Produced by: Kevin Feige
Written by: Ryan Coogler
Joe Robert Cole
Based on: Black Panther by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
Starring: Chadwick Boseman
Micheal B. Jordan
Lupita Nyong'o
Danai Gurira
Martin Freeman
Daniel Kaluuya
Letita Wright
Winston Duke
Angela Bassett
Forest Whitaker
Andy Serkis
Music by: Ludwig Goransson
Cinematography:Rachel Morrison
Edited by: Michael P. Shawver
Debbie Berman
Production company: Marvel Studios
Distributed by: Walt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures
Release date: January 29, 2018( Dolby Theatre)
February 16, 2018(United States)
Running Time: 134 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
Budget: $200-210 million
Box office: $1.347 billion
Plot:
After the death of his father, T'Challa returns home to the African nation of Wakanda to take his rightful place as king. When a powerful enemy suddenly reappears, T'Challa's mettle as king and as Black Panther gets tested when he's drawn into a conflict that puts the fate of Wakanda and the entire world at risk. Faced with treachery and danger, the young king must rally his allies and release the full power of Black Panther to defeat his foes and secure the safety of his people.
Cast:
Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/Black Panther
Micheal B.Jordan as N'Jadaka/Erik "Killmonger" Stevens
Lupita Nyong'o as Nakia
Danai Gurira as Okoye
Martin freeman as Everett K.Ross
Daniel Kaluuya as W'Kabi
Letitia Wright as Shuri
Winston Duke as M'Baku
Forest Whitaker as Zuri
Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue
Star's other films/shows and their achievements:
Chadwick Boseman is an American actor and playwright. He became prominent in theater, winning a Drama league directing fellowship and an acting au Delco and being nominated for the Jeff Awards as a playwright for Deep Azure. His first major role was in Persons Unknown(2010) and his breakthrough performance came in 2013 as baseball player Jackie Robinson in the biographical film 42. He continued to portray historical figures, starring in Get on Up(2014) as singer James Bond and Marshall(2017) as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Micheal B.Jordan is an American actor, film producer and film director. He is know for his film roles as shooting victim Oscar Grant in drama Fruitvale Station(2013) and boxer Adonis Donnie Creed in the Creed(2015). His television roles include Wallance in the HBO series The Wire(2002) and Vince Howard in the NBC drama series Friday night lights(2009–2011); and he also appeared on the soap opera All My Children(2003–2006). His other film performances include Red Tails (2012), Chronicle(2012), That Awkward Moment(2014), and Fantastic Four(2015), in which he played the Human Torch.
Danai Gurira is a Zimbabwean-American actress and playwright. She is best known for her starring roles as Michonne on the AMC horror drama series The Walking Dead(2012–2020) and as Okoye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films. Gurira is also the playwright of the Broadway play Eclipsed, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play.
Letitia Wright is a Guyanese-British actress. Beginning her professional career in 2011, she has played roles in several British TV series, including Top Boy, Coming Up, Chasing Shadows, Humans, The doctor who episode " face the Raven and the Black Mirror episode " Black Museum" for the latter she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a limited series of movie. The BAFTA named Wright among the 2015 group of BAFTA Breakthrough Brits for her role in the award-winning film Urban Hymn. In 2018, she achieved global recognition for her portrayal of Shuri in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. In 2019, she received the BAFTA Rising star award.
The issues raised by Media Ownership and funding in contemporary media practices:
The success of a movie is very much connected with the media ownership. All media weather is a film or music is owned by a company that reverses the right to produce, exhibit and distribute that product. In modern day cinema, the industry is dominated by Big Six media giants which consequently creates high barriers of entry for new production houses to enter, let alone make a steady position in the industry. Production houses like Marvel studios, Disney, Warner Brothers or Paramount Picture, etc are multi-million pound companies, this enables them them to not only control the market but release numerous titles followed by sequels of their own, especially profit incentive-based businesses. These Big companies are self financing companies as they are owned by larger conglomerate. Media ownership and funding commands marketing of a product in a fragmented audience. Corporations need to utilize 360-degree branding in order to reach out to viewers on factions. This requires a hefty sum of money that minor independent film studios cannot afford. Subsequently, regardless of the film quality, subsidiaries get dominated by larger bodies
Now if i talk about my film Black Panther, it is the 18th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a franchise that has made $13.5 billion at the global box office over the past 10 years. It is an American motion picture studio based at the Walt Disney Studios (Parent Company) in Burbank, California and is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios (an American film distributor owned by The Walt Disney Company) with film producer Kevin Feige serving as president. They are well-known for making big budget movies such as Avengers Infinity War ($316–400 million), Thor Ragnarok (180 million USD) and Spiderman Homecoming (175 million USD).
