http://www.slideshare.

net/Citycollegemedia/introduction-to-audiences-institutionsunit#btnNext

Define technological convergence

e.g: iPhone is an example of technological convergance. Different

platforms of media technology (phone, camera, internet etc) coming
together in one single device

Can you think of another example of technological convergence,

what platforms of media does it include?

Thinking back to the case studies

we have looked at, how did they
make the most of technological
convergence in the distribution and
exhibition of the film.

Past exam ques+ons rela+ng to technology

How important is technological convergence for institutions

and audiences within a media area which you have studied?
What significance does the continuing development of digital
media technology have for media institutions and audiences?
To what extent does digital distribution affect the marketing
and consumption of media products in the media area you
have studied.

Information Source=

'Media and Everyday Life'

Video Lecture
by David Gauntle<

While watching this short lm make notes on :

How has the media changed in the last few years?

How has the role of 'audience' changed in recent years?
How has media technology aected media producAon?

Gauntlett (2007a) goes as far as to say that new media alters the
boundary between producer and audience to the extent that it
makes little sense to talk about media audiences at all anymorehe calls this rethink 'Media Studies 2.0'.

In your own words, looking at

your notes, try and summarise
GauntleE's ideas about modern
media and audience in 150
words.

Try and make sense of these numbers below. Some you will have
seen from the previous case studies.

29%
33%
500-700m
1.4m 12m
6
556

35

1200

Try and make sense of these numbers below. Some you will have
seen from the previous case studies.

29%
33%
500-700m
1.4m 12m

A film's gross taken in opening weekend

annual uk cinema-goers are aged between 15-24

lost by film industry a year to piracy

SG budget ()

AT budget ()

Number of screens at widest point for

SG in the US

35

Number of screens at widest point for

SG in the UK

556

Number of screens at widest point

for AT in the uk

1200

Number of screens at widest

point for AT in the US

Audience:
Consumer = Producer
The Concept formerly known as AUDIENCE
This phrase is now commonly used by media professionals to describe the
ways in which people engage with media, and it shows how debatable the idea
of audience is in the digital era.
Technological convergence, user-created content and social networking
have transformed the audience from being more than just media consumers.
In this climate media institutions are desperately trying to provide360degree branding for their productsto surround us with them across all the
various converged media forms that we come into contact with.

Social Networking RevoluAon!

soc net rev

These sites have given the audience a plaPorm to move from being
merely a media consumer into a media producer (prosumer) and
distributor.
It is now easier than ever for these prosumers to create, upload and
exhibit their products to global audiences!

Social networking & YouTube

"YouTube's existence stems from

technological convergence"
...discuss....

What is the benefit of technological convergence for:

a) Audiences?
b) Institutions?

Audiences

Ins*tu*ons

Create
Audiences:

Easy to access various media through one plaPorm

Can produce, distribute and exhibit own products
Can interact with media products
More choice and accessibility

Contro l
InsAtuAons:

Audience can be targeted through one plaPorm

Possible to 'control' audiences exposure to markeAng
Able to reach a wider audience

YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload,

share, and view videos.
The company is based in California, and uses Adobe Flash Video
technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video
content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well
as amateur content such as video blogging and short original
videos.
Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by
individuals, although media corporaAons including CBS, BBC,
VEVO and other organizaAons oer some of their material via
the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program.

Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users

are permi6ed to upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos
that are considered to contain poten;ally oensive content are
available only to registered users 18 and older.
In 2006, YouTube was bought by Google for $1.65bn, and now
operates as a subsidiary of Google.

Is this important?

