Ownership and Structure in the Creative Media Sectors - Assignment 1

Understanding Structure and Ownership in the Creative Media Sector.

There are many companies in the world who produce and distribute films and franchises, one of these is 20th Century Fox - classed as one of the ' big six ' ( 6 major conglomerates ) who do both distributing and producing top end films. The ' big six ' in the film industry are Universal, Disney, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. These companies alone are worth billions of dollars. The film industry is a huge place of business, for example the structure of 20th Century Fox is shown below, the flow chart represents the companies 20th Century Fox owns and the films the companies have produced. For example as the flow chart shows 20th Century Fox is a media conglomerate ( group or company which owns large numbers of companies in all of the media such as television, film, publishing and the internet ), which means in this case they own Blue Sky Studios which have produced both the Rio and Ice Age franchises and also 20th Century Fox own 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment which have produced Seal Team 8 Behind Enemy Lines and In The Blood which aren't the highest grossing films but still have made money.

20th Century Fox is one of the biggest film companies ever known, as you can see below is an image of 20th Century Fox's top grossing film with Avatar in the lead making $749,766,139 overall in the USA - this is also the biggest grossing films ever in the world overtaking Titanic.

As you can see above Avatar made $2,783,919,982 overall whereas Titanic made $2,207,615,668. The image above represents the biggest grossing films in history which can be looked at because there is only one before the 2000's which is Titanic. Avatar has been the leading worldwide box office from the year 2009 and it is still the top grossing, this is an interesting fact because the producers of Avatar ( James Cameron and Jon Landau ) are bringing out an Avatar 2 and 3 sequel therefore making it a franchise, the sequel to Avatar ( Avatar 2 ) is being released in 2018.

There are many ways the film industry makes money, for example this can be from general ticket sales to merchandise such as mugs, T-Shirts etc. The main way they make money is from ticket sales from cinemas and theaters around the world if it is a big film such as the Star Wars franchise. Another way they make money is from DVD and Blu Ray sales months after the initial release of the film. Very similar to DVD and Blu Ray sales is TV and streaming sites such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video and also TV such as Sky Store and Virgin Movies. Film companies can also sell new movies to airplane companies who do long haul flights such as British Airways to show to their customers so they don't get bored on the flight. Next is another way for film companies to make money which is to sell the license to authors to produce a book on their behalf, for example ' The Girl On The Train ' was released 15 January 2015 as a book and now in 2016 it has had very good reviews from all different people and they have decided to make a film therefore making more money.  Video games is also a very clever way of making money for example, Lego games have been released multiple times which are similar to the movies e.g Lego Batman , Lego Marvel Super Heroes, etc. These types of games also have micro-transactions in them therefore Warner Bros studios will make even more money. Finally tourism also plays a huge part into making money for big companies such as Universal studios in both Florida and Paris.

There are many different media ownership's from private to cross media, for example a private company who owns the rights to its company. An example of a private ownership is MTV, this programme would have different advertisements ( which is a big way of them making money ) compared to somebody like National Geographic. A public service is somebody like the BBC, they make money from the UK residents paying for their TV licenses as well as making money from merchandise and DVD’s etc. Cross Media is the ownership of multiple media businesses by a person or corporation. These businesses can include broadcast and cable television, film, radio, newspaper, magazine, book publishing, music, video games, and various online entities such as The Sun. Independent media refers to any form of media, such as radio, television, newspapers or the Internet, that is free of influence by government or corporate interests. The term has varied applications. Within the United States and other developed countries, it is often used synonymously with alternative media to refer to media that specifically distinguish themselves in relation to the mainstream media. In international development, the term independent media is used in relation to the development of new media outlets, particularly in areas where there is little to no existing media presence. Finally a conglomerate is Universal studios which is a film company owned by Comcast and NBCUniversal, universal studios has many subsidiaries such as DreamWorks Animation and Working Title Films.

There are many takeovers in the film industry, for example Disney has bought the Star Wars franchise - Lucas told Iger he was considering retirement and planned to sell the company, as well as the Star Wars franchise. On October 30, 2012, Disney announced a deal to acquire Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, with approximately half in cash and half in shares of Disney stock. Walt Disney Studios also own Marvel , which they paid $4,000,000,000.


MTV is privately owned and own the rights to itself and is not a subsidiary to any other company in the industry. MTV makes a lot of money by viewers who tune into weekly shows such as ' Geordie Shore ' and ' Just Tattoo of us '. These shows get a lot of viewers who mostly only tune into the channel to watch something like one of the programmes listed. MTV make money mostly from adverts, and if the channel is achieving a lot of viewers then their advert revenue is going to be higher than it would be if there were only a couple of hundred people watching instead of thousands. Viewers who watch these types of shows are usually a teenager kind of audience which then means the adverts which are then targeted towards teenagers.

