Developing Technologies in the TV and Film Industries

Television has improved vastly over the years. Black and white was improved by the creation of colour television. This was then improved by the creation of high definition television (HDTV), recently this was improved by the creation of three dimension television (3DTV).


3DTV
The design of 3DTV is when it appears that figures from your TV screen are coming out to the viewers. This is designed to make TV programmes look more realistic and to make an improvement to TV. This is created by two high definition (HD) camera's directly next to each other and are played back at the same time to create a 3D image. Personally I wouldn't buy a 3D TV because there isn't a great range of channels to choose in 3D so it isn't great value for money.
HDTV
High definition television (HDTV) is a design that makes the images on the TV screen appear in a higher resolution than a standard TV. According to designers, HDTV is supposed to be 5 times better resolution than a standard TV.
Satellite Television
Satellite television is television programming used by satellite communications. A signal is received by a satellite dish on the side of a house or building and connected to a satellite in space. Satellite TV users are also available to use a card or a USB stick to be attached to a personal computer. An examples of this would by BSkyB (Sky). I think satellite TV in the UK is pretty good at the moment but the signal could try to be improved as some times I lose my picture at home on my SKY+ box.
Cable Television
Cable television is television programming that is similar to satellite television but instead of the connection being sent to space, it is sent underground. This means there is no interruptions due to weather conditions and it is generally a lot faster. So even though the majority of the UK have satellite rather than cable, the whole programming and system of the cable networks is a better option. An example of cable networking would be Virgin Media.
Digital Recorders
Digital TV recorders are similar to video recorders in that you can record television programmes to watch at a later date.  Some other benefits of the new digital TV recorders are:
Pause and rewind live TV, Recording a complete series in one touch, Viewing electronic program guides. The Sky+ HD Box can record up to 60 Gigabytes of programming, record entire series through series link, record up to two programmes simultaneously and many more. 
Pay Per View
A pay per view programme is pretty self explanatory, live events (usually boxing) or recent films can be purchased to watch live and on the day instead of watching highlights at a later date. Personally I think pay per view events are a bit of a scam to get more money and isn't a good idea. Also the viewers might not get their moneys worth, because if they have payed for a boxing match, a boxing match could be over in 30 seconds and you could spend up to £20 to watch 30 seconds of action.
Computer Generated Imagery

Computer-generated imagery (CGI), is the application of computer graphics and mainly 3D graphics to make special effects in the mass media, (TV, film, video games e.t.c.) The 3D graphics is used to make computer generated images in film and TV. Recent improvement on CGI technology has allowed companies and business to make good standard films, video games e.t.c. from their own computers at home. There are two deifferent types of CGI, 3D animation and motion capture animation. 3D animation is built using charcters over virtual skeletons to make movement. This can be a very long process. 3D animation is used in films like Toy Story and Shrek. Motion capture animation is used from live actions. An actor uses sensory devices that picks up the movement and positioning of an actors joints. This movement is then transferred on to an already designed character. However these effects can be the downfall of maovie that is heavily reliant on CGI and not the storyline or plot. Films like Pirates of the Caribbean and Aavatar uses motion capture animation. Some of the old Disney films like Jungle Book and Cinderella also used motion capture animation.



Woody is made by 3D animation



Avatar Characters are made by Motion Capture animation





As you can see television has drastically improved over the years. Personally I don't think they can do much more to improve television. However I would quite like to have voice control television where instead of a remote to select a channel you say which channel you want. Another thing i would like to see is things coming out of the screen, for example i would like to see water come out of the screen and you would get wet. I think that would amazing.

Regulation of Media Regulator

British Video Association,(The BVA) - The BVA  represent the interests of publishers and rights owners of pre-recorded video entertainment.

Film Distributors Association (FDA) - FDA is the trade body for theatrical film distributors in the UK - the companies that release films for UK  cinema audiences

Trading Standards Institute - The Trading Standards Institute is focusing on sporting fakes and scams

Press Complaints Commission (PCC) - The PCC is an independent self-regulatory body which deals with complaints about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines (and their websites.)

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), - The ASA is the UK's independent regulator of advertising across all media, including
marketing on websites. They ensure ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful by applying the Advertising Codes.

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), - MEF is the global community for mobile content and commerce.

The Independent Games Developers Association (TIGDA), - TIGDA's vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business. Our mission is to fight for the interests of game developers.

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), - BAFTA is the leading independent charity supporting, developing and promoting the art forms of the moving image in the UK - from Film and Television to Video Games and Interactive Media.

Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA), - The Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) is the trade body for UK commercial radio. It represents commercial radio to Government,the Radio Authority, copyright societies and other organisations concerned with radio.

