Pirates of the CaribbeanAS: Institutions and Audiences

What genre?

• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is a 2011 adventure fantasy film and the fourth instalment in the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

What locations were used?

• International locations were used as it was a big budget feature filming for 3 months in Hawaii, London, Puerto Rico, and California.

• The film could afford famous stars such as Johnny Depp, and Penélope Cruz

3D

• The film used new media technologies using 3D cameras similar to those used in the production of the 2009 film Avatar.

• The film’s budget was slightly smaller than previous Pirates of the Caribbean films, so slight savings were made to special effects.

• The director said: "You are on an adventure and with the 3D experience you are inside that adventure."

What are the advantages of using 3D to target an audience?

There were a lot of special Effects.....

• On Stranger Tides employed 1,112 shots of computer-generated imagery,

• They created CGI mermaids and special water effects, digital ships and environment extensions, such as changing weather and designing cliffs and waterfalls.

• Filming the mermaids involved eight model-actresses, who portrayed them outside the water, as well as 22 synchronized swimming athletes and stuntmen who wore motion capture suits and were later replaced by digital mermaids.

• To make the mermaids more menacing underwater, the faces of the actresses had some digital touch-ups on the underwater scenes, adding sharper teeth and a shimmery fish scale quality on the skin.

Who were the production companies involved?

• Walt Disney Pictures, a massive international conglomerate and one of the big 6 majors.

• Jerry Bruckheimer Films

• Moving Picture Company

The majors

• A major film studio is a movie production and distribution company that releases a substantial number of films annually and consistently commands a significant share of box-office revenues in a given market.

• They are known known as the majors, are commonly regarded as the six diversified media conglomerates whose various movie production and distribution subsidiaries command approximately 90 percent of the U.S. and Canadian box office.

• They are 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Paramount, Columbia, Universal, and Walt Disney Studios.

Distributors

• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

• They released it in the UK and USA

• Release date: 22 May 2011

• It was released on DVD and Blue Ray

Task: Walt Disney

• What are the benefits of having Walt Disney involved in production and distribution?

• What key terminology can you use to answer this?

• What kind of company is Walt Disney?

Distribution

• The film's advertising campaign was intended "to remind people of why they fell in love with Jack Sparrow in the first place.”

• The pressure was on for distributors to convince an audience to come back to the brand the fourth time.

• It had a very broad appeal and blanket advertising and publicity were used.

Trailers

• Three trailers were released.

• A 3D version 6 months before the film released

• A Super Bowl TV spot released 3 months beforehand and which was later released online.

• The final trailer in March that focused more on the plot than the previous trailer.

Tie ins• There were Lego Pirates of the Caribbean toy sets - the latest

franchise to have a lego set named after it

• there was a lego-related video game,

• a cell phone app by Verizon Wireless,

• a special edition of Pirate's Booty,

• lines of nail polish by OPI,

• clothing from Hot Topic,

• jewellry from Swarovski.

• replicas of the "Pieces of Eight" coins

Posters

The

Posters

The first teaser poster used the same a skull as other films in the franchise.

Other posters advertise the film’s release, and put the main characters, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane and the mermaids amidst key imagery and iconography - swords, the sea, ships.

The film is using the stars fame to attract people to the film, whilst still continuing to sell the Pirates franchise.

Online

• Story synopsis

“Videos” with trailers, and TV spots, plus extended film clips and exclusive video featurettes that go into the movie’s plot and locations.

Promotional videos for the Lego video game tie-ins.

There’s information on who all the people in the movie are in the “Characters” section

Stills from the film can be found in the “Gallery”

Online• A Games” section is about promoting the online multiplayer

game, the console editions or other versions.

“Products” also has information on the video games as well as other stuff you can buy and “Activities” has stuff you can interact with either online or in the real world by downloading and making yourself.

The site finishes up with sections on “Community,” a place where you can check out Jack’s “Past Voyages” and more.

The movie’s Facebook page promotes many of the interactive features of the official site in addition to hosting its own selection of video, photos and a list of updates as to what the latest information on the movie and its cast and crew are.

Advertising and cross media promotion

• Big commercial broadcast during the USA Super Bowl XLV which showed a version of the trailer - it appeal

• ed to a large mainstream audience.

• Targeted families with a broad 15-55 age - across a broad demographic of classes

• A second longer trailer

• A TV spot would build largely off the second trailer,

• Further TV commercials.

Publicity: it started early.

• The publicity hype started well before the film was released - even a year beforehand

• Official photos of the characters were released Sept 2010, 6 months before the release

• Press speculation about director and Tie ins with toys announced

Walt Disney can afford huge publicity

• It used synergy. Events at Disney Theme parks - Disney can utilise this as it is such a huge conglomerate - it can use synergy to promote the film at its theme parks

• Eg fans were given special treatment and the first look at the first trailer in exchange for dressing up as pirates

• What other film can provide this vast scale of publicity? - it is because Disney is such a huge company - one of the 6 majors.

• the premiere generated a huge amount of TV, press and online interest.

TASK

• How would you describe the distribution campaign launched by Disney compared to that used by other (even smaller) companies?

Exhibition

• The film opened on 22 May 2011

• It opened simultaneously in UK and USA for maximum exposure

• In the US it opened on 4155 screens - a massive amount

• In the UK it opened on 569 screens - two thirds of the ones in the UK

Budget

• It cost $250million (dollars)

Box office

• Opening weekend figures:

• UK - £11million

• USA - $90million

• Total gross box office

• Worldwide to date - $1000 million!!