Film institutions

Media Conglomerates• A conglomerate is a group of businesses who have

a lot of money to put into film productions.• They also market their films through their

subsidiary companies.• This practice is known as Synergy.• Media ownership is massive multinational media

companies that own..• Film studios• TV stations• Record labels• Magazines• Newspapers• Books• Internet platforms.

• Independents are producers who work outside of the major studies.

• Often British productions are made by smaller companies like warp films, working with film 4 or BBC to secure funding and distribution.

• Orin Peli made ‘Paranormal Activity’ for $15,000 but needed paramount to distribute his film. With this he made over $190 million.

Media ownership

• Five major distributors dominate the media ownership of the film industry in the UK.

• United international Pictures• Warner Bros• Buena Vista• 20th Century Fox• Sony

Different types of institutions in the British film industry:• Independent companies• Television companies• Government bodies• Co-productions with Hollywood

studios

Media Convergence – Two or more types of media coming together.Synergy – Different elements of a company working together to promote related products.Concentration of media ownership – the process by which an increasingly smaller number of companies own most media outlets.Conglomerate – A large parent company which owns a range of smaller companies. Subsidiary – smaller companies owned by a parent company.Oligopoly – When the market is dominated by a small number of companies.

Media Convergence - film

The production cycle

1. Film Production

2. Film Distribution

3. Film exhibition

4. Film Marketing