Media studies: Essay based on Hollywood films.

How does Hollywood produce, distribute and exhibit its films to ensure success?
Hollywood studios uses the system of marketing during film processing in order to generate interest and gain high view figures from the movies it shows to the public. It is able to gain more profits as a business that way. Hollywood uses clever advertising techniques via the distribution process in order to gain more essential resources such as money and watching customers. The output of the films gains a lot more success via this system of marketing. It enables Hollywood to generate more essential business resources via this process of gaining interest during film production and then showing it for money. The most popular films are given the most marketing to it. It is usually the blockbuster film type that is given the most effort by Hollywood to promote. This is because blockbusters are highly edited films with standards that gain them more views. Blockbusters are selected by Hollywood for higher promotional efforts as they are more likely to gain viewers and profits than most high concept films. For example, Avatar is a blockbuster; compare it to a high conceptual film in the Titanic. They are the two most successful films in terms of views and gross revenue factors, but Avatar still beats the Titanic by a large amount. That is an example of blockbusters rational superiority. High production values are high production standards; they are the overall value of the production for a particular movie. Transformers, the 2011 film is an example of a movie with high production value. Hollywood typically focuses on these films quite a lot. Firstly, I will discuss the production stage of Hollywood film making processes. To start off, Hollywood makes films gain specific audiences via the content of the film. For example, Transformers films of the 2000s were aimed at members of society who had an interest in technology. This is obvious since the movie consisted of metallic transforming super beings, as well as human characters with interests in technology and/or mechanics. This content was shown in the movie, and even the trailers. This links to the marketing stage as the trailers were aimed to gain the attention of these people in particular. Also, since most tech-obsessed people are younger people, since they are more experienced with new developed technology, the younger people of society will be who Hollywood aims the movie at in terms of interest. A second example I will discuss is the use of technology, and how Hollywood has used a film to improve production value. Hollywood used Avatar for this. James Cameron, the creator of Star Wars, had the idea for Avatar for years. But technology was not advanced enough in the 1980s for the movie to be made. Finally, in 2009, technology was high enough in standard for the movie to be produced. When Hollywood got their hands on the right to show this film, it promoted the advance in technology included in the movie and how high-tech it is compared to other films. Avatar was ultimately a success from this method as it is the most viewed and grossed movie of all time as of October, 2011. This is a mere example of how Hollywood can use technology to its advantage. In some cases, it will help with the tech and SPFX itself, it more than likely did some help to Avatar itself. Hollywood also considers what the audience wants to be produced. For example, Hollywood considers the tastes of its audience, and 3D films are an example of it doing this. In the mid 90s, 3D films began to come into fashion, and ever since then, there have been many 3D movies, those included are Avatar, Toy Story 3, Sharks tale 3D, Harry Potter and the deathly hallows, part 2. These are all recent movies, since Hollywood only shows 3D films while they are in fashion, in other words, liked by the public. As of 2011, it has been debated whether or not 3D films prevent the actual plot content and storyline of the film, as well as

other factors such as character development and complex writing, have been considered second priorities in comparison to the 3D high quality graphics. Such as Harry Potter in 2011, the last film in the trilogy. This movie in 3D barely has any true visual effects, yet Hollywood spent the time with the films producers making a 3D edition. Fortunately, HP had a good storyline anyway, but that is not always the case. The 2011 transformers film was considered to be more about graphics and effects than the plot of the storyline. People argue that 3D has become what is ruining some films. Hollywood has taken interest to the people starting to turn off their taste for 3D films and is slowly starting to promote and/or produced less 3D films. Hollywood production relates a lot to factors such as budget, output and concept. The budget will determine the quality of the graphics, visual quality, presentational value and the writing in some aspects. The budget of the movie should usually determine how good the film actually is. Another factor includes the output. For example, has the final version been edited a lot? Has a lot of editing been done since the unfinished, rough version? Have the processes involved with the production affected the quality of the film? An example of how good a movie can be is The Dark Knight. For example, high quality cameras and realistic sound effects were included in the production due to a high budget. The movie received high praises by critics because of the acting and the writing, particularly that of Heath Ledger. Ledger has been known to back out on projects such as the 2000s Spiderman movie trilogy, so he is an actor of high value. Due to the high budget of the film, he was paid a high amount to work in The Dark Knight as The Joker, and he turned out to be the highlight of the show. This is a mere demonstration of how budget and output can affect the overall success of a movie. The concept also played a role in the movies success as it helped the actors perform to their full potentials, and it allowed the story to be enjoyable and able for following. The concept is an important factor as it supplies a higher standard of textual and sometimes visual content. Overall, production is an important part of how Hollywood ensures success from its films. It uses the right production techniques in order to gain views and profits, as that is its goals. It is the process which involves the actual procedure of creating the movie and making it exhibit worthy. The distribution stage of Hollywood movie production is the most important stage in the entire process. It is important because it is the stage which involves the actual advertising and hype gaining of the movie. Without distribution, a produced film would receive no credibility whatsoever, no attention and no success. The distribution consists of advertising a film product and helping it to gain interest. It does this via various different methods such as advertising campaigns, trailers and internet hype. An example of this would be Cloverfield. This movie was not even given a title in its first glimpse trailer; it was merely shown as a trailer with a specified date. This gained online hype and interest overall as people started to develop a website named after the date shown. Eventually, after months of advertising, the movie was shown and it was well watched by the public in general. This is an example of how a campaign can generate a lot of success and viewing figures, this then leads to larger gross revenue and box office. Another factor which affected its success was the trailer, and the content it displayed. It shown interesting sights, such as the statue head flying across the area and towards the screen to interest viewers of the trailer. Trailers are also important factors in the marketing process as it is the main supply of advertising for films. Another example of this is Toy Story 3. The trailer was placed before the UP movie at first, showing only subtle information, not making the content clear. This created buzz from the Disney and Pixar fans that fell for this advert tactic and they started to generate buzz online. And as expected, TS3 gained massive success

