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.         

From Script to Screen: The differences between a mainstream and independent film

Independent and mainstream films have a range of differences and normally it is easy to tell which is which. But the films are produced, marketed and distributed differently which can be harder for independent films.

There are a lot of differences between mainstream and independent films for example the companies that make independent films are small, some are even made by one individual. Whereas mainstream films have a massive team including people to role the camera, do computer affects, actors, stunt doubles, set designers and much more which independent films cannot afford. Another feature that makes mainstream films more popular and famous are the a-list actors that are used such as Will Smith, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz and Angelina Jolie. Which independent films can’t afford, so they have to use unknown actors which makes the film less appealing to some because people see a film just because it’s got a certain actor in. But if the characters role is to be mysterious having an unknown actor will help because the audience won’t have any expectations. You can tell if a film is independent by the low budget setting and there are normally no special effects which mainstream might normally include and could do so easily, so films spend most of there money of special effects and graphics.

Another difference between these two are the soundtracks as mainstream films usually use famous, well known songs or songs special made for the film whereas some independent films don’t really use a proper soundtrack, but London to Brighton actually use about 7 songs throughout the film one of which is by Plan B who are quite famous now, but not really in 2006. Another point that can help the production of films is whether it has a Novel, Sequel or an award winning director which normally mainstream films do have one of for example Harry Potter which has all three. Independent doesn’t really have any of these points which can also make it hard to produce.

A major difference between these types of the films is the money. Independent films have a significantly lower budget; some independent films don’t have all the money to make the film at the start and have to borrow throughout making the film. But mainstream films cost a lot more for example Batman: the dark knight reportedly took $185 million to make. Also mainstream are tended to be thought of as blockbusters or Hollywood films which are usually seen first in cinemas whereas independent films are less commercial. The release of mainstream films on DVD’s are usually depends on the popularity of the film but around 3-6 months.

Some independent films to market use the internet by discussing your film on Internet forums or others attend independent film festivals or attend other small filmmakers premiere events. The posters made for independent films are quite basic using a shot of building/character in the location whereas mainstream film posters are usually of the main cast stating all of the actor’s names and have been edited to have a white background or something similar. Mainstream film makes trailers which are shown on T.V or in the cinema and this is how usually people find out about films. But if independent films do have trailers they aren’t that good, but can be scene of the internet. There is actually a magazine dedicated to independent films where posters can be advertised which is a good way to market your film.

            A distributor’s job is to releases a movie to the public either theatrically or for home viewing. Mainstream films usually go into cinemas all over and are distributed by big companies such as 20^th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures or Paramount Pictures. Although independent films are small there are still distributers special for independent films for example Miramax Films before it was acquired by The Walt Disney Company, another is Verve Pictures.

            Overall, independent and mainstream films use different techniques and are very different when finished. Mainstream films are mainly viewed but it doesn’t mean that independent films aren’t as good.

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