The issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practise;
· The British film industry is at present very unorganised.
· It is largely comprised of small independent producers.
· The distribution and exhibition sectors are dominated by multinational media companies. So most of the money used in UK films is American as the UK are reliant on a few wealthy individuals to lend them money. This is a short term solution as the UK film industry is not growing, it’s just using American money and the profits are all going to the USA film industry. The UK film industry just needs one huge investment in a film in order to massively increase the size of the industry.
The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing;
· The British film industry is struggling to make its profits as the companies don’t have the money to distribute their films onto a range of markets such as subscription TV, cinema, and DVD. This then creates a vicious circle as they can’t make profits and therefore the same will happen to the next film they produce. Cross media convergence and synergy is vital in getting a range of viewers (four quadrants) as it can make money through the films name or contents. However this can’t be done by the companies if they don’t have the money to get the film out there in the first place. Also to get viewers you need to have the right content in your film, so without the money technologies and actors as well as to directors won’t be able to be used in the production of the British films.
The technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange;
Even though The Kings Speech wasn't made in 3D, a massive introduction, or reintroduction, to the production of films is the use of 3D filming. 3D films have existed in some form since 1915, but were used successfully around 2003 as an attempt to counteract the fact that more people than ever were illegally downloading films, and to get more people to start going to the cinema again. The outstanding success of Avatar 3D has been the pinnacle of 3D filming, but will the 3D success be a permanent factor of the cinematic experience? we'll have to wait and see. The reason The Kings Speech wasn't made in 3D is because most 3D films are in the action genre and have a lot outlining special effect scenes. So it wouldn't make sense to shoot a film about a king getting over a stammer with great scenes of 3D action and car chases. However even though the film doesn't using eye blinding special effects, It still uses a lot of CGI in order to edit little sections of the play. For example the crowd as the King, his wife and children stand at the balcony at the end of the film, this would've been edited using CGI. And also small details such as; street lights, post boxes and windows will have been edited in order to manipulate a certain feel and atmosphere to the scene.
The significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;
· The proliferation of hardware such as Blue-ray players and HD TV’s has dramatically changed the film industry over recent years. It has tempted people away from illegally downloading films in very bad quality, and instead buying a blue ray player and blue ray DVD’s. This is because Blue-ray offers an exclusive high quality picture that customers think is worth spending extra money to experience. As a knock on effect to this, the cinema audience profile has changed with a decrease of young adults and an increase of young teenagers and the 35+ age range. This is because more young adults are now staying at home and watching HD films with their blue-ray players.
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The importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;
- Technological convergence is where you take two separate pieces of technology, and put them together. For example: a camera and a phone, were converged together to make the camera phone. Technological convergence has had a huge impact on institutions and audiences. In the film industry the number of platforms where you can view films is proliferating all the time. Audiences can now watch films in a variety of ways when and where they want to. You can use digital technology to download a film or TV programme onto your mobile phone, laptop, I-Pad or PC; you can watch it on your flat-screen TV; you can also connect your HD TV to the Internet and watch the film on You Tube; of course, you can see the film on Blue Ray or ordinary DVDs; some might prefer to watch the film on PlayStation or X Box; you could even download it on Pirate Bay or other sites and consume it at a time that suits you. It is this illegal downloading of films that had severely damaged the film industry. Instead of going to the cinema, people are now downloading films from home, easily and for free. This eliminates the need for them to go to the cinema, which contributes to a huge loss in revenue for the film industry, as less people are watching the films in the cinema and less people are buying the films legally. As a way of counteracting this change, a woman called Danah Brown said to give people a way of legally downloading films easily, to increase revenue. And after this statement sites such as; netflix, love film and blink box were created. These websites offer a way of renting and buying films online by downloading them. The Kings Speech was made available to rent and purchase online through these sites, and as a result of this has increased it's revenue.
The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions;
· This shows that British film institutions have little money and therefore can’t get there films into the cinema. Many British films are made using money from companies in the US which isn’t a good solution to the industries problems. To stop the British film industry from dying out people need to invest in the British companies so that they can produce bigger films using the new technologies and so that they can market there films more. A House of Commons report shows this. British companies also can’t make much in terms of profits as they can’t distribute films as much as foreign companies.
The ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour;
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