New Practice Questions for Music Programmes on TV

My essay questions – made up. Well, mostly mine!
MPOTV

1.
Audiences today expect greater choice from music programmes on TV.
How successful are institutions in meeting this challenge?
2.
How important are forms and conventions and representation for the success of a music programme on TV?
3.
What are the main issues facing institutions for producing music programmes on TV?
4.
What are the key issues for audiences for watching music programmes on TV?
5.
Compare and contrast music on TV for niche audiences with that for mainstream audiences?
6.
Is music on TV dominated by image?

Dreamworks as a Institution Word Cloud

Click on the image to enlarge. Sure, this somewhat on the small-side. But it is enough for others to produce more detailed word clouds.

Word Cloud For Key Media Terms For Film

Click on the image to enlarge.

Have a go at creating a word cloud of your own for your case study. It could be made out of a particular film company's
*production
*distribution
*exhibition.

You could do one for each area with specific names, words, etc.
http://www.wordle.net/

The Benefits of Cross - Media Ownership - A Case Study of "The Fray"

Think of the synergies that emerge out if this! Wow!

The Big Six Media Giants and Charts of What they Own

This website is perhaps THE most important site for understanding the extent, depth and ownership reach of the mammoth corporations who own the major film studios in Hollywood. If your case study is about a Hollywood studio and its films check out its ownership of film and other media - and CONSIDER the implications for audience choice, particularly for the type of genres and narratives that audiences are expected to "lap up". Do you consider the ownership of major film studios by so just a handful of multinational companies healthy or damaging for our society? How can miniscule British film companies survive in the teeth of such competition and ownership? What choices of genres and films do British film companies like Chanel 4's Film Four and Vertigo Films offer? Who, by the way, owns Virtigo Films? How are British films distributed when distribution is nearly all owned and controlled by American companies?

http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart/main

"Creak" by A & E

Nice work, girls! An interesting toying with the genre. There's something of "Blairwitch" about it, too But can you change the music in the last part of your film? Dave, Patty and I do not think it fits. Your first two choices for the transition is great.

Working Title Films - brief fact sheet

This should prove useful for comparing production issues of the British Film industry with your case study production company. It was taken from a mini case study by Michael Walford at Kinoeye. Of course, this is just some bare bones. You could extend this by researching "Working Title Films" further by visiting their website and searching for information about this company and comparing its production, distribution and exhibition issues with Hollywood Studios.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Produce your own fact sheet and THINK about the issues that it throws up.

For instance:

• how British is "Working Title Films"?
• why do they make "American" films as well as British ones?
• what, if any, are the dividing lines between the American and British Film industries?
• how important are budgets and how does budgets for British Films differ from US ones?
• what is meant by "talent"?
• how long does it take to "develop" films?
• why is it important to develop "the talent" and "relationships" in the British film industry
• why does WT and Film 4 make films using established and new directors?
• why did "Working Title Films" create a budget film company, "WT2"?
• why are "heritage films" usually made by British production companies?
• what is WT's criteria for putting films into production?

Ask questions as you study WT and apply them also to your own case study producers.

For more information see:

http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Title_Films

A message to Dave, Patty and my classes!

Remember that after creating films of your own that you have formed your own production companies and that you used Web 2.0 ( Blogger and Youtube, etc. ) which is an outcome of technological convergence to share your work! Technology is getting smaller and enabling us to make and distribute our own films. Films that you worked hard to plan, create and share. We are increasingly living in a world in which we can craft and make our own cultural products - and take time to create them as well as we can.

A list of films with links made by Working Title Films
http://www.imdb.com/List?production-companies=Working%20Title%20Films%20%5Bgb%5D&&tv=on&&heading=18;produced+by;Working%20Title%20Films%20%5Bgb%5D

US film studios compared with British film studios

Perhaps the best way to revise your case study on US production studio is to compare it with a British one. Here are two case studies of UK Film Studios which could be compared with Hollywood production companies. The main issues of production, distribution and exhibition can be compared and contrasted in a number of ways.

The following link is a brief case study for Working Title Films.

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/working_title_history/

The next link is a more detailed case study for Channel Four's Film Four.

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/channel_4_films/

This link is to a very useful three part article on the production issues behind Channel Four's Film Four and their place in the British Film Industry.

http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/feature.jsp?id=171086&page=1

Consider cross-media ownership, particularly as Working Title Films is mostly owned by NBC-Universal! What are the implications for this "British" company if the main source of its ownership and finance is American? Working Title make American films as well as British ones. A fact sheet will follow based on the mini case study above.