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Production - the action of making or manufacturing from components or raw materials, or the process of being so manufactured.
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Distribution - the action of sharing something out among a number of recipients.
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Exchange - an act of giving one thing and receiving another (especially of the same kind) in return. (Ad exchange. An ad exchange is a technology platform that facilitates the buying and selling of media advertising inventory from multiple ad networks. Prices for the inventory are determined through bidding.)
The Jungle Book
You need to study these set films in relation to the following subject content bullet points from the Media Industries section of the specification:
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The specialised and institutionalised nature of media production, distribution and circulation.
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The relationship of recent technological change and media production, distribution and circulation.
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The significance of patterns of ownership and control, including conglomerate ownership, vertical integration and diversification.
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How media organisations maintain, including through marketing, varieties of audiences nationally and globally.
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The impact of ‘new’ digital technologies on media regulation, including the role of individual producers.
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How processes of production, distribution and circulation shape media products.
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The impact of digitally convergent media platforms on media production, distribution and circulation, including individual producers.
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The role of regulation in global production, distribution and circulation.
The Jungle Book (1967) is comparable to The Jungle Book (2016). According to the OCR specification: The Jungle Book (2016) has taken over 1 billion US dollars already at the cinema box office alone (and will generate more income as a DVD/Blu-ray disc and online). The film has a clear pattern of production, distribution and circulation that can be easily distinguished and is a film production from a major studio.
The Jungle Book (1967) is a historically significant media product and film text. The 1967 film is currently one of the most successful films of all time (it has taken over 100 billion US dollars) and followed a traditional pattern of production, distribution and circulation, although it enjoyed a ‘second life’ on video and DVD.
The Jungle Book (1967 and 2016)
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The Jungle Book (1967) is over 50 years old.
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It is a very successful film and to date has grossed over $100 billion.
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The Jungle Book was made by Disney Studios under the production company of Walt Disney Productions, a famous film studio in Hollywood that specialises in animated cartoons.
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The film is often described as an animated musical comedy.
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Other Disney texts from the same director, Wolfgang Reitherman, include One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) and The Sword in the Stone (1963).
The Jungle Book (1967)
The production of The Jungle Book (1967) involved a specialised and institutionalised method of media production, which for Disney is animation and is still crucial to the studio’s brand identity to this day.
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The Jungle Book (1967) was produced by Walt Disney Studios and cost $4 million to make.
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Walt Disney Studios is an American film studio based in Hollywood; between 1937 and 2016 it produced 56 animation films.
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During this long history, Walt Disney Studios has been considered the best animation company in film production, and as recently as 2007 Walt Disney Animation Studios purchased Pixar Animation Studios.
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This is a typical characteristic of a media conglomerate that has enough money and power to take over its competitors.
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The Jungle Book (1967) is a prime example of such high-cost and top-quality animation
The Jungle Book (1967)
Historical context
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The 1967 film is important to Disney Studios’ history – it is a magical landmark film that is among the best ever written for Disney and includes the Oscar-nominated songs ‘The Bare Necessities’ and ‘I Wanna Be Like You’.
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The original soundtrack for The Jungle Book was also the first to achieve gold disc status in the USA for an animated feature film.
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The Jungle Book (1967) itself is premised on an imaginative interpretation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, and the film credits a notable cast and production team that had been in place and had worked together in the studio – at this time still a family-run business – for a number of years.
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The racialized representations of the 1967 film were not repeated in the 2016 version and perhaps reflect the institutionalised racism of America at the time where races were segregated.
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The Jungle Book (1967)
Economic contexts
By the time The Jungle Book was released Disney was already a successful film company, and the Disney Corporation was diversifying into theme parks (Disneyland), television series and merchandising deals. These were set up through its distribution arm, Buena Vista, in 1953. In part this was Disney’s reaction to the baby boom of the 1950s, and the expansion of its business interests in home entertainment focused on its television series.
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The Jungle Book was released in October 1967 and grossed nearly $24 million on its first worldwide release.
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The film was produced on a budget of $4 million and was the fourth highest grossing movie in 1967.
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The Jungle Book was re-released in cinemas in the USA in 1978, 1984 and 1990.
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It enjoyed European screenings throughout the 1980s, with a particularly strong German market.
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The film has been released on a number of occasions to home entertainment markets.
