Discuss the issues raised by Media Ownership in the production and exchange of media texts in your chosen media area.

In the film industry it is difficult to make progress and create films that get attention and in turn put into cinemas unless you are already a large company. Smaller companies and the majority of British Film is given a back seat because of the vast amount of American Blockbusters.
Slumdog Millionaire is an example of a film that pushed the boundaries though.


Viral Marketing helped this film get where it is now, overcoming the mass American film industry; for example their website they run a series of awards and reviews as an introduction to the website, giving the audience easy access to information about the film but it also has an option to skip it so this stops the audience becoming bored and switching off the website.
As well as this the website is also packed with Video clips, trailers, pictures and downloads to make the audience feel more involved in the film. Also the downloads are a way of free advertising, for example if someone has the background on their phone or a ringtone friends might ask where it was from and it would help spread information about the film through word of mouth.
The links on the website are in the ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ question box, a recognisable symbol of the TV programme, so the website and the film help promote the TV show too.


Viral Marketing is a new and successful way of promoting films. Slumdog Millionaire released a Viral Trailer before the film release in the UK allowing people to put it onto blogs and other social networking websites and spread the word of the film.
Although Social networking sites can be used as an advantage of easy advertising they can also have a negative impact. For example if people post bad reviews of a film onto blogs, Facebook, twitter or even YouTube in a video format, this would spread negative views on the film and discourage people to pay to see this film in the cinema. Word of mouth is one of the strongest forms of marketing and if people spread bad reviews this could cause a serious decline in profits, an recent example of this is The Rum Diary online reviews and newspapers were terrible and so after the first lot of people went to see this film it slowly declined in audience numbers.
To counteract the negative reviews films companies use viral marketing to fight back. Odeon Cinemas gave an extra 50 points to Odeon Premiere Club members if they bought tickets to see The Rum Diary as a way to encourage people to go and see a film that had bad reviews.
Slum Dog Millionaire was predicted to do badly but the actor Danny Boyle and Indie Film enthusiast helped to counteract this.
As soon as a film is released into cinemas downloads of the film can be pirated or watched online. Websites like Pirate Bay and 1channel make this easy to get a hold of the downloads or online versions. To stop this happening, much to the dismay of cinemas, films are being released onto DVD and Blu-Ray much faster than usual. This means people can watch the film once they’ve been to the cinema and don’t feel as much need to download them. An example of this is Alice in Wonderland (2010) which caused uproar with cinemas because Disney released the DVD only three months after it was released rather than the usual four.


In conclusion there are many issues with smaller or British film companies trying to get their films into cinemas. Film Companies are vitally important in the production of films across the world as they are vertically integrated is maximizes profits for that particular company. This means they films they produce can have a larger budget, and will be bigger and more dramatic.
As the importance is so large on companies such as Sony, this has a large effect on companies such as Amber Films who cannot afford the major funding, and the profits they make from the films will not be half as much as the likes of Sony and Warner Bros.

Whats wrong with the british film industry?

It seems to me that people are unable to think of films to make or stories to write for the big screen, Everything seems to be a remake of a Classic, pretty much for the music industry too. Are the younger generation unable to come up with their own ideas?

Also many films nowadays seem to represent strong stereotypes on the younger generation which not only discriminates us but can  have a bad influence on kids as films are very graphic and show what younger generations can be influenced into such as sex, drugs, and the harsh reality of murder and life on the streets. Yet again emphasising the lack of film making and ideas as they have resulted in using real world problems as films instead of the good old imagination, for films such as avatar and recently made million pound blockbusters.

The UK Film Council was set up in 2000 with a brief to "create a self-sustaining UK film industry". Over the past decade, it has ploughed £160m of Lottery money into more than 900 productions (some good, some awful). It has also funded the British Film Institute and Skillset, which furnishes the industry with a steady supply of trained technicians. Veteran producer David Puttnam has hailed it as the strategic glue that binds a disparate sprawl of auteurs, craftspeople, circus barkers and market traders and its abolition sparked fierce criticism, both here (where 50 big-name actors signed a letter of protest) and in the US (where Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg waded into the fray).

My Clip Walk Through

My Representational clip.

·        
Firstly the clip starts with a long shot of the two main characters who walk into the alley with the drugs.

·         A short zoom into rubbish and packets of fags and then a pan out onto the main characters faces portray the teenage ‘non-care’ attitude to school and mess, foreshadowing how they don’t care about the consequences of drugs.

·         The clip then moves on to the two characters talking about the drugs and when and where they will be taking them, using the 180* rule letting the audience know clearly that it is a

Conversation and who it’s between.

