Institutions
and Audiences – Case Study 1
You are
going to put together a detailed case study on Warner Bros and Gravity, their
successful blockbuster release from 2013.
There is
some information already contained within these notes, but you need to work
through it and highlight the key areas. Any information that is missing you must research yourself and add to
this case study.
Your deadline for this is Wednesday 23rd March for presentation to the class
RESEARCHING WARNER BROS……
You need
to have a good understanding of how the company works so make sure that your
case study includes the following information..
O
The
ownership of Warner Bros – is it part of a conglomerate? A multinational
company? A subsidiary company?
O
Is the company horizontally or vertically
integrated?
O
What
competition does it have in the marketplace? Who is their main target audience?
O
How has
globalisation helped the company to expand and widen its target audience?
O
Can you
find any examples of industry convergence?
O
Have
there been any recent film trends in their production? How successful have they
been? How successful are they in maximizing the potential of their film
products through synergy?
|
|
January 1–November 30, 2014
#1–28
|
1
|
WB
|
$257,760,692
|
3,890
|
$257,760,692
|
100.0%
|
||
|
2
|
WB
|
$200,676,069
|
3,952
|
$200,676,069
|
100.0%
|
||
|
3
|
WB
|
$106,580,051
|
3,490
|
$106,580,051
|
100.0%
|
||
|
4
|
WB
|
$100,206,256
|
3,505
|
$100,206,256
|
100.0%
|
||
|
5
|
WB
|
$84,525,432
|
3,465
|
$84,525,432
|
100.0%
|
||
|
6
|
WB (NL)
|
$84,146,551
|
3,215
|
$84,158,681
|
100.0%
|
||
|
7
|
WB
|
$56,824,777
|
3,928
|
$258,366,855
|
22.0%
|
||
|
8
|
WB
|
$50,474,843
|
3,157
|
$50,474,843
|
100.0%
|
||
|
9
|
WB
|
$47,602,194
|
3,434
|
$47,602,194
|
100.0%
|
||
|
10
|
WB
|
$47,047,013
|
2,905
|
$47,047,013
|
100.0%
|
||
|
11
|
WB
|
$46,294,610
|
3,555
|
$46,294,610
|
100.0%
|
||
|
12
|
WB
|
$46,054,959
|
3,003
|
$46,132,954
|
99.8%
|
||
|
13
|
WB
|
$41,964,407
|
3,656
|
$41,970,289
|
100.0%
|
||
|
14
|
WB
|
$34,290,142
|
2,868
|
$34,293,107
|
100.0%
|
||
|
15
|
WB
|
$23,711,722
|
1,729
|
$25,568,251
|
92.7%
|
||
|
16
|
WB
|
$23,022,309
|
3,455
|
$23,022,309
|
100.0%
|
||
|
17
|
WB
|
$22,771,243
|
3,375
|
$25,338,521
|
89.9%
|
||
|
18
|
WB
|
$19,231,476
|
1,260
|
$274,092,705
|
7.0%
|
||
|
19
|
WB
|
$13,567,034
|
2,856
|
$29,807,260
|
45.5%
|
||
|
20
|
WB
|
$12,600,231
|
2,965
|
$12,600,231
|
100.0%
|
||
|
21
|
WB
|
$8,197,525
|
302
|
$8,197,525
|
100.0%
|
||
|
22
|
WB
|
$4,521,713
|
25
|
$46,112,100
|
9.8%
|
||
|
23
|
WB
|
$3,322,127
|
347
|
$3,322,127
|
100.0%
|
||
|
24
|
WB
|
$2,567,922
|
461
|
$2,572,878
|
99.8%
|
||
|
25
|
WB
|
$654,324
|
16
|
$35,916,045
|
1.8%
|
||
|
26
|
WB
|
$464,083
|
18
|
$23,823,738
|
1.9%
|
||
|
27
|
WB
|
$443,503
|
12
|
$14,163,748
|
3.1%
|
||
|
28
|
WB
|
$54,043
|
8
|
$46,095,329
|
0.1%
|
||
About Us
Time Warner Inc., a global leader in media and entertainment with
businesses in television networks and film and TV entertainment, uses its
industry-leading operating scale and brands to create, package and deliver
high-quality content worldwide on a multi-platform basis.
Overview
Our operating divisions, Home Box Office, Inc., Turner Broadcasting System,
Inc. and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. share a dedication to light up the
world’s screens with the best storytelling, across technological frontiers and
geographic boundaries. They maintain unrivaled reputations as homes for
creativity and excellence, with brands and leading scale that attract the best
talent and ideas, and allow creative talent and journalists to realize their
visions and share them with the world. HBO, with its sister channel
Cinemax, is the world’s leading premium pay-television and subscription video
on demand (SVOD) service, Turner has one of the world’s premier
portfolios of advertising-supported cable networks and related brands, and
Warner Bros. is the world’s leading producer of television programming and
filmed entertainment. And while our divisions are separate businesses, they
each foster a culture that encourages and embraces constructive collaboration.We also lead our industries by harnessing technology to create products and services to reach and entertain audiences in new ways all over the world and deepen their engagement with the brands, stories and experiences they love. Through our "Content Everywhere" initiatives, we seek to give consumers access to our high-quality content across platforms and devices and on demand. Our digital products and services reinforce our industry-leading brands and storytelling capabilities.
