How is media convergence important for audiences and institutions?

How is media convergence important for audiences and institutions?

Without media convergence I personally doubt the film industry would be where it’s at (success wise) today. The key areas of marketing, distributing and exhibiting a film all rely on media convergence to ensure the film is a hit with their target audience. It ensures a market for the film before it has even been released which is key to make sure it can succeed in the box office and make the revenue it deserves.

During the production of ‘Attack the Block’ the British film industry hardly recognised the importance of media convergence. It used a small segment of social networking (Twitter) to virally market the film with the occasional ‘teaser’ post to entice the audience in before the film’s release, however it wasn’t used enough to create a viral word of mouth necessary to help really market the film. However, Big Talk Productions, UK Film Council, StudioCanal and Film4 all worked together to produce, market, distribute and exhibit the film.  Seen as Attack the Block was a British film, with a fairly small budget, four smaller companies such as these working together is ideal to help the success of the film. This is because they all have experience in working with smaller films  (such as Shaun Of the Dead) and have previously achieved success in knowing the best ways to produce, market, distribute and exhibit films such as Attack the Block within their budget.  But, Attack The Block was still promoted in the usual ways of; TV adverts, cinema trailers, teaser trailers, UK & US official trailers, posters, magazine adverts, a soundtrack available for purchase on ITunes etc., interviews with TV programmes and journalists in the UK and US and exclusive interviews with the director Joe Cornish talking about the upcoming film with journalists in the UK and abroad. To add to all of this the film/media magazine Little White Lies dedicated a whole issue to Attack the Block. With all of this media used to help promote the film, Attack the Block was still only a small budget, British film and was therefore at a disadvantage when promoting and marketing the film before its release, especially outside the UK.

On the other hand we have the film Kickass. Still a British film, but working with a larger budget and larger production companies such as Universal Pictures, Lionsgate, Marv films and Plan B Entertainment (which is owned by Brad Pitt) is was already at an advantage compared to Kickass as these companies were on a much larger scale and were able to market and publicize the film more heavily. The good starting point with Kickass is that it was also written as a series of comic books alongside the film which helped to market the film through its media convergence and also helped to attract a more varied audience. Kickass also released five different trailers and four TV spots to help promote the film, despite its surrounding controversy. Kickass also took to film critics on forums, blogs and websites such as Rotten Tomatoes after it’s released which really helped its promotion through viral marketing and showed free distribution of its trailers and TV spots. Kickass was also very heavily advertised through its poster campaigns which were not only being distributed professionally by its advertisement campaign, but Kickass’ film ‘geek’ fans also produced their own versions of posters which concluded into a substantial amount and really helped to market the film through media convergence. Alongside all of this Empire and Total Film magazine covered the film and its journey from page to screen and film reviews were available on their websites too. The film was also pitched at San Diego Comic-con and the Empire magazine Movie-Con. All in all, this huge amount of marketing and promotion through media convergence was significantly important to its success in the Box Office and DVD/ Blu-Ray sales.

Media convergence is becoming more and more important, especially as technology is advancing; viral marketing is becoming more essential in the promotion and marketing of films. As stated before things like Social networking are becoming a huge part of the film industry, and mid-production marketing is happening more often thanks to this. The advance in technology is creating ways in which the audience can gain an interest in films throughout its production right the way through to its exhibition and sales. The music industry is more commonly working alongside films with soundtracks being released in accordance with films and helping to market them through different windows. In conclusion I would definitely argue the significant impact and importance of cross media convergence happening within films today is a positive and its ever growing methods of doing this are a real credit to the film industry and its importance for audiences and institutions.

Attack The Block Review

                                      

Attack The Block is a Sci-Fi action/comedy about a group of South London teenagers that find themselves in the middle of an alien invasion where they must fight and defend their home from evil extraterrestrials.

After watching Attack the Block for the first time, I didn’t think it was the worst film I’d ever seen but it definitely wasn’t up there in my top 10. But after the research I did on the film prior to viewing it I credit Cornish and all the others involved in the film making for how it was made on such a small budget with little resources. For example the camera shots and angles plus the way it was film was definitely a positive for me, my favourite shot being in the last few scenes where Moses is being chased by the aliens down the stairs in slow motion, I thought it was filmed and edited excellently with brilliant camera shots and angles. This scene was helped with the choice of music by Basement Jaxx (which I really enjoyed throughout) and I think it gave the film more of that suburban edge that it otherwise would have been lacking a great deal in. Another thing I thought was good about the film was the character's individuality. Although they all came from the same background they all had their individual roles and stories. If you take Moses (played by John Boyega) for example, the gang leader who plays a really hard faced character that until the last few scenes you think to be quite an arrogant adolescent with a huge attitude and always in endless amounts of trouble, but in reality he's actually just a 15 year old child living pretty much on his own having to solely support himself. I think the way Cornish and Boyega portrayed Moses character in Attack the Block gave a great understanding to the audience on how some teens in Britain are living and almost helped you as the audience form a connection with the character out of sympathy for his loneliness at such a young age and guilt for your judgements made beforehand. However, in comparison to Moses you have the two young boys 'Mayhem' and 'Probs' who add a touch of light-hearted humour to the film through their innocence and naivety in the suburban war against the aliens going on around them.

