Download - Global local
Discuss the issues around media ownership in your chosen area
• Time Warner is the world’s largest media conglomerate, consisting of subsidiaries such as Warner Bros, DC Comics, HBO and Castle Rock. Warner Brothers is also a subsidiary of Time Warner, a company formed in 1923. Time Warner produces high budget Hollywood movies. It is part of the oligopoly of the big 6, allowing it great power in the film industry. One of its biggest tentpole movies is ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (TDKR) which had a production budget of $250,000,000 allowing a massive tentpole movie to be created. WB were certain this film would generate enough money to comfortably fund any other smaller film the company wished to make. Due to the size of the company, WB were able to distribute their film completely independently in the UK and in the US they distributed the film themselves. They spent millions of dollars on marketing, securing a profit of 200% and $1.08 billion. They used social media to enable them to produce a Twitter page, facebook page, numerous websites and YouTube trailers. Campaign such as ‘hashtag the fire rises’ were launched allowing audience interaction. Every time someone tweeted ‘hashtag the fire rises’ a pixel of a photo of Bane was released, making fans tweet like crazy, resulting in ‘hashtag the fire rises’ trending worldwide. Due to WB’s massive ownership patterns, they were able to launch synergistic campaigns, such as a collaboration with ‘Mountain Dew’, where a new flavour of energy drink was produced and new packaging that promoted the project and the film. A campaign with Nokia Lumia was also launched, producing a new phone manufactured to look like it had red bat ears and with Batman soundtracks already installed on the phone. A Formula 1 car also promoted the film as it resembled the image of the batmobile. All these campaigns alongside traditional marketing techniques (trailers, posters) helped create awareness for the film, ensuring its success. The film was filmed using top end technology, such as image cameras – 75mm and 35mm cameras – and edited on Avid, making watching the film in cinemas a more prestigious experience, creating demand for screenings. This also helps deal with rising levels of piracy which is a big ever-growing problem for WB.
• Formed in 2002, Vertigo is a British independent film company producing commercial films for a wide audience and emulating a Hollywood structure. It released Monsters in 2010 which created a great awareness about this film company. The film was directed by Gareth Edwards, an up-and-coming new director. This is a massive contrast to the well known, highly paid Christopher Nolan (director of TDKR). The production budget for Monsters was a small $500,000 allowing for little money to be spent on most things. Monsters was distributed by Vertigo in the UK and through Magnet in the US. By using a company called 4Square, Vertigo took a very different approach to market the film than they are used to. 4Square are a website and app company, where fans can access exclusive clips and soundtracks which create awareness and excitement about the film. They created ‘infected zones’ in which users could find location based places which held codes to unlock discounts on cinema tickets and other promotions. This app was successful as it brought many people to the cinema, however due to a stunted release and also bad weather on the day of actual release, the film didn’t reach its potential success in the opening weekend. However, it still made a massive profit of 700% and $4 million, beating TDKR in percentage profit. Vertigo was filmed on prosumer cameras and edited on adobe and Zbrush, allowing for such a small budget which resulted in a large profit. Vertigo are constantly trying harder to beat piracy, for example they released street cinema, the first British film filmed on 3D cameras, showing their evolving skills in attempting to emulate companies such as WB. Monsters was released in 25 countries which is a good amount for a small British company producing 4 films per year. This is in great contrast to WB producing 18-22 films per year and releasing TDKR is 25 countries and 4,404 cinemas. Warp produce films for a more niche market, funded by companies such as film8 and they also used to be funded by the UK Film Council. However, they distribute their films through film festivals with minimal marketing. Tyrannosaurus, a social realism film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival the San Francisco festival as well as many others across Europe and America including the London Film Festival and the film was nominated for a Bafta award. Media ownership has a massive impact on successful distribution of film, making it impossible for small companies such as Vertigo and Warp to compete with the big six including WB. Distributing films for Warp and Vertigo relies heavily on DVD sales rather than just cinema releases. With the constant rise of piracy, this makes it increasingly difficult for the companies to make money due to lack of demand in cinemas. However, it is clear Vertigo is trying to catch up with WB as they distribute their film aiming for a bigger cinema audience and have attempted to do this by incorporating technology such as 3D cameras.
“Media production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their products and services to national audiences.” To what
extent do you agree with this statement?
Global/ local • Disney is a global brand
• SWTFA was marketed to a global audience
• Different strategies for different countries e.g. China. Is Star Wars a universal brand?
• Ex-Machina- UK Independent production competing against global conglomerates
• Needed help of Universal ( one of Hollywood “Big 6”) to distribute film world wide.
• Not thought to have a potential audience in US- A24 took over – clever marketing means film found its audience and became very successful for limited release, independent film – good reviews, high production values, strong story £15 million budget- £36 million at box –office
• Conclusion- global conglomerates dominate- global film culture develops. local independent production can struggle to find an audience . What might happen in the future?
