Institutions and Audiences - 7 points

·       the issues raised by media ownership and funding in contemporary media practice
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Ownership of the production, distribution and exhibition companies effects the type of films that are being made. All films whether they be independent or studio films are owned by companies that put into motion their production, distribution and exhibition. The parent companies own subsidiaries and either are involved in vertical ownership which allows them to be in charge of these process all on their own e.g. Walt Disney Pictures owning Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm and Pixar and being their sole distributer and exhibitor or companies horizontally integrate with other companies for such purposes e.g. Working Title’s distribution partner is Universal Studios, a huge U.S company which can produce and distribute films.

The first stage of production is acquiring financial backing. My case study based on Marvel’s Captain America Civil War (2016) produced by one of the big six media conglomerates, Walt Disney, had a $200 million invested into its production and $250 million into its marketing. The well-established companies can afford to pool their resources into huge blockbusters focusing on special effects and elaborate marketing campaigns, consequentially ruling out competition from other companies.

Smaller production houses which cannot afford to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into projects or even distribute their own films are restricted to just production and then selling their product to another company for its distribution to the target audience. Such is the case with the movie Boyhood (2014) produced by a relatively unknown company IFC productions, with just a $4 million resource, distributed by Universal Studios owned by Comcast, one of the big six.

As the main goal for big media giants is profit maximization and appealing to mass audiences, the content they produce becomes recycled, endless sequels and poor-quality storylines. When compared with 19 original movie releases and one being intellectual property, of 2006, according to a study, in 2016, only one of them was an adaptation of an original storyline (La La Land). Such is also the case with Lucasfilm, owned by Disney, pushing sequels with the Star Wars brand, regardless of quality, tone, message or genre, all the while leaving audiences unhappy (The Last Jedi’s poor audience reception) and making billions of dollars.

Smaller production houses like Film 4, however, cater to a niche audience and have to focus on social realism as they don’t have the funding to produce or market blockbuster movies laden with expensive special effects and are shot with digital technology as it is cheaper than the 35mm film.

Moreover, issues exist between media giants themselves as well. As Disney owns the major special effects companies such as Industrial Light and Magic, they utilize them for their film products which other studios don’t have access to. This sort of practice leads to better CGI thus Oscar Nominations for their movies such as Guardians of the Galaxy (2017), Star Wars: The Last Jedi etc. For mutual benefit, Marvel Studios was able to strike a deal with Sony Entertainment to share the rights of Spiderman. Sony needed to breathe life into its “Spider-Man” franchise; by lending its character to Marvel, it has a way to generate more exposure for its big screen hero. Marvel now gets access to one of the comic book company’s most popular characters — it already controlled the rights for TV, merchandise and other platforms, but the holy grail for Disney has lately been film, where it has been able to launch franchises that impact the bottom line of all of its various divisions.

Due to fragmented audiences, media giants employ 360 branding for marketing in which trailers, posters, websites are the forerunners along with synergy with other companies. For example, Disney spent $250 million on the marketing of Civil War (2016) in which they converged with brands such as Audi, Vivo, Pizza Hut, Skittles, and Twitter and Facebook campaigns to promote their movie. Smaller productions can’t enjoy those luxuries.

Five major distributers the UK dominate the film industry: United International Pictures, Warner Brothers, Buena Vista, Twentieth Century Fox and Sony. In most cases these producers are linked to Hollywood. Usually, the block buster films that are viewed are distributed by blanket release so even if a small UK company manages to get its product through to cinemas or film festivals, its competing for attention with one or more films that take on the status of an ‘event’.

The film industry also suffers from political constraints such as recent concern raised regarding this was Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corporation’s continuous conspicuous bias towards a number of election victors, granting them more screen time on Fox News and other news channels he owns.