The Film Industry in a nutshell

AS FILM INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

Through specific case studies, candidates should be prepared to demonstrate understanding of contemporary institutional processes of production, distribution, marketing and exchange/exhibition at a local, national or international level as well as British audiences’ reception and consumption. 

There should also be some emphasis on the students’ own experiences of being audiences.

KEY WORDS:

Vertical Integration – where a studio owns all stages of a films production, distribution and exhibition.

The Paramount Decree 1948 – Tried to put a stop to vertical integration (movie studios had to sell off their cinema chains)

Conglomerates – a collection of diverse companies (usually with an overall owner) not bound by common activity or product, but often reinforcing even promoting each others interests.

Oligopoly – the control of the market for a particular product by a small group of companies e.g. the hollywood film industry: Disney, Universal, Warner etc

Horizontal integration – where companies develop by buying companies in the same section of the market.

Synergy – using a range of diverse companies and products to promote a single product e.g. Warner – Spiderman film and ride in theme park.

Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean started out as a ride in a theme park then promoted throughout Disney’s conglomerate including in Disney stores.

WTF (Working Title Films) used synergy to promote the film "The Boat That Rocked" through web site and music CD/download/playlists.

Viral campaigns

Cross Media Convergence -  We no longer live in a world where TV, phones, films, games exist separately on separate devices.

Revision for G322 part B (45 mins to write)

The questions you must independently research and be ready to answer:

• What types of problems caused by ownership (money) do your chosen film companies have to deal with nowadays?
• How do your chosen film companies work together with other companies, and use different parts of the company, in making and promoting films as well as getting them to the audience?
• How do your chosen companies use new equipment and digital media to make, promote and show their films to an audience?
• How important is it for your chosen companies, and for you the audience, that there are loads of ways to see films?
• How important for for your chosen companies is it that things like phones, computers, iPads, etc. can be used for lots of different things – especially watching films on?
• What problems do massive global companies (your chosen Big Six one) and smaller independent companies have in getting their films seen by a British audience?
• What is it like for you when you go to the cinema, download a film, watch one any other way? How are you targeted by global media conglomerates and independent companies?

Some Key terminology explained:

Technological convergence refers to the process where new technology is moving towards single platforms delivering multiple media outputs that can be used to reach audiences, for example, a PS3′s primary function is video gaming but you can download and watch movies from Netflix on it and also watch catch up TV and music videos.

Convergent technology is technology that allows an audience to consume more than one type of media from a single platform.

Lots of aspects of the internet e.g. social networking, YouTube, online editions of newspapers and magazines are convergent but candidates cannot quote the internet as the sole aspect of their answer. The answer needs to be linked into the media area you are talking about (Film). E.g if talking about film, candidates could, for example, point to facebook campaigns advertising a film or viral marketing spread via the internet.

Digital projection is convergent technology because films that are produced digitally have moved away from the physical film medium and can be supplied to theatres in digital format (lower costs for distribution versus higher start up costs for theatres switching to digital technology). As the film is in digital format there are also cost savings as potentially less work needs to be done on the film to get it onto Blu-Ray, DVD, internet trailers etc as no physical conversion needs to take place because the film is already in digital format.

Cross Media Convergence is really a Business Studies term and refers to companies coming together vertically or horizontally (or both). The example often cited in exams is of Working Title Films making use of its parent company (Universal) to gain access to bigger stars and a better distribution network for their films.

Synergy basically means working together to achieve an objective that couldn’t be achieved independently. Cross-media convergence can help with synergy if companies are wise enough to take advantage of the links they have forged. Disney is an obvious example of a synergistic company from the top down from Film Studio to Kids’ TV Channel (where it further plays and promotes its films) to the Disney Store (in the street and online) where your kids can pester you to buy all the merchandise and DVDs/CDs they’ve seen on the TV/Web or in the cinema.