rates, not only due to the fact that it was a popular film of the 90s coming back, but because Hollywood and Pixar advertised it right. Another example of how they advertised it right includes information leaks. For example, the key information was what was leaked onto websites and newer trailers, including the story and the new inclusions. These were the factors which eventually drawn in an even larger crowd that its natural audience. Basically, via the campaign, and the technique of hinting the right content to the audience, the marketing was successful as it helped the movie to gain popularity. Finally, a third example includes Cars 2 which although had high graphics to help it out, it was not quite as successful There were some unconventional marketing involved in some marketing campaigns in history. For instance, take Cars 2 which appealed to the fans of Pixar, and more specifically, the original movie. While the trailers within the campaigns production did show off some key factors in the film, as well as some of the best scene, it beforehand revealed to the fans some of the less favourable content. The trailers presented a contrast is storyline and circumstances in the 2nd movie such as new characters, an alternate environment, and different situations. Not only that, but they tried to highlight these new changes. Normally, this would be a good idea to generate a new audience, but considering the bad taste in new content and the second rate characters added in, it was not a good attempt to gain publicity. This was proven when the 2nd movie received the lowest rating of all Pixar films. This is a mere example of how not all Hollywood films are marketed correctly and to a good standard. Synergy is a method that is sometimes used to generate interest. This is a relative method to the marketing procedure. This is where all different products come together to promote film. An example of this happening is when Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part 2 was made. Not only did the previous movie help to advertise its release and content, but so did various games based on the franchise, as well as a book already released in the 90s, and various other media sources such as trailers and TV adverts. Basically, this movie was advertised and hyped up long before its release due to the popularity and expansion of the Harry Potter franchise. That is an example of how synergy is a good method of Hollywood film distribution. Another example of this method being used is Cars 2 in which the original movie, a game released before the movie, a bunch of trailers and Pixar hype from other productions of theirs all came together to generate interest for the movie. Hollywood knew that the first Cars film was a mega-success, so they decided that the second movie, handled with the right campaign, would be a good idea. Unfortunately, the movie had a negative review from critics, but that is different. The fact remains that the movie is still popular and well known, due to its views, and that is because the synergy was used to promote this film, and it was used correctly. Synergy can be considered very effective due to how many different ways that the audience consumes films and media products. For example, they can gain access to movie via the cinema, DVD releases, both official and via piracy, online downloads, and many other various ways which allow the audience to watch them. Synergy is a good thing to use as a process of marketing in this case as it is a method which gains more publicity and this will be useful as it will mean the audience to the film will now use this access to watch the movie in many different ways. This equals more views, more profits, and ultimately more success in terms of distribution and exhibition. Hollywood does this a lot as it realises the activities and methods of its audience and counteracts to how the audience acts.

