Discuss the issues raised by media ownership
in the production
and exchange of
media texts in film
The media ownership plays a big part in the production and
exchange of a film, almost guaranteeing the success or failure of the film they
are producing. For example the production company for the ‘Minions’ is
illumination entertainment, this company is therefore in charge of how the
movie is produced. The ‘Minions’ film was distributed by Universal pictures
which is one of the big six in the film industry, this ensured that the film
had a wide release and was known by many audiences. The film was distributed to
main stream cinemas, such as Odeon, vue, cineworld so it was easy for audiences
to access, universal also spent $26.1 million on TV advertisement which
empathised the film.
The exchange for this film was that the film was released in
a total of 66 countries making it accessible to a wide range of audiences; the
film is also available to watch on Netflix, putlocker, IMDB, and many other
internet sites. This creates an issue as many people use illegal internet sites
to watch movies such as putlocker instead of paying to see the film as the
cinema (piracy). So the media ownership of the film, in this case Universal misses
out on profit.
Another issue would be that people pay to watch the film and
video the film whilst in the cinema, and then upload it to various different
social media sites allowing people to watch it illegally. Piracy is a large issue
that many film companies suffer from.
Exchange is the online sharing of the film and how someone
watches a film, so as stated above people can watch the ‘Minions’ film on many
different internet sites, on DVD, and in 3D.
As for independent films, for example ‘Film 71’ the price
for production was cheaper as the budget was £8.1 million where as the
production budget for the ‘Minions’ was $74 million. This shows the comparison between
indie (independent) films compared to a mainstream film. The exchange of ‘Film
71’ was limited as the film is only accessible on DVD, blu-ray.
Ultra violet is DVD sharing with five others; this is a
marketing technique which is used by the producers of the ‘Minions’ which makes
the film more accessible to viewers.
Therefore there are many issues raised by media ownership in
the production and exchange of media texts in film, most have been listed above.
Big six
There are issues raised
concerning media ownership in the production and exchange in the film industry
despite the size of the production companies or studios as it is inevitable for
a producer to do so during the making of a film, due to the varying
factors such as the budget, technology used, film rating or critical acclaim. Big production companies,
distributors and big budgets do not prevent the
raising of issues during production and exchange within the film making process.