Marvel Entertainment has entered into several partnerships and negotiations with other companies across a variety of businesses. As of 2018, Marvel has film licensing agreements with 20th Century Fox (for X-Men films and Fantastic Four films), Sony Pictures (for Spider-Man films), and Universal Pictures (a right of first refusal to pick up the distribution rights to any future Hulk films produced by Marvel Studios), and a theme park licensing agreement with Universal Parks & Resorts (for specific Marvel character rights at Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Japan). Aside from their contract with Universal Parks & Resorts, Marvel’s characters and properties have also appeared at Walt Disney Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products.
Production companies like Marvel Entertainment are multi million pound industries. This enables them to dominate the international film industry as they are able to release lots of titles and have vast amounts of money to market and distribute them. They are organizations that are keen on profiting, henceforth they gather their efforts into endless sequels. This reduces the diversity in ownership and production as well as the competition between different production companies. This is also means that the audiences have limited choice in cinemas, endless sequels, poor quality films and a dying British industry. It also leads to the globalization of pop culture. The British Film industry, because of this suffers and doesn’t gain much success or attention and British Production houses suffer.
For the movie black panther there was a total budget of $200 million on production and estimate of $150 million more was spend on publicity. This movie bounded to success at President's box office, achieving $242 million domestically over the four day weekend which was second highest such opening after Star Wars: The force awakens movie. Walt Disney spent significant media dollars on national TV advertising for its Marvel action movie “Black Panther.” Over $37 million in national TV advertising was placed for the movies advertisement.
Racial representation in films is an important issue to consider. Not only to assess the treatment of actors of color in Hollywood, but also the impact it has on viewers. Seeing positive portrayals of people on screen with whom you identify with can be extremely validating, especially in contrast to normally seeing negative or aggressive portrayals of your ethnic group. Marvel’s long awaited Black Panther film is making waves in the black community. From the politically charged name of the movie, referencing the infamous 1960’s socialist black power group, to the anti-colonial plotline that places the fictional state of Wakanda as being unaffected by European imperialism, Black Panther delves deeper into political discussion than the traditional superhero flick. Celestina Bogle, an Ottawa activist, said “When I was a kid, whenever I saw black people in movies it was always about slavery… this movie gives black people autonomy and it gives them community.”
The film faced the issue of Piracy as expected by a well anticipated movie such as black panther. Piracy is the illegal distribution of the content and media without the permission of its owner. It can be done in the form of downloading or Pirated DVD copies .Its not a new issue and is found VERY commonly in highly anticipated films. Black panther movie was leaked on Torrent within a few hours after the movie was released in the Theaters. This affected the overall performance of the Black Panther at the box office. Not much was done to solve this issue except blocking out the websites that were illegally leaking the movie.
Black panther movie also used the 360 degree marketing rule, including broadcast digital, social and in-person press, newspapers and radio, posters, interviews trailers social media pages and merchandise
Dramatically yet not surprisingly, the movie had gained much popularity as it made $242 million at the domestic box office in its first four days. The total earnings worldwide reached $1.3 Billion.
The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing:
Digital technology is enabling various media to converge in hubs, platforms and devices. Cross media convergence and synergy both play an equal and important role in aiding films to produce far more revenue then normal, such as it will create more awareness for products of the film, such as selling merchandise might make people aware of a film that is coming out. Synergy means working together to achieve an objective that could not be achieved independently such as an interaction between two or more organizations to produce a combine effect that will be greater then when done alone. Cross media convergence can help with synergy by promoting the media product across other media platforms. Consumers expect more responsive, relevant, and targeted communication, product and services provided by the companies they buy from.
Large production houses are benefitting from this concept while producing there movies. Cross media convergence helps improve the quality of films produced because of the emergence of a single software providing every editing facility such as sound, cutting, special effects etc. Cross media convergence and synergy allows production houses to distribute their films to a wide range of platforms such as cinemas, Netflix, Facebook, Instagram. Internet has allowed media giants to reach out to as many customers as possible and raise their market share. Products are cross promoted by each other multiplying profits for conglomerates.
