Exam Question 2 'prep'

To what extent has the internet played a significant role in the marketing and the exchange of media products in the area you have studied?

Paragraph one: Marketing

Cross - media marketing: marketing over various platforms. 

Institutions/ Distributions:

• 20th Fox
• Disney
• Universal
• Warner Brothers
• Paramount 
• Columbia 

These are known as the 'big six' distributors they allow the movie to have global success as once it's featured with one of these its advertised everywhere. They have the rights to the movie and they own it when it is released therefore making the most money off of each movie they own.

High budget film. MAINSTREAM CINEMA!!!

When composing an independent film, you do not have the highest budget film - normally, targets one type of audience (English/American for example). There is no issue in the distribution company having the rights of the movie due to being independent, the rights belong to the production company still. 

Paragraph 2: Exchange

Audience accessing the film. 

• Cinemas
• Pirating (an issue) - can be accessed by social media playing a big role etc. 
• DVD 
• On demand (Sky cinema)
• Netflix / streaming - subscription 
• Tv for free???

Paragraph 3: Case studies (marketing)

Use examples from the case studies to answer the question, linking back to marketing throughout the paragraph. Include interviews, star appeal as marketing etc. 

Paragraph 4: Case studies (exchange)

Use examples from the case studies to answer the question, linking back to exchange throughout the paragraph.

Paragraph 5: Conclusion

How is the film going to end up, what's the ending for both films - how do you have to watch it, now? Current situation. Do you really need cinemas anymore? Print advertising is declining. 

Marketing terminology 

Production company - who make the film.

Distribution company - who promote and sell the film. 

Cross media marketing - more than one product.

'The Big Six' - biggest distribution companies.

Synergy - using other products to promote the film, indirectly (for example: merchandise).  

Media convergence - when technology comes together to then find everything on one device (for example: a mobile phone can access everything).

Answering the question

Marketing plays a big role within the movie making process with the Internet being one of the easiest and most successful branches within this. When a film is produced, whether it has a big/low budget it should contain a distributer. Meaning, it has a company in charge of the marketing and promoting the film across various platforms, countries etc. A high budget, Hollywood film would stereotypically contain one of the 'Big Six' distribution company distributers - these are: Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, Columbia, Paramount and 20th Fox each one contains a global success issued with it's name. Therefore, before the movie is fully produced it would already be provided with the label of a 'success'. This mainstream cinema could also be known as an issue due to the distribution company then has the rights of the movie therefore making more money than other aspects of the iim (the production company, the person who created the idea etc.). However, with an independent film, the distribution company still plays the same role within the film but it doesn't withhold the rights of the movie. This type of film normally contains one category for it's demographic (for example: this could be just an English demographic or just an American one). They stereotypically have a low budget and this is why it contains an independent film term. Each distribution company allows various platforms to promote their movie allowing a wide audience to engage and entertain with it. 

From marketing, the internet then works in favour for the exchange of media products. There are various ways in which the movie is exchanged - simply meaning, that the audience are able to then be engaged and in contact with the movie. These ways are: through the cinema, pirating, on DVD, through On Demand (Sky cinema etc.), Netflix / streaming and eventually on TV. Each way can have the internet play a big role within promoting and accessing the content. Pirating is shown as a huge issue within the exchange process due to the illegal access to the film which could loose customers at the cinema - for example. Social media is the main platform in accessing pirating websites therefore showing the internet as a downfall on this category. The 'Big Six' are trying to fight the piracy websites by releasing their movies within 3D for example, so it then cannot provide this feature so the audience will not want to watch it - allowing the movie to have a unique selling point over privacy websites. Media convergence is a process in which helps assists the way in which the audience can exchange the movie. However, it also then helps audience in streaming through piracy websites so can therefore, be a positive and a negative. A media product can in fact go 'viral' - a high platform for this to happen is from the internet, for example: through YouTube and social media something can be shown worldwide within seconds. 