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The success of the film exemplifies how Hollywood conquers not only the home market, but also the global market. This is typical of the Disney brand and the quality of films that the company makes. The film also offers an example of media translation as it has benefited from evolving digital technologies and developments in home entertainment. The following timeline of its re-releases illustrates how historically Disney has embraced technological change to ‘exploit’ its product:
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The Jungle Book was released in the United States in 1967.
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In 1991, it was released as part of the Walt Disney Classics collection – illustrating how a media institution benefits from a back catalogue of movies that can be resold to younger generations. Three years later the home video sales totalled 14.8 million copies. The aim was to price the Disney Classics movies so that every family could afford to buy a copy.
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A limited issue DVD was released in 1999 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment and there was a subsequent release as a two-disc DVD in 2007, marketed as a platinum edition to celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary.
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In 2010 the film was released as a Blu-ray/DVD/digital copy combo-pack.
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Disney gains longevity of sales. Each time it translates an animation classic via the latest media technology to make it available in a new format, the company captures the next generation who then commit to the brand loyalty.
Most recently, The Jungle Book (1967) has been released as a digital download via iTunes and is available on streaming services such as Amazon Video and Google Play – demonstrating the ‘legs’ of a movie made over 50 years ago and the success of Disney as a media institution in reselling the brand over and over again to different generations. The total gross for the movie is $141 million in the USA and $205 million worldwide. Ownership, distribution and control Making money out of producing films to be shown at the cinema is very difficult. This is because there are so many other media platforms the film can be sold by, for example, through merchandising.
Media companies practise vertical integration in order to control and maximise efficiency of the supply and distribution of the product – not just as films, but also as television, soundtracks and merchandise and, in Disney’s case, theme parks as well.
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This illustrates how media synergy can support the continuing presence of a film and so promote horizontal integration across media and business interests, for example Disney film characters being evident in its theme parks and Disney Stores.
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The Jungle Book is an example of how important synergy and merchandising is to a media conglomerate as it commodifies a successful media text.
The Jungle Book (1967)
Ownership, distribution and control
Making money out of producing films to be shown at the cinema is very difficult. This is because there are so many other media platforms the film can be sold by, for example, through merchandising.
Media companies practise vertical integration in order to control and maximise efficiency of the supply and distribution of the product – not just as films, but also as television, soundtracks and merchandise and, in Disney’s case, theme parks as well.
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For example Disney film characters being evident in its theme parks and Disney Stores. The Jungle Book is an example of how important synergy and merchandising is to a media conglomerate as it commodifies a successful media text.
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Film producers take a percentage of merchandising revenue, often through licensing deals .
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Movie property owners like Disney probably receive at least ten per cent of the wholesale price as their share of the profits.
Vertical integration
Note the Disney corporation is far sighted and has identified that streaming services will be important for their future in relation to content delivery and the distribution of its product. The corporation have recently purchased major shares in Bamtech and Hulu to enable the streaming of its products to the consumer. For further information read the following link (From BAMTech to the bundle) Note Disney’s acquisition of streaming services alongside its traditional production companies is an example of vertical integration
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soundtracks
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gifts
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cinema
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dvd
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clothing
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theme parks
​Disney Plus costs $7 a month on its own, but you can bundle it with Hulu and ESPN+ for an extra $6. Disney's new streaming service Disney Plus has launched. A month-by-month subscription costs $6.99/month. The yearly subscription is a little cheaper and costs $69.99/year ($5.83/month)
Jungle Book 2 - coming out in October 2020
Jungle curse - coming out in July 2020
The Jungle Book 2016
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The Jungle Book (2016) The Jungle Book was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and directed by Jon Favreau,
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Jon Favreau had previously produced Iron Man and Iron Man 2 under his production company.
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The Jungle Book (2016) is a fantasy adventure movie with a darker and more sinister interpretation of Kipling’s stories
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The 2016 version is a shift away from the light-hearted, toe-tapping and joyful original 1967 animation.
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Disney’s rationale for changing the narrative was to attract a wider audience through producing an immersive experience in which the characters were no longer playful/funny but believable.
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This was largely achieved through use of CGI animation
Production.
Given the estimated production budget of $175 million, above-the-line costs were high in relation to creative talent such as actors, directors, writers and producers. The casting and use of more than 30 stars for the voiceovers, including film actors such as Scarlett Johansson and Ben Kingsley, was just as important as in the 1967 film.
The casting of established actors helped to attract a more adult audience who might want to watch the film because of “Celebrity Appeal”
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Production.
The contemporary version is well thought out and was an expensive movie to produce.
