Mattie_white AS Media

How important is technological convergence for industries and audiences within a media you have studied?

Technological convergence is a bit part of the British film industry, due to the ever-changing and modernising world. There are positive and negative effects of technical convergence.

Christipher Nolan’s ‘Inception’ was released through Warner Bro’s pictures in 2010. The film reaped huge benefits when marketing, through technological convergence. It’s estimated that the film spent $100 million on marketing alone. This included creating the fully automatic website that features the trailer, advertising to the user where they can buy the film on DVD and Blue ray disc, that includes special features such as explanations of the dreams.

Due to ever changing technology it’s also possible for the public to download the film from the website, which is a quick and easy method that’s likely to grow throughout the film industry. However with the advances in technology and consumers wanting things on such demand,  the filmmakers also face illegal downloads and piracy. These factors can be damaging to the films profits.

The film 'Inception' was shot using 35mm camera with key scenes film on a 65mm format. Yet the special effects and visual effects seen on the film are truly outstanding. The film includes around 500 stunning visual effects created by Paul franklin. He used CG based effects (not GGI) to create the zero gravity scene in the hotel.

However, new technologies can be hard to get a hold of due to their sometimes high costs. Inceptions budget was $175million and produced by a large company being Warner Bro’s. Therefore the film had the funds to create such brilliant realistic effects. 

Compared to ‘Inception’,  ‘Attack The block’ (directed by Joe Cornish) had a much lower budget of  £13million. This meant that the sci-fi/horror comedy film battled with trying to create the aliens without using expensive GGI effects. Instead the filmmakers only used CG effects when absolutely necessary to enhance the practical based creatures and maintain the quality of the film. In result the film still produced good quality and

When it came to marketing the film, the marketing team used viral methods. Such as Facebook, used to create competitions and advertise the film. Using viral technology to market the film is a great way of reaching out to a mass audience and is usually cheap/free. With young people spending up to five hours a week on social networking sites, ‘Attack The Block’ could also reach out to the target audience being aged 15-25.

The film used various camera’s supplied by ARRI media. Despite many discussions over whether to shoot anamorphic 35mm camera, Joe Cornish chose not to. Although anamorphic shooting allows a wider camera view, the cost of shooting anamorphic would have taken a large some of the films budget.

Stars of ‘Attack The Block’ Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are also the writers of the sci-fi/comedy/thriller, ‘Paul’.  Directed by Gregg motola the film again used viral methods to market the film, such as video blogs of the characters behind the scenes of the production. This meant that the marketing team were able to reach out to the target audience and make the film eagerly anticipated for. As well as this, the video blogs benefit the actors/actresses individually as fans can watch them off set as opposed to on the ‘big screen’. Co- Writer Simon Pegg used a Twitter (social networking) account to promote the film and it’s release. After the opening weekend, that made approximately $13million, the film was then released onto DVD and Blue-ray. The blue ray disc is in HD, making the overall picture quality more realistic. The Blue-ray disc for ‘Paul’ included a featurete that explained the evolution of the special effects work. The bonus disc also includes access to MY MOIVES which is an exclusive feature that allows consumers to stream movies to their iPhones/computers. Meaning the film can literally be taken all over the world through technological benefits. ‘Paul’ was produced through the British film industry ‘Working Title Pictures’. Working title film shave a huge backing from universal pictures (who also own 67% of the company). This means universal can help the British company with marketing to a mass audience across the US by using viral methods or general word of mouth.

When it comes to screening a film, technological convergence has mean’t that people can pre-book cinema ticket. Ensuring to the film company that people are interested as well as being a quick and reliable method for the Consumer.