Dark Knight - The Relationship Between Producers and Audiences

The interest in public opinion began in 1920’s and 30’s when Americans began to observe the reactions of their audience relating their product. But it wasn’t until 1940’s when the producers started to use experimental measures of viewer response. A good example that shows an in depth relationship between producers and the audience can be seen by the film The Dark Knight. The marketing of the film began with numerous websites which allowed the audience to have a small glimpse at what might be shown in the movie, telling the people to vote for Harvey Dent just like they would be citizens of Gotham City and they were a part of the conflict that was going on between the criminals and the politicians. The next websites showed a hacked version of the original articles but destroyed by Joker which added few Joker smiles to the pictures and black hollow eyes, as well changing the text showing that he is more superior than the law. When the viewer subscribed to the original website they might have received promotional packs which encouraged voting for Harvey Dent. On the Joker side, a website was made to rent a clown and the audience could have sent their picture of them wearing Joker like make-up so that it would be put on there and others would be able to see it. This engaged the viewer into the film even more as could already see a conflict rising, which meant that the film began to show its context even before it was released.

But apart from websites, the producers developed their relationship with the audience by producing merchandise. One example could be shown by Burger King which made a special meal called Dark Whooper which was sold as an advertisement of the film. Later on they also produced advertisements showing their customers doing bad things and saying ‘bring out your dark side’ which greatly related to the film. They have also produced a line of advertisement for children. This meant that they have received a free toy with the meal that they have ordered to further promote the movie and build a stronger relationship with a wide age range of audience. Other merchandise was produced in line with Warner Bros and the items ranged from mugs, phone cases, costumes and clothing which allowed a wide variety of audience choose what kind of items is mostly suitable for them and buy it.

Varied media was sending the audience on scavenger hunts, to take photographs in certain places and upload them to the websites which revealed parts of pictures which either shown a photograph of Joker when fully revealed or led them to other websites which shown them different views that might be a concern on the film or allowed them to participate even more in the project which gave them a satisfaction that they can be a part of it and the relationship between the producers and the audience grew even stronger.

The real target audience for this film would be the hardcore comic book fans which were also taken on a trip in  Jokers world as in San Diego during the comic con they were sent on an interactive chase. This chase made them look for clues that were around the city and at the end of the clues a fan was kidnapped by the Joker. Later at the con the fans were given a Gotham City newspaper which said ‘See you in December’ and showed the fan dead with the Jokers card in his hand.

Another interesting way that the producers used to build a strong relationship with the audience were the posters shown as they features the logo of the production and the main characters, which not only makes the audience interested in the production but is also eye catching which might bring new viewers to the film as they might feel that they like the way that the poster was created and decide to watch the film. The main characters also, showed up on the covers of magazines like Total Film or Empire which might have brought new viewers to the film and strengthened the relationship with the old ones.

The film premiere was changed because of the death of Heath Ledger, the actor that played Joker, in his memory the carpet instead of red was black and the actors dressed accordingly in dark colours as well, promoting the movie at the same time but also showing that they lost someone from their crew. Later on the orchestra played extracts from the movie and there was a show which featured the iconic Batmobile.

After the premiere of the film, it received a score of 9.0 points on IMDB and 94% on Rotten Tomatoes which are very high scores showing that the film was successful and encouraging the people who weren’t really that interested in it to watch it.

Production Contexts

Independent movies are feature films which are created mostly or completely outside of a major studio. The film is considered an independent only when less than a half of its finance comes from a major studio. Independent films might find it hard to get a distributor, this is because unlike the Hollywood and their subsidiaries which already have distributors; independent films mostly are complete before they find a distributer, which mostly happens at different film festivals. When the distributor would want to acquire the film from the owner they would buy it for a set fee, meaning that the producers would not receive any further payments for the money it would make during the sales. Another option is that they might offer them a cut from the film's profits, which means that they will receive a certain percentage from the amount of money that the film earned. This kind of process is called acquisition. Independent films can be funded in anyway the producer wants. They might fund it themselves, get help from different websites like kickstarter which might help fund it. The financial determinants depend on the amount of money the producer has or is able to raise to film its movie. It is best if an Independent movie has at least one star casted into the movie as this might help with securing the distribution because the movie might sell better if the audiences see someone that they can identify.

International co-production movies are created when two or more countries decide to come together to make a film. Many of the films which are made outside the USA are international co-productions. The co-productions are made by official agreement between countries, and they seek to achieve economic, cultural and diplomatic goals. They open new markets for films and TV programmes which might increase the quality of the productions because of the share of investment. International co-productions benefit from the share of financial resources. This means that the financial situation depends on those countries who are filming the movie as they share the costs of the production. So, if big production companies from different countries come together to make a film then they will have much more money to produce it rather than if small production companies were supposed to do the same. The funding bodies for such films would be the production companies which are making the film or organisations from those countries which help with such projects. The amount of money that the productions will receive depends on the production companies and the different organisations that might help. The tax incentives depends on the country where the film is being made. This means that the tax that is being paid for the income from the movie is being calculated by the country in which the filming is taking place. Sometimes production companies prefer to enter an international agreement if the tax is lower in the other country and they would earn more money because of that fact.

Developing countries is a third production context which refers to the films that are made mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America, this kind of productions can also be called third cinema. These films usually cover political and social issues of those countries which lets the people associate with the films as they understand the problems that are covered in there. In Africa, this cinema is called Nollywood and it covers issues like independence and cultural identity. They can easily identify with this cinema as the films usually show a lot of tribes but also, moved on to upper class life, like businessmen and women. Third cinema is a really poor production context as the countries in which it is aren't that rich. This means that the films are made with really low budgets and have amateur actors. The films are also burnt onto CDs after the post-production to lower the costs even more. But because the these films are made with low budget, then any sponsors that they might get and make the budget higher might have control over the production stage of the movie.