SUBMARINE

RELEASED: 12th September 2010

BUDGET: £1.2 million

BOX OFFICE: £2.03 million

SUBMARINE

• Directed by

• Produced by

Richard Ayoade

Ben StillerExecutive Producer

Mark Herbert

Mary Burke Andy Stebbings

Also on board…

SUBMARINE“Submarine is a book by Joe Dunthorne. Ally Gipps, whoworks at Warp Films, has known Joe for years, and Warpoptioned the book before it came out. I’d done a musicvideo for Warp, an Arctic Monkeys video, and they gave methe book to read and I really liked it. Warp then asked me towrite a script with a view to directing it. Joe and I metseveral times and talked about what might translate wellfrom the novel to a film.” Richard Adeoye

"When I first read the book in 2006, I fell in love with theoriginality of voice and unyielding wit in Joe's novel. It'snot a familiar British coming of age story, so I thought itwould be refreshing to see the work rendered as a film.The encyclopaedic nature of Oliver's character unveiledthrough his internal monologues, I felt would be a goodmatch for Richard's wonderful and detailed knowledge offilm. There was something beautifully timeless about thebook, and thought Richard's nostalgic directing stylewould bring that out. And of course, we all knew he couldexecute the comedy because he is one of the funniestpeople working in the UK today.“ Mary Burke

Issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice

• The film was made by Warp Films (Production) an independent British film company who have a reputation for involvement in innovative films like This is England (2006) and Four Lions (2010).

Issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice

• Warp Film are part of a company whosemedia and creative interests extend intofilm with the respected independentrecord label part of their niche, businessinterests. This is also an example ofhorizontal integration as the ArticMonkeys signed to Warps record label alsowrote the soundtrack for the film.

Issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice

• Ayoade is friends with Turner and hadalready, through Warp directed ArticMonkey music videos. The music has allbeen composed specifically for the film,which adds to the difficulty in placing itin a particular time period.

Issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice

Film4 is a founding partner of the Warp X digitalstudio, the company develops and co-finances filmproductions and is known for working with the mostinnovative talent in the U.K. in this case being WarpFilms and also the director Richard Ayoade.

Film4 invested development money in the film whilethe film is one of last projects invested in by the UKFilm Council who devoted New Cinema Fund moneyto Submarine. Additional funding reflecting theregional aspect of Submarine came from The WalesCreative IP Fund and the Film Agency for Wales

The UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental

public body set up in 2000 by the Labour Government

to develop and promote the film industry in the UK.

The New Cinema Fund supported emerging talent and established filmmakers working outside the mainstream, focusing on the most innovative writing and the most gifted directors. The

fund had £15 million of Lottery money to invest over three years and funded eight to ten feature films each year. It had a strong commitment to supporting work from the nations and

regions, from black, Asian and other minority ethnic filmmakers and encouraged the use of

digital technology in the production, distribution and exhibition of films.

Issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice

"I think it’s probably hard for people to become aware of things unless there are famous people talking about a film, unless it’s a genre film I suppose, but for smaller independent films, it seems like the only route for people to

find out about it." Richard Ayoade

The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production,

distribution and marketing Film4 Productions, Film Agency for Wales, WalesCreative IP Fund, Red Hour Films and Warp Films.All of these smaller companies coming together toproduce Submarine helped make the film successfulby sharing experience and increasing the budget.

The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing

Much of the success of the film came from belowthe line advertising, attracting audience throughcritical acclaim via its success at the Toronto Filmfestival, meaning that its success mainly came fromword of mouth, rather than a huge marketingbudget.

Synergy can be said to be a contributing factorwhen it comes to the distribution of Submarine,although it was mainly it’s film festival successthat attracted distributors The WeinsteinCompany, it also attracted distribution cynicallyon the strength of the unusual involvement asExecutive Producer of Hollywood actor, BenStiller (Red Hour Films). The collaboration andinvestment of aforementioned companies gavethe film some pedigree.

