Blinded by the Light

  • A low-medium budget film (15m$)
  • Music from the artist Bruce Springsteen has been around for multiple decades, so the music has already been bought (most likely). This funds the music side of the movie finances as they already own it. Which means that they are gaining more money than spending as they don’t need to purchase it.
  • The movie is an example of an indie vs majors collaboration, where a small indie company (Bend it Films) produces something but is in need of a major company (Warner Bros) to distribute it as they have the contacts needed to exhibit the movie.
  • The production has a lot of diversity as the director is British, likewise the co-company Bend it Networks. The main distributer/co-company is WarnerBros, an American company.
  • Major US global conglomerate Company, WarnerBros, has the money to produce and exhibit but the independent companies like Bend it films has the ideas that will be successful, so working together gives more smaller companies a chance to produce their work.
  • The movie has Social Media accounts such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to help the distribution by promoting it. On Twitter they have 3490 followers while only following 6 people, showing that it is purely for the marketing and distribution.
  • This is also an exhibition example as there will be trailers/spoiler clips of the movie where the public can view it, creating more money for the companies.

The movie in industry:

  • Using the music of Bruce Springsteen gives extra marketing, as fans of him will want to watch
  • Director Gurinder Chadha said in an interview with ‘Hey U Guys’ youtube channel, that she waited 17 years to produce Blinded by the light after producing very successful film Bend it like Beckham. Blinded by the light is very alike bend it like beckam, theme wise, so she was concerned about what people would think.
  • This shows how risky the cultural industries are as if they don’t enjoy the second movie, their reputation will be negative (She said that she was ‘worried about the reputation‘) and the company won’t receive the expected profit, ultimately leading to job losses not just within the production company, but also the distribution companies and people involved with the consumption/exhibition such as marketing companies hired and people working in cinemas. risky business

Media Industries

  • Co funded by New Line Cinema (american production studio owned by warnerbros) and indipendent production companies Levantine films, ingenious media and bend it films
  • Bruce Springsteen music essentially funds the movie and markets it too.
  • Film festivals are used to find distribution deals for films such as blinded by the light.
  • The film uses nostalia, identity, social consciousness and genre to market it: people can identify with the movie and relate to it
  • To distribute, they use new technologies such as streaming platforms (Netflix) where there is a large user consumption as the film has more chance of being watched and making more profit.
  • The regulation of teh industry is kept up through Britsh Board of Film Classification and Livingstone and Lunt.
  • “Blinded by the light has been dedcribed as a feelgood jukebox muiscal film using the music of bruce springsteen”

Social Economic & cultural contexts

  • Characteristic of contemporary cultural production in its use of new technology at production and distribution stages, reflecting shifting patterns of audience consumption.
  • As it is low budget, 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.

Gurinder Chadha INDIEWIRE INTERVIEW

  • ‘What inspired me to make the movie was the way in which I saw the world going in terms of politician dividing us’
  • ‘Brexit threw a lot of ugly polarisation’
  • ‘As a film maker I wanted to use my voice and highlight that [poeple being divided for other games]
  • ‘Using the words and music of bruce springsteen let us tap into bruce’s philosophy on this’
  • ‘The power of music transcends the potential divisions.’

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