Film And Television Industries example essay topic

Convergence: explore this concept in historical, technological and creative terms. Reflect on possible implications for film and television as convergence becomes a reality. What does it mean for creators and producers, for big business and for the public Many events or happenings throughout history with regard to organisations, corporations, goods and services have come about due to convergence, even if the world has only just started to recognise them. Today, major instances of corporate convergence can be found with media and software companies (AOL Seven); Insurance companies (RACE GIO); Banks (Sun corp Met way) and many more. However, convergence is more than the merging of two companies. Convergence can be the result of new technologies coming in to play, which, especially today is one of the foremost reasons.

One form of technology in particular, has influenced more convergence-related decisions than any other. The Internet. Since the creation of, and the rapidly growing popularity of the internet, many new companies have been created, but many companies have merged, adapted and converged to put their product online and make it available to the global consumer network. There are corporations like CNN, an American television news network who have now converged and expanded their broadcasting reach to a worldwide audience. Newspapers around the world have also converged their print medium with the virtual medium to broadcast their news to every person who has access to the Internet. Aside from the news media industry, there has been great interest in online shopping and online auctioning.

The most widely known of each being Amazon. com and Ebay. To become the popular and productive companies they are today, elements of convergence have taken place. Convergence comes in many forms, and I'm sure there are some forms yet to be generated by humanity's creations and discoveries. One form of convergence existing today, however is cultural. Cultural convergence was far more significant in the centuries before this, because cultures were much more isolated, such that any relations between cultures sparked major influences and ideas, as well as concepts and creations.

Today, we have a highly multicultural and globalised world, with any culture or group of people having the opportunity to interact with any other around the world. While cultural convergence was more significant several hundred ears ago, it is more common and widespread today, very often with cultural and multicultural hybrids being created. Music, in many cases, for example is incredibly diverse and culturally ambitious in comparison. A band in Australia may use standard instruments like guitars and drums, but also incorporate steel drums from island cultures, flutes from eastern areas, and bagpipes from a western culture in Scotland.

All the forms of convergence, not only the ones listed above, greatly affect the creativity of every individual in their community. Furthermore, the convergence of these creations spark new and unique creations in an ever growing 'creative snowball. ' Since the invention and accessibility of the Internet, many people have redirected their creativity to include or focus on communication design related ideas. A novelist of ten years ago may be experimenting or even working solely with hypertext on the Internet. The creative possibilities made available by convergence are endless, and will forever be infinite. One concept that has been realised recently is intellectual property.

Dealing with copyrights, patents and trademarks, steps have been taken to ensure that creations which now physically exist are protected in ways that prevent another person or organization from using the creation for their own purposes. Such creations include music, film & TV, literature, communication design, artwork, graphic design and mechanical or technological inventions. Not unlike every other industry, there have been great occurrences of convergence in the film industry since the very late 1800's. Ever since the very first films, film makers have seen the work of people in foreign countries, which has initiated a convergence of cultures and the beginnings of different movements in film history.

In the nineteen thirties, American film makers observed what the French were producing, and thus incorporated some of those ideas with their own, created the American film noir period. There currently doesn't seem to be any sort of trend or 'period' of film making occurring at the moment in Australia and the rest of the world, but this doesn't mean there isn't one. We may realise it in years to come. When you look at convergence and how it relates to the film and television industries today, very few bad points can be seen. There is such vast spread of new hybrid industries involving film and television that can be distinguished easily.

The jobs in traditional television, as we have known it for decades, are very likely to be unchanged and secure for quite some time. Millions of people around the world still sit down in front of their television and watch it like they have since childhood, and until high-end Internet technology is more widely accessible, this will stay the same. The content on television stations over the past twenty years has not changed very much at all. The main difference lies in the form it takes, for example, with the developments in computer technology, children can now watch computer generated 3 D television programs as an alternative to traditional animations. This sort of minor technology driven change doesn't affect local content producers in any major way. At one stage, around the release of movies like Final Fantasy, film actors and actresses were getting extremely worried about their futures, expressing fear of being replaced by computers.