Exhibition is the third topic I will discuss that is relevant to Hollywood films. This is the stage in which the finished film product is finally displayed in the cinemas and is eventually released on DVD. The exhibition is what determines the success of the film. A way in which Hollywood ensures success is to determine which movies have the most potential. A blockbuster will have more impact on the buy rates than a high content film typically, so that is what they go for. Hollywood usually promotes blockbusters, such as Avatar, Transformers, Toy Story 3, and Harry Potter more than they would a movie with B-rate standards. Inception is an example of a rare high content movie that actually has high success rates. Mostly, movies such as Warrior which is high content, is a decently successful movie, and was advertised to a certain extent, but it has no recommendations which can compete with any of the blockbusters named above, as they are all superior in movie quality, success rates and had more advertising. The point is that Hollywood will typically choose movies with more potential to gain high success rates such as The Dark Knight, since they are more likely to generate viewing figures, and as a result, profits. Another way they ensure success is by monitoring audience tastes. For example, as mentioned in the production part of the essay, the audience has generated less taste in 3D movies, so since Hollywood gains a lot of success from 3D films, they have tried to market certain films such as Transformers in 2011 as movies that can save 3D. It didnt work as far as critics are concerned, as the plot was considered weak to them, but its an example of Hollywood trying to manipulate the audience into having a taste for the movies Hollywood are successful for. If the taste for 3D continues to decrease, then Hollywood will use business sense and resort to old 2D films again in order to maintain customer interest. This whole procedure is relative to the marketing sector, as it is based on Hollywoods distribution tactics depending on exhibition success. An example of when Hollywood had to change its priorities was with Disney movies in particular during the late 90s. When Pixar started to make CGI films, classic Disney cartoon films declined in fame. Movies such as 1994s Disneys Aladdin and The Lion King were some of the final classic Disney animated movies before CGI came along. Nowadays films such as Cars and Monsters Inc. are the movies with popularity among Disney. This issue has caused a fan rip, classic vs. Pixar and CGI, but thats irrelevant. The point is that Hollywood and Disney have both realised that classic Disney movies are no longer that popular among the fan base, so now they are using more CGI Disney movies for exhibition than classic cartoon films, by far. This is just a mere example of how Hollywood has had to adapt to viewer wants before, and how they may have to do the same with 3D. Finally, technological conversion is a tactic used for Hollywood films nowadays. An example of this is Shrek. This movie trilogy did not become successful just because of the trailers and CGI effects; this franchise has become successful due to technological conversion. The franchise has received platforms of games advertising the product, posters and online ads, theatre specials such as Shrek 4D, and many more types of platforms that have helped the product to become successful. As a result, Shrek movies have all been viewed highly and have been successful overall, and technological conversion has played a huge role in its success rates. This example demonstrates how this method of film franchise promotion helps out when it comes to the exhibition. Obviously, Avatar is a film that thrives from this action. It takes super high-tech 3D effects and combines it with high quality cameras in order to create an animated, virtual world that both advanced CGI objects and real life beings can be in. This relates to the distribution stage as well as this conversion was one of the main highlighted features to the movie itself, besides the story content. In fact, if the technological

conversion had not been used, then the marketing would not have been up to the same standard, and therefore the exhibition would have been less successful. Overall, I would say that my viewing habits consist of action, comedy and complex Sci-fi, with slight ascents of drama and mystery. Favourite TV shows include Simpsons, South Park, Two and a half men, My Family, Only fools and horses, Phineas and Ferb and Futurama. I like these shows for various reasons, including content and plots. My favourite movies would probably be Avatar, Terminator, Toy Story and Shrek. These are all due to their advanced graphics combined with good storylines. The writing is combined with good graphics so that the story can be told with a greater sense of accuracy and realism, and unlike some recent 3D films, these films dont just rely on graphics and high technology to get by in the exhibition processes. However, unlike some old movies, they still have high enough graphics to present the plot in accuracy and great detail. I think as far as the US vs. the UK goes in terms of films production, distribution and exhibition, the US is too big and successful due to the inclusion of Hollywood for the UK to compete with it. When thinking rationally, it is easy to figure out that due to the mere size of Hollywood alone, along with all of its major studios such as Fox and the Warner Bros, the UK is not able to compete financially and will naturally have far lower quality of graphics and plots if there are not made via Hollywood. Hollywood and the big 6 studios among it are the main sources of film distribution, and the only films made in the UK that have ever made it big in Hollywood are films such as Harry Potter, which have had a lot of help in its stages of production via the Warner Bros company. Overall, the US is just simply too big in terms of size, both physically and metaphorically. Without a Hollywood assistance given to a movie, its success will be limited due to limited quality of content and limited advertising devoted to its campaign. Overall, Hollywood is a place which uses lots of techniques, such as inserting high graphics, good storylines and plot angles in the production, and then it advertises the movie highlights from the production in the distribution stage, and then finally, it exhibits the movies in as many cinemas as possible in order for more people to view it. This equals success. That is the basic process of Hollywood films. Of course, each of the 3 stages, as just explained, have far more basis to them than that. I think the methods they use to promote and sell the products/movies are pretty effective. The basis towards that are countless Hollywood film successes such as Avatar and Harry Potter. Hollywood uses all 3 stages of film production to create a final product of high quality, which will be sold and make a large gross revenue on average. Hollywood has been a success overall when considering the amount of films the company has made big. This is relative point as to why UK production cannot match up to America, because of the successful strategies of Hollywood, and how they produce, distribute and exhibit their films.