Technology has advanced and begun to offer more platforms to produce and consume different types of media. Websites and applications are both examples of just some of the ways in which media has become more accessible to a wider audience over recent years.
Technological convergence is an example of how technology such as iPhones have changed the ways in which we view T.V and film. iPhones and other devices allow for applications such as Netflix to be used that offer a plethora of films and television. This gives audiences an alternative to purchasing DVD's at the shops by giving them the option to pay a small monthly fee that results in less time and effort for users while offering a lower overall price. The vast amount of media that is made more accessible and convenient to audiences on these devices can cause less people to visit the cinema as a result.
iTunes and Sky On Demand are two examples of alternatives to buying DVD's from stores. These options allow audiences to quickly buy or rent films or T.V programmes in a fraction of the time that it would take to buy a DVD for the same price. This allows audiences the option of trying a film for a lower price to see if they like the film instead of buying a DVD and disliking the film. The problem with this is that there is no physical copy of your purchase and it restricts the audience's viewing to whatever device that the film was bought on.
The option to illegally download content is a feature that has become increasingly popular. This essentially prevents the need to wait for the film to be released in cinema or on DVD and allows viewers to view it illegally online. This is tremendously damaging to the film industry as it prevents people from spending money on the film. As a result of this 'pirating' of films, many films have suffered such as Kick Ass 2 that managed to perform poorly at the box office and damage the strength of the franchise as a result.
A problem with this alternative for audiences is that they have to sacrifice the big screen and enhanced sound for viewing at home on smaller devices. Cinema's have attempted to counter the increasing use of Netflix and other on demand services such as Sky and Amazon prime by exposing their weaknesses. As a result, cinemas have become equipped with 3D and IMAX screenings. This allows cinemas to create an experience that is impossible to replicate at home but presents more problems as it requires a higher cost.
In order to aid the problems that would be faced by audiences in terms of a lack of a cinematic experience at home, Blu-ray has been made as an alternative to DVD's. Blu-rays allow for cinema level sound and images to be played from home. This can prevent a large amount of people from watching a film in the cinema and instead wait for the film to arrive on Blu-ray. Due to Blu-rays' high quality, they cost more money. As a result, cinematic quality is still restricted from people who cannot afford to pay premium prices for this alternative.
Social media websites such as YouTube have allowed for media production and consumption to flourish over recent years. YouTube is a free platform that allows anyone to create their own content and in some cases receive payment. Thousands of independent content creators have taken advantage of Youtube and have produced thousands of hours of content. The content spans over different categories and genres and as a result offer an alternative to television and films for a large audience due to the amount of free content available from home. The disadvantage that comes with this alternative is that while YouTube users have acquired an increased funding, the content produced still remains at a relatively low budget.
Tuesday 17 February 2015
Tuesday 10 February 2015
Disney
Walt Disney Studios has become one of the largest media companies to ever exist. The company has a value of $81 billion and have managed to build a vast amount of success in areas such as film, T.V, theme parks, video games, toys and more. Disney has been built over a large period of time, establishing an extremely large audience that spans over all age groups.
On October 16 1923, Walt Disney signed a contract with M. J. Winkler to produce a series of Alice Comedies. This marked the beginning of what was first known as The Disney Brothers Studio. As the Alice Comedies began to lose popularity, Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was released in 1927. In November 1928, Steamboat Willie was released, marking the first appearance of iconic Disney characters such as Mickey and Minnie Mouse. The Disney company began to grow year after year, establishing characters such as Donald Duck, and more. The company branched out into film in 1937 with the release of it's first full feature film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves". This was a major success and ultimately paved the way for more Disney films to be released.
Disneys growing success led to the development of their own theme park in California on July 17 1955. This allowed Disney characters and merchandise to be promoted on a large scale. The theme park was so successful that others were made around the world. This allowed for the already large audience to expand further in places such as Tokyo, Florida and Paris. Since the parks opening, it has received a total of over 650 million guests. In 2013 the park hosted around 16.2 million guests, making it the third most visited park in that calendar year.
Another area that Disney began to focus more on is television. Disney had already made shows for television in the past but the year1983 marked the airing of 'The Disney Channel'. This essentially allowed Disney to create and show content on a regular basis on their own channel. From this spawned multiple franchises such as Thats So Raven, Recess and The Suit Life of Zack and Cody. Each franchise offered an enormous amount of profit and merchandise to sell. Over the years, the Disney Channel has led to the fabrication of other Disney-owned channels such as Disney XD and Disney Junior. This variation in programming allowed Disney owned properties to be shown to specific audiences on their own channels.
Disney has also found new ways to innovate the film industry to achieve critical and commercial success. Films such as Toy story showed how Disney were able to adapt from hand drawn films to computer animated films and even acquired Pixar in 2006 in order to bring forward the next generation of Disney films. Disney has also in recent years acquired Marvel and Lucasfilms in order to gain profit from franchises such as The Avengers which generated over $1 billion in ticket sales and a new wave of Star Wars films. Through the release of films, Disney are also able to profit from video games such as "Disney Infinity" that can tie directly into films or be completely independent. These games are extremely popular and offer a new audience of Disney fans to appeal to.
