Audience and Institution Essay
Funding media products has huge impacts on whether media products flop or become a huge success. Funding allows for campaigns and advertisements to be set up and shown to targeted audiences. It also allows for the product to be made and to help with the distribution process.
People who fund media products look for ones that have the most upside. In the film industry, movies or television shows need funding to get off their feet and start hiring workers and actors for the film. The funding gives the production team “room” per say to do as they please if it’s within the set budget. Funding plays a huge role in the beginning of film production because without it many films would have never made it to their audience globally. Funding during the production provides such a steppingstone that is much needed for any film. In the movie “Furious 7” had many main actors who played major roles in the series, without them the movie would not have been the same, so funding help pay the actors to be in the film.
Funding also allows films to be advertised on other platforms. For example, films can use their funding to place ads on YouTube videos (like a trailer) or on television stations when another show ends. Depending on the amount of funding, it can allow them to place ads on T.V. stations or at movie theaters which have large number of viewers or customers. The ads promote the film and allow it to get recognition among their targeted audiences. This allows more potential upside to the film which can make the net profit increasingly higher. For the movie “Black Panther” it was marketed on magazine covers and an advertisement was placed during a live television event, the NBA Finals. These were made possible by the funding they received to make and produce the movie. Also, the movie “Spider-Man: Homecoming” performed synergy with the cereal brand Cinnamon Toast Crunch by adding a toy inside their boxes in exchange for an ad to be placed on their boxes. Without funding neither of the teams would have been able to pay for the advertisements.
During the distribution process, funding’s role is to help get this film to audiences. They need to pay to be able to have their films in movie theaters or certain T.V. stations where they feel will make the most profit for them. Initially, the distribution process took a lot more money to do, but now since everything is done digitally it takes up significantly less pay to do so. Still, funding allows films to be distributed quicker and provides more expansion for the film so the amount of money it makes is greater than the budget they used to make it. The distribution process needs funding because it allows film makers to get their project out there and able to be seen and/or heard. The movie “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was distributed as an Amazon Blu-Ray, DVD, and digital combo pack. It was also released in theaters globally which they made 653.7 million USD (United States Dollars). Without funding, they would not have been able to make their movie into DVDs and sent to movie theaters to be shown.
To recap, the funding of media products allows the film industry to thrive and grow. Without funding many films and shows would have never successfully made it to their audiences. The impact it has is tremendous and because of it it made and shaped the very culture of its audiences.
