Assigment 1a

http://btecacland.wordpress.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_film

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Title_Films#1990s
http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-companies/studio-entertainment

Unit 8

Assignment 1a

An independent film company is a production that is produced mainly or completely outside of the major film company. A major film company is a production that releases a substantial number of films and is more involved with ails stars and other big productions; an example of a major film company is 20^th Century-Fox or Sony Pictures. For independent film companies it is a lot less pressure when making a film because in major film companies there are big stars that are needed to feature in their films so a lot of money is involved when making films.

Using one of my case studies I can see how the ownership of an independent company may work because Working Title Film is owned by Universal Studios but Universal Studios is not a parent company because it is owned by which Comcast.  Working Title Films was first owned by Universal Studios in 1999, before this Working Title Films produces films such as Barton Fink which has a budget of 9 million but only made 6 million when it was realised, so it did not make any profit but in 2004, after Working Title Films was funded they produced a film called Shaun of the Dead which budgeted 6 million pounds but made a big profit of 30 million pounds. However this is not always the case, they also released Thunderbirds in 2004 which budgeted 57 million pounds but didn’t even make half of that back with just over 28 million pound.

A global company is also known as a multinational company, it is a large business group that is well known for its products all over the world or in more then one country but is mainly based from its home country. An example of a Global Company is News Corporations, which owns 20^th Century Fox. News Corporation is the worlds second larges media group as of 2011 and is a multinational mass media corporation headquartered in New York City, therefore, 20^th Century fox is the subsidiary of this global company.  An advantage of a Global company is it offers the company many more opportunities, for example a increase in sells from locating in more the one country, which means your product will be well known and will be easier to promote. However, although it may increase the companies’ sells it is it is an expensive process.

Monopolies and Oligopolies

The difference between the two is Monopolies is a situation in which one company dominates the two, so there is only one producer/seller for a product. Oligopoly is when a small number of industries/markets work together and are dominated by the number of sellers, as a result there is no competition and are higher coasts.

An example of when Monopolie is used in the film industries is in cinema's and film distribution companies, for example, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros and Buena Vista. Their domination makes it difficult for independent cinemas to secure popular movies. However this is a advantage to the major companies such as Walt Disney because they own a wide range of things such as, TouchStone, Pixar, Disney Nature etc. So they are more known around the world, and have more income from all the subsidiary companies they own.  

Vertical Integration vs horizontal integration

Vertical Integration is describes the progress of when a film/media company owns companies of each stage of the production.

Horizontal Integration is when a company ones a range of companies within one stage of the production, exhibition and distribution.