Frozen is an example of a recent Disney film that has been able to generate an astounding amount of popularity and profit globally. The film had a total budget of $150 million and achieved a box office gross of $1.219 bn, making it the fifth highest grossing film of all time. The film was able to help revitalise the classic Disney musical genre and draw in fans of all ages. The film was able to further increase it's profit with the help of marketing for merchandise for the film. The sales were so successful that most shops tended to run out of stocked frozen items; an estimated total of $1 billion in retail revenue was brought in a year. The decision was made to turn the hit song 'Let It Go' into a single in the year of release. The song was able to reach number 10 in the top 100 charts with over 3.5 million copies being sold in the US. The song and film were awarded with best animated feature film of the year, best original song and even a grammy.
On October 16 1923, Walt Disney signed a contract with M. J. Winkler to produce a series of Alice Comedies. This marked the beginning of what was first known as The Disney Brothers Studio. As the Alice Comedies began to lose popularity, Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was released in 1927. In November 1928, Steamboat Willie was released, marking the first appearance of iconic Disney characters such as Mickey and Minnie Mouse. The Disney company began to grow year after year, establishing characters such as Donald Duck, and more. The company branched out into film in 1937 with the release of it's first full feature film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves". This was a major success and ultimately paved the way for more Disney films to be released.
Disneys growing success led to the development of their own theme park in California on July 17 1955. This allowed Disney characters and merchandise to be promoted on a large scale. The theme park was so successful that others were made around the world. This allowed for the already large audience to expand further in places such as Tokyo, Florida and Paris. Since the parks opening, it has received a total of over 650 million guests. In 2013 the park hosted around 16.2 million guests, making it the third most visited park in that calendar year.
Another area that Disney began to focus more on is television. Disney had already made shows for television in the past but the year1983 marked the airing of 'The Disney Channel'. This essentially allowed Disney to create and show content on a regular basis on their own channel. From this spawned multiple franchises such as Thats So Raven, Recess and The Suit Life of Zack and Cody. Each franchise offered an enormous amount of profit and merchandise to sell. Over the years, the Disney Channel has led to the fabrication of other Disney-owned channels such as Disney XD and Disney Junior. This variation in programming allowed Disney owned properties to be shown to specific audiences on their own channels.
Disney has also found new ways to innovate the film industry to achieve critical and commercial success. Films such as Toy story showed how Disney were able to adapt from hand drawn films to computer animated films and even acquired Pixar in 2006 in order to bring forward the next generation of Disney films. Disney has also in recent years acquired Marvel and Lucasfilms in order to gain profit from franchises such as The Avengers which generated over $1 billion in ticket sales and a new wave of Star Wars films. Through the release of films, Disney are also able to profit from video games such as "Disney Infinity" that can tie directly into films or be completely independent. These games are extremely popular and offer a new audience of Disney fans to appeal to.
Frozen is an example of a recent Disney film that has been able to generate an astounding amount of popularity and profit globally. The film had a total budget of $150 million and achieved a box office gross of $1.219 bn, making it the fifth highest grossing film of all time. The film was able to help revitalise the classic Disney musical genre and draw in fans of all ages. The film was able to further increase it's profit with the help of marketing for merchandise for the film. The sales were so successful that most shops tended to run out of stocked frozen items; an estimated total of $1 billion in retail revenue was brought in a year. The decision was made to turn the hit song 'Let It Go' into a single in the year of release. The song was able to reach number 10 in the top 100 charts with over 3.5 million copies being sold in the US. The song and film were awarded with best animated feature film of the year, best original song and even a grammy.
Tuesday 3 February 2015
Ill Manors
Ill manors is a British film that was released in 2012. The film had an estimated budget of £100,000 with an overall box-office gross of £453,570 after eight weeks. The film was successful as it was able to make a sizeable profit from its low-budget. The success that the film received can be largely attributed towards the marketing and promotion that allowed the film to become popular.
The film was rapper Plan B's first attempt at making a film and was promoted to be looking at a Broken Britain. This hard-hitting genre of film is quite appealing to British audiences so it was important that the film was able to market and promote the film in a way that reflected its tone. A large part of the films initial promotion was headed by Plan B as he released an album named Ill Manors prior to the films release. The album was largely successful and was able to build up an already large fan-base. The film was created in order to further promote the album further and as a result draw his fan-base in to watch it. The album was also used as a soundtrack for the film. This was an extremely successful way of promoting the film even before production had begun. Both the album and the film were able to gain an enormous amount of attention from this.