Disney • Disney is the world’s most powerful brand. Disney’s strength is founded on its rich history
and original creations, however its now dominant position is the result of its many acquisitions and the powerful brands it has brought under its control. ESPN, Pixar, The Muppets and Marvel are all now Disney owned, but perhaps its most important acquisition of all has been Lucasfilm, and thus Star Wars.
• Star Wars Episode VII ‘The Force Awakens’ has broken countless box office records, becoming the fastest to take US$1 billion, enjoying the most successful opening weekend ($529 million) and based on its total box office gross of nearly US$2 billion is Disney’s most successful film ever. Meanwhile Star Wars toys have generated over US$700 million.
• Brand Finance has estimated the value of the Star Wars brand to be US$10 billion, dwarfing the US$4.05 billion Disney paid for Lucasfilm in 2012. Though this might suggest that Disney engineered a very favourable deal, it has undoubtedly contributed to the growth of the Star Wars brand. Disney is managing to exploit the Star Wars concept both rapidly and sensitively, a difficult feat to pull off. Disney styles itself as ‘the happiest place on Earth’. That has proved true not just for its customers but for investors too.
https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about
• Disney’s stories, characters and experiences reach consumers and guests from every corner of the globe. With operations in more than 40 countries, our employees and cast members work together to create entertainment experiences that are both universally and locally cherished.
Disney release schedule 2015-17
• Avengers: Age of Ultron – 5/1/15• Tomorrowland – 5/22/15• Inside Out – 6/19/15• Ant-Man – 7/17/15• Bridge of Spies – 10/16/15• The Good Dinosaur – 11/25/15• Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 12/18/15• The Finest Hours – 1/29/16• Zootopia – 3/4/16• The Jungle Book – 4/15/16• Captain America: Civil War – 5/6/16• Alice Through the Looking Glass – 5/27/16• Finding Dory – 6/17/16• The BFG – 7/1/16• Pete’s Dragon – 8/12/16• Doctor Strange – 11/4/16• Moana – 11/23/16
• Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One – 12/16/16• Beauty and the Beast – 3/17/17• Ghost in the Shell – 4/14/17• Guardians of the Galaxy 2 – 5/5/17• Star Wars: Episode VIII – 5/26/17• Toy Story 4 – 6/16/17• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
– 7/7/17• Thor: Ragnarok – 11/3/17• Untitled Pixar Animation – 11/22/17• Untitled Disney Animation – 3/9/18• Avengers: Infinity War Part I – 5/4/18• Untitled Pixar Animation – 6/15/18• Black Panther – 7/6/18• Captain Marvel – 11/2/18• Untitled Disney Animation – 11/21/18• Avengers: Infinity War Part II – 5/3/19• Inhumans – 7/12/19
SWTFA facts and figures • "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" has destroyed box office records like the Death Star.• The Disney movie continues to draw crowds to theaters in the U.S., and it's been a big draw around the world.• The blockbuster broke records for biggest box office on an opening weekend in both the U.S. and globally.• And Disney said it also became the fastest film ever to reach the $1 billion mark at the global box office.• Here's a rundown of "The Force Awakens" galactic performance at the box office:• 12 -- The number of days it took the film to net $1 billion in ticket sales worldwide. That's an industry record.• $529 million -- The global box office opening of the film, which beat the previous record of $525 million held by "Jurassic
World."• $248 million -- The film's opening weekend box office in North America, which overtook the $208.8 million record of
"Jurassic World."• $119.1 million -- How much the film brought in on December 18, its opening day in the U.S. That is roughly $30 million
more than the previous opening-day record.• $50.6 million -- The film's opening box office in the United Kingdom.• 94% -- The film's score on review site, RottenTomatoes.com, as of December 27.• 47% -- Percentage of the opening weekend box office total that came from 3-D screenings.• 4,134 -- Number of theaters the film opened in.• $57,568 -- The film's per theater average on opening weekend. That was a record for a widely released film.• $4 billion -- The price Disney paid for the franchise's production company, Lucasfilm, in 2012.• $4.3 billion -- How much the "Star Wars" franchise made since its original installment in 1977, not including "The Force
Awakens."• $1.4 billion -- 1977's "Star Wars" U.S. total box office, adjusted for inflation.
Marketing to China • Disney organised a series of promotional events in the months leading
up to the release, included the placing of 500 stormtrooper figures on the steps of the Great Wall and the illumination of the movie’s Chinese title on the guard towers for a light show in October.
• It enlisted the marketing power of actor and singer Lu Han, who appeared in promotional videos and released a music video on Thursday called The Inner Force with images from the film.
