Wolf of Wall Street case study

The Wolf of Wall Street is a 2013 American black comedy (is a comic work that employs black humor, which, in its most basic definition, is humor that makes light of otherwise serious subject matter) film directed by Martin Scorsese, based on Jordan Belfort's memoir of the same name. It was released on December 25, 2013. The screenplay was written by Terence Winter, and the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort, a New York stockbroker who runs a firm that engages in securities fraud and corruption on Wall Street in the 1990s.

The film also features Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau, and Jean Dujardin. It is the fifth collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio, and the second between Scorsese and Winter following Boardwalk Empire.

The film received positive reviews from critics, but was also controversial for its moral ambiguity, sexual content, presence of drugs, vulgarity, and use of animals. The film has grossed over $389 million worldwide against a $100 million budget, and was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Scorsese, Best Adapted Screenplay for Terrence Winter, and Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for DiCaprio and Hill, respectively, but failed to win in any category.

The film marks a change in film history when Paramount became the first major studio to distribute movies to theaters in digital format eliminating 35mm film entirely. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues was the last Paramount production to include a 35mm film version, while The Wolf of Wall Street was the first major movie distributed entirely digitally.The film also holds the record for the most uses of the word "fuck" in a mainstream non-documentary film.

In January 2014 Jonah Hill revealed in an interview with Howard Stern that he only made $60,000 (the lowest possible SAG-AFTRA rate for his amount of work) on the film while his co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio who also produced, received $10 million. Hill was determined to work with Scorsese, and wanted to play Donnie Azoff so badly that he was willing to do what it took to get the part.^[

Filmed in New York and New Jersey

The Wolf of Wall Street premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in Los Angeles on December 17 2013, followed by a wide release on December 25, 2013. It was previously slated to be released on November 15 2013, but the date was pushed back after film cuts were desired in order to reduce the run time. Paramount officially confirmed the Christmas Day 2013 release date on October 29 2013.

It was officially rated R and 18 for "sequences of strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language throughout, and for some violence". Scorsese had to edit sexual content and nudity to avoid an NC-17 rating. By different counts, the film contains between 506 and 569 uses of the word "fuck", and sets the record for the most uses of the word in a mainstream non-documentary film.

The film is banned in Malaysia, Nepal and Kenya because of its scenes depicting sex, drugs and excessive use of swear words, and additional scenes have been cut in the versions playing in India. In Singapore, the film has been relegated to only a handful of theaters because of its ultra-restrictive rating.

BROADCAST

The Wolf of Wall Street was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 25, 2014. 

Trailer:

The trailer of the Wolf of wall street follows some typical conventions of a movie trailer. The trailer starts initially very fast paced to draw the viewer in however scenes tend to get longer as the trailer progresses. Due to the films older target audience the need for very fast paced shots such as an Ill Manors is less necessary. However the trailer does show a clearly comedic aspect to the film with scenes of dwarfs being thrown and characters humming. The sound track is parallel to the events in the trailer as "black skinhead" by Kanye West captures the chaotic, frantic nature of the film. Very quickly the Trailer shows a close up of Leonardo Dicaprio so the audience clearly know that he is starring in it and he is a very recognisable actor. Straight after this Martin Scorsese's name is written in large black letters to again attract viewers due to his fame in the industry. Stars Leonardo Dicaprio at the top, Jonah Hill and Mathew Mcconaughey's names are then also written as they are recognisable stars in Hollywood, whereas relatively unknown actress Margot Robbie's name is absent.

Interviews:

In this interview on the Ellen show, a family show in America, Leonardo Dicaprio mainly speaks about the making of the film. Perhaps he was targeting the older audience by talking about previous films he did and the experience on set as there is little for the younger audience to appeal to. However he does add an element of comedy which my entertain younger viewers by talking about having ham thrown on his face during the film. Host Ellen also clearly promotes the film by stating how amazing Dicaprio's performance is in the film.

Jonah Hill however appeals to a much younger audience. The actor clearly adds element of comedy to his interview. Talking about his determination to play the role and studying for the part, as well as not being told if he'd got it or not can be related to by young students studying for exams and waiting for results. The interview also puts a lot of emphasis on star Leonardo Dicaprio and also praises director Martin Scorsese, two iconic figures that will attract people to the film.Hill also talks about How Dicaprio was bigger than him and hit him during shoots, and got his revenge by making Dicaprio eat fish during a scene. Such childish actions clearly attract younger viewers.

