1. Preparing for Section B of your AICE Exam

2. Production Distribution Marketing
How do the following processes relate to contemporary media institutions?
Production
Distribution
Marketing
Production (making the film): inception and ideas, writing, pitching, setting the budget, casting, filming, editing
Distribution (the middle man): studio buys the rights, studio makes licensing agreement with a distribution company and they decide how many copies of the film will be made; negotiate deals to sell the lease to retail buyers like various internet hubs, cable channels, etc. Sometimes this is linked with marketing but it is safer to keep them separate.

3. Explain the relationship between audiences and institutions.
All media is produced for an audience
Are they passive consumers?
Previously it was assumed the audience was a bunch of passive receptors where the all powerful media was able to inject their products and ideas. This is no longer necessarily true—in many ways there has been a blurring of boundaries--consumer becomes the producer—though we haven’t really seen a Spielberg level director using their phone. Still, consumers can no longer be considered passive. Consumers can now produce (on their phones and camcorders), distribute (on youtube, facebook, etc.) and exhibit (youtube, facebook, etc.)
How healthy is it that such a small amount of company can control what the public sees and what they don’t see and how they shape audiences ideas

4. What are some of the issues raised by media ownership and funding in contemporary media?
To be able to answer this type question on your exam you need to: Research both independent and mainstream production companies and compare the types of films that these companies make and how they reached their target audience.
How do media conglomerates effect the smaller independent players?
If media conglomerates dominate the media, what are some of the problems?
Translation: How the ownership of the production, distribution and exhibition companies affects the type of films that are made.

5. What is the importance of cross-media convergence and synergy
Technological Convergence
Output Convergence
Know a few examples of media conglomerates and a few of their subsidiaries (along with a movie or two that they have made)
16/10/28/ /big-media-companies-and- their-many-brands-in-one-chart
Translation: How do all aspects of the media (websites, newspapers, television etc) come together to market a film? How do companies work together to produce and distribute films.
Synergy is businesses working together.
Media institutions exploit various platforms to sell various products related to one film (e.g. film and soundtrack and videogame)
Technological Convergence: Smart phones, smart tvs game consoles, ipads, etc.
Output convergence: Institutions producing and distributing across a range of media (e.g. videogames coming together with films). With digital technology allowing for convergence it is for the convenience of the viewer and helps with marketing, especially as a small institution. It’s a lot different with the heavy hitters—they have absolute saturation where they can take over homepages of certain websites. Consequently, there is not a level playing field.
Bigger budgets that can be used to attract bigger stars, better technology, special effects, etc. May have been developed by smaller companies and then will seek more financing from larger companies for distribution. Ultimately means working with other companies through synergistic horizontal integration as opposed to the old style of vertical integration where every aspect of film making was done by one major company. Will help support you, even if it’s a flop but they’ve got you by the balls and may ask your film to be cut in a particular way.
Black Swan: Fox Searchlight—had teaser trailers, multiple trailers and featurettes on TV and online, worked with a number of companies (horizontal integration) released by parent company with a larger distribution network, expensive to release posters worldwide, film can be made or broken by online buzz, forums, marketing through cross media promotion—ex; Mina Kunis in Escquire, on Jimmy Kimmel live, in Cosmopolitan, on the radio, reviews online, in blogs, forums, youtube, etc. Fox Searchlight actually has its own youtube channel helping to get this viral, parody's of the trailers, one even from Jim Carrey. Official facebook page, with incentives for following, etc.

6. What are some of the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of:
Production
Distribution
Marketing
Exhibition
Disadvantages?
Translation: Show you are aware of how new technology has been used to improve the making, distributing, marketing and exhibition on film.
New technology, along with convergence, has been a favorite stop off point for the exam questions as it represents a new phase in the media—the audience now has the chance to interact, can put videos on youtube, can answer videos—this level of interaction has only been made possible by the web. Ex: digital film, the ways of editing that anyone can now get on their laptop, digital projection which eliminates the need for the companies to send the reels to the individual cinemas, online marketing to get their product out there to target audiences (phone apps, facebook, etc.). Film companies still have the upper hand when it comes to HD, SPFX etc.
Disadvantages: file sharing and piracy, cost, built in obsolescence. Must come out with the released product pretty much immediately after leaving the cinema. Cinema chains are not happy about this because they put a bunch of money into these new technologies and they are not really seeing the benefits. We know that the technology will be superseded and any massive investments in cinema will still have to change yet.

