The Seven Areas (Translations):

1   The issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice; (how does who owns a media company influence the type of film made and its potential success? For example do BIG companies make BIG films and therefore make all the money? Is it possible for small companies to succeed?) Which companies made Star Wars: The Force Awakens? How did this impact on the type of film that was made? 

The companies involved with the making of star wars the force awakens include: Lucas film ltd, Disney and Bad robot productions. These companies played a major role in the success of the film, and opened many oppurtunites to bring something new to the market in which star wars currently competes within. However, Disney played the biggest role in doing so, due to there net worth.

Disney are renown for creating films that are extremely memorable for the majority of the english and american population, which is proven by films such as finding nemo, toy story and monsters inc. These films are seen as more of a kids film, however due to the popularity of them also come under the four quadrant, where all audiences are interested by the film. This is relevant towards adults because there is such a high demand for their children to go and watch these films, and their parents will have to go along and watch also. Therefore, due to Disney's loyal reputation of continuously producing fantastic films, they have audiences that will simply go to the cinema due to the film being a disney film. This also means that due to disney being part of the production of star wars, their reputation also came along with it. Disney aim most of their films at kids, therefore star wars has key areas that will be aimed at children, this is done by characters such as Chewbacca which is really attractive towards a young audience due to the humour of the character. To emphasise this, merchandise is also produced such as toys, which children are all desperate to buy which helps market the film also. Therefore because Disney are part of the making of the film this has had a large impact on the type of film made, because disney usually aim their films worldwide and at most audiences, usually children. Star wars have decided to therefore market their film worldwide and at all audiences, this is shown by the different languages on each trailer, scenes worldwide within the the trailer.

The money in which Disney has means that the budget for films that they are involved in is very high and have a lot of freedom on what they spend their money on, such as marketing, costumes, technology and scenery. This is shown by the scenes being in Abu dhabi which would cost a lot of money to send each person involved over there and to film. They also have clearly spent a large amount of there budget on marketing which is shown by the common occurrence of adverts on tv, billboards in major cities around the world and many more, which would cost a lot of money. The fact the film is filmed on film and not digital means that the cost of production would be significantly higher than most other films recently produced, as digital is a lot cheaper to produce. Also, disney gave star wars the freedom of using the technology such as cgi used on Maz to make a realistic character. Disney also gives a film the opportunity to hire big stars within films to attract audiences, this is a major role within a film because some people go to the cinema just to see there favourite actor, for example people might watch star wars to see harrison ford. 

Therefore overall, having a big company involved such s disney opens many opportunities, especially with marketting which has recently became a very expensive thing to do. However big companies do not necessarily create successful films, this is due to the writers of the film and happens a lot with many disney films, and sometimes profit is not even achieved. Therefore, small companies do not always create small, unsuccessful films, for example the purge spent $3million on their first film and ended up making a revenue of $89 million, this was a  very successful film and has continued a prequel. They achieved this without any real famous actors as well which proves that having big companies involved is not always necessary if you can produce a good story line.

• The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing; (how do companies work together to produce, distribute and publicize a film? How can Disney use their size to promote and publicise a film? How can small companies work together to promote their business' when making and promoting a film?) Who publicised and distributed the film? How did these companies work together? What roles did they undertake?  

Responsibility for producing, distributing and marketing star wars the force awakens lies solely on Disney. This is due to their freedom of being able to invest large amounts of money into the film and the size of their company. 

Furthermore, due to Disney being a large, successful company, their reputation is so highly thought of by audiences around the world, which allows them to have a monopoly position within the market they currently work within. Therefore, this played a big role in JJ Abrams decision to work alongside disney to produce the film. George Lucas came up with various ideas of basing the film around the elderly characters, however disney wanted to bring in new, young characters, and therefore JJ Abrams had the choice of choosing between the two, and decided to ignore many of George Lucas's ideas that were put forward for the film and went ahead and did most work with disney to produce a film that had younger characters, which allowed the film to work within the four quadrant. This option for JJ Abrams made the production of star wars a much more easier job, this is because he had so many different ideas thrown at him which meant that he could analyse each one and know from the beginning roughly how successful the film could possibly be. Although Lucas has sold lucasfilms to disney in 2012, he was still there as a source of canonical information, as someone who may know the details or relationships of certain characters that perhaps were only briefly touched on in the six films so far, but the new scripts will tell a new story. Therefore Lucas will still play a large role within star wars, sourcing key information on the background behind the previous films.

