Thursday 28 April 2016

AS Essential Revision

1. Star Wars The Force Awakens (2015) Dir. J.J. Abrams

Producer - 

Kathleen Kennedy
J. J. Abrams
Bryan Burk

Director -

J. J. Abrams

Distributor-

Walt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures

Cast-

Harrison Ford - Han Solo
Mark Hamill - Luke Skywalker
Carrie Fisher - Princess Leia 
Adam Driver - Kylo Ren
Daisy Ridley - Rey

Budget-

$306 million (gross)
$245 (net)

Locations-

Skellig Michael, County Kerry, Ireland 
Iceland
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Greenham Common / Lake District, England & Scotland UK
New Mexico & California USA
Pinewood Studios, England UK

Technology-


 



Friday 22 April 2016

January 2012 Essay

January 2012

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


Distribution is part of the third section of the supply chain film process and is often referred to as the Invisible Art. Digital distribution is in the form of the future and the fast growing development of technology and easy accessible online distribution. 

Two films which I have been studying are Mad Max Fury Road an American blockbuster directed by George Miller and Ex Machina a small independent British film directed by Alex Garland. Both films are successful but in different ways. Mad Fury Road is more profitable as it had a larger budget and a bigger crew team, it cost $150 million to produce and turned over $374 million at the box office. Ex Machina only made $36.9 million with a budget if $15 million. Ex Machina is a success in response to it's Britishness being unpredictable, the product would appeal to older film aficionados as it contains full frontal nudity where as Mad Max Fury Road aims to target a larger and older audience who enjoy continuous action.

The marketing of Mad Max was expensive costing them $7 million on TV advertising and an extra $4.37 million from Warner.Bros who helped them to advertise. Their image of advertising was going all out and targeting a wide market, by creating posters, turning an F1 car into a Mad Max car which looked rusty, and releasing constant video teasers, the first released on the 10th of December 2014. They spent a large amount of money on advertising because they were targeting their product at a wide audience who were the typical mainstream audience who like predominant action scenes and car chases. Ex Machina on the other hand was successful due to minimalistic advertising which heavily reflects their films context. They made social media their central focus point and made an app where you could have your face drawn by Eva (the artificial intelligence in the film), also a fake Tinder account was created which pretended to be an attractive 25 year old woman who was actually the actress who was playing the AI (Ava) in the film (Alicia Vikander), and was speaking to men who were then tricked and were directed to an Instagram page which was promoting Ex Machina. This was only done in Austin America which in comparison to other film marketing covers a very small proportion of the US. They relied heavily on self-promoting, receiving extra kudos from their fans spreading the excitement for them. The films advertising is almost parallel to its content, for example, the way in which fans were 'tricked' by the App symbolises the same process in the film where Caleb is 'tricked' into believing that he has been randomly selected to win a trip to the CEO of the company he works for. Advertising was also very minimalistic and simple but effective, this is the same in relation to the film as it is slow paced and simplistic where action is kept to a minimum, yet Ex Machina is perceived by a small part of the viral market as unique and a fantastic film, this shows how much of a successful part digital distribution has had on impacting the profitability of these films.

Distributing and exchanging a film with it's targeted audience has become a significant development over the past few years with the introduction of online internet streaming like Netflix and Amazon prime which offer audiences the chance to watch a film in their own homes through 'streaming' it, many fans have used this service to re watch a film after watching it in the cinema, this has generated extra sales for the film industry. Films can also now be downloaded online, which a lot of fans do 'illegally', Mad Max Fury Road was one of the most pirated films (in the top five) in 2015 and had 22.90 million shares on the torrent network. The film had 1.75 million pirated downloads over summer. Blu-ray also been another successful technological development in the exchanging process of a film, Mad Max Fury Road generated 48% of its second week sales from Blue-ray and remained on top of both national home video sales charts for two consecutive weeks. The success of this film has clearly been achieved through alternative methods of exchange like Blue-ray and online downloads which has caused the distribution of the film industry to become bigger and more profitable that ever before. Mad Max Fury Road is also set to release a console video game based of the film series in 2015 which shows how the film has become a success even a year after the original exchanging methods. Ex Machina was distributed unexpectedly and increased slowly in popularity, the product was distributed by Universal Pictures, and was released by piggy backing onto the Avengers ending excitement which then helped Ex Machina to increase it's screens. It was originally released on four US screens, and after a few weeks managed to increase to 1200 screens. A week after Avengers came out it was showing on 2000 screens with a running time of 1 hour and 50 minutes. Mad Max went straight out and came out in 2D and was re mastered into 3D on Imax. Neither Mad Max Fury Road or Ex Machina are four quadrant as they are both rating 15+.