Among Time Warner's digital products and services are: HBO and Cinemax services that offer the pay-television industry's leading SVOD services, HBO On Demand and Cinemax On Demand, as well as Home Box Office programming online and on mobile devices through HBO GO and MAX GO; Turner digital sites that include TBS.com, TNTDrama.com, PGA.com, NBA.com, NCAA.com, CartoonNetwork.com, AdultSwim.com, truTV.com, TCM.com, CNN.com and Bleacherreport.com and Thesmokinggun.com; mobile Apps for Turner brands including live-streaming versions of TBS, TNT, CNN, HLN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and truTv; bestselling online games and mobile Apps such as Lego: The Lord of the Rings and Batman: Arkham City Lockdown games; Warner Bros. digital sites that include DCComics.com, DCNation.com, TMZ.com and their corresponding mobile Apps; home video distribution through various formats such as VOD and EST; and Flixster, the leading service to collect, discover and watch movies.
Our brands and businesses are supported by our people, who share a passion for storytelling and our commitment to excellence in everything we do.
Number of
Employees
Approximately 26,000 worldwide at December 31, 2013.
RESEARCHING
GRAVITY (2013)…..
You need
to look into all aspects of the film production process including the
following:
O Initial idea and pitch – where
did the idea for the film come from? Source material?
O Target audience – who was
the film aimed at primarily? Why do you think this target group was chosen?
O Investment in the idea – contributors?
Who ‘bankrolled’ the idea?
O Budget-do you know how much was
spent on distribution and marketing?
O Cast and crew – any
notable ‘stars’? Production background and credits?
O Production – how was
the film shot? Any special FX used? What technology was employed during the
production of the film?
O Post-Production – was CGI
used in the post-production process?
O Distribution – who
distributed the film? When was this decision made – at the pitch stage or did
the producers need to find a distributor once the film had been completed? How
did this come about?
O Marketing – how was the film marketed?
Evaluate the marketing campaign. Did the distributors choose to go down the
viral marketing route? How far did the distributors use new technologies to
market the film? Where there any cross media marketing tactics used? How did
they use new media technologies to target their audience more effectively?
O Synergy / Merchandise / Tie Ins / Spin Offs – did the
distributors utilise any of these options? How successful were they?
O Release of the film – How was
the film released? Was this a successful strategy?
O Box office success – how
successful was the film on its opening weekend? How successful was the film in
the UK? How successful was it globally?
Gravity
is a 2013 science fiction thriller film
directed, co-written,
co-produced and co-edited by Alfonso Cuarón. It
stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts, and sees them stranded in space
after the mid-orbit destruction of their space shuttle and their subsequent attempt to
return to Earth.
Cuarón wrote the screenplay with his son Jonás
and attempted to develop the film at Universal Pictures. The
rights were sold to Warner Bros. Pictures,
where the project eventually found traction. David Heyman, who previously worked with
Cuarón on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban, produced the film with him. Gravity
was produced entirely in the UK, where the British visual effects company Framestore
spent more than three years creating most of the film's visual effects, which
comprise over 80 of its 91 minutes.
Gravity
opened the 70th Venice International Film
Festival in August 2013 and had its North American
premiere three days later at the Telluride Film Festival.
It was released to cinemas in the United States and Canada on October 4, 2013.
The film was met with universal acclaim from critics and audiences; both groups
praised Emmanuel Lubezki's
cinematography, Steven Price's
musical score, Cuarón's direction, Bullock's performance and Framestore's
visual effects. It has grossed more than US$716 million worldwide, making it
the eighth highest-grossing film of 2013.
At the 86th Academy Awards, Gravity
received a leading ten nominations (tying American Hustle), and
won seven, the most for the ceremony, including: Best Director
for Cuarón, Best Cinematography
for Lubezki, Best Visual Effects,
and Best Original Score
for Price. The film was also awarded six BAFTA Awards, including Outstanding British Film
and Best Director,
the Golden Globe Award for Best Director,
and seven Critics Choice Awards.
The problem of shooting long scenes in a zero-g environment
was a challenge. Eventually, the team decided to use computer-generated imagery
for the spacewalk scenes and automotive robots to move Bullock's character for
interior space station scenes. This meant that shots and blocking had to be
planned well in advance for the robots to be programmed.
It also made the production period much longer than expected.
When the script was finished, Cuarón assumed it would take about a year to
complete the film, but it took four and a half years.