• The Hong Kong martial arts actor Donnie Yen and the Chinese actor and director Jiang Wen have been cast in the next Star Wars film, in a bid to appeal to Chinese audiences.
• China is expected to surpass north America as the world’s largest movie market as soon as next year, and Hollywood is casting Chinese actors and incorporating Chinese elements to appeal to the huge audience.
Problems • Not many Chinese people were familiar with Star Wars.
The franchise’s three prequel films released from 1999 to 2005 were shown in China, but at a time when there were far fewer screens in the country.
• Chinese cinema-goers were only treated to the first official theatrical screenings of the original trilogy this year, almost four decades after the first film came out in 1977 when the Cultural Revolution had only just come to an end.
• However, many had seen the early films through illegal downloads of DVD
Not quite a “universal” brand
• Star Wars is a firmly entrenched mythology and a long-running franchise that means a lot more in America than elsewhere. In America, The Force Awakens is the next great Star Wars movie. In much of the world, it’s just another sci-fi action blockbuster in an industry with plenty to choose from.
• CHINESE BOX OFFICE:• Fast and Furious 7 ($390m)• SWTFA ($150m)
Ex-Machina
• Ex-Machina was released in 19 countries• Universal distributed the film worldwide but:• A24 ( independent distribution company)
distributed the film in the US
Ex-Machina US release • Ex Machina, the new sci-fi film from director Alex Garland, is now in limited release - but the sad news is that so far it's only
available to see in a grand total of four theaters. There is some good news, however. Not only is the critically-acclaimed movie is performing well, but it should soon be arriving to a theater near you. Limited Release:
• As part of a theatrical roll-out, A24 only released Ex Machina in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles this past weekend:• Regal Union Square Theater (100 E 17th St, New York)• AMC Lincoln Scquare Theater (1998 Broadway, New York)• The Arclight Hollywood (6360 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles)• The Landmark (10850 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles)•
Sneak Screenings In Select Cities• Following the limited release, A24 has also scheduled nationwide seank screenings of Ex Machina that will take place
this Thursday, April 16th. As a bonus, each of these events will give attendees the opportunity to sign up for a contest that could send them to the Juvet Landscape Hotel in Norway, the incredible shooting location for most of the movie. Wide Release
• And for those outside the limited release and sneak screening locations will only have to wait until April 24th for the chance to see the film for themselves. On that Friday, the movie will be expanding into wide release.
• If early numbers are anything to go by, then Ex Machina should have no real issue staying competitive. This is because the film actually managed to open as the most successful limited release of the year, with an impressive $250,000 made already in just the first three days. That total adds to the $6.2 million that the movie has already made in release over in both the United Kingdom and South Korea.
Review- the Hollywood Reporter• The potential existential threat to humans posed by the dawning era of artificial
intelligence is the theme chosen by British screenwriter Alex Garland for his stylish directing debut. The subject may be familiar, but Garland has a track record of rebooting and revitalizing pulp genres, most notably his “fast zombie” script for Danny Boyle’s dystopian thriller 28 Days Later. He also worked with Boyle on the screen version of his own cult novel The Beach, and the futuristic space adventure Sunshine.
• Despite its modest budget — reportedly around $13 million — Ex Machina looks sleek, shiny and remarkably slick for a directing debut. But it also suffers from the same kind of third-act slump that marred some of Garland’s previous work, promising a psychological depth and dramatic punch that it never quite delivers. That said, this is still a classy piece of cerebral sci-fi, with high production values and hot media buzz that should propel it beyond fanboy circles. It opens in Britain next week, with a U.S. launch planned for SXSW in March followed by an April release through niche distributor A24.
Awards
• Ex Machina, the directorial debut from The Beachwriter Alex Garland, was the main winner at the British Independent Film Awards, held in London on Sunday evening.
• The sci-fi thriller, which became a sleeper hit in the U.S. following its release in April, won four awards, including best British independent film, best director and best screenplay, alongside outstanding achievement in craft.
• To what extent is multi-platform publication beneficial to media institutions and audiences?
• With reference to your chosen case study consider how important interactivity is to media institutions?
• What has the impact of increased connectivity been on the media production, distribution and exhibition process?
• Discuss the ways in which media products are produced, and distributed to
audiences, within a media area, which you have studied.
• “Media production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their products and services to national audiences.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?
• What significance does the continuing development of digital media technology have for media institutions and audiences?
• Discuss the issues raised by media ownership in the production and exchange of media texts in your chosen area.
SWTFA, DISNEY• Hollywood dominates the global box office • Disney is a globally recognised brand• SWTFA filmed at locations all around the
world• Different strategies to target different
audiences e.g. China
Plan
• Write an intro- show you understand question and introduce case study
• Topic sentences and examples ( 5/6)• Conclusion- sum up argument- what will
happen in the future?
