Media section B

“Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices.” To what extent would you agree with this statement, within the film area.

 You may make reference to other areas in your answer. • Film • Music • Newspapers • Radio • Magazines • Video games.

Marketing, distribution and production practises are both two big factors that media products must aim high with to get a successful outcome for there film. This is to make sure there film will be popular to there target audience. The marketing and production must fit the appropriate target audience by using the correct conventions needed otherwise they will not achieve the profits they want.

Both marketing and production are both very important in a film an example of a very successful marketing film company is 'Disney' in my opinion I think that this film company have become very popular through all there marketing and distribution success. This is because through the years of this film companies existence they have covered beyond the amount of marketing an average company does. They have released sound tracks, have a disney store full of products from every film made, there is two disney worlds abroad, they own there own studio, TV channel and record label. An example of a disney film using these marketing techniques is 'Cinderella' this film has costumes for young boys and girls to dress up in which will excite them even more for the film. There is also a sound track to advertise the film even more. 

The specific audience for 'Disney' is young children this is because the films contained the conventions of beginning as a cartoon, using characters of princesses and princes which follows Props theory, using bright colours and an easy storyline for young children to understand. By Disney having a specific audience has helped them build up there popularity. Further more now Disney has extended there ability and made Disney films that contain real actors and actresses. An example of film that does this is 'Alice in Wonderland' this is an example of a film that has caught the attention of a wider audience. This film stars very well known famous people. One being Johnny Depp which would automatically get people intrigued to watch this film through his talent. This film was very successful and relied a lot on its marketing and distribution to promote this film however this film did not lack production practise as the quality of the film was a high standard otherwise it wouldn't get as much viewers.

In contrast with the film company Disney who are a huge marketing company is a smaller film company called ' Four channels' as a film that they had produced was 'Trainspotting' this is an example of a film that relies on the practise production over the marketing and distribution. This company is very small and isn't a company that will be the first that someone would think of. However the film 'Trainspotting' that they released was a very successful film and the profit they made was very high compared to the money they spent on it. This film company became more popular through the quality of film not the marketing. Even though there was marketing taken place one being in a newspaper.

Overall I feel that even though marketing and distribution is a major factor that any film company must have to make there film company very popular. The quality of the film and the practise of production comes before this as without a high quality film to release to audiences the marketing and build up to the film will be a waste of time as the audience will not go to see or not buy the film once they've seen in it because it was a disappointment compared to the marketing and distribution.