Cinema Survival: Compare the ways in which Cinema City and Vue/Odeon attract audiences.

Different cinemas attract audiences in different ways especially independent and mainstream cinemas. Cinemas now have to attract audiences as they are losing sales for loads of different reasons such as DVD’s, piracy and recession. Another reason is TV, after TV was introduced in 50’s the cinemas didn’t do as well until Spielberg and Lucas films like Jaws and Star Wars were released.  

Cinema City is an independent cinema and attracts audiences in a different way from Vue and Odeon. Firstly, scheduling is chose in house to cater for the people of Norwich. This makes the cinema experience more personal at Cinema City. Whereas Vue/Odeon scheduling is done in central London which caters for England which is a much wider range. Both mainstream and independent cinemas give the audience an experience which is different. For example, Cinema City has a restaurant and organic chocolate, so you can have meal there too. Also they allow you to take wine into the screens which have sofas instead of normal cinema seats. Their main audience is middle aged and middle class people. Odeon gives a very different impression when you first walk in, some might say a Hollywood impression because they have a big atriums and curtains also Odeon allows you to hire out a box if you would like. Odeon and Vue have a range of different audiences for example, families, teens and adults. Another good feature of Odeon is that there is a seating area where you can watch trailers for upcoming films, when I asked people how they usually find out about films, most said cinema trailers. Vue/Odeon sells different food though for example popcorn and pick and mix which isn’t as classy and well thought out as Cinema City.

Cinema City are in the Picturehouse chain and attract their audience because as well as showing films, on Saturday mornings they rent a screen for people to play video games and also sometimes they hold opera evenings, where the cinema is connected up to the actual opera show and the show is being shown on a Cinema City screen. They also offer a membership which saves the customer money every time they go to the cinema. Cinema City shows independent and mainstream and they get subsidy for showing European films by the company Europa. This then gives the cinema a chance to show different films from Vue and Odeon. As well as Cinema City Vue allows customers to special offers allowing them to save money on tickets. It also offers competition so the public can win cinema tickets for a month. Vue/Odeon only show mainstream films. But all three cinemas have easy access. There is a car park in the mall where Vue is, at Odeon there is a cark park at the end of the road also at Cinema City there is a car park around the corner from the cinema. All three are in walkable distance from the city centre.

A reason people would prefer to go to Vue or Odeon is because they have more screens therefore more times and more films. Whereas Cinema City only have 3, but such a different variety of films. Vue had recently had most of there screens put in to 3D after the major release of Avatar and for the many 3D films still to be released. Also Vue have IMAX screens to display images of far greater size and resolution. But Cinema City has gone digital so people could prefer to go to cinema city.

Overall mainstream and independent cinemas have different way of attracting audiences, but both ways work. With a lot of 3D films being released at present and in the future is making cinemas are getting more and more popular as it is a different experience in the cinema than at home. All of the cinemas should get more and more popular again because of the new technology that is being made. Hopefully Cinema City will have a wider range of people to choose their cinema.         

Television Drama

Representation	Stereotypes?
Age	Misfits One foot in the Grave
Gender	Footballers Wives Desperate Housewives Sex and the City
Sexuality	Eastenders Torchwood
Ethnicity	Connor (Eastenders) The Indian Doctor The Wine
Physical ability/disability	Glee Heroes
Regional Identity	Coronation Street Eastenders Shameless Taggart

Preliminary Exercise

What planning did you do? How was this useful, and how did you change from your planning?

To plan for our preliminary task we decided on an everyday situation and then put our idea into a storyboard, so we could understand clearly what was happening in every section and follow it as the task went on. Unfortunately we had to change our idea as all the props were not available on the day of filming. We decided to re-storyboard and shoot from home.

What camera skills have you developed? How confident are you with using cameras? And has this confidence changed during the project? Give details of specific camera skills/techniques you have developed and include areas where you lack confidence or need to improve?

During the preliminary task I improved general camera skills and they got stronger throughout the task. Also I think I developed a good technique of zooming in and out on the camera. Also it was my first time filming with a tripod which helped me learn new skills and it really help to make our preliminary task look good quality. The thing I would most like to improve on is learning how to do more varieties of camera shots. But I am confident when using the video camera and will be able to use it well in future tasks.

What editing skills have you developed? How confident are you with using the editing program? Give details of specific editing skills/techniques you have developed, and include areas where you lack confidence?

Editing the film with the Adobe Premiere Program was something new to me as usually I use different programs. It seems very simple cutting out and cropping clips of the movie that we didn't want or need. The biggest challenge when editing was cutting a clip on the movie and moving it into the middle of the movie. But to resolve this problem we asked a year 13 student to advise us and we did manage to do it. To improve my editing skills I would have to spend more time on the program just learning how to use some tools which I don't at the moment know how to work properly. But i feel quite confident to edit on Adobe Premiere and will be able to edit to a good standard. But overall i think our filming and editing techniques lead our preliminary exercise to turn out well and we are pleased with the result.

