The Basics!

Institutions and Audiences

What a conglomerate is and an example of at least one who was involved in your film
Why conglomerates are bad and why are they good
What convergence is and why is a good thing and bad thing.
Why do people go to the cinema? At least FIVE reasons why.
At least FOUR reasons why AT LEAST ONE of the films was so successful (Production? Marketing? Distribution?)
What do the audience do that the institutions exploit? -
What new technology is around and how did your films DO IT? D-i-g-i-t-a-l

CINEMA ADMISSIONS ARE 200 MILLION AND RISING – IS THIS DUE TO INSTITUTIONS? OR AUDIENCE INTERFERENCE?

I&A Questions

2. "A media company cannot make a successful product alone anymore; the rise of new technology and platforms now makes this an impossibility." How far do you agree with this statement, referring to a media area you have studied?
3. Discuss the impact of the rise in technology on both institutions and audiences.
4. How significant is the role of new technology in the producing, marketing and distributing of a successful media product?
5. To what extent is production, marketing and distribution important for an institution's success in targeting the British marketplace?
6. To what extent have audiences influenced and affected an institution which you have studied?

TV Drama - How to approach

Showing 1 - Look carefully and identify key scenes - you will probably notice mise-en-scene/Camera first. Make mental notes of things to look out for on the next showing - you are FEATURE SPOTTING

Planning Time - Draw up your table and start putting your notes in - don't worry too much if you have got much in the way of sound/editing. Start identifying your weaker areas and identify at least THREE things to go back to.

Showing 2 - Now fill in those gaps - start looking in more depth at your camera and mise-en-scene - sound and editing can start to come in - aimed for a completely filled table.

Showing 3 - Now hit those sound and editing areas that you have looked at the least - only focus on these - try to ignore the more obvious things and go for the subtleties in sound and editing.

Showing 4 - NOTHING NEW - try to develop the presentation side of things WHY have these features been used?

Slumdog Technology Convergence

"I had to find a camera set up that would be ergonomic enough for me to throw myself around the slums chasing the children whilst, at the same time, withhold as much detail in the shadows and highlights” says Anthony Dod Mantle. Our producer, Chris Colson, had hoped for Danny and Anthony to repeat the efforts on Mini-DV”. This was all well and good, except for the monumental difference between shooting multi camera fiction on sets where I could light, sometimes quite heavily. We needed a digital camera with enough latitude to hold highlights and something very small so we could enter the children’s world at their level. “Slumdog Millionaire” needed a completely different tactical approach.”
They found the right combination in the innovative IT-centric Silicon Imaging SI-2K Digital Cinema camera. It delivered over 11 stops of dynamic range, flexible connectivity and film-like digital content, which could be easily inter-cut with traditional film footage. Unlike modern HD cameras, which develop and compress colorized imagery inside the camera, the Silicon Imaging SI-2K streams 2K (2048x1152) data as uncompressed raw “digital negatives” over a standard gigabit Ethernet connection.
An Intel Core 2 Duo processor-based computer embedded in the camera or tethered to a laptop up to 100 feet away, processes the digital negatives, where they are non-destructively developed and colorized for preview using the cinematographer's desired "look" for the scene.
 The digital negatives and "look" metadata are simultaneously recorded to hard drive or solid state disk where up to 4-hours of continuous footage are captured on a single 160GB notebook drive; this is the equivalent of 14-reels of 35mm film which has an associated cost exceeding $25,000 for materials and processing. The recorded files, can be immediately played with the target color look at full resolution, without the need for film scanning, tape ingest, format conversions or off-line proxies.
A customized camera support and recording package had to be built to meet the unique form factor demands of the Slumdog shoot. . They enlisted Pille Film, of Wiesbaden Germany, to create a custom solution which included a gyro stabilizer for the base of the SI-2K Mini. Instead of using the traditional film-style camera body, they elected to use Apple Mac book Pro notebook, running Windows XP, for the recorders, and built them into ruggedized backpacks, to be worn inconspicuously.
Stefan Ciupek, the show’s technical supervisor and additional camera operator, coordinated the design and modifications of the camera system with Wolfgang Damm of Pille, whose team worked around the clock to get the 2K Mini rigs built.