·         The third character being the one who catches them talking and showing each other drugs then arrives slowly walking down to the alley, and walking up to them then confronting them about what they are doing as its wrong and immoral.

·         They then shout abuse at the third character for speaking her opinions and tell her to ‘piss off’ co notating yet again there non care attitude to people and life and how they feel no sympathy to a ‘friend’.

·         The third character follows them quietly and confronts them again this time using force to grab her, showing his seriousness about what they are doing and how he feels about it and his thoughts on them getting caught.

·         The conversation and clip then ends on argument and finishes with the third character walking away with his head down foreshadowing if they carry on taking drugs they may loose more and more friends as they are acting stupidly. 

Clip Script.

Script

Waterloo Road - Drugs

(Upbeat Music)Lauren:           Is it strong then?

Amy:               Yeah, one joint and you’ll be totally baked. 

Lauren:           Well, what, have you tried it?
Amy:               No but Trevor reckons it good stuff and he knows all about it so…

Lauren:           Well, d’you reckon we’ll be okay?

(Lauren Sniffs Bag)

Amy:               Soon find out. We’re trying it tonight at mine you up for it?

Lauren:           Err yeah I suppose

Amy:               You don’t suppose you in or what?

Lauren:           Yeah I’m in, totally.

(Both hold bag, look in and smile)

Sam:                What are you playing at Lauren?
Amy:               You stupid or what? You almost made me drop this down the

toilet!

Sam:                Yeah and that’s the best place for it!

(Closes bag)

(Music Volume Raises) (Exit Toilet) (Music ends)

Sam:                What? You into drugs now Lauren?

Lauren:           It’s just a bit of grass Sam.

Sam:                And you think that she’s gunna take it like that when she finds out?

Amy:               WE weren’t planning on telling her.

Sam:                Are you mad or what?

Amy:               What’s it to do with you anyway?

Sam:                I was talking to a mate actually

(Amy looks around - exaggerating)

Amy:               What is there someone else in here?

Sam:                No one finds you funny

(Lauren puts her hands on Amy and Sam)

Lauren:           Shut up, both of you, were all mates aren’t we. Come on Sam you are being a little bit of a downer about this; it’s just grass… We should all to go Amy’s after school, smoke a bit, it’ll be a laugh!

Amy:               What? She’s not coming mine!

Lauren:           Oh come on

Sam:                Do you know what I’m not, look you want to get yourself into drugs hen fine but don’t expect me to hang around with you

(Sam leaves)

Waterloo road Clip analysis.

The clip portrayed above is the clip i will be representing in my own production of a video, i will be copying all representational issues featured in the above video. The representational issue conveyed in this clip is the theme of drugs and teenage peer pressure as well as how the younger generation may be more corrupted than older generations.

The Camera editing in this clip varies from birds eye view shots representing the 'God Look' portraying what they are doing is wrong and God may be looking down on them, the clip then moves on to a 180 degree to show the theme of conversation and to make it clear to the audience that they are talking, and the seriousness of the conversation as the fast switches from person to person causes tension in the clip to build leaving the audience wanting to watch the rest of the clip and to see the climax.

At the same time the fast cuts and the camera editing is in place a fast non-diegetic beat is in the background yet again portraying the suspense moment and successfully building tension in the clip, until they exit the toilet where the camera pans across and follows them leaving the toilet the music quiet'ens down and makes the main focus the talking as an argument begins.

The Mise-en-scene in the clip is how the teens are in a school toilet, representing the dirty, run down stereotypical view on school toilets and how what they are doing may be seen as dirty and stereotypical of a generation taking drugs.

The last section of the clip, there are many close ups portrayed making this section obvious that it is an important scene and that the conversation is serious, the camera yet again is at the 180 degree rule conveying the theme of conversation, making it clear to the audience, there is also editing such as the fast cuts from character to character to eventually lead to the climax, however another piece of editing is used when she pushes Sam off of her and the screen shakes co notating the force and built up tension of the scene and the seriousness that Sam has for her friends saftey. The sound in these last clips range from a non-diegetic beat which is at a slow pace at the start and by the end where it has faded portraying just the characters voices making them the main focus point. 

The last part of the clip shows all three girls and how they have been caught with drugs and Sam knows, therefore leaving them the feeling of worrying and how people may find out, therefore foreshadowing that they actually could be found out, the last edit in the clip is the dramatic zoom and pan when the pair walk out of the toilets, showing there disrespect and stereotypical teenage behavior.