The Cucco reading relating the theories and strategies of Hollywood blockbuster films was very interesting and made me reflect upon where the film industry has come from, where it is now and where it may be headed in the future – and the role that remediation has played in the systematic production of blockbuster films in the post WWII era. This systematic production looks like having to change in the not to distant future as we rapidly move in to a digitized, globalized society where global niche markets will be able to form large economic groups with their own particular norms and customs meaning that the need to engage with audiences will move the focus away from the culturally generic blockbusters. The role of secondary (overflow) media will also become of great importance as popular media forms such as games can create just as large economic returns as the original media itself.
These are some points and reflection made though out the reading:
· The birth of today’s “new media” is not the first time change has been experienced in the media industry as post WWII there was great change in TV, radio and film.
· In the 70s Jaws used a strategy of saturation advertising on TV for the first time, using a different media technology to promote film. This I related to similar moves today to saturate advertising online through social networks, tailored Google adverts, pop-ups and other online materials. Old media using new media.
· Cucco also notes that in the 70s new competitive medias emerged such as payTV and home video. New media that allowed for secondary revenue streams for other media that would extended the reach of a film beyond the average 20 week in a theaters cycle.
· The blockbuster film is an economic investment on a global scale which means it is produced to be culturally generic; relating to primal human senses and emotions. I hadn’t considered this before but I think whilst it is largely correct there are some exceptions. Blockbuster films are produced as pieces of pop culture and thus are actually specific to that culture, and thus with pop culture possibly becoming more splintered through access to many more niche markets online as per Andersons long-tail then the need to develop blockbusters may need to alter.
· Blockbusters are formed around familiar and repetitive narrative structures using different settings and characters within the same social frameworks. Thus it is a process of the remediation of narrative structure to create new pieces of media. (I.e. Stars Wars classic damsel in distress narrative.)
· Blockbusters usually make use of the latest technologies and cultural trends when producing films when re-telling stories. Many blockbusters are re-told stories. This is why consumers of the original commonly claim the original is far better than the remake as the remake is no longer specifically targeted as their social category, but the original was. For example I find the new true grit far more entertaining than the original as it is presented in a more realistic way then the Technicolor traits of the original I find off putting. My father totally disagrees and finds the re-make to be untrue to the original.
· Consumers can often see the blockbuster thus as a commercial product rather than an artistic one a they are quite often seen as unoriginal pieces of work. I do agree with this viewpoint as most blockbusters seem to be a remediated text of some sort. For example DC Comics and marvel comics Batman, Spiderman, superman, iron man are remediated from popular comics; books such as the da vinci code, twilight, harry potter and lord of the rings have all been remediated to film recently. Even games such as silent hill and resident evil. And thing that is popular, or was popular in previous generations, is seemingly remediated into film.
· The Money earn from merchandising is now an important factor in financing the film industry. Thus a film must be able to be easily remediated into toys, books, games, music etc. These overflow materials have now extended online to additional materials such as websites, podcast, vidcasts. And with the gaming industry now exceeding the film industry in revenues the relationship between blockbuster films and computer games, and vice versa will become a large market. It is also important as games seem to have the much more original narrative content than that seen in film.
· I had never heard of “high concept” prior to this reading. In relation to blockbusters it is interesting that creating a singular summary of a film via the use of a single phrase and semiotics can be used to connote the entire premise and set of expectancies of a film to audiences and thus can use remediated of iconic images to connote a message.
· The success of sequels. Sequels can be pre-sold on the existing identity of the original. Whilst this was to me an obvious point of agreeance I would also have attached this to other forms of pop culture such as books, TV series, games which have become pieces of pop culture that audiences are highly aware of and thus also have pre-existing identities.
· The saturation strategies presented are ones which I think may have to change to in the future as film makers look to global niche markets rather than generic markets. This would enable for target product placement within films and other such targeted promotional opportunities and reduced the marketing costs of the films. Film producers will be able to more actively engage with more easily identifiable market groups and thus engage with them to hold their attention.
· The film industry by looking at the statistics and evidence provided by Cucco has increasing been moving towards a model of economic rationalism in order to maximize the economic returns of a film. This is why perhaps so many blockbusters seem to be remakes, Sequels of popular texts as the marketing costs of these films is reduced due to pre-existing identities of the media. I think blockbusters thus could almost be classed as pre=packaged films where the consumers know what to expect before watching the film which thus leads to the idea that the film industry is undergoing a process of mcdonaldization.
· The desire for the film industry to avoid qualitative debate is one in which they are going to have great issues within an online world. The film industry will try to different release strategies to regulate this online such as global release dates etc but with the explosion in online media, especially unbounded social networks such as twitter the word of mouth through these networks will become unstoppable if a film is poor thus affecting ticket sales in cinemas. Bounded networks will also play a role as they will generally be stronger social ties then those found in unbounded. It is in these social networks where the wisdom of crowds will assess the value of a piece of media and act as recommendation systems.
· However this could also work min reverse for smaller release films with smaller budgets that generate positive word of mouth through these same networks leading to a wider film releases.
· In the future current high cost of marketing could thus be largely negated by online engagement strategies as seen in recent years by the viral promotion of Cloverfield.
· Remediation of actors (stars) to use their pre-existing identity to attract viewers.
· Cucco identified that the current model lends blockbuster movies to be released in the non-rating period for TV to maximize the exposure and viewership and maximize the attention on these pieces of media. However as TV is now more subject to time shifting via the sue of TIVO, PVRs and Internet TV the coming years will mean that the audience will increasingly want “pull media” rather than tradition al “push media” so they can watch what they want, where they want, when they want. Thus I think the 6 month gaps Cucco discusses between cinematic and DVD release may well drop as the battle for attention increases and the need for physical media such as DVD decreases and the demand for online pull media increase. This may work if for example a cinema limits a film cinematic release to 6 weeks, creating more scarcity of the product in the audience as they may have missed it at cinemas and thus drive a greater want for the secondary materials and drive revenues from these higher.