Slumdog Millionaire Statistics

Slumdog Millionaire - Statistics
Scripting	Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (British) wrote Slumdog Millionaire based on the Boeke Prize-winning and Commonwealth Writers' Prize-nominated novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup.
Directors and Producers	Danny Boyle (British - Danny Boyle has built up a reputation for highly stylised cinematography and fast cutting.), Loveleen Tandan Anthony Dod Mantle (Danish), DoP on Slumdog was with Boyle when he experimented with early digital cameras on UK television films in 2001 British director (Danny Boyle), producer (Christian Colson), screenwriter (Simon Beaufoy)
Music	A.R. Rahman (Indian) – soundtrack Sound Recordist - Resul Pookutty Remix of Jai-Ho with the Pussycat Dolls
Casting	Casting in Mumbai One UK actor Stars of Bollywood and parallel cinema Non-professional actors cast in India
Crew	Almost entirely Indian cast with the lead being English star Dev Patel Indian Film Crew with UK Heads Shot in India, editing in the UK
Awards Won
Sets
Finances	Warner Searchlight Pictures (USA) - $5 Million offered
Production Companies	Celador Productions – (Who Wants to be a Millionaire) Film4 Productions -
Distribution	Originally to be distributed in North America by Warner Independent Pictures. Jointly distributed by Fox Searchlight and Warner Bros -      Fox Searchlight part of Fox who are in turn owned by Newscorp -      Fox has recently signed a deal with Star Studios to become Fox Star United Kingdom: Pathe Pictures - A British/French distributor in the UK and France An Indian subsidiary of a Hollywood studio as distributor in India Warner Bros Icon Pictures – Distributor in Australia (owns by Fox Searchlight) Prokino Filmverleih GmbH (German Distributos) Icon Entertainment International, Lucky Red, Myndform, 20th Century Fox International, Gulf Film, Celador Films, Distribution Company, Acme Film, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Forum Film (Bulgaria), Volga, Filmladen GmbH, Bontonfilm, FS Film Oy, Silverbird Cinemas, Svensk Filmindustri Norway, Monopole Pathe Films AG
Revenues	US $100 million UK $37 million After these, the biggest markets have been France, Australia, Italy, Spain India (Hindi) $2.6 million India (English) $3.4 million (Note that the film has not been a big hit in Hindi markets, but has done very well in English language markets (don’t forget it is still a third Hindi in the English prints). Since tickets for Hindi halls are generally likely to be lower priced than the English language screens, it still means a sizeable audience of around 8-10 million Indians)
Languages	Filmed in English and Hindi
Subtitles	Released in English and Hindi in India and to NRI
Tropes	The rags-to-riches, underdog theme underlying the film was also a recurring theme in classic Bollywood movies from the 1950s through to the 1980s Fantasy sequences Montage sequence where "the brothers jump off a train and suddenly they are seven years older" Canted Angle Shots
Influences on	Salim Javed Salaam Bombay Satya (1998) (screenplay co-written by Saurabh Shukla, who plays Constable Srinivas in Slumdog Millionaire) Company Black Friday (2004) (adapted from S. Hussein Zaidi's book of the same name about the 1993 Bombay bombings) – Chase scene Deewaar (1975), which Boyle described as being "absolutely key to Indian cinema", is a crime film based on the Bombay gangster Haji Mastan, portrayed by Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, whose autograph Jamal seeks at the beginning of Slumdog Millionaire.

Practice Questions for G322

• How have the changes in digital technology and hardware  affected an institution you have studied?
• “Media convergence is simply a response to the rise in digital technology” How far do you agree with this statement, referring to a media area you have studied.
• How has ownership affected the production and distribution within a media area you have studied?
• “Media is nothing without its marketing, especially now marketing is everywhere.” How has changes in technology affected the exhibition and marketing within a media area you have studied?
• “There is no such thing as a single audience anymore, it is made up of individuals with preferences” How has changes in audience behaviour affected a media area you have studied.
• How have changes in hardware affected a media area you have studied.
• How has synergy and media convergence affected the products within a media area you have studied?
• How far has technological convergence been beneficial for a successful media product within a media area you have studied?

The exam board want to know what you understand about the following:

• Media Institutions: Hollywood Studios (20th Century Fox etc.) vs British Studios (Film4 + Warp Films etc)  - and how they all work (with each other)
• Media Audiences: UK film viewers (either in cinemas, or via PC / TV / Phone etc) and how they consume their films and why
• Media Technology: Digital filmmaking (CGI, 3D, Imax, DV-Cams), Online Films (LoveFilm, iTunes, YouTube, piracy), Convergence (gadgets to watch films on)  - how has this affected the kind of films that are made
• Marketing Campaigns: How Studios advertise their films (Synergy, TV + Internet trailers, Print ads – newspapers, magazines, posters, Premieres, junkets, word of mouth, USP, merchandising etc). - and whether this is positive or negative for institutions/audiences
  

ALL OF THE ABOVE NEED SPECIFIC EXAMPLES.