Horizontal integration and vertical integration are competitive strategies that companies use to consolidate their position among competitors. In movie Black Panther there is vertical integration between Marvel Studios and Walt Disney. Marvel also have a lot of subsidiaries such as Marvel Entertainment International Limited(UK), Marvel Film Productions LLC(Delaware), Marvel Television(television production division), Marvel animation Inc, Marvel Animation Studios, Marvel Toys Limited(Hong Kong), Marvel Worldwide Inc. They have also produced the comics on which the whole film is based.
Black Panther was praised for its depiction of strong black characters the cast is almost completely actors of African descent. The film celebrates African culture. Large chunks of the campaign emphasized on the soundtrack produced by Kendrick Lamar who is a popular award-winning rapper. This product appealed to fans of the artist and fans of the marvel property it is associated. His music was all over the push and helped reach the targeted audience in a real and powerful way. The film was positioned even more as coming from director Ryan Coogler. The Black Panther cast promoted the movie on shows such as 'The Ellen Show' and 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'. All the promotion was basically above the line.
Technological Revolution has enhanced the modern media industry in many ways. The modern technological advancements has given the filmmakers the control over the essential elements like the dynamic range of lighting and colors as well as the duration of shots, with far lower operating temperatures, LED lights are much easier to adjust and are more convenient. These effects have made the movie making experience much more advanced, quicker and smoother as well. The industry has seen a shift from tapes to hard disks, from film cameras to digital. This choice has eased costs, reduced film wastage, smoothened shooting, and editing procedures. Now days, films made are mostly captured with a wide variety of Digital movie cameras like Arri Alexa LF or Canon Cinema EOS. Modern Editing Softwares vary from AutoDesk to Adobe After Effects. Combining this with the rapid progress of Drones , Blu-Ray, HD, 4K, 8K, IMAX Theatres, VR and Dual Camera VR, gives a huge opportunity to truly distribute the message efficiently to a vast majority of people via not only theatres and DVDs but also through their smartphones, tablets and computers as well as the ability to stream movies through platforms such as Netflix. These technological advancements are much necessary to improve not only the quality of the films compared to past years, but also the level of efficiency in the making of those films.The technological revolution rewrites the material conditions of human existence and can reshape culture.The most well-known example of a technological revolution was the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, the scientific-technical revolution about 1950-1960, the Digital Revolution and so on . Another example of the films in the 20th Century were widely known for being made with limited technologies like Green Screens and very limited amount of CGI.
Although marvels Black Panther is a big movie Morrison says that on a camera level it wasn't that different from some of the small movies that he has shot. Black Panther was filmed in 3.4K ArriRaw with Arri Alexa XT Plus cameras and Panavision Primo lenses, primarily using a two-camera set-up with a third or fourth camera on occasion. Morrison said that lighting was her biggest challenge the magnitude of which was much bigger than i have experienced before and made extensive use of Arii SkyPanel LED ligh fixtures which she could program from an iPad. Some sets were completely surrounded by SkyPanels. Black Panther was edited by Micheal Shawver and Debbie Berman with Shawver spending time on set during filming as well as at an editing suite near the Atlanta production base. Visual effects for the film were created by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) with help from Virtuos, stereo D, and Scanline VFX; Double Negative; Luma Pictures; Mammal Studios; Method Studios; Perception; Rise Visual Effects Studios; Torm Studios; Trixter; Cantina Creative; Lola VFX; Capital T; Exceptional Minds; Technicolor VFX; Rodeo FX; Imageloom VFX; Anibrain; Method Pune; Bot VFX; Pixstone Images; Futureworks; Vertigo Visual; FX3X; and Yannix Thailand Co. Previsualization was completed by Digital Domain and The Third Floor. Geoffrey Baumann served as visual effects supervisor.
The film Black Panther was the most tweeted about film of all times it had more then 5 million tweets globally and in mid-march it had 35 million tweets. When the hash tag #blackpanther is used a twitter custom emoji appeared. Social media was used a lot to help market this film such as there was a separate page under the name of the film on instagram where all the latest updates about the film were given youtube was used to upload trailers and small clips of the film. Marvel and Disney also sought to advertise trailers for the film during television broadcasts of sports that have a strong African American following.
Black Panther was released for digital download by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment and on Ultra HD blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD.
