Things I learnt from the session of Papadopoulos & Sons

We talked to Markus Markou about the production, marketing, distribution and exhibition of Papadopoulos and sons. We learnt a few things about the Film Industry.

We found how Independant film making was very different to Studio made films. Since he self-distributed the film, he gave more importance and care to the film as he had to make sure he earnt back the profit. He made a commercial loan from his business to his distribution company, Double M films.

Festivals can be used to market films. Papadopoulos and Sons has been to Toronto, Sundance, Dinard and Cannes film festivals. Papadopoulos and Sons was bought by an air line distributer, a German and French TV network and also by the BBC so it could be aired next year. Markus Markou told us that it was difficult to distribute the film because people were reluctant to make good deals.

When he first approached the actors, Markou showed the script to them before discussing money so the actors would agree to the film for the interesting role. The whole film was shot under 30 days with 1 week of rehearsal. Stephen Dillane was approached for Harry Papadopoulos and Sons however he had a clash with Game of Thrones however when his son agreed to play James Papadopoulos, he asked Game of Thrones to change their shooting dates. This added the family dimension to the set while shooting and the chemistry can be seen when watching the film.

The tone and atmosphere of the scenes can be set stylistically. The beginning of the film is set in the house which has little of the personal aspects of the home. It has a wide space and a cold colour scheme which is seen in the kitchen. It is quieter and has a lack of soundtrack. Near the end, it is set in a Fish and Chips shop. There are more people, there is more colour to the shop and there is the joyous soundtrack of Papadopoulos and Sons.

They shot mainly from the script. Markus Markou and James Friend (director of photography) worked together to piece the shots together. He said that sometimes the actors would decide on stage directions or they way they come into a shot so the actors felt more comfortable. They shot in digital format as it is cheaper than using film. The line producer, Sara Butler made a line-by-line budget that split the budget for each department.

Actors and locations are the most varying salaries in the media industry.
Other jobs usually have a standard rate like technical jobs: e.g. boom operators and stylistic jobs: e.g. make up artists.

Digital film is useful because it is cheap and easy to use however it can also have the drawback of shooting too much footage, making the editing process much longer and difficult.

Being an Indie film with a small marketing budget, he wasn't able to air T.V. spots or put up posters. He kept most of the campaign online and it was a free platform. This includes facebook, twitter, youtube and the website. He thought of targeting some of his marketing at the Greek community in Britain so he called up Greek churches. He also gave out flyers in front of cinemas.

Without the internet, marketing would be tougher for Independant film makers as they don't have finance for traditional marketing such as posters and airtime for trailers.

Markus Markou was allowed to chose 12 screens in the UK which weren't main destinations. Papadopoulos and Sons did extremely well at the Shaftesbury Avenue Cineworld. Initially is was given a 100 seat screen which was promoted to a 200 seat screen and then reached 500 seat screen. It achieved the 2nd highest screen average from the films that aired at that time in cineworld. The film had a "21st Century Fairytale" concept that allowed it to have a universal appeal. This is one of reasons why is was popular in Germany gaining 23850 screenings from 70 screens in the opening weekend.