1)The Issues
Raised by Media Ownership in Contemporary Media Practice
As with any other piece of media, The Force Awakens is owned
by a legal owner. In this case, the legal owner is Disney, who acquired the
rights during its acquisition of Lucasfilm. As Disney is one of the ‘Big Six’
film companies, this meant the film had a lot of money behind it. This meant
that the film could attempt a larger scale, as there would be a larger budget
for special effects. Disney would also have many connections to big names in
the film industry, for if the film needed specific jobs to be fulfilled. Disney
also has a reputation for producing good movies, either directly or through
their various branch companies (like Marvel Studios or Pixar), which would help
to give the film a boost in the eyes of the public.
It also is produced by Bad Robot, meaning it is partly owned
by them as well. Bad Robot is a production company owned by the Director and
Producer, JJ Abrams, which has a good track record from producing on the newest
Mission Impossible films, the rebooted Star Trek films and both Cloverfields.
It also has a good reputation for having only one out of their 12 films be a
loss (being Infinitely Polar Bear, which only made $1.8 Million of its $6.7
Million budget).
Because of the film’s well-known production companies, the
film was granted a large budget of $306 Million (second biggest budget
recorded), which allowed them to make the film on a larger scale.
2) The Importance of Cross Media
Convergence and Synergy in Production, Distribution and Marketing
Star Wars is a
renowned, acclaimed and recognised franchise which is known by the majority of
people of this planet, but how did this recognition and remembrance actually
occur? The first star wars film, A New Hope, was one of the most influential
because of its ground breaking use of special effects and was one of the most
successful films of all time. Charles Lippincott was in charge of the
marketing of A New Hope which consisted of T-shirts, posters, toys, trailers and
billboards. However, Lippincott wanted to boost marketing by looking at other
devices such as securing deals with Stan Lee, Marvel Comics and Roy Thomas for
comic book adaptations as well as novelised adaptations with Del Rey Books. Although Star Wars merchandise was available
to enthusiastic children upon release, only Kenner Toys—who believed that the
film would be unsuccessful—had accepted Lippincott's licensing offers. Within
three weeks of the film's release, 20th Century Fox's stock price doubled to a
record high. The marketing had led to such a mammoth success that the beginning
of the prominent and outstanding franchise, Star Wars, had begun! It is no
surprise that every film that was made after A New Hope was commemorated and
celebrated by many, many people.
Lucas film has now
been signed onto a partnership with Disney as it distribution core. The
accessibility of Disney’s recourses allows the marketing for Force Awakens to
become so strong that this will help increase their marketing strategies due to
the connections and deals Disney can make with other companies. We can see a
considerable jump from Below The Line Marketing to Above The Line Marketing.
Posters, Toys, mugs, pyjamas- The list goes on! With all these items released
to the general public with the produce from Disney it’s no wonder that so much
profit was being made from items. Disney is company which works considerably
with its visuals and merchandising and this is what helps the items to appeal
to all ages. With the classically designed posters following the original art
work of the previous films helping to appeal to the original audiences as well
as the teddies and children’s clothes appealing to younger, more influential
audiences.
3)The Technologies That Have Been
Introduced in Recent Years at the Levels of Production, Distribution, Marketing
and Exchange
Because technology has only improved over the time of which
the other films were released to the most recent, there is no question why
excitement has only risen for the franchise Star Wars. The special effects have
only gotten better and the filming and ways to see films have only improved.
The idea of there being more ways to watch films, such as 3D and internet
streaming, have made the profits from the viewing of Star Wars: The Fore
Awakens increase. Overall the film was shown on well over 5,000 screens
globally. The idea that Disney aided the films distribution is incredible; the
company is so well known and if Disney distributed a brand this big this would
only increase its presence. Disney is known by cinemas and is trusted amongst
making deals, the connections that they have also managed to attain during
their existence has managed to make their ideas of distribution much more
achievable. The film was available to be distributed digitally; this managed to
save the companies money because the process is in fact cheaper and
easier.