The importance of technological convergence for institution and audiences
Technological convergence may refer to two conglomerates in separate business and industry combining their resources and methods to produce one single product. Technological convergence concept whereby merging, blending, integration and transformation of independent technologies such as Smartphones. These types of convergences are very beneficial for the modern industry as it gives them more and better quality of tools and equipment to film the movies. Technology has allowed us to develop and improve the quality of films, make them more complex and dynamic, whilst also helping making them easier to make and also access. Convergence is an inevitable result of our modernizing world and so the film industry relies on keeping up and competing with varying array of formats. Modern cameras have made the video resolution and the attention to detail have improved the films dramatically in comparison to previous years. One of the advantages of shooting with these is the fact that it is considerably cheaper, as a traditional camera costs around £50,000 pounds whereas a professional digital one would be around £10,000. Saving money in this way then allows production companies to spend more of their budget on other aspects of the film, such as special effects which have also enhanced greatly over time. The use of Special Effects has also been made easier and play a major role in the success of a movie. Modern movies can't really survive without special effects and that made easier with modern soft wares. Better technological resources means that they can produce films with more CGI. This allows them to also spend more on marketing. The overall cost of hardware is cheaper and therefore more people can produce content, such as the many films produced on the iPhones. However it can have certain disadvantages. There will be more competition in the market as more content is available and there is a limited audience.
Audiences have also massively benefited too due to the technological convergences. Modern ways to access movies may include Blu-Ray DVDs, 3D Cinemas or IMAX Theatres and the use of online streaming platforms. It allows the audience to watch films on different devices. The biggest example of it is the use of modern online streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney+ or by downloading them from from the phones media store. These platforms have made it easier for the audiences to see HD movies at their home's comfort with features like instant replay or download, whereas these features are not present in theatres. This is also effective for the institution as it means there is a much greater margin of people watching their film, as they now have more access to it. By making the accessibility of films more convenient to audience, the more likeliness of them watching the film.
One of the biggest advantages for institutions is the impact of technology on the film industry. the internet is now the most common place for a distribution company to advertise and promote their films. The use of social media sites is especially important for this as it allows users to repost and share different aspects of film, for example if a person was to like the look of a film trailer they might repost it and promote it to be there friends. This spread then has the potential to be shared on sites such as twitter and Youtube by the 1 billion people who use the internet every month.
The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences by international or global institution.
The process of dividing a market into smaller groups or segments basing on their commonalities is called Market Segmentation. It is usually done to clearly define the target market and produce goods and services in accordance with the needs and wants of that target market. The result is higher profits in form of increased sales. Large media institutions divide the market on the basis of similar characteristics (such as age groups) makes production, marketing and distribution easier and cost effective. It is therefore essential to define the target audience precisely as it provides important objectives and aims to look forward to.
The BIG 6 Major Global media institutes are mainly US based which means that most of the Hollywood movies produced are in accordance with the US culture. However, there is a variation of cultures and traditions which are being followed around the globe and this comes out to be the first issue raised when global institutes target the British audience. There are many differences between the Hollywood production and the British production. British are mostly portrayed as civilized and superior than others through their classic accent and their royal attire by the British media institutions. The class system is often highlighted in the British films and a fine line is drawn between the upper class and the lower class. Moreover, ideas like drugs, violence, poverty and financial hardships, urban areas and fantastical locations are commonly seen in the British films and are generally accepted by the British audience as it reflects their culture. However, American films might portray a different picture and it might not receive much acceptance among the British audiences.
The understanding of Local markets, their rules and regulations as well as their customs is very important when planning to distribute a product in a particular country or region..Overseas markets are studied through an intensive market research. However, market research is an expensive and a time consuming process and ineffectiveness of it might lead to heavy loses for large production houses.. Films should be produced keeping in mind what the consumers want to see so that they receive a positive response from the audience in form of higher profits. As profit is the main aim of production houses, it could only be achieved through a higher consumer satisfaction which is attained only when the content of the movies is in accordance with the media needs and wants of the consumers. Inability of satisfying consumer needs may ultimately result in losses. An example could be the expensive WONDER WOMAN 1984 starring Gal Gadot which grossed only $ 166.5 Million of its $200 Million budget, and stands to lose Warner Bros $33.5 Million.
For the film Black Panther Marvel expected black audiences to see this film, so they focused trailers during NBA games a sport that carries a large number of black audiences. Marvel selected a rapper Kendrick Lamar to curate a soundtrack inspired in the film and had him perform the first ever halftime show at the college football national champion.
