A field in England

Read the Media Magazine feature on A Field In England in Issue 47 and create a blogpost called 'A Field In England case study'. You'll find the article in our Media Magazine archive - click on MM47 and go to page 19.

1) Write a 100 word summary of the Media Magazine article.

The media magazine article mainly talks about the funding of the film and how it is difficult for many of the art house films to compete in the market of the larger Hollywood films as they have much larger funding and time to create what they think is perfect and also create movies which appeal to a much larger audience and will generate more profit. They also commend how the film took the media industry by storm on their distribution tactic and how it was an excellent way for such a niche film with a restricted audience to receive such great coverage.
2) Read the following pages on the official website for A Field In England and write a one-sentence summary of each. Each page provides explanations of the unique release strategy that the institutions behind the film chose: 

Industrial Evolution: Producer Andy Starke on the music industry influences informing A Field In England’s release strategy.  

This article talks about how the industry is changing and a few years down the line, technology would have advanced to such a stage where films will be projected everywhere and the need for cinemas will become obsolete, which is why they felt it their responsibility to take such a leap in releasing these films in such a unique way. 

Screening/radical release: Commissioning Executive Anna Higgs on the groundbreaking release plans for A Field In England.

She talks about how what they have done is revolutionary and was a Bold statement, it also states that the film is one to watch when experiencing the full cinema experience, which suggests that they would like their audiences to watch in cinema if they can.

Audience: Anna Higgs discusses where A Field In England sits within British cinema and how it will reach its intended audience for the film.

Anna Higgs suggests that it what they have done will help in them reaching its intended target audience and will stand out to audiences, as consumers in this day understand how the business model works and know that if they do not watch it in cinema they are likely to have to wait for around 6 months till they can watch the film and may have actually forgotten about it by then.

3) How was A Field In England’s release different to typical film releases?

A field in England's release is very different to typical film releases it did not follow the usual film business model, where they release a film in cinema and then it is screened on paid movie channels such as Sky movies and then on a cheaper subscription channel or perhaps on freeview and then available on DVD or streaming sites, however for this film they released the film in cinemas, on TV and on DVD all the same time.

4) What are the advantages to releasing the film across all platforms on the same day?

It will reach a much larger audience without a doubt.

5) What are the disadvantages to this approach?

Less people are likely to see this film in cinema so they are very likely to receive a much smaller amount of profit, as the audiences know that they are easily able to watch the films at home for free.

6) What target audience would A Field In England be aimed at? Think about demographics and Psychographics.

I think that the demographic for a field in England is more likely to be the older generation who are interested in the war and are less likely to be as interested in things which this generation may classify to be popular and mainstream. It may appeal to the explorers also.

7) Do you think all films in future will be released across all platforms simultaneously in future? Why? What role will technology play in film distribution?

I don't think that films in the future will be released across all platforms simultaneously in the future as it would simply kill the market for the cinema and  think that for most mainstream films there is an audience which have a demand for the films will go to the cinema to visit, which may bring up the point that if audiences are that passionate they will go to view it in cinemas, however this may not be the case for individual comedy films for example or cartoon films where parents would rather just watch the film at home, rather than pay the premium for the whole family to visit.

8) Why was Chicken unable to use such a release and distribution strategy when it was made in 2014? 

It was independently funded and didn't have a large distribution company such as film 4 to invest and help release it.