Intro to Audiences and Institutions

1. Institutions and Audiences
Overview of the unit
Sample exam questions
Key Concepts
The Case Studies

2. Over view
• Section B of the exam (Section A is Television
Drama)
• Same weighting as Section A – 50 marks so spend
equal time on it!
• Section B will assess
– Your understanding of how media institutions (film
companies) currently operate
– Your ability to explore ideas about how audience use
media (in particular Film)
– Your understanding of the relationship between
audiences and institution

3. Key Terms
• Audience
• Institutions
• Production
• Distribution
• Marketing
• Exhibition
• Consumption
• Horizontal Integration
• Vertical Integration
• Conglomerate
• Multi National
• Cross Media Ownership
• Convergence
• Synergy
• Digital Technology

4. The Media Triangle
Media Text
What has been produced
Target Audience
Who has the text been made for and
what do they do with it
Institution
Who has produced the text

5. Exam Questions
• Look at the past questions
• What key words/themes do you notice

6. What the Spec says
• Read through the hand out carefully
• This is the outline provided by OCR.
• What topics have come up in the past?
• What could still come up?

7. Case Study One
• The Hobbit – An unexpected journey
• 2012
• American Fantasy Epic!
• Directed by Peter Jackson
• Key Cast Ian McKellen Martin Freeman
Richard Armitage Ken Stott Graham McTavish
William Kircher James Nesbitt
• Budget – between $200 and $315 million!!!!
• Box Office – over $1 billion so far…
• New Line Cinema (Time Warner)

8. Case Study Two
• The Fifth Estate
• 2013
• American Thriller????
• Directed by Bill Condon
• Starring Benedict Cumberbatch Daniel Brühl
Anthony Mackie David Thewlis Stanley Tucci
• Budget: $26 million
• Box Office: $8.5 million
• Touchstone (Disney)

9. Case Study Three
• Shifty
• 2009
• British urban thriller
• Writer/Director Eran Creevy.
• Starring Riz Ahmen, Daniel Mays, Jason Flemyng,
Jay Simpson, Francesca Annis
• Budget £100,000
• Box Office $244,579
• BBC Films, Film London, Between the Eyes

10. Case Study Four
• 12 Years a Slave
• 2013
• UK/US (Coproduction) Historical Drama
• Directed by Steve McQueen
• Staring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Faisbender,
Benedict Cumberbatch, Lupita Nyong’o Brad Pitt
• Budget $22 mill
• Box Office - $187.7 mill
• Regency Enterprises, Plan B Film4 (Distributed by
Fox – News Corp)

11. Case Study Five
• Frozen
• 2013
• American 3D animated musical fantasy-comedy
film
• Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifier Lee
• Starring Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff,
Josh Gad, Santino Fontana
• Budget $150 m
• Box Office $1.2 bill

12. Personal Case Studies
Big Budget US Film
• Gravity
• The Dark Knight
• Any Avengers film
• RIPD
• John Carter
• Green Lantern
• The Wolf of Wall Street
• The Hunger Games
• Lone Ranger
• 47 Ronin
Smaller budget/ Independent films
• Philomena
• Precious
• The Kings Speech
• Dallas Buyers Club
• This is the End
• The Interview
• The Imitation Game
• The Theory of Everything
• The Boat that Rocked
• American Sniper????

13. Researching a Case Study
• You are going to pick a case study out of the
box
• You need to complete all the sections on the
sheet and your work will be photocopied for
the rest of the class so do a good job! TYPE IT
UP!!!!
• You have the rest of this lesson to complete
this activity. Work hard!