On the 7th of November (Friday) we visited the Southbank BFI film centre in London to learn about all the success of film industry. Rob Miller, editor of FilmEdu and MediaEdu gave presentations about the main features of films and taught us about independent and mainstream films, production, distribution and marketing and types of cinemas including multiplex and independent.
Three speakers came to talk about their role in the film industry and how they had been in success in what they do. One was Matthew Justice (Big talk director), Lee Bye (Pathe Head of theatrical distribution) and the last was Clare Binns from picturehouse cinema ltd.
Keywords:
Mainstream-Safe genre films that are distributed to mass, national and international audiences, for example Star Trek and Gravity.
Independent-Films that have more localised appeal with niche audiences and often utilise digital technologies to create 'Brand Awareness', The Selfish Giant is an example of this.
Production-The process of making a film. UK films are more production led whereas American films are more led by distribution.
Distribution-Getting the films out into cinema and advertising to promote the film.
Exchange-How the film is being received e.g. cinema, DVD, streaming...
Multinational-large organisations who are interested in being global, apart from Disney all of the 'Big six' are owned by multi national conglomerates.
Monopoly-Where one company dominates the market and has only one seller. Netflix is an example.
Oligopoly-Where four or more companies dominate the market and has few sellers. The Big Six is an example of oligopoly.
The Big Six-The studios that dominate film distribution and form the oligopoly ownership and owned by multinational conglomerates. These include; News-corp, GE, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner and CBS.
Globalisation-Where firms are distributed around the world by marketing networks.
Merchandise-Where the popularity of film is manipulated through the sales of spin off goods, (such as t-shirts) Star Wars have more money through merchandise than ticket sales.
Franchise-An authorization granted by a government/company to an individual/group enabling them to carry out their brand name e.g. Harry Potter films and Star Trek films.
Digital technologies-Referring to how the internet changes industry online distribution, streaming, downloading illegally and legally. E.g. YouTube.
Cross media ownership-Where companies have interest in a range of media e.g. Sony and gaming, Film Distribution and electronics.
Media convergence-Where film is available and can be marketed on a number of media platforms e.g. cinema, DVD and PlayStation.
Event movie-Where the date of release is used in marketing e.g. The Hobbit comes out Christmas time.
Synergy-Where two of more compatible products sell each other e.g. a film and computer game or a film and a song. A typical example of this would be The song produced by Adele in Skyfall.