The three step motto used in an article for creating hype for an unknown brand was 1. Start early 2. Go big 3. Endear the cast to audiences all across the world. This is exactly the technique used in the production of star wars the force awakens, starting early by working on the film as soon as Disney took over, going big and spending large amounts of money, and endearing the cast to audiences across the world through the used of many different types of marketing. Disney were lucky enough to let the natural chemistry between and charisma of its cast do most of the work, and used this when publicising the film;  Disney made sure to use a fair bit of  nostalgia into the marketing campaign, with Harrison Ford’s Han Solo and Chewbacca featuring heavily. When Han said, “Chewie…we’re home,” in the first trailer, it was the same sentiment being echoed by longtime Star Wars fans who still had a bad taste in their collective mouth from the prequels. Don’t worry, the marketing campaign seemed to say, the Millennium Falcon and Star Wars as a whole is back in good hands again. Audiences couldn’t help but associate The Force Awakens with the original trilogy, forming a positive brand association from the start. Therefore, Disney gained a great reputation from the star, and from then on, all that was needed was money to further publicise the film across the globe to many different audiences, which was far from a problem for the multi billion pound company.

• the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange; (how has the introduction of digital film, 3D, DVD, Blue Ray, internet streaming, downloadable content, home cinema influenced the types of films made, the way we watch them and the way we 'buy' them?) Research the types of technology utilised during these stages of the film production process of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The recent introduction of digital filming has become very popular amongst many production companies therefore the flexibility and immediacy of digital filming makes a lot of sense, but while this format is still evolving, other companies are still using film as a way to produce their films.

With Interstellar shot on Imax 65mm and projected in 70mm, and the new round of Star wars films committed to anamorphic 35mm, the continuing impact of this well-developed technology should not be underestimated. While expensive and demanding, its unsurpassed image quality, rich colours, deep tones and textural details continues to attract passionate film-makers such JJ Abrams, who are still fighting to save the format from obsolescence. In a culture that is continually looking for smaller, faster and more convenient ways of doing things, we can often abandon a technology before it reaches maturity. Film is still technically superior in some ways and dedicated craftsmen are still refining it. The rapid evolution of digital film is understandable in many ways, however Abrams believes film still has a lot to offer.

Also, the recent uprise in illegal internet streaming has meant that many individual are deciding to watch films illegally on websites such as put locker. Websites such as put locker now also have the ability to make films available before the official release date, therefore this means that they are becoming more and more attractive by offering something that is out of the producers hands. The fact that this is now possible will have many negative affects on companies such as disney, this is because people will now no longer go to the cinema to watch films, purchase them from stores or rent them online. Therefore the overall revenues that a certain film makes will decrease rapidly, and for some films profits will not even be reached, this means that production companies need to work even harder than ever to produce extra revenues in order to cover the amount lost through illegal streaming. Overall, this may mean that the film industry will all be ever so similar, as companies are more reluctant to taking risks, and will automatically try and produce a film with similar content to those who have brought a lot of success. 

However, this has not had much of an affect on star wars due to the prequel being so successful, and many fans being so obsessed with the films. Therefore, a large amount of profit was still made from star wars the force awakens, although maybe no way near as much as it should have been due to websites such as put locker allowing their viewers to watch in HD.

the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences; (how and why have film companies had to alter the way they work now everyone has web enabled phones, PC's, consoles etc? How have audiences changed their viewing habits now we no longer need to go to the cinema to watch a film) Link this area to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

New technology has meant that audiences can now watch their favourite films on many different devices within their household, therefore the popularity with buying dvds has decreased massively and the majority of suppliers have completely stopped buying them. This means that film companies have almost stopped making their films on dvd's as they aren't selling all of their units, therefore they have had to alter the way they distribute their film.

This has been done by allowing people to rent films on their tv's through sky, bt, talk talk etc... and has become very popular and is very easy to do. Due to this, companies such as blockbuster have recently shut down and has almost had the same affect on hmv. Therefore over the past 10 years audiences have changed their viewing habits massively, from buying films and watching them on a dvd player to simply downloading them on their tvs and watching them instantly.

Over time, things are getting easier and easier for audiences to view films and therefore companies like disney have started to react to this. Due to web enabled phones and so many people being on them a large amount of the time, marketing has become a huge area within the film industry. Adverts are so easily reached to audiences as they are constanty on the internet and therefore its easier to attract audiences to come and watch their films. This was seen with star wars the force awakens as every few webpages would include an advert for the film, and therefore attracted many people to come an view the film at the cinema.

