Preliminary task

Section A past questions

June 13: Regional Identity- Doc Martin

Jan 13: Age- E.R

June 12: Disability- Coming down the mountain

Jan 12: Sexuality- Fingersmith

June 11: Social class and status: Merlin

Jan 11: Gender- Hustle

June 10: Gender: Primeval

Jan 10: Ethnicity- Hotel Babylon

June 09: Gender- Doctor Who

Jan 09: Age- Monarch of the Glen

Practice exam question

What impact does media ownership have in the media area you have studied? (50 marks)
The media area I have studied is the film industry. I will use my case studies which are Skyfall produced by EON films which is owned by Sony a media conglomerate, the other case study I will use is The Woman in Black produced by Hammer films which is a independent film company. In my essay I will explain the impact of media ownership on the film industry and how it affects the production, marketing and consumption phases for a film and how it benifits the production and marketing phase but not so much the consumption phase.  

The media ownership massively effects the production phase of a film. This is for the reason that Sony is part of a media conglomerate so they had millions of pounds to spend on a film, whereas Hammer films doesn’t as it’s only a small company. That is why Skyfall had around $150 million spent on it whereas the Woman in Black had $17 million spent on it. This is a benefit of media ownership as Skyfall had more money to spend on things like better locations such as they filmed in Russia and China, but the Woman in Black was filmed all in England and used a house in Oundle to film with. This was because Hammer films couldn’t afford to film elsewhere.  Skyfall had the money to afford big actors like Daniel Craig and Judi Dench because of the money Sony had. Whereas the Woman in Black had done well to afford Daniel Radcliff.  This shows that media ownership had had an massive impact on the film industry as because massive media conglomerates have the money to spend on actors and better locations than independent film companies.

The marketing of the films are affected by whether they are owned by a conglomerate or they are an independent film company. Like with the production phase media ownership affects how much money a company has to spend on marketing. Synergy happened in Skyfall as Sony had the money to do so, they had Adele singing Skyfall which was the films theme song this is an advantage of Skyfall being part of Sony as money was put in to advertise the film using the areas they owned such as owning a music label. This is where media ownership is a problem for small companies such as Hammer films as they don’t have to money to spend on advertising they rely on social media as it’s free and is easy to spread the film’s news on.  Skyfall used cross media convergence to promote the film, there was a PlayStation game brought out based on Skyfall, a single by Adele these helped to promote the film which is good for Skyfall as they used media convergence and synergy to get the word out. But because Hammer films are independent and don’t own anything big they couldn’t do that. This shows that media ownership is important as it gives the big 6 media conglomerates a change to put there film all over a range of media products unlike small companies.

In my opinion media ownership doesn’t massively affect the consumption phase and whether the audience watch the film or not. However media ownership affects it in one massive way which is cinema’s. The Woman in Black was shown in around 400 cinema’s compared to Skyfall which was shown in around 500. This is because massive companies such as Sony have to money and the fact they are well known, which means any Sony film is more than likely to be shown in cinema’s compared to small companies who may find it hard getting there film in to the cinema’s. The audience who buys the DVD itself or downloads it on ITunes are likely to affected whether the film is made by a massive company or not, if the audience like the film they will buy it, it’s down to the audiences preference to whether they want to watch a massive block buster or a small companies film.

So overall media ownership has an impact massively on the production and marketing phase as the big companies have the most  money which helps the film market and produce a better film. However when it comes down to the consumption phase media ownership doesn’t really effect it due to the fact it’s down to the audience’s preferences to what film they watch whether it’s a big company film or a small company’s film, it’s not really affected by who the film is owned by.

How did the PRODUCTION and MARKETING/ DISTRIBUTION of 'Skyfall' and 'Woman in Black' influence its success at the box office?

When the film came out it was the 50th year anniversary this gave people an incentive to go see it is it was a big mile stone and people would have wanted to see it as it was a 50th year. Also Daniel Craig was a well known James Bond so people wanted to see it was Daniel Craig was in it, women may have found Daniel good looking hence wanting to see him. They may have gone to see Skyfall for Daniel more than wanting to see the film its self.

Sony was the distributor in which are a massive media conglomerate. They owned many radio stations and TV channels which they used to promote Skyfall, this meant there was many different ways that Sony could promote Skyfall. They also owned cinems which helped get Skyfall shown in 587 cinemas. This helped them as there was many places to watch the film which boosted how much they earnt which was $88 million in the opening weekend. Many companies such as Heineken and Coke Cola put in money for their product to be shown in the film which gave them rights to use Daniel Craig and Skyfall to be used with in their adverts, this helped promote Skyfall. This meant even before the film was realsed nearly everyone had seen some sort of reference to Skyfall. Skyfall was a 12A which meant it appealed to a wide range of ages this meant the target audince which was 1 plus which alot of people compared to if it was a 18 the target audience would be limited, most children go to the cinema with friends more regualar then adults so as the film is a 12A it meant children could go see it which boosted profits. James Bond was already an established collection of films and had already established a massive audience who would go see Skyfall because its another James Bond film. 

Woman in Black was popular mainly due to the fact Daniel Radcliffe was casted as main character, he was 10 years established in Harry Potter and he was world wide known for the character Harry Potter. It attracted Harry Potter lovers and even those who really liked Daniel Radcliffe to go see the film. Also the film was a 12A so again Harry Potter lovers could go to see it, as Harry Potter was aimed at children, they could now go see another film Daniel was in. If it was 18 then young childrne who may have liked Harry Potter cant go to see it which would have lost the film money. Before the last Harry Potter film was shown the trailer of Woman in Black which meant Harry Potter fans could see the trailer and the film could begin to gain and audience for the film. Also the Woman in Black was a west end production and a novel so even before it was a film the Woman in Black had an established audience who would most likely want to see the film.

Technological Convergence: TV, Computer, Radio, Camera--- All is in a phone!
In a TV- TV, internet
Ipad- Camera, Internet, Video recorder, TV

Media Synergy: DIfferent media promoting the same product.
Eg Harry Potter: DVD, borad game, games, books

Viacom

• Head Quarters: One Astor Plaza, Manhattan, New York City, New York,United States
• It operates 170 networks

It owns: MTV Films, Nickelodeon Movies, Paramount Animation, Paramount Pictures

It owns most of the Nickelodeon channels such as Nickelodeon, Nicktoons 

They own also:

Paramount Motion Pictures Group

• Paramount Pictures
• Paramount Television
• Paramount Vantage
• Insurge Pictures
• Paramount Animation
• Paramount Pictures International
• TV Motion Pictures Group
• MTV Films
• Nickelodeon Movies
• Paramount Home Entertainment
• Paramount Famous Productions
• United International Pictures
• Republic Pictures

What is a media Conglomorate?

A thing consisting of a number of different and distinct parts or items that are grouped together.

Some examples:

• Virgin Group
• The Walt Disney Disney Company
• News Corporation 
• Time Warner
• Viacom
• General Electric
• CBS
• Sony