Technological Convergence Gadgets to watch films on:

Smart-phones (iPhone etc)
MP4 players
Portable Games Consoles (PSP etc)
Laptops (Airbooks etc)
 Multimedia devices,

films at home:
Games Consoles (Xbox 360, PS3 etc)
PC (via DVD, BluRay, il/legal downloads)
Home Cinema (Plasma TV / Projector + digital TV)

How do these help/hinder institutions and audiences?

Media Conglomerates

Massive multinational media companies who own: Film Studios TV Stations Record Labels Magazines Newspapers Books Internet platforms Independents Some producers work outside of the major studies. Often British productions are made by smaller outfits like Warp Films, working with Film 4 or the BBC to try to secure extra funding and help with distribution. Often films made this way struggle to get more than £1 or £2 million budgets and consider a success to break even, with DVD after-sales included. US independent film maker Orin Peli made ‘Paranormal Activity’ for just $15,000. But he needed Paramount, a US major studio to distribute his film who spent a fortune on marketing and distribution. In doing so he made over $190 milllion. This shows there are exceptions to the rule that big budget films always do best... Synergy & Cross Media Convergence An example of this: Vivendi Universal make a film in Universal Studios. It releases the film’s soundtrack on Polygram, one of its record labels. The tracks can be bought online at MP3.com, one of its internet companies. The film can be downloaded on Vivendi Telecom phones. The film is then shown in its Odeon cinema chain. See the benefits for Film4 in work with them? Owning all of these assets makes it cheaper for the producer to make, distribute, market and exhibit the film, thus maximising profit, enabling the studio to keep making big budget films. A win-win scenario for Hollywood Studios... but is it always for small production companies

Exemplars!

A Full Marks Essay on institutions and audiences

A top B marked essay

A C grade essay

Rise of Digital

As far as the major studios and distributors are concerned, digital technology offers great potential to increase profits and dangers in equal measure. Digital distribution will certainly transform the film industry more than any previous technological change since sound. Once it becomes the norm to download film via broadband, the potential for a new form of ‘blanket distribution' is obvious—not only do you no longer need multiple prints, you can also bypass the cinemas (although the big screen offers a separate experience that is likely to remain attractive).

Digital film has the advantage of offering identical versions of the film to each viewer, and this will without doubt save billions of pounds at the distribution phase. Despite the 'hype' over piracy and the digital enabling of this illegal activity, industry commentators believe that one advantage of digital distribution will be control and security, as most piracy is the result of a cinema-goer with a hidden camera distributing a poor quality version of a film to parts of the world where it has not yet been released (because the prints are currently somewhere else). Simultaneous global distribution via the internet will put an end to this 'time gap' and thus its exploitation by pirates. One issue for debate is about the quality of digital movies. Whereas some film makers and critics argue that the 'binary reduction' of images in the digital compression process reduces the complexity of image and light, it appears that just as music in MP3 comes without the parts that the human ear cannot hear, so digital films remove the degrees of texture that most viewers wouldn't notice anyway.

Digital Technology

As with all media, any attempt to ignore the fast approaching world of legal film downloading is seen as 'swimming against the tide'. Piracy is a major concern of all film distributors, with Hollywood investigators claiming a 10 per cent increase each year in revenue lost to illegal distribution. In the UK the Film Council's report Film Theft in the UK (2004) claimed that only Austria and Germany have a higher degree of DVD piracy.

The industry's recommendations include a strategy for responding to internet distribution opportunities, and for working with other media and communications industries. Ultimately the report sought to remind the public that small production companies are actually hurt more by piracy than multinational conglomerates, as they cannot bear the impact with already acquired capital. Another aspect of technological change that the Film Council is concerned with is digital filming and projection. The Digital Screen Network project is the Film Council's attempt to provide cinemas with digital projection facilities, and it is hoped (but by no means guaranteed) that more small-scale independent films will get seen this way.

