How have film websites used convergence to increase audience awareness and participation?

Convergence is the coming together of technologies, for instance using a mobile phone as both a device to record still and moving images, as well as being a device on which they can be downloaded and streamed.
Convergence can also be used to describe the merging of various types of media - many newspapers now also have an online version and offer a variety of media such as videos of news broadcasts and podcasts.

Films now have websites created for them which have a variety of different media available on them, as well as links to various other sites in order to enable to sharing of this content to be done much easier; for instance on the website for the film Lawless, there is a link at the top which allows the viewers to enter their post code in order to buy tickets to any showing of the film, without having to go to the cinema by foot and risk not being able to secure a ticket.

The zombie romance film Warm Bodies, despite not having yet been released in cinemas, has a website with a lot of content on it, as can be seen in the image here.
It features an interactive quiz to "find out if your boyfriend is a zombie", contains videos that give the visitor tips on how to act like a zombie, by a star of the film, as well as a link to finding out information about the main character 'R', including trivial information about the weight of his brain, the contents of his stomach and the fact that he walks with a "slight limp". Upon entering the site, one is shown samples of the film, such as the first four minutes of it.

These are examples of technological convergence, and there are also example of convergence between media industries, as can be seen here. There are links to seven different social networks including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as the option to send the link to your friends on Facebook and like the Facebook page.
There is an option to get tickets to the film, which is helpful to visitors as it means that they can book tickets in advance and also book their preferred seating.
A popular way of publicizing a film now is to "hashtag"a term on twitter, as can be seen to the right, and this helps to easily integrate the film franchise and other social media sites.

This is helpful in terms of increasing audience awareness as it means that people who were not previously aware of the film before to click on the tagged phrase, then they will be led to a variety of people who are talking about the same phrase.
There is then a lot of content available through doing this.

The website has offered a variety of different platforms on which to discover content on the internet, which is very good in order to sustain the interest of the audience - the film has not yet been released but there is a lot of content available - if trailers were released early, the website manages to prevent the potential audience from forgetting about it through the vast amount of videos available on the site. Once the film has been released, an audience may be tempted to go on the site if they have not before, which sustains their interest in the film for a little while longer.

The new film Silver Linings Playbook featuring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro has an interactive website, featuring lots of interesting content which is a little uncommon for such websites - for instance links to a Super Bowl recipe contest and a dating guide from Match.com, as well as more common methods of convergence such as to the Amazon website in order to buy the book or soundtrack.
These are more likely to appeal to a more mature audience rather than a young one, since there is a not an overly interactive nature;  it bounces off the romantic nature of the film, for instance with the dating guide, and also the family side of it, through the recipe contest.

Something to sustain the interest of the audience is the option to be added to a mailing list. This prevents early visitors to the site from losing interest in the film as they can be regularly updated on new content and reminded when the film comes out on what is likely to be a regular basis.
There are not quite so many links to social networking sites on the website for this film as there was on the site for Warm Bodies, but there is a link to a playlist for the film, which is linked to Facebook in order to make for easy sharing of the content. This something shadowed in the "excelsior" link at the top, whereby there is daily advice from the four main characters of the film; there is a link which allows you to directly share the quote on Facebook.

Although there is a limited range of content available on the website itself, there is a lot of it, which sustains the interest of a lot of audience members. The site itself is very visual, with lots of images, and these are effective in attracting an audience. The fact that it is so easy to share content on social networking sites means that it is going to be easily shared  between friends - word of mouth is obviously one of the most powerful methods of publicity and hence doing this online is going to be just as effective, if not a little more due to the visual element being added in as well.