Location Change

In our thriller we decided not to use the cellar as one of the locations because it was located in the country so therefore it was difficult for actors to reach the area. Also another problem was that the lighting wasn't very good for filming as the room was too dark. We changed the location to Hatties garage to solve this problem. But the garage is also used in a different scene, but we tried to give the location a different feel by moving furniture around to create a different atmosphere. Also the flashbacks being in black and white will help to change the look of the garage hopefully.

Marketing Questionnaire

Do you think your occupation affects the films you watch? Or how many?And why?

All of the people said that different occupations affect the amount of film you watch because if someone is in full time job and has children it limits the time you have free to watch a film, also having children will affect what films you see as most likely you will probably go with your children. But if you are a sixth form student you will have more free time to go and see films. 9 of the people I asked said that different occupations doesn’t necessarily affect what time of film you watch. One Person said ‘If you are a 12 year old boy or a 30 year old man they are both likely to like action film with superheroes’.’

How do you find out about the films you want to watch?

From the graph it is clear that most people find out about the films they watch from Cinema trailers and TV Trailers. They said because trailers are on before a film you have to watch them and plus you see loads of different variation of film which are coming out quite soon, that you then want to go and see.  Also a few people said they hear from word of mouth as their friends tell you what films that they have seen or maybe one they want to see. It is an advantage as if you friend goes first they can tell you whether it was good and whether you would enjoy it. Out of the 10 people I ask my questionnaires to it shows that none of them found about films radio or posters. Most people were around the same age so maybe it shows that more teenagers find out films from trailers as maybe they watch TV more or go to the cinema more frequently.

Which do you think is most effective?

7 people said that cinema and TV trailers are pretty effective because it gives you a mini preview of the film, showing different snippets showing you funny, scary and different aspects of the film. It allows you to see what actors are in the film and whether they are playing their usually character. Trailers  tell you about the films and what is happening but doesn’t give away the whole film, this then leaves it on a cling hanger for the audience who might only want to see because they want to find out what happens or the audience might chose to view it because they enjoy the trailer. 1 person said that radio would be a good way to hear about a film even though they don’t use this way. They said it would be good because it will give you an overall review of the film and also will also give you their personal opinion of the film and others for example an actor. The others said that word and mouth would be a good way as you friend who has seen the film can tell you whether you will enjoy and whether its worth while seeing or not, they can also tell you the story even more so than trailers or interviews.  

Do you think your lifestyle affects the films you enjoy?

Most of the people I interviewed said that the lifestyle they have doesn’t make a difference to what types of films you enjoy as two different who have completely different lives can enjoy the same films . But most of the people I asked were from the same area and culture. 3 of the 10 said that they think it did because if for example you have a job dancing, you are more likely influenced to see a film including dance. Also once again older people with children are likely to see more children films with their children.

Exhibition Questionnaire 

How do you normally view films?And why?

As you can see from this graph most people enjoy going to the cinema to watch films, this is generally because they are brand new out and they have been attracted by a trailer or something similar. People said they enjoy going to cinema as it is a night out and you can the latest films. Also for some people who are in the city for college/work it is easier just to pop to the cinema instead of finding a film you really want to watch. Other people said they enjoy watching DVD’s as they have more choice of what’s on and when, also when watching a DVD it is normally in the comfort of your own home, so you can be in bed or whatever. Others said that when watching DVD’s they are often doing something else and it is just on for background noise.

When do you usually watch films?

Most people said that they normally watch films on the weekends or evening, which suggest that they are normally at work or in full time education. Two people said that they go normally afternoon, this suggest that they go after school or with they children afterschool. They may even have a part time job.

Research Project Questionnaire

Marketing Questionnaire

Age:  

Gender:

Are you…

In School?  In college/Sixth Form?   At University?  Unemployed?  Part-time work?   Full-time work?  Other?

Do you think your occupation affects the films you watch? Or how many?

And why?

How do you find out about the films you want to watch?

Cinema Trailers   TV Trailers   Posters   Word of Mouth   Internet Advertisements   Radio   Magazines

Which do you think is most effective?

Do you think your lifestyle affects the films you enjoy?

Research Project Questionnaire

Exhibition Questionnaire

How do you normally view films?

Cinema   TV   Internet   DVD

And why?

Do you prefer to watch a film by yourself or with others?

On your own     With others

If with others, who?

When do you usually watch films?

Weekends   evenings   while completing other tasks  whenever  Afternoons  Other

If other, when?