BBC Radio 4 Interview

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03pmbj2

BBC Radio 4 is a radio station meant for a much older and educated target audience. Hill speaks of much more serious issues such as the morality behind the actions of characters in the film which he states he does not condone and raised the issue of punishments for criminals not being strong enough. Hill also speaks about Scorsese's tendency to allow actors to improvise in scenes. The station also interviews other various people involved in the films priduction that many younger less educated people will not be interested in.

The main poster of the film shows the chaotic party background the film wants to show in the background. The poster clearly shows the best picture nomination at the top of the poster to attract viewers. Both Leonardo Dicaprio and Martin Scorsese's names are singled out as they are the stars that will attract viewers through their reputations in the film industry.This poster is also used for the DVD cover.

The wolf of wall street largely uses a very simple design for its print designs and marketing. All posters follow the strict Yellow and Black colour scheme. This colour scheme is iconic and immediately connotes New York Taxis, which effectively links to the setting of the film, on Wall Street, New York. The colour scheme also allows the poster to easily stand out amongst others as yellow is rarely a colour used in marketing campaigns. Also on all Three posters the famous director Martin Scorsese and star actor Leonardo Di Caprio are both at the top. This is because viewers are going to read from the top, and seeing those two star names immediately draws attention from viewers and makes people want to see the film.

This poster for the Wolf of Wall Street also follows the iconic yellow and black colour scheme. This poster however shows reviews of the film to attract an audience. The poster shows very positive reviews and 5 star ratings from reviewers. At the top of the poster the "golden globe nominations" in large text will attract viewers as they will want to see an award winning film. The reviews then highlights the positive reviews by placing them in bold writing making them easily noticeable. Scorses's name is also in bold in one of the quotes bringning attention to his name once again. Underneath the reviews two iconic stars names, Leonardo Di Caprio and Jonah Hill, also in the picture, are place above Scorses's again. The poster as well as the obvious reviews puts the films stars and directors name numerous times on the page. Two of the quotes are from the guardian, a newspaper most likely read by educated people interested in the stock market and so will appeal to the film. One quote is from MSN movies, MSN being a popular social network among young people appeals to a younger audience as well. 

Leading up to the films release Leonardo Dicaprio appeared on the cover of New York magazine. This magazine is aimed at a sophisticated older audience.

The Hollywood reporter also featured Leonardo Dicaprio along side star director Martin Scorsese and actor Jonah Hill. This magazine appeals to a younger audience than the New York Magazine but still a fairly old audience interested in the media industry and film.

Tribute magazine appeals to a much younger audience with less education. 

Margot Robbie also appeared in ELLE Australia and Dicaprio in Greek magazine Athinorama's front covers showing the global appeal of the film.

E MEDIA

http://thewolfofwallstreetuk.tumblr.com/

The Wolf of Wall street website clearly follows the iconic yellow and black colour scheme of the film. Immediately we see a large image of the DVD and Blu Ray with Order nwo enxt to it in order to immediately attract people to buy a copy. Underneath is a link to the trailer with large writing "WATCH THE TRAILER" to again grab attention. To the left of this are the various golden globe nominations which will be seen as you watch the trailer to clearly indicate the film is successful before you even watch it. Underneath at the bottom of the home page are various shots from the film, which when clicked on have links to the twitter, facebook and pintrest pages. When the twitter link is clicked it automatically creates a tweet that can be tweeted with the #wolfofwallstreet.

One clever form of user generated content used to market the product is the make a "GIF" campaign. This is where users select a short 1-4 second scene from the film and can add text to it, which can be then shared across various social media platforms, shared or downloaded.

https://twitter.com/TheWolfofWallSt

Twitter largely now posts funny pictures and quotes from the film as well as posting award nominations and wins for the film. The film also largely promotes the release of the film on DVD, Blue Ray and on Digital download. Just after the films release in cinemas the page retweeted many positive tweets made by viewers who used the #wolfofwallstreet. Before the release the page retweeted the pages trailer numerous times along with the December 25th release date. It also posted many reviews from places such as rolling stone magazine, a more adult aimed magazine. The page also posted many "exclusive" new clips of the film that were not included in the trailer to gain interest.

https://www.facebook.com/TheWolfOfWallStreet?fref=ts

Similarly when you click on the Facebook link from the website a post with the film trailer and #wolfofwallstreet is immediately created. Now that the film has been released the page has shared some behind the scenes footage, as well as sharing various successes and nominations the film has gotten since release. Like the twitter page the Facebook page also has many pictures from the film with short funny idioms such as "make it rain" and "never give up" with funny pictures from the film. The facebook page posts much more links to interviews and guest appearences made by the film stars than the twitter page, such as pictures of the film stars trip to Japan, behind the scenes footage, chat show interviews and red carpet pictures.