What significance does the continuing development of digital media technology have for media institutions and audiences?

The continuing development of digital media technology has extreme significance for media institutions and audiences, because without it, several production, marketing and distribution techniques could not possibly be used, thus lowering profit dramatically.
Everything a film needs to be successful comes from the power of technology
An example of this is the quality of special effects used in production practices.
For instance, although several companies worked on the production of Attack The Block, including Film4 Productions and StudioCanal, because of their size, they could not generate a big enough budget to use an extensive amount of CGI when creating the aliens for the film.
This could have been one of the reasons it did not succeed at the box office, bringing in only £3,615,712, which was less than half of its budget at £8 million, resulting in a loss of money.
However, films on a larger scale such as Prometheus show that a good special effects team – made possible due to a bigger budget – can really make a difference, as the film gained $402.48 million, which is just under 3 times as much money as Ridley Scott gathered to produce the film ($130 million), with the use of CGI included.
Also, when compared to Alien, (Scott’s first project), which had a budget of $11 million and grossed $104,931,801 at the box office, we can see that the use of CGI is significant in drawing in customers, as Alien didn’t feature the use of CGI at all, and although it made a successful profit, could not compare to the success of Prometheus.
Obviously Prometheus had a larger budget to work with, but spending a significant amount on creating better special effects really paid off in terms of attracting customers to the cinema release.
This proves that the development of digital media technology is important when producing films, as new software dedicated to improving the use of special effects obviously has a good outcome on sales figures.

The way institutions such as 20^th Century Fox market their films also depends on the development of digital media technology, as without access to the internet, Prometheus would not have received the amount of publicity it did, as Fox’s viral campaign for the film was something like no other – it was most well-known for featuring a short film which showed Guy Pierce in character as Peter Weyland, head of ‘Weyland Industries’, giving a TED talk in 2023. This provided the audience with a gateway into the secrets of the plot before the film had even been released, and made the story seem all the more real.
A second video was then released, in which Michael Fassbender revealed a lot about his character and the world he lives and works in, so as to give the reader an extra insight into the film. In addition to this, a website was set up for ‘Weyland Industries’, which could easily be mistaken for an actual corporate website.
This form of marketing proved to be very successful because the movie had been shrouded in mystery, and fans were confused as to whether the film was a long-awaited prequel to the Alien series or whether it stood alone, and so these little snippets of information were enough to tide the sci-fi fans over until the release of the film, as well as increasing general hype surrounding the film and encouraging other people to join the bandwagon.

Moreover, during the marketing process of The Inbetweeners Movie, Film4 handed their Twitter account over to the cast members in the months leading up to the film’s release, which created a lot of hype surrounding the film, as information could be spread to the typical audience of the film (mainly 15-25 year olds) more easily through a social networking site, rather than just adding the information to a regular website which teenagers/young adults might not come across.
However, the film was almost guaranteed to be successful, as an existing audience had already been established due to the TV series prior to the film, and advertising on Channel 4 was very extensive.
The Inbetweeners Movie became the most successful British comedy in cinema history, and gained £13,200,000 in its opening weekend alone, which was an amazing achievement considering the budget of the film was only £3,500,000.
Because of this, it could be argued that the continuing development of digital media technology is not as important as first thought, as The Inbetweeners Movie was made in a traditional way, without the use of special effects, and gained the most publicity due to its advertisements on channel 4, which is not something that has recently been invented.

Furthermore, with regards to Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, Universal Pictures and Lionsgate Films decided to go back to basics when promoting the film, which was best known for its wide range of posters. This would have attracted classic ‘comic-book nerds’ to the film, as they could collect these posters and when laid out next to each other would spell out ‘KICKASS’, acting as collectables.
The companies didn’t rely on viral marketing as much as Prometheus did, although several trailers and TV spots were created to attract the mainstream market as well the film geeks, as the content of the film was typical of old superhero movies, rather than something which needed to fit in with new technology, and so their approach was much more traditional.

However, the introduction of 3D has had a massive impact on institutions and audiences, and brings in a significant amount of sales during cinema exhibition.
For example, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was shown in 3D, despite the fact that none of the previous films had been, and smashed the box office by earning $1,328,111,219.
As the budget of the film was $250 million, but had been shared with part 1, this was an amazing achievement, and it is clear that a considerable amount of success was due to release in 3D and IMAX, as in the United States alone, it played in 4375 cinemas, 3100 3D cinemas and 274 IMAX cinemas, making it the widest release for an IMAX, 2D and a Harry Potter film.
This suggests that although the process of converting a film into 3D costs a lot more than traditional 2D and requires a lot more time and effort to spent in the production stages, statistics show that it pays off in sales figures, and according to Odeon, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 3D had a 70% 5 star rating and a 21% 4 star rating, which shows that the people who paid the extra money to see the film in this way did actually enjoy it.

As well as this, recent online distribution provided by companies such as Netflix and LOVEFiLM have also had an impact on institutions and audiences, as people who want to see a film but don’t want to pay extortionate cinema prices often find this way of viewing more beneficial.
Without this development of digital media technology, several films would have ceased to have made as much of a profit as they have done.
Finally, the release of a film on Blu-ray also increases the profit of a film, as people who don’t mind spending a lot of money but would rather watch a film in the comfort of their own home will be more inclined to purchase a film in this way, and so without this advancement in technology, a loss in profit will again have resulted from this.

All in all, the continuing development of digital media technology has allowed both institutions and audiences to improve their way of working, as films of a higher quality are thus enabled to undergo production, as well as a considerable range of marketing and distributing techniques being used in attracting a specific audience to a film.

(Already marked. 42/50 'A' grade.)