The music was used to further promote the film as footage was used from the film in the music video. This allows Plan B's fan base to witness some of the film though his music and expand the audience while saving money that would usually be used to advertise. Low costing publicity was gained from the use of film festivals from around the world. This allowed the film to reach a broader audience and gain some positive reviews and praise from fans that could be used to further promote the film. Ill Manors was also able to win a number of awards at these film festival that would all be beneficial to the increasing popularity of the film.
The posters that were released for the film gave audiences their first glimpse at the film. The poster featured one of the main characters holding a gun in his hand in a London background. Dark and gritty colour tones are used to reflect the serious tones of the film. The use of the gun is a clear indicator to the audience of the themes that are going to run throughout the film. The poster features a number of critic reviews to promote some of the positive feedback that the film had received in a way that allows audiences to see.
Trailers were released and used to promote the film that were able to reflect the tone, genre and style. The trailers featured songs from Plan B's album that are used to promote the Ill Manors album and film. The film was further promoted through social media websites such as Facebook and twitter. This was responsible for a large amount of promotion for the film as it received over 30,000 likes on Facebook and thousands of followers on Twitter, all for no cost. The film even had a website that would be updated with the latest information and trailers. By using the social media websites the film was able to appeal to a wider audience of many different ages by setting up fan pages and using hashtags to promote the film. Posters of the film were posted on these websites that used positive critic reviews to make the film seem more appealing to audiences.
The films' premiere was another extremely useful tool in the promotion of the film. This allowed the cast to be interviewed and individually promote the film. Celebrities were also invited to attend the premiere. This was useful because celebrities have large followings and they can use social media websites such as Twitter or Facebook to leave their positive feedback. This then leads to a wider audience to hear about the film and its positive feedback. Critics were also able to attend the film premiere and the film was further praised with generally positive feedback that would be released to the public in the form of newspaper articles and web reviews.
In conclusion, Ill Manors was a low budget film that ultimately reduced the possibilities for the ways that the film could be marketed. As a result a number of low-budget methods such as social media and film festivals had to be used in order to gain a larger audience and positive feedback. The film was greatly aided by Plan B's fan base but further marketing and promotion was essential in the rise to the popularity that the film ultimately achieved.
The film was rapper Plan B's first attempt at making a film and was promoted to be looking at a Broken Britain. This hard-hitting genre of film is quite appealing to British audiences so it was important that the film was able to market and promote the film in a way that reflected its tone. A large part of the films initial promotion was headed by Plan B as he released an album named Ill Manors prior to the films release. The album was largely successful and was able to build up an already large fan-base. The film was created in order to further promote the album further and as a result draw his fan-base in to watch it. The album was also used as a soundtrack for the film. This was an extremely successful way of promoting the film even before production had begun. Both the album and the film were able to gain an enormous amount of attention from this.
The music was used to further promote the film as footage was used from the film in the music video. This allows Plan B's fan base to witness some of the film though his music and expand the audience while saving money that would usually be used to advertise. Low costing publicity was gained from the use of film festivals from around the world. This allowed the film to reach a broader audience and gain some positive reviews and praise from fans that could be used to further promote the film. Ill Manors was also able to win a number of awards at these film festival that would all be beneficial to the increasing popularity of the film.
The posters that were released for the film gave audiences their first glimpse at the film. The poster featured one of the main characters holding a gun in his hand in a London background. Dark and gritty colour tones are used to reflect the serious tones of the film. The use of the gun is a clear indicator to the audience of the themes that are going to run throughout the film. The poster features a number of critic reviews to promote some of the positive feedback that the film had received in a way that allows audiences to see.
Trailers were released and used to promote the film that were able to reflect the tone, genre and style. The trailers featured songs from Plan B's album that are used to promote the Ill Manors album and film. The film was further promoted through social media websites such as Facebook and twitter. This was responsible for a large amount of promotion for the film as it received over 30,000 likes on Facebook and thousands of followers on Twitter, all for no cost. The film even had a website that would be updated with the latest information and trailers. By using the social media websites the film was able to appeal to a wider audience of many different ages by setting up fan pages and using hashtags to promote the film. Posters of the film were posted on these websites that used positive critic reviews to make the film seem more appealing to audiences.
The films' premiere was another extremely useful tool in the promotion of the film. This allowed the cast to be interviewed and individually promote the film. Celebrities were also invited to attend the premiere. This was useful because celebrities have large followings and they can use social media websites such as Twitter or Facebook to leave their positive feedback. This then leads to a wider audience to hear about the film and its positive feedback. Critics were also able to attend the film premiere and the film was further praised with generally positive feedback that would be released to the public in the form of newspaper articles and web reviews.
In conclusion, Ill Manors was a low budget film that ultimately reduced the possibilities for the ways that the film could be marketed. As a result a number of low-budget methods such as social media and film festivals had to be used in order to gain a larger audience and positive feedback. The film was greatly aided by Plan B's fan base but further marketing and promotion was essential in the rise to the popularity that the film ultimately achieved.
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