Technological Convergence

Impact of Technilogical convergence on film institutions and audiences:
Technological convergence refers to the systems of technology by which media is produced and distributed to the audience.
Technology has converged to enable audiences to communicate, consume and interact with the media, and create their own media trhrough one piece of technology.
This has made communication, consumption, interaction and production a more convienient, more portable and more integregated expirience.

The convergence of technology has enable cross-media convergence to take place - the coming together of traditionally seperate forms of media i.e radio which can be listened to via the TV, TV and Newspaper can be consumed via the web and films or games can be consumed via phones or games consoles.

Examples of Technological convergence with relevance to film instituions/audiences;
Computers
Broardband Cable
Cameras - Digital, HD, 3D etc.
Cinemas
Flat screen, High Def TVs
Blur-Ray dvd
3D technology
Apple and Itunes
Sony and playstation 3
Microsoft and X-box
Nintendo and Wii
Virgin Media etc.

UK versus Hollywood

Hollywood Dominates
Different cultural deals and appeals
Successful partnerships

Film four relies on joint partnerships with other companies to make films:

Slum Dog millionairre: Cellador Films, pathe pictures
Trainspotting: Polygram, Figment Films
Four weddings: Polygram, Working Title

Film Four relies on American studios to distribute films to an international audience

Slumdog Millionairre: Fox Searchlight
Trainspotting: mirrormax Films
Four weddings: Gramercy Pictures

Audience and Institutions: UK Film Notes and Revision.

Recently in media we have been focusing on different parts into making a film, and here are a couple of Key terms i think are important to remember:
Production: the processes and decisions that take place when making a film.
Distributing: Advertising, merchandising and delivering the film to the market.
Ehibition: the different ways in which the audience can consume the film.
Synergy: In media, synergy is the promotion and sale of a product (and all it's versions) throughout various subsideries of a media conglomerate e.g. films, sountracks, video games.
Walt disney Poineered synergistic marketing techniques in the 1930's by granting dozens of films rights to use his mickey Mouse character in products and ads and continued to market disney media through licensing arrangements.

Synergy in film:
20th Century Fox produces, distributes and markets films















Owned by new Corporation
Which is owned by Rupert Murdoch
Who owns: Sky, News International, Haprer Collins, my space.

Proliferation (through Technology)
Downloading: Itunes, Ipod, apple TV
Digital piracy: DVD's Filesharing
Social networking sites: marketing and Buzz
accessibility: everywhere????
Control: audiences and Industries.

''The importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences''
What is Convergence?
when two or more technologies come together to create new technology
Audiences: everything in one product
Institutions: Audiences ties to one product.

Hollywood Versus The British Independent Film

When the first of the rebooted Batman series, opened in 2008, it was shown in 4366 screens in the UK; when the British independent filom, This is England, opened in 2007, it was shown in only 62 screens. What does this tell us? Well, Batman, even though it was the first of the new series, was, nevertheless, part of a franchise. An earlier series of films had been made and exhibited (to varying degrees of critical and commercial success) only a few years previoulsy, but the character is something of an icon in American (and worldwide) popular culture and many people of the key cinema going age range of 15-25 will be familiar with him; furtheromore, he is historically significant in popular culture, having appeared first in the 1940s, which may broaden his appeal and there were ready made promotional partners - the comic books, cartoon DVDs, toys, T shirts etc existed long before the Dark Knight movie. Why else would it appeal? The title, Dark Knight, siginfied a new, darker, mature approach to the story which might attract an older audience. On top of that, director Christopher Nolan was noted for his sophisticated, intelligent approach to movie-making and star Christian Bale was noted for starring in left of field movies that appealed to an adult audience. All these features, plus the publicity and marketing (it had several official websites instead of the usual one) backed by the financially empowered, vertically integrated global media conglomerate, Warner Brothers, with its obvious links to Time-Warner-AOL (though it ended its ties with AOL in 2009) as well as DC Comics, the publisher of Batman (which it owned), made this movie an event release and cinema chains are in the business to make money. As much as possible. This is England (and remember, we're talking four years BEFORE the TV series), cost £1,500,000 (as opposed to The dark Knight's budget of $185,000,000) was a specific type of British movie - one that falls into the working class genre; a film that used the medium to explore working class issues and to highlight the class system and the often violent and dysfunctional effects it can have the working class community. There has been a history of this kind of film in the UK from the early 1960s, although those films often used major stars of stage or screen. It was never going to have a massive box-office appeal and was shown largely in independent cinemas. The writer-director Shane Meadows did have a significant reputation, had been nominated for numerous awards and had won several British Independent Film awards. This is England went on to receive critical acclaim in the UK and the USA and won a BAFTA for the best British film. A number of production companies were involved: Big Arty Productions, EM Media, Film4, Optimum Releasing, Screen Yorkshire, UK Film Council, Warp Films and Optimum was the distributor in the UK. In reality, the two films were not competitors, but this gives an indication of how difficult it is for a British film, particularly one that is liable to have more of a British audience - and perhaps even a specific British audience - to compete with a film made by a powerful American media giant with a global audience (and it was, not incidentally, scheduled to open at the beginning of the British school summer holidays of that year, to maximise its audience), but if you owned a cinema chain, which film do you think would bring in the most money?