‘Media production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their products and services to national audiences’ Too what extent do you agree with this statement?’

‘Media production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their products and services to national audiences’ Too what extent do you agree with this statement?’

 To me looking at this statement I think that it is safe to say that I agree with what is said because of the money that global institutions have they can spend a lot of it on marketing and on advertising the product to people all over the world which means that they will be selling the product to at least a nationwide audience if not a worldwide audience.

Money is a massive part of the film industry, without it no films would be made to a very high standard. The companies that have access to a lot of money to make their films usually dominate in sales and box office figures. This is because of the large amounts of time and money that they spend on the advertising and marketing of the film through many different media windows, such as, TV advertisements, radio slots, interviews, internet sites and many others. They are also able to do this all around the world because of the money that they have access to. Sometimes large advertising campaigns aren’t always a good thing because spending lots of money on advertising can sometimes hype up the film to much meaning that when the actual film comes out viewers might be disappointed with the result because the campaign hyped it up to be amazing when maybe it actually wasn’t. A good example of this advertising is, in the marketing campaign for the film ‘Prometheus’ (made by 20^th Century Fox), there was a video of a future TED talk with Peter Weyland, the owner of the fictitious Weyland Corporation. There is also a website set up for Weyland Corporation. To make these two things, a large amount of money would have been needed. The result of the two created a lot of hype and meant that the film was advertised to a very large amount of people, this is known as viral marketing.

Smaller companies struggle to find money to afford to do all the advertising they would want to do for the film they are making and because of this usually don’t do as well with making the money they did spend on the film back and making a decent profit out of making the film which is really what it is all about. Without making good profits from their films, smaller companies such as Marv or working title would struggle to find the money to make films in the future. This is why smaller film companies try to spend less money on advertising the film they have made and more money on actually making the film to try and maximise the amount of profit that they will make from the film being good quality and not just from good advertising campaigns. An example of a smaller companies advertising campaign is the one for the film ‘Attack the block’ (made by studio canal and film4). They only had a very small amount of money to make film and because of this didn’t have a lot left to spend on making lots of different things for their marketing and advertising. They only had one or two very simple and quite short television trailers and also conducted interviews to promote the film. Because of the very small amount of advertising that went into the campaign not a lot of people knew about the film and so not a lot of people went to see it and so didn’t make that much money in the box office and was labelled as unsuccessful. The film didn’t do that well

Another point is that when a big name writer has written a script, he will probably only pitch it to a top company, one of the big six. This means that the smaller companies won’t even get a chance to work with many big name people and so won’t be able to sell their products to a nationwide audience because the films that are made by the big six will always steal the best scripts, writers, directors and actors, which are some of the main things that attract people to go and watch or buy a film.

Also the larger film companies can make their films in 2D, 3D or even in 4D because they have the money to do so, these ways of making the films will generate more ways for people to see the films and make the film companies a lot more money that the smaller companies who can only usually afford to make them in 2D and only have one way of them being seen by film fans.

To conclude, I do believe that media production is dominated by global institutions as they have the most money and can pay for the highest quality resources when it comes to making the actual film and also advertising and marketing the products that they are making and selling to the public. Because of the small amounts of money that smaller companies have they cannot compete with the larger global companies such as the big six, meaning that the big six will always dominate and sell their products to national audiences.  

‘Discuss the issues raised by media ownership in the production and exchange of media in your chosen media area’

‘Discuss the issues raised by media ownership in the production and exchange of media in your chosen media area’

In the film ‘kickass’, the film was financed by Marv (Matthew Vaughn) and Plan B entertainment (Brad Pitt). The film was fist financed personally by Matthew Vaughn and had a budget of only $10 million, but after pre-production started and the script for the film was written, Brad Pitt and his company Plan B entertainment became interested in the film and contributed a further $20 million to the project to make up the budget of around $30 million. Some issues that were raised were that they only had a relatively small budget to make the film, a budget of around $28 million. To make a film to the full potential and make it as good as possible you would need a much bigger budget that this one that they had. Because of this small budget they encountered a few problems when making the film. The first of these being that they couldn’t afford to higher lots of big name Hollywood actors, because of this they turned to a lot of British actors who had only been in small films and in small TV shows in the UK. The most notable actor in the film was Nicholas Cage, who has been in a lot of high budget Hollywood blockbusters. When making the film he wasn’t paid a lot of money like he usually is to be in a film but instead worked for the S.A.G actors minimum wage, this is the minimum amount of money that an actor can be paid to act in a film of a certain budget. The next biggest actor in the film was British actor Aaron Johnson. His most notable role previous to this one was playing a young John Lennon in the film ’Nowhere Boy’ which is about his early life. He was also in the chick flick aimed at teenage girls called ‘Angus thongs and perfect snogging’.

Apart from not being able to attract big name actors to star in the film another problem that they encountered was the amount of money they had to spend on special effects. This was a problem because the film is supposed to be a sort of action/comedy cross over and there are some scenes where special effects such as CGI would have been needed but they didn’t have the money to do a lot of this on computers.