The film industry is one of the largest and most profitable sectors in the media industry. In the UK it employs 27,800 people, 62% of these people are employed in exhibition, 34% in production and the remaining 4% in distribution. The film industry is dominated by the major companies ( Universal, Paramount, 21st Century Fox, Disney, Lionsgate. ) These companies tend to make the big films which are released into cinemas across the globe, they tend to be able to do this as they have bigger budgets to produce whatever they like. There are also small film companies such as Pinewood Studios which is a small British film company, these kind of companies tend to produce smaller films, however these films can sometimes become very successful and therefore they may use it as an investment onto a bigger, brighter film. The film industry can be compared to the TV sector, this is because they are connected by the fact that channels often play films such as big companies like Sky with their movie channels ' Sky Movies '. You also get films on channels such as Channel 4, but they aren't as new compared to the ones on Sky Movies. Films are also mainly advertised on TV, both the cinema and DVD releases. As I was saying earlier in the blog, films and computer games often spin off each other either way, for example you could say that The LEGO Batman games had a positive impact towards the making of The LEGO Batman Movie, there are many films which make developers make games such as Transformers, Marvel Super heroes etc.

Assignment 1 - Pre Production

Pre - Production assignment 1

I have been asked by Middlesbrough College to prepare a blog post to explain to new students coming into the college next year, who are considering making their first film, how they may want to plan their short film productions and how they may want to monitor each stage of the production process.

Step One:

As it is my choice I'd preferably choose a film compared to a TV or video type of production. These can be compared and be all completely different in their own separate ways, they would be planned. For example for a film you could be thinking about making it into a franchise or making only one of them, which can be compared to a TV series where there has to be another episode until the finale. It also needs to be planned differently as you may need to think about different scripts , characters, plot and a story line and if there are any dilemmas you want to be in it. 

Step Two:

Secondly there are many ways to manage your time in this project, there is also a document called a ' Call Sheet ' this document is needed for all professional film directors and people who are starting in the trade, this document is essential, it is used for people to know exactly what they're doing at a specific time, for example if they're shooting different parts of the film on different days and different times of the separate days, the image below would represent a part of a ' Call Sheet '. This part of the call sheet is completed which shows in depth where everybody should be e.g. if you're a member of the crew you should be at the studio for 9.30 getting the equipment checked over and making sure everyone knows what they will be doing when they get to the correct locations e.g. Car Park, Scrapyard, Bus Station and the abandoned warehouse. If every member of the cast and crew have one of these and they're late or don't turn up to the shoot then the producer can question there whereabouts and can then have a reason to fire that person.

These work sheets are very important in the media industry because it puts everyone on the same page and as long as everyone gets one there can be no confusion where people are at a time of the day e.g if they are in a wrong place and they are late to set. Another part of the ' Call Sheet ' is the location list and cast list which is shown in the image below , this shows you where the filming will take place at various locations. Also on the ' Call Sheet ' is the assembly point which is where you would meet everyone when lunch time has occurred etc. Below is a completed call sheet where it tells you the correct places to be at a certain time, for example everybody should be in the car park at 10AM.

Step Three:

There are different ways to choose what resources you will need, one of these you can choose is BECTU.org - this website is for people who need to know what kind of people they will need for the production. For example the website shows you from people who would be working in the Art Department to the Camera Operators and the Editors. BECTU.org also shows you the recommended rates and the actual rates which are given to companies/ independent workers who will be in the shoots. For example a camera operator would be getting £620 if he was to work in a high budget film compared to a film operator in a low budget film only getting £373 - these rates are per day.

There is also another way of finding out what resources you will need to carry out a short film, this document is called a Script Breakdown. As you can see below there are many slots which need to be filled out before the production is anywhere near started, for example ' W/R ' = Wardrobe ( What clothes you need for that certain scene. ) Another example could be if you need a sword, many people would think it would be classed as a prop however when shooting any sort of film you need a weapons specialist who has a license to use them therefore a sword would go in the SFX/WEAPONS slot. This document is essential before starting your production as it helps understand what everyone needs to buy/rent in their separate teams and also what people you may need to bring in e.g. weapons specialist.

Step Four:

One way you can manage the budget for your certain project is the use of Microsoft Excel, it is a very easy platform to use and you can get many things out of using it, you can easily find out how much camera equipment , lighting equipment etc is to rent , then put it into an Excel document and find out how much overall it will cost you to get the products you need. As you can see below is an example of an Excel Sheet, this shows you how much a film shoot costs to run ( Prices came off www.hireacamera.com for cameras and lighting equipment ). In the spreadsheet there are slots for camera equipment, lighting equipment, camera operator, the main key grip, editor and the first assistant cameraman, just these people and the equipment total to £5,101 for just 3 days ( excluding the editor ).

Step Five:

On a film shoot you need to communicate with the people you are working with and in order to do this there are documents which can help you, one of these documents is a storyboard, a storyboard helps the actors as well as the film crew know what they're doing and how to film a certain part of the film correctly, as you can see below this is a completed storyboard, it is in depth as it shows you where the director wants the shots at different angles, e.g it has close ups and an over shoulder shot. This is an important part of the pre-production planning.

Step Six:

For a film to be broadcasted correctly there are certain rules and permission which have to be completed accordingly to correct laws. For example before anybody is filmed a ' Contributor Release Form ' has to be signed by every actor therefore they cannot say they don't want to be in the film, the producer can then say they have signed a document which means they can publish the film worldwide without any hesitation. One of these documents can be seen below. I have completed an example of one which would be completed with an address and a signature.

To conclude I think these six steps and the information provided with the examples will help new students who are considering making their first film a lot easier and how they can monitor each stage of the production process made out to them.