Section B

From The Spec:  Candidates should be prepared to understand and discuss the processes of production, distribution, marketing and exchange as they relate to contemporary media institutions, as well as the nature of audience consumption and the relationships between audiences and institutions. In addition, candidates should be familiar with:

From The Spec: A study of a specific studio or production company within a contemporary film industry that targets a British audience (eg Hollywood, Bollywood, UK film), including its patterns of production, distribution, exhibition and consumption by audiences. This should be accompanied by study of contemporary film distribution practices (digital cinemas, DVD, HD-DVD, downloads, etc) and their impact upon production, marketing and consumption.

How’s It Marked?  It’s very similar to Section A  20 Marks for Analysis & Argument  20 Marks for Examples Given  10 Marks for Terminology

So What Do We Need To Know Really?  You need to be able to discuss issues of production, marketing, distribution, and consumption in the film industry in relation to the following topics: ◦ Media ownership ◦ Cross-media convergence and synergy ◦ Technology ◦ Proliferation of hardware and content ◦ Technological convergence ◦ Marketing ◦ Consumption

Let’s Make A Movie  What’s our genre?  Who’s are audience?  What ways are we going to market this film? ◦ How many can you come up with?

Research  What are the ways in which films are usually distributed and marketed.  Make notes as part of an individual revision PPT

How Do You Define Britishness?  DEFINING A BRITISH FILM ◦ There are various different 'official' ways of categorising British film. The British Film Institute (BFI—not to be confused with the British Film Industry which has the same initials) divides films into the following categories:  Category A: films made with British money, personnel and resources.  Category B: films co-funded with money from Britain and from foreign investment, but the majority of finance, cultural content and personnel are British.  Category C: films with mostly foreign (but non USA) investment and a small British input, either financially or creatively.  Category D: films made in the UK with (usually) British cultural content, but financed fully or partly by American companies.  Category E: American films with some British involvement.

Homework: Can You Come Up With A List?  DEFINING A BRITISH FILM ◦ There are various different 'official' ways of categorising British film. The British Film Institute (BFI—not to be confused with the British Film Industry which has the same initials) divides films into the following categories:  Category A: films made with British money, personnel and resources.  Category B: films co-funded with money from Britain and from foreign investment, but the majority of finance, cultural content and personnel are British.  Category C: films with mostly foreign (but non USA) investment and a small British input, either financially or creatively.  Category D: films made in the UK with (usually) British cultural content, but financed fully or partly by American companies.  Category E: American films with some British involvement.

Homework: Can You Come Up With A List?  DEFINING A BRITISH FILM ◦ There are various different 'official' ways of categorising British film. The British Film Institute (BFI—not to be confused with the British Film Industry which has the same initials) divides films into the following categories:  Category A: films made with British money, personnel and resources.  Category B: films co-funded with money from Britain and from foreign investment, but the majority of finance, cultural content and personnel are British.  Category C: films with mostly foreign (but non USA) investment and a small British input, either financially or creatively.  Category D: films made in the UK with (usually) British cultural content, but financed fully or partly by American companies.  Category E: American films with some British involvement.

Intervention Opportunity  Miss Greenacre will be doing a 3 hour workshop on Section B of the exam on April the 28 th, lesson 3-5.  Come and hear the other half of G&G (G- Squared?). She’s good!

We’re Going To Watch The First 10 Minutes of 2 Films  The Boat That Rocked  This Is England

What’s Going On With The Audience?  We’ve talked about how new technologies and proliferation of options online and offline has resulted in the fragmentation  This is made even more splintered thanks to on- demand viewing and PVRing allowing for even traditional audiences to be splintered  What does this mean for film?  Csigo argued that this splintering can cause an audience to ‘fall together’ as the proliferation of technologies actually opens you up to a larger potential audience by triggering engagement across techologies

Triggering Engagement?  Daredevil  Avatar  Twitter  The X Factor (5 th Judge)  Transfers media from Push Media to Pull Media ◦ In push media, we’re passive and the content is forced onto us ◦ In pull media, we’re actively engaging with the media on a deeper level. We decide what we want to do with the media and access it in ways that fit us

We’ve Talked About Audience. What’s an Institution?  The word institution refers to the companies and organisations that provide media content, whether for profit, public service or another motive  The relationship between media providers, the public and the media itself is one of power  But who has it?  Did Warner Brothers make Batman vs Superman because we love superhero movies or do we go and see Batman vs Superman because we’re trained to enjoy superhero movies  Are superhero films the new disaster movies

Who’s Got The Power?  If you break it down and look at is as a business then the audience has the greatest power. It’s the audience that tells you what they like. So if the audience likes a particular superstar, then Hollywood is forced to use the superstar and that star becomes extremely powerful Tony Angellotti (Hollywood Insider)

Who’s Got The Power?  In a world where money spent on the budget of a film often sees 50 per cent going on promotion as opposed to what you actually see on screen, the idea that we have a world where the consumer can exercise authority is absurd. This industry is like any other. Of course it has to sell things, but it doesn’t rely on waiting, listening, responding to what audiences want and then delivering that to them. It relies on knowing which parts of the world and the media need its products and will pay for them. Toby Miller (academic)

Who’s Got The Power?  Which one is correct?  It’s hard to argue against the logic in #1 but in a system where promotion and placement are decided for us, it limits our choices considerably  E.G. options at GCSE

Who’s Got The Power?  Look up the movie listings for this week for cinemas in the following towns  Kings Lynn, Wisbech, Peterborough Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge Make note of which films are being shown, which studio produced these films and how many screenings each film is getting. What type of films are getting shown in 3D? Which types of films are getting shown on multiple screens? How many going to non Big 6?

Who’s Got The Power?  Consider Batman vs Superman  We know that

What Is Convergence?  This goes 2 ways  Technological convergence ◦ Multiple technologies coming together. ◦ Iphone (camera, moving image camera, web browser, calculator, sound recorder, guitar tuner, etc)  Cross Media Convergence ◦ Media industries that diversify so that they produce and distribute across different media types ◦ I can watch Gogglebox on traditional tv (Channel 4) or on demand on 4OD via Sky/Smart TVs/PS4 etc ◦ I can read Sports Illustrated off the newsstand, visit the website, view the app, follow the Twitter feed  We no longer live in a world where these things exist separately (NME.com)

Inventions That Changed Everything

Digital Distribution  Is traditional tv/film on the demise?  BBC 3 went online only in 2016  More and more programming is being offered in a digital realm first and foremost ◦ House of Cards, The Ranch, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt  Or within moments ◦ Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul available on Netflix the next day ◦ Hulu has many US shows the next day ◦ BBC iplayer, NBC.com, etc  Many others are accessible on demand via Sky/Now TV  Are YouTube channels in danger of replacing TV channels?

But Let’s Talk About Film  There are 3 main areas to film  Production – Making The Film  Distribution – Promoting the film and getting them into cinemas, onto DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital as well as licensing  Consumption – People buying the media product