- Bruce Springsteen music is used and licenced within the film.
- The film wasn’t a high budget film with only around $15 million to spend on the entire production.
- Companies that funded the film were New Line Cinema, Levantine Films, Ingenious Media and Bend It Films.
- The film used the normal ideas of posters, adverts and bill boards to advertise the film.
- The film wasn’t released on the typical DVD format after being released to cinemas, it was released to a streaming service after making $17.2 million in the box office.
- Perfect example of what a low-budget American film can look like.
Daily Archives: January 12, 2022
Filters
INSTITUTIONS – KEY DEFINITIONS
- Monopolies – The exclusive possession / control of the supply of or trade in a commodity / service.
- Gatekeepers – A system that decides what info is released to the public.
- Regulation – Rules enforced by the jurisdiction of law in which a range of specific bindings / tools are applied to media systems.
- Deregulation – Taking away power in the government of a company to create more competition and fight for promotions.
- Free market – An unregulated system of economic exchange in which taxes, quality controls, quotas, tariffs and other forms of centralised economic interventions by the government do not exist or are minimal.
- Commodification – A process of using other peoples services, ideas and relationships to create objects for sale.
- Convergence – The merging of previously distinct media to create an entire new form of communication expression.
- Diversity – A variety or assort of media.
- Innovation – The changing in several aspects of the media landscape. The invention of new vales in the marketing sector.
- Cultural industries – A economic sector that is primarily engaged in producing, reproducing, storing and distributing cultural goods and services.
- Production – Making a product that is viewable through sound and video.
- Distribution – A product is released and delivered to the receiving audience.
- Exhibition / Consumption – A product being released and purchased by consumers in the public.
- Media concentration – A couple of people or company that control the flow and release of media.
- Conglomerates – A father company that owns multiple smaller companies which control media flow.
- Globalisation – Sending media throughout a worldwide system using different forms of distribution to different types of cultures.
- Cultural imperialism – Western nations dominate the media around the world.
- Vertical Integration – A media company that owns multiple businesses in the same type of production and distribution.
- Horizontal Integration – A media company that owns multiple businesses of the same monetary value.
- Mergers – Two or more companies merge together to make one big company that produce and distribute a certain type of media.
DAVID HESMONDHALGH
- Went to the university of Leeds.
- Wrote books like The Cultural Industries, Media and Society and Culture, Economy and Politics: The Case of New Labour. Which all focus on the idea of the working world and what people expect in certain businesses and popular culture. For example expecting really happy, jumpy and creative people in a media job, whereas that isn’t the truth.
- Hesmondhalgh argues popularity results in a large amount of product production and selling to make a large monetary game.
- This is implied in the quote “the distinctive organisational form of the cultural industries has considerable implications for the conditions under which symbolic creativity is carried out’”
- Furthermore, Hesmondhalgh displays in this quote “there must be serious concerns about the extent to which this business-driven, economic agenda is compatible with the quality of working life and of human well-being in the creative industries.” that it must be difficult to have both a working life and a good life and them being compatible with each other where you are enjoying work and therefore creating a more enjoyable and happier person when out of work.
- A
3. B
5. C
Blinded by the light notes
Summary
website (Bend it Networks)
• website (Warners)
• posters
• trailer
• social media presence (Twitter, Instagram, facebook etc).
His experiences as a British Muslim boy growing up in 1980s Luton and the impact Bruce Springsteen’s lyrics had upon him.
It is a low-mid budget release ($15m) co-funded by ‘New Line Cinema’, a company owned by the ‘Warner Brothers Picture Group’.
WarnerMedia – is a Global Conglomerate of Warner Bros, Home Box Office, Turner Entertainment Networks, CNN Worldwide, etc
It was directed by Gurinder Chada, a British director known for Bend it Like Beckham
“At a time of such political and social instability in the world, this film provides us with a vital reminder of our shared humanity and the transformative power of music on both a personal and global scale.”- Gurinder
“I was so affected by Springsteen’s songs shows just how powerfully music can transcend race, religion, nationality and class.”- Sarfraz Manzoor
Media industries- how does this film work
- Its distributor New Line Cinema is associated with ‘indie’ films although it is a subsidiary of Warner Brothers Pictures, part of the global conglomerate, WarnerMedia.
- co-funded by New Line Cinema and independent production companies including Levantine Films, Bend it Films and Ingenious Media.
- ‘Bend It Films’ is a UK based, indie production company owned by major US conglomerate ‘Warner Brothers’. Linking to the fact that major companies need new ideas and concepts, provided by the independent companies they own whilst independent companies need major companies to fuel distribution and exhibition because these major companies have the right to use streaming platforms to display their productions.
- The role of the use of Bruce Springsteen’s music in getting the film financed and in the marketing of the film
- • The use of film festivals in finding distribution deals for films
- • Use of traditional marketing and distribution techniques; trailers, posters, film festivals etc.
- They have 1472 Instagram followers and 37 posts
- • Marketing techniques such as use of genre, nostalgia, identity, social consciousness
- • Distribution techniques – reliance on new technology; VOD, streaming
- • Regulation of the industry through BBFC (British Board of Film Classification).
- • Regulation including Livingstone and Lunt
Importance of film festivals
Five-minute standing ovation at the film’s world premiere at the festival. Carolyn Blackwood, President & Chief Content Officer, New Line Cinema, “‘Blinded by the Light’ is one of those incredibly special films, filled with humanity, heart and pure joy, that is simply impossible to resist.
Gets the film known with popular people who will help advertise it and reach their audience as well as a new audience.
The Importance of recognisable Generic Conventions (and the use of familiar music)
Ideas about the importance of genre: His life is saved when he’s turned on to the music of Bruce Springsteen during the late ‘80s National Front/dole queue era. It serves as a poignant parallel to the xenophobia of today.
The use of recognisable music in the marketing of the film: Music can make the other side of the ocean feel like it’s only a hop, skip, and a jump away. It’s the reason Bruce Springsteen can speak directly to a British-Pakistani teenager, who is just trying to survive the cruelties of Thatcher’s Britain.
Chadha tries to reinforce the meaning of Springsteen’s lyrics by having key phrases fly across the screen, but it’s a totally unnecessary – and, frankly, quite an awkward stylistic choice.
The sense of joy is infectious.
Influences when making the film (social, cultural and economic impacts)
As a low-mid budget film, it can be considered in its economic context having a mix of independent and major production and distribution contexts targeting a different audience to ‘indie’ and high budget films.
http://mediamacguffin12.blogspot.com/2021/01/film-industry-blinded-by-light-case.html