Question 2

9610 - candidate number

Using Disney as a good example, do a post about synergy and how it is easier for a media conglomerate than a smaller independent British company.

Synergy is the benefit that results when two or more agents work together to achieve something either one couldn't have achieved on its own. Examples of synergy from Disney would be their High School Musical CD, High School Musical game, High School Musical DVD and High School Musical outlets.

Disney uses synergy across markets, many relating to the films they release, as the company's feature length films are its cornerstone products. They are marketed before launch through partners, agencies, competitors and subsidiaries, often promoting the films through advertisements on the television channels that Disney owns. When the film is launched, the company continues to gain marketing synergies, often by franchising consumer products to other companies, further promoting the product and generating more profit. More popular films are often used in the Disney theme parks as attractions for visitors, where the names and features of the attractions relate to the films content. Disney also advertises all of its products on web 2.0, where information is available to a worldwide audience, as well as fans and critics creating their own publications about Disney's products. 

Walt Disney pioneered synergistic marketing techniques in the 1930s by granting dozens of firms the right to use his Mickey Mouse character in products and advertisements, and continued to market Disney media through licensing arrangements. These products can help advertise the film itself and thus help to increase the film's sales.

Further examples

• The Walt Disney company allows some other corporations to use their characters, such as Mickey Mouse.
• The use of soundtracks, i.e. Daft Punk working on Tron Legacy.
• Merchandise - Toy Story franchise, Marvel entertainment.
• Special Deals inside the DVD/Blu-Ray boxes.
• Pre-Movie Adverts on the DVD, as well as in cinema.

Synergy and 'Toy Story 3'

- Digital 3D re-release of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 - teaser trailers for Toy Story 3.

- Blu Ray/DVD combo release of the films included 'The Making of Toy Story 3' feature.

- Disney Interactive Studios released 'Toy Story 3: The Video Game' prior to the release of the film.

- ABC's 'Dancing With the Stars' featured a performance from the film.

- Sneak peeks of the film shown on the Disney Channel.

- Prior to the release the Disney Channel held a 'Toy Story' day, showing the first two films and sneak peeks of the third one.

The Disney stores promote the consumer products which promote the theme parks which promote the television shows. The television shows promote the company. This could also be described as constant media synergy, wherein everything within a franchise promotes everything else. Toy Story 2 toys were sold in McDonald's happy meal boxes and advertised on the packaging. This is a fun way of advertising a movie because every child who goes to McDonald's gets a happy meal. This type of synergy is successful because those who have seen the movie will then be interested in the McDonald toys, and those who have the toys may be interested in viewing the media content in a cinema.

The distributors of Ill Manors (Revolver Entertainment - a smaller independent company) cannot use synergy in the same way as Disney can, and this is a major disadvantage. It's an uneven playing field between conglomerates and small independent companies. Ill Manors used synergy through Plan B releasing a CD with the soundtrack of the movie before the film was ready to be consumed. Having a CD out first means that the audience may be interested in the themes explored in his music and therefore feel intrigued to view the movie. The campaign combine both traditional and digital media and was kicked off by the release of a tweet-to-unlock campaign that was promoted via digital media and physical posters that included the hashtag illmanorsalbum. Plan B released this music video as a protest video to create awareness. His Ill Manors album went straight to number one in the Official UK Album Charts upon release in July 2012. SkyFall didn't need the CD by Adele to do well as much as Ill Manors did. The Ill Manors website is also an example of synergy because there are links on this website which take the viewer to the page where they can purchase the normal DVD and the Blu-Ray version. This encourages the promotion of Ill Manors. T-Shirts were also designed with the logo of Ill Manors printed on the front of the material. If people walk around with this shirt on, it also promotes the movie which is a further example of synergy. 

However, Ill Manors were not able to bring out as many merchandise products as Disney because their audience are for people aged 18 and over. Plan B wanted to attract 15-25 year olds, but done the film no favours by presenting a title which the BBFC deemed worthy of an '18' certificate. This risks it losing under 28 audiences which means the film may not have made as much money. Disney attracts children as well as teenagers as well as adults, which gives them an advantage when it comes to merchandise and box office profits. You wouldn't be able to advertise Ill Manors pencil cases and teddies for example like Disney can with the characters featured in their movies. 

The union between Pixar and Disney have been an incredibly successful business strategy played out by Disney, and financially a hugely profitable move. Below are some more examples of Disney's subsidiaries which enable this media conglomerate to dominate the market. With all of these subsidiaries comes the opportunities for successful synergy because they can all work together and promote each other. 

Revolver Entertainment does not have this luxury because they only have their own company to work with. Without subsidiaries, it makes synergy a lot more challenging, hence this is so easy for Disney because they own a ridiculous amount of other companies.

Ultimately, it is by far much easier for media conglomerates than a smaller independent British company to use synergy in promoting their media product. 

Question 2

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

Digital distribution is the delivery of media content, such as video, over an online delivery medium such as the Internet, thus bypassing physical distribution methods such as compact discs, DVDs and paper. It has affected the marketing and consumption of media products in a variety of positive and negative ways.

Firstly, digital films are large computer files which can be written to DVD-ROM, sent via broadband, transmitted via satellite, with virtually no shipping costs and isn't much more expensive to show in 100 cinemas as 1. These are major positives for distribution companies because it saves them having to worry if their physical film is delivered in time to the cinema's playing their movie. Film prints are very expensive (£1500-£3000 per print) and are also expensive to ship and collect when the film finishes its run. They run and run until the quality of the footage eventually becomes of less good quality than it was in the first showing. By using digital copies of a media product, the twentieth show will be just as good as the first, with no worry of the footage eroding and becoming unprofessional. Also, unless where the film is being played will be a guaranteed hit, it is risky to send film to a lot of cinemas, whereas digital films can be opened and played simultaneously around the world. 

