Notes:

Indicative content:

The content below is not prescriptive and all valid points should be credited. It is not expected that responses will include all of the points listed. Responses are expected to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how low to medium budget films appeal to Hollywood conglomerates.

General points

• This is a question about the industrial contexts of media production and patterns of ownership and control in the contemporary context.
• The question requires not the analysis of the Close Study Product but rather a commentary on what it reveals about the current state of media production, distribution and circulation.
• The question invites students to explore the subtleties of media production, distribution and circulation and its contexts wherein success is measured in terms other than ‘profit (prestige, credibility, social conscience, balance, diversification).

Hidden Figures

• Hidden Figures is a co-production between independent production companies and a major Hollywood conglomerate through its film subdivision Fox 2000.
• Fox as a conglomerate with diverse cross-media elements including facilities for media production, distribution and circulation means they have the structures and the means to get films with an independent ‘feel’/consciousness/aesthetic to a mainstream audience.
• The wider strategy of media conglomerates is to facilitate their control of the markets around the world, this includes low budget and low to medium budget fare, like Hidden Figures, films perhaps more likely to garner awards and attract prestige.
• With a budget of $25m Hidden Figures is a low to medium budget Hollywood film, an industry category which has recently been recognised for its profit potential.
• Distribution techniques – focus on traditional distribution and exhibition linked to targeted audience.
• The concept of “risk-taking” in terms of subject matter which might not be tackled by big budget productions set against specific targeting of budget and audience.
• Focus on social and cultural ‘capital’ as well as commercial return: marketing predicated on the ‘untold story’ of black female mathematicians.
• Strong links to contemporary concerns and debates about race in the US.
• The film is also targeted at an audience often ignored by Hollywood due to age, gender and race and thus can be explored in terms of the social and cultural context in which it was produced. Also the film tests out the viability of this audience as cinema-goers.

Plan:

Explain the appeal of low to medium budget films to Hollywood conglomerates. Use Hidden Figures to support your answer.

• it made $236 million with a budget of $25 million (almost 10 times the budget)
• talk about outrage marketing (through representation) in order to boost profit
• Hidden Figures is a co-production between independent production companies and a major Hollywood conglomerate through its film subdivision Fox 2000.
• talk about fox as a conglomerate with diverse cross media elements including distribution facilities
• prestige and awards from medium to low budget films as products are more likely to be distributed worldwide (not too expensive)
• it could have been used as a test for outrage marketing especially as it was produced and distributed in the us which has ongoing issues about race