A Field In England

A Field in England is a low budget Arthouse film which was produced by Ben Wheatley. This was the first film to break the Hollywood distribution model by releasing the film on all platforms for it to be viewed by its niche audience. This strategy was effective because it allowed more people to access the film from its small audience it has already. The number of people attending cinemas won’t decrease significantly due to the fact that people like the experience of the cinema and how it presents itself to a small audience. This just allows people who do not have access to these cinemas the chance to view it on TV the same day when everything came out.  This means that only one marketing campaign has to be taken into account as everything is being released and therefore increase the popularity of the film. Another advantage of this is that the producers are on a small budget and they can’t afford to create a new marketing campaign 3 months down the line to then promote the DVD/Blue-ray copy, so this a financial incentive to save as much money as they can. Being on 300K is a small budget to work from, when the average Hollywood film cost almost $100 million to make them successful and a further $50 million to distribute.

1.       How was A Field In England’s release different to typical film releases?

This was the strategy in which the company behind the film released the film on all platforms for it to be available to its audience. This was a way of “embracing the new technologies rather than running scared of them”. This meant that this was breaking the traditional Hollywood distribution method of releasing the film at different times.

2.       What are the advantages to releasing the film across all platforms on the same day?

This meant that it would gain more publicity and would also invite more customers to watch the film as it would be accessible on TV and DVD. This also means that if the viewers who viewed the film in cinema and enjoyed the film they can straightway go and purchase the DVD copy instead of waiting 3 or 4 months

3.       What are the disadvantages to this approach?

The main disadvantage that I see is that there would be a decrease in the sales of DVD’s as the audience would be able to record the film on Film 4 and watch it as many times as they want.

4.       What target audience would A Field in England be aimed at? Demographics and Psychographics.

The target audience for this film would be a demographic of A, B and the Phychographic of Explorers and Succeeders, who are able to understand and comprehend the messages of films rather than just for enjoyment. This art house film would have a niche audience are known to try new things.

5.       Do you think all films in future will be released across all platforms simultaneously in future?

I don't think that blockbuster Hollywood films would adopt this marketing strategy used by A field in England. This is because big budget films will want to generate as much profit as possible and so will do this by gaining revenue from each platform individually. This is because they invest a huge amount of money into the productions.