Specification Research - The Avengers

The technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange New formats of advertising and marketing films have been introduced and developed in recent years. Films are no longer solely advertised in cinemas prior to other films and displayed on huge billboards in city centres. Films can now be seen, heard, smelt you name it. It is unclear how much money was made available to market ‘Avengers Assemble’ but the blanket marketing meant that the advertising was almost impossible to escape. They displayed trailers in multiple train stations all over the world as well as bust stations and airports. The huge advancement in smart phones meant that fans could download an app which allowed them to view exclusive content like downloadable posters, teasers and behind the scenes footage. The app was also given exclusive advertisement within other applications which meant people would see it as they were playing something else. This shows again that the marketing campaign that was undertaken left nothing to chance of whether people would see it or not.

 The different versions or exchanges of films that are now available to see would have impacted the movies success greatly. The film was able to be viewed in both 2D and 3D; this would impact the film’s distribution and marketing in several ways. For example, some may only want to go and see the film in 3D, and so making this available to the public means that the audience for the film will increase. Making the film in both versions means the capacity of the marketing campaign can increase. Separate trailers and posters can be created to advertise both 2D and 3D which means the size of the marketing is much larger. Doing this enables the film to appeal to a wider audience and be able to be seen by more and more people. The film was distributed in both digital versions, via the iTunes store and also on DVD. The DVD was available in a standard edition, a Blu-ray edition and a director’s cut edition. All these mean they can charge higher prices for the more detailed versions which increase profits. Fans of the Marvel series would be interested in the director’s cut because this would mean they’re able to get a glimpse behind the scenes and see the work that went into the production of the film and the effort made to please the hard-core fans. The Blu-ray edition would appeal most to those with a high end TV and speaker set who would enjoy getting a cinema-like experience from the comfort of their own sofa. The digital version of the film would be useful to those fans that use their smartphone regularly and want to have the film on demand quickly and easily.

The Blu-ray edition was available to pre-order via Amazon and those who did so received and 3x3 metre poster of the film. A soundtrack distributed for the film and was available via Amazon, HMV, WH Smiths, Tesco and Zavvi. The makers of ‘Avengers Assemble’ saw the opportunity to sell this to those fans who wanted a full and in-depth experience of the film. Finally, a ten-disc six-movie collection of the full ‘Avengers’ series was available to purchase. This included all of the phase one films such as: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America. This is the ultimate piece of merchandise for an ‘Avengers’ fan as they would have on-demand access to all of the films. Its value was increased as production of these was stopped and the availability of this collection became difficult.

 Having supervised the visual effects on Iron Man 2, Janek Sirrs was well suited for the Avengers. Along with producer Susan Pickett, the visual effects supervisor oversaw the filming of approximately 2,200 shots completed by several vendors. These included ILM, Weta Digital, Scanline VFX, Hydraulx, Fuel VFX, Evil Eye Pictures, Luma Pictures, Cantina Creative, Trixter, Modus FX, Whiskytree, Digital Domain and New Deal Studios with titles by Method Design. The film was an enormous effort in bringing together existing elements of the Marvel universe seen in various incarnations of recent superhero films. The visual effects supervisors and crew were able to discuss what they liked and disliked about the special effects from previous marvel films and talk about what they wanted to use in the upcoming movie. This meant they were able to deliver on the promise of the “greatest special effects a Marvel audience has seen”.