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Disney was able to rely on a tried and tested formula with The Jungle Book , targeting a global market and family audiences with a successful brand.
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Disney chose to “reboot” a 50-year-old film in a CGI format, as it represented a product that people were familiar with.
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Previously Disney were unsuccessful in CGI blockbuster films such as John Carter (2012) and The Lone Ranger (2013). The selection of THE JUNGLE-BOOK MADE ECONOMIC SENSE AS IT HAD AN ESTABLISHED AUDIENCE AND THEREFORE REDUCED THE RISK OF FAILURE AT THE BOX OFFICE. (This links to Hesmondalgh’s theory.
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Disney wanted to create a visual spectacle that could easily translate across multiple territories or overseas/global markets. (this is reflected in the global actors used)
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Note Disney has followed up on the use of archived films through CGI reboots of “Beauty and The Beast”, Dumbo and Cinderella.
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Production.
The Jungle Book (2016) can be described as a live action/CGI film as it combines live action and animated animals interacting on screen.
The animals and landscapes were created on computer by the British digital effects house MPC.
The Jungle Book (2016) was: Planned by Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn as one of a series of remakes of their classic properties: ‘Hollywood makes lots of films for kids, but the Disney reboots may be one of the few safe bets. They revive classic characters for a new generation of kids, and their already smitten parents may be especially willing to shell out for related merchandise.’
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Why CGI?
Within Hollywood there is the emphasis on spectacle, which tends to privilege some genres over others, for example action, sci-fi and fantasy. These types of films dominate studio budgets, marketing and distribution spends, and Disney is no different – especially when it has a history of being an early adopter of new media technologies.
Modern audiences increasingly engage with CGI content which has made significant advancements in the past decade to films such as Avengers, transformers and the Lord of the rings.
The time was right in development of this film property to combine the animation trademark qualities of Disney with the latest digital technology (photo-realistic rendering, computer-generated technology and motion capture). The proliferation of digital technology in film has been driving film production in recent years.
Proliferation = A rapid and widespread increase in use, in this case of technology.
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MPC is a relatively new cryptographic method that separates private keys into multiple parts. It is often compared with a technology called Shamir's Secret Sharing (SSS) which has been around since the late 1970s and is used to split a single private key into multiple parts.
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pre - visualcisation
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green screen
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body suit
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face mapping
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TESSA
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GENESIS
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ALICE
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SPACE
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FURTILITY
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ION
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SYNC
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AMANDA
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KALI
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​REVIEW TOOL
Part Two
The Jungle Book
You need to study these set films in relation to the following subject content bullet points from the Media Industries section of the specification:
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The specialised and institutionalised nature of media production, distribution and circulation.
-
The relationship of recent technological change and media production, distribution and circulation.
-
The significance of patterns of ownership and control, including conglomerate ownership, vertical integration and diversification.
-
How media organisations maintain, including through marketing, varieties of audiences nationally and globally.
-
The impact of ‘new’ digital technologies on media regulation, including the role of individual producers.
-
How processes of production, distribution and circulation shape media products.
-
The impact of digitally convergent media platforms on media production, distribution and circulation, including individual producers.
-
The role of regulation in global production, distribution and circulation.
Economic contexts
Media companies practise vertical integration in order to control and maximise efficiency of the supply and distribution of the product – not just as films, but also as television, soundtracks and merchandise and, in Disney’s case, theme parks as well.
This illustrates how media synergy can support the continuing presence of a film and so promote horizontal integration across media and business interests, for example Disney film characters being evident in its theme parks and Disney Stores.
The Jungle Book is an example of how important synergy and merchandising is to a media conglomerate as it commodifies a successful media text.
MPC Company Technologies​
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Tessa (‘asset’ backwards!) gives productions a pipeline that can track, automate, and organize movement of digital assets between artists. The artist is insulated from the complexity of the underlying data and processes – allowing them to focus on their creative tasks rather than worrying about where something is.
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Genesis is our Virtual Production platform. Virtual production enables filmmakers to make better creative choices much earlier in the production process, leading to better quality outcomes. Genesis is a multi-year development project that has been used on some of the biggest movies of the past few years.
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We go to great lengths to ensure the security of our clients’ content. At the same time we want artists around the globe to collaborate as if they were all in the same room. That’s why MPC has built their own communication platform SPACE from the ground up. From straightforward text conversations and group chat to video conferencing and screen sharing, SPACE has it covered – applying the highest security standards in the industry.