7. What is the significance of the spread of these technologies for institutions and audiences?
More films, but are they better?
Show you understand how the increase and improvements made in technology are affecting the ways that films are made and distributed today. Also, be able to assess how technological improvements have impacted the viewing experience, at home and in the cinema.
For production: With advances in digital technology, the ranks of independents have swollen—all you need is an HD camcorder, editing software.
For distribution: 20th Century fox is a global company that distributes films for exhibition world-wide, something they have done for many years. Only recently with the internet have independent production companies been able to do the same, turning the world into a “global village” (meaning they can also distribute films worldwide)
Netflix, Hulu, itunes, Amazon Prime, etc. all offer streamed and/or downloadable films. New technologies means people can rent or buy films on their computers (no more blockbuster)
Crowd funding projects (such as kickstarter) has changed the layout of things.
For Marketing: Even though there have always been low budget film makers that still managed to get their films produced, the issue has always been getting it seen.
For Exhibition: You had to have the money to give to cinemas to exhibit it. Most cinemas no longer require heavy cans to get shipped around and most have digital projectors so you really just need a playable file format to get your film ready for exhibition, more or less breaking a monopoly that these companies have had for years.
While Piracy is a huge issue, sometimes it can even help bolster the success of a show or film. For instance, the director of Game of Thrones said piracy is Ok as it helps to bolster the shows “cultural buzz” on which the show thrives.
Yet, when it comes to the institutions, CGI, SXFX, etc. is overall still done much better. For your own research, look up your case studies and look up what cameras they used, what special effects, special effects software they used, did they use digital distribution methods to get their film out there and how did all this help them.

8. What is the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences?
-The consumers have become the producers and distributers
Understand how new technologies can combine to produce, market, distribute and exhibit a film successfully.
The new phase we are in with the internet that allows us to create material, distribute it and share with one another—this situation did not exist prior to the mid 90s. The internet has become a hub—posters, youtube videos, interviews, trailers, official film and blog websites. The consumer has become the producers on youtube as they release them into the world

9. What are some of the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences by global institutions?
How do you make something appeal to a global audience?
How does targeting national and global audiences affect production and distribution financially?
How films are marketed and targeting specific audiences and what are some of the challenges? For instance, Slumdog Millionaire—originally aimed at Asians in the UK, but when the film was unexpectedly successful at film festivals it led to another theatric release and widespread popularity and financial success. This is unusual.

10. In what ways do your own experiences with media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends in audience behavior?
Why do you watch films?
Is this indicative of any larger audience patterns that you can think of?
Do you tend to have trends in what you watch?
Do you find yourself always at the cinema looking at the same kind of thing?
How do you watch films? On your mobile device , TV, Playstation, etc.?
If you watch them in any of these ways, are you unusual or are you just doing what everyone else you know does? As far as the institutions are concerned, there is a major shift happening. DVD sales are falling while downloads are increasing. Audiences are changing how they want to consume film and they are demanding these changes. The question is what the audience of the future will look like? Can you predict it? Will it stay the same? Will technologies affect this? May be a part of a conclusion in one of your essays though probably will not be a question on its own.

11. Evaluate the effect of vertical and horizontal integration on the production and consumption of media texts
Production
Consumption
Vertical: a company has control of its own production, distribution and sales
Horizontal: company has formal links with other forms of media
Vertical integration used to be the key—studios used to produce, distribute and exhibit so that every single penny went back to the parent company but in the last few years digital technology has posed a threat—anyone can do what studios used to do but for a fraction of the cost due to a variety of distribution platforms available.
Production: studios started to work with the other media formats, rather than against them. By achieving ownership of several different forms of media at once the studios became multi-media conglomerates and quickly saw that the different forms of media could work together to increase profits.
Consumption (another word for exhibition): Rather than thinking about the audience as a single group sharing similar tastes and behaving in the same way, industries consider their audience as being a set of diverse groups with different desires. Media texts are packaged and marketed with a view to meeting the various gratification needs these audiences have and horizontal integration makes that process easier