Discuss the issues raised by media ownership in the production and
exchange of media texts in your chosen media area?
One of the key factors of making a
successful film is to use successful production companies. By doing this, more
money can be spent on the film and bigger budgets are produced. Bigger budgets
allow money for high quality special effects, cameras, crew, marketing etc.
Films made with smaller production companies, however, may struggle with doing
this as they don’t have the money or budgets to be making such big investments
into projects. This means they have less chance of top quality cast members and
the marketing may be bad for the film; which lowers the attention of the public
eye.
The production companies involved with
the making of Mad Max: Fury Road (Kennedy Miller Mitchell, RatPac-Dune
Entertainment and Village Roadshow Pictures) had all produced the previous
films in the Mad Max series; ultimately meaning they were able to spend the
profits made from the other films and their other successful films to create
this one. A lot of money was spent on this particular film. The budget was
around $150 million and it actually cost around $153,600 to make. It made
$374.4 million at the box office which meant it defiantly made tremendous
profits. These companies could then spend that money on up and coming projects-
and this process continues. These production companies aren’t majorly known and
they aren’t as big as other companies such as Pinewood Studios, however they
were able to spend the profits from their previous films to form a
fantastically thrilling film. The distribution company used for this film was
Warner Bros. Warner Bros is part of the Big 6. This means there is a lot of
experience and successfulness to be added into the films marketing and
distribution process. Seeing as Warner Bros is so big and successful, there was
a lot of money spent on marketing and advertisements. Roughly $41.9 million was
spent on advertising the film through methods such as posters, trailers and the
use of social media like Twitter, Facebook and official websites. This meant
that the film was advertised in a way in which the public were more inclined to
notice and consider viewing. All the marketing paid off seeing as the film was
a massive success. The film itself being associated with Warner Bros did it a
favour as it is known globally that Warner Bros always distribute brilliant
films, so audiences knew that it would be a fantastic film.
Ex_Machina was produced by three
relatively known companies (DNA Films, Film4 and Scott Rudin Productions) who
have been fairly successful on their previous films. Two out of three of these
companies have worked together before which means they both work well together
and come out with successful films. The budget for this film was $15 million
which means it didn’t have as much money as films like Mad Max to be spending
on effects, cast etc. However, Ex_Machina did have some relatively known stars
such as Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac who added to the promotion of the
film. Despite only being made on a budget of $15 million, Ex_Machina was
extremely successful and made $37 million at the box office. The majority of
the budget was spent on the use of special effects in the post-production
process to help the sci-fi theme to become real. This was mainly focused around
Ava’s robotic body to make her as human-like as possible with her stomach and
head looking like a robot. The film was distributed by Universal Studios which,
again, is known for being successful. This enabled lots of money to be spent on
marketing by trailers, posters and social media sites like Tinder and Twitter;
adding to the attraction of the film.
Kill List is a lot different to the
two previously mentioned films. Its production companies (Rook Films, Warp X,
Film4 Productions, Screen Yorkshire and UK Film Council) are all part of the
British Film Industry. All of them except Film4 Productions are small companies
which were still in the starting point of their company career. Film4 provided
a low budget of $800,000 which, unfortunately, wasn’t gained back as it only
made $462.206 at the box office. There was no profit made and the film was seen
as a flop. The companies it was distributed by (Optimum Releasing and IFC
Midnight) were fairly new which meant they didn’t have a lot of money to spend
on marketing. The film was barely advertised as not many people knew about it,
however there was a trailer and the odd poster. Kill List was rated an 18 which
meant that there was a select audience to watch it. This pushed views down as
not everyone could go watch it. One of the biggest problems with Kill List (and
many films of its kind) is that because it uses such new companies, there isn’t
enough recognition and reputation of the companies to make people think the
film would be worth seeing. This means that when another film is released at
the same or similar time by a bigger company like Warner Bros or Universal
Studios, the public would automatically think theirs would be better; meaning
they wouldn’t watch Kill List unless they had a genuine interest for the genre
or storyline. This is a very common problem in the film industry which has to
be careful thought about. This is why most companies use the film release
schedule as a guidance to what is being released and when.
In conclusion, issues raised by
media ownership in the production and exchange of films is done by the fault in
that there are many things viewers want in a film; usually being an adrenaline-charged
storyline and lots of effects. Expectations are made for big companies so they
will release fantastic films which is where smaller companies go wrong as they don’t
have the money or experience to do so; forming unsuccessful films.
