Ex
machina research
•
Producer:
Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich
•
Director:
Alex Garland
•
Distributor:
Universal Pictures
•
Cast:
Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Corey Johnson
•
Budget:
$15 million
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Locations:
Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
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Technology: The film format was printed on D-cinema
•
Number
of screens - opening weekend: 1,289
•
Number
of screens - peak number: 2,004
•
Box
office figures: $36.9 million
1.
The issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice
The first issue, which is
raised by media ownership, is whether the company is within a position to
invest large amounts of money into the production and marketing of a film and
whether they are a well-known company. If the company is a British institution
then it is likely that they aren't a very successful company in comparison to
American. This is because it is largely comprised of small independent
producers. They are also known to be under-capitalized. This means you would
not be able to fund for things like special effect, stars, the creating of the
film etc. This means they won’t be able to publish the film, as people will be
more interested in films with all the better stars, good special effects and
story line, which is what the bigger company’s like Disney have as an advantage.
Another issue raised is about “85%/90%” of the films shown in the UK are US
films. This is because US have a bigger budget on making the film, which gives
them an advantage as they have much more freedom when spending money on the
film. Therefore US production companies certainly have the largest market
share. . For Ex Machina, this seemed like an issue for them as the producers
were both English companies who aren't so well known, which meant that it was
hard for the film to gain publicity as it cannot be accomplished as easily as a
film produced by Disney would. At first it seemed that the film would just be
the same as all low budget films, as it was only released on 4 screens and
therefore, they needed to do something different in order to gain the publicity
they needed. The way ex machina managed to achieve such good publicity was
because they managed to get universal studios to distribute their film which
meant that they had access to many cinemas and could show their film on various
screens. However, this wasn't the only reason they managed to make ex machine
successful... Because it was a low budget film, they had to think differently
about how they went about spending money and were much more careful about it.
it was said that they wouldn't have done what they did with Ava if it was a low
budget film. The creators of Ava were also told not to look at any robots
during the production of her, this meant that Ava was extremely different and
brought something new to the industry. Therefore, because the producers spent
their money wisely, made the film individual and had the help of universal
studios, this meant they were able to receive a total revenue of around $37
million.
2.
The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production,
distribution and marketing
Synergy is an important aspect
because its two media companies collaborating for the purpose of generating
profit. This is important in production because when two media conglomerates
come together and they are very well known it will make the audience want to
watch the film more because it’s done by two media conglomerates and will
therefore be successful. However, because Ex machina was produced by two
smaller conglomerates, it seemed a different picture. Its clear, that without
the help of one another they would certainly not have been successful, as a
film like ex machine needs thousands of ideas thrown at it as they were trying
to be something different. And therefore by having two companies work on the
film, it allowed them to proceed and come up with many ideas. Another reason it
was important is because they were so low on their budget and therefore because
they had the help of each other they were able to maximise the overall outcome
of Ava, set the film in a stunning landscape and create amazing visual effects.
Cross media convergence is where a media product is promoted across other media
platforms. Ex Machina used cross media convergence a lot when marketing, in a
way where it was on lots of tv advert intervals, and cropped up a lot on the
side of websites online. However, this is what is expected for a film company
to do now. Therefore, Ex Machina stepped it up a level and decided to market
their film in yet another way by the use of Tinder... The way they did this was
by creating lots of “Robot” accounts named Ava. Once in a conversation with
another individual, the “Robot” would explain the storyline in a very sneaky
way, and eventually explain who they are and what the film is about. This
gained lots of publicity over social media and helped the film generate lots of
fans.
3.
The technologies that have been
introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution
and marketing
This is used for the audiences to interact
with the films through using digital technology to put extracts on YouTube and
then to overlay new sound tracks on to them. Film studios can make films using
CGI, green screens and other special effects which have only recently been able
to complete due to the technology we now have compared to a few years ago. The
methods of filming and editing have changed recently with the introduction of
film cameras and digital cameras, editing software, laptops and digital projectors.
Distributors use the latest software for designing high-concept film posters
and trailers, they can do this using phone apps, online marketing and can also
use Facebook. Although film companies spend so much on the productions on
films, they have issues with file sharing and piracy. These are issues which
are growing within our society as it is easy to get away with it and also easy
to download and watch. A way in which film companies are trying to avoid piracy
and file sharing is through releasing the films soon after theatrical release
by selling them on video on demand, premium TV channels and downloads. The US
and UK cinemas chains aren’t happy about this issue, especially as the cinema
companies have invested a lot of money in to projectors and digital equipment.
