Question on Media Industries in the film Chicken (20 Marks)

Start your essay with a short introductory paragraph that outlines your intention for this essay. So think – what is it you want to argue / discuss / present in this essay?

The intention is to highlight the key points on the media industry in this film which includes the distribution, funding and production. This also will include within key theorists that support these ideas.

Show knowledge of the film industry, specifically the key stages of: production, distribution, consumption

Production; the making of a motion picture, television show, video, commercial, Internet video, or other viewable programming provided to viewers via a movie theatre or transmitted through broadcast radio wave, cable, satellite, wireless, or Internet. It is how the film is made to make the product successful

Distribution; it is  is the process through which a movie is made available to watch for an audience by a film distributor. This could include directly to the public either through a movie theatre or television, or personal home viewing (including DVD, video-on-demand, download, television programs through broadcast syndication).

Consumption;  is the sum of information and entertainment media taken in by an individual or group. It includes activities such as interacting with new media, reading books and magazines, watching television and film, and listening to radio.

Position contemporary film production within a couple of key theoretical positions for example:

1. Hesmondhalgh’s ideas that mitigate the ‘risky business’ of cultural production.

Hesmondhalgh acknowledges that media companies are operating a risky business. There is no guarantee a creative product will be a success. They offset this risk both creatively and through business structure. In terms of media products, they use stars, sequels and well-known genres. In terms of business, they use vertical integration and diversification to spread their risk and maximise profit.

2. Curran and Seaton’s arguments for a more diverse media landscape.

Curran and Seaton highlight the damage that free market free market ideologies which is where there is no government control have on the media landscape. Whereas the public service broadcasting where it is funded by the government it provides impartial news, serves minority audiences and champions national unity by offering inclusive rather than exclusive content.

3. Livingstone and Lunt’s suggestion that cultural production exists in a loosely regulated framework, biased towards a consumers rather than citizen model.

Livingstone and Lunt suggest that citizen oriented regulation is concerned with content based issues. It is a positive form of regulation that directs the media content so it can be improve the lives of citizens and contribute to the well- being of the wider society.

Consumer based regulation seeks to ensure that the media landscape contains a variety of different producers so that audiences have a choice. It creates an environment in which audiences themselves make judgements about the kinds of media that are appropriate for their consumption.

The impact of new media technologies for cultural production.

Producers can produce want think audiences would like and create an atmosphere such as some of them might be disturbing scenes. People has become more conservative about each other’s point of view.

4.Present details of the CSP (Chicken) but make sure you focus on production, distribution and consumption and NOT on a textual analysis of the film

Funding;

In order to make Chicken, director Joe Stephenson raised £110,000. Key points:

1. Raised entirely through investment by individuals (e.g. rich friends/contacts)
2. No funding body (e.g. BFI Film Fund) was willing to fund Chicken
3. Raises questions about whether film industry is accessible to lower-income filmmakers

Production;

1. Adapted from a play by Freddie Machin that originally ran at Southwark Playhouse.
2. Filmed in 19 days, almost all external locations so victim to rain, issues with lighting etc.
3. Film produced and distributed by a new company set up by director Stephenson: B Good Picture Company.

Distribution;

1. No distribution deal secured in 2014
2. Two-year festival circuit won awards and generated interest and critical acclaim for film
3. UK cinema release followed in May 2016. Selected for film subscription service MUBI and acquired by Film4 for TV premiere in April 2017.
4. UK DVD release distributed by Network Releasing. Digital distribution in USA/Canada – January 2018.

5. Feel free to add in some audience theory.

Stuart Hall- how people make sense of media texts and claimed audiences were active not passive. An active audience engages, interprets and responds to a media text in different ways and is capable of challenging the ideas encoded in it. This could be challenged through trailers and through promotion adverts.