QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT:
1. HOW DOES THE OWNERSHIP IN THE FILM INDUSTRY AFFECT HOW FILMS ARE PRODUCED?
2. HOW DOES THE OWNERSHIP IN THE FILM INDUSTRY AFFECT THE DISTRIBUTION OF FILM?
3. HOW DOES THE OWNERSHIP IN THE FILM INDUSTRY AFFECT THE EXHIBITION OF FILMS?
PAST PAPER QUESTIONS RELEVANT TO THIS CONCEPT AREA:
- (Jan 2010) “Media production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their products and services to national audiences.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?
- (Jan 2011) Discuss the issues raised by media ownership in the production and exchange of media texts in your chosen media area.
- (Jan 2013) What impact does media ownership have upon the range of products available to the audiences in the media area you have studied.
- (June 2015) To what extent does media ownership have an impact on the successful distribution of media products in the media area that you have studied?
POINTS THAT CAN BE MADE:
Independent companies and particularly other smaller independent production companies, which are not linked to an American conglomerate as a subsidiary company, have to rely on money from NZFC, film grants or crowd-funding.
Because independent companies are often low-budget and particularly in NZ on genre-based films, because they do not have the funds for CGI and 3D technology.
Conglomerates that have vertically (when an institution owns shares or each part of the production, marketing, distribution and exhibition processes) and horizontally integrated ownership (owns many different types of media across many industry) will have better production, marketing, distribution and exhibition of films, especially blockbuster films (a film with a high production budget of at least $100 million).
A conglomerate that has vertical integration enables them to control all aspects of the film from the beginning of the production to the end of the exhibition of the film, so they can ensure the film is to a high quality and therefore become a critically and financially successful film. Also, they will be able to save money by controlling all stages of the making of the film and you will be able to keep all the profit, rather than sharing the profit with the distribution company and others.
Also, having horizontal integration means conglomerates can promote and advertise the film across a wider range of media platforms from radio to television channels and so they are to reach a wider range of audiences from the young to the elderly and to a much more mass audience. They have a huge marketing budget that enables them to advertise the film across a wide range of media.
Major production companies can make big budget films because they are a part of a bigger conglomerate and therefore have more money available to make huge blockbuster films. Hence, their films are more focused on aesthetically pleasing special effects and impressively realistic set designs to give the film that ‘wow’ factor that will attract a larger audience.
CASE STUDIES – APPLICATION
Film Case Studies
- Blockbuster (Avatar, The Way of Water)
- NZ Film
- Indi Film (lower budget)
- Controversial Film (The Interview)
Institutional Case studies
- Disney
- Netflix
- Youtube
Minor case studies
- The Dark Knight (advertising campaign)
- Barbie + Openheimer for companies going back to less CGI
- Tangerine - shot on I-phones (case for technology enabling Indi filmmakers)
DISCUSS THE ISSUES RAISED BY MEDIA OWNERSHIP IN CONTEMPORARY MEDIA PRACTICE
EXAMPLE 1:
In contemporary media practice many issues are raised by media ownership. All media, whether it is film, music or print is owned by a company. These companies, which can be 3-4 depending on the scale of the media hold the rights to publish and distribute their work; an example of this being Disney buying the rights for the Star Wars saga, in 2012 for £2.5 billion from LucasFilm.
The first issue which is presented from media ownership is that of piracy. Piracy is the illegal distribution of media without the permission of its owner/ the company. This could be through downloading or streaming the film online or the filming and sale of pirated DVDs. Piracy has had a huge boost in its popularity in recent years with the film industry and its companies taking a direct hit from it. The film industry last year was recorded to have lost nearly £3 million due to piracy alone. Advances in technology, such as cheaper equipment at a higher quality, whether that be the camera or recording material, has meant that it has become easier and more frequent for piracy to occur directly in the cinema; for it then to be put on the internet to be streamed and downloaded from thousands of different websites. This has a direct link to the media owners and companies as it means that profit and box office numbers would decrease, as well as a having a lack in DVD or BluRay sales, due to the easy and unlimited access to the films online, any time. Therefore the movies would end up failing to meet their budget meaning that less and less films would be made due to no guarantee of profit being made from them. Therefore smaller, more independent films like that of 'The Theory of Everything' or any film coming out of the British film industry would be less likely to be made, with only the big blockbuster movies such as Jurassic World being put into production. Pracy hwoever can be prevented with measures such as that of digital encryptions for the films distribution and 3D cinema being used which is known to be increasingly difficult to pirate. Therefore, stopping the widespread piracy of films in the cinema.
