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Who owns a media company influences the type of film made and its potential
success. This is because the bigger film companies are more likely to produce
bigger films that are generally more successful. These films are more likely to be
successful because most of the films made follow the rules that Mark Kermode
said would make the film impossible to lose money. These rules are a
newsworthy budget, spectacular visuals, not to be a comedy and include a A list
star. The big film companies have a lot of money meaning that they have big
budgets for the films that they produce. This means that they have money to
spend on different aspects of the film that will mostly likely lead the film to
become very successful.
An example of a big film company is Walt Disney. This is one of the most
renowned film production companies in the history of the business. Walt Disney
holds now hols 15.3% of the US/Canadian market share and produces very
successful movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Enchanted. Walt Disney
manage to create very successful and popular films and films that will always be
remembered by people. Walk Disney is seen by most people as being a film
company that manages to produce good family films that are loved by millions of
people. The fact that Disney is so well known may be a part to play in the films
success. This is because people automatically presume that Disney movies will
be good so they and go and see it at the cinema because of this reason. Walk
Disney also then has a lot of money to spend on new films meaning that the
films that they produce have a big budget.
Pirates of the Caribbean had a budget of $140,000,000, which is a big budget,
and made a gross of $305,413,918 at the box office. This means that they made
more than double their budget meaning that they made a big profit on the film.
The film also contained A list; stars, these were people such as Johnny Depp,
Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly. This film is not a comedy; it is a mix of action,
adventure and fantasy. The film also has good visuals meaning that Pirates of
the Caribbean meats all of the four pieces of criteria set by Mark Kermode. This
may be the reason why this film was successful or it may also be the fact that
Walt Disney way the company who produced the film.
Another example of a big film company is Warner Bros. Pictures. Warner Bros. is
the biggest player in the film industry, having 19.7% of US/Canadian market
share. Warner Bros. has secured the rights to films such as Harry Potter,
Superman, Batman and Star Wars. All of these films are really popular and well
known. Because of the success of these films, this may mean that people expect
the films that Warner Bros. create are going to be as good. This may make the
public go and see the film that they are releasing no matter what it is.
The Harry Potter series has 8 films in it and each of them has been popular. Harry
Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, which was released in 2001, had a budget of
$125,000,000 and made a gross of $317,557,891 at the box office. This is a lot of
money for the film to make and shows how popular the film was. As the films
were released one after one, they became more popular and continued to make
a profit from each film. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was the last
film released, in 2011, and had a budget of $125,000,000 making a gross of
$380,955,619 at the box office. By this time, the main actors, Daniel Radcliff,
Emma Watson and Rupert Grint had become A list starts through the Harry
Potter films. The films had become very popular and a lot of people went to see
this film because they knew it was the last one that was going to be made. This
means that all of the Harry Potter fans would have went and saw this at the
cinema because this is the last chance that they would get.
An example of a smaller film company is Lionsgate. Lionsgate have released
films such as Brothers, Gamer and More Than a Game. These are films that have
not been that popular and have therefore not made a profit. This may be
because the film was not made by one of the big companies and therefore the
film is presumed to not be that good.
Brothers had a budget of $26,000,000. This is a low budget films so the film
would have not had that much money to work with anyway. This is already
missing one of the points made by Mark Kermode as this is not a big budget. The
gross that Brothers made at the box office is only $1,028,334, which is not a lot
of money at all compared to the amount of money other films have managed to
make. The main actors are Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman and Tobey Maguire
who none of are classed as A list stars.
Gamer had a budget of $50,000,000, which is a much higher budget than
Brothers had but is still classed as a low budget. However, the film only managed
to make a gross of $20,488,579 at the box office. Gamer includes actors such as
Gerald Butler, Micheal C. Hall and Ludacris. These are actors that are not classed
as A list so are not as famous as actors that have been in more popular films.
Evans, 30, appealed to young adults, and Samuel L. Jackson, 63, has a huge
African-American fan base. At the same time, colorful costumes helped sell the
movie to youngsters.
3
The technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the
levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange;
3D (3 dimensional)
3D Media is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception.
Derived from stereoscopic photography, it is when two cameras are used to film
a scene from two different perspectives it is also a computer generated image.
Special projection hardware is used to complete the illusion of depth such as
glasses to use during the film. 3d film are not limited to just feature film, it can
be adapted to be used in different aspects of media. 3D Film was introduced in
1915 however it did not see much success until the 21st century where its
popularity grew as it was used in large block buster films, culminating in the
unprecedented success of 3D presentations of Avatar in December 2009.
Blu Ray
Blu-ray Disc (BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to
supersede the DVD format. It is capable of showing high definition 1080p
resolution; much greater than the original DVDs which could only show 480p
resolution. Another feature is the improved audio quality.
Internet Streaming
Internet streaming is multimedia that is streamed by a receiver while being
delivered by a provider. A client media player can begin to play or watch the
chosen media before the content is fully downloaded.
