Media Instituions Blog Post #20

Media Institutions

Blog Post #20

A media institution is a company that owns large amount of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies and the internet. Media institutions strive for policies that facilitate their control of the markets around the world.  

Current media institutions:

21st Century Fox: 21st century fox is an American multinational mass media cooperation. It is one of two companies which succeeded News Corporation (as found by Rupert Murdoch in 1979) After its split in June 2013; 21st Century Fox retains the previous News Corporation's broadcasting and film assets and serves as its legal successor.


BBC: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcasting statutory corporation, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world in terms of employees as it consists of 23,000 staff members. The BBC is headquartered at broadcasting house in London and has major production centres across the United Kingdom.

The Walt Disney Company: The Walt Disney Company commonly referred to 'Disney', is an American diversified multination mass media corporation, the headquarter is situated in California.  Disney was founded back in 1923 by brothers Walt and Roy Disney as the 'Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio' and established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into live-action film production, television and travel.

Film Marketing & Distribution #19

Film Marketing & Distribution

Blog Post #19

What is film marketing?



3D Billboard of 'Batman: Dark Knight'

Film marketing is also know as film promotion and film advertising. It is the practice of promotion specifically with the film industry. With most businesses it is an important part of any release because there is a substantial amount of financial risks. Film studios will invest in expensive marketing campaigns to maximize revenue early in the release cycle.

Techniques of film marketing:

Standee from '21 Jump Street'

In theatres;

• Trailers - They are screened before movie showings
• Film Posters
• Slideshows
• Standees (Paperboard life size images of figures from the film)
• Cardboard 3D displays (sometimes with sound)

Television and Radio;

• Advance trailers, longer previews, or behind the scene footage on rental videos and DVD's.

• 

  I-Robot themed motorcycle
  (American Chopper)
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_promotion

  Product placement (paid active or passive insertion of a film brand) for example '20th century fox' commissioned an I-Robot themed motorcycle on two episodes of 'American Chopper'.
• Extended placement: Full episodes of television talk shows such as  'Oprah', entertainment news programmes or network news programme devoted to exposure of the film, stars clips, director, etc.

There are various other technqiues such as the internet, print such as newspapers, magazines and merchandising.

What is film distribution? 

Words associated with film distribution

Film distribution is the distribution of a film in the process through which a movie is made available to watch for an audience by a film distributor (a company or individual responsible for the marketing of a film). There can be various ways to complete this task, for example a theatrical release, a home entertainment release (movie available or DVD or Blu-Ray disc) or a television programme.

Different types of release:

Standard release: The standard release routine for a film is regulated by a business model called ''release windows''; it was first conceived in the early 1980's on the brink of the home entertainment market, as a strategy to to keep different instances of a movie from competiting with each other.

Simultaneous release: A simultaneous release occurs when a movie is made available on any types of media, for example cinema, DVD and interent at the same time or very little time difference. Simultaneous releases are seen as an advantage especially to both consumers; one who can chose the medium that most suits their needs, second being production studios; that have to run one marketing campaign for all releases.

Straight to video release: Is the process where the release of a film is immediately viewable to the public on home video formats such as DVD and VHS rather than a theatrical release or television product.  


independent vs hollywood - Blog Post 18

Independent vs Hollywood

Blog Post 18

INDEPENDENT FILMS:

An independent film is a profession film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major studio system. They are known to be 'non-mainstream' as they have smaller audiences. Also independent companies usually find it hard to find a distributer. Usually, but not always Independent films tend to be made with considerably lower film budgets than major studio films, furthermore independent films are often screened at local, national or international film festivals before distribution.

A good example of a successful independent film is Slumdog Millionare, this is a film starring Dev Patel and Freida Pinto which is a drama film directed by Danny Boyle, it won the best British independent film in 2008. It was predominantly funded by Film Four. 

Another example of a successful independent film is 'Pulp Fiction' directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson and Uma Thurman. It was the first independent film to gross more than $200 million. The nature of the films development, marketing and distribution had a sweeping effect on the field of independent cinema. 

Gun scene from 'Pulp Fiction'

HOLLYWOOD PRODUCTIONS:

Hollywood productions are known to be 'mainstream', it can be a major film studio which produces and distributes films on a regular basis.  They tend to include big budget blockbusters such as 'Avatar' -2009. These films are usually created for the masses and tend to be based on popular cultures at the time.  Hollywood productions are far more successful in the filming industry, this can be based on various factors such as having a higher budget which can lead to well known actors/actresses, a good location, studios and even props. 

