2. What is Technological convergence?
1. Convergence refers to technologies coming together; technologies that
were separate (phone/camera/data) that now share resources and
interact with each other synergistically to create new features and offer
more features than a single device.
2. Media industries are DIVERSIFYING so they can produce and distribute
across several media i.e. online newspapers, audio podcasts, videogames
& films….
Today, we are surrounded by a multi-level convergent media world where all
modes of communication and information are continually reforming to adapt
to enduring demands of technologies. This convergence is changing the way
we CREATE, CONSUME, LEARN, & INTERACT with each other.
We no longer live in a world where video games, TV, film, newspapers etc
exist separately, they have converged together.
3. ….cont.
• Synergy: convenience and profits for
institutions
• Convergence: convenience for the
viewers/audience (film exhibition) =
MULTI-PLATFORM film marking & exhibition
4. Link to technology
• Digital technology is the ‘umbrella’ or overall topic for
TC
• D cinema = digital cinema
• This is also linked to proliferation of hardware because
advancement of technology grows and is very fast!
• In this day and age, many things are converged to make
things easier and more efficient
• iPad/smart phone or xbox/ps3 or smart TV = all in 1
device
• IT’S ALL ABOUT TECHNICAL CHANGE!!!!!!!!!
5. Media Industries
• Media industries have to respond to changes in media technology
• Media convergence means a lot of TV shows, films, and music exist
across a range of media and are the products of several industries.
• i.e. music is available across a huge range of formats, it’s converged
with other industries (cross media convergence)
– Games & music: guitar hero, soundtracks for PS3 games, bands make
money from giving their image and music to these games
– Music & tv/internet: Xfactor, BGT – sings songs, performances and also
the encouragement for audience to vote on smart phones/tablets, and
use iTunes to download the songs from the show
– What are examples in film industry?
6. P, D, E
• Production
• Distribution (marketing is distribution)
• Exchange/exhibition
7. Digital distribution
• There are a lot of positive and negative impacts on film industry from digital technology
– Piracy; hurts industry and also a lot of solutions had to be created and liaisons with other companies to
protect films
• Digital filming/projection:
– DSN: (funded by UK film council) gave money to cinemas to make them able to digitally project/exhibit films
– Makes indie films easier to produce
– Reach wider audiences (exhibition)
• Digital distribution is revolutionary: once it’s the norm to download films, new form of ‘blanket
release’ is obvious – no prints to be made (no touring) , bypass cinemas (even tho still a big selling
point)
• Saves billions on previous expensive and time consuming costs
• Even though piracy is a threat, with digital distribution, piracy is even less likely (because you can
simultaneous release) so people filming in cinemas who distribute poor quality versions, people
will have already seen it in different parts of the world.
• Therefore simultaneous global release/distribution closes the gap and prevents piracy in this sense
(the need to sell to viewers who can’t watch it for weeks/months)
• Cinema: old technologies (prints) – expensive manufacturing, heavy, wear and tear (quality of
sound/video would go after 3rd time viewing)
• Digital distribution solves these problems (converged technologies into 1) – no more quality issues
and also better for environment!!!!!!! (no waste as it is digital) and CHEAPER!
9. Film industry survival
• Has had to survive against many things:
– TV broadcasts (because of socialness of going to cinema)
– VHS (video tapes) (because multiplex cinemas made the cinema experience more exciting –
link to emergence of blockbusters with expensive marketing)
– Multiple TV channel viewing
– Film channel subscriptions (cheap)
– Downloading films
– PVR devices
– Online rentals
………cinema & blockbuster STILL survive all the above!!!!!!
– BUT, will it survive the latest technological changes? (snazzy home entertainment stuff) Or will
technology and technological convergence be a bigger threat to exhibition?
– Changes in accessibility (how you watch films)?
– People at end of day still want the spectacle of large screen/sound etc
– If you owned the latest HD/3D top TV with surround sound and ability access to new release
films (internet connected) and all that other fancy stuff……….would you go to cinema?
10. Production convergence
• Cameras (arri alexa) have capacity to do more
– Smaller and more compact as well (making it easier and faster to film stuff)
– Slumdog millionaire – cameras on backpacks to get in teeny spaces!
– Quality – HD and excellent picture quality for audience (sharp and crisp)
• (digital) – no film/prints – can film and watch at same time (no dailies/prints)
• Film making is redefined
• Editing & special effects capabilities (editing programmes converged) – no need for make-up/film
extras etc) – can do all that in editing (but mostly blockbuster films)
• Can do all production without ANY film (all digital)
• Cinematographers now moving towards digital cameras
• More freedom and creativity as you can shoot longer/it costs less etc
• Indie – can shoot, edit, distribute all on cheap equipment (some indie filmmakers could even do it
all on iPad!!!!!) (we make mini films and upload onto youtube with 1 piece of equipment!!!!)
