Section B - Key Principles

KEY PRINCIPLES

1. Have you got contrasting films you can use as case studies e.g. big budget Hollywood v low budget British indie which allow full range of issues to be discussed?

2. Have you got contemporary examples - the best are almost always live case studies of films on release at the moment so that the material is out there to be grabbed (marketing, distribution, exhibition data, etc)?

3. Can you grasp the seven bullet points below? The exam questions will be drawn from these:

Candidates should be familiar with:

• the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
• the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing;
• the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange;
• the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;
• the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;
• the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions;
• the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.

In other words...

• 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?

4. Can you articulate concepts and use examples to support those in a systematic way? (step-by-step)

If you can do all the above and write for 45 mins you will do well. You need to grab material you can access easily and practise analysing and contextualising it within the concepts of audience and institutions.