How is Media Convergence important for audiences and Institutions?

Q: How is Media Convergence important for audiences and Institutions?

With the growing use of media convergence, the film industry has become more extremely successful. Marketing, distribution and exhibition all heavily rely on cross media convergence as it ensures that there is a market for the film in order for the film to be a hit. Audiences are now a lot more aware of the production of films which is driven by media convergence.

During the production of the British film ‘Attack the Block’, cross media convergence was also used to virally market the film using social networking. They made a twitter account, posting occasional teaser posts to entice their audience to see the film before its release, however this wasn’t used enough to create the buzz which was necessary to really help the film gain recognition. Cross media convergence was also used when a variety of smaller film companies joined together in order to finance the film. Synergy was used when Big Talk Productions, Film 4, Studio Canal and the UK Film council all joined together to achieve the final outcome of the film. It was important that this happened as otherwise the film wouldn’t have been a success. ‘Attack the Block’ is a British film with a small budget. All of the companies which worked on the production of ‘Attack the Block’ are small and have a lot of experience working on other small budget so it was expected that the film would succeed. It is important that ‘Attack the Block’ has the backing of all of the smaller film production companies as the experience and knowledge of all four will ensure that the film can be the best that it can be. They managed to get $13 million for the making of the film and which paid for the film production as well as advertising for the film in the usual ways; tv adverts, film trailers, teaser trailers, official UK and US trailers, exclusive interviews with the cast and director as well as creating a soundtrack which was available for purchase when the film was released. After all of the marketing, ‘Attack the Block’ was still only small budget which, crossed with being British, was a disadvantage when trying to promote the film, especially outside of the UK.

The film ‘Kick Ass’ is also a British film, however it worked with larger film production companies which could provide larger budgets for the film which amounted to $30 million. These companies include Universal Pictures (which is one of the big six film production companies in Hollywood), Marv Films, Lionsgate and Plan B Entertainment (owned by Brad Pitt). This was an advantage for the film ‘Kick Ass’ as the companies are much larger and operate on larger scales the ‘Attack the Block’ and are therefore able to market and advertise the film more heavily. The well known film production companies would have been an attraction for the film as people know them and will know that their standards are high meaning the films will have met those standards. As well as this, the film had already gained a fan base from the comic books, which the film was based on, released by Marvel Comics. This was useful when promoting the film as the target audience had already heard of ‘Kick Ass’ and will be able to use word of mouth in order to create a buzz for the film. This mixed with the promotion which included social networking sites, tv adverts, film trailers, posters and a soundtrack which was available for purchase after the film had been released. The film also had film reviews on sites such as ‘Rotten Tomatoes’, forums and blogs which helped create a positive view of the film so people went to see the film at the cinema. As well as this, the film was followed from the filming until when it hit the screens by film magazines ‘Empire’ and ‘Total Film’ which also gave it positive reviews, urging readers to go and see it. All of these advertising methods crossed with an excellent cast (including Nicholas Cage; who has a huge fan base) helped the film to become a massive hit in the box office and DVD/Blu-Ray sales.

Another example of a film which uses cross media convergence is ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’. This is a film which required a large budget due to the extensive use of CGI. Because of the large expense, (completing the on screen monkeys took 3 stages, all of which had to be executed in different parts of the USA as specialist equipment and technology were required) it was necessary that cross media convergence was used in order to come up with the money needed. The film budget was $93 million which was generated by Twentieth Century Fox (one of the Hollywood big six), Chernin Entertainment and Dune Entertainment, all of which have experience working on big budget films. This is important because they know that in order to create a brilliant film they need to give time and a lot of money. This money paid for the film production and the film promotion which consisted of tv adverts, film trailers, international trailers as well as a whole range of viral videos showing monkey intelligence. All of this helped to raise awareness of the film and helped persuade people to go and see the film. This joined with the incredible cast, including James Franco, Freida Pinto and Tom Felton (from Harry Potter attracting fans of the wizard film series to the science fiction action adventure film) helped to make the a success at the box office which grossed over $450 million worldwide.

Media conversion is becoming increasingly important in the film industry as there is a correlation between a films budget and a films success. Technology is also advancing fast shown by things such as viral marketing becoming more prominent in the marketing of films as well as the use of social networking being used to create a word of mouth  buzz for many films. Facebook and twitter are becoming very important when marketing films; there are over 100 million active twitter users and over 750 million facebook users so the audience that the film promotes to via social networking sites is amazing. Also, over 500 years worth of YouTube videos are watched each day leaving a huge place for films to post videos of the film trailers, teaser videos and cast/crew interviews. This helps to create a huge amount of promotion through word of mouth which hopefully generates lots of money through people seeing the trailers and then the film. This plays and essential role in the success of a film as without it, the target audience wouldn’t know about the film making it a flop at the box office proving that there would be no point in creating the product as it would end up not selling.