A LEVEL MEDIA: January 2018

Essay on Distribution

Paragraph 1 – Disney as conglomerate

Disney is a huge media conglomerate that is part of the Big Six. This means that it is part of the 6 highest media companies in the united states, The Big six include 20 century fox, paramount, Universal, Warner Bros, Sony and 20^th century fox. Disney produces films such as pirates of the Caribbean and toy story it also owns tv companies such as Pixar and Marvel, which allows them to expand further into animation, and make superhero films such as the Avengers.

Distribution is changing the modern world because it is expanding to many other companies to get their films distributed. Such as getting shops to sell it and food chains for example, to give out gifts to promote it. Overall, Disney have a wide range of channels of which they can use for distributing films and promoting them. For example, as Disney own Fox now, who also own a large stake in Sky, Disney films can be freely promoted on the Sky Digital satellite platform to a relatively wide audience. Furthermore, plans to open their very own streaming service also allow them to freely distribute their films, alongside licenses which may originate from other studios. Disney also have access to more conventional distribution types, such as DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs through their coveted Disney Vault system to gain profits on films released many years ago.

In 1967 Disney basically promoted its film through TV and Radio and film posters, furthermore after the original premiere and release the film was continually rereleased and even taken of the shelves for short periods of time in order to boost sales around Christmas as Disney released special editions and limited editions of the film to encourage sales and make the product seem limited or rare to the audience and therefore more appealing.

The Disney vault is a policy in which Disney put some of their most popular films in the vault after a period of time, this means the films are not up for purchase. This means that people have to wait to see the film if they haven’t seen it already. This might prevent a young generation from seeing a really good film, by the time the film is out of the vault, that generation will be older and might not want to see the film or will not enjoy it as much as they would have done if they were younger. It also increases the risk of piracy of films because there will be people who are desperate to find a way to watch the film.
Throughout the 1980s/90s, Disney was re-releasing classic films such as Snow White and Bambi through a seven-year cycle. They would release new editions, like bronze or gold editions, improving the quality and adding exclusive behind the scenes footage to the DVDs. Recently, in the 2010s, they have had to become more creative and therefore create live-action remakes of their classic films like Cinderella, Maleficent and Beauty and the Beast.
The Jungle Book was first released on April 15^th 2016 in America, before spreading around to multiple countries around the world. Jungle Book was released on a teaser trailer to encourage the audience to want to go and watch it.
In the opening day the jungle book made $103,261,464 in its first week of showing. The advantages of Imax and 3D versions allows the designers to make much more creative scenes that will blow the minds of kids and will allow adults to enjoy the film just for the effects that are new and never seen before. The benefits to the IMAX 3D approach is that dual projectors create more screen brightness, and linear polarizers allow more light to reach the eyes - so the picture should be brighter than in traditional 3D projection. Worldwide Box Office sales were $963,901,123 and it made an est. $19,050,838 in Domestic DVD Sales. This made it one of the largest grossing films worldwide. And made it the 35^th largest grossing film of all time
Conclusion
To conclude it is important to stress the importance of distribution to a conglomerate like Disney. Without effective distribution patterns films could easily underachieve profit wise for example but it must be remembered that distribution cannot be seen in isolation because it can quite easily be linked to the principle of synergy, as one business theorist states ‘industries rely on repetition through use of stars, genres, franchises, repeatable narratives and so on to sell formats to audiences, then industries try to impose scarcity to keep demand high.’ This is very true of Disney who with the original Jungle Book 1967 found himself with limited avenues of distribution – namely TV and film, thus to keep The Jungle Book characters fresh in the minds of audiences the company created other programmes and ancillary products from 1967 to the early 2000’s to keep alive the idea of the characters so that in the future there could be a potential remake or reboot of the original film, these other programmes included Talespin, a cartoon starring many of the characters from the original film and Jungle Cubs – another cartoon which explored Baloo, Shere Khan and other characters’ lives as children, the aim of these products were to not only to keep audiences entertained but to keep the Jungle Book franchise fresh and active although more importantly , a means by which one media product can promote another media product by the same company, a term called synergy `and one which will only improve with the creation of Disney’s new streaming service in 2019.