For example, Spider-Man 3 (2007) directed by Sam Raimi, starring Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, was the third most expensive film rocketing at $258 million. The film itself consists of very advanced special effects which already suggests that the film is of high budgets due to its high standard, furthermore big set pieces were used in the film for example in the video below when the bomb explodes and kills venom and the editor.

             

Another great example is Avatar (mentioned earlier) which was directed by James Cameron, starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. Again similarly to Spider-Man 3, Avatar was a very expensive film ranking sixth in 'most expensive films', the high use of animation and special effects works very effectively on Avatar which also suggests and clearly shows that the film is of high budget. 

Audience Positioning Blog Post #17

Audience Positioning

Blog Post #17

Created with Padlet

Representation of women in thriller movies Blog Post #16

Representation of women in thriller movies

Blog Post #16

Similarly to the previous blog posted I created a video using PowToon, this one explains the representation of women in thriller films and again examples are given from the films and related to the characters within the film.

               

Representation of men in thrillers #15

Representation of men in thriller movies

Blog Post #15

Below is a video I created using PowToon, which explains the representation of men in thrillers and gives examples from existing characters in current thriller films.

             

Film Rating #14

Film Rating

Blog Post #14

Film ratings are used to age limit a certain type of film depending on what the content is.

The most common films rating which are available for films are: U, PG, 12, 12A, 15, 18 and R18.

The categories of film rating

U: Suitable for all

PG: Parental guidance

12: Video release suitable for 12 years and over

12A: Cinema release suitable for 12 years and over

15: Suitable for only 15 years and over

18: Suitable for only adults

R18: Adult works for licensed premises only.

How the different rating systems have changed over the years

PG-13 rating was actually conceived in 1984 at the suggestion of Steven Spielberg: His film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was suggested that it was a tad too graphic/violent for kids, but not so bad to be classified as an R rating.

Synergy #13

Synergy

Blog Post #13



Equation for Synergy

Introduction:

Synergy is the term used to describe a situation where different entities cooperate beneficially for a final outcome. In a much simpler form; it means that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The term synergy can be put into an equation such as '1+1=3' the equation itself is referring to the fact that if you combine something with another factor the final outcome will be much more significant. 

How does synergy work?

Synergy works when different elements of companies (a media conglomerate does this best = media group or institution that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the internet.

Theatrical Poster for 'Ill Manors'

Each distinct elements promote each other which means that the revenue of the business will increase.

For example, SONY can use Synergy much more as it is a conglomerate which owns various smaller companies which is often referred to as 'subsidiaries'.

Key Terms:

Synergy and Cross media convergence: Two or more products being released together to gain exposure from each others audience.

Plan B's Single Cover for 'Ill Manors'

Tie ins: This is really synergy as products are released which have been produced by other companies (other than the production/distribution companies) which are related to the film.

For example the term synergy can be applied with the film 'Ill Manors', this is because it is a film which has a soundtrack recorded by Plan B and it also has a website and is available on Blu-Ray player.

                             Below is a useful presentation on synergy created by 'jphibbert1919'

                               

Synergy in the Film Industry courtesy of jphibbert1979

Research Method Blog Post #12

Audience Research Methods

Blog Post #12

How do we measure media audiences?

We measure media audiences in various ways, some methods can be to analyse sales, subscriptions, rating and figures.

Who measures audiences?

National Readership Study: The National Readership Study (NRS) was established in 1956 and today provides the most authoritative and valued audience research in use for print advertising in the UK. The survey itself covers 250 of Britain's major newspapers and magazines, showing the size and nature of the audiences they achieve.

Broadcasters' Audience Research Board: The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) is the organisation responsible for providing the official measurement of UK television audiences. BARB is responsible for providing estimates of the number of people watching television. This includes which channels and programmes are being watched, when they are watched and the type of people who are watching at any one times.

http://www.nrs.co.uk/
http://abc.go.com/
http://www.barb.co.uk/

Considering Audience:

Audience engagement - This describes how an audience interacts with a media text. Different people react in different ways to the same text.

Audience expectations: These are the ideas the audience have in advance of seeing a media text. This particularly applies to genre pieces. Don't forget producers continually play with or shatter audiences expectations.



New Media:

New media is often used to target audiences so that they can measure the audience itself for example;
Facebook 'Like' and Twitter 'Retweet' and 'Trends'
Online forums - Comment tools
Views on YouTube & Google +1

Methods of Research:

When it comes to research there are two main types of research:

1) Quantitative Research: This is mainly focused on statistics and numerical data which means that it is number based, the questions are closed which means that a person can give a certain type of answer, this is to generate exact answers which furthermore means that it is very factual.