Another issue which is raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice is that of the Hollywood conglomerates dominating the films industry. Due to companies like that of MGM, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Sony and Disney etc being multi million pound industries they are able to release lots of titles and have vast amounts of money to market and distribute them. Therefore this results in the continual production of sequels and bad films whose only appeal are the budgets, names and stars. Furthermore, cinema chains like that of ODEAN and VUE shows these films much more than the other smaller independently made ones. This gives cinema goers limited choice in cinemas which would ultimately lead to a lack of audiences and also a loss in profit of the film industry as a whole. Going on from this, the British Film industry is put at a large disadvantage with it also being rumoured to be a 'dying' enterprise.
However, in order to tackle this organisations like that of the UK Film council have been created and forced to act in recent years. This organisation is funded by the Lottery and has everyone's £1 of lottery money invested going to the films helping them generate around £5 from each. This has included films like Bend It Like Beckham, Adulthood, This is England and The Last King Of Scotland.
Although, the surrounding issue concerning the UK Film Council is that in 2010 the government announces that the scheme was going to be axed. This meant that smaller budgeted films like those mentioned above wold in the future not be made, meaning the British film industry would again be at risk of being shut down, and the cinemas being ruled by American Conglomerates.
Overall, we can therefore see that although there are issues concerning all companies and media owners like that of piracy, the main issues surround the growing size of larger conglomerates and their eventual take over of the cinematic world.
EXAMPLE 2
All media, whether it’s film, music or owned, is owned by a company that reserves the rights to produce, exhibit and distribute that product; Warner Bros. owns DC comics, and therefore has the rights to all the characters in DC Universe. Corporations may also converge, either vertically or horizontally, and work in synergy in the industry to harvest greater goods, as production companies are often either owned or under contract with a media conglomerate. For example, 20th Century Fox is owned one of the 6 major film studios in Hollywood and is a subsidiary of Fox Entertainment which is owned by News Corporation These companies are usually self-financing as they are owned by larger conglomerate.
However, existence of global media giants, referred to as parent companies, end up controlling the production companies and the means to distribute, establishing a monopoly over the industry. On the basis of their firm groundwork and greater aggregate budget availability to invest into films and buy other smaller production houses, these limited media giants not only dictate how a movie is produced, but also consequentially eliminate competition from the market. This confines diversity and choice for audiences and gives birth to endless, poor quality, profit oriented sequels. Working Title, a British production company, collaborated with Universal Studios in 1999 to produce the box office hit Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). The film’s success led to a longer contract being signed by the two entities, however all films produced afterwards sent Universal Studios into loss due to a lack of creativity.
Media ownership and funding also commands marketing of a product in a fragmented audience. Corporations now need to utilize 360-degree branding in order to reach out to viewers on factions including, but no limited to television, radio, social networking sites, cinemas and posters to sell. This requires a hefty sum of money that minor independent film studios cannot afford. Subsequently, regardless of the film quality, subsidiaries get dominated by larger bodies, defying principles of meritocracy.
Such is the case with the British film industry that is overshadowed by Hollywood. Funded by the government, the revenue invested in British films is comparatively less as compared to the large amount of capital that Hollywood finances movies with. As a result, the aforementioned form alliances with the American production houses in order to produce a film. This in turn disallows them room to create freely, and without the influence of their culture. The Aardman (UK) and Dreamworks (USA) partnership is rumoured to have ended on similar grounds when Aardman refused to shift to computer generated imagery from animations for its parent company.
Political influences and biases of owners may also be manifested in the end product to please investors in certain cases. A recent concern raised regarding this was Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corporation’s continuous conspicuous bias towards a number of election victors, granting them more screen time on Fox News and other news channels he owns.
In my case studies, a large part of the success of The Martian (2015) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) in comparison to their contemporaries depend on the money invested in marketing and production by 20th Century Fox, a subsidiary of News Corporation. Had the British cinema not collaborated with Hollywood for the latter, sales for it would have been considerably less which already took a blow with regards to the former.
