FILM INDUSTRY

TASK 1

Read Kevin Maher (The Times film critic) on Trolls World Tour (Universal).

Use the case study to respond to the following 2 exam essays separately, so 2 paragraphs. Keep each to three or four crisp, factual sentences. Bonus points: refer to Netflix, disruption, your own film consumption.

Essay question 1: How far has digital technology changed patterns of distribution? (2015)

Kevin Maher's article(The Times) on the unique release of "Trolls: world Tour" (Universal), gives a brief explanation of the situation. Due to the cinemas being close due to the COVID-19 outbreak, distributors have had to get creative with how they get their audiences to view their Films. One such example was "Trolls: World Tour", which released immateriality to consumer's homes and can be accessed with various streaming platforms. For Maher, "it could signify the end of cinema-going". Arguably, there will always be a demand for the cinema due to the features that are not found anywhere else. Large projector screen, reclining seats (premium), beverages, surround sound speakers. As wells as this, technology has changed distribution in a normal scenario. Matt Smith of the FDA stated that the rise of technology has led distributors increasing their spend on the digital. 

Essay question 2: To what extent does audience behaviour determine changes in the media industry? (2015)

The home release of "Trolls: World Tour" is a key example of how Audience Behaviour has resulted in a great change in the media industry. This is a unique scenario where a film production has gone past a cinema release and allowed it to be viewed for the first time at consumers' homes. This decision will and has had a great effect on the media industry. Will we see similar releases in the future? Surprisingly, Universal has already announced another film production that will skip a theatrical run and go straight to home media, "The High Note". This was done, despite the backlash, universal was receiving from theatrical chains.

TASK 2

Revise our case study for Disney Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Use these materials here about Disney as a conglomerate - also use these words: mega-franchise, synergy, as in a conglomerate like Disney, targets its audiences through a vertically integrated web of companies that cross-promote each film using synergy. This is known as vertical integration.

Article here from 27 February 2019

and here on how Disney marketed RO

Essay question 3: Evaluate the importance of media ownership on the media texts which get produced.

There is a great importance on the ownership of media, as it allows large compies to have a wide-spread influence with a multitude of brands. However, it can lead to a monopoly of genres getting the lime-light, whereas smaller compies with their lower budgets struggle to attract audience due the large compies having massive marketing strategies. One such example of these companies with corporate empires (Vertical Integration) is Disney. This means that Disney has free reign over marketing towards a target audience, as at least one of their many brands will interest a person.

Disney owns a range of non-film production companies such as the FOX new network. This would allow Disney to promote their film on other platforms. On top of this Disney's massive budget for their productions allow for crossover with other products and companies. 

An example of this would be "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story", for this example the Star Wars brand would cross over with numerous brands. However, this is not an unique account, a majority of Disney's production receive this marketing. A key example of Disney's cross-overs would be LEGO, as the released for "Rogue One" came close more and more LEGO sets depicting scene from the film were released. These LEGO sets build hype, as it causes people to talk more about the film. As well as this, Disney partnered with Uber for the release of "Rogue One", the Uber app received a Star Wars-themed makeover. Instead of a car icon appearing on the map, a space ship was used in its place. An example of Disney using synergy between its brands for marketing is how the toy production(excluding LEGO)  for "Rogue One" was handle by Hasbro, a toy company that was purchased by Disney in 2014.