Copyrighted Material
YouTube has been criAcized for failing to ensure that uploaded videos
comply with the law of copyright. At the Ame of uploading a video,
YouTube users are shown a screen with the message "Do not upload any
TV shows, music videos, music concerts or adverAsements without
permission, unless they consist enArely of content that you created
yourself".
Despite this advice, there are sAll many unauthorized clips of copyrighted
material on YouTube. YouTube does not view videos before they are
posted online, and it is le` to copyright holders to issue a takedown
noAce under the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Why?
Organiza;ons including Viacom, Mediaset and the English Premier League
have led lawsuits against YouTube, claiming that it has done too li6le to
prevent the uploading of copyrighted material. Viacom, demanding $1bn
in damages, said that it had found more than 150,000 unauthorized clips
of its material on YouTube that had been viewed "an astounding 1.5
billion ;mes".
YouTube responded by sta;ng that it "goes far beyond its legal
obliga;ons in assis;ng content owners to protect their works". Since
Viacom led its lawsuit, YouTube has introduced a system called Video ID,
which checks uploaded videos against a database of copyrighted content
with the aim of reducing viola;ons.

Social impact
Before the launch of YouTube , there were few easy methods available for
ordinary computer users who wanted to post videos online. With its
simple interface, YouTube made it possible for anyone with an Internet
connec;on to post a video that a worldwide audience could watch within a
few minutes. The wide range of topics covered by YouTube has turned
video sharing into one of the most important parts of Internet culture.
YouTube
as awarded
2008 bGy eorge
Foster
Peabody Award and cited for
In 2006, wYouTube
was baought
Google
for $1.65bn,
being "a 'Speakers' Corner' that both embodies and promotes democracy.
150,000 unauthorized clips
of its material on YouTube that had been viewed "an astounding 1.5
billion ;mes".

Institutions and Audiences

Read through this article, highlighting points that highlight the
changing nature of Youtube recently

 Give some examples of new technologies that have been

introduced in the following areas:
production

distribution

marketing

exhibition/exchange

Produc'on

Distribu'on

Exhibi'on

 The Film Industry loses around 500-700m

a year due to piracy
Cinemas alone lose 200m due to piracy
30% of the UK populaAon are acAve in some
sort of piracy
The money gained from pirate DVD sales
alone is approx 280m a year!

Since opening last Thursday, Furious 7 has been downloaded worldwide 2.59 million times on torrent
networks through Monday at 6 p.m. ET, according to piracy-tracking firm Excipio. Thats even though the
copies of Universals film currently circulating on pirate sites are illegal in-theater camcorder copies, not
higher-quality digital rips.
For the sake of comparison, sex thriller 50 Shades of Grey had around 300,000 downloads its opening
weekend in February, and Disneys Guardians of the Galaxy one of the top-grossing films of 2014
had about 200,000 over its first weekend.
Furious 7, starring Vin Diesel and featuring fast cars and huge explosions, has clear appeal to a young
and largely male demo, which overindexes on piracy activity. Nevertheless, the heavy pirate activity didnt
put a damper on the pics better-than-expected box office take in its opening frame: $146.5 million in the
U.S. and $391.6 million worldwide.
The top country for piracy of Furious 7 since opening has been India, with 578,000 downloads through
Monday, according to Excipios data. Pakistan came in second, with 321,000, followed by China (289,000),
the U.S. (251,000) and the U.K. (101,000).
Excipio, which counts Hollywood studios among its clients, measures piracy activity on peer-to-peer torrent
networks (not including illegal Web-streaming sites).

THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

Piracy is a major concern of all film distributors, with Hollywood investigators claiming a 10% increase
each year in money lost to illegal distribution.
The film industry's recommendations to combat this include a strategy for responding to internet distribution
opportunities, and for working with other media and communications industries. Ultimately they reminded
the public that small production companies are actually hurt more by illegal distribution than
multinational conglomerates.
Another aspect of technological change that the Film Council is concerned with is digital filming and
projection. The Digital Screen Network project is the Film Council's attempt to provide cinemas with digital
projection facilities, and it is hoped (but by no means guaranteed) that more small-scale independent films
will get seen this way.
Digital technology has made life a lot better for low budget film makers and distributors-In the case of
short films, it is now possible for these to reach a potentially wide audience via a range of hosts, from the
BFI to the BBC Film Network and a host of short film festivals, all of whom have online submissions.