– Film on ipad
– Edit on ipad
– Edit on youtube
– Promote on youtube & social media
– Upload to youtube
– Watch on youtube/vimeo
11. Marketing convergence
other Cinema Home Downloading
Digital posters (can
change them
frequently)
Websites/social
media =
convergence
*VIRAL MARKETING
(watched with new
converged devices and
social media sites
including youtube) –
remember these devices
have APPS
Show trailers on dig
screens while they
are at cinema
See first few mins
(dark knight – first 8
mins during
_________ film)
Watch trailers &
adverts on TV
Preview trailers on
PPV (before you
rent others)
Watch extra clips or
interviews or
promotional
material online
Can also watch
youtube on TV
Lovefilm/netflix –
linked to TV (red
button)
Youtube – trailers,
interviews,
previews, adverts
(pop up or viral)
SOCIAL MEDIA –
share marketing,
participate in
competitions, watch films
Smart phones, ipads =
watch everything from
trailer, to watch/play
marketing
games/websites,
share on your
FB/twitter, rent/buy
film on itunes or
netflix/etc.
12. Distribution convergence
• Encrypted software to cinemas (not sending separate prints)
• All in one digital files (with code to de-lock at cinema so not
pirated)
• Sent/uploaded online (itunes)
• DVD: can include extras on DVD or downloads (directors cut) or
(backstage footage ‘the making of’) = all in 1
• ALL DIGITAL FILES to…..(before, these used to be separate and
long, expensive processes)
– Cinema
– DVD manufacturing
• Ultraviolet: converge DVD/downloading (codes)
– Home/downloading: itunes, netflix, lovefilm, amazonprime, blinkbox
– Youtube: free! Easily accessible for ANYONE (global = wider audience)
13. Exchange/Exhibition convergence
Cinema Home Downloading
***remember
internet
technologies:
-bluetooth
-3G
-4G (fast!!!)
-fast broadband
-fast internet
means faster
downloading to
access films quicker
-digital – less space
(students = small
places (no dvds)
-Simultaneous global release
(released at same time
around world)
-more cinema’s will therefore
buy more films to show
(won’t have to buy multiple
prints)
-better quality at cinema (3D,
IMAX – more immersive)
But £££££!
-also audiences can buy
tickets (and get deals) on
phones/tablets before cinema
(cinema website or other
ticket websites)
-orange wed (on phones!!)
-send reviews/trailers to
phones via bluetooth
-smart TV, HD TV can
connect to internet,
have great sound,
(have all the features
put into a 1 home
entertainment unit
which is similar to
cinema)
-DVD/blu ray (blu ray
has encrypted
software to prevent
piracy)
But ££££!
-piracy tho –
pirateboy.com or
DVD ripping
equipment
Online –
computer/ipad/
smart phone etc
(easy download and
on a piece of
equipment which
can do many things)
-rent/buy….SD/HD
-cater to converged
devices (consoles,
tablets, computers
etc)
-pirate
But decrease
cinema/DVD sales?
14. Other audience interactive websites
• Buy on cinema website (vue.com)
• Youmakethemovies.co.uk
• Findanyfilm.com
(synergy & convergence!!!!)
15. POH
(proliferation of hardware)
• FASTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT advancement of technology!
• Speed of new cameras and technologies happens so quickly
– New iphone/ipad
• Flashy new features, better quality of …….(2x a year now!)
– New cameras (can’t even buy old tape ones anymore!)
• Everyone using digital
– New equipment for general audiences too
• So much flashy stuff that is pretty good and cheap
• Also equipment to rip DVD’s tho
– At home
• Computers & social media
– Fans can interact more, share, write reviews, (user generated content – web 2.0) , fan clips – can edit and make these themselves on their own equipment
!!!! And then share it on social media for other fans PROSUMERS!!!
• Phones…..tablets……smart TV’s with internet connections/apps/ etc
– Consoles: internet, cameras, games, dvd player etc
– TV: computer, tv, dvd player, consoles etc
– Social media phenomenon's (its so normal now)
– We can access stuff sooooo quickly, it’s almost too convenient!
• 4G/broadband (downloading from iTunes/on converged devices)
• Instant downloading/streaming (PPV / netflix, blinkbox etc)
• Watch anytime/anywhere we want!
• THIS ALL LINKS TO CHANGING AUDIENCES (coming up in next slides)
– ALL THIS STUFF IS PRETTY RECENT!!!!!!!!
