CASE STUDY- MEDIA INDUSTRIES

Product Context- Ken Loach

• Ken Loach is a English director for television and
independent films.
• He was born 17th June 1936.
• He is known for his socially critical directing style and for his
socialist ideals.
• Some films he has directed:
• ‘Kes’- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRYvUpsrqmg
• ‘Looking for Eric’-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgmTRuWMyeI
• ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yvHe_ksnDA
 Product Context- Acceptance?
• On the website Rotten Tomatoes the film received a 93% approval
rating based on 166 reviews and a average rating of 8/10.
• https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_daniel_blake/
• The film won the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes film festival, the Prix
du public at the 2016 Locarno International Film Festival and the 2017
BAFTA for Outstanding British Film.
• The film became Ken Loach’s biggest success in the box office, taking
over $8 million.
• However, the film recieved a mix of praise and critisim from Politicians.
Former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith referred to the
film as unfair, aiming particular criticism at its portrayal of Jobcentre
staff, saying: ‘This idea that everybody is out to crunch you, I think it
has really hurt Jobcentre staff who don’t see themselves as that.’
• On a panel that Ken Loach attended his film was described as a ‘fictional
film’ by Business Secretary Greg Clark. He went on further to say that
‘It’s a difficult job administering a benefits system...Department of Work
and Pensions staff have to make incredibly difficult decisions and I
 Product context- Advertisement
• The trailer-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahWgxw9E_h4
• The trailer for ‘I, Daniel Blake’ was released October 18th
2016- the film came out the 21st October 2016.
• The hashtag #idanielblake was also promoted during the
trailer and encouraged people to tweet about it. This
would have spread awareness of the film to the younger
audience who use social media.
• There was also a poster campaign to spread awareness
of the film, this is more likely to reach a older audience
compared to the twitter hashtag.
 Historical Context
• The Jobcentre was an executive agency of the Department for Work and
Pensions of the government of the United Kingdom between 2002 and 2011.
According to the Work and Pensions Committee the system helped directly or
indirectly 700,000 people to return to work between the months of April
2005 and January 2006.
• The Jobseekers allowance in a unemployment benefit offered by the
Government for those who are looking for work. It is intended to cover living
expenses while the person is actively seeking a job. To be liable for the
allowance applicants must be between 18 and State Pension age. The first
unemployment benefits were paid in 1911 under the National Insurance Act
1911 to job seekers who had paid National Insurance contributions ("the
stamp"). The Unemployment Insurance Act of March 1921 introduced a
'seeking work' test which required clients to be actively seeking work and
willing to accept employment paying a fair wage. In February 1922 a means
 Cultural context
• ‘I, Daniel Blake’ won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival in 2016.
The award was introduced in 1955 and the Palme d’Or is known to be
one of the most prestigious awards in the film industry whilst also
being the highest award you can win at the festival. The festival itself
began in 1932.
• Some other examples of winners include:
• ‘Rome Open City’- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1P1JRSJT6Q
• ‘ ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days’-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZisE16JBUMA
• The Third Man’- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9yyDEDGlr0
• ‘Apocalypse Now’- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snDR7XsSkB4
• Ken Loach’s film ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’ has also previously
won the Palme d’Or suggesting his genre of film is typical for the award.
Economic and political context
• The film ‘I, Daniel Blake’ focuses on issues such as poverty, the
welfare system and the Work Capability Assessment.
• The film portrays a clear left wing political message and criticises
specific government policies.
• Ken Loach’s work has also addressed similar issues for example in
his films ‘Cathy come home’ and ‘Raining stones’. He is known for
his socialist political views and as a social campaigner.
• The film received a varied response from politicians. One former
Work and Pensions secretary referred to the film as unfair. He
aimed particular criticism at the portrayal of the Job Centre staff.
• Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appeared at the film’s premiere with
Ken Loach. He then went on to praise the film on his Facebook
page.
 Media ownership
• The film was funded by the BBC which is funded by people paying
their television licence. The BBC is a government funded public
service broadcaster which includes news channels, radio and
more. The news is known to be unbiased due to it being funded by
the government. It was originally funded in 1922.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/
• Another group that helped fund the film were the BFI. The BFI
stands for the British Film Institute and was founded in 1933.
• http://www.bfi.org.uk/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Film_Institute
 Audience
• The film addresses social issues such as poverty, the welfare system and
the Work Capability Assessment. It also conveys a clear left wing policy.
Due to this we can assume the audience for the film will be people who
are also left wing and agree with the film’s views.
• The film was advertised in two main ways:
• The trailer which would have most likely been seen by older people
who were watching films at the cinema. The film trailer would have
been likely shown at independent cinemas before films of the similar
genre and age rating.
• The other main way of advertising was the hashtag used on twitter. This
would have been seen mostly by younger people who are more likely to
use twitter and other social medias.
• Due to the issues in the film we can imply the audience wouldn’t have
consisted of many children due to them not understanding/ being
affected by these issues. The film was also rated a 15.
 Regulatory framework
• ‘I, Daniel Blake’ was rated a 15 by the BBFC.
• The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification)
began in 1912.
• The BBFC have the job of rating films, their
boundaries and decisions are linked to what the
public believe.
• Film ratings are very important as they help frame
the target audience and can decrease/ increase the
amount of watchers. For example if a film was
mostly targeted for 15 year olds and was rated a 18
the majority of the audience are unable to watch the
film decreasing how successful it is.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Board_of_Fil
 Production, distribution and
circulation
• ‘I, Daniel Blake’ had a low budget and most of the scenes were filmed on location (hospitals, job centres, etc). It also
featured lesser known actors and did not rely on special effects.
• One way the product was distributed was through the hashtag #idanielblake which was frequently used on Twitter. This
would have most likely reached a younger audience.
• Another way the film was distributed and advertised was through the trailer which would have been shown in
independent cinemas. The audience for this would have depended on what film was playing at the cinema. The trailer
was most likely played before films as a similar genre to collect as big of a audience as possible.
• The trailer was also uploaded to YouTube which would have
been available to most, it was also a free way to view the trailer.
However, for someone to search for the trailer they would have
had to heard about the film, which links to the previous two
ways of distributing the film.
• The film won awards as several film festivals from multiple
countries. For example the Stockholm International film festival
where it won Audience award: Best Film in 2016 and the
Vancouver International film festival where it won the Most
Popular International Feature in 2016.
• The film received a theatrical release in Britain and a few other
countries for example France, Spain, Brazil and Japan. It was not