At the other end of the 'food chain', digital technology has made life a lot better for low budget film makers and distributor-In the case of short films, it is now possible for these to reach a potentially wide audience via a range of hosts, from the UK Film Council to The UK Media Desk, BBC Film Network and Big Film Shorts, Film London's Pulse and a host of short film festivals, all of whom have online submission.

Slumdog Millionaire

• It's already the most talked-about film of the year – and it's set to sweep the Oscar nominations tomorrow. But there's a lot that went on behind the scenes. Tim Walker has the lowdown
• 'Slumdog Millionaire' was all set to go straight to DVD after the film's original studio backer, Warner Independent (a division of Warner Brothers), closed down in May 2008. Luckily, the Fox studio's indie film division, Fox Searchlight, picked it up for theatrical release.
• During filming, Azza, the Mumbai boy who was cast as Jamal's brother Salim, had his house bulldozed by the city council – a common occurrence in the slums where much of the shoot took place. The crew found him sleeping on a car roof.
• The three youngest child leads, who were all cast from the Mumbai slums, are now having their schooling funded by the film's producers. With the promise of a trust fund should they pass their exams at 16.
• Anil Kapoor, who plays Prem Kumar, the host of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' in 'Slumdog', donated his fee to Plan India, a child development NGO in Delhi, devoted to raising awareness about child abuse, trafficking, education and rehabilitating deprived children.
• Kapoor has starred in almost 100 Bollywood films. The real Indian version of the gameshow, 'Kaun Banega Crorepati', has been presented by two of his fellow Bollywood superstars, Amitabh Bachchan (who also features in 'Slumdog' as young Jamal's celebrity obsession) and Shahrukh Khan. Khan turned down the role of Prem in 'Slumdog' after deciding that the character was too negative.
• Director Danny Boyle almost didn't film the now-famous lavatory scene, in which young Jamal crawls through a cesspit to get an autographed photo of his favourite star, because it was too similar to a scene in 'Trainspotting' (1996), in which Ewan McGregor climbs into a loo to retrieve opium suppositories.
• Lead actor Dev Patel's 'Slumdog' audition was only his second ever. His first was for Channel 4's teen series 'Skins', where Boyle's teenage daughter Caitlin talent-spotted him for the role of Jamal. Last week, he was nominated for a Bafta for best actor. Not bad going.
• Bollywood composer AR Rahman, who wrote the score for 'Slumdog', has worked on British productions before. He composed music for 'Elizabeth: The Golden Age' (2007), and in 2002, he composed the musical 'Bombay Dreams'.
• Boyle was slightly uncomfortable with the film's marketing campaign, which features posters of the two leads grinning in a shower of confetti with a quote calling it the "feel-good film of the decade". Considering that the film features poverty, torture and murder, says Boyle, "You can't go in expecting it to be 'Mamma Mia!'"
• The budget for 'Slumdog' was the smallest of all the nominees for the Golden Globe 2009 award for Best Picture – Drama, which it won. 'Frost/Nixon' cost $25m, 'The Reader' $33m, 'Revolutionary Road' $35m and 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' a whopping $150m, 10 times Slumdog's $15m.
• Mercedes-Benz asked for its logo to be removed from any scenes shot in the slums. According to Danny Boyle, the car-maker feared that such an association with a poverty-stricken area would dent its image as a luxury brand.
• Two of the film's climactic scenes were shot in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station, which was formerly Victoria Terminus, and is commonly called Bombay VT station. It is the scene of one of the terrorist attacks that took place in Mumbai on 26 November; a pair of gunmen killed more than 50 people in the passenger hall. Boyle now says he believed "you should never talk about the film in terms of the attacks, because one's an entertainment and the other is a tragedy. But the scene in the station [is one] of unapologetic romantic love... It's utterly naive, and it says love conquers all. And [I'm] proud of that. It's unintentional, obviously. But it was the best thing I could possibly say."
• The scene in which Jamal is tortured was meant to be funny, says Boyle. "[It] was written as comedy, which is how I thought I'd directed it. When the scene plays in the West, everybody thinks it's about Guantanamo, but in India torture is accepted as part of the culture, like bribery." Sergeant Srinivas, the police officer, is played by the Indian actor, writer and director Saurabh Shukla.
• Simon Beaufoy, who adapted the screenplay for 'Slumdog' from the novel 'Q&A' by Vikas Swarup, made three research trips to India to interview street children. He says he wanted to convey the slums' "sense of this huge amount of fun, laughter, chat, and sense of community". Boyle wasn't interested in directing a script about 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' until he heard it had been written by Beaufoy (who also wrote 'The Full Monty').
• One of the film's opening scenes is a chase through Mumbai's Dharavi slum – the largest slum in Asia. Boyle says it was based on a 12-minute police chase in the Indian film 'Black Friday', about the 1993 Bombay bombings. One of his other reference points was 'Satya', a 1998 film about the Mumbai underworld, written by Saurabh Shukla (who plays Sergeant Srinivas in Slumdog)
• Boyle "fibbed" to his US producers that he wanted to translate about 10 per cent of the dialogue for 'Slumdog' into Hindi, then translated almost a third of the script.
• 'Slumdog' will be released in India on Friday. The film has not been universally praised by Indians. A debate started by commentators on Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan's blog included criticism of the film's depiction of India as a "Third World dirty underbelly developing nation".

