1. By Lily Mae Fitzsimons S15113567
How did the marketing of 'Bend it Like Beckham (2003)' reflect contemporary debates about the lack of diversity (issues) in sport films?
By Lily Mae Fitzsimons S

2. Bend it like Beckham (2002)
Bend it like Beckham is a well known rom- com film. Not only does the film mainly surround female football, it looks at particular issues. The director has focused on many areas for a larger target market.
The film was reviewed by many professional film journalists. Here Empire has given a quick description of the plot but from what I can see reviewers are hardly talking about any of the other important issues. The reason for this may given an indication of the marketing which was out there at the time. The marketing is very focused on the female issues. In the film, there is issues surrounding the male gender, these are: sexuality, relationships, racism, mental health issues.
“Jess is desperate to be a footballer, but her parents have other ideas. When friend Jules convinces her to join a local team, she has to keep it a secret - especially when the final falls on the day of her sister's wedding” (Empire, 2002)

3. Actors and Actresses Jess Bhamra (Parminder Nagra)
Juliette Paxton (Keira Knightly)
Joe (Jonathan Rhys Meyers)
The producer used young British/ Irish actresses to represent the diversity in England. Maybe specifically the demographic in Hounslow, London.
The choice of actors in the film is marketed to include both British and Indian ethnicities'. The director has included the actress Parminder Nagra because she represents an every day Indian girl who has grown up all her life in London, Britain but parents are from Asian countries. Not only does this represent to the audience that their community is recognised but also markets that Asian/ British actors can work in the film industry. The marketing team have done this to gain recognition audiences of these ethnicities in Britain.

4. Worldwide Actors
The use of universal actors represent the migration across the world. The Asian actors represent the narrative and more importantly the religion and cultures which have been bought to London streets.
Mr. Bhamra (Anupam Kher)
Mrs. Bhamra (Shaheen Khan)
Biji (Zohra Sehgal)
The director has particularly used International stars to represent the narrative and make sure that the characters can symbolise the meaning of what she is trying to get across to the audience, whether this is through language, race, religion or dressage.
A lot of the actors have had global recognition, especially in Bollywood. Therefore the actors will have an understanding of what they director would like from the acting and the way to work with the camera.

5. Director Gurinder Chadha
English director of Punjab and Asian background
Her other films which she has directed is Bride& Prejudice, Angus Thongs and Perfect Kissing and It’s a Wonderful Afterlife.
She also wrote the screenplay for Bend it Like Beckham
Gurinder Chadha is a very well established female director in Britain and in Indian. Her works are based on English rom-coms and Indian Bollywood movies. Many of her British films look at particular issues in a females home/ work/ school/ play life. The issues arrive with other characters and their issues also. Her films have been very successful and has seen many great actors and actresses rise to big fame from them.

6. Posters film marketing
DVD Marketing: Much more expressive with the narrative.
These are just some of things that the marketing team for Bend it like Beckham have created. The DVD is giving more information about the film, its very vibrant.
Film Poster: This is seems to be a first draft poster.

7. Textual Analysis- Font
1) The little comment box at the top of the poster represents to the “journalist or professional”.
4) The film title is in it own unique font to make sure that it is recognised by their audience and its fans later on its life span.
The font at the top is used to promote the film to the audience. Its there for the purpose of the audience grasping how others have perceived the film. The actual message stands out, the font and the text written are friendly, its sorts of like a text or a chat. However, caps lock has been used because it wants to stand out, marketing want this to stand out the audience because they are obviously trying to attract very large viewings.
The font for the production blurb and billing of actors is very small and is to the style of Times New Roman. This text is very small because to the audience it is the most important thing or something that would catch their eye straight away. It is there so that it gives authenticity to the institution and the director especially. It also makes it official and represents that it may have come from a very well known director. Crediting people from the industry is important to show that they are also important as well as the actors, who are placed in a much larger font and split apart to see.
The taglines font is in one particular font which is not used on the film poster anywhere else this special font is actually something you would recognise from Indian food restaurants, the font gives it that authenticity to he film. It also represents the culture and also may link to the people who are placed within in the visual. The particular text says “Who wants to cook Aloo Gobi when you can bend a ball like Beckham?”, and this gives us a reason to why the font is in an Indian cuisine style because it mentions Aloo Gobi which is a traditional piece of food from a Indian house hold.
The film title is very unique, and when you see it you can recognise the branding of this particular film. It catches the eye of the audience.
3) The tagline is important because it represents an important line from the film. Something to remember them by. Maybe something we may hear in the trailer too.
2) Production blurb and billing of actors give an image of the institutions and the people behind the work.