2) Qualitative Research: This is mainly focused on description and verbal communication, this can include various methods such as interviews and focus groups, this can mean that they can analyse existing products to see if it will fit in the market. It also consists of open questions which means that there can be multiple types of answers if the same question is asked to different people this gives us an assumption and to generate answers open to interpretation.

Comprehending Time #11

Comprehending Time

Blog Post #11

In movies, very rarely do we seen screen stories taken in real time. In feature films whole lives can be dealt within 90 minutes, with a 60 minute TV documentary it can take around 8 months. There are many conventions to denote time passing, from the time/date information typed up on each new scene of 'The X-Files' to the aeroplane passing over a map of a continent in 'Raiders of the lost ark'.

Flashback from 'The Vampire Diaries'
In Katerina

Other devices to manipulate time includes:

• Flashbacks - For example in 'The Vampire Diaries' there is various flashbacks to 1492, showing Katherine's back story with Klaus and Elijah and how she became a vampire.                                             

Dream Sequences occur in
'Inception' quite significantly

Dream Sequences:

Dream sequences is a technique used in storytelling. It is mainly used to set a brief interlude from the main story. The film 'Inception' (2010) consists of dream sequences as they are tiered in a dream within a dream, this is also referred to false awakening; which is a false vivid and convincing dream about awakening from sleep.



Flash forwards:



Two corpses outside W.W's driveway

Flash forward is a scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point in time. Flash-forwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future; for example Breaking Bad uses flash-forward throughout its second season showing a mystery regarding debris and corpses outside Walter Whites driveway, which revealed to be the result of two planes crashing overhead.

Other time manipulation in films include:

• Repetition
• Pre-figuring of events that have not yet taken place
• Reverse motion
• Freeze frame
• Ambiguous time 

Audiences Blog Post #10

Audiences

Blog Post #10

What is an audience?
An individual or collective group of people who read or consume any media text.

Mass Audience: Often termed 'broadcast audience', those who consume mainstream or popular texts such as soaps or sitcoms. Media and communication that targets a very large group of people (women, men, children, adults etc.)

Friends would be categorized
as a Mass Audience

Welcome to the punch (2013)
Theatrical Poster

Niche Audience: A niche audience is much smaller but very influential. A niche audience is small, select group of people with a very unique interest. An example of a film which is aimed towards a niche audience is 'Welcome to the punch' - (2013), which is about an ex-criminal Jacob Sternwood who is forced to return to London when his son is involved in a heist gone wrong.


Why are audiences important?

Audiences are important for various reasons, firstly without audiences there would be no media, secondly the mass media is becoming more competitive than ever to attract more and more audience in different ways in order to stay profitable. Also media organizations produce media texts to make profit this means that no audience will result into no profit which could potentially lead a company to bankruptcy.

How audience use media and the gratifications they receive from it:

The belief that audiences passively receive messages is long gone.

Theorist Katz and Blumler discovered from researching into audiences that there were three main elements that provided audiences with either gratification or encouraged the use of

1) Information
Using sources such as newspapers to retrieve information about current events which satisfies curiosity gaining a sense of security through knowledge.

2) Personal Identity
Reinforcement for personal values, this is to find models of behaviour, insight into one's self. For example Twitter can reinforce your own values by only following that certain criteria in which you are relating to.

3) Integration and Social interaction
Insight into circumstances of others; social empathy, identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging, interaction,  enabling one to connect with family, friends and society. For example someone may tune into a TV drama so that they can relate and reinforce into their own lifestyle.

Impact of technology to audiences:

Old media: (TV, Print, Radio) which used to have high audience numbers must now work harder to maintain audience members.

Modern media: Digital technology has also led to an increasing uncertainty over how we define an audience, with the general agreement that a large group of people reading the same thing at the same time is outdated and that audiences are now 'fragmented'.

Demographic: - Audience, however relating to age, race, gender, class/status and nationality.

Psychographics: This is more to do with audience pleasure; such as interests. hobbies and beliefs.

Audience Research:

Audience research is a major part of any media company's work. They use questionnaires, focus groups, pre-film screenings and spend a great deal of time and money finding out who would be interested with their product.

Audience and groups:

Group A:

• Doctors
• Scientists
• Lawyers
• Well paid professionals

Group B:

• Teachers
• Middle management
• Fairly well paid professionals

Group C1:

• Junior management
• Bank clerks
• Nurses
• 'White collar' professions

Group C2:

• Electricians
• Plumbers
• Carpenters
• 'Blue collar' professionals

Group D:

• Manual workers such as;
• Drivers
• Post sorters

Group E:

• Students
• Unemployed
• Pensioners                              

Source(s); http://www.thinkbox.tv/server/show/nav.914