– Growth of technology means growth for film industry
• But of course, it’s risky and can equally lose money (poor cinema sales)
• Do you think film industry will survive? Will cinema? What could happen in the future? Do you think 50 years ago the film industry
would be as it is today?
16. More POH
• Proliferation leads to technological convergence!!
• Also leads too…..
– Downloading (itunes, apple TV, ipod/pad)
– Digital piracy (dvd, file share)
– Social networking sites (share, marketing, buzz)
– Accessibility (everywhere and anywhere)
– Control (industry & audience)
Think of benefits for your case studies – is technology,
POH, TC beneficial for them? or detrimental?
17. Changes audiences
• We live in a digital, online age
• Web 2.0 – user generated content
• Active audiences because of technology (internet)
• Industries should treat things as a public space – people are drawn in to
pull content that they can personalise, identify with and share it.
• PROSUMERS (producers + consumers = prosumers) (make & buy)
18. More changing audiences….
• Digital media distribution and consumption has allowed consumers to become producers (prosumers) or at
least interactors, and thus far more active users of media.
– Think of the way films encourage audience participation from the audience.
• Gauntlett goes as far as to say that new media erodes the boundary between producer and audience to the extent
that it makes little sense to talk about media audiences at all anymore—he calls this rethink 'Media Studies 2.0'.
The Concept formerly known as AUDIENCE
• This phrase is now commonly used by media professionals to describe the ways in which people engage with
media, and it shows how contested the idea of audience is in the digital era. The ways in which convergence,
user-created content and social networking have transformed the audience are often thought about in terms of
audience 'fragmentation'. In this climate media institutions are desperately trying to provide 360-degree
branding for their products—to surround us with them across all the various converged media forms that we
come into contact with—a good example of this is Avatar or Skyfall or Thor 2.
• Csigo suggests that media institutions are no longer interested in keeping the audience together, but in 'triggering
engagement' in people. Converging media, then, can lead to both control by media producers and resistance by
the consumers, who now get to produce their own media. For media institutions, this imposes key changes: the
media world changes from a 'value chain' (cultural products made and distributed to audiences) to a social
network (a complex system where producers and audiences are mixed up). Another way of describing this is the
shift from 'push media') (where producers push media at us and we receive and consume it)
to 'pull media' (whereby we decide what we want to do with the media and access it in ways that suit us).
The key term that is often used to describe the proliferation of people making and distributing their own video is
the long tail. (example – original paranormal activity or life in a day)
19. Today’s audience
• People are busy and on-the-go – therefore they
like to watch films when they want and how they
want (therefore the idea about having devices
they can easily do it all on appeals to them (and
they are mobile)
– Film industry will change to make sure they can easily
market, distribute and exchange their products with
these audiences to make profits and prevent piracy!
20. Connection to ownership
• Conglomerates have subsidiaries and synergies to converge
with
– Other areas in same company (like sony entertainment, MGM &
EON)
• Have capitol to have synergies and also huge marketing
campaigns, which have a lot of cross media convergence
and technological convergence's!
– Visit britian – on website, audiences interact with on
phones/tablets etc
– Websites – can visit on same devices
– Social media (FB/twitter) – on same devices and share etc
– Games (mgm or gameloft etc)
21. Mainstream vs indie vs changing
Mainstream/hollywood/
blockbuster
Arthouse/indie/niche Changing industries
-have all the money to do a range
of things
-money means control
-money buys latest technology to
keep up with changes
-mass audiences buy cool stuff
made with new stuff! (can see all
marketing strategies/CGI/good
quality image/films on all
platforms etc)
-don’t have money to buy all new
stuff
-but sometimes they can get it by
borrowing/lending/renting
(cheaper) (in our name/MBTD)
-can complete with below the
line/free advertising on social
media
-films can’t be ‘spectacular’ with
CGI/special effects etc. so not
sellable to mass audiences, BUT
target niche audiences through
some cross media platforms
-BUT they shoot on similar cameras
and are mostly digital (D cinema)
so easily produced, distributed and
exchanged/exhibited to audiences
(funding helped – DSN)
-indie cinemas now having
ondemand (watch film in cinema at
home (streaming) (In our name)
-more indie films are being
distributed by conglomerates and
sold in same ways as hollywood
films (they have better storylines
and same quality) also, people are
sick of over CGI and
predictableness of
mainstream/hollywood films
-indie filmmakers (PROSUMERS)
can now shoot, edit and distribute
their own films all themselves on 1
(or a few) inexpensive devices and
reach a decent size audience
because of easy access
(online/social networking)
22. A technological convergence essay…….
50/50 = A1
but it’s about 5 years old so it’s quite dated now! (so couldn’t use same case studies –
remember there is so much new technology since then!!)