Essay on Jungle Book production

Walt Disney is a part of the big six and are an entertainment conglomerate; meaning they own many different media companies. They are the biggest media conglomerate in the United states s they own large stakes in Hulu (30%) and own the film and entertainment rights to Marvel, Pixar and the recently bought Lucas film from George Lucas to get all the rights towards Star wars and all the intellectual properties of Lucas film. Their biggest competition is 20^th century fox however with the latest deal they now own 20^th century fox and have much more room to produce more films with less competition. Disney is renowned in filmmaking as being perfectionists. Details, especially in the animation such as Pixar, are considered carefully before being undertaken. This is also shown in their business tactics, carefully reducing the competition. A state of limited competition, in which a market is shared by a small number of producers or sellers, five other major film studios include Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures.

Disney’s reputation in film making is quite impressive because of how they keep pulling off many re-makes of classics and also bringing out new ones that have never been seen before. They produce movies that have a sense of never being explored before and therefore are quite good trendsetters as they create a new path for many other companies, even though they believe theirs will always come out on top. Disney follow a formulaic approach for many of their most popular productions, which involves releasing a set number of films each year, such as releasing a few original productions (through Pixar), two live-action remakes (such as the Jungle Book) and also a franchise film (often times Star Wars). Following this approach allows Disney to almost skip half of the process, as they often times already have a main storyline which they can just ‘recycle’ and adapt to a modern audience. Disney also have access to a wide range of famous, high profile cast members to create some ‘star appeal’ towards the movie, all of which can drive a higher audience percentage to the Disney film.

Favreau used intertextuality in his live-action Jungle Book remake which proposes several questions. There is a scene in the Jungle Book which is not found in the original, where Mowgli jumps into a stampede of Wildebeest in order to escape Shere Khan the tiger. This scene is similar to that found in the Lion King, 1994. In 2019, the live-action remake of The Lion King is being released. Is this subliminal advertising or a Disney ‘easter-egg’ hinting at their newest release? Using simulacra and MPC, (Motion Picture Company). They put the Mowgli actor in front of a blue screen with 3D parts resembling the landscape, they also gave Mowgli props to resemble the other characters. The uncanny effect is when characters in a film are very similar to real life. The objects resemblance to real life is very prevalent. Disney wanted to avoid this because it can make characters look very robotic and the overall effect is not worthwhile.I feel as if the animals are very realistic in the film, which is a way to encourage an older audience to engage in the action. Even though they are realistic, they still have the ability to talk, which is what makes them childlike. MPC have helped Jungle Book by giving them the honour to be nominated for the “Best Visual Effects”. This would have given Jungle Book the positive recognition it deserved, which would have helped to increase its sales. Simulacra was the process of combining real world actors and sets with computer graphics actors and sets. Examples of this was when they had Mowgli and Baloo moving on the same scene but Baloo is computer generated while Mowgli is a real person which shows how they have merged two different types of visuals together.

The story boarding process of the film was to plan animations and create the music before the film was even thought about being made. They used the older darker version of the jungle book which was scrapped and not used due to it not being very child friendly as a reference point for making a fun more child friendly film. Rot scoping is the transfer (an image from live action film) into another film sequence using an otoscope. Xerography, also known as electrophotography, is a printing and photocopying technique that works on the basis of electrostatic charges. The xerography process is the dominant method of reproducing images and printing computer data and is used in photocopiers, laser printer s and fax machines.

To conclude, the production process of both Jungle book films places technology and the experience of the audience at the heart of development. This commitment has not changed in the 80 years since the release of Snow White and by examining the production processes of both Jungle Book movies you can tell that the focus on technological change is just as important now as it ever was.

