Digital Technology Essay

Evaluate the role of digital technology in the production, marketing and consumption of products?

1.      Digital technology used in production, distribution, exchange and exhibition of a film.  

2.      I studied the film industry, I’m going to discuss production, distribution, exchange and exhibition within the production of a film. Within the production stage of a film there is here stages, pre-production which is before shooting begins, for example storyboards are made, the location is decided, the set is made, then you have production and this is the point of no return, at this stage they’re not financially stable to cancel the project. Then the third stage is post-production, this is when the footage is edited, the sound track is done and the sounds effects are added on. Within the distribution stage of a film, this is where the film producers take control. The first stage would be where the investor or a studio decides to purchase the rights to the film. There would be a licensing agreement with the distribution company. Examples of distribution are: trailers, free preview of the film and websites. In the exchange stage of a film this is how well the audience views the film so for example, o Netflix, in cinema, on DVD or on streaming. Within the exhibition stage it depends on the type of audience the film is wishing to achieve. For example: YouTube (trailer) would have a large audience, whereas vimeo would have a more specific audience.

3.      Digital technology plays a very important role in the production of films. Distribution is a key factor in the production of films as this is the stage where people are made aware of the film and get to know what the film is all about. The film producers take control of this stage in the production. Within this stage, a studio or an investor will decide to purchase the rights pf the film, they will then get licensing equipment from the distribution company. Then the marketing for the film will begin to be made, for example the main marketing of a film is a trailer, this gives the audience insights to small parts of the film and normally leaves the audience with questions about what is going to happen next, and this is what usually makes the audience want to go and see the film when it comes into the cinema. Another way that a film is advertised is through social media, this is a very big thing nowadays as so many people are on social media, and this way of marketing is also free and usually has a very big outcome. There’s also things such as websites and apps which advertise the film to audiences. Some marketing campaigns for films have gone viral in the past, one of these was for the film spider-man, this production company linked up with Evian (water) and created an advert to promote both companies, this is called synergy where two companies come together to promote them both and as a result of this they gain a bigger audience, this was a big success and made a lot of people of all ages want to go to see the film when it came out.

4.       The types of exhibition depend on the type of audience that the film is aiming to attract. For example, a you tube trailer would attract a large and maybe a younger audience because of the people that know and understand how to use you tube. Whereas, if the production company created a vimeo to promote their film then this is aimed at a much more specific audience as this may be used for a smaller film. 3D and 4D films cannot be pirated which allows the film to make more money as people will have to come and see the film in cinema rather than someone filming it and selling it so people can watch it at home. During the exchange stage of the production of the film, this is how the audience views the film, there are many ways that people view and watch films nowadays and this is mainly due to what devices and websites are available to them. For example people can now watch films on: Netflix, amazon prime, DVD, Blu-Ray, sky movies, cinema, streaming

5.     Digital technology plays a major role in the production of films and without it film wouldn’t get half the audience that they get. However, there is some positives and negatives of digital technologies uses. Positives are that it allows production companies to promote and advertise in many ways which then creates a wider and bigger audience to come and see the film when it comes out. However, a negative of digital technology is that it is now used to watch films illegally, for example people now put films that are currently in the cinema onto websites where people can then watch them for free and they then don’t have to go to the cinema and pay to watch them which is actually what the production companies of the films aim for their audience to be doing and not watching them at home.