American sniper

The issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;

Who owns a media company influences the type of film made and its potential
success (how much the film will make). This is because the bigger film companies
are more likely to produce bigger films that are generally more successful and also
these companies build up a reputation of producing these big films. These films are
more likely to be successful because most of the Films made follow the rules that
Mark Kermode said would make the film impossible to lose money. These rules
include that they are a newsworthy budget, spectacular visuals, not to be a
comedy and include A list star. The big film companies have a lot of money
meaning that they have big budgets or the films that they produce. In the film
American sniper is a 2014 American biographical war drama film directed by
Clint Eastwood and written by Jason Hall. Budget included $58 million. The film
became a major success, with a worldwide gross of over $547 million, making it
the highest-grossing film of 2014 in the United States ($350 million), the highestgrossing war film of all time and Eastwood's highest-grossing film to date. At the
87th Academy Awards, American Sniper received six nominations, including Best
Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Bradley Cooper, ultimately
winning one award for Best Sound Editing. The critics rated this film also very
highly.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. is an American entertainment company that
produces film, television and music entertainment. Responsible for the making of
many successful films such as the dark knight rises, Inception and also all of the
Harry Potter films. As one of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time
Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank, California. Warner Bros has several
subsidiary companies, including Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros Interactive
Entertainment, Warner Bros Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home
Video, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock Entertainment, and DC Entertainment.
Warner bros pictures are responsible for the production of The American Sniper
Warner Bros owns half of The CW Television Network showing that they are a very
successful if not the most successful production company in media along with
others such as 20th century fox, paramount and universal. All of these big six
companies are a subsidiary of a major conglomerate, an example of this would be

that 20th century fox are a subsidiary of news corp. The six big studios equate to
the ownership of 63% of global box office figures in 2012. These take around 70% of
UK box office revenue every year. The companies are subsidiaries of massive
conglomerates with billions of dollars meaning that they can produce these big
expensive blockbusters year after year essentially making them untouchable in the
film industry.
The American sniper is a perfect example of a blockbuster film produced by
Warner Bros. It made a huge amount of profit after spending 58 million on the
production of a film. As a result the film was made at a high standard using all the
most updated technologies to add realism to help engage the audience and make
the film at a higher level of quality. Due to this it won the award for being best
sound editing at the 87th academy awards.
An example of a smaller film production company being Overture Films, LLC was
an American film production and distribution company and a former subsidiary of
Starz, LLC (a former subsidiary of Liberty Media). It was launched in November
2006 by Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett. Through its affiliated companies Anchor
Bay Entertainment, Starz Entertainment Pay Channels, Starz Media, and Starz Play,
Overture Films made its films available worldwide to viewers across multiple
platforms via their home video, premium television, and Internet distribution
channels. This companies most notable film being The Crazies and thats about it.
Reasoning behind the lack of success from this company causing it to defunct 4
years after its making might be due to a lack of cross convergence as it didn't build
a good reputation through a certain successful film.
The american sniper is a film produced by Warner bros. pictures. Similar to many
big films such as inception, harry potter films and dark night and man of steel. This
films all have massive budgets such as inception having a budget of well over
150,000,000 dollars and man of steel having a budget of well over 200,000,000
dollars. This means that the production company of American sniper has a
reputation of production big budget successful films. This makes it more
marketable because this company has proven that it can make films that are seen
as good in the public eye meaning that people are more likely to want to go and
see this film. Whereas if this film was produced by a company such as overture
films it wouldn't have the same appeal as it would with warner bros. pictures
meaning sales would be impacted negatively.
The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution
and marketing;
Because the big six studios are all subsidiaries of major conglomerates they benefit
from cross convergence in media. The film Batman vs Superman is a perfect
example of this because Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is an upcoming
American superhero film featuring the DC Comics characters Batman and
Superman, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. this is cross convergence in media
because both of these separate characters have an established reputation in the
super hero scene through the making of many films which they each individually
star in. The batman franchise has made a number of films, an example being dark
night rises, this film was massively popular and grossed over 1,000,000,000 dollars
from a budget of just 200,000. Superman has also done the same with his remake
from the old films being released this being called man of steel. It was again

