HOLIDAY ESSAYS

Essay 1. (email me by Wednesday 4 April at the latest, please) To what extent does media ownership have an impact on the successful distribution of media products in the area that you have studied? (2015)

Essay 2. (email me by Wednesday 11 April at the latest, please) "Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices." To what extent would you agree with this statement, within the media area you have studied? (2011)

Essay 3.  (I will set you as a test on the first day back) The increase in hardware and content in media industries has been significant in recent years. Discuss the effect that this has had on institutions and audiences in the media area you have studied. (2014)

Essay 1 Guidelines 
Points that you will cover:
Sentence 1: I have studied the film industry.
Sentence 2: I understand media ownership to refer to the fact that the Hollywood 'Big Six' dominate the film industry. There are increasing levels of consolidation, with many media industries already highly concentrated and dominated by a very small number of firms, such as Disney (Rogue One: Star Wars Story, director Gareth Edwards 2016, and The Avengers, director Joss Whedon 2012) and Universal (Jurassic World, director Colin Trevorrow 2015). The job of the distributor is to get films to audiences, to make audiences aware of the texts through publicity and to place the films for consumption.
Point 3: Media ownership and budgets influence how successful distribution is for a text as the larger the budget, the more successful the distribution for a media institution. Additionally, digital technology has lessened the cost of distribution compared to its physical formats. It must also be recognised that some media companies (such as conglomerates) invest most heavily in advertising campaigns (as a business model) which guarantees success.
Point 4: I intend to contrast the distribution strategies of a very low-budget British film Tortoise In Love (director Guy Browning 2012) as well as Working Title's Legend (director Helgeland, 2015) with 'Big Six' productions, Jurassic World and The Avengers.  
Case Study 1: I take first Tortoise In Love as a case study as it is an example of a crowd-sourced film whose low budget and lack of big-name stars meant that distributors were not interested. Initially only the film's Facebook page acted as a means of publicity before the BFI became involved through its P&A fund, securing a release at a premiere in Leicester Square in May 2012.
(Below are some extracts but you should go through the PDF yourself to re-familiarize yourself with the case) 

TIL was therefore an interesting model of traditional distribution methods with a twist; it shows the tough market place for indie films. 

Working Title is an example of a very successful independent film company which operates out of the UK but whose parent company is NBC Universal. It can green-light films up to  $US35 million but usually consults with Working Title's parent company NBC Universal. It has the double advantage of artistic independence and financial security. To market Legend (director Helgeland, 2015), the first image of the film was published in June 2014, featuring Hardy as both the Kray twins. A promotional poster attracted publicity because it made a two-star review from The Guardian appear to be a four- or five-star review by placing the two stars between the heads of the Krays. Legend grossed $41,636,816 worldwide. Helgeland attended the Cannes Film Festival to promote the film and find buyers, with distribution rights going to StudioCanal. WT released a teaser trailer on its website, linked to FB, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram feeds, followed by an official full UK trailer. All publicity played on the 'legendary' narrative (hence the film title) of the infamous Kray twins, glamorizing their stories though the sophisticated night-life settings ("London's going to be the Las Vegas of Europe"), their romances and the powerful atmospheric photography. In each case, the puff "From the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of LA Confidential and Mystic River" targeted US audiences. The campaign capitalised on Tom Hardy’s dual roles and the viral Guardian review that was generated by StudioCanal's clever but deceitful poster in which it placed the poor two-star review by The Guardian's Benjamin Lee between the heads of the Kray twins to make it seem like a 5 star review. Lee generated viral publicity for the film through his article drawing attention to this "How my negative review of Legend was spun into movie marketing gold". 

Target Media were successful in handling marketing : 'The Outdoor campaign focused on bringing to life the old Kray stomping ground as well as exhausting large digital formats in key cities that would ‘take over’ London, much like the Krays did. While TV kicked off awareness in cherry picked environments (Manchester V. Chelsea and Rugby Live Internationals England V. France: as well as the trial of Jimmy Rose for a more balanced audience), we complemented this with breakout press formats, such as the Metro Cascade (a new format to the market) and the Telegraph Archive page. To make sure that we communicated effectively with the commuter belt, Time Out wraps and Shortlist DPS’s were used also. Further partnerships with the Telegraph meant that co-branded content and competitions made Legend more accessible and excitable for our audience to engage with.

Digital also played a crucial role in starting conversations on social platforms and allowing sharability. Kicking off with Cinemagraphs to tease then eventually revealing the full trailer. Partnering up with Shazam we were able to tie up all media by enabling outdoor, press and TV to be Shazamable (also brand new to the market)-  leading users to the Legend hub where more content could be unlocked and tickets could be booked. The display aspects of the campaign were rich formats across key networks: these also included mobile interstitials and special builds.
Legend opened at number one in the UK box office bringing in a staggering £5.2m in the opening weekend.'

 

Next point: There are other distribution methods for indie films, such as those made possible by Web 2.0 such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, iTunes, BitTorrent Bundle and Vimeo on Demand. Kickstarter is also a crowd sourced funding website which offers newer opportunities to fund and distribute film.

Most of my own film viewing is done online. According to the FDA's 2017 handbook, audiences visit the cinema 2.6 times a year and although cinema going is still robust, it is a little down on the previous year.

