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.
