Issued raised by media ownership.

Ill Manors & Skyfall

By Sophie Bennett

Debate & explore the advantages & disadvantages of large conglomerates and smaller independent companies. For example: Film London Microwave, Film London's Micro-budget feature film & BBC Film produced Ill Manors (All independent companies). Whereas Sony & MGM produced Skyfall(Both large international conglomerate companies).

Media Ownership

Big Conglomerate Companies

Advantages: Production: - Can take risks when making the films to make

the film bigger & better. For example: making it in 3D.

- Won’t need to collaborate to secure funding.- Can be more ambitious with film. For example:

Bigger stars, more special effects and travel to better locations.

- Sony (Skyfall) are able to shut down places in order to get the scenes they want in their film. For example: closing a tube station.

- Bigger companies (Skyfall) are also aloud to use extras in the background because they can control the area and people.

Distribution: - More money and better links to related

companies. For example: Sony Pictures Entertainment(production company) and Sony Pictures (distribution company) and Sony Platforms to exhibit films.

- Can use synergy via games, music and toys ect. - Cam use Cross media convergence.

Disadvantages:

Production & Exhibition: - Films often have to satisfy a mass

market and creatively film makers cannon take many risks as so many large companies do satisfy and revenue to achieve.

- The film has to do well at the Box Office.

20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Columbia, Universal and Walt Disney Studios.

Examples of Conglomerate companies

Independent Companies

Advantages:

Production & Exhibition: - Smaller independent

companies can take more risks due to the fact that there is less money involved in the process of making the film. Bigger companies can not do this as there is too much money involved.

Disadvantages: Production:- Less budget so the film will be

less ambitious, smaller scale cost, location and special effects.

- Often have to secure extra funding and finance.

Distribution: - Has to be targeted as less

money to spend on distribution companies.

- The film is expected to make less revenue at Box Office.

- Can’t withstand losses with Box Office returns..

Film London Microwave, BBC Films, Bwark & Warp Films.

Examples of Independent Companies

Film London, Film London's Micro Budget feature films & BBC Films produced Ill Manors.

Ill Manors had a relatively small marketing budget and it was very hard to use synergy within the marketing process because they do not have links with other companies.

Budget: £100, 000 Box Office: £453, 570 Ill Manors tried to push the boundaries and received relative success,

compared to their budget. as Ill Manors isn’t part of a huge conglomerate it was able to take more

risks in terms of subject matter. A bigger company would not be able to do this as there is too much money involved.

It was financed by Film London, BBC Films and supported by Slillsets, UK Film council and Mayor of London.

The advertising campaign had to be targeted at a specific niche audience.

Ill Manors- Independent Company

Viral marketing helped Ill Manors compete and make their money. Their website gave the audience easy access to information about the film, it was packed with video clips, trailers, pictures and downloads. This made the audience feel more involved in the film.

The downloads are also a way of free advertising. For example: Someone has the background on their phone or a ringtone and friends might ask where it is from and it would help spread information about the film(word of mouth).

How did Ill Manors compete with bigger company films?

Sony & MGM produced Skyfall. Skyfall was a success because it had the backing of a company that was able to

use Cross media convergence as it owns companies. (production, distribution & exhibitors) During the production of making Skyfall there is billions of people involved.

5-10 million dollars for only the opening title sequence. A variety of special effects are used and they hide stunt men/characters. For a big budget film skyfall resulted in a huge amount of ‘word-of-mouth’. This

helped the film become a blockbuster hit. Skyfall was also benefited by cross media convergence as the film company is a giant institution.

Publicity of skyfall started early because Sony could afford to do so. For example: photos of the characters were released a year before the film was released.

Skyfall used viral marketing with the use of their own website, their wallpapers, Facebook cover photos and Twitter skins. Stills from the film can also be found in the gallery on the website.

Skyfall are a conglomerate company, meaning they have more power than independent companies like the ones who produced Ill Manors.

The ability to shut down public places.

Skyfall- Conglomerate Company

Skyfall worked with Sony and produced a special edition Skyfall phone, known as “The Bond Phone”. (Sony Xperia) This is a example of Synergy. James Bond is also using a Sony phone in the film.

Skyfall also used synergy by having Bond clothing, accessories, gadgets ect.

Due to Skyfall having a massive budget it made cross media convergence and synergy a lot easier to do.

There is also a James bond magazine and online website to promote the film. The advantages of an online website is it’s cheap, quick, people can see it world wide and is an example of cross media convergence.

Skyfall attracted a national audience because of the different locations it was filmed at (40 film locations), therefore relating to all different people from the countries that the film shot in. For example: London, china ect.

Skyfall Facts

Ill Manors is a British film, related to British society. Social realist drama. Classification of 18 due to the use of bad language. The fist initial release of Ill Manors was successful

with over £25,000 made during the first weekend from 91 cinemas. However in week 2 the number of cinemas fell to 83 and the screen average fell by 65%. Whereas skyfall cinemas didn't’t fall.

Ill Manors Facts

Facts from Case Study

Ill Manors

Film London- small company, therefore can only have a very small budget. (£100, 000)

Ill manors could take more risks because there was less money involved.

Synergy and cross media convergence is harder because they do not have links with companies. Therefore companies can not work together easily.

Ill Manors had to be helped with the finance of the film (film London, BBC films)

Advertising campaign had to be targeted at a specific audience.

Skyfall

Sony- big company, therefore able to have a huge budget.

Spend 5-10 million dollars on just the opening title sequence.

Synergy and cross media convergence is easier because a conglomerate company has its own production, distribution company and links to exhibitors.

Sky fall can afford to use bigger stars, bigger and better special effects due to the budget of $200, 000, 000

Due to the fact there is a lot of money involved there can only be a certain amount of risks taken.