The development of digital distribution is creating a huge success in the film industry and helping films to reach a wider audience upon consumption. This is however giving films with a larger budget (typically action/adventures) an advantage over the smaller independent film companies as they can afford to produce more marketing material and dominate the industry, giving film goers less choice and more of the same. But the new advances in distribution could have a greater benefit to small companies, if the online methods remain cheaper and easier to produce.

Digital Dustribution


Why does Steve McQueen think digital is replacing film?
“All this technology, it’s changing every five minutes,” he says, “because someone’s making some money out of it.”

Which studio was first to announce that it would no longer make films using 'film'?
Paramount Pictures

What was the last 'film' to be shipped on 'film'?
Anchorman 2: the Legend Continues

What proportion of US cinemas have made the switch from 35mm to digital?
Nine out of ten US movie screens have now made the switch from 35mm film to digital.

What was the first 'major' film to be distributed in digital format only?
The Wolf of Wall Street 

What is the average cost of a digital projector?
Typically cost between $60,000 and $150,000 each.

Why has the switch to digital meant that small independent cinemas have struggled?
Independent film-makers still need rich patrons and the number of films made by Hollywood has fallen considerably

Which major Hollywood director has attempted to make a stand for digital film?
Christopher Horak

How much did the US box office make in 2014
A record $11bn

How much did the home entertainment market (DVD, BluRay, Download etc) in 2014?
Revenues of $18bn

What was the increase in home entertainment revenue due to?
50 per cent surge in downloads of digital HD formats, which surpassed $1bn for the first time.

What was the first film to be shot entirely on digital?
In 2002,Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones became the first major movie to be shot entirely on digital video

What would have been the cost of shooting that film on digital?
If they had used the same amount of film, it would have cost them $1.8m.

How much does it cost to produce and ship a film to a US cinema?
To produce and ship a 35mm print to an American cinema costs about $1,500. Multiply that by, say, 5,000 prints for a big movie and it comes to $7.5m.
What is the distribution benefit of digital?
Digital distribution makes it feasible to launch a movie simultaneously on tens of thousands of screens across the planet

What happened to 'film' prints of Titanic?
Titanic reportedly played for so long in theatres that some prints fell apart in the projectors.

What has happened to the number of films made by Hollywood between 2006-2013?
The number of films made by Hollywood has fallen considerably – by 40 per cent between 2006 and 2013, according to one count.

Why, according to Jan-Christoph Horak, is digital NOT immortal?
“The problem, in a nutshell, is that there is no such thing as a digital preservation medium,” he explains. “There is no physical carrier on which you can put digital information that will last anywhere near as long as the analogue alternative.”

Why is advancing technology also a problem for digital storage?
When it comes to digital, archivists are faced with two problems. The first is the perishability of the physical equipment. The second is that every 18 months or so, a new file format comes along to displace its predecessors and, as a result of this constant upgrade cycle, archivists face a kind of Sisyphean dilemma.

How much, according to Jan-Christoph Horak, could transfering one form of digital to another cost the film industry?
Each leap in format costs between $10,000 and $20,000 per film, he says. He has roughly 350,000 films and television shows in his archive – a potential outlay of $3.5bn just for one leap between file types.

How much did the camera used on The Avengers cost?
Canon EOS 7D – an SLR camera that will fit in the palm of your hand and costs £900 to buy.

Apart from cost, what other benefits does digital offer to film makers?
Some argue that digital cameras can breed indiscipline on a film set.

How much has technicolour invested in digital post production?
The company has invested more than $200m in digital post-production and visual effects facilities

What is a DCP?
All of that has been replaced, for the time being at least, by something called DCP, or Digital Cinema Package. It involves a hard drive, roughly the size of a paperback, which is couriered to the theatre, where it is unpacked from its protective foam-lined case and slotted into a server that feeds a digital projector. For multiplexes showing new movies, the road map to DCP has been straightforward: the studios have been prepared to subsidise the switch, because it cuts their cost base so much.

What is the Electric Dusk drive-in?
The Electric Dusk drive-in in downtown Los Angeles has hit upon a solution of sorts: it shows films on DVD. It’s a kind of guerrilla operation – a pop-up drive-in in an abandoned marketplace, flanked by scenes of urban decay and boasting a giant inflatable screen. It opens for business once a fortnight or so. It specialises in 1980s and 1990s nostalgia; the night we visit, Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands (1990) is showing. It’s a rare chance to experience an American rite that is quickly becoming a thing of the past.