How is media convergence important for audiences and institutions?

Although film forms a media industry on its own, it would be impossible for a
film to be a success without media convergence. The film industry relies on
media convergence when marketing, distributing and exhibiting a film but,
especially more recently, making an audience aware of what is happening at
the production stage of film is becoming more popular and this can only be
done through media convergence.

During the production of Working Title’s film ‘Paul’ media convergence was
important in beginning the marketing stage of the film. For example, the
production blogs (online videos that showed the cast on set having fun and
behind the scenes footage of the filming process) were filmed throughout the
entirety of the production, keeping people going back to the website and thus
maintaining interest in the film itself; this made sure that the audience wouldn’t
forget about the film around the time of its release. Simon Pegg and Nick
Frost also have a pre-existing fan base, due to previous Working Title
successes such as ‘Hot Fuzz’, and it would be members of this fan base that
video blogs would have appealed to primarily. The production blogs can also
help in terms of the DVD sales, in that there was more content on them and it
was then more attractive for fans of the film to buy because there would be
entertaining bonus features added.

Simon Pegg, who plays Graeme in the film, also used his Twitter account to
promote the film. He posted pictures and information from the production
stages of ‘Paul’. His twitter picture was made using the Paul iPhone app and
his background was the movie’s poster. This would keep his personal fans
updated with his newest film and increase the interest in this film.

Social networking has become a veryy important aspect when it comes to

mid-production marketing, as seen by the variety of films and media projects
that have Facebook groups nowadays, these include films such as ‘Paul’ and
‘Avatar’, both of which kept fans updated constantly throughout production.

In contrast to the above, ‘The Kings Speech’ only had little pictures and
videos on the film’s website during the production stage and it didn’t use
social networking until the film was being advertised in its lead up to release.
This is may have been partly why the film wasn’t really heard of until it was
released, because many target audience members would not be interested in
following twitter and it is unlikely that the lead actors (Colin Firth and Helena
Bonham Carter) would promote their work in such a way. However previous to
the official marketing of the film there was some coverage in online
newspapers which released information about the proposed lead actors in the
film. The Guardian Online released information surrounding Helena Bonham
Carter’s proposed role in the film therefore creating a small sense of intrigue
and speculation. During the production of ‘The King’s Speech’ the economic
crisis restricted the amount of marketing that ‘The Kings Speech’ could have
and because of the lack of willing financiers at the pre-production stage (the
film was rejected by Film4 and the BBC) it may have been that the producers,
director and cast wanted to focus their efforts on making a good film rather
than assuming it would be a success before it was even made. This depicts a
stark difference between the confidence of the mainstream, Universal owned,
Working Title film ‘Paul’ and the modesty of an independent film such as ‘The
King’s Speech which was produced by See Saw Film.

Mid-production marketing is happening more and more thanks to the

advances in media technology and the ways in which people can connect;
technology manages to keep fans of the film interested throughout its
production through to its exhibition, thus increasing potential sales.

Synergy marketing is used within the film industry to promote a product, for
example ‘Avatar’ and Coke Zero. This is important because it means the film
becomes more well-known and the audience becomes more aware of the film,
it also means that the company’s market each other. When marketing ‘Avatar’
Coke would have been an obvious choice because of its international name;
‘Avatar’ would be promoted on an international level in places were you would
least expect it. Harry Potter was also synergy marketed with Harry Potter
Lego, this would immediately engage the young quadrant of the audience in
the film before release.

As discussed, another example of marketing is using social networks which

will promote the film; an example of this is ‘The Kings Speech’ Facebook
group. Although the production stage of ‘The King’s Speech’ was not traced
on social networking sites, the aftermath of the success of the film was and
there is now a link from ‘The King’s Speech’ website to Facebook and Twitter
where fans will spread opinion on the film through viral marketing.

‘The King’s speech’ interviews appeared on channels such as the BBC where
actors Colin Firth and Helen Boham Carter were interviewed, this below the
line marketing of the film meant that people were more aware of it and people
that were interested in watching the film found out more about it. More
importantly fans of these actors would be interested to hear of their next
project and the best way to present a target audience with this is on a TV
channel which has a much wider appeal than, for example, a newspaper
interview.

