DISTRIBUTION: PRIDE

See the BBC news article HEREWe investigate how the film Pride is attracting and addressing audiences.
The film website

How are audiences involved in order to generate buzz prior to the film's release? For example:
A video soundbite from actor Andrew Scott urging audiences to book tickets 'as there is only one week left.'
'The real LGSM and stars of #PRIDE marched with a live band to Odeon Cinema, Camden on Tuesday 2nd September for the Premiere! Here are our highlights.'
What else?

DISTRIBUTION: WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAY

On the Macs, create a folder with your name and a Word document entitled WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAY
You have 15 minutes to research this new British film and make a note of your sources.

• Its genre? Source of your info?
• Target audience? Source?
• institutions spreading the word?
• what did you learn about it from the trailer?

PREP Write up your research. Keep it crisp. Use quotations and images. Give sources.

How does distribution work? We view this week's releases using www.launchingfilms.com from the Film Distributors Association. We watch the trailer for Pride
http://www.pridemovie.co.uk/trailer

HOLIDAY WORK

Your holiday work is what I have already asked you to write down in class, so no surprises. To remind you:
1. For Section A of your next exam unit, you need to write about the thriller film opening that you made this year. It's best to do this whilst it is still fresh in your mind. See what you have to do by opening this link to our A2 blog HERE the G325 page. Write about what skills you used to make your film opening under the 5 headings in blue below:

Question 1(a) requires you to describe and evaluate your skills development over the course of their production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. The focus of this evaluation must be on skills development, and the question will require you to adapt this to one or two specific production practices. The list of practices to which questions will relate is as follows:
    Digital Technology  Creativity     Research and planning  Post-production 

    Using conventions from real media texts In the examination, questions will be posed using one or two of these categories.

 

2. For Section B, you should view some of the film and TV texts that we will study for the unit on Collective Identity. Here is the link to the relevant section in our A2 blog HERE.
Use YouTube and other means of film viewing to work through the TV programmes and films that you do not know. The aim is to get the gist of how people are represented.
The Millionairess (1960) 
The Indian Doctor (BBC1, 2012)
Goodness Gracious Me (1996-2000, BBC radio and TV comedy sketch) 
The Kumars at No.42 (BBC, 7 series, 2001-6)
My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears, 1985, from a screenplay by Hanif Kureishi)
Anita And Me (Meera Syal, 2002) 
Ae Fond Kiss (Ken Loach, 2004)
Yasmin (dir. Kenneth Glenaan 2004),
Four Lions (Chris Morris, 2011)
East is East (Damien O’Donnell, 1999 screenplay Auyub Khan Dinh)
Bend It Like Beckham (Gurinder Chadha),  
Anita And Me (Meera Syal, 2002)  
Diary Of A Badman (nearly 4 million views) in which a British Asian Muslim presents a comic video diary. 
Make Bradford British, the TV reality show that threw together a mix of Bradford people         

WELCOME, MODERATOR

Dear Moderator
You will find the candidates' blogs on the right.
Jenny Mann

PROLIFERATION: THE FILM INDUSTRY

Proliferation is the increase in the amount of hardware and contact available to both audiences and institutions through the emergence of new and old media.
e.g. tablets (iPads), smart phones, laptops.
Proliferation could occur from the breakthrough in technology which allows a lot of companies to enter the market.
Watch this video here and another here

• I am studying the film industry.
• By proliferation, I understand...
• I intend to use as case studies to support my points...
• Hollywood  targets not only international but global audiences in a number of ways
• The Hollywood 'Big 6' offer examples of proliferation as regards both the audiences they reach and the kinds of film they tend to make. Through synergistic methods of attracting and addressing audiences (distribution methods), they aim to recoup their vast financial outlays in order to make a profit. Synergistic methods used when distributing Iron Man /Skyfall / Avengers included...
• Audiences have increased because of the ease of digital technologies. Although cinema audiences figures are down, the other platforms used by audiences continue to increase, such as smart phones, ipads, tablets...Audiences are increasingly reached through digital means such as film websites, Facebook and Twitter, with interactive attractions such as games, ringtones, wallpapers. An example is... 
• Realising that younger audiences tended to watch film on their laptops, Peter Jackson attempted to get younger audiences back into cinema theatres by...
• Big studios take advantage of merchandize tie-ins and can afford to make TV ads that increase audiences and also increase the number of platforms through which audiences access their products: Heinneken / Skyfall; Iron Man / Audi R8; Skyfall / Adele
• Big Studios maximize audiences by careful choice of release dates eg Xmas for run up to Oscars
• Merchandise tie-ins eg Avengers
• Second biggest market -China- targeted  by Iron Man through a variety of ways such as..
• Films available on DVD, BluRay, internet
• Netflix, Amazon, YouTube: RELATE the info we covered to this topic!
• HOWEVER there are issues to take into account as far as indies / art house /niche films, whose producers cannot access the so-called 4S megafranchize model (Dalecki).
• These producers can struggle to bring a film to audiences at all even after it is made, even if the audiences are there. For example, Tortoise in Love used the power of social media - its Facebook page - to alert audiences but could not find a distributor until.... It clearly met a need because it succesfully attracted rural audiences...
•  Similarly, Shifty with a minute budget used social media to reach large audiences by... Eran Creevy went on to make....in Hollywood
•  Winter's Bone is another niche product competing for audiences, one which handled its need for a production then a distribution budget by...

WHAT IS CROSS MEDIA CONVERGENCE & SYNERGY?

I found this on OCR forum from Rob Carlton (of OCR), which seems to put it very well HERE

"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.
An example: a PS3's primary function is video gaming but you can download and watch movies from Lovefilm.com 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. 
Their answer needs to be linked into the media area they are talking about (Film, Music, Magazines, Newspapers, Radio, Video Games). E.g if they were talking about newspapers you could link in to their online editions and talk about how this differs from the traditional paper version and the opportunities it presents.
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 making use of its parent company(s) 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."

EXAM PRACTICE EASTER 2014

Essay: Pick one of the following:

How important is technological convergence for institutions  and audiences within a media area which you have studied? (June 2009)

"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? (January 2010)

What significance does the continuing development of digital media technology have for media institutions and audiences? (June 2010)

Discuss the issues raised by media ownership in the production and exchange of media texts in your chosen media area (January 2011)

'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? (June 2011)

To what extent does digital distribution affect the marketing and consumption of media products in the media area you have studied? (January 2012) 

“Cross-media convergence and synergy are vital processes in the successful marketing of media products to audiences.” To what extent do you agree with this statement in relation to your chosen media area? (June 2012)

What impact does media ownership have upon the range of products available to audiences in the media area you have studied? (January 2013)

The exam extract below is on Claremont's CLICKVIEW. You can download it at school onto your laptop. Other exam extracts are available there too.

 

The focus is GENDER WATCH HERE