Job Film producer

In this task I will research the film industry including the types of ownerships, the
regulations, competition and trends. There are several types of ownerships within
the film industry including private, multinational and even independent
ownerships. A private ownership can be owned by just one person or just a small
group of several companies. Many companies are formed from a private
ownership. Newmarket Films, was a privately owned film company that has
produced many successful films such as Donnie Darko, My Big Fat Greek
Wedding and Prom Night. This company would have been a privately owned
company as they produced independent films that are mainly funded from the
budget of the individuals of the private ownership itself. Most private ownership
companies become public after they have produced a number of successful
films.
Multinational companies are usually much larger companies compared to private
ownership companies. For example, Sony a Japanese Corporation is one of the
largest and most powerful multinational companies in the world. Not only does
its subsidiaries involve film, but also video games, technology and other sorts of
entertainment. Originally Sony was established during World War 2 and started
off with a very few number of employees as a small electronics business. After
building the first Japanese tape recorder and building transistor radios, the
company became extremely globalized and currently holds different subsidiaries
for different parts of their own multinational industry. One of which is Sony
Pictures Entertainment Inc. which is actually American despite being part of the
Japanese multinational corporate. Through a long term process of joining GuberPeters Entertainment Company and Columbia Tri Star Pictures with Sony together
they eventually established Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. despite paying
billions.
Successful films released from Sony Pictures Entertainment include Sky Fall, 21
Jump Street, The Amazing Spider- Man and Skyfall. Its always good to get a job
within a multinational company as you can receive a high income. Majority of
films released from multinational companies receive major success and critical
acclaim due to them having larger budgets and big press promotion before the
film is released. Other multinational film companies include DreamWorks
Animation, Universal Studios, Warner Bro. Pictures and Paramount Pictures.
Independent film companies are those that do not receive the same treatment as
major film companies do. They receive considerably lower budgets compared to
major film industries and have a limited release to audiences and the press.
Successful indie films are mainly gained recognition and attention if they have
been shown in well-known film festivals such as Cannes or Sundance. Although
independent films companies are seen as less important and popular as the
mainstream, some independent companies have done so well for themselves as
to gaining enough recognition to become subsidiaries of larger major film
companies. For example, Warner Independent Pictures is a subsidiary of Warner
Bros. Pictures. They produced the widely acclaimed drama, Slumdog Millionaire.
Conglomerate companies are two or more corporations that have combined
together to create an even larger corporate. Time Warner Inc. is the combined
businesses of Time Inc. and Warner Communications. During one point of their
success, they were previously the largest media conglomerate media company in

the world. Conglomerate companies can earn an extensive amount of money due
to two powerful companies collaborating.
Cross media within the film industry is the different ways in which a media
industry distributes its products. For example, with Sony Pictures Entertainment,
it distributes some its films through the channels they own. Sony Pictures
Entertainment are the owners of many channels on television such as: Pop Girl,
Sony Movie channel and True Entertainment. Sony even own many music
channels that feature artists from Sonys own music corporation, Sony Music
Entertainment with them owning music television channels like, Bliss, The Vault
and even Chart Show TV.
The main two types of integration are vertical and horizontal. Vertical integration
is where the process of a distribution or even production of a type of product is
under the power of just one company so it can increase that companys profit,
power and name within the industry. For example, many Sony products are
branded with just the Sony logo on it, for example, Sony are seen as the names
behind the PlayStation consoles, however, several other companies may or
would have helped in the creation and distributing services in order to make it so
popular. This is the same within the film industry. TriStar Pictures is a film studio
that is now owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment even though previously it was
it was its own company. Although it is still sometimes seen as a separate
company it is in fact a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, being branded
together has not only increased profit but also profit and power within the big
film industry companies. Sony Pictures Entertainment would be seen as more of
vertical integration as Sony originally didnt distribute films, they were originally
an electronics company.
Horizontal integration is where two large companies that are part of the same
industry come together in order to increase profit and power. For example, Time
Warner is a main company within the film industry that sees itself using
horizontal integration. Time Warner equally has television programmes, filmed
entertainment and publishing.
Share of ownership or cross media ownership is the merging of two or more
ownerships or companies without even having to be in the media industry.
Earlier, many companies were separate and stuck to one sector of the media
industry, however now with modern technology, companies have had to take
action with sharing their ownerships with larger companies. For example, New
Line Cinema are the distributors of The Lord Of the Rings films meaning they
legally owned it and were responsible for all the content of its initial release. New
Line Cinema are part of a shared ownership of Disney which has increased their
profit and power. Sony merged its ownership with Columbia Pictures and TriStar
to increase its profit and reduce distribution costs.
Sony is known for its merging of companies especially within the film industry.
Sony has merged with the large film company mainly TriStar which has given the
corporate a strong name and identification within the film industry with the name
being behind big films including Men In Black, Casino Royale and The Davinci
Code. Many companies design new products or services within their own
business in order to gain profit however, some just takeover or merge with other
companies. The difference with a takeover in that, the ownership is changed