Read the following article on digital distribution (bear in mind this is

not written in 2015)
In pairs highlight key information on your extract
Pick out the key facts that relate to how digital distribution will
impact the film industry.
Feedback and create a full list of key points

DistribuAon:
Digital DistribuAon & ExhibiAon

Towards the end of 2005, the UK distribu'on and exhibi'on sectors were star'ng to move towards digital distribu'on and
exhibi'on. For exhibitors, digital projec'on, especially when married to the increasing use digital formats in produc'on,
can now replicate - if not surpass - the image quality of conven'onal 35mm cinema presenta'on. And, of course, digital
sound systems have been used in cinemas for some 'me.
In distribuAon terms, the advantages of digital technology are even clearer, though perhaps longer term. Digital
technology is seen to oer a more cost eecAve and logisAcs-light alternaAve to the tried and trusted, but unwieldy
model of 35mm print distribuAon described above. It will, eventually, be cheaper and much less stressful to send lms
as computer les to cinemas across the UK, than to transport 20-25kg Ans of lm in the back of a van.
The force of this change, coupled with the new capacity of technology to replicate 35mm imaging, has led the UK Film
Council (now defunct) to establish a digital distribu'on and exhibi'on programme for the theatrical sector at the end of
2005. En'tled the Digital Screen Network (DSN), it will eventually support new facili'es in 211 screens across the country
(out of a total of just over 3,300 screens in the UK), and is seen as a small but important step change towards full digital
cinema.
The DSN will ini'ally work with les transferred from a high deni'on digital master (either HDD5, or HD Cam).
The compressed and encrypted les will be sent directly to cinemas to be downloaded, de-encrypted (unlocked) and
opened as les for screening with digital projec'on equipment. In principle, digital distribu'on will, in 'me, change the
paradigm of 35mm print logis'cs. It will be possible for the distributor to send feature lm les electronically, via
broadband networks, thus elimina'ng dependence on transporta'on.
There is liEle doubt that the advent of digital distribuAon has the potenAal radically to alter the procedure of
distribuAng around the world. The comparaAvely low cost of lm copies and addiAonal logisAcal eecAveness of
digital distribuAon provide the distributor with greater exibility. It will be less expensive in the coming years to oer a
wide theatrical opening with many copies, and also conversely, to screen a lm for just one performance at any
cinema. In theory at least, it will be possible for both distributors and exhibitors to respond more precisely to audience
demand. All this suggests that in the future, more Atles, both mainstream and specialised, will receive wide theatrical
openings, and that this broadening of access at the point of release will dramaAcally reduce the overall theatrical
period from 3-6 months to perhaps 1-3 months.
The shortened rst-run period will in turn bring forward the distributor's release of the DVD. And there's the rub. The
adop'on of digital technologies oers greater opportuni'es for distributors to create joined-up campaigns for theatrical
and DVD releases, in which, increasingly, the theatrical opening is used as a way of providing a loss-leading marke'ng
plaWorm for the highly lucra've DVD leg.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND DISTRIBUTION

What impact/changes has digital technology made
within FILM DISTRIBUTION?

Digital distribution is cheaper for distributors

Digital distribution is quicker
Simultaneous global releases of films to cut down piracy
Better quality
Cut down piracy and illegal copies

 What significance does the continuing development of digital

media technology have for media institutions and audiences?

Technologies: Production
Visual Effects - CGI Computer-Generated Imagery
Until recently Hollywood studios were the only ones who had the
money to pay for producing digital effects. However the shift to
digital media effects not only Hollywood but film making as a whole

Sin City
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
King Kong
300
Watchmen
Avatar
Inception