Essay on Marketing/Circulation

Walt Disney are part of the big six and are a huge multi-national mass media. They are hugely known around the world. They are one of the largest conglomerates in the world. They have many relationships with Walmart and McDonalds which uses synergy to further both of the company’s needs. McDonalds have marketed Disney through their happy meals especially kids. Disney have very large stakes in Hulu, and own the film rights towards Marvel, Pixar and Lucas film, with the latter being purchased from George Lucas in a multibillion dollar transaction. Disney usually make around 2/3 Marvel films a year, 1 or 2 pixar films and then 1 or 2 live animation remakes. These are carefully timed for their target audience, to bring in the most revenue and the biggest interest. I.e. Pixar films typically happen during the holidays, as the kids are able to view them.

They attracted an older audience by making the film very much action filled and thriller like, creating a new sense of adventure and fright among many audiences. Disney also used Kenzo to market it as they are a huge well known company which many people would recognise. The film also appeals to children because it plays on the old one A LOT bringing back childhood memories. By adapting the film to the older audience, for example, adding more scenery which appeals to older audience members, the film can be marketed to a wider audience. Disney were also able to make use of ‘Star Appeal’ to a much greater extent as popular actors and cast members are employed to make audiences. In the modern day, the original film is being marketed to older audiences through the Disney Vault system, which ‘removes’ Disney films from retail outlets until certain times of the year, where it is re-released as an ‘enhanced’ edition for a much higher price.

The original trailer is upbeat and light hearted with a musical aspect that makes you want to sing along. This has been done to appeal to younger audiences. The new trailer has a more sinister and darker feel to it. By making a live action film the animals appear to be real adding a danger aspect to it. This has been done in order to appeal to not only the younger generations but the older generation who watched the original.

In 1967, Disney’s music and songs were written for the film in the early stages of creating the film. This suggests that there was huge importance placed on the music considering the music is what makes the film so memorable.

In the 2016 live-action remake, there is a huge importance placed on the star-studded cast, as they were one of the main aspects focused on throughout the marketing. All of the posters of the characters had their names like Scarlett Johanneson.

The 1967 poster appears a lot brighter and colourful because their attention was drawn towards a younger target audience. In the 2016 poster, the characters all appear more serious and the colours are darker and there are more shadows. Both posters seem to give us an insight as to what the character’s personalities are. We can also see the relationships between each character on both posters and we can see which characters are the ones which might not have such a liking for Mowgli.

The Disney vault is where movies are placed, resulting in them being no longer distributed or on sale. This means that people can no longer go into a shop and buy them, until after a few years or more when Disney decide to re-release them. The “Vault” is the place where these movies are kept safe and store for future uses and releases if necessary.

The film was released on BHS in 1999 due to DVD not being a thing back then and it was one of the first films released on DVD. Disney have had many re-releases and various successes,

This is because they found a formula that worked and played on it making films that they knew were safe and people would go watch which would without much effort make them a lot of money in a short space of time.

To conclude, marketing has obviously changed. You could argue that with its licensing deals with Kenzo and its focus on aggressively targeting a secondary audience to build profits on the back of a family audience who always turn out for Disney films you could argue that Disney have grown smarter and more precise with their planning, however we must also not forget that there are still lots of similarities between the two eras, for example the use of stars and red carpet premieres to promote a film remains in place as does the creation of character posters and trailers as the fundamental basics of Disney marketing so to me what is forgotten is that Disney as a conglomerate have always been a master at marketing, it is why they are the number one entertainment conglomerate in the world and yes some of the practices have changed but the whole reason why there was new version of The Jungle Book in the first place was because of the success of the first film, a success driven by an effective marketing campaign.

A LEVEL MEDIA

Monday 22 January 2018

The jungle book trailer

News language

Highest grossing movies in 2017

Junglebook marketting powerpoint

Friday 19 January 2018

Jungle Book Essays

Textual analysis