instead of being combined with an existing company. Sony Pictures

Entertainment merged its companies with TriStar without taking over them.
Cross media regulation is the frequent regulation of ownerships between
companies. These are normally done by regulation organizations. For example,
many television and radio channels are often regulated by Ofcom. However,
bigger film companies within the film industry are regulated by other
organisations. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is the leading
regulation organisation of several Hollywood companies including Sony Pictures
Entertainment and Walt Disney. Some cases even involve the government
regulating the shared ownerships of Sony Pictures Entertainment due to them
being such a large and powerful company with a huge profit.
Sony was originally a company that designed and fixed electronics during World
War 2. They received most of their profit for creating Japans first tape recorder.
This was the product that made them big in Japan, however after their TR- 63
radio dominated the American Electronic marketplace in the mid 1950s, Sony
had hit big internationally. Although Sony has many subsidiaries within its
corporate, its primary source of income is from its life insurance company.
However, during the 1980s in which a global recession occurred, Sonys
encouragement of the distributions of the CD and merging its business with CBS
Records and Columbia Pictures. What made the company initially so successful
was its linking of music, film and electronic entertainment. Sony did have an
increase of income for distributing major blockbusters like Spiderman. With its
merging of TriStar which was already a successful film company, Sony gained
income from its blockbuster films which were distributed in cinemas and sold as
home media entertainment with DVDs and previously videos. With Sony
Computer Entertainments PlayStation series being so successful, many of Sony
Pictures Entertainment films are distributed on Blu Ray DVDS which is only
accessible to watch through a PlayStation device or a Blu ray player.
Product diversification is a strategy used by businesses in order to increase
profits, sales and power by introducing new products to the company or by
improving/ modifying existing products from the company. This could even be by
creating a new product that isnt part of the original industry they are
established from. Sony were known to use this technique several times from
originally being an electronics company to stepping out with films, music and life
insurance. Originally this was seen as a bad move for the company as they had
no original experience in the film industry despite merging with TriStar. However
after such hits becoming global blockbusters, this initial negativity was taken
back.
The profitability of a product depends on how much money that company has
made from a product or service in a certain amount of time. Within the film
industry, companies will have to see a correlation in film genres, sales, ratings
and popularity based over a period of time, this could be from a year to even a
decade. From 1995 to 2015 it has been shown that the comedy genre of films is
the most popular genre of films over this time. Sony has released many
comedies during this time including Grown Ups and 22 Jump Street, Sony
Pictures Entertainment has done this in order to increase a higher profitability.
The organizational objectives are the goals or aims for a company to achieve
which are normally short term to midterm goals. Sony Pictures Entertainment

mainly want their films to be a major success which some of them have been
including Spider-man. However, organisational objectives arent just for the
media industry, but also for most major business companies in fact all of them.
Most franchises are licenses that have been produced by companies. Media
companies produce a franchise consisting of films, music, DVDs, posters and
other merchandise that is distributed via the internet and some shops. However,
just because you are purchasing a form of license you are not buying the actual
franchise or license. Sony have released many franchises through their own
subsidiary, Sony Pictures Entertainment. With the major success from their film,
Spider-man, Sony Pictures Entertainment has spawned sequels from the film
franchise to gain further profit.
The competitors of a company are seen as the rivals or the enemies of that
company. This could be due to them having a similar target audience or
producing similar products. Sony Pictures Entertainments main competitors are
other film companies/ studios of Hollywood. These include, Warner Bros.
Entertainment, Walt Disney Studios, Fox Filmed Entertainment and Paramount
Motion Pictures Group. Sony Pictures Entertainment must ensure their films
highly gross in order to surpass the other major film companies.
The customers that a film company is aiming for may be seen as the target
audience of that company or film they are producing. For example, Walt Disney is
known for producing films that aim for a younger target audience mainly
children. Sony Pictures Entertainment pictures are known for producing films for
an older audience. Like such, their Spider-man franchise was an action film that
was mainly aimed at a male audience from young boys to even middle aged
men. What some film companies do is they try to appeal to a mass audience, a
large group of customers varying in demographics and psychographics. This is in
order to gain a larger income and profit.