Paragraphs and Paragraph Structure

The influence of the internet has been substantial on the British Film Industry, particularly in the area of marketing. The availability of youtube has led to a cheaper way of marketing by independent companies for example Warp Films and Film4 promoted much of Four Lions on youtube in conjunction with their distributor Optimum Releasing; this included cut scenes, teasers and trailers. The teaser scenes themselves were also the sections of the film filmed using a hand-held camera and therefore fitted in with the youtube ‘do-it-yourself’ philosophy. This was beneficial to Film4 and Warp as the controversial nature of the film meant that a large portion of it’s success came form word of mouth advertising.


POINT, CASE STUDY, ANALYSIS, EVALUATION
E.g. What, Where, Why, So?

Exam Tips

AS Level Media G322: Section B:
Institutions and Audiences
Tips on how to write a good answer for this part of the exam….

1. Link your response to the question:
e.g. ‘Another key issue is the power of institutions and critics, such as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, to influence and preside over what the film audiences go to see at the cinema.’

2. Debate & weigh up both sides of the argument:
e.g. ‘However’, ‘having said this’, ‘an exception to this is the film……..released in……..’

3. Explain which industries/ institutions you are going to discuss:
e.g. ‘Issues faced by the British film production company Thin Man Films, set up in…….. by …………., are that it………’

4. You must refer in depth to your case study, including the other companies linked with Film4
 Celador
 Fox Searchlight (part of NewsCorp)
 Pathe
 Warp Films
 Optimum Releasing

5. You must mention a variety of different films to support your points/ ideas:
 Slumdog Millionaire
 Four Lions
 On a lesser basis – Avatar, Charlotte Gray, King’s Speech, Transpotting, Brass Eye (TV)

6. Mention specific audiences and how they are targeted
 -through age/ gender/ time era/ taste/ lifestyle/ location
 -do British audiences prefer British films? Is this a misconception?
 Mention the threat of Digital Cinema to all institutions:
o Growth of internet
o Downloading/ live streaming/ file sharing
o Piracy
o DVD sales
o Cost/ inflation/ credit crunch
o IMAX cinema/ digital reels



 Engrain your essay with your own point of view and ideas.

Distribution

Distribution
A distributor can help market and generate sales for your film.

What is a Distributor?
In terms of shorts, a distributor is an individual or organisation who will represent your film at festivals and markets around the world and who will attempt to sell it to television (including terrestrial, cable and satellite), airlines and other companies that show short films. The major short film distributors in the UK are (in alphabetical order): Dazzle, Futureshorts, Network Ireland TV and Shorts International.

In terms of features, a distributor is generally an organisation who handles the theatrical release of a film in a particular country as well as the marketing and circulation of films for home viewing (DVD, Video-On-Demand, Download, Television etc). Often feature films have different distributors representing them in different territories and different distributors handling the home-viewing circulation. Independent film distribution in the UK is generally managed by indie distributors such as Metrodome, Optimum Releasing and Momentum.

Distributors will source new films to represent in their distribution catalogue at film festivals and markets around the world such as Cannes, Rotterdam, Berlinale, AFM and Sundance festivals (features) and Clermont-Ferrand, Tampere, Encounters and Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival (shorts).

Although they may be interested in unsolicited submissions or work in progress, the majority of films that distributors acquire, are completed films sourced at film festivals and related markets. Having said that if your film hasn't been picked up on the festival circuit it is worth making contact with distribution companies and forwarding a DVD copy of your short film or emailing a link to your film online to see if they are interested and if so what they offer you in terms of a deal.