Gravity
had a production budget of $100 million and was filmed digitally on multiple Arri Alexa
cameras. Principal photography began in late May 2011. Live elements were shot
at Pinewood and Shepperton Studios
in the United Kingdom. The landing scene was filmed at Lake Powell, Arizona—where
the astronauts' landing scene in Planet of the Apes
(1968) was also filmed. Visual effects were supervised by Tim Webber
at the London-based VFX company Framestore, which was responsible for
creating most of the film's visual effects—except for 17 shots. Framestore was
also heavily involved in the art direction and, along with The Third Floor, the
previsualization.
Tim Webber stated that 80 percent of the movie consisted of CG—compared to
James Cameron's Avatar,
which was 60 percent CG. To simulate the authenticity and reflection of
unfiltered light in space, a manually controlled lighting system consisting of
1.8 million individually controlled LED lights was built. The 3D imagery was
designed and supervised by Chris Parks. The majority of the 3D was created by stereo rendering
the CG at Framestore. The remaining footage was converted into 3D in post
production—principally at Prime Focus, London, with additional conversion work
by Framestore. Prime Focus's supervisor was Richard Baker.
Filming began in London in May 2011. The film
contains 156 shots with an average length of 45 seconds—fewer and longer shots
than in most films of this length. Although the first trailer had
audible explosions and other sounds, these scenes are silent in the finished
film. Cuarón said, "They put in explosions [in the trailer]. As we know,
there is no sound in space. In the film, we don't do that."
The soundtrack in the film's space scenes consists of the
musical score and sounds astronauts would hear in their suits or in the space
vehicles.
For most of Bullock's shots, she was placed
inside a giant, mechanical rig. Getting into the rig took a significant amount
of time, so Bullock chose to stay in it for up to 10 hours a day, communicating
with others through a headset. Cuarón said his biggest challenge was to make
the set feel as inviting and non-claustrophobic as possible. The team attempted
to do this by having a celebration each day when Bullock arrived. They
nicknamed the rig "Sandy's cage" and gave it a lighted sign. Most of
the movie was shot digitally using Arri Alexa Classics cameras equipped with
wide Arri Master Prime lenses. The final scene, which takes place on Earth, was
shot on an Arri 765
camera using 65mm film to provide the sequence with a
visual contrast to the rest of the film.
Music
Steven Price
composed the incidental music for Gravity. In early
September 2013, a 23-minute preview of the soundtrack was released online. A
soundtrack album was released digitally on September 17, 2013, and in physical
formats on October 1, 2013, by WaterTower Music.[47]
Songs featured in the film include:
•
"Sinigit Meerannguaq"
by Juaaka Lyberth
•
"Destination Anywhere"
by Chris Benstead and Robin Baynton
•
"922 Anthem" by 922
(featuring Gaurav Dayal)
•
"Ready" by Charles
Scott (featuring Chelsea Williams)
In most of the film's official trailers, Spiegel im Spiegel,
written by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt in 1978, was used.
Release
.jpg)
David Heyman, Sandra Bullock, and Alfonso Cuarón at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International
promoting Gravity
Gravity
had its world premiere at the 70th Venice International Film
Festival on August 28, 2013 and was released in the
USA in 3D and IMAX 3D on October 4, 2013 and in the UK
on November 8, 2013.[50][51] The
film's US release coincided with the beginning of World Space Week, which
was observed from October 4 to 10. The film was originally scheduled to be
released in the US on November 21, 2012, before being re-scheduled for a 2013
release to allow the completion of extensive post-production effects work.[52]
Preliminary reports predicted the film would
open with takings of over $10 million in North America. The film earned $1.4
million from its Thursday night showings, and reached $17.5 million on Friday Gravity
topped the box office and broke Paranormal Activity 3 '
s record as the highest-earning October and autumn openings, grossing $55.8
million. 80 percent of the film's opening weekend
gross came from its 3D showings, which grossed $44 million. $11.2 million—20
percent of the receipts—came from IMAX 3D showings; the highest percentage for
a film opening more than $50 million.
The film stayed at number one at the box
office during its second and third weekends. Gravity opened at number
one in the United Kingdom, taking GB£6.23 million over the first weekend of
release and remained there for the second week. The
film's largest markets outside North America were China ($71.2m), the United
Kingdom ($47.0m) and France ($38.2m). On February 17, 2014, the film grossed
$700m worldwide. Gravity grossed $274,092,705 in North America and
$442,300,000 in other countries, making a worldwide gross of
$716,392,705—making it the eighth-highest grossing film of 2013.
Gravity
was released on digital download on February 11, 2014, and was released on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on February 25,
2014, in the United States and on March 3, 2014, in the United Kingdom. As of
March 16, 2014, Gravity has sold 908,756 DVDs along with 957,355 Blu-ray
discs for $16,465,600 and $22,183,843 respectively for a total of $38,649,443. Gravity
was also offered for free in HD on Google Play and Nexus devices in late
October 2014 to early November 2014.
Gravity
will be reissued on Blu-ray on February 10, 2015; this release includes a
"Silent Space Version" of the film which omits the score composed by
Steven Price.
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