Downloadable
Content
Downloadable
additional
video games
Content is
content for
and films, such
4
The significance of proliferation in hardware and content for
institutions and audiences;
Since films were first released, film companies have had to alter the ways that
they audiences are able to watch their films significantly. Common ways of
viewing films now are things such as Video on demand, DVDs/Blu Ray, online
streams, downloading films as well as the typical visiting the cinema. These ways
generally tend to be cheap which is important as many families dont have the
money to all go to the cinema so for a considerably lower price they can rent a
film via websites such as Netflix or Lovefilm or they could purchase the DVD/Blu
Ray from a shop. Avengers Assembled was released at cinemas in both 2D and
3D at the cinema. It was then released on DVD and Blu-Ray. As it was a large
budget film it wasnt released on VOD websites like Netflix or Lovefilm, this is
usually used to make extra profit on films that dont do very well. The film could
be released on a VOD website in the future when it has begun to stop making
profit. This is a good way that big film companies continue to make profit on
older films.
5
The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production,
distribution and marketing
Marvels avengers assemble was produced and was the biggest films of 2012,
marvel is owned by Disney so therefore this automatically tells us and big budget
as they are one of the big six. Disney which own marvel always or so have of
the time have big budget films, the amount of money that went into the
avengers was 220,000,000 and for a movie to make twice the money and cost
of the film, avengers assemble on gross profit made $623,279,547 which is well
over double the production.
Marvel were in association with paramount pictures, this means that the big six
work together to make and produce films this is an example of avengers
assemble. This shows the size of the company Disney a sit has paramount
another one of the big six to help in the production and to gain half dozen of A
list stars, this represents how much power big holly wood movie companies have
over the way films are made and how they are done with which companies.
Other small companies were involved like BLT communications in which they
designed and created the posters yet they werent credited or deemed to be
important enough to be put
within the film production or
for the exhibition of the movie
itself, furthermore this shows
that small companies work
along side the big six to help
produce the movies but dont
take much credit and some
arent even credited for doing
something as important as
the marketing. This shows
that small companies work
with bigger global companies
to assist publishing and
distributing the movie, the
size is represented as they get all the credit for a good film and the smaller
franchises have non credit for there work in sound effects, poster design etc. this
demonstrates again the power that large global companies have a lot of power
and can use this size to do what they want.
Overall the importance of cross media convergence is vital to film production as
its all the small companies working together to produce posters, sound tracks
etc. and larger global companies to work together and produce together which
gets a larger audiences due to the size and popularity of the big six.
7
The ways in which the candidates own experiences of media
consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience
behaviour.
Firstly I think that the influence big companies have on the types of film made
and its success is huge, a prime example of this is if you compare Dredd to The
Avengers Assemble it is clear that due to the sizes of the companies producing
these films their success potential differed, The Avengers Assemble for example
was released on the 4th of May 2012 (USA) but marketing however started when
the film was promoted at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International, during
which a teaser trailer narrated by Samuel L. Jackson was shown followed by an
introduction of the cast. This started to create hype for the film approximately
two years before the release of the film, there was then further advertising closer
to the release. All of this advertising led to the fact that The Avengers Assemble
took $1.518 billion at the box office. When compared to Dredd (produced by
smaller companies), which only made $41milion. In these figures you can clearly
see that the fact that The Avengers Assemble is produced by large companies
(namely Marvel, which is in turn owned by Disney). I think that the main
advantage that being made by a big company brings is their ability to invest a
large amount in the budget; this is also shown in the Dredd vs The Avengers
Assemble comparison as Dredd had $45milion and The Avengers Assemble had a
comparatively massive budget of $220milion. In my opinion the big companies
only have to follow a few guidelines to make a film a success (Mark Kermode
believes that big budget films only need to comply with: having a newsworthy
budget, spectacular visuals, not be a comedy and has to include an 'A list' star),
whereas lower budget films have to do more things to ensure success.
In my opinion going to the cinema is the best possible current way to enjoy films
for the majority of people due to the fact that some films are better in 3D, as the
majority people generally dont have 3D TVs in their houses. However I do think
that the increasing availability for DVD/Blu-rays as well as digital
downloads/streaming, specifically how quickly after the films cinema release. For
example The Avengers Assemble was released to cinemas on the 4th of May
2012 (USA) and it was then released to DVD/Blu-Ray on the 12th of September
2012 (USA). This represents a significantly quicker turnaround than for it was for
say James Bond Casino Royale, which was released in cinemas on the 17th of
November 2006 (USA) and took an incredible 8 months to release on DVD on the
13th of March (2007) (USA). This decrease in time allows people that otherwise
wouldnt be able to see the film due to financial restraints to buy the DVD before
the hype wears off. No matter how fast the cinema to DVD/Blu-Ray release time
is, I still maintain that the best way to enjoy certain films is to visit them at the
cinema, as I said before this is most relevant to films with good 3D elements.
This was especially evident in The Avengers Assemble as just over half of all
sales came from 3D tickets. There are however added benefits to buying the
DVD/Blu-Ray or digital download, one of these is the fact that you get the extras
and additional scenes bundled.