Tuesday 6 December 2011

How significant have convergence, synergy and vertical integration been in the development of Sony and its ability to produce, promote and distribute films? Make reference to Spider-Man and your own choice of recent release. You must consider DVD and Blu-Ray as product too.

Sony has been developed into the world’s biggest multinational corporation. Sony attained CBS Records in 1988 and Columbia Pictures in 1989, which today form Sony Music Entertainment (SME) and Sony Pictures Entertainment – two of the world’s major content producers. Convergence, synergy and vertical integration have played a big part in making Sony what it is today.
Convergence has helped Sony enormously to help make their company better. Convergence is the integration of previously separate technologies to accomplish a particular aim - here, of course, it's to make, distribute, promote and exhibit a movie. Sony promotes films in different ways; once a movie is produced, Sony will find another way of displaying the film, for example Spider-Man. After Spider-Man was released, Sony designed a video game and other different merchandise to promote the film even further. This is called Synergy. One other feature Sony used to help make their company successful was vertical integration. The merge of CBS Records and EMI Records into Sony make their company even stronger as they bought two of the largest music labels in the world. The soundtrack of Spider-Man was produced by Sony music, which helps to brand Sony better as they use different aspects of their company to make their films successful.
Convergence has been used in different ways to make Sony more successful than any other company. One aspect of convergence that has aided Sony’s success is the use of trailers. Sony release official trailers on websites such as YouTube to help promote their films. YouTube support Sony’s trailer by placing them onto the home screen so every user will see it, and then with any luck click onto it. Other websites used to promote their films is Twitter. Sony pictures have over 53,000 people following them, which means that if they tweeted a link to YouTube, thousands of people would see it. Another good factor is people might rewteet the video so it goes out to a bigger audience. Also, Sony will advertise their trailers on TV’s so it goes out to a much wider audience of people. Spider-Man was released onto Blu-Ray and DVD. Doing this, makes Sony gain a bigger profit as more people will go out and buy the DVD, and the release of films on Blu-Ray also encourages people to buy Blu-Ray players as they are shown in high definition. This helps Sony in more ways as they helped create Blu-Ray and most of the Blu-Rays players are branded by Sony, plus, the Sony PlayStation 3 are compatible with Blu-Rays movies. Another large company called Paramount use different methods of promotion. One way of promotion is virally. One of their films called Paranormal Activity became a sensation on the likes of Facebook and Twitter. One more was Monsters.As part of the campaign, which was financed through the UKFC’s fund for digital innovation in film distribution, audiences were given the chance to get involved in the story theme of the film and ‘infect’ five of each cinema operator’s major city locations. The audience was encouraged to seek out “infected zones” across the UK, such as bars or shops, in return for being able to gain access to exclusive clips and prizes as well as discounted entry to the film. This was a very clever marketing strategy. Almost all of the film was shot on location in Mexico, which is probably where most of the money went. The location presented beautiful scenery which was portraying throughout the movie.

Synergy has played a big part in the succession of Spider-Man. Spider-Man first started as a comic produced by Marvel and then Sony bought the rights to make it into a film. As well as a film, Sony helped to make it into a video game, which came out on PlayStation and XBOX. As well as video games, other merchandise has been sold to help towards the profit of the Spider-Man franchise. Different types of clothing have been released using the Spider-Man brand, posters, and fancy costumes are some other examples of merchandise. Another factor is linking their brand with McDonalds and creating toys to go into Happy Meals. The toys that are inside of Happy Meals’ will help with the sale of other merchandise and young children might want to go and watch the film or buy the game.
Vertical Integration. In the practice of Hollywood and other forms of industrial cinema, the phases of production, distribution and exhibition operate most effectively when ‘vertical integration’, where the three stages are seen as part of the same larger process, under the control of one company. Five studios, "The Big Five," worked to achieve vertical integration through the late 1940s, owning vast real estate on which to construct elaborate sets. In addition, these studios set the exact terms of films' release dates and patterns, and operated the best movie palaces in the nation. Warner Bros. Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Loew's and RKO formed this exclusive club. "The Little Three" studios--Universal, Columbia and United Artists--also made pictures, but each lacked one of the crucial elements of vertical integration. Together these eight companies operated as a mature oligopoly, essentially controlling the entire market.