Making and consuming films essay to be finished...

We live at a time when there is both a lot of opportunities to consume films and a lot of opportunities to make films - in media we call this proliferation of hardware and content.

Nowadays, it is very easy for people to both consume and also make their own films, this is due to technology, for example it is much easier and cheaper for people to buy items which they can consume media on such as tablets, laptops, DVD’s and many other forms of technology. There are also more ways of making your own films for example software has been created for the use of filming and some even editing your footage, for example, it is possible to buy apps on smartphones and tablets/iPads such as video star which allows you to record footage, edit the footage and even put the footage over music or a voice recording. Video editing software’s such as premier pro are also becoming widely available and this has also made it easier for people to record their own films because it means that amateur ‘film makers’ such as youtubers have the opportunity to improve their videos by using the editing software which is becoming easier to source.  

Disney Research

The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney is one of the world’s largest broadcasting and cable companies. Disney was founded on the 16^th October 1923, by Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney, at the time is was founded as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio and it established itself as a leader in the American animation industry however later diversified into live-action film production, television, and theme parks. The company operated under many names beginning as The Walt Disney Studio and then Walt Disney Productions. The company is best known for the products of its film studio, the Walt Disney Studios, which today is one of the largest and best-known studios in American cinema. The headquarters for the company is located in Burbank, California.

The company was founded in 1923 when animator Walt Disney created a short film which he named Alice’s Wonderland, which showed a young girl interacting with animated characters. Soon after this Margarat J. Winkler of M.J.Winkler Productions contacted Disney with plans to distribute a whole series of Alice Comedies using Disney as a production partner. Walt and Roy Disney formed Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio that same year. After these Disney continued to make more animated films and in 1928 Disney came up with the idea of a mouse character named Mortimer however they later changed the name to Mickey Mouse due to Disney’s wide disliking the sound of Mortimer Mouse.

Mickey Mouse then went on to be a very major symbol for the Disney Company as a whole with the outline of his head being the kids Disney channel logo. Disney then produced their first sound film Steamboat Willie, a cartoon starring Mickey Mouse, the film was an immediate hit the success was said to be due to both Mickeys appeal as a character and also the fact that this was the first cartoon to feature synchronised sound.

On December 16^th, the Walt Disney Studios partnership was reorganised as a corporation with the name of Walt Disney Productions, Limited with a merchandising division, Walt Disney Enterprises, and two subsidiaries, Disney Film Recording Company, Limited and Liled Reality and Investment Company for real estate holdings. On December 30^th, King features signed its first newspaper, New York Mirror, to publish the Mickey Mouse comic strip. In December 1950, Walt Disney Productions and the Coca-Cola Company teamed up for Disney’s first venture into television, and in October 1954, the ABC network launched Disney’s first regular television series, Disneyland, which would go on to become one of the longest-running primetime series in history.

In 1954, Walt Disney used his Disneyland series to unveil what would later become Disneyland, the idea was based on a desire to create a place where children and adults could both have fun together. The park opened to the general public on July 18^th 1955. The park gradually grew in popularity and in 1959 they added Americas first monorail system. Eventually in November 1965 Disney world was announced, with plans for theme parks, hotels and even model cities.

Disney then continued to make a wide range of films such as The Little Mermaid, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Alladin and many more, the company became very popular and to this day is still making films and is one of the largest companies in the world with stores selling merchandise such as toys any clothing, film releases, several theme parks and resorts, media networks and Disney interactive which includes social media, virtual worlds and even computer games operations.

One example of a recent Disney film could be Monsters University, although some would say this is a Pixar film, Disney have previously brought Pixar meaning that all films from this franchise are also part of Disney. Monsters University was a film released in 2013.

Marketing of Ill manors

To be successful films rely on marketing to them achieve this. Ill manors (2012) is a British film. Research it and how it was marketed and promoted.

Ill manors is a film written and directed by singer Plan B. He used this as an essential marketing tool alongside his album, he did this by basing his music and film around the same themes. Plan B also links the film with his music by the film focusing on eight core characters, and their circles of violence as they struggle to survive on the streets, each story links with one another and each story can be represented by one of his rap songs. The production company that worked alongside Plan B to create this were BBC Films, a large British production company who have also produced films such as 'Streetdance 3', 'An Education' and 'Fish Tank'.

Plan B found it very difficult to finance his film however he eventually secured finance however the budget was £100,00 which is considered very low compared to a film produced in the USA. Posters were the main way that Plan B advertised his film, they first advertised through posters on 8th May, following this he advertised through the Empire magazine's website.. The posters however were very effective in advertising the film, this may have been due Plan B creating 8 different posters which would have attracted a lot of different attention. The trailer was then released in May 2012.  The premiere was on the 30th May 2012 and this took place in London's Leicester square. The screening attracted several British recording artists such as Alesha Dixon, Professor Green, Ed Sheeran, Tinie Tempah, Wretch 32 and Alexandra Burke.

The film was then released to 191 cinemas in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland by Revolver Entertainment on 6th June 2012. It was then released in the Netherlands on 30th August 2012 and was also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Festival do Rio in September 2012. It was not released on DVD until October 8th 2012 however it contained footage which was not broadcasted in the cinemas which meant that people who had seen the film in cinemas may want to buy the DVD as it has some extras.

Social Media was used as a method of free marketing strategy, he was able to create a Facebook and Twitter page, this meant that he could gain publicity as social media is very popular and used worldwide and this was a very effective method of marketing without having to pay. The social media sites for Ill Manors were very popular with the verified twitter page having 3669 followers and the Facebook page having 31,616 likes. Plan B, the artist himself had his own Facebook page which had 9,003,276 likes, this would also gain publicity for the film.

There was also a website for the film, the website showed many features which gained publicity such as showing the trailer, reviews from celebrities, a synopsis, a link to the album and stills from the filming. Again the website was a very clever was of marketing the film because the internet is a very wide used system and creating a website does not cost. This working alongside the posters would have gained attention and this is why Ill manors was quite a successful film in the UK.