With people file sharing and piracy, the cinema companies aren’t able to make
their money either to make their money back on the equipment which was invested
in to the equipment and also, unfortunately, goes out of date fairly quickly.
4.
The significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and
audiences
The significance of proliferation of hardware
in the film industry means there are more equipment for producers to use, for
example in the filming aspect, there are thousands of cameras to use and many
ways to film, like using a film camera or a digital one. However, as the new
technologies are cheaper to buy and are meant to be better quality it means
film companies can spend more money on better editing software and marketing, etc.
In the film Ex machina the filming was done on a digital camera, instead of
film, the producer may have done this because it was cheaper and they were on a
smaller budget compared to some of the block buster movies. But that didn't affect
the outcome for the audience as it still won awards for Best visual effects.
The proliferation of hardware in media has meant that audiences in the film
industry have been able to create their own home movies on a much smaller
budget, by using digital cameras and editing software like adobe. Then the movie can be uploaded to the internet for the
audiences.
5.
The importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences
Technological convergence is the joining of
two or more media companies or technologies to form a new object. Within ex
machina, the technological convergence would be that the robots are made to be
human-like with consciousness but are also able to do things better than humans
making them, eventually, the next evolution stronger and better than humans.
The technological convergence for institutions and audiences has allowed to
improve the quality and complexity of films using new techniques. It also makes
it easier to make and access such as DVD’s, cinema and downloadable versions.
Recently, films aren’t being made how they used to be made with big cameras and
film reels and are now using digital versions of recording which is
considerably cheaper because a traditional camera would cost around £50,000
compared to the advanced digital ones which cost around £10,000 saving money.
With them being able to save money in this section from just changing recording
methods, the production companies can then use the money efficiently, spending
it on different areas to make the film better such as special effects and CGI (which
have improved dramatically over time) for, in this case, ex machina. Despite
the fact that ex machina was a low-budget film, it won a Grammy award for the
special effects which were used during the film which suggests that the
production company spent less money on other necessities such as the actors’
abilities and not needing A-list stars and other extras such as advertisements
and marketing but specifically focused on making sure that the special effects
were really good, making the film known for their special effects.
6.
The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences
(specifically British) by international or global institutions
Ex machina was a film which had unexpected
success earning academy awards, golden globes and BAFTA awards. Ex machina won
an Oscar for the best achievement in visual effects and was also nominated for
an Oscar in the best writing and original screenplay. There are many different
issues which are raised by production companies aiming films at either local
audiences or global audiences. With ex machina being a low budget film, they weren’t
able to focus on the advertising and marketing department because they focused
on the visual effects making the film interesting with all the special effects using
special software. Because Ex machina was only released in the United Kingdom on
January 21st 2015, this proves how because they had a low budget,
they weren’t able to make the film for other countries or advertising it in
other countries as it would cost the production company more for marketing and
advertising. Although, if the production company for ex machina was to have a
bigger budget, focusing it more on the advertising and marketing and releasing
it in other countries, the production company would have more profit than what
thy received. Also, with it only being a local based film, it may only appeal
to the target audiences of the United Kingdom compared to target audiences
globally. This film was good at targeting the desired audiences due to the
amount of profit the production company had made. The production company had an
approximate budget of $15,000,000 and made approximately $30,000,000 doubling
their money.
7.
The ways in which the candidates own experiences of media consumption
illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour
My own experience of how
the media has changed is very dramatic as i have grown up in the 21st century,
meaning i have been able to watch movies on Video tapes, where the screen used
to flicker and now I’m able to watch movies in HD, but that has now been
outdated by blue ray which almost an immaculate picture. But much before this,
back in the 1970s when DVD first came out, people could only see a movie at the
cinema on and they made a special trip out of it as it was such a big thing. As
times have changed, we no longer have to do that, we can sit at home and watch
almost any more by streaming it on our mobile phones of other devices. Due to
this film has to attract its viewers again by issuing deals for example orange
Wednesdays and student Thursdays. Now media companies are buying rights to show
films on their television channels for example Netflix and sky movies. All of
this takes away people visiting cinemas and can place them in the same cinema
situations at home.
