7 key areas - Gravity

1. The issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice:

The most successful films come from the big companies, this is because they have more money to spend and therefore have bigger budgets to spend on producing films. A lot of successful films follow Mark Kermode’s four rules that he thinks if followed make a film impossible to lose money.  These four rules are having a newsworthy budget, spectacular visuals, not to be a comedy and include an ‘A list star’. Because the big companies have lots of money they can afford to spend money on the things like ‘A list stars’ and spectacular visuals meaning there films are a success and make money.

An example of a big film company is Warner Bros which is based in California and New York and has 19.7% of US/Canadian market share. Warner Bros dispute and produce a variety of different films from all different genera’s. Warner Bros makes films that will be remembered by people and that people want to see over and over again. The success of Warner Bros‘films is partly to do with the fact that they are such a well-known company with extremely high standards. So the audience know that a film released by them will be good and enjoyable, because of this they go to the cinema to see it and spend money on it. Because they have so much money it means they can set a big budget for the films.

One big budget film produced by Warner Bros is Gravity. Gravity had a budget of $100,000,000 and made a gross of $274,084,951 at the box office. They made a huge profit and more than doubled their budget.  This could be down to the stars that the film contained which were, Sandra Bullock, one of Hollywood's highest-paid actresses, and George Clooney, award winning actor. The film is not a comedy it is a science fiction thriller and contains what some critics called ‘the best visuals’. It had great CGI and effects. It’s no surprise this film did so well at the box office. A film with well-known stars, great effects and a large budget was pretty much set to do well at the cinema. Because of all of Gravtiy’s great aspects it meant it got a lot of publicity and was advertised all over. They made sure people knew gravity was coming and drew a large number of people into the audience, in effect to this they  made a lot of money which was one of their main aims as well as keeping up their great reputation.

2. The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing:

Companies now have to prepare for their film to be watched on lots of different devices such as phones, laptops, tablets as well as DVD. All this technology now plays a big part in film as people not only watch films on these devices but they are a huge aspect of marketing. Companies are now advertising their film on social media and pop up adverts. Because technology is now more advanced companies can reach out to people and a bigger audience can be reached meaning they will have a bigger audience, this will increase their profit.

Because technology has increased it means that films are more advanced and now the visuals are better than they were a few years ago. One film that has great visuals and effects is Gravity.   Gravity used green screens and suits to make them look like they were floating in space. Some scenes were filmed underwater too.

 

3. The technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange; Films are now produced and filmed digitally, this means that more copies of the film can be made and sent electronically to the cinemas. Because more copies can be made it means more money can be made as more people can see the film. Films can now be filmed by digital cameras, this makes production quicker and they can redo scenes over and over again if they need to.

Films can now be produced in many different ways; they can be released in Blu-ray, 3D or just plain DVD. This means that more money can be made for the companies. Having different types, like 3D, gives the customers and audience more choice and variety as to what to buy and spend their money on. Some people are more likely to buy the film if they can get it in a way that suits them.

3D (3 dimensional)

3D media is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception. It is when two cameras are used to film a scene from two different perspectives, it is also a computer generated images. 3D film was introduced in 1915 but didn’t see much success until the 21^st century where it was used for large block busters. Gravity was released in 3D, this meant that they made even more money at the cinema because the ticket price to see the film in 3D is significantly different than to see it in 2D.

Blue Ray

Blu Ray disc (BD) is a digital optical disk data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It is capable of showing high definition and it is have improved audio quality.

Internet streaming

Internet streaming is multimedia that s streamed by a receiver while being delivered by a provider. A client media player can begin to play or watch the chosen media before the content is fully downloaded.

4. The significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences

Film companies always have to change the ways the audiences can watch films. With much more options available, which are cheaper and easier to access, people are less likely to go to the cinema and are more likely to stream the film online. With popular companies like Netflix and Lovefilm available to the public, people are choosing to save money and wait for the film to be put on Netflix instead of going out to the cinema. Films can now be purchased through the TV on demand.

One thing that makes a film a success is if that film use advanced technology and ensures it is current. One of the reasons Gravity was a success was because it did this, it used a range of cameras and lots of different CGI to make the film have spectacular visuals. The film was also available in 3D .

5.  The importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences

Now a days everybody has a phone or tablet, not only can films be watched on these devices but they can be used to advertise the film through film posters, trailers and websites. Social media can also be used to share the film eg through twitter. This allows different companies and institutions to know about the film and spread the word through the internet.

The more publicity a film gets the more money the companies involved will make. Gravity was one of the most popular films of 2013 and made a total of  $274,084,951 in the USA alone and in its opening weekend made $55,785,112. Without social media and the internet that wouldn’t of been possible

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6. the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions

Promoting the film is very important as the film will be competing with other films released around the same time. Film promotion usually includes press releases advertising campaigns, merchandise interviews, trailers and the opening weekend.

The gravity trailer included some of the affects and CGI from the film, this made the trailer look exciting and made people want to go to the cinema to see the film and find out what happens in the film as the trailer leaves the audience questioning the film and the trailer contains cliff-hangers. 

7. The ways in which the candidates& own experiences of the media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audiences behaviour.

I think that the type of companies involved with the making of films does make a huge difference in how successful the film does at the box office. The bigger the company and how well known it is makes a difference because this effects how big the budget is. The bigger the budget the better the film does and the more money it makes. I also think that without technology some films wouldn’t of done anywhere near as well as they did. Because they wouldn’t contain the visuals that they do which for some films, like Gravity is their main selling point. As well as this I’ve discovered that going to the cinema is no longer the biggest way of viewing films.