The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing

The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing

The Weinstein Companydistributed the film in the USand Optimum Releasing tookcare of the UK, butconsidering Bob and HarveyWeinstein’s company inessence can be described as a‘Mini Major’ film distributor,this can explain the overallsuccess of the film in the USeven with a limited release.

28

Submarine was only distributed to 28 screens in the USconfirming the reluctance of The Weinstein Company toinvest too heavily in this British, low production valueproject, however it made an impressive $467,000 in the US.The Weinstein Company is large enough to cope with thedistribution of academy award winning The Artist (2012)and The Iron Lady (2012) but not competition for theoligopoly of Hollywood distributors including 20th CenturyFox, Universal Studios and Paramount

Optimum is a smaller company, mostly releasing

independent British films such as Attack the Block. They have

released many independent films meaning that the company has plenty of

experience to reach a wider audience.

Both these Distributors working together to release Submarine in the UK and US helped greatly to generate interest in the film and increase the overall audience of Submarine. Without Weinstien's involvement Submarine's audience wouldn't have

grown over in the US which means that Submarine may have missed out on a potentially bigger audience.

60 cinemas in the UK, then 100

The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing Submarine’s distinctive marketing campaign backed by

strong critical reviews and a soundtrack by Alex Turner of

Arctic Monkey’s fame has certainly helped this quirky

coming of age tale find an audience in the UK. Submarine

like Four Lions offers hope that British cinema does

produce a healthy slate of films each year which can

remain successful given the continuing dominance

enjoyed by Hollywood films. Optimum releasing

expanded the release of Submarine from 60 screens to

100 and it is likely to help with the final box office take.

The technologies that have been introduced in

recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange

• Unlike a film like The Dark Knight, Submarine had a small production budget of £1.2 million and an even smaller marketing budget. Therefore there were no expensive cross media platform promotions and it wasn’t filmed on IMAX. Due to it being a Warp production it was filmed digitally which fit within the budget. Click here for more on filming on digital

The technologies that have been introduced in

recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange

• Digital copies of films are ten times cheaper than 35mm, so with the Arts Council England The UK Film Council created the Digital Screen Network: a £12 million investment in 240 digital screens at 210 cinemas across the UK.

Digital screening cuts the cost of releasing films (a digital copy costs around one tenth of a 35mm print). That’s why UK Film Council and the Arts Council England

created the Digital Screen Network – a £12 million investment to equip 240 screens in 210 cinemas across the UK with digital projection technology to give

UK audiences much greater choice.

Cinemas in the network screened non-mainstream films including Submarine, allowing the film to reach a wider audience. The DSN scheme no longer exists

The significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences

• Now that most films are available to stream online on websites such as Amazon Prime and Netflix, this helps the make it available to anyone anywhere on Phones, Laptops and TV's. Also, Submarine is available to download from Itunes.

The importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences

Submarine had no website of it's own, it onlyhad pages through Weinstien and Optimum. Onthe Weinstien website there is an interactiveslide show of 'Oliver Tates Guide to AvoidBullying'.

the film did have a Facebook page whichhelped fans to keep up to date with theproduction of the film, trailers andreleasing of the film.

The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically British) by

international or global institutionsThe posters forSubmarine did notalter that muchbetween the UK andUS marketing. But onthe US poster thephrase 'Ben StillerPresents...' is shownin bold and standsout much more thanthe UK poster.

'Oliver Tate's Guide to Avoid Bullying'

interactive animation, was

used to promote the film but also for

an anti-bullying

campaign.

The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically British) by

international or global institutions

Submarine’s distinctive marketing campaign backed bystrong critical reviews and a soundtrack by Alex Turner ofArctic Monkey’s fame helped this quirky coming of age talefind an audience in the UK. Submarine like Four Lions offershope that British cinema does produce a healthy slate offilms each year which can remain successful given thecontinuing dominance enjoyed by Hollywood

The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically British) by international or

global institutions

Submarine's soundtrack features Alex Turner the leadsinger/guitarist of The Arctic Monkeys. This may haveencouraged people to want to go and watch the films becausethey are fans of The Artic Monkey, this would be moreappealing to a British audience as they are a British band.