These are some points and reflection made though out the reading:
· The birth of today’s “new media” is not the first time change has been experienced in the media industry as post WWII there was great change in TV, radio and film.
· In the 70s Jaws used a strategy of saturation advertising on TV for the first time, using a different media technology to promote film. This I related to similar moves today to saturate advertising online through social networks, tailored Google adverts, pop-ups and other online materials. Old media using new media.
· Cucco also notes that in the 70s new competitive medias emerged such as payTV and home video. New media that allowed for secondary revenue streams for other media that would extended the reach of a film beyond the average 20 week in a theaters cycle.
· The blockbuster film is an economic investment on a global scale which means it is produced to be culturally generic; relating to primal human senses and emotions. I hadn’t considered this before but I think whilst it is largely correct there are some exceptions. Blockbuster films are produced as pieces of pop culture and thus are actually specific to that culture, and thus with pop culture possibly becoming more splintered through access to many more niche markets online as per Andersons long-tail then the need to develop blockbusters may need to alter.
· Blockbusters are formed around familiar and repetitive narrative structures using different settings and characters within the same social frameworks. Thus it is a process of the remediation of narrative structure to create new pieces of media. (I.e. Stars Wars classic damsel in distress narrative.)
· Blockbusters usually make use of the latest technologies and cultural trends when producing films when re-telling stories. Many blockbusters are re-told stories. This is why consumers of the original commonly claim the original is far better than the remake as the remake is no longer specifically targeted as their social category, but the original was. For example I find the new true grit far more entertaining than the original as it is presented in a more realistic way then the Technicolor traits of the original I find off putting. My father totally disagrees and finds the re-make to be untrue to the original.
· Consumers can often see the blockbuster thus as a commercial product rather than an artistic one a they are quite often seen as unoriginal pieces of work. I do agree with this viewpoint as most blockbusters seem to be a remediated text of some sort. For example DC Comics and marvel comics Batman, Spiderman, superman, iron man are remediated from popular comics; books such as the da vinci code, twilight, harry potter and lord of the rings have all been remediated to film recently. Even games such as silent hill and resident evil. And thing that is popular, or was popular in previous generations, is seemingly remediated into film.
· The Money earn from merchandising is now an important factor in financing the film industry. Thus a film must be able to be easily remediated into toys, books, games, music etc. These overflow materials have now extended online to additional materials such as websites, podcast, vidcasts. And with the gaming industry now exceeding the film industry in revenues the relationship between blockbuster films and computer games, and vice versa will become a large market. It is also important as games seem to have the much more original narrative content than that seen in film.
· I had never heard of “high concept” prior to this reading. In relation to blockbusters it is interesting that creating a singular summary of a film via the use of a single phrase and semiotics can be used to connote the entire premise and set of expectancies of a film to audiences and thus can use remediated of iconic images to connote a message.
· The success of sequels. Sequels can be pre-sold on the existing identity of the original. Whilst this was to me an obvious point of agreeance I would also have attached this to other forms of pop culture such as books, TV series, games which have become pieces of pop culture that audiences are highly aware of and thus also have pre-existing identities.
· The saturation strategies presented are ones which I think may have to change to in the future as film makers look to global niche markets rather than generic markets. This would enable for target product placement within films and other such targeted promotional opportunities and reduced the marketing costs of the films. Film producers will be able to more actively engage with more easily identifiable market groups and thus engage with them to hold their attention.
· The film industry by looking at the statistics and evidence provided by Cucco has increasing been moving towards a model of economic rationalism in order to maximize the economic returns of a film. This is why perhaps so many blockbusters seem to be remakes, Sequels of popular texts as the marketing costs of these films is reduced due to pre-existing identities of the media. I think blockbusters thus could almost be classed as pre=packaged films where the consumers know what to expect before watching the film which thus leads to the idea that the film industry is undergoing a process of mcdonaldization.
· The desire for the film industry to avoid qualitative debate is one in which they are going to have great issues within an online world. The film industry will try to different release strategies to regulate this online such as global release dates etc but with the explosion in online media, especially unbounded social networks such as twitter the word of mouth through these networks will become unstoppable if a film is poor thus affecting ticket sales in cinemas. Bounded networks will also play a role as they will generally be stronger social ties then those found in unbounded. It is in these social networks where the wisdom of crowds will assess the value of a piece of media and act as recommendation systems.
· However this could also work min reverse for smaller release films with smaller budgets that generate positive word of mouth through these same networks leading to a wider film releases.
· In the future current high cost of marketing could thus be largely negated by online engagement strategies as seen in recent years by the viral promotion of Cloverfield.
· Remediation of actors (stars) to use their pre-existing identity to attract viewers.
· Cucco identified that the current model lends blockbuster movies to be released in the non-rating period for TV to maximize the exposure and viewership and maximize the attention on these pieces of media. However as TV is now more subject to time shifting via the sue of TIVO, PVRs and Internet TV the coming years will mean that the audience will increasingly want “pull media” rather than tradition al “push media” so they can watch what they want, where they want, when they want. Thus I think the 6 month gaps Cucco discusses between cinematic and DVD release may well drop as the battle for attention increases and the need for physical media such as DVD decreases and the demand for online pull media increase. This may work if for example a cinema limits a film cinematic release to 6 weeks, creating more scarcity of the product in the audience as they may have missed it at cinemas and thus drive a greater want for the secondary materials and drive revenues from these higher.