For a film to be distributable, you will need to make sure you have all the right assets in place.
As well as assets, distributors will require a clear paper chain - clear contracts and license deals so that they know that you are legally allowed to sell all the different elements of your film on to a third party.

Distribution Deals
It is up to you to negotiate the rights a distributor will acquire in your film i.e. you may want to hold back distribution rights in certain territories. If you conclude a deal it should be formalised in a written distribution agreement. Some clauses to look out for are:
Territory: this specifies the countries in which the film can be distributed by the distributor.
Term: this sets out the period of time the distributor will hold distribution rights in the film.
Rights granted: the agreement should distinguish between the media rights granted to the distributor (theatrical, video and DVD, television rights etc.) and those media rights which are reserved to the producer e.g. radio rights. You should determine whether the rights granted are exclusive or non-exclusive. If you agree to exclusive rights, it will stop you allowing others to show your film within the specified media/territory/term.
Producer's warranties and representations: the producer will be asked to provide assurances that there is no infringement of copyright.
Gross receipts: this means all monies actually received by the distributor from the exploitation of the film before any deductions have been made.
Net proceeds: this is the amount payable to the producer from the proceeds derived from the exploitation of the film after costs incurred by the distributor have been deducted. Costs can include distributor fees, commission and expenses.
Expense caps: there should be expense caps in order to prevent the distributor claiming unreasonable amounts, which would reduce the amount left for the producer to recoup.
Distributor's obligations: Distributors should use their best efforts to realise gross receipts from marketing and exploitation of the film.
Accounting: The distributor should be under obligations to maintain accurate and true records of sales and expenditure and the producer should have the right to receive regular accounting statements on the film.
Termination: You should pay special attention to the circumstances in which you can terminate the relationship with the distributor. If your distribution agreement is for a long period of time and a better deal comes along during that period, the wording of such a clause will often determine as to whether you can end the existing agreement.

One of the best ways to be clear on what is a good deal is to talk to other short filmmakers about their experiences. If you are still not sure, you can get advice from your regional screen agency.
The best policy is not to sign any agreement that you don't fully understand until you are clear about all of the terms. There are plenty of people who can offer advice to help you along the way towards the successful distribution of your short film.

Distributors generally offer a percentage royalties on any sales made, which should be net after any marketing, production and promotional costs the distributor incurs from the film's release. They almost always want exclusive rights to sell the film in the selected territories, so that they effectively manage the film's commercial life within that territory. One film may have several distributors, specific to each territory, so that a local marketing campaign and versioning is ensured. The deal also could include an advance fee on any sales the distributor makes, which is then recouped later on future sales.

Sales Agents
More rarely, both short and feature films can benefit from the skills of a Sales Agent, who works on selling a smaller range of films on behalf of the film's rights holder / producer. Agents are responsible for setting up the deals, but do not necessarily deal with all the contracts paperwork, taking a percentage fee from any sales that arise from their work. They tend to take slightly lower fees than distributors as they do not have such large overheads and provide no guarantees of sales. However you may need to pay them a retainer until they achieve a sale. They can also be responsible for setting up deals with film distributors per territory. Talent Agents can also act as Sales Agents.
In the case of short films, sales agents often do the same role as distributors.

Sales & Income
It is very rare to make a profit on selling a short film. It is not a good idea to overspend on budget with the hope that you will get it back afterwards from selling the film. You probably won't. Short film distributors tend to sell films in packages to make their profit margins sustainable, with a slant on high production values, romance /comedy / drama genres and avoidance of overly ‘adult' themes. However, if you are interested in getting your short on TV across the world, on seatback airplane TVs, and on iTunes, distributors have the right contacts and will do the heavy, complicated paperwork it takes to achieve this.
TV license fees tend to pay per minute, ranging from 50EURO to 250EURO per minute. Clearly, this means longer films make more money, but most broadcasters will not license a film that is over 15 minutes long. More active buyers will attend film festivals in order to source new films for their channel, so it is possible, if bureaucratic, to sell shorts directly to TV channels.

Withholding Tax on Licensed Films
It is worth noting that countries outside of the UK, including the EU member states and the USA, can legally withhold up to 40% of the due license fee as withholding tax, until you are able to provide the Licensee with a Certificate of Residency from your local tax office, where your company is registered. If you do not have a registered company, you will not be able to avoid the tax. The certificate changes annually and is needed in order to prove that your main business takes place in the UK, not from an overseas office. If you have a distributor, they will be able to deal with this for you, as they will have submitted annual Certificates of Residency to each international Licensee / Broadcaster.
In the USA you will also need to register for an UIN (Unique Identification Number) and fill out the W1/BEN form from the Inland Revenue in the USA to avoid additional taxation.