In Film Production In todays movie making, the creative

work that takes place on a computer
can be as important as what goes on
in front of the camera, this technology
is now a standard part of the movie
making tool kit. The impact of digital
technology on Hollywood has been
gradual. Today a movie
can be shot, edited, and
distributed from camera
to cinema, without involving a
single frame of film.
Sky Captain and the
World of Tomorrow was
filmed entirely using
green screen technology

a small low budget

independent film
highlighting the evolution in
digital technology in
production!
Writer/Director Gareth Edwards did all the special effects himself using off-the-shelfAdobe
Systems software, ZBrush and Autodesk 3ds Max.
Edwards had five months to create all 250 visual effects shots, a process he undertook in his
bedroom. "[I was] churning out about two shots a day, which was fine until I got to the first creature
shot. Then suddenly two months went by and I still hadn't finished a single creature shot; it turned
out to be the hardest part of the whole process." Due to time constraints, the sound effects had to
be produced before the special effects were undertaken.
Edwards claimed that the advances in computer technology in recent years made it
possible for him to create the films visual effects on such a low budget; "You can go in
the shop now and you can buy a laptop that's faster than the computers they made
Jurassic Park with!

What is a 3D lm?

A 3-D lm is a moAon picture that enhances the illusion of depth percepAon.

Derived from stereoscopic photography, a special moAon picture camera
system is used to record the images as seen from two perspecAves, and
special projecAon hardware and/or eyewear are used to provide the illusion
of depth when viewing the lm.
3-D lms have existed in some form since the 1950s , but had been largely
relegated to a niche in the moAon picture industry because of the costly
hardware and processes required to produce and display a 3-D lm, later 3D
experienced a cinema resurgence in the 1980s and '90s driven by IMAX high-
end theaters and Disney themed-venues.
3-D lms became more and more successful throughout 2000-10, culminaAng
in the unprecedented success of 3-D presentaAons of Avatar in 2009.

PolarizaAon systems
To present a stereoscopic moAon picture, two images are
projected superimposed onto the same screen through
dierent polarizing lters. The viewer wears low-cost
eyeglasses which also contain a pair of polarizing lters
oriented dierently (clockwise/counterclockwise or
verAcal/horizontal). As each lter passes only that light
which is similarly polarized and blocks the light polarized
dierently, each eye sees a dierent image. This is used to
produce a three-dimensional eect by projecAng the same
scene into both eyes, but depicted from slightly dierent
perspecAves.

Anaglyph
The archetypical 3-D glasses, with modern red and cyan colour
lters, similar to the red/green and red/blue lenses used to view
early anaglyph lms. Anaglyph images were the earliest method of
presenAng theatrical 3-D In an anaglyph, the two images are
superimposed in an addiAve light senng through two lters, one
red and one cyan. In a subtracAve light senng, the two images are
printed in the same complementary colours on white paper.
Glasses with coloured lters in each eye separate the appropriate
images by canceling the lter colour out and rendering the
complementary colour black.

Which lms have been issued in 3D?

3D
3D

EXHIBITION:
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ON
FILM EXHIBITION?
KEY POINTS:
Better quality of picture
More flexibility in what you can watch in the cinema/home
Unique cinema experience - 3D films (although 3D TVs
could make this less unique in future)
Ability to watch films available in the cinema at home
through some providers (Curzon Home Cinema!)
Disadvantages: expensive to change all of the cinemas to
digital technology inc. projectors, hardware, software

We are now going to

look briey at
Avatar (2009)
before moving on to
our Gravity (2013) case
study. We will be
specically looking
at 3D technologies
and why the lm
industry is so keen
to promote this
technology.

Avatar

Avatar trailer


Development on Avatar began in
1994, when Director James
Cameron wrote an 80-page script
for the lm.
Filming was supposed to take place
for a release in 1999, but was
delayed. According to Cameron,
"The necessary technology was not
yet available to achieve my vision
of the lm".

Watch the making of Avatar.

Think about how Cameron's
vision was realised and note
the technologies used.
making of avatar

Think about how

long it has taken
to make Avatar,
& why?

Avatar was ocially budgeted at $237 million. Other unocial

esAmates put the cost as high as $310 million for producAon... and
at $150 million for promoAon.
The lm was released for tradiAonal 2-D viewing, and 3-D viewing
(using the RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, XpanD 3D, and IMAX 3D formats)
The stereoscopic lmmaking was touted as a breakthrough in
cinemaAc technology.

