By Hannah Goodman

To what extent does digital distribution affect the marketing and consumption of media products in the area of media you have studied?

Digital distribution affects the marketing and consumption of media products in the film industry nowadays because more people tend to watch films in the comfort of their own homes, rather than taking trips to the cinema, and have become more dependent on the internet. Although, it can be argued that digital distribution has a massive impact on the way in which audiences consume films, through VOD like iTunes or Netflix.

VOD has become popular due to the increasing accessibility to the internet, this is because people can access all films including newly released films, so they don't have to go to the cinema and pay to watch the film, they could just stream it immediately. VOD was first launched in 2001 by Kingston and was used through the internet as it is now and was soon adopted by multiple companies.

But with actual VOD that people pay for does come the illegal side of people not paying for downloading films from illegal torrent sites. The film Mad Max: Fury Road was the most pirated film of 2015, it has been illegally downloaded 22.90 million times in 2015. Even though the studios will not get any money from the downloads it shows that many people want to watch the film and that one area of the digital distribution that isn't legit is working.

Ex Machina is an example the film was released in art house cinemas with a limited initial marketing campaign. However it was put onto iTunes, Amazon and other services to download and also put onto Sky movies/Sky go for people to watch. But was still seen as a small independent film not many had heard about as was considered a ‘cult film’. But it became nominated for a British Independent Film Award which it won. When this happened it had a re-release at cinemas. But on iTunes which is arguably the one of the biggest formats for VOD it got put into a category of British Independent Film Awards films and was suddenly noted as one of the best films of 2015. So this added to the digital downloads through iTunes.

To add to the marketing of a film, the film could use social media to add to the campaign. The majority of films will have used social media as a way of marketing their film. They will use different platforms depending on whom their films is aimed towards. For example, some may use the social media platform Twitter to advertise their film through free advertising. For example, Ex Machina used the social media platforms Tinder and

By Hannah Goodman

Instagram to advertise the characters in their film hoping to catch the eye of their audiences. They created profiles for each platform, this allowed the audience to interact with the robotic character Ava. But the production companies can also pay the social media site to advertise the film which Fury Road did by paying twitter and as people went down the news feed trailers would appear which will obviously catch peoples attention. It is said that Mad Max had the most successful marketing campaign in 2015 because of using techniques like this.

Mad Max had a budget of $150 million which went towards production, marketing and distribution, this allowed these to be done with quality to ensure the film can make as much money as possible. The film was shot digitally so it was easy for the trailers and clips to be made and out onto the internet for the marketing campaign. Because of this the film was also easy to distribute as it did as mentioned in the paragraph above by letting the cinemas get the film off of the internet or get it through hard drive. Fury Road was also shot in 3D and IMAX. So people would have gone out to a special cinema to see the IMAX version. The film was intended to be shot in 3D as that is what the director George Miller wanted but this fell by the way side. People can watch the 3D version at home if they have a 3D TV but 3D isn't yet supported by services like iTunes.

Companies can now digitally distribute films rather than physically transporting roles of film to cinemas. Companies can now create an online server that cinemas can log onto and download the film from, making the process easier and quicker and saving the companies money or they will send a copy of the film on a hard drive to the cinema for them to play. Also this digital process is a lot easier as they don't have to get a van to drive to the cinema with three cases full of seven rolls of film instead it is just a small package.

Discuss the issues raised by media ownership in the production and exchange of media texts in your chosen media area?

By Hannah Goodman

In many cases, lack of money due to media ownership can be an extreme inconvenience during the production stages of a film and also in exchange, as this limits choice in casting, the quality of special effects, how the film can be viewed i.e. 2D/3D/IMAX etc. Film production companies face multiple issues during the production and exchange of their films. Its up to them to make something that is going to be popular with the public and ultimately make money.

The ‘big six’ companies are the most prominent in the film industry, it is more common that they are more businesses wanting to make money rather than always making great cinema, also making multiple sequels of a popular franchise. For example Jurassic world, it was backed by Universal one of the big six and it was a truly unimaginative film. It ripped off Steven Spielberg’s original but because of its former popularity with older and younger audiences it made a massive box office income. This being an example of companies making many sequels this being the third to make money back.

Films that have had many sequels are usually backed by one of the big six, for example, the Mad Max films recently releasing another film named Fury Road. This film was backed by Warner Brothers. The film was a massive success it brought in the original cult fans who had been around to see the original trilogy and it also brought in new fans to the franchise of people who possibly hadn't seen the originals. The film was original dreamt up by director George Miller in 1998 but wasn't made due to money problems, wars and terrorist attacks. Although this film would be released a while since the older films were still popular. However, this benefited them as it allowed the story to be moulded into a film that would become e huge hit whilst still having Mad Max references remaining in the film. Their huge budget of $150 million came from production companies, although none of them belonged to the big six.  However Village Roadshow has great synergy with Warner Brothers who are apart of the big six. For every film produced by Village Roadshow, Warner Brothers has distributed. Because of Warner Brothers being a big six company they have a massive sphere of influence so they were able to get the film into many cinemas and on the opening weekend onto 3,702 screens. This great success in distribution added to the success of the film and earning a box office of $374.7 million.

Although, there are many issues facing the film industry. One being piracy. The main issue is people not wanting to go to the cinema and

By Hannah Goodman

watch a new film, they would rather watch it or download it illegally of piracy sites. For example, Mad Max Fury Road was the most illegally downloaded film of 2015 which will have massively affected its end result at the box office. It was downloaded 22.90 million times which will contribute to a massive box office loss. Because films are distributed to cinemas in cases with multiple film reels but instead make a server in which the cinemas log onto and get the film and due to hackers and people inside the cinema it is a lot easier for them to get the film onto the internet for downloading.