Discuss the issues raised by media ownership in the production and exchange of media texts in film (January 2011)

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.