Cameron 3d camera int

Avatar premiered in London on Dec 10, 2009, and was released

overseas on Dec 18 in the US, to cri=cal acclaim and
commercial success.
The lm broke several box oce records during its release and
became the highest-grossing lm of all =me worldwide,
surpassing Titanic, which had held the records for the previous
12 years.
It also became the rst lm to gross more than $2 billion.
Following the lm's success, Cameron stated that there will be
at least two sequels. Avatar was nominated for 9 Oscars,
including Best Picture and Best Director, and won 3, for Best
Cinematography, Best Visual Eects, and Best Art Direc=on.

 Read the article on 'Avatar' day

(Guardian 2009) - how did this help
with the Avatar marketing &
distribution 'juggernaut'?
Why was this also so important in
regards to raising audience
awareness over the use of the film's
3D technology.

Avatar (2009)
CGI & 3D
Much of the film's reported budget of over $300 million was spent on
CGI. (40% was live-action - 60% was CGI).
Although originally scheduled for release in early 2009, the opening
was delayed until December, due to the demands of the special effects,
and the installation of 3-D projection systems to play the film
worldwide.
Over a period of years, Cameron designed
dual-function cameras that simultaneously
filmed in both conventional 2-D and state
of the art 3D. The film utilized motion
performance-capture assisted CGI
technology with actors on a stage to create
the film's Na'vi characters.

The technique of performance

capture involved putting actors into
bodysuits covered with tiny dots,
while about 140 digital cameras
captured their body movements.
Another tiny helmet-rigged camera
was used for recording finer facial,
eye, and head movements. And then
the digitally-recorded data was used
by animators to create the characters in their virtual world environment.
Various striking elements in the film included the visually-stunning alien
planet of Pandora, the world of plants and aliens called Na'vi with the
computer-generated, blue-skinned, primitive alien character of Na'vi warrior
princess Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) - and human gone native Jake Sully (Sam
Worthington) as a tall, lanky, long-tailed, blue-skinned creature/avatar, and
the purple-skinned predatory creature Thanator with burnished black skin
banded with stripes of yellow and scarlet, sharp teeth, armored head and
tail, and ten 'sensor quills.'

3D Cinema - Read this resource from The Independent

Write down the 5 most important facts from this report
When Titanic became the most profitable movie ever, generating $1.8 billion at the box office globally in 1997, director James
Cameron claimed to be pleasantly surprised. It was, he joked, an unlikely triumph for a three-hour "chick-flick" to which
everyone already knows the ending.
In a few months' time, Cameron will bring Titanic back to cinemas. It will remain three hours long, with the same tissue-drenching
plot twists, and a denouement which surprises nobody. But this time, one big thing is different: audiences will be able to watch
that very large ship sink in three dimensions.
On Wednesday, Cameron unveiled 18 minutes of his 3D remake to the media at Fox Studios in Los Angeles. A team of 300
technicians is spending 60 weeks converting the original, painstakingly cutting out objects on screen and pushing some to the
foreground, some to the back. The work will cost $18m (11m).
"This is not about the money," Cameron said. "This is about giving people an opportunity to see Titanic in movie theatres again."
The project is at the cutting edge of Hollywood's latest trend. Thanks to the advent of 3D technology, film studios have suddenly
realised that they can make new money from old ideas, by converting classic movies from their back catalogues into the new
format, and putting them in cinemas once more.
In September, Disney tentatively released a 3D remake of The Lion King. It shot straight to the top of the box office charts,
outperforming a swathe of original new titles and making (so far) some $93m in the US alone. Most of that was straight profit.
A host of copycat projects are duly in the offing. Early next year, George Lucas will bring the first of his Star Wars films back to
theatres in 3D. A 3D version of Top Gun will follow soon afterwards. Pixar's Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo are already being
converted, and there are rumours that Indiana Jones will soon be cracking a whip in three dimensions in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
To the film industry, re-formatting classics looks increasingly like a commercial no-brainer: in the past two years the cost of
converting to 3D has fallen from around $100,000 per minute of film to nearer $25,000, while every indication suggests that the
public will pay handsomely to see old favourites which have been re-rendered.
Like most success stories, in an industry where art and finance collide, 3D conversion is not without critics. Spiralling costs, flat
box office revenues, and falling DVD sales have in recent years seen a collapse in the number of original titles finding their way
into cinemas (this year's top 10 contains just one film, Bridesmaids, which isn't either a sequel or an adaptation). Filling theatres
with repurposed classics will, the critics argue, only add to that creative decline.
Film historians, meanwhile, say retro-fitting an old title for the 3D era is like slapping a fresh coat of paint on the Mona Lisa. "Does
this threaten the integrity of a work? Of course it does," complains Wheeler Winston Dixon, the Ryan Professor of Film Studies at
the University of Nebraska. "People are hungry for fresh content, and instead they are being given spectacle. This 3D thing is a
gimmick being driven by tech-heads." But Cameron is adamant that there has never been a better time for the world to see
Titanic. April, when the film is tentatively due to hit cinemas, marks the 100th anniversary of the ship's sinking. And everything
from the 2008 credit crunch to the onward march of climate change make his movie's themes more relevant now than ever
before.
"There's something enduring about the Titanic story," he claims. "You've got this basic arrogance that they could take this ship
with over 2,000 people on board at full steam through a known ice field. At the time, they said their ship could never sink,
because it was too big to fail. Now where've we heard that before?"
When The Independent raised criticisms of 3D reformatting, Cameron replied: "What's wrong with commerce? What's wrong with
making jobs for people in movie theatres around the world? What's wrong with entertaining people? It's commerce, baby. It's art
and business put together, and I have no problem with that whatsoever."
Sceptics, he added, are motivated by a mixture of cynicism and jealousy. "If you could wave a magic wand and give everybody in
the world an orgasm simultaneously, there'd still be people looking for a way to criticise that."