In spite of all that, I also think Attack the Block had a lot of downfalls. Firstly I didn't think the plot itself was great, it majorly lacked any suspense or grip throughout which I think was due to its mixed-up genre that was stuck somewhere between a sci-fi horror (however not scary enough) and comedy (not being anywhere near funny enough). All this being a huge let down as Attack The Block being the follow up from the maker's of 'Shaun Of The Dead' who mastered this mixed genre of horror/comedy perfectly and better than anyone else, ever. I also thought Nick Frost's character Ron (the drug dealer) came as a huge disappointment compared to Frost's previous performances in 'Hot Fuzz' and 'Paul' where he usually plays the protagonist in any comedy scene as his trademark, this however was hugely missed throughout Attack The Block. I also thought any humour or jokes made in the film were very fabricated and even in some scenes not funny at all as it was pushed way over the boundaries of being funny and ended up being somewhat 'cringey' and even stereotypical. This lack of humour or 'wit' also comes with an almighty empty space of atmosphere in a scary or comical sense. Which, even when watching the film for the first time lead me to become bored and un-interested in what was going on.

And, last but not least I cant help but mention the poor 'special effects' used to create the aliens, who can I just say aren't in the slightest bit scary for an audience of 15+. Their fluffy jet black fur made them look like large cuddly soft toys for children and with this came their ridiculous glow-in-the-dark teeth.
But, after all with the tiny budget of approximately 13 million dollars (which is a minuscule amount in the film industry!) they had I understand why they didn’t go all out with the alien's appearance, famous cast members and other special effects that are missing and  usually what make the great Hollywood blockbusters. So in all honestly i should probably should give Cornish, the cast and everyone else involved credit for what they did make with the little money they had.

I would rate this film overall on a judgement with background research done about the making of the film itself a 3/5.

Attack the Block Research

How It Was Produced:

Big Talk Productions who are famous for Shaun Of The Dead, produced this film with Film4, The UK Film Council and StudioCanal. The block of flats it was filmed in was a composite of different council estates across London. The film itself was shot across London from March to May 2010, with 6 weeks of purely late night shoots. It was filmed on the Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle, Myatts Field Brixton Oval tube station in Kennington and the Bemerton Estate in Islington. The interior scenes of the flats were filmed at Three Mills Studios in east London. The film's production budget was approximately £8 million.

What It Was Based On:

Attack The Block is a Sci-Fi action/comedy about a group of South London teenagers that find themselves in the middle of an alien invasion where they must fight and defend their home (block of flats) from evil extraterrestrials. The film starts off where a nurse 'Sam' is being mugged by a gang of Black British teenagers, however something crashes from the sky into a nearby car, the nurse uses this confusion to run whereas the gang decide to investigate the car for any valuable assets to steal, whilst doing this one of the gang members is attacked by an unknown creature, which they all eventually kill. This was influenced by something Joe Cornish himself experienced, this inspired him to create the first scene in the film and inject a sci-fi edge to it. It was also inspired by Cornish's great love for sci-fi films he watched as he grew up such as E.T, Critters, Predator and also the gang movies he loved such as The Warriors, Streets of fire and The Outsiders. But more than anything Cornish wanted to create a new genre of film which mixed Fantasy and South London suburban reality.  The film went on to box office £3,615,712, which indicates a huge loss from the millions it cost to make.

Problems That Arose In Making the Film:

A main problem that arose whilst filmmaking, was due to the low budget  3D CGI features were not available for use for special effects, so instead Cornish had to tackle the problem by instead of fully showing the aliens themselves to just suggest they were there by using practical and 'old school' effects. Another problem was due to the film being based on an alien invasion at night in the dark all of the filming had to be done throughout the night, which ended up in 6 weeks of continuous late night filming. Also another problem that was outlined mostly in the US was the use of British slang in the film that could be hard for people abroad to understand and connect with, therefore an idea of having to use subtitles was prompted.

The Directors Views On the British Film Industry:

Cornish describes himself to have been 'lucky' to have made the film with Big Talk Productions who are renowned for making the hit film Shaun Of The Dead. He gives them great credit for 'protecting him' and making it easy for him as the director to focus on making the film.

How They Saved Money, the Technology Used:

Cornish helped to save money mostly on the type of effects they used to produce the film. For example 3D CGI wasnt used to create special effects for the alien but instead they used practical and 'old school' effects such as puppeting and giving the aliens glow-in-the-dark teeth. They also only used CG to remove any unwanted details of the puppets rather than the usual of editing in effects. Although the film wasnt produced using top, highly priced technology like Hollywood films, it still contains the usual action film's explosions, chases, stunts etc. Another huge saving Attack The Block made was the actors/actresses used, all apart from Nick Frost were unknown/new actors some without any experience at all, this made a massive saving but could also have made them lose money because having leading, well known actors/actresses helps to sell a film because of their loyal fan bases, whereas Attack The Block probably didnt get this sort of promotion to help.

Issues With Film Rating & Controversy Surrounding the Film:

Attack The Block had no issues whatsoever about the film rating which was a 15. Or in fact any controversy surrounding the film. It was a highly anticipated film from the British public and was recieved pretty well in Britain for its South London suburban reality and humour.

The Film's Promotion:

Attack The Block was promoted in a number of ways; tv adverts, cinema trailers, teaser trailers, UK & US official trailers, posters, magazine adverts, soundtrack available for purchase on Itunes etc, interviews with tv programmes and journalists in the UK and US, interviews with the director Joe Cornish talking about the upcoming film with journalists in the UK and abroad. The film/media magazine Little White Lies dedicated a whole issue to Attack The Block. Attack The Block got its own special trailer for the US which was specially suited for North American audiences, they also released a new clip of one of the movie’s many tension-building sequences. And most importantly Attack The Block had its own premiere in Leicester Square, London.

The Soundtrack:

The soundtrack for Attack The Block was collectively composed by Simon Ratcliffe, Felix Buxton and Steven Price. Both Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Buxton who are both part of the electronic dance music group Basement Jaxx and then Steven Price who is a British composer. This soundtrack was released on 16th May 2011 it is available to buy on Itunes, Amazon, HMV and more. The soundtrack includes 20 tracks.