Monday, September 29, 2008

Week 7

Daly's "The distribution and Exhibition of Jaws"
1. The publishers of the book and the producers of the film coincided the release date of the film with the paperback of "Jaws" which both used the same logo of a shark ascending vertically towards a female swimmer. The producers went out on tour for the book and movie, taking the conventional book writers tour, it was on this tour they answered questions about the book and movie and supplied answers all while building hype for the film. The publishers and producers advertised and supplied heavy word of mouth, even before film production began in 1973, keeping the book and film circulating conversation. The producers knew the logo for Jaws was successful because over 2,000 people lined up in a rainstorm in order to catch a midnight preview of the film "Jaws", using only the logo as advertisement.

2. "Blind bidding" is when exhibitors are given the chance to buy a rental copy of a film, but must do so before viewing the film. Exhibitors objected to the blind bidding for "Jaws" because of Universals' clauses that came with it. Many of the exhibitors would have to risk losing lots of money for a film that had no known potential. The blind bidding was called off after some exhibitors saw the film at the midnight preview in Dallas, TX, which in turn breaks the Justice Departments terms for blind bidding which states no exhibitors may view film prior to bid.

3. It was different in its scope, they spent millions on advertisements, focusing on national ads that would run the three days prior to the films release during prime time television. They also carefully planned the release of the film with the summer season to make the film relevant to everyday life. They also were heavily involved in insuring the books success by advertising as well as spreading word of mouth for it. They laboriously researched the ad spots, and created numerous preview cuts to appeal to men, and to appeal to women in hopes of gaining a larger audience which was costly but in the end effective.

1 comment:

jimbosuave said...

Be sure to be able to fill in details (companies, names, etc.)

Re: Blind Bidding: Again, be sure to be able to fill in details, more than "risk losing lots of money"

Also be sure to look over the Kramer article, which will be important as we begin our discussion of Post-Classical Hollywood