Also there was a problem with the script. Because of the graphic nature of the story they had to distribute the film as a 15 age rating. As the film was about superheroes it would have attracted many people under this age but because of the rating the could not see it and so Marv and Plan B maybe couldn’t make the most money possible from the film because of the small audience they had to distribute to. The film then ended up as a cult film as it couldn’t be watched by the massive target audience that are interested in this type of film.

I think that if the film hadn’t had these issues and problems then the film and film makers may have made a lot more money as the film had a lot of potential and could have been much more successful than what it eventually was.

What significance does the continuing development of digital media technology have for media institutions and audiences?

What significance does the continuing development of digital media technology have for media institutions and audiences?

The continuing development of many different types of media means that many different windows that the film can be seen by and enthusiastic fans will pay to see all of the different types of the film because they are big fans and will do anything to see the film.

One of the most popular types of digital technology is films in 3D. This is where you wear special glasses and things seem to jump out of the screen in front of peoples eyes. Lots of people prefer seeing films in 3D as it is a more realistic, fun and exciting experience for the viewers of the film. The film ‘Avatar’ was mainly shown in 3D in UK cinemas and used a lot of this technology throughout the whole movie to make it more exciting and lifelike for the film’s audience. There is also an adaption onto 3D which is called 4D. This technology has the same basic principles as 3D, making the film watching experience more exciting and lifelike. The difference between 3D and 4D is that in 4D you sit in special seats that move around, different smells are released into the room and small amounts of water are sometimes sprayed onto the audience and into the room. All of these things make the viewer feel like they are in the same place where the film is set and creates a more lifelike experience for the audience of the film. 4D also uses 3D in the cinemas to enhance the viewing of the films. Not many cinemas actually do 4D; these screens are usually found in amusement parks as an extra sort of ride and are quite rare even in this sense. 3D is more common although still not as common as normal 2D cinema screens. These days most large cinemas in the UK have at least one or two 3D screens in each cinema, these screens are usually always full in every viewing as a lot of people will pay good money for the chance to see their favourite films in 3D. Both of these different windows are an adaption of the old fashioned 2D films. 2D films are still very popular and the majority of people prefer 2D because it is cheaper than 3D and 4D and is more enjoyable as you don’t have to wear a pair of special glasses which a lot of people don’t like wearing and find annoying and off putting when trying to watch the film.

Another development into media viewing technology is IMAX. IMAX cinemas are special in that they can project a larger and much higher resolution image onto the cinema screen than in a usual cinema and because of this increases the viewing quality for the film fan. IMAX first opened in 1971 in Toronto, Canada and since then has opened cinemas all around the world. There are now around 700 IMAX theatres in 52 different countries around the world. Lots of people use IMAX to view their favourite films because of the high quality images of the movie and the overall better enjoyment of the film. It is however more expensive because of this but film fans are usually willing to pay for this as it makes for a better viewing of the film.

A lot of modern films use new digital techniques to enhance the movie and make it more exciting, such as using explosions etc. a lot of these things would be very expensive to do and could cause some notable damage. Because of this most films use computer generated imagery (CGI) for things like explosions, landscapes and buildings. A good example of this CGI usage is in the film ‘Prometheus’. When they land on the alien planet, the mountainous background and dome type building that you see are all created my computers as it is a fictitious place and needed to be created for the setting of the film. The computer imagery creates a lifelike image of something reasonably cheaply. CGI is not only used in action and sci-fi films but in many genres of film and also in TV. It helps to create and do things that would be impossible or expensive to do in real life filming.

I think that without the continued development of digital media technology, film fans might become a bit bored with the same old techniques used in every film and as new ways of filming and distributing films are developed film audiences will grow as they will be attracted by the new techniques and excited by the thought of something new to see rather than just the boring old techniques. New ways of distributing and exhibiting films will also create more money for the film  industry as more people going to see the films means more money made and also means more money to keep on developing new ways of digital technology in media.

The infidel prezi

Warp Films

Warp Films

Warp Films is an independent film production company based in Sheffield & London, UK, with a further affiliated company Warp Films Australia based in Melbourne, Australia.

Warp Films was established by Warp Records founding partners Rob Mitchell and Steve Beckett. It was initially created with financial support from NESTA and had a remit to produce a number of short films.

The first film, Chris Morris' My Wrongs#8245-8249 & 117, was shot in 2002. It won the award for Best Short Film at the 2003 BAFTA Film Awards and became the first short film DVD single in the UK market.

Warp Films breakout success came with Shane Meadows’ This Is England, the story of Shaun, a boy who is adopted by a local skinhead gang after his father is killed in the Falklands war. Since its release in early 2007 it has gained many awards including the Best Film at the British Independent Films Awards, the Special Jury Prize at the Rome Film Festival and Best British Film at the BAFTAs.

Warp Films 2010 television production for Channel 4, Shane Meadows' This Is England '86, was a continuation from the 2006 film. It aired over four weekly episodes and received numerous plaudits, including a BAFTA award for leading actress Vicky McClure. It achieved record viewing figures for Channel 4.