Therefore overall, new technology has meant that it is becoming easier for audiences to view films, however easier for companies to market their films. This can be seen as negative, as profit on dvd's are no way near as much as before however many more people are watching the films, which is the target for a company to do so. 

• the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences; (can you think of examples of how different technologies have come together to help the film industry?)  Consider, amongst other things, the many ways that the film was marketed.

Technological convergence has slowly become a crucial component in the changes to the film industry. It has allowed for makers to improve the quality of films, and to make them more complex and dynamic. Whilst also becoming easier and easier to access. The ease of distribution has also increased dramatically through technological convergence, this is because its cheaper and faster than ever before to distribute to cinemas as each cinema doesn't require an entire film reel. Also, converting to DVD is now almost instant.

Film companies would always rely billboards, buses and posters to advertise their film before, however technological convergence has meant that audiences can be reached through Facebook, twitter, snapchat, Instagram and many more social media sites, at a reasonably low cost. Therefore there is a wider range of people in which companies can now target their films at, with specific age groups being an option, For example, doing most of the marketing on social media for a film aimed at teenagers would be very beneficial, as the majority of teenagers look at social media every day and adverts would get to them very quickly. 

Due to celebrities now also using social media, it means that they can have a  large role in helping market the films themselves. For example, Channing Tatum has almost 10 million followers on his twitter account and therefore his tweets reach a large majority of these people. And with one single tweet, this can be more affective as tens of thousands of billboards across major cities. Therefore marketing has become a lot cheaper and more affective within this area.

As mentioned before, technological convergence can also have a largely negative affect on the revenues created by a film company due to websites such as put locker allowing films to be watched for completely free online, and could perhaps cancel out any positive affects that have occurred from technological convergence.

• the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions; (how do film companies try and attract their audience? Do they do different things in different countries?) How was the film marketed in the USA, Europe and the rest of the world (particular focus here on China).

Disney was very strategic about how they staggered their trailers for The Force Awakens. They first aired two teaser length previews that focused heavily upon symbols from the old movies like X-Wings and Tie-fighters to let old school fans know that these would, in fact, be Star Wars movies set in the familiar, beloved universe (No Gungans this time). Then they released their longer two-and-a-half minute ad during halftime of a Monday Night Football game on ABC. A large amount of hype surrounded this trailer’s release. This was very successful and effective for previous viewers of the star wars prequel and members of the uk and US, however did not reach others worldwide. Therefore, Disney decided to make specific trailers for each major country. For example, china was one of the countries that was top of the list, this is due to chinas economy and population. Disney did this by launching  an aggressive marketing offensive, screening the trailer on the Great Wall -- and putting 500 Stormtroopers on it -- and enlisting a local pop star as a cultural ambassador. This helped to put extra millions of eyes on the film, and made the film successful on the chinese box office.

This technique is used by many major film companies, and was seen in the film 'Skyfall' where James bond was seen in shanghai, which also helped to target an audience within china.

Therefore, targeting the US and the UK was the easy part for Disney, with the only major factor being the amount of money spent. Whereas to target other countries Disney had to offer something that was attractive to the countries, with an environment that meant something to the citizens of that country, for example the great wall for citizens of china. Otherwise, there would be no other way of being able to reach any other audiences.

• the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour. (what is your opinion on the above? Do you see the developments as a good or bad thing?) Link this area to the film. Find figures for audience consumption on the different platforms for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

I believe the introduction of technology within the film industry is having a massive effect, however a very minimal one at the same time. This is due to the fact its changing the way people work in a massive way, however the changes are simply cancelling themselves out due to the opposite affect occurring. For example, new technology has meant that overall costs for a film to be produced is increasing, however revenues are also increasing at the same time. New technology also means its easier to reach audiences, however its also easier to stream free copies online etc...

In my opinion the film industry is simply a matter of money, and without it, its very hard to be successful at all. There are a lot of films that make a fair amount of profit without it, however its very rare to make a huge amount. This is shown by the success of companies like disney, as they have the ability to hire big names, spend lots on marketing and use various special effects. And as time goes on, there will become less and less room for low budget films due to the demand of audiences increasing rapidly for special effects. Critics are also becoming more harsh, therefore low budget films will be criticised dramatically.