YouTube is also used to market film as interviews are uploaded and the
trailers are uploaded for all films now. The use of film webpages are used, for
example The King’s Speech which shows the awards that have been won for
it, this markets the film because it shows their success and it promotes the
film as it has done well and would encourage the target market to buy the
DVD. It also has the trailer on it which also promotes the film, and it has
cinema links where you are able to purchase tickets, as well as having
Facebook links and Twitter links where you could like the pages.

A soundtrack was released for The Kings Speech on the 3rd of January 2011;
four days before the actual film was to be released in UK cinemas across the
country. The soundtrack release date was earlier than the film because it will
have formed part of the advertising campaign for the film. Therefore if the
soundtrack became popular and people enjoyed the expressive music this
would promote the film further. With the music composed by the famous
Alexandre Desplat, who is well known for his previous music work that include
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
and The Queen, it will inspire people to buy the soundtrack because of the
popular composer and the films he has worked on.

James Cameron’s Avatar, the game, was released December 1st 2009 and it
is also a prequel to James Cameron's Avatar the film. After the film was
released in the cinema, many fans of the film would be very likely to buy such
a game in order to expand their enjoyment of the narrative and make them
feel like they have a further insight into the background of the characters
which feature in the film. This game was made by Ubisoft Montreal and was
released on PS3, Xbox, Wii, PC and the Nintendo DS there was also a PSP
version released later in the year (December 8th 2009). Ubisoft will have made
sure that their game was available on as many different consoles as possible
because they want to reach the widest possible audience, it would be their
aim to covet as many ‘Avatar’ cinema going audience members as possible. It
was announced by Ubisoft that it would be using the same technology as the
film and the game would be displayed in stereoscopic 3D. Again, by using
such technology, the gaming industry would be expanding an audience’s
enjoyment of the film and fulfilling their high technological expectations and
consequently making their own huge profit margin off the back of the most film
successful to date. If playing the game before the release date of the film it
would allow the audience to familiarise themselves with the idea of film and
enjoy the escapism world in the film.

Media convergence is becoming more important in the marketing process of a

film in relation to the use of the internet. Part of ‘This is England’s’ success is
due to the fact that it was advertised on the internet, and on frequently used
websites such as MSN, the reason for this is because at the time MSN was
one of the most used social networking sites. By doing this, ‘This is England’
targeted their audience by promoting the film on a website used by people
they knew would want to watch the film. Since ‘This is England’ was released,
social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been created and
have superseded MSN as a social networking tool. Facebook and Twitter
allow companies to promote films on their sites to attract audiences of all ages
and to promote the films worldwide, this also happens frequently on YouTube,
which is used by millions of people all over the world, a more recent film, ‘The
King’s Speech’ was advertised all over YouTube, creating worldwide (but
especially in America) hype and possibly being a vital part of it’s success.

(Exhibition missing)

Overall, I would argue that media convergence is essential to a film’s success

because without it the potential target audience would not be made aware of a
film’s existence. After discussing a range of case studies, it is also clear that a
wider variation of media convergence is happening within the film industry
than ever before; this means that many films are thrown into the public
domain and reach the target audience far more successfully than in the past.
However, along with media convergence, passion and storytelling are still
essential in creating a successful film because without this there would not be
a product to sell at all.

Another way media cross converges is through game consoles, for example
Xbox- on the home screen of the Xbox console you always see the different
games that are going to be released, or the games that are on offer. The
reason for this is because the distributors know that the game console users
will probably look around on the Xbox, this is the best place to target the users
and get them to see the games as they know that they use the Xbox, so
rather than putting the adverts on the internet or in a magazine they can also
put them on the game console where the users will most definitely see.
Another thing Xbox do is make extra parts for the games, for example extra
maps for the game Call Of Duty, this makes more money for the company,
they also sell different parts for the avatar, this also makes more money and is
only promoted on the Xbox, when a new film is released or game they also do
special edition packs for the avatar. Xbox doesn’t just promote games, they
promote films and music also, on different links of the Xbox.

(The above is useful information but does not reference the film industry
enough)