MEDIA OWNERSHIPSection B: Institutions & Audiences

AS Media Studies

• To succeed in this section of the Key Media Concepts exam you need to develop a case study on a particular studio or production company. This institution must be located in a contemporary film industry and it must produce and/or distribute films to the UK. The focus will be on how this institution relates to:

• Production: making films

• Distribution: promoting films and getting them into cinemas and out on DVD/UMD, as well as any spin offs/related media products

• Consumption: people paying at the cinema, renting or buying DVDs/UMDs, downloading

Consider these two competing views of who holds

the most power in terms of influencing what films

get made and seen:

If you break it down and look at it 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 then becomes extremely powerful.

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.

• The first statement is from Tony Angellotti, from within

Hollywood, and the second is from Toby Miller, an academic,

both quoted in an article by Helen Dugdale (2006, p. 52). They

can't both be right and you therefore need to come to an

informed judgement on this dynamic. In reality, the question is

much broader and is really to do with the nature of capitalism

as a way of organising society! Put simply, does 'market forces'

competition give the consumer more power and choice and

thus influence what gets made for us to buy? Or does it

actually convince us that what we want is what is being made

for us? In the case of film marketing, it is a complex issue. Do

millions of people go to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2 in the

first week of release because it is such a great film, or because

it is so well marketed? Or both?

• Film distribution describes everything that happens in between production (making the film) and exhibition (people watching the film in cinemas or on DVD/UMD, on television, via the internet or on a plane, or anywhere else). Far from being a straightforward state of affairs, distribution involves all of the deals done to get films shown (many films never get seen) and, just as importantly, promoted. This promotion involves paid for 'above the line' advertising, which will be funded as part of the project, such as trailers, posters, billboards and various spin-offs which are of mutual benefit to the film and another commercial agency, for example a McDonalds 'Happy Meal' with a film theme. It also includes related merchandising and 'below the line' publicity which is not paid for, but again generates mutual interest. For example, an interview with a star in a newspaper or magazine and reviews (the former will generally be positive, but the latter is, of course, the great unknown for film producers).

• It is crucial not to see film distribution as a 'helpful' stage

in the life of a film whereby distributors treat all films

equally and ensure fair play in getting films to the public's

attention. The key players, the big companies who control

much of the industry, control distribution of their own

products, and of others (example 20th Century Fox and

Avatar). Effectively films are loaned out to cinemas for a

finite period and release deals are done that secure

access to a certain number of screens at a time. In the UK

film market, an increase in the quantity of screens

showing films has not led to an increase in the number of

films shown.

• Five major distributors dominate the UK film industry:United International Pictures (Universal is part of this company), Warner Brothers, Buena Vista, Twentieth Century Fox and Sony. Roughly nine of every ten films seem in the UK are viewed as a result of these distributors. In most cases these distributors are directly linked to the Hollywood production companies who make the films. They deal with exhibitors who are no longer (as used to be the case) owned by the same Hollywood companies, but who do, for reasons of profit, prioritise Hollywood films over others. Usually the blockbuster films we are familiar with are distributed via 'blanket release', so even if a small UK independent company manages to get its product into cinemas, it is usually competing for attention with one or more films that take on the status of an 'event'. One of the outcomes of the distribution arrangement outlined above is that half of the films released in Britain do not reach the whole country.

• Perhaps surprisingly, given we live in the digital age, one of the obvious problems smaller companies face is a rather old fashioned one. Every film shown in a cinema is a separate 'print' of the film, projected via a reel. The major companies can afford to produce far more prints than the smaller companies, knowing the expensive outlay of funds at this stage will be worth it in relation to box office returns. A small company producing a less commercial product cannot afford to do that, so people who do want to see more 'alternative' films often have to wait until their local independent cinema has a print, and often there is little choice over where and when to see it. The UK Film Council is addressing this problem via its Digital Screen Network —the deal is that cinemas receiving financial support to equip themselves with digital facilities (thus avoiding the issue of prints) will in return be expected to show more films from independent distributors.

Identifying 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.

• It is fairly obvious that Britain can claim a great number of films under the D and E descriptions, a decent number in categories B and C and very few that have been successful as category A films. There are few well known 'purely British' films. And this equation becomes even more complicated when we start to explore the notion of where the money comes from. For example, if a film is made by a British film company, but that company is owned by a larger American group, is the production financed in the UK? And what is the significance of distribution? If a film is 'purely British' at the production stage but it is distributed in this country by an American company (who then claw back a chunk of the box office profits), is this film really a success story for the British Film Industry? For your case study, you will need to ask these questions and explore the way the studio/company operates both in 'old fashioned' production and distribution contexts and in the current online distribution and intermedial ‘spin off’ climate.

• Lying between; intervening; intermediate

• UK film production experienced a crisis in 2005 and early 2006. Investment in the making of films dropped, largely due to the rate of the English pound against the American dollar and the availability of low cost studios in Eastern Europe. But later in 2006 and since, investment has returned, and this is related to a new Government policy of tax relief. This allows producers to be exempt from certain tax payments. Previously there had been a compulsion for films to be mainly shot in the UK for them to qualify for the avoidance of tax, but in March 2006 this was revised to allow for more overseas filming, an attractive amendment for investors. This is a great example of the importance of politics in understanding the media. It is impossible to critically assess the relationship between British films and audiences by only thinking about cultural reasons why British cinema is more or less successful in relation to Hollywood blockbusters. ‘Behind the scenes' there are financial, political and institutional reasons why films do or don't get made and released and seen by a potential audience.

Research

• Research a recent British film.

• Each person needs to:

• write plot summary

• research director, production, actors, genre, writers

• success/profit

• reviews