Short Summary of the Q&A with Markus Markou of Papadopoulus and Sons

Since my previous work  was really long I decided to upload a simpler post.
These are the top five things that I learnt in our session with the director of Papadopoulos and Sons.

• Pre-production- He had a line producer, Sarah Butler who wrote out the budgets into each department by realising the script. He told us that this film was modern fairy-tale thus the story being relatable to most people in the world who have families. 

• Production- There are around 100 people in the crew of the sets. Jobs include director, assistant directors, cast, producers, runners, electricians and other professions. The technical crew have fixed pay rates whether they are working for a big studio production or an independant low budget production while the rates for actors and locations tend to be negotiated.

• Industry- Since Markus Markou self distributed the film, he financed it using his other company. He lent a company loan from his internet business to his Double M Film distribution company. He used the facility of festivals to find a suitable deal for his film.

• Marketing- He tried to target the possible audiences by finding places that their culture is associated with e.g. Greek Churches. This was free and was a personal approach. The personal approach can also be seen in the facebook and twitter campaign and it is tailored marketing.

• Exhibition- His film wasn't expected to gross high numbers at the box office so he was originally given a 100 seat screen at Shaftesbury avenue. As bookings increased this was upgraded to the 500 seat screen. It also released in Greece and did really well in Germany.

I gathered a lot of knowledge from the director's visit and found it really useful for the case study.

Researching Papadopoulos & Sons (2012)

Directed and written by Marcus Markou, Papadopoulos & Sons is a comedy drama film that was a success in the box office.
Logline from their official website: Following his ruin in the latest banking crisis, a self-made millionaire reluctantly re-unites with his estranged freewheeling brother to re-open the abandoned fish and chip shop they shared in their youth.

Production:

Shot in and around London, the sets include two shops, a factory and a mansion.
Its rated 15 and has a runtime of 105 minutes.


Marketting:

The marketting platforms include poster, trailer, teaser videos, interviews, website, a youtube channel and facebook page.
The production also has an official twitter account, the cast and crew promote marketting content such as links to reviews and stills from the film.
The videos apart from the man film are available on their YouTube Channel.




Distribution:

This film has been self-distributed by the director's own company, Double M films. It was first screened at the Dinard Festival of British Cinema in France. Then it screened at a festival in Greece. One month later, December 2012, it was released in Greece. Four months later, in April it was released in Ireland and United Kingdom. Finally on 27th June 2013, it released in 70 cinemas in Germany and achieved approximately 24,000 admissions in the first weekend.

Reception:

The film received 82% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and an average rating of 6.2 out of 10 on IMDb.
Initially in Britain, the exhibitor, Cineworld agreed to screen the film on limited screens in the UK however the audience demand fueled an expanded run of the film.