8. Textual analysis- Image
1) The main image that is representing the film. The two main actresses are on the front of the poster.
3) Keira Knightly is made to be the most important subject on the poster.
The main actresses on the front of the poster are there to represent the main idea of the film. I mean genre, narrative, storylines and issues. From the poster the only narratives or so called issues I can pick up on by looking is: female friendships, white British and Asian ethnicities will be in the movie, the story will be about football. The image symbolises to me that the film may be a comedy because the two females are laughing, I also know that the film will be about sport so it is a niche genre of female sport films. What I want to challenge about Bend it like Beckham’s marketing team is that it over looks all of the many issues and narratives that are also important. Not only to me but the audience members who may have missed out on the film because its looks like it only targets one gender, females. I can see that Bend it like Beckham’s marketing team have missed a gap in the market by not targeting the male audience because they definitely touch on the more sensitive subjects that may have brought them to watch it.
The background image is important to the whole which is represented on the poster because it fills in a little gap of knowing what else is to come in the film. The image is of old women standing in a wall, looking around with a look of disgrace. This represents that they are not happy with the girls at the front. The image is put behind the main actresses because they are less likely to be apart of the narrative. The background image actually represents a religion, the saris are worn to represent their religion. One of the actresses is wearing a wedding sari this represents the importance and beauty of the weddings in a Sikh culture.
Keira Knightly is an extremely important subject to analyse. This is because I have found that Keira has been placed in front of Asian actress, Parminder Nagra. The reasons of this could be for marketing purposes of selling the Keira Knightly, the most upcoming white British female actress and the fact that “white” sells, especially in a British market. However, it could be the directors idea to make sure the marketing team sell Keira as an issue, that female women get a lot more chances and are prioritised in a British society and cultures.
2) The background image here is to give extra information about the narrative. It’s there to show a bit more than just the two main supporting female actresses.

9. Textual analysis- Colour Palette
1) The main actors are wearing light/ dull colours.
3) The title of the film, tagline, production blurbs is half in green and half in black
The main actors are seem to be wearing colours of white, black, grey and light blue. This colour palette actually gives us a representation of the females attitude to fashion. The colours of the clothes are dull, to me this says that women who enjoy football or sport are not at all interested in fashion. They are very much interested in their hobbies.
The women in the back ground are wearing very bright and colourful costumes. To me this represents that they are women who enjoy fashion and beauty but it actually shows me that maybe they are celebrating or going somewhere important because they are not in every day clothes, even for an everyday Sikh woman. The colour palette can suggest what we might get from the characteristics from each character. From the left onwards of the woman in yellow it can represent happiness and hope but she also has conflicting situations. The next woman is in red, this represents she is in love, has sex and is passionate. The next two women wear lighter colours and this represents to us that they are graceful and respected.
The colour of the titles are either in green or black. The colour palette chosen by marketing is to give that representation of a football pitch in the green, it gives it that feel of outside. I also think that the black suggests football boots, it gives it that extra connection to the green.
2) The costumes of women in the background are colourful and bright.

10. Textual Analysis- Industry
1) Endorsements
2) Film title
3) Tagline
Endorsements are used to let the audience know that someone from a journalistic profession has watched the film and thinks that it is a suitable watch. This helps the film to be marketed because it is known to more than just someone, a recognised person or institution from the media industry.
Film title is obviously one of the most needed things, this helps everyone know what they are going to see, what to look for and just to generally stick out as much as the actors on the poster.
Tagline, it gives the audience a little more information about the narrative. It sometimes is a saying from the film which you may recognise when you go to see it or afterwards you are made to not forget. This makes it important to the marketing team because they need the film to still gain revenues after the film is out at cinema’s.
The billing of actors and production blurb has to be included to make sure that industry is also recognised all the people who worked on it are credited because not only do they want to be known for this work but may help them to get further ahead in the industry. It isn’t the main part of the poster but sometimes, especially those who are very interested in film they like to see who has directed or produced the film because this may decide whether they would enjoy the film or not. I would also like to mention for this particular film the fact that the director is mentioned would recommend to the audience that the narrative may include Asian narratives, speaking about issues with this particular society and culture.
4) Billing of actors/ Production Blurb

11. Comparison of UK Vs USA female sport film trailers
Bend it like Beckham Trailer
Football long shots of success playing, females.
Friendships
Relationships
Celebrations
The trailer for Bend it like Beckham seems quite colourful, vibrant and cheerful. Only does it look on the negatives a little bit, it really wants to sell the romantic/ comedy genre of the film.

12. Comparison of UK Vs USA Female sport film trailers
A league of their own trailer
Always in baseball uniform
It directly looks at females mostly
One male is focused in the trailer because he is the most important male actor
The male in the trailer is the only one because the marketing team feel that the campaign would be best to mostly represent the women. This is because they are trying to target to a female audience solely, maybe the purpose of the film was supposed to be empowering.