Furthermore, an extensive viral marketing campaign was created in order to promote Disney's Frozen which contributed to it's massive success. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment were the distribution companies behind most of Frozen's releases. To begin with the promotion of an upcoming movie, a trailer is released and shown on television, YouTube ads and pop ups etc, which is a way in which digital distribution affects the marketing of media products. YouTube requires web 2.0 which is where the Frozen trailer was uploaded, currently viewed by 28,554,570 people. The teaser trailer was first published to attract their audience. Disney also released a second trailer onto YouTube, currently viewed by 17,963,990 people, and this is where further footage from the movie can be seen before being viewed in a cinema. Therefore, three trailers were aired on television and on Web 2.0 before the release of this Disney phenomenon. On YouTube, the Frozen trailer would often be advertised at the beginning of any video someone clicked on; they would have the option to 'Skip The Ad' after 5 seconds, however the 5 seconds is a clever tool on YouTube that gives people the chance to see if they're interested in watching the whole trailer. After the movie was released, Disney continued to make smart marketing decisions. They created a sing-along version to extend theatre life and keep their screen in the cinema busy. They also announced an upcoming Broadway musical based on the film, and pounced on the opportunity for Indina Menzel to sing at the Oscars; the singer behind Let It Go which is one of Frozen's most popular songs. Disney also released a CD of all of the songs featured in Frozen which further encourages audience to watch the movie as they may be interested in the songs they're listening to. Frozen also has their own website, where unique videos of the film can be found, Let It Go sung in 25 different languages, a variety of games for all of the children to be entertained. There's a Frozen gallery found on their website of stills from the film, a 'products' page which takes the viewer to their DVD and Blu-Ray section etc. A wide range of Disney merchandise is also advertised on Disney's store online; another marketing device which increases the number of Frozen fans. Due to Disney being part of The Big Six, it is expected that their marketing of Frozen was so successful, digital distribution encouraging this success.

On Frozen's opening weekend, it grossed $67,391,326 (USA) and £4,704,940 (UK). Four months and two Academy Awards after its release, Frozen officially surpassed Toy Story 3 as the top-grossing animated film to date, which makes it the first billion-dollar movie to come out of Disney Animation Studios. Even if someone hasn't seen the movie, they've no doubt heard about it somewhere online. Between the official Disney promos, the YouTube video of a dad and daughter singing along in the car to Let It Go (nearly 15 million views) or the couple Sam and Nia miming and acting "Love Is An Open Door" in a car with their baby in the backseat (20 million views), Frozen is inescapable, which was exactly Disney's plan. Frozen is now out on DVD and Blu-Ray, and also available on Netflix and LOVEFiLM, in order to reach a wider audience. However, institutions may not always look upon digital distribution as such a positive thing, as many websites can allow the consumers to view films illegally online and for free, which means that the film will not be making its money back from the budget, which means the companies who worked on a film will lose profit. This was not such a huge problem for a massive film like Frozen, but for a smaller, low budget film such as Ill Manors, it can be.

Ill Manors could not afford to create such a large marketing campaign as Frozen's, yet online methods still successfully promoted the movie. Their trailer uploaded to YouTube currently has 740,990 views which is a dramatic difference to Frozen. Ben Drew was able to advertise Ill Manors through his album which he brought out prior to the film's release date. He was the one who directed the making of the movie. An Ill Manors website was also created to encourage the marketing of the movie. People are able to access the trailer from this website, view stills from the movie, a synopsis and the album based on the film. A Facebook account was also created in trying to promote this low budget movie by independant distributing company Revolver Entertainment. These methods of marekting all required Web 2.0 which helped the instituion to get their media product to reach their target audience of 18 and 18+ year olds. Those on the higher side of teenage years all use the internet, which is why using social media is an effective way to market a movie. In order for this media product to reach a wider audience however, the distribution company would need to consider more methods of digital distribution. This would of course mean more money needed for the production company, however is something that would boost their income from Ill Manors. Ill Manors grossed a figure of £256,288 at Box Office on its opening weekend, which is more than double of it's budget of just £100,000. It's a small amount of money at Box Office, however their profit was definitely successful.

The consumption of media products is affected by digital distribution in mainly a positive way. Those who are interested in a movie that has been advertised but do not wish to pay the extortionate prices of cinema tickets and food, are able to at some point access a film in the cinema, on the internet. Usually uploads of new movies have been put on the internet illegally, nevertheless this doesn't stop a consumer from viewing the content for free in the comfort of their own home. In some cases, viruses are then found on people's laptops and computers from viewing this illegal content which causes the consumers problems. Illegal downloads are all fun and games until your piece of kit pays the price.

Ultimately, digital distribtion holds the potential to affect the marketing and the consumption of media products quite significantly. The internet's popularity is continously escalating over the years, which has an impact on the must to go and see movies in a cinema because of the continuing development of technology.

Technical language

Representation of ethnicity

Slow tracking shot establishing location of smart wear character bumping into an old friend.

Over the shoulder shot of Tel and Benjamin, names made clear through sound - dialogue.

Shot reverse shot conveying the clothing of the two characters.

Tel wearing a necklace, with dreadlocks (mise-en-scene).

Benjamin in a slick suit (mise-en-scene).

Dialogue - "Bro" "Man" "Ganja" stereotypical 'black talk'.

Continuity within their conversation.

Benjamin's body language (mise-en-scene) is uncomfortable, tries to interpret 'black man' body language.

Location (mise-en-scene) - Plush hotel

Zoom into Ben's face when Tel says "that's the old Benjamin right there man" - he's uncomfortable, tension rises, absence of fact.

Question 2