Discuss the ways in which media products are produced and distributed to audiences, within a media area, that you have studied.

Film production and distribution is dominated by the top Hollywood film institutions. These institutions are known as the Big 6 and they comprise of Disney, Paramount, Warner Brothers, 20^th century Fox, Columbia and Universal Studios. These big six are huge conglomerates which have control of most of the film industry and benefit from making High budget, commercially and most of the time critically successful films. In this essay I am going to discuss how film is produced and distributed to audiences and debate how they differ depending on the institution and the film.

To start off, High budgeted films such as Frozen (2013) and The Hunger Games (2012) tend to be filmed and produced mainly in a studio setting opposed to location. For Frozen, it is the 53^rd animated Disney film meaning that it was only produced in a studio with zero filming on location. Animation uses a large amount of expensive and time consuming software which a company outside the big 6 would not be able to afford nor have the knowledge how to use. Furthermore, The Hunger Games was filmed mostly on a set/ in a studio since a large amount of the film utilises CGI (computer generated images) that is only really available to and used by large film conglomerates like the big six or movies that are highly budgeted.  This allows films to be more high quality and thus more impressive which is highly attractive to any audience. Some film institutions are vertically and horizontally integrated like Disney and are able to produce, exhibit, distribute and market their films all in house. Frozen for example was filmed in Walt Disney studios and then distributed to all of it cinemas and was then sold in Disney stores and could be viewed on the Disney website. This is a huge positive for huge conglomerates as it means that they are able to do everything independently which allows them to keep rights and keep everything internalised. In continuation, huge film conglomerates had always filmed on rolls of film, however this is expensive and time consuming to duplicate during the distribution process. This has lead to digital filming and distribution in recent years which has changed the way in which cinemas showcase films. On the other hand, this is an issue for distributors since film can be much more easily duplicated fraudulently when they are distributed digitally as this is usually done via a large memory stick almost. If criminals get hold of this it could damage the film industry and increase the amount of online film piracy.

On the flip side, low budget movies are usually unable to produce AND distribute their films. For instance, take Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016) which was a low budget film ($35M) produced by Working Title. The film was part of a US-UK collaboration between Working Title and Universal Studios which lead to the film becoming a commercially and critically successful film across Europe and the USA with the highest concentration of success being in the United Kingdom. Without this collaboration the film would never have been so successful. This is because Universal is a huge film conglomerate and part of the Big 6 and Working Title a medium sized British production company. Without investment form the US, Bridget Jones’s Baby would never have been possible. The issues would have arisen with the distribution. Whilst it had been produced well by the independent production company Working Title, it would not have been distributed effectively since Working Title like many other independent companies simply does not have the range nor capability which Universal does and thus it would never have become a success in countries like the USA or across Europe. Furthermore, the ‘Americanisation’ of the film also contributed to the success in production. The way it was produced was very American in that it looked like a high budget film when in reality it was not and also the fact that it had the American star appeal in the very popular actress Renee Zellweger. Overall, film distribution and production is a challenge for independent institutions and low budget film producers since the money is simply not there to make it a huge success and to spread it to the right audience.

Overall, film production and distribution will always be dominated by the big 6 because they are a force which cannot be reckoned with. From production through to the distribution they are far superior to an other film institutions across the globe which in turn just makes it harder for lower budget independent films to get recognition since they simply do not have the budget for it.