13. Comparison of UK Vs USA female sport film trailers Similarities
Females are prominent throughout of the trailer because they are the most important part to both narratives.
One male is shown to be a main part of the main character (a female).
I wanted to see how much UK sport films take influence from American sport films because there has been a lot more especially on female sports story’s. I wanted to see if there was any comparisons through their marketing campaigns to see if there is any crossovers. What I did notice is that there isn't much challenge of diversity in American films but as we know there is always issues on the lack of diversity in Hollywood and only now is it becoming very well known in headlines but also mentioned at big events by big time actors and stars.

14. Film Issues The film has many subjects with in its narrative. Joe:
The film discusses many issues and marketing has not pushed these through the promotions for Bend it like Beckham. Obvious reasons for this could be due to the fact that they feel thee sensitive subjects will not sell to the relevant people because of the stereotypes which is surrounded about these issues, especially with the male gender. There audiences can be very difficult to make the issues not seem so direct as many audience members could feel threatened.
Joe:
Dad pushes him, mental health is cause of concern when he is mentioned.
Break down of family relationship.
Mr. Bhamra:
Racism, he was excluded from English cricket team for being Indian.

15. Film issues: gender- female
Sexuality
Beauty
Fashion
Playing sports
Sexualisation
Relationships
Equality
For example with in the film there is a storyline about Jess and Jules. When Jules turns up to the wedding in front of jess’ Indian/ Sikh family the fact that they are very close makes Jules mother get confused and question if they are more than just friends. This shows the mother getting angry and worked up. This represents that sexuality is just a problem within other cultures, it shows that British culture also struggled with idea in early 2000’s.

16. Film issues: gender - male
Sexuality
Acceptance
Family abuse and support
Too much pressure
Mental and physical health issues
Dominance
Dominance is represented in male friendship groups. The men are seemed to act out and behave in a very loud manner to symbolise how men behave in front of young females. Chadha may have done this to represent the contrast between female to female friendships and male to female friendships and how they are perceived. Marketing may have chosen to stay away from this issue through its posters and trailers because it is a minor issue throughout the film, however it does show different beliefs from characters.

17. Film issues culture
Sport plays huge role in society especially football in white, English community
Cricket is shown to be a sport of the Asian backgrounds in British society, however is not accepted
Girls not given huge opportunities in sport and Britain
Wedding is seen to be a huge part but also turns out to be dramatic
Should follow a way of life, school, university, job, marriage, children. (Sikh/ Indian)
Culture is a big deal throughout this film it represents the issues that were actually very present in early 2000 society. I think this was a very important move from the director. The main issue of the actual story of Bend it like Beckham is to represent the struggle for females in sport, it shows the lack of support in community's and industries. The problem is the lack of funding because of the lack of disbelief and stereotypes of females in sport. The film also picks up on that Britain falls behind America in female soccer because it lacks opportunities. Not only will these issues be recognisable by the audience and for them to be able to relate to these issues but it should make the problem more open to change and support from professionals in the real world.

18. Film issues religion God/ Guru Nanak is shown to be a judge
Should marry a Sikh man and no man of another religion.
Religion is important to this film because it forms the meaning of the way the characters behave and its gives understanding to the audience. The religion is not so apparent in marketing materials and maybe because it doesn’t matter as such when you are making the decission to watch the film. However it is additional to the people of the film. It also makes people who believe in this religion be able to relate and feedback.

19. What would have been different in a digital marketing world of 2017?
Social media:
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
Snapchat
These could be marketed through the Institutions, the film directly or the actors and participants themselves.
The marketing campaign would be totally different if the film was released in I feel that this is because a lot of the issues that are talked about in the film are actually much more accepted and easily talked about. People actually enjoy the openness and the fact that there is freedom to talk about many issues, not being scared to hold back. I feel the social media marketing strategies could have been a lot more open with images in this day an age. They would have been able to release a lot more images and media, also to spread this across social media sites may have got them a larger following than they had back in 2002 because it’s on such a larger profile reaching many more audiences in may more places the demographic is much larger. The premiers are also a lot more publicised with them being promoted all through social media as well constantly on live streams.

20. References

21. Conclusion
Issues are not brought across through marketing campaign it as if they are scared to mention them to audiences because they seem to be a sensitive subject.
In conclusion I feel that there is lack of issues present in film marketing, I feel that it would be much more successful if it targeted the right audience successfully by making it much a smaller demographic. There is a lot more room for more in-depth research on this idea and lot of textual analysis needs to be carried out to make a very stable argument against my case but I feel that there is a little amount of evidence from this presentation to show how it lacks narrative in marketing campaigns.