Audiences

The concept includes a consideration of how audiences read texts and how they
interact with them. Media audiences can be defined in terms of location,
consumption, size and subjectivity.

• Location – the domestic consumption of media output raises questions about
regulation and control.
• Consumption – Audiences are defined by what they consume i.e. are they an
audience of a particular genre, medium or text. Fans can be defined as
passionate/ well informed about a programme
• Size – there is a need to distinguish between mass audiences that are
broadcast to and niche audiences who are involved in narrowcasting.
• Subjectivity – The impact that membership of pre‐existing groups will have
on audience members. These groups include: gender, nation, religion,
education, to name but a few.

Examiner's Report 2010

Question 2

This question covered a pleasing variety of case studies, with lots of focus on the areas of Institutions and Audiences. Most pleasingly, these concepts were identified by the vast majority of Candidates as being strongly linked rather than discussed as separate entities. Also pleasing was the fact that only a minority of Candidates chose to ignore the question and present a prepared answer. Terminology was well utilised across all media.
Appropriate differentiation was achieved in the marks for Section B through the detail in which the argument was explored and the detail to the exemplification. The question provoked a range of responses from Candidates who were able to discuss the use of digital technology in the production, distribution, marketing or consumption of media products or a combination of these elements. The most able Candidates were able to create a debate around the benefits and drawbacks of new technology for both audiences and institutions and were also able to draw contrasts between mainstream and independent producers, or mass audience/niche audience targeting.
The best answers tended to come from Candidates who had been well prepared with detailed, contemporary case studies – not historical ones. Many Candidates were able to build their own experiences as consumers (and occasionally producers) into their responses and were able to contextualise these through wider understanding of the relationships between producers and audiences. More able Candidates are able to show awareness of the trends and strategies that characterise the contemporary media landscape and at times across different media areas.

However, there are still a number of Centres who are preparing Candidates with inappropriate material, for example with potted histories of media companies or textual studies which are unlikely to be useful for the kind of questions which this paper poses. Candidates should be encouraged to take a selective approach to their case study material, concentrating on what is most relevant to the question rather than trying to get entire case studies down into the response to question 2.

Film
The most common approach was to compare major US studios with UK production companies, though technology at times was often interpreted in quite a narrow fashion, concentrating on 3D production and digital distribution, for example ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘Avatar’. Some good answers focussed on how major studios like Fox can finance the production of cutting edge films like ‘Avatar’, and how the technology they have at their range of relevant examples. The digital technology used in ‘Avatar’ was succinctly addressed as were the advances in 3D, but also characterised by some simplistic assumptions that digital distribution is cheaper and quicker than conventional film distribution because you do not need reels of film. There was often an assumption that UK cinema is not dependent upon technological advances, which obviously underestimates the importance of home exhibition windows in making UK film viable.

Working Title was the most frequently used UK case study, though many Candidates tended to offer a history of the company and their argument depended upon the relative of success of films such as ‘Four Weddings and A Funeral’, ‘Notting Hill’ or ‘The Hudsucker Proxy’, which clearly are not contemporary examples. Warners, Fox and Paramount were frequently used as US examples; Warp, Vertigo and Film Four were used a number of times as UK production companies. One Centre’s Candidates had been prepared with a comparative textual study of ‘The Cruel Sea’ (1953) and ‘Atonement’ (2007) with which they struggled to answer the question.

Histories of film studios such as Aardman or film biographies of film personnel did not address the question that has been set. Centres should keep taught examples contemporary and varied for the Candidates for future series. There was evidence that a number of Candidates focused solely on digitisation of cinema and did not have a film company as an institutional case study. Where this was the case, answers (whilst detailed in some respects) did not show enough depth, as they were tackling only exhibition.

Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of age using the following:

Camera
Editing
Mise En Scene
Sound

Past Questions

From Jun 2010:
What significance does the continuing development of digital media have for media institutions and audiences?

From January 2010:
'Media Production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their products and services to national audiences.' To what extent do you agree with this statement?

From June 2009:
How important is technological convergence for institutions and audiences within a media area which you have studied?

From January 2009:
Discuss the ways in which media products are produced and distributed to audiences, within a media area which you have studied.