital Screen Network: a £12 million investment in 240 digital screens at 210 cinemas across the UK.

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

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.

Cinemas in the network screened non-mainstream films including Submarine, allowing the film to reach a wider audience. The DSN scheme no longer exists

INSTITUTIONS – MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION & DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

• Now that most films are available to stream online on websites such as Amazon Prime and Netflix, this helps the make it available to anyone anywhere on Phones, Laptops and TV's. Also, Submarine is available to download from Itunes.

INSTITUTIONS – MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY & AUDIENCES

Submarine had no website of it's own, it onlyhad pages through Weinstien and Optimum. Onthe Weinstien website there is an interactiveslide show of 'Oliver Tates Guide to AvoidBullying'.

the film did have a Facebook page whichhelped fans to keep up to date with theproduction of the film, trailers andreleasing of the film.

AUDIENCES - targeting British audiences

The posters forSubmarine did notalter that muchbetween the UK andUS marketing. But onthe US poster thephrase 'Ben StillerPresents...' is shownin bold and standsout much more thanthe UK poster.

'Oliver Tate's Guide to Avoid Bullying'

interactive animation, was

used to promote the film but also for

an anti-bullying

campaign.

AUDIENCES - targeting British audiences

Submarine’s distinctive marketing campaign backed bystrong critical reviews and a soundtrack by Alex Turner ofArctic Monkey’s fame helped this quirky coming of age talefind an audience in the UK. Submarine like Four Lions offershope that British cinema does produce a healthy slate offilms each year which can remain successful given thecontinuing dominance enjoyed by Hollywood

AUDIENCES - targeting British audiences

Submarine's soundtrack features Alex Turner the leadsinger/guitarist of The Arctic Monkeys. This may haveencouraged people to want to go and watch the films becausethey are fans of The Artic Monkey, this would be moreappealing to a British audience as they are a British band.

ESSAY QUESTION

“A global audience is important to media industries.” Discuss this statement with reference to Submarine.[30]

______________

Consider:

• Is this true of a low budget British Indie film?

• What is the intention of the institution behind the film?

• Are we trying to measure success in this question?

• How important is audience in this question?

SUBMARINE SUCCESS?Does global reach matter?

SUBMARINE• Budget £1.2m // $1.9m

• UK Takings £650k / $983k

• US Takings $467k

• Total Global $4.1m

THIS IS ENGLAND• Budget £1.5m // $2.4m

• UK Takings £1.3m

• US Takings $330k

• Total Global $ 8.7m