What impact has digital technology had on the studio production companies you have studied

Over the past decade, the use of digital technology has become increasingly evident, moving into the hands of audiences, and changing the way we consume media. The film industry has gained both advantages and disadvantages from this change and is likely to continue adapting in the future, from the introduction of new technologies and their availability to the audience.

The use of DV cameras among audiences has significantly affected the film industry, in that audiences themselves can feel closer to the film industry and take part in similar processes of production. The decreasing price of DV cameras, as well as the introduction of new technologies over the last decade has increased the use of them, making them available to more people, and increasing the quality of the product. The use of DV cameras has benefitted the film industry, in that the audience can create their own productions, and extend the brand of the film, where users can upload their own ‘films’ to the internet, on websites such as YouTube, due to the increased number of broadband connections in homes, promoting the films in doing so. However, the use of DV cameras has also increased levels of piracy-the 2009 film, ‘The Boat That Rocked’, although having a large budget of around $50 million, grossed around $35 million. Although this is a large inflow of revenue, other British films, funded from abroad, have been known to triple their budget-2006’s ‘Casino Royale’ grossed $594 million, with a budget of only $150 million. This may be due to the economic circumstances at the time ‘The Boat That Rocked’ was released, where many audiences may not be able to afford to consume media as much, and may instead watch pirate copies. With more people owning DV cameras, and the decreased size of the cameras due to technological advancements, cameras can be concealed upon entering a cinema, in order to record a film, to make it illegally available to others, through the use of DVD burning and the internet. The decreased quality encountered in pirate copies may make many viewers feel that the film itself was not exceptionally good, which may lead to viewers advising friends and family not to see the film, decreasing revenue for production companies, such as Working Title films, further.

Digital technology has also decreased many costs for production companies, so that films can be produced at a higher quality, with a lower budget. As many films are shot partly or fully in the digital format, some film can be offered to cinemas in the digital. However, films distributed in the digital format currently have low demand, because the costs of converting cinemas to theatres with digital screens are very high: up to $150,000 per screen or more, and it is debatable whether the picture quality is any clearer-there are also more risks of digital projectors having faults and may require a replacements after only 5 years. An incentive for production companies distributing digitally is the possibility of greater protection against piracy. With traditional film prints, distributors will release films in different markets at separate times, in order to ship the film prints into each country. In countries in which a film is not yet released, pirated copies of a film may be available, enticing consumers to watch the film illegally, decreasing revenue for production companies. A simultaneous ‘blanket’ release could remove this problem, through digital distribution, as copies would be cheaper and faster to manufacture, and more could be produced (where smaller optical discs would be easier and cheaper to transport, rather than a large film reel), or it could be made available over the internet, with significantly lower costs to a distribution company, which may allow for more money to be spent on production. Aswell as Working Title films, Universal Pictures also funded 'The Boat that Rocked', and so both films could experience these benefits of more revenue.

Specific audiences may be deterred by the concept of digital film consumption. Some individuals, that may have a professional interest in film, may notice slight differences in quality of a digital film, and may decide that they would rather not see the film at a cinema, and may wish to wait to purchase the film when released to DVD, for example, which would decrease the revenue, and may have an affect on the budget of future productions, for the production company. However, it is evident that the repeated use of film reels, currently used in cinemas, can degrade the quality after a number of viewings-scratches and dirt on the reels will affect the quality and may deter many audiences from viewing the film after a period of time ahead of the release. Digitally distributed films, however, can be viewed repeatedly, without affecting the quality greatly, and may therefore continue to gain higher revenue, weeks after the release. Film4 and UK Film Council that funded and produced 'This is England' would not have been able to distribute the film digitally on a 'blanket' release, due to the low budget of the film (£1.5 million).

The use of digital sound has also been an important element affecting production companies-large amounts of time can be spent on editing sound to ensure it is at optimal quality, and has a ‘surround sound’ element, making consumption of films a more compelling ‘experience’, consequently increasing revenue for the production company.

It is evident that digital technology has played a major role in the forming of the modern film industry, supplying both advantages and disadvantages to production companies, which they have no control over, and in future, will have to adapt to, in order to continue grossing highly, in this highly competitive industry.

Film Theft in the UK-2004 Report

LINK:      Film Theft in the UK    

Film piracy in the UK 

Piracy at any stage in this process can cause the film industry to sustain heavy financial losses across the whole value chain. If consumers are able to acquire and view a film title illegally, the incentive to see and acquire that film by legitimate means is diluted; whether in the cinema, on DVD/video (rented or purchased), or pay-TV. Also, the logical extension of this argument is that the earlier the pirated copy appears in a film’s business lifecycle, the heavier the potential revenue loss is likely to be. Essentially, the earlier the act of piracy is, the greater is the number of ‘windows’ of exploitation that become vulnerable to diminished revenues.

Types of Piracy

Types of piracy in the UK involve both physical and non-physical piracy.

At the moment, physical piracy involves manufacture and distribution of either videocassette or optical disc traded in high street shops, on the internet, in street markets or car boot sales. There are both professional and consumer versions of piracy.

Large scale, professional piracy is often operated at a business-in 2003 180 million discs were manufactured and distributed.

