The issues raised by media ownership

1. Discuss the issues raised by media ownership within a media area you have studied
Warner brothers is one of the largest Hollywood studios and is considered one of the Big 6
Studios. They are a fully integrated, broad-based entertainment company who hold an
oligopoly on the film industry. They are a subsidiary of the conglomerate of AT & T, a mass
media company located in Texas, United States and founded in 1983. This merger is a new
acquisition and has risen issues. AT & T fought back at complaints stating that the deal
would help competing streaming video companies like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, all of
which have invested in original programming that they don’t have to license to competitors.
Ultimately, Warner Brothers is a huge multimedia company that has access to many
resources. Their business is so successful that they can afford to take risks with their work
and rely on their ‘Tentpole films’ that they know will bring in enough profit to keep them
afloat for the rest of the year. For smaller companies with less resources this is the over-
ridding issue that remains. For independent studios competing against these larger Film
studios such as Sony and Disney, they have less of a chance at success. It seems that in this
industry the rich just keep becoming richer.
Belstone Pictures is an independent British film production company that was founded in
2012 by Nick Gillespie. On the 24th October 2015 the company released their first film, ‘Tank
432’. It was released on DVD in the UK on 22 August and was a huge success when
considering the age and lack of professional work Finn Bruce had created since leaving
school months before. Due to the financial difference between major film companies and
independent companies, those who are independent and have less money to work with are
forced to find and save money wherever possible. Typically, cheaper actors who are less
known are used to save dropping large sums of money on cast. The equipment used is
usually of high quality, despite the thousands of pounds difference between major and
minor studios. The quality of the film is the best you can get before reaching 4K standard,
what the major studios use.
Warner Brothers ‘Wonder Woman’ (Jenkins 2015) was produced by Charles Roven and
directed by Patty Jenkins. They had an incredible $300 Million budget, $150 Million of this
was spent on production. The company turned over a whopping $700 million in profit. It
was filmed in multiple countries including France, USA, Italy and UK. Gal Gadot, the actress
who played Diana trained every day in fitness combat for 5 months, she was cast as the role
of Wonder Woman in 2012. Much CGI was used throughout the film, mostly to enhance
explosions and special effects as well as stunt men and woman. However, Gadot announced
that she was 5 months pregnant at the time of filming, so she had a stunt woman to help
her. A small amount of CGI was also used on her stomach to help disguise her bely bump.
They also created a special type of dark smoke to be used in the trenches which looked
better on camera. This huge blockbuster turnover is very typical of Hollywood studio films.
The huge profit made is used to keep the company going until the next blockbuster is
release in cinemas. It basically gives the company the opportunity to release films that will
be less successful as they know they do not need to bring in the largest figures.

2. ‘Wonder Woman’ (Jenkins, 2015) had its premier on May 25th, 2017 in Los Angeles. Its
London premiere, which was scheduled to take place on May 31th at the Odeon in Leicester
Square, was cancelled due to the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing. ‘Wonder Woman’ was
released on Digital HD on August 29th, 2017 and on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray
and DVD on September 19, 2017. This variety of distribution allows for fans to re-watch the
films in the comfort of their own homes as many times as they like. The film debuted at the
top spot of both the NPD Video Scan overall disc sales chart and the Blu-ray Disc sales chart.
Belstone Pictures ‘Tank 432’ (Gillespie, 2012) was directed and written by Nick Gillespie.
They had a £150,00 budget which was stretched across all elements of the production
process. On the internet it states that the company had $1million to play with but they later
confessed that this was only said to make consumers and other companies more interested
as they would assume the content would be of higher quality, deciding it would help secure
distribution deals and secure sales. They stuck to 3 locations which were fairly local for
filming to keep the cost at a minimum where it could be used elsewhere. Ben Wheatly
(executive producer) charged a lot less for his services as Tank 432 is a low budget film, it
was a favour to Finn Bruce. This was great for the company as they could use a larger name
than their own in the industry. On a micro budget film, the executive producer tends to visit
the set far more regularly than a big budget film as micro-budget films have less money to
spend on more staff. They may also be more involved as they do not have the luxury of a
guarantee the filmwill be made mirroring their vision and thus, sell well. ‘Tank 432’ was
filmed on an Arri Alexa, edited on off-the-shelf software like Adobe Premiere Pro. For these
smaller independent companies, they have less money to spend on special effects, CGI and
other expensive resources due to the micro budget they have. Because of the way the
Hollywood film industry is structured, independent studios have to find cheaper alternatives
in order to compete with these larger studios.
‘Tank 432’ was released in cinemas on the 24th October 2015 and was released on DVD in the
UK on 22 August. According to Belstone Pictures official website, “It has now received
distribution in over 10 countries and territories with IFC releasing theatrically and on DVD /
Blu-ray and Netflix in North America”.
‘Tank 432’ was premiered on the 25th October in the America on DVD and is available on 2D
and 3D. It is available to illegally download online on various streaming websites.
In comparison to ‘Wonder Woman’, being a huge Hollywood blockbuster, has been
leaked/filmed in cinemas and is available for download and streaming on many illegal sites
such as ‘Putlocker’ and ‘123 Movies’. Because of this, cinemas are slowly going out of
business as customers can get the same experience from at home and for free. Less people
stream ‘Tank 432’ as it less infamous. However, this process is far more damaging for the
independent companies as larger companies can afford to lose money as they have made
such a huge profit already. ‘Tank 432’ would heavily suffer as a result of this as their film is
not considered to be a ‘tentpole film’.

3. For ‘Wonder Woman’, Social media was heavily used to spread the word about the filmsuch as
Facebook, snapchat (through filters), adverts were shown on TV, in cinemas and on YouTube.
They spent over $3 million on marketing which they used across many social media platforms
targeting audiences of all ages. This in effect meant that awareness of the filmmet many people,
maximising the high expectations and box office sales. Worldwide, $821.7 million was made in
box office sales on ‘Wonder Woman’s’ opening weekend.
‘Tank 432’ was screened at the Film Four fright Fest and then printed off masks to make an
impact.
They Utilised Film Festivals and social media campaigns for affordability and to create awareness
of the film. They planned an event where they were going to bring a replica of the tank to
London, but this was unfortunately stopped due to riots in Turkey.
The total cost of camera equipment used for the film was 13,000 and the total cost of lighting
costs was £4000. This is clearly a very different budget compared to that of the Hollywood
studios. However, the result is very effective and is the best quality camera before reaching
‘Hollywood quality’.
‘Wonder Woman’ is distributed by Warner Brothers Pictures. It premiered in Shanghai on May
15th, 2017, and was released in the United States on June 2, 2017, in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D whereas
Kaleidoscope Distribution is responsible for the marketing of ‘Wonder Woman’. Originally, the film
was called ‘Belly of the Bulldog’ but Kaleidoscope thought this title wasn’t marketable so therefore
changed it to improve chance of sales. It was great to work with an established company for
Belstone Pictures however a negative of this is that they had to give Kaleidoscope a fair share of
the money produced. Tank 432 did not have a theatrical release. This was to keep P&A costs down
as well as reasons linked to the target audience.
Ultimately, what seems to be the common theme here is that the Hollywood film industry has
larger budgets to spend on production, distribution, marketing and exhibition and in order for
independent companies to compete they must strategically spread their budget across all of these
elements. Personally, I think it’s really unfortunate that independent films are put in an inferior
position to the larger studios. Having said this I think that Belstone Pictures have done remarkable
well considering and have made a successful name for themselves in the British independent film
industry.