With Web 2.0., 3D cinema, viewing online, piracy and the future of online distribution (crowd sourced movies and the role of You Tube), the industry faces future challenges. There are the rapid changes taking place in this industry from the traditional ways of distributing film through to the digital formats used today. Online platforms are now being used to distribute and market films (Netflix) and the relative success that different films texts had with these. For example, Netflix and Amazon were outbidding all the major movie studios at Sundance in January 2016. Amazon outbid Hollywood heavyweights Fox and Universal for the rights to distribute Manchester by the Sea—a Sundance debut. Amazon paid $10 million for the film, and gave it a traditional theatrical run to ensure it qualified for all the major awards. The film then streamed on Amazon Video.

Case study 2: The Avengers

Its distribution depended on digital technology. Disney dismissed all three of Marvel's marketing top men to bring their functions in-house. The trailer, which debuted exclusively on iTunes Movie Trailers, was downloaded over 10 million times in its first 24 hours, breaking the website's record for the most-viewed trailer. A second full-length trailer was released on iTunes in February 2012, reaching a record 13.7 million downloads in 24 hours.The theatrical trailers of The Avengers appeared with many films, including Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol, 21 Jump Street and The Hunger Games.

Not all marketing was digitally driven; the build-up to The Avengers drew on retail partnerships, such as product tie-ins and Disney issued two limited edition comic book series. Synergy is illustrated by its wide range of retail partnerships. In total Marvel and its parent-company Disney secured an estimated $100 million in worldwide marketing support for The Avengers. So not all marketing was digitally driven; the build-up to The Avengers drew on retail partnerships, such as product tie-ins: set photos of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) were released driving a new model Acura car. Marvel partnered with JADS, a fragrance company, to promote The Avengers with character-based fragrances. The announcement was just ahead of the Toy Industry Association's annual exhibition, where representatives held a sampling booth of the products. Other promotional partners included  Dr Pepper, Harley Davidson, Hershey chocolates, Land O'Frost lunchmeats, Oracle, Red Baron pizza, Symantec, Visa and Wyndham Hotels.  Disney does not generally promote through fast food outlets. 
Another example of how film distribution uses the synergy possible with digital technology to reach national, international and global audiences is this year's James Bond Skyfall for which Heineken television advertisements were constructed as mini Bond action adventure films packed with spectacle and thrills thanks to CGI. Heineken was of many luxury brands and revenue sources whose association with the film cross-promoted it, such as Aston Martin, Sony and Coca Cola, whilst Sky launched a dedicated TV channel.

Case Study 3 (alternative for you, or additional if you can write a lot quickly) Jurassic World. 
Please look at the Prezi made by one of last year's students from material given to me by Gareth Edwards of Universal. Give it a minute to load. 




Essay 2 Guidelines
Points that you will cover:
Sentence 1: I have studied the film industry.
Sentence 2:Here, FIRST UNPACK THE TERMS: ‘By production practices, I understand production values, digital distribution and production, CGI, choice of genre, casting, choice of film techniques and so on. I intend to discuss this question with reference to Hollywood blockbusters which target global audiences, British film with national and international target audiences and, finally, micro budget films with niche audiences. 


As case studies, I plan to use  Jurassic World, Avengers Assemble and Beauty and the Beast and to illustrate the Hollywood 4S mega franchise model and how global audiences are targeted through synergetic distribution methods. I will also refer to how Iron Man 3 used a range of methods to target the Chinese market, the second largest in the world, and why the success of Western production practices looks like slowing down in this market.

Next, I intend to refer to  Legend (a Working Title film), Sunset Song and '71 as examples of British production practices and the needs of national cinema to serve national audiences with a diverse range of film genres. I will also cover micro budget films with niche audiences, such as Tortoise In Love. (See the notes for the previous essay above about Legend)

Finally, I will consider what trends indicate about future practices in the film industry, based on my own film viewing preferences and that of my peers, as well as what I have noticed in the press about the platforms like YouTube, Netflix and LoveFilm as well as the interesting reasons given by Peter Jackson for his choice of using 48 fps for The Hobbit to lure younger audiences away from handheld devices and back into cinemas.’ 

Case studies (to get you started)

I would like to contrast a Disney film Beauty and the Beast and an independent UK film '71.

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

• its website clearly demonstrates how Disney uses horizontal integration in its marketing as the banner shows links to its TV, DVDs, games, merchandising, live events, theme parks, travel company, cruise line, videos, competitions and DisneyLife. 
• Beauty took  $350 M on its opening weekend. It had the biggest ever opening weekend for a PG-rated film, and notched up the seventh best opening overall. This marks Disney's best opening for a live action remake yet - beating The Jungle Book, Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland.
• Disney can afford to use big names such as Emma Watson , Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor and so on.
• Is the film an example of Dalecki's '4 S' model? Yes: whilst not a sequel, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is a live-action re-telling of the studio’s animated classic which refashions the classic characters from the tale as old as time for a contemporary audience. 
• Budget $ 160 M, the most expensive musical ever made

'71 (2014)

•  By contrast, '71 is a low-budget national film but one that aimed at international audiences as its subject (radicalization of young men during the Troubles in Northern Ireland) was of universal interest. Plot summary here.
• Jack O'Connell had previously attracted critical acclaim for Unbroken (2014) appearing as a prisoner of war in a Japanese war camp. Directed by Angelina Jolie, this film made O'Connell known to an American audience.
• 71 won Best Director at the 2014 British Independent Film Awards, after receiving nine nominations. The National Board of Review named '71 one of the top 10 independent films of 2015.
• Budget, £8.1 million. Box office, $3.2 million.

Here is an article that I wrote some time ago that has been reproduced by Haggerston Media (without crediting me).