Wednesday, 28 April 2010

What was the inpact for marketing and consumption from the following aspects of distribution for your film ?

Who were the distributors?

The films main distributor was Universal Studios who are a big Hollywood company that is partnered with the production company “Working Title”. Universal Studios have done other big films such as Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang which is another Working Title film to big films such as E.T.

Who was the target audience?

I would say that the target audience is anyone who can appreciate good rock and roll music. As the film was set in the 60’s and was based on the Radio Caroline who and around 25 million listener back then, there would be a lot of people wanting to re-live their youth.

How did the film-makers decide where to release the film and when?

The film was released in the UK on the 1st April 2009 and the on the 13th November 2009 in the USA and Canada where it was re-edited and re-named to “Pirate Radio”. It was re-edited because it was too long so Curtis deleted approximately twenty minutes of footage from the original UK version


What was the marketing and advertising strategy for the film?

Film marketing, trailers and posters.


Was there a premiere?

The premiere was held where must premieres are held at London's Leicester Square, and had people as big as Sir Paul McCartney show up.

Was the film distributed to digital cinemas?

The film was distributed to digital cinemas such as Cineworld and the Odeon

When did it go to DVD, HD-DVD?

For DVD release was for region 1: 13 April 2010, region 2: 7 September 2009, region 4: 12 August 2009.
For Blue-Ray the release was region 1: 13 April 2010, region 2: 7 September 2009, region 4: 12 August 2009.



How important are internet, downloads and YouTube?

To advertise a film the internet is the perfect place to do just that, you can get websites such as YouTube that will show videos of trailers, interview and sneak peaks of the film, giving the viewer something to look forward to. It is also an easy way for “word to mouth” but using social networking sight such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and the many more out there. Unfortunately the internet is not always a good thing, with more pirate (no pun intended) copies of movies, the inter net has become a hot spot for download the film for free to watch it or watching them on illegal sites.


What outlets were used for advertising?

There were many different outlets used for the advertising of The Boat that Rocked. They use trailers to be played on the TV and for the previews in the cinema; they have also done a series of different posters, from teaser posters to the films main poster.


Were TV spots used?

Yes. There was a TV spot used, as Universal approaches television as a crucial mechanism for communicating with the marketplace, they did a small 29 second mini trailer to air.





Were there any merchandising tie-ins?

There were a few merchandising tie-in for the film as there is an iPhone app that you can download, which is free (maybe telling us that it was not very popular and nobody wanted/ or would want to pay for it.) the app is “The Boat that Rocked Top Trumps” and the rating it has got is 2 and a half stars from 1706 ratings. There was posters for the film and there was also the soundtrack for the film.


Was any additional publicity gained and if so, how?

The cast of The Boat that Rocked all did interviews both in the UK and in the USA, some interviews were for the TV. Additional Publicity was gained in the USA by re-naming the film “Pirate Radio”

How did the distributors market the film by utilizing 'the talent' to appear on TV and radio shows?

Universal Studios marketed the film by using a series of poster that slowly built up to the films main poster, by using teaser poster that didn’t hold loads of information about the film, but only had the characters image on them, thus introducing the characters/actors or actresses in the film. There were also several different trailers that appeared on TV. All of this led to the actors/actresses getting interviews on the TV programs and on radio shows.


What kinds of press stories were released as and before the film came out?

The film got a lot of mixed reviews, most of them being bad. One of the things said to be bad about the film was “the 135-minute running time puts you at severe risk of cabin fever.” That it was too long.

What were the issues for the production company during the production phase ?

Was it an easy shoot?

No its not an easy shoot, there was many different challenges and problems that they came across, firstly first day of shooting they could use the boat because of the weather and had to use the sets. Also just shooting on the boat, because of the constant movement, the lighting and making sure that nothing else was in the back ground that shouldn’t be there for example a modern boat, As a result of the film being based in the 60’s they had to be careful to reflect the period of the time ,that nothing from the present time was shown, by making sure that the places, fashion, surroundings, objects, hairstyles and clothes.

Was any part of the film shot on location, if so where?


The entire external scene for the Radio Rock was shot on a actual boat called the MV Timor Challenger, which was docked in Portland near Dorset. However there were also set made up for the internal scenes that didn't really show the boat, or outside of the boat off and for the times when the weather wasn’t very good, these set were shot in Shepperton Studios in Surry, because they still need that rocking motion of the boat a hydraulic system had to be used to recreate it.

another place that was shot was in London like National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, Gambardella's Café in Blackheath Standard and Roupell Street, For the sea font they used Brighton beach in East Sussex UK and for
Sir Alistair Dormandy's home they shot in Squerryes Court, Kent, England, UK

Were there any difficulties with casting? How significant was casting to reach specific audiences?

to find the right people it took aquite a feqw months to find the right actor/actresses, but as usual, for some parts they new straight away who they wanted, nut had to make sure they were free for the filming and shot's. One of the actors they wanted was filming, but he wanted to be a part of the film so they moved the filming scene with him around.


Were there any changes the script during production?

There were some changes in production due to locations, or lines in the script not working. Some of the scenes didn’t make in to the final cut as they were either too long or didn’t work.

Key people

Hilary Bevan Jones producer
Tim Bevan producer
Richard Curtis producer
Eric Fellner producer
Emma Freud associate producer
Debra Hayward executive producer
Ronaldo Vasconcellos co-producer
Danny Cohen Cinematography by
Emma E. Hickox Film Editing by
Fiona Weir Casting by
Mark Tildesley Production Design by



What were the technological issues for the studio for producing and distributing the film?

The film didn’t do very well with the critics and the reviews as they said that it was too long and not very successful with the audience. Even when it was bought out in other countries around the world as a different name “Pirate Radio” it was still unsuccessful.

What are the pre-production issues for the production company when making films ?

Thursday, 22 April 2010

The Boat that rocked- other names

Also Known As (AKA)

Good Morning England France
I Love Radio Rock Italy
Los piratas del rock Argentina
Merirosvoradio Finland
O Barco do Rock Portugal
Os Piratas do Rock Brazil (DVD title)
Piráti na vlnách Czech Republic
Pirate Radio USA (new title)
Pirates Rock Japan (English title)
Radio Encubierta Spain
Radio Rock Revolution Germany
Radio... kymata Greece (DVD title)
Rock en plo Greece
Rock'n Roll teknesi Turkey (Turkish title)
Rock'n'Roll brod Croatia
Rock'n'Roll pirati Slovenia
Rockhajó Hungary
Rok-volna Russia
Rokkivad raadiopiraadid Estonia