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ALICE stands for Artificial Life Crowd Engine. Our in-house crowd software was created originally for Troy in 2004. ALICE enables artists to manage crowd behaviour, motion clip editing and blending, and customised scripting for large groups of agents, and is one of MPC’s flagship software products.
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Furtility is MPC’s technology for creating photorealistic hair, fur, feathers, vegetation, and other fibres like clothing and ropes. The first version was written in 2005 for 10,000 BC and was fully re-written for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian in 2006. It has since been used on most of our film and advertising work, and remains one of our key technologies for creating our visual effects.
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ion is a tool to build MPC’s production and operational environments. Our software is not run solely on an artist’s workstation, but across the render farm; within our micro-services framework; in the cloud; on set or maybe in the middle of a field.
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It should be no surprise to learn that MPC is a global facility, with artists working away in multiple sites. A shot or asset that we produce will often be the result of many of these artists and sites working collaboratively together. Each site produces one or more component parts (assets in Tessa) which, when combined, form the final product. An asset produced in one site will nearly always be an input to the production of another asset in a different site.
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Amanda is a micro services framework that forms the backbone of MPC’s pipeline. Hosting services for asset management, storage, data transfer, render, cloud, production and web tools.
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Kali is MPC’s finite element destruction toolset, originally developed for Sucker Punch in 2011. Named after the Hindu god of destruction, it has quickly become one of our primary tools for film FX work. Based on the DMM engine from Pixelux, Kali continues to find new uses in our FX toolset.
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With ReviewTool we propose a novel way of managing visual effects editing that is inspired by music software and is built on top of a strong database back-end that automates most of the changes. ReviewTool is based on three main design principles: 1) There is only one sequence of cut information that drives the entire edit. 2) Almost all data in the edit is coming from an asset management system, and is gathered via high-level queries rather than manual selection. 3) The edit may contain any type of information relating to the sequence, not just video and audio.
Synergies within the Walt Disney Company
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By working alongside other media companies, the synergistic benefits of cross-promotion are effectively doubled.
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Disney is able to strike deals to make film and TV spinoffs, from which it gains a substantial share of profits.
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Disney chose to use its subsidiary companies to distribute the film, effectively meaning this was done at no cost as the money was flowing around inside the conglomerate rather than being paid out to another party.
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Disney granted licences to other companies to produce merchandise related to The Jungle Book (2016), including some companies that are also Disney subsidiaries , and in so doing created additional non-film revenues and tie-ins.
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As both a vertically integrated company (distributing as well as producing films) and a horizontally integrated company (promoting its products across different media and non-media interests including the theme parks)
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Disney Subsidiaries
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Disney is a vertically integrated company (distributing as well as producing films) and a horizontally integrated company (promoting its products across different media and non-media interests including the theme parks), Disney is in a powerful position to engage with a global audience using the internet as a distribution platform for its goods.
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Distribution
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After three years in the making from concept to product, The Jungle Book (2016) was released from April to July 2016 across 70 different national territories.
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The highly competitive business of launching and sustaining a film to the largest appropriate audience was timed by Disney for a summer film release, traditionally seen as coinciding with events for school-age children and family time.
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The Jungle Book was released in North America in Disney Digital 3-D.
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The film was also released in RealD 3D, IMAX and IMAX 3D, with a worldwide opening figure for IMAX of $20.4 million from 901 IMAX screens, remarkable for a PG-rated film.
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The film grossed a total of $39 million in IMAX screenings worldwide. The film became a critical and commercial success, grossing over $966 million.
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Revenue
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Films usually open in cinemas first. This gives a product commercial value and creates further demand for viewing – especially in high-end technology formats.
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Following a big-screen run of approximately 16 weeks, films are released on a flexible timescale through other formats:
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Home entertainment release, such as DVD, 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray and digital HD
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PPV or subscription television, streaming and broadcast free-to-air TV
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As downloadable movies on Disney Anywhere, iTunes, Google Play and Amazon.
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Marketing is a part of distribution, Disney used he following strategy to market the JB.
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Different elements of film marketing that attract audience attention for the film include:
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Word of mouth – social recommendation is the most effective trigger for cinema attendance and can give a film ‘legs’, so interest remains high for weeks after release
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Posters – choosing and using an image to distil the essence of a film
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Trailers – the most cost-effective form of promotion, normally shown prior to another film with a similar target audience
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Social media messages – for example The Jungle Book 2016 Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
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Audience
The reboot of the JB was targeted to a wide audience including males and was re-released to appeal to global audience.
