Essay rewrite




I believe a successful media product is to achieved b distributing a film at a good time of the year, usually the best time to release a film is around the summer or Christmas because people are usually off work and have time to go to the cinema, for example Star Wars is coming out this Christmas of 2015. Also having the correct equipment to make a film, advertising the film well and using well known stars to promote the film in a good way. If a film does these elements well, and has the budget to do them, it can be successful. Mad Max Fury Road and Ex Machina are both successful films in different ways. Mad Max is seen to be more successful at it was made by the American film industry and films made by them seem to do better, the American Film Industry makes $88.3 billion a year.


The production of Mad Max took a total of 15 years to film (green lighted) whereas Ex Machina only took 6 years to make, it is seen to be better and more well thought out as it had more time to plan a successful film. However, some people would disagree because the studio was worried that the film would not be made in time, and that George Miller was breaking the rules of production. Ex Machina only took 6 weeks as it didn't have a lot of action in like most blockbuster films do. Ex Machina had a smaller budget ($15 million) than Mad Max ($150 million). This was because Ex Machina was made by the British Film Industry and in Britain we don't the studio system to make bigger budget films.


However, Ex Machina was successful for the budget it had. It made $37 million at the box office. This is an achievement seeing ass it was distributed at the same time as The Avengers film was released on the 21st January 2015. This meant Ex Machina had competition from a sequel action film. Mad Max was released in May the 7th 2015 in the summer. Films released around this time seem to be more successful as people are on holiday and off work. So people have more time to visit cinema.


Mad Max is a film with a lot of action in it. There are many scenes which have explosions in, one of the biggest scenes took 138 days to film. Mad Max also had big stars in it such as Tom Hardy, Charlize Thereon and Nicholas Hoult. These stars are well known and quite famous so this would make a film more successful having big named actors in it, because people like to see there idols and well known block buster actors. Whereas, Ex Machina didn't have a large cast of actors, the two main actors were Domhnall Gleeson and Alicia Vikander. They aren't well known but since the film, the stars are set to be characters in the new Star Wars film.


Another way films can be successful like Mad Max and Ex Machina is from the script, sets, costume and camera's used. Mad Max was written and directed by George Miller who has made successful films in the past. Ex Machina was written and directed by Alex Garland who didn't have the right foundations to make a film as good as Mad Max. Special effects can make a film look realistic. Mad Max's special effects were 80% real, this means they were done in camera. The last scene had 3000 frames per second to have the effect of the war rig crashing into the rocks. In another scene, a special piece of equipment called an edge arm was used to film big scenes like the car chase's. ad Max also used equipment like the Pole Cats, these were borrowed from the circus so they could film people jumping to and from different cars.  Ex Machina also used special effects when the character Ava pulled the skin off the arm. Also, Ex Machina didn't have enough funds to have similar special effects to Mad Max, in one scene, Ava had to  put clothes on as this would bring the costs down instead of spending them on special effects. There were also more boring scenes when characters were sat down and talking, this is seen as it having little action. In Ex Machina there is also a scene when Ava stabs Nathan and there is blood and violence. This meant that the film would now have a smaller market because they couldn't rate it as a PG anymore.


Marketing and distribution is key to making a good film and to make money at the box office. Mad Max made $374.7 million and Ex Machina made $37 million at the box office. It is clear that Mad Max was more successful as it made more money. Mad Max was well advertised, it was advertised in cinemas, TV adverts, YouTube, Posters and Magazines. Overall, Mad Max spent $43 million on marketing, $7 million of this was spent on TV advertising. Ex Machina didn't have enough money to do advertisement as well as Mad Max. Ex Machina advertised using an Instagram and Tinder account, which allowed people to speak to Ava online and interact with her, they did this at the XXSW film festival. This is recognised as good because a lot of people use social media. Ex Machina was put on 15 screens only in the US as the Avengers dominated most cinema, but after the Avengers had been seen by the public, they put the film on more screens 2000 this is called piggy backing.


Mad Max was put on 16,700 screens in 68 countries. This is more successful because the more screens it was shown on, meant more money was made. Films are only successful if the right target audience is met. Ex Machina targeted film buffs and geeks because the film is a sci-fi film. It was distributed by universal studios and Mad Max distributed by Warner Bros. Universal is seen as more successful company but with Ex Machina, it was released at the same time as the Avengers so it would be hard to compete with them. Mad Max's target audience was mainly men as it was an action film. It also would have been advertised at cinemas in action film, where men will mostly likely see it.


Overall, I would agree that successful media product do depend on marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices. This is clearly shown that Mad Max is a lot more successful than Ex Machina because the production process was a lot more well thought out. Mad Max also promoted the film with better advertisement. However, Ex Machina did use good advertising techniques like through the power of social media. Mad Max is also a sequel so more people would want to see the upcoming film. I think from what we have learnt, in the next 5 years, the cinemas will be dominated with sci-fi action films. There is set to be 3 new Star Wars films and up to 50 new Marvel films. I think this isn't good as people will start to get bored of watching the same genre of film. Marketing of media products will become more advanced in the next 5 years through social media like YouTube. I think media products won't depend as much on Television and cinema adverts as technology will be more widely used. Overall, to make a film a success, the key is to try and make as much profit as it can.