The film grossed an estimated $4.7million on the first day of its re-release in North America
(including midnight preview showings) and went on to make $17.3million over the weekend,
finishing in third place.[158][159] Outside North America it earned $35.2million finishing second,[160]
and improved on its performance the following weekend by topping the box office with
$98.9million.[161] China has proven to be its most successful territory where it earned $11.6million
on its opening day,[162] going on to earn a record-breaking $67million in its opening week and
taking more money in the process than it did in the entirety of its original theatrical run.[161] The
reissue ultimately earned $343.4million worldwide, with $145 million coming from China and
$57.8million from Canada and United States

Anti-piracy!
anti-piracy

Pros of
3D

Anti-piracy!
anti-piracy

Cons of
3D

CriAcism of 3D cinema
MoAon sickness, in addiAon to other
health concerns, are more easily induced
by 3-D presentaAons.
Film criAcs Roger Ebert and Mark Kermode
consider 3D lm-making to be a gimmick.
Another major criAcism is that many of the
movies in 21st century to date were not
lmed in 3-D, but converted a`er lming.
Filmmakers who have criAcized this
process include Michael Bay and James
Cameron, the laEer whose lm Avatar
(created in 3-D from the ground up) is
largely credited with the revival of 3-D.

Technology - Production
The Hobbit - filmed at 48fps, another chapter on the impact of
technology in film exhibition

Future ImplicaAons?
A"er previous threats of television, VHS, DVDs etc, will the cinema survive
the impact of digital technology?
Consider: If we reach a stage where you can download a new lm straight
to your Smart TV, would you sBll bother going to the cinema?
Yes/No?-explain your answer, and your thoughts on the future of cinema.

4DX's Mission Statement

Advancing the movie theater experience from watching the movie to almost living it, 4DX is the ultimate
in state of the art technology delivering a fully immersive cinematic experience. Inside every dedicated
4DX auditorium, motion chairs and environmental effects such as wind, bubbles, and scent work in
perfect synchronicity with the action on screen.
Movies are no longer bound by their visual and aural limits. 4DX is the next step in the movie-going
evolution taking audiences on a journey into the full feature film. Free yourself from the confines of the
flat screen and live the experience with 4DX.

Now read the Martin Scorsese articles for his

thoughts on the future.