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As a product of this global brand it succeeded in attracting a wide range of age groups, not just the under-16s or its traditional family audience, to see the film. Disney’s achievement in re-making a Disney classic is phenomenal, in part due to the technology involved and the reinterpretation of the characters and the narrative, but also to the ability of the conglomerate to market and distribute the product and to value its audience.
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The film enjoyed unrivalled success in its marketing and distribution to India, China and Europe and other overseas markets – a characteristic of Disney Studios.
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In addition the film was made appealing to action-adventure fans and animation and special effects viewers. These are identifiable as middle-aged and male movie-goers – not typically associated with The Jungle Book ’s audience.
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This is reflected in the global box office returns for the film, over $966 million, and in the critical acclaim it received – winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
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The casting of an Indian actor as the main protagonist and international actors would have helped develop global sales.
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TOTAL MARKING?
6/15 MAYBE?
ESSAY QUESTIONS
Explain how films can be marketed to become global brands. Refer to the jungle book films in your answer. (15 MARKS)
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Discuss the advances in technology within the film industry referring to the jungle book 1967 and 2016 in your answer. Explain how these advances are useful in attracting a wider audience. (15 MARKS)
INTRODUCTION
Walt Disney has achieved success with their many Disney films in multiple countries for example the movie 'Jungle Book 2016' showed unrivalled success in its marketing and distribution to India, China, Europe and other overseas markets.
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PARAGRAPH ONE
A way in which this company could have successfully achieved to market a film to become a global brand is through many carefully marketed ways. An example of this is how the casting of an Indian actor was used as the main protagonist as well as the use of international actors throughout the movie would have helped develop global sales by appealing to many ethic groups. This helped a lot to draw attention to the movie by people wide wide as it created a atmosphere were ethic groups felt included and excited about the upcoming film.
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PARAGRAPH TWO
Disney also makes a grand effort in the 'Jungle Book 2016' trailer to appeal to a wider range of audiences, by this I mean the original 1967 film was aimed mainly towards children, this meant that most 3-12 year-olds would have wanted to see the movie, this also meant that the parents of these children would have had to go with them, but in the end the film was such a success that is made 378 million out of a 4 million budget, therefore during Disney's reboot of the movie they decided to widen their audience to the older generation, the film was made appealing to action-adventure fans, animation and special effects viewers. These are identifiable as middle-aged and male movie-goers – not typically associated with The Jungle Book ’s audience therefore gaining a greater global brand due to the amount of increased viewers. ('Jungle Book 2016' made 966.6 million)
CONCLUSION
In the end their were many differences between the 1967 and the 2016 jungle book which attracted a wider global fan base but it is the love for the original movie that allowed the re-booted versions to have as much success as it did along with the help of special effects and the style in which the movie was portrayed in to the older audiences.
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INTRODUCTION
Over the years there has been a lot of changes when it comes to technology in the film industry, thanks to new inventions and new CGI technology companies developing films are now able to increase their overall quality and are able to turn old animated series into live action re-booted movies
PARAGRAPH ONE
An example of this would be the old 1967 movie 'the jungle book' compared to it's new re-booted version released in 2016. The original movie was created over the estimated course of 6 years with very basic technology's, all of the scenes were drawn out having around 24 drawings for each second of the movie, for the most part story boarding and cel animation were the main elements that allowed Disney to create this timeless classic.
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PARAGRAPH TWO
Now in the 2016 version we have updated cgi technology that allowed almost the entire movie to be edited in, the movie is classed as 'live action' due to the actors featured in the movie but other then the actors the entire background and animals were created using MPC technologies some
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of the cgi effects they used included furtility which allowed them to feature the realistic fur movement on the animals in the movie and ion which was used to completely animate the backgrounds of the film such as the trees and the grass.
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PARAGRAPH THREE
Because of the grand advances in technology the company was able to attract a different audience all-together, the changes meant that younger children would want to see the movie as it was classed as a family film but also adults who watched the film as a child would also want to see the film as it brings back happy memories from their childhood. The realistic styling of the film allows the movie to create a somewhat scary atmosphere this means it is able to attract a older audiences thanks to the new editing and cgi effects of the animals which crate a surreal and scary re-booted movie.
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CONCLUSION
Therefore we can link as a result to these changes in technology the wider rage of audience the new 2016 Jungle Book brought in compared to the original 1967 movie, this is also seen in the increase of profit the movies made, when compared together you will see their was around a 588.6 million dollar increase in sales compared to the old movie.