massively popular and grossed over 600,000 dollars again from a similar budget as
batman the dark night rises.
This film (batman vs superman) is unique in the way that it has been marketed for
many years through the use of these characters in other films such as man of steel
and dark night rises. this is because these films give a massive background to the
plot (man of steel) and the characters themselves (both man of steel and dark
night rises franchise). The only other film that will have this sort of marketing plan
would be marvels avengers as this is also a five year or so marketing plan to give
background on the plot of the avengers at teacher character within that group of
heros.
The film company warner bros. pictures will make a great success from creating
this film batman vs superman because again it will be seen as a massive
breakthrough film within the science fiction fanbase as this film supposedly puts 2
of the biggest DC comic characters against each other in a film, this is very rarely
done and will be an important instalment to this franchise. This film also acts as a
prequel to superman man of steel film so that film will of also acted as cross
convergence in media as it links to this previous film, which was also very popular
in the box office.
The American sniper didn't really have this sort of marketing as it was an original
film series. But possibly you could link this film with other war films as there is not
many recent successful ones. the outlying being maybe hurt locker or even Fury.
This could be a positive selling point for American sniper as it may link through
cross convergence with the plot of these other war films as they are mostly
historical and have very similar plots. To make American sniper a more unique
selling point they could market the film as it is the best action war film, this would
use these other films in cross convergence. example of this is As of 2015, this is the
highest-grossing war movie of all time worldwide, and the highest-grossing war
movie in the US (unadjusted for inflation), beating Saving Private Ryan (1998).
The technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of
production, distribution, marketing and exchange;
3D (3 dimensional filming)
3D films have existed in some form since 1915, but had been largely relegated to a
niche in the motion picture industry because of the costly hardware and processes
required to produce and display a 3D film. Nonetheless, 3D films were prominently
featured in the 1950s in American cinema, and later experienced a worldwide
resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s driven by IMAX high-end theaters. 3D films
became more and more successful throughout the 2000s,shown through the success
of 3D presentations of Avatar in December 2009 and January 2010. This making it
more appealing to go and see in the cinema as it is a unique experience that you
cannot achieve at your home and adds a different aspect to the viewing.
Blu-ray
Blu-ray or Blu-ray Disc is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was designed
to supersede the DVD format, in that it is capable of storing high-definition video
resolution (1080p). High-definition video may be stored on Blu-ray Discs with up to

1080p resolution (19201080 pixels), at up to 60 fields or 60 frames per second.

DVD discs had been limited to a maximum resolution of 480i, or 576i, also
enhanced audio quality. This adds an extra bit of quality to dvds making them
more appealing to buy than to see in the cinema.
Internet streaming
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an
end-user while being delivered by a provider. The verb "to stream" refers to the
process of delivering media in this manner; the term refers to the delivery method
of the medium, rather than the medium itself, and is an alternative to
downloading. A client media player can begin to play the data (such as a movie)
before the entire file has been transmitted or released.
These 3 affect the distribution of American sniper in many ways. Firstly the
evolution of 3 dimensional technologies make the viewing more expensive but
mostly unique to cinemas unless the user is prepared to spend loads on this
technology to be fitted in their home which is very rare. American sniper was
shown on 3555 screens on the release weekend alone and some of them would
have been 3D. The use of this technology will increase cinema ticket sales but may
decrease sales of dvd copies of the film American sniper. Secondly the use of Blu
ray discs would have the opposite affect of 3 dimensional viewing as it would
increase dvd sales which may reduce cinema ticket sales as dvd quality may be just
as goo and you can watch the film as many times as you like if you are prepared to
wait for the dvd release. Finally the most negative of the 3 being internet
streaming. this would affect the film sales dramatically as people can view the
film before its actual release for free. This would reduce sales of both cinema
tickets and dvd. This method is growing in popularity especially in teenage
audiences.
Theatrical Performance
Domestic Box Office
$350,126,372
International Box Office
$197,200,000
Worldwide Box Office
$547,326,372
Home Market Performance
Domestic DVD Sales
$28,658,096
Domestic Blu-ray Sales
$29,968,257
Total Domestic Video Sales
$58,626,353
These figures show us that the american made slightly less than 10 times more
through use of technologies such as 3D increasing number of box office. The films
total budget was 58,000,000 and they made this back many times over through box

office and went evens on dvd sales alone. meaning the film was a great success
despite threats of internet streaming.
The significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and
audiences;
Film companies have had to alter the way that they release films over the years.
common ways of watching films that were not means of viewing in the past include
VOD and online streaming and downloading films over the internet. American
sniper was released on both normal dvd and also blur-ray dvd, also was realised in
the cinemas on 2D or 3D. As it was a very successful film it wasn't released on VOD
(video on demand) sites such as love film ad Netflix. This is often done in order to
increase sales of a film that hadn't reached the amount of success that the
production companies expected so American sniper does not fit into this bracket.
But what may happen is at a later date as the film starts to simmer down and the
company want to make a bit of extra profit it may be released on these sort of
websites, this is mostly how the big production companies manage to stay on top
by making profit still on older films, an example of this being Captain America
being released on Netlfix way after its original release date.

The importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly called Warner Bros., Warners, or
simply WB) is an American entertainment company that produces film, television
and music entertainment. As one of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of
Time Warner. Warner bros. pictures are the producers of the film american sniper.
This company is owned by time warner, whom of which are one of the big six
production companies. This is shown through the success of gross within
comparison to a big budget film.
Village Roadshow Pictures is a leading Australian co-producer and co-financier of
major Hollywood motion pictures, having released over 85 films since its
establishment in 1986 including, as co-productions with warner bros. also Malpaso
Productions, originally known as the Malpaso Company, is Clint Eastwood's
production company. these companies were also influencial in the production of
the film..
Special Effects
Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging (opticals)
Moving Picture Company (MPC) (visual effects)
Pacific Title and Art Studio (visual effects)
Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) (visual effects)
Image Engine Design (visual effects) (as Image Engine)
Lola Visual Effects (visual effects)
Capital T (uncredited)

Production Companies
Warner Bros. (presents)
Village Roadshow Pictures (in association with)
Mad Chance Productions
22 & Indiana Pictures
Malpaso Productions
RatPac-Dune Entertainment
Only the big companies are credited, despite the work of smaller companies in
visual effects and marketing etc, this again demonstrates the size of the big six. An
example of this being Capital T who helped with special affects but are uncredited
in the film. overall cross media convergence is very important as the big six
companies need help from the smaller companies in order to produce these big
blockbuster movies and also the relationships between the larger companies in the
media.

The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically,
British) by international or global institutions;
Film promotion is the practice of promotion specifically in the film industry, and
usually occurs in coordination with the process of film distribution. Sometimes
called the press junket or film junket, film promotion generally includes press
releases, advertising campaigns, merchandising and media, and interviews with
the key people involved with the making of the film, like actors and directors. As
with all business it is an important part of any release because of the inherent high
financial risk; film studios will invest in expensive marketing campaigns to
maximize revenue early in the release cycle. Marketing budgets tend to equal
about half the production budget. Publicity is generally handled by the distributor
and exhibitors.
the first trailer for this film was 18th December 2014. A teaser campaign is an
advertising campaign which typically consists of a series of small, cryptic,
challenging advertisements that anticipate a larger, full-blown campaign for a
product launch or otherwise important event. These advertisements are called
"teasers" or "teaser ads". A teaser trailer for an upcoming film, television program,
video game or similar, is usually released long in advance of the product, so as to
"tease" the audience. Other ways in which films are marketed recently are on
areas of social media such as twitter where there might be a question and answer
with some of the cast or directors, or even on youtube a livestream trailer or again
q and a. This will engage a younger audience in the marketing of the film.
other types of global media include the use of merchandise, trailers and posters. it
is shown in media that the most popular means of marketing in the US and UK are
online videos.

The american sniper trailers from what I have seen will invites a wide range of
audiences but mostly focused on maybe 16-25 year olds as it has action but a
certain element of history about it and also a high level of interest.
The ways in which the candidates own experiences of media consumption
illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour;
This refers to how you consume films, whether it is as a social activity. after
visiting a shopping centre or on an mp4 player or streamed through the internet.
people visit the cinema as its more of an event to fill your time and keep up with
the latest trends. Experiences of the way in which media is changing vary from the
differences in prices but also in the new technologies in which our generation is
throwing at us. Its not just in cinemas that we watch films anymore. When films
first came out it was only at the cinema that people could consume film, then in
the 1970s it was widely available on VHS. VHS was then outdated by DVD and then
it became available in HD (high definition) which has now become outdated by
blue-ray. It isnt just on the big screens of cinema that film is available but also on
the big screens at home as televisions are getting bigger, so the film experience
can now be replicated at home. Film has also moved onto the smaller screens of
phones and mp4 players by downloads. Due to this film has to attract its viewers
again by issuing deals for example orange Wednesdays and student Thursdays. Now
media companies are buying rights to show films on their television channels for
example film flex and sky movies. All of this takes away cinemas viewers and can
place them in the same cinema situations at home. Marketing of films has also
changed our experience as we can almost be brain washed into watching
blockbuster as they are everywhere, therefore Warner bros and similar tycoons
can almost monopolise the market as smaller film companies like Shane Meadows
can be overshadowed as they cannot afford to market their films with such
authority.