In Disney's 'Finding Dory' the Internet is used as a main platform for the marketing side of the movie. This high budget movie is produced and distributed by one of the 'Big Six' being Walt Disney allowing it to withhold global marketing and resulting in global success. Walt Disney is an umbrella company meaning that they have every part of the movie making process under their 'wing' and is argued in being the world's biggest platform for media texts due to the mass audience they consume. On youtube (internet source) the first ever 'exclusive' trailer was released by the main character's voice over Ellen Degeneres (a marketing point within the star appeal used) which had a total of over 29 million views - from this, the success of the movie can already be highlighted due to the audience watching the first ever 'hint' to the movie. From this, social media allows the 'Finding Dory' phenomenon to go viral across the world. Facebook, the world's largest social media site has a following of over 3 million people following the official page for 'Finding Dory' - having people interact every day with relatable posts from the movie - still to this date meaning that promotion and marketing is still happening after nearly a year of release. Similarly, Twitter has over 127 thousand people following the official 'Finding Dory' page which also has over a hundred other accounts on this platform of fan page's for the film. Due to this movie being a sequel from Disney's 'Finding Nemo' released in 2003 it provides itself with its own marketing due to the audience that watched that the first film and enjoyed it are more likely to watch the second. Both films being from the mainstream cinema category also, provides the film with a vast age-ranged audience due to how the target audience for the 2003 film would have been now grown therefore the younger target demographic for the 2016 film would have both the older and younger generations interested. Concluding, that the previous movie is clearly a form of marketing due to the continuation of the social media links that continue to arise from the first film. 'Finding Dory' also uses their benefits of being under the Disney brand to release large amounts of synergy through the merchandise and the toys for the audience. This then, indirectly promotes the film too. 
Similarly, the film 'Me Before You' has internet playing a significant role within the marketing branch of the movie. The low-budgeted 'MGM' film does in fact have Warner Bros - one of the 'Big Six' distribution companies supporting them. The official trailer, released on the Warner Bros youtube page had over 4 million views - however, the one released on the 'Movieclips Trailers' youtube got more than 19 million views! Both actors staring in the film (Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin) generating star appeal in order to have more attraction for the film. Emilia Clarke stars in 'Game of Thrones ' one of the biggest dramas within the industry therefore staring in this film attracts the British audience so is evident to be a strong marketing platform. Also, the movie itself is composed from originally being a book which can campaign as marketing within itself due to the book being a 'No.1 bestseller for the New York Times' so it therefore already has a mass audience without even releasing any trailer.
Unlike the 'Finding Dory' movie, 'Me Before You' does not have a range of 'unique' marketing platforms due to not having the target audience to develop merchandise. However, both films do contain the 'traditional' marketing platforms of: posters, trailers, adverts etc. Moreover, each films use the Internet as the strongest marketing point due to the prompts of each of the films that can be contained in websites, the trailer used as adverts within browsing and the streaming through media convergence - social media, is the overall biggest distributor to promote both movies. 

Within this modern era, Disney's 'Finding Dory' relies greatly on the Internet to exchange the media text from the distributor to the audience. From previously mentioning, cinema is traditionally the first form of the exchange and on the release date, 19th June 2016 in USA alone 'Finding Dory' was shown in 4'305 screens in one day therefore clear evidence that the film is on popular demand on the first day! The movie is now available from February 2017 to stream on Netflix in the US meaning that the Internet is highly needed this exchange of the media production. To prevent piracy from this movie, the distribution company of Disney allowed it to be released in 3D meaning that the customer would not experience the whole features if pirated but this did not completely stop pirates due to easy access to the movie online either to download or stream due to the modern society that is within this current day. 'Sky cinema' have also played 'Finding Dory' on their on demand service however it has not reached the level of being a TV movie, yet. 
'Me Before You' also started its exchange in cinema with a total of 2'704 screens shown on its opening day in the US - smaller but still a success! The movie is now available to stream on Netflix (from March 2017) but also, pirates are able to find it on the internet and therefore stream or download it through there. The movie is accessible on both DVD and Blu-ray for a fee so is continuously making money. 
Both movies rely on media convergence as well, due to it then allowing Netflix (for example) to be streamed across every device - especially beneficial when able to be streamed on mobile phones due to the uprising of technology. From this, you hardly see people reading on train journeys anymore due to the easy exchange of media texts through media convergence. 

Overall, both films use the Internet as one of their main sources in order to market the movie and exchange it but low/high budget films have different aspects in which they use the Internet. From this research, it is clearly evident that the use of the Internet is becoming more easier to obtain and accessible meaning that eventually the use of Cinema's globally will be no longer needed. Similar to the fact that the buying of DVDs have died down completely due to the accessible movies out there to be streamed and downloaded from the Internet. Netflix is one of the biggest platforms for this due to the monthly subscription being affordable and easy to access hundreds of films/ TV programmes. Concluding, both films have the Internet play a significant role within their marketing and exchanging of media product processes.