Although a computer controlled world is the subject of many popular science fiction films, I remain doubtful that it will become reality. Regardless of how it is delivered, audiences will always need a 'human' aspect to their films and television. There also is a great chance some of these new hybrid industries will be extinguished in the coming years due to the rapidly progressing technological development of the world. A changing part of the television industry today is the more ways it can be broadcast and delivered to audiences around the world.

The worldwide online audience can watch news articles, sporting events and television shows like 'Big Brother' on the Internet, whenever they like. The presence of television style video media on the Internet is always growing. This kind of development in technology and popularity does change the industry in some ways, however they are still not radical changes that affects everyone and everything. What it does achieve is more opportunities to work in the television industry, because some broadcasting agencies are producing Internet specific television which means more specialised crews have to be hired. There is some interest being expressed about producing films for Internet distribution. At the moment, there are various online film sites where users, and in most cases, paying subscribers can download and watch short films produced directly for the worldwide online audience.

This does mean that they aren't generating revenue from box office sales, but that is irrelevant anyhow, short films rarely get shown in cinemas. It is highly beneficial for the film maker to be able to deliver their work to anyone in the world, to gain widespread recognition. This in turn can lead to being seen as a skilled film maker and provide even amateurs with opportunities to produce something for the worldwide market, outside of the Internet. It is not only amateurs using the internet as a global showcase, well known and established writers, directors, producers and even crew members are using the internet as means for free distribution. Alex Pro yas, for example is widely recognised as the director of 'The Crow' and writer / director of 'Dark City,' which were both very successful films for him. He has produced a website (web) where anyone in the world with Internet access can download a few one minute films that he has created.

Not only this, he has provided the opportunity for new film makers to submit scripts for one-minute films to him, the best of which, he will help produce. This sort of opportunity for new film makers is extremely valuable for delivering their creations to the worldwide audience to gain some recognition as a skilled artist. In reality, the Internet provides film makers with a very low cost distribution service. Although they don't benefit from box office sales, with good marketing ideas, they can have their film seen by millions of people around the world.

This opportunity gives so many more people a chance to have their work noticed, because, without the Internet, the only chance for this to happen is if the short film is screened at a film festival or on television. That chance is extremely slim. The implications of this technological convergence are that more people have the opportunity to get their work out into the world for people to see and notice. It is only recently convergence has become so hugely corporate which may be an indication of what is to come. Due to the apparent failure of some converged corporations in their first year of big business convergence (AOL Time Warner), the amount of converging corporations may not be as big as expected. On the other hand, it may just inspire other organisations to learn from the mistakes of others and try to succeed where they failed.

To exemplify, AOL has had another go at convergence with another corporation, the Seven network. When seen from a public perspective, it's hard to tell how effective these forms of convergence are, as far as popularity. When it comes down to it, it's all about who has got the money, and who can be bothered. Why would people who have television, which is free, pay money to access an interactive version on their computer, where the information takes longer to get to them? I am one of these people, and I'm sure there's at least thousands more, probably millions. Of the 20 million (roughly) Australians, I would guess that no more than 100,000 have subscribed to something like AOL Seven Broadband.

It does deliver a lot of content that's not seen on television, but the public generally isn't interested. On their free television stations, they have movies, soaps, reality TV, documentaries, news, drama serials and much more. Furthermore, if they want to know specific things like the results of an Italian soccer match, there's plenty of free websites they can access to find out. Generally speaking.

I can imagine that local content creators and producers were worried about losing their market with the big business convergence happening around them, but at this stage, I see no reason for that worry. Millions of people are still going to sit down and watch their television, there isn't ever going to be a mass pilgrimage to computers and the Internet. Moreover, we still have to realise that for the general population, television isn't something they live for and need to survive. If there's something the public want to know about in the world, then there's easily enough ways to do so, for free.