The International Visual Communication Association (IVCA), - The International Visual Communications Association exists to represent its members to Government and other stake holding bodies and to promote effective business and public service communications of the highest ethical and professional standards.

Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), - The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards.

British Web Design and Marketing Association - The UK Web Design Association was established in 2001 to encourage and promote industry standards within the British web design and new media sector.

British Interactive Multimedia Association (BIMA) - The British Interactive Group (BIG) is the skills sharing network for individuals involved in the communication of science, technology, engineering and maths.

Regulatory issues:

Ownership -  Regulatory bodies has rules that stops big companies buying everything within a media sector. Pesonally I think this rule should continue because if one person owned a certain type of media you would only hear their point of view which the public shouldn't, they should hear different points of view and make their own mind up.

monopoly access - A monopoly exists where there is only one supplier of a product or service. This allows the supplier to charge higher prices than if there was competition. I agree with this statement because for example, Tesco have their own brand of products and sell them for a cheap price so people buy them. However if people constantly buy the Tesco products and put a brand out of business, Tesco can then charge whatever they like because there is no competition against them.

consumer choice - Consumer choice is when an audience have a choice on what to watch on TV, listen to on the radio and read in magazines.

freedom of information -  Freedom of information  refers to the protection of the right to freedom of expression with regards to the Internet and information technology.
censorship - Censorship is the prohibition of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body.

taste and decency - This is when a TV programme is said to be shown at a certain time due its content.

An Example of Breaching the Privacy Law

Ryan Giggs Scandal

Last year a big story broke out about Ryan Giggs having an affair with former Big Brother housemate Imogen Thomas. This story shouldn’t have been published as Ryan Giggs had carried out a super injunction so this was actually breaking the Privacy Law. However Ryan Giggs had been mentioned by over 75,000 people on Twitter and they said it would be impossible to track down every single person that mentioned him and imprison them so everyone went unpunished. I think that the story should never have been publishes as it is breaking the privacy law and in a way his human rights law. However the story was in the public interest so the newspapers had every right to publish the story.

Ethical and Legal Constraints within the Media Sector

Ethical:

Social issues and sensitivities, eg representation of gender, representation of religious beliefs, linguistic usages, accessibility; professional body codes of practice, e.g.BBC producers' guidelines, Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) accessibility standards.

Legal:

People who work in the creative media industries have certain rules and regulations that they must abide by, below is a list of some of them:

Official Secrets Act 1989, The Official Secrets Act 1989 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It repeals and replaces section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911. It is said to have removed the public interest defence created by that section. An example of this could be when Prince Harry went to Afghanistan with the army and it got published in the newspapers when it probably shouldn't have been.

Obscene Publications Act 1959 (and later amendments),

The Obscene Publications Act 1959 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity. An example of this is when the book company 'Penguin' published a highly censored book.

Films Act 1985,

An Act to repeal the Films Acts 1960 to 1980; to make further provision with respect to the financing of films; and for connected purposes. An example of this could be showing a film on tele before the watershed when the film shouldn't be.

Video Recordings Act 1984,

The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon by an authority designated by the Home Office. An example of this is when someone buys a pirate copy DVD.

Race Relations Act 1976 (and later amendments),

The Race Relations Act 1976 was established by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race. An example of this could be when you are interviewing people for a job you have to give an interview to at least one white person and one black person.

Human Rights Act 1998,

The Human Rights Act 1998 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received Royal Assent on 9 November 1998, and mostly came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim is to "give further effect" in UK law to the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights. An example of this could be when someone gets told off for being to loud or talking too much.

Licensing Act 2003 (and later amendments);

The Licensing Act of 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that applies only to England and Wales. The Act establishes a single integrated scheme for licensing premises which are used for the sale or supply of alcohol, to provide regulated entertainment, or to provide late night refreshment. An example of this could be when a newsagent or shop sells alcohol when they don't have a license to do so.

Privacy law;

Privacy law refers to the laws which deal with the regulation of personal information about individuals which can be collected by governments and other public as well as private organizations and its storage and use. An example of this could be when Ryan Giggs had an affair and it was published in the newspapers which in a way was breaching his privacy.
Copyright and Intel

Copyright are exclusive statutory rights to exercise control over copying and other exploitation of the works for a specific period of time. The copyright owner is given two sets of rights: an exclusive, positive right to copy and exploit the copyrighted work, or license others to do so, and a negative right to prevent anyone else from doing so without consent, with the possibility of legal remedies if they do. An example of this could be when a singer steals someones idea for a song but doesn't give the other person any money

Libel Law
Libel is defined as defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.

BBFC
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom.It has a statutory requirement to classify videos, DVDs and some video games.
OFCOM
