Discuss the ways in which media products are produced and distributed to audiences, within a media area, that you have studied.

The film industry, possibly the most successful industry within the media world. When making a film whether or not it is made in the United Kingdom or Hollywood, the same process is under taken. The process consists of four prime areas. These areas are; production, distribution, marketing and exhibition. The key to any hit film is perhaps due to the fact that it is distributed and marketed in a sufficient way. There are five big film studios within Hollywood including Warner Brothers and Universal. The reason that these studios are so big is solely on the fact that they use vertical integration. This provides the studios with a chance to uses methods like synergy to distribute and market their film correctly and to the right audience.
One example of this is, in 2008, Hollywood director Christopher Nolan released his sequel to 2005’s ‘Batman Begins’ called ‘The Dark Knight’. The studio that produced the film was Legendary Picture, a subsidiary company to Warner Brothers. The reason that the company chose to produce the film is due to a manor of reasons. One of the reasons is the pre-sold audience. ‘The Dark Knight’ is based on a fiction superhero called ‘Batman’ originating from comic books which were started in May 1939 by ‘Detective Comic’. From then on ‘Batman’ has had its own Television show (animated and live action), toys, books and movies and has become one of the world’s biggest franchises. Warner Brothers also had other reasons for producing the film. Over the resent years, Warner Brother has been producing all of the Batman films starting with Tim Burtons 1989 ‘Batman’. From then on they have been associated with the franchise. The most substantial reason as to why Warner Brothers chose the film is the success of the previous film. The income in the opening weekend was an estimated $49,000,000 in the United States alone. ‘The Dark Knight’ was guaranteed success.
As Warner Brothers is one of the top five studios, they not only produced the film they also distributed and marketed it. The hype of the film started in December 2007, when a one minute teaser trailer was released on popular websites like YouTube and IMDb. This was the first part of Warner Brothers plan to distribute the film. This was a cheap and easy way to get fans and the audience buzzing about the next summer blockbuster release. Due to the fact that ‘The Dark Knight’ had a pre-sold audience Warner realised a series of social games and events which would allow the public to interact with the film. One example of this was a ‘Easter-egg’ hunt style game which allowed fans to search for Jokers card in which will eventually lead to them to a private screening of the opening sequence of the film. This was another way of getting the film known and out-there. Due to the up rise in new media technologies, Warner Brothers where able to release various trailer and images which would be available for access for any film fan via their phone, tablet or computer. This allowed the company to meet a new demographic as you could keep up to date with what was happing with the films progress.
The process quickly changes when a film is made in the United Kingdom. Most films that are made in the UK are produced and distributed by small individual independent companies. This then follows on from the way the big five works as the film is then marketed for the right demographic. Another aspect to the companies that operate in the UK is that if a lot of the films made by the company and is successful, often one of the top five studios would buy the small studio as a subsidiary company, for example ‘Working Title’ was bought by ‘Universal Studios’ for their success for ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral(1994)’. In 2006, director Shane Meadows released a social realism film called ‘This Is England’. This was produced by ‘Film 4’ and distributed by ‘Optimum Releasing’. ‘Film 4’ is one of the UK’s biggest studios which produce a large sum of the films made there. The reason Film 4 chose to produce Meadows films is down to the fact that he has produced a lot of successful films and has a reputation. In comparison with the ‘Dark Knight’, ‘This Is England’ was a completely diverse film and the studios had no idea if it was going to become as successful as it did. ‘This Is England’ is an independent film which means it was not distributed as heavily as ‘The Dark Knight’. The reason is that studios don’t have the money to spend on distribution so films sometime have to go without. ‘This Is England’ used what a lot of independent films do, which is entering the film into film festive to heighten the buzz of the film. In this case the film won awards including ‘Winner: Rome Film Festival’ which was a way of distributing and (or) exhibiting the film. ‘This Is England’ was released in cinemas on 25th July 2007 and was shown there for about a month. This is shorter than a big Hollywood blockbuster like ‘The Dark Knight’ as it has more of a niche audience and is less inclined to do well.
To conclude, the comparison between ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘This Is England’ is in some respects very different but in other very similar. The process in which, both the big five studio films and the independent studio films, is they are identical but with different means of going about each area. For example when distributing a film the Hollywood film would start releasing information and trailer a year before the film is released, on the other hand when a independent film is distributed they have limited about of money and recourses to send it round the world to be advertised. Another vital element is that the films that both film studios produce is very different as the Hollywood films prime goal is to make a profit, where as a small independent film makes a film for the passion and enjoyment of filmmaking. This shows in the film themselves i.e. ‘The Dark Knight’ already has a guaranteed audience and is inevitably going to make a lot of money where as ‘This Is England’ has a hard demographic as it is a new film with a unique story that only certain people may find appealing. In answer to the question, the ways in which media products are produced and distributed to audiences is essentially very different between two types of filmmaking but all film undergo the same process. I believe that both types of film are uniquely very good and are part of a rising media.