Most marketing teams would stop once they reached their target audience. A minority fil would be marketed to minorities with limited efforts elsewhere. Marvel went beyond that. They worked with designers at New York Fashion Week to showcase a “Black Panther style”, even though diversity at the show has fallen recently. The message was clear. It’s okay for white people to see a movie titled Black Panther.
Black Panther drew the most diverse North American audience ever for a superhero film according to ComScore. African Americans made up the largest share of the audience, or 37 percent, followed by Caucasians (35 percent), Hispanics (18 percent), Asians (5 percent) and Native American/Other (5 percent). For a normal Marvel film, black consumers would make up around 15 percent of the audience.
Targeting of British audience might also create issues for the British production houses which are comparatively smaller than the American media giants. The term ‘independent art house’ is used to define British production companies. An art house is a small scale production house which specializes in producing films that are artistic or experimental rather than merely entertaining. These art houses have a budget which is far less than that of global media institutions which means that they are in no way able to compete with the large conglomerates with billion dollar budgets. When British audiences are targeted by international institutions, the small local art houses are forced out of the competition as they could neither afford to have A star actors nor able to use the high technological instruments in their production; both of which enhances the quality of the film. This diverts the audience towards a greater film which is a product of one of the six media giants and is evidently better in terms of technology, ideas, special effects and visual effects. As a result, it is possible for small British independent houses to lose their target market to their competitors.
To conclude, I would say that targeting of British audiences by the international and global institutions would have a dual effect. Firstly, it will raise issues for the larger conglomerates in form of lack of local knowledge and the development of a gap between the media giants and the local British audiences by reason of cultural differences. And secondly, it might force the British art houses out of the market due to a higher competition caused by complex budget and better technological equipment.
Big production houses such as Marvel target their audience widely while keeping a variety of people in mind however smaller production houses like Fox searchlight target a niche audience.
Global Village, the world considered as a single community linked by telecommunications. The term was coined by Canadian Media Theorist Marshall McLuhan (1962)
Modern times have made the access and the costs of these products more and more easier as well as cost efficient due to the Technological revolution (1950-1960). Audience consumption is very much related to accessibility and cost effectiveness as the more cost effectiveness of the media as well as reach to it was a major factor when consumption was to be done.
Media consumption is determined by a variety of factors, including: consumers interests and preferences; affordability; accessibility; gender and other social norms that proscribe use. Factors such as radio or television ownership or access to them in the community; mobile phone ownership and internet access; the prices and availability of print media and literacy rates; among others are all important to consider when deciding the type of media to be engaged in prevention work.
Media use is not simply determined by affordability. Other factors may have an impact, including:
Professional activity, as small traders, for example, might prioritise having a mobile phone because it is essential to their business, while broader parts of the population may rely on radio reports for weather alerts and agricultural information.
Media diversity, as the range of media options and plurality of voices heard can limit access to information and participation in media, particularly for marginalized groups;
Gender, as gender stereotypes can determine the kind of information available to both women and men. For example, women in low and middle-income countries are significantly less likely than men to own a mobile phone, and when they do own one they use them less than men (GSMA 2016), or;
The position individuals occupy in the family, as women and young people may have less access to the household phone or radio.
This information can play a crucial role in designing appropriate interventions, resisting the temptation to target only traditional or like-minded media partners. It is critical to expand messages and communications objectives to media organizations and audiences that could have a catalytic impact on social norms change.
As times are changing and new technology is being introduced old media (print, radio and TV) are becoming second-tier commodities in favor of new and “improved” ways of consuming the media such as websites like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Before the introduction of such new platforms, films were seen in cinemas or on TV or on CDs but now, according to recent trends movies are being consumed on websites such as Netflix etc that offer a wide variety of films you can choose from without putting in the effort to leave the comfort of your home. I myself watched the movie Black Panther on Netflix.
Black Panther is available on Digital HD, Blu-ray and on Netflix, making the king of Wakanda’s first feature film available on nearly any TV, phone or tablet you would want to watch it on. The Marvel movie is also in all digital stores, including iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, Amazon and Fandango Now. In contrast the Souvenir is only available on DVD.
To conclude, Technological revolution has made the audiences over-dependent on latest trends. Filmmakers also have to adapt to latest audience tastes and trends in order to survive and compete in the ever-lasting industry as it is very cheap and easy to access. This is an ever-lasting cycle in which the trends have to keep changing while maintaining the cost effectiveness of these films from both the producers as well as consumers point of view so both can benefit from the final product.
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