Over the past two years, there has been a major surge of large-scale factory production of DVDs in Russia. The latest numbers indicate that there are now at least 34 DVD lines (both legal and pirate) in the country. Russia has become one of the world’s largest producers and distributors of pirate optical discs of all kinds. This production has devastated the domestic market and is now threatening markets throughout Europe and beyond. In 2002, the film industry’s local anti-piracy organisation, RAPO, seized over 226,000 pirate DVDs in raids on warehouses and outlets across Russia.

FACT total seizures of 

counterfeit products (2003) 

FORMAT SEIZED 

VCD 120,722 

VHS 86,501 

DVD-R 178,577 

DVD COMPILATION 2,515 

DVD 1,573,510 

Total DVD format seized 1,754,602 

Consumer home copying on the other hand poses a far more difficult activity to assess as a potential threat to the film industry. In the mid 1990s the analogue home VCR was the only consumer device that enabled illegal copies to be made in the home. The only way to do this was by ‘back-to-back’ copying’; connecting two VCRs together via an analogue cable, one set to play, the other set to record. Less than ten years on, the home recording environment has changed dramatically. The digital revolution has resulted in a variety of new digital recording devices appearing on the market, most of which are linked either to TV or PC use.

Home copying of DVDs and other digital audiovisual content is in part possible due to the phenomenon known as the ‘analogue hole’. This refers to the fact that all connections to TV sets (as well as to other devices like VCRs) are analogue. Regardless of the fact that modern home entertainment appliances like DVD players and pay-TV decoders are digital, their output must be converted from digital to analogue in order to display them on a TV set. Moreover, because DVD players are optimised to deliver the best possible (analogue) picture and sound quality to the TV set, they can potentially provide a high-quality analogue source for copying to a blank DVD. The resulting copied DVD will have none of the digital copy protection of the original DVD and can thus be used to make an infinite number of further perfect digital copies of this single analogue copy.

The History and Role of Vertigo Films

Vertigo films was set up in 2002, specifically to produce 2 new british films and contribute to the british film industry in commercially driven independent cinema. These films were 'The Football Factory' and 'Its all gone Pete Tong', both with British cultural influences, and the institution is now continuing to produce four films each year, under their own distribution company (they make many joint ventures with other British production and distribution companies, including FilmFour). Some of these latest releases are 'Street Dance 3D' and 'The Firm' (which is claimed to be the UK's number 1 DVD on the official website). It is clear that the advances in technology and a larger amount of finance has allowed this change, now producing 3D films to match the new cultures of cinema to increase their revenue and make watching the film more of a memorable experience.

Vertigo films has used innovative technology, meticulous attention to budget and great care of the audience to produce a large amount of success. Many films have a 'gritty' appearance, with a contrasting representation of Britain to Working Title Films, where films like 'Goodbye Charlie Bright' have themes of gang violence, but 'Love Actually' by Working Title has a more positive representation of culture, making character's lives appear very optimistic.

Award-winning films
It's All Gone Pete Tong:
Best Canadian Feature — Toronto International Film Festival — 2004
Best Feature — US Comedy Arts Festival — 2005
Best Actor (Paul Kaye) — US Comedy Arts Festival — 2005
Grand Jury Award — Gen Art Film Festival — 2005
Audience Award — Gen Art Film Festival — 2005
Best British Columbian Film — Vancouver Film Critics Circle — 2005
Best Male Performer' (Mike Wilmot) — Canadian Comedy Awards — 2005
Best Overall Sound — Leo Awards — 2005
Best Sound Editing — Leo Awards — 2005
Best Feature-Length Drama — Leo Awards — 2005
Clean:
Best Actress (Maggie Cheung) — Cannes Film Festival — 2004
London to Brighton:
Best Achievement in Production — British Independent Film Awards — 2006
Golden Hitchcock (Paul Andrew Williams) — Dinard Festival of British Cinema — 2006
New Director's Award (Paul Andrew Williams) — Edinburgh International Film Festival — 2006
Most Promising Newcomer (Paul Andrew Williams) — Evening Standard British Film Awards — 2007
Best Feature Film — Foyle Film Festival — 2006
Jury Prize (UK Feature) — Raindance Film Festival — 2006
Shotgun Stories:
New American Cinema Award — Seattle International Film Festival — 2007

Vertigo Films has also recently released a New York-set thriller named WAZ, one of the companies first films not set in Britain.

Films in development
Dogging: A Love Story (2007) Production Company
The Sweeney (scheduled 2008) Production Company
The Wake Wood (2009)
Monsters
Untitled Cage Rage Project (scheduled 2009) Production Company; Distributor—UK all media
StreetDance (2010)

In addition to its production and distribution activity, Vertigo also owns The Post Republic, a successful state of the art post production company based in Berlin and is a partner in Protagonist Pictures, the sales company joint venture with Film Four and Ingenious Media.

LINKS:

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/technology/vertigo-films-teams-up-with-us-firm-for-3d-company/5010000.article

www.vertigofilms.com

The Vertigo Films-owned Post Republic, based in Berlin, is also involved in the joint venture and will provide post-production services. The Vertigo Films-owned Post Republic, based in Berlin, is also involved in the joint venture and will provide post-production services.