The Kings Speech - Seven Areas

Research

The Kings Speech - Seven Areas

Research
The issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
I believe that success in most cases is dependant on who owns the media company. If the company involved is giving a vast amount of capital towards the budget a bigger lm with ... better quality, stunts, animation and A-list celebrities can be made. A good example of this would be This is England a low budget british lm with z-list actors and lack of eects in comparison to The Dark Knight Rises a high budget, american blockbuster with intense action scenes and a-list stars. Currently the british lm industry is poorly organised, the distribution and exhibition sectors are dominated by multinational media companies (e.g. Warner Bros). Both these factors make it increasingly dicult for british lms to both attract attention of investors and also make it physically possibly to sell a lm. Alternatively in the US, lm is one of the countries largest industries. Hollywood studios integrate production and distribution, this again not the case in Britain with british studios. These statements help to give the USA almost total control over the value chain. This dominance is reected in their eighty ve to ninety percent share of the growing UK cinema market. As you can see a winning lm industry is distribution lead, money spent in development and production is earned back through international distribution. Following on from this, prots will then be taken and the money from distribution are eventually reinvested upstream in new productions, this creating a recurring circle. As mentioned earlier, the british industry does not follow any of these US trends. Instead british producers are generally under-capitalised, this making it hard to make a lm that will sell to an audience. Another aw is that there is a serious structural weakness to the industry. The current structure is that a private investor will get involved and then nance the production. However in the future to stabilise and shape the british lm industry a large brand needs to be set up to fund a proper lm industry which is similar to the US. This is not easy or a quick solution. In the Kings Speechs case the Weinstein Company where the wealthy individuals which nanced the distribution of the lm. And although being a full british production managed to take $373,700,000 worldwide. I believe The Kings Speech is a great example of a british lm which goes against the majority and although still a small company can succeed against US lms in the same market. In this case Tom Hooper capitalised greatly on the theme of Britain. This theme gave this lm something in which others at the same time did not. In the USA The Kings Speech made $373,700,000 which bearing in mind, the lm is all about british history, is very great feat. This capitalisation on Britain and British culture is also similarly used in lms such as Quodrophenia and This is England. This shows that even though difcult it is still possible for a small company to succeed.

The Kings Speech - Seven Areas

Research
The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing;

Digital technology - is a more cost effective and logistics-light alternative than the original use of lm (can save 1/10 off the cost compared to 35mm lm). It will, eventually, be cheaper and easier to send lms as computer les or on a hardrive to cinemas across the UK, than to transport 25kg tins of lm in the back of a van. The Digital Screen Network - the Digital Screen Network was a 12 million investment to equip 240 screens in 210 cinemas across the UK with digital projection technology to give UK audiences much greater choice and make it easier for smaller lm companies to showcase there lms. They have gave a large number of independent cinemas the opportunity to convert to digital, as they may otherwise have struggled to achieve this.

The Kings Speech - Seven Areas

Research
The technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange;

Online Streaming - Another recent addition to the distribution cycle is that off online streaming, for example Netix. These leave out the physical copy and allowing the user to download what lms they want to watch. This is a level of Localisation, this is where practices are modied to take advantage of technology, usually to make more efcient. Marketing It is now so easy to be able to get a lm. You can download onto a computer, use a games console, download on a phone or buy on a TV network e.g. Sky. Exchange - It is nearly certain that everyone has a Facebook, Twitter, or blog. Using these the audience of lms can write about the lm commenting in there personal views, this is exchange. Youtube is also a big factor as now it is very common for people to remaster a trailer and publish it on the web.

The Kings Speech - Seven Areas

Research
The signicance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;

The Kings Speech - Seven Areas

Research
The importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;
There are many dierent technologies that have merge together to help the lm industry. One of these is new computers and new editing software. Special eects are used in nearly every lm now and are created at such high quality it looks realistic to the audience. To keep up with the high quality and demand that is currently around, the market for editing software is vast in comparison to 5-10 years ago. Another new convergence in the lm industry is new cameras. These new cameras have been vastly improved from the previously dominated 35mm to digital cameras. New cameras take more frames per second then would have used to have been, this is what makes HD so crisp and realistic. Blue-Ray is again another technological masterpiece that is regarded as the greater predecessor to the DVD. Blue-Ray allows the customer to do more with the disk such as, enhance superior viewing as well as being able to operate more of the movies features. Even though Blue-Ray disks are more expensive to purchase than a regular DVD, due to added features it is more than likely the customer will feel that the added price is worth paying. This increases prot for lm companies. Linking to this idea another convergence is that other companies now keep there products up to date. This will allow the companies DVDs to be played easily and to the best possible quality. A good example of this is when Sony added Blue-Ray players to there Playstation consoles so customers could watch Blue-Ray lms. Another convergence, although most would say a negative, is the recent possibility of streaming movies from internet websites. This new technology was looked at as bad as it discouraged people from paying for lms. However this was ipped when companies such as LoveFilm and Netix where created as this allows people to download and stream movies to there computer or television. Even though this is not a free service. This has been found to be very popular.

The Kings Speech - Seven Areas

Research
The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specically, British) by international or global institutions;
The four quadrant theory is used with nearly every lm company in every country. This theory is used to attempt to reach all audiences of all ages. It is in place because of the obvious fact that if more people are able / want to watch a lm more money will be made from that specic lm. As you can imagine this is not an easy task for certain lms. (Horror lms).

As stated above it is very hard to direct a lm at one specic group of people as it has became apparent that groups are going against stereotypes. A good example of this is that originally chick icks where marketed at teenage girls. Now however older women, teenage boys and even older men may watch chick icks. An example of this would be the lm The Break Up with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. This is not just a trend in Britain, but all over the world. Even though this is the case lm companies still try and target certain things at certain people e.g. advertising. In the case of The Kings Speech most reviews and adverts where in higher end and higher class newspapers and magazines like the times and the guardian. This would therefore reach the intended audience. Another obvious way companies try and attract their audience is through a movie trailer. The companies will decide to add certain clips, actors and music all to attract certain people. The Kings Speech trailer in the United States was very different to the British one. The lm companies made each trailer relevant to the certain culture it was aimed at. In the american trailer more active music, dramatic clips, sections relevant to US history were used.

The Kings Speech - Seven Areas

Research
The ways in which the candidates own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.
Personally i see the developments in lm a massive positive. These additions to the industry allow me personally to watch lms in better quality than ever before. Personally myself and friends of the same age do not go to the cinema very often due to costs, need of organisation and accessibility. However with the added boost of technology i can now watch lms in my house at a similar standard to what i would see at a cinema showing. My lms are now high denition and with option can be 3-D. I also believe that all these lms are now so much easier to access then previously. This is not just due to the unlimited access of online streaming and illegal downloading but instead due to the production of services such as Netix and LoveFilm. The only disadvantage for me is that with this advance in technology it makes it harder on small british companies to release lms. They have the pressure to not just be able to nance the lm, but to know make a lm which can look as good on television than other movies. A vast amount of my favourite lms where created by small british companies, and it would be a shame for the amount released to be narrowed down.