During the production processes many companies with
connections to the franchise and workers were able to get involved, thus
allowing there to be a lot of technology available to be used. Because of the
fat that Star Wars is an franchise with obviously focuses on sci-fi we can
agree that one of the most common features for Star Wars, as a production
company, to focus on is their depiction of technological progress. Although the technology has improved the
production team wanted to make sure that the special effects and visuals used
in the films that feature later on in the franchise, in comparison to the prequels,
were just as ubiquitous. The idea that
mast of the effects such as explosions, costumes and fight scenes were able to
be made on set was one of the huge advances. Being able to time the explosions
of designing the costumes for some of the imaginative creatures made the
franchise come across as even more creative and effective toward the
audience.
4)The Significance of Proliferation in
Hardware and Content for Institutions and Audiences
The film was marketed in many ways to grab the attention of
the audience and future viewers of the film, in the modern time of social media
and almost everyone having access to the internet multiple clips, scenes and
posters were released to the public through the internet to increase the hype
of the film, the companies producing the movie may have tacitly dropped hints
and particular scenes of the film to get people excited. The production team of
the film made sure that there wasn’t many details of the plot or characters was
released for the audience to know about, even in the trailers that was released
didn’t give much details of the plot, which intrigued the audience to watching
the film. And with the December release not many films were being released at
the time so there wasn’t much competition to compete with.
5) The Importance of Technological
Convergence for Institutions and Audiences
The worldwide audience for the Star Wars saga is still
growing and so is the audiences viewing habits of the franchise when a new
addition of the films is released. Many of the fans of the films have taken to
the way of illegally downloading and viewing the films on their mobile phones
and laptops, this is for the fact that it’s a way for them to save money, its
easy and hassle free. How the films are viewed on the online sites can be quite
good, with lots of the films being viewed in 720 (HD), but this can vary and
can also be in much poorer quality for cheaper prices, some of these films have
been recorded and put onto the site by members of the public, these are
probably in the worse quality as it has probably and visibly been filmed on a
handheld device. Disney and LucasFilm couldn’t have prevented this as it is so
embedded in today’s popular culture of viewing films. However, Star Wars is
still a strong factor in today’s culture and film so the film still earned a
lot from cinema viewings.
6)The Issues Raised in the Targeting of
National and Local Audiences (Specifically, British) by International or Global
Institutions
Due to The Force Awakens being the seventh instalment in a
franchise film, it received a boost in its reputation, as it is a well-renowned
name due to its previous instalments. This also meant it had a wide-appeal, as
the kids would’ve seen Star Wars with their parents, the teenagers and young
adults would have watch the prequel when they were younger, whilst the older
demographic would have grown up with the original trilogy. This wide-appeal
would increase the film’s audience and thus its box office figures, however
this would only work in certain areas of the world like America, Europe and
Britain. Other places, like China or Former-Communist countries, might not
receive this effect as the original films were not shown there, so the nostalgia
would give the same effect, which may have affected its global box-office
intake.
Despite the film having well-known Western actors star in it
which would help to pull in audiences, the film lacked any Asian or Eastern
actors, who would appeal to the foreign audiences. The film however also
starred some unknown British actors, which may help to sway some of the British
audience in watching it. It would also appeal to the British audiences as it
classifies as a British film, due to the contribution from the British
government and most oit being recorded in Pinewood Studios.
7) The Ways in Which the Candidates’ Own
Experiences of Media Consumption Illustrate Wider Patterns and Trends of
Audience Behaviour
Recent movie viewing habits mean that online-streaming is
more popular and more accessible. This also has led to illegal pirate streams
too, which were very popular around the film’s release, taking away some of the
film’s ticket sales. Many people who streamed from these illegal sites however,
were viewing it as a repeat, so the studio still took some money.
However, despite this, the majority of people still went to
the cinema to view the film. With a few thousand screens around the world
showing it over several months, bringing in massive amounts of money ($2
Billion worldwide box office). Many people even went back to the cinema several
times to see it.
The other option to view this film is to wait for its
Blu-Ray and DVD release (released in April 2016) and view it. This doesn’t
bring in as much money for the studio but allows the audience to view it
multiple times and share with others.
Personally, I both went to the cinema and purchased the
Blu-Ray for this film. This allowed me to watch the film at the time of release
as well as watch it again on demand. Many others that I know also follow the
same trend.
<Done in collaboration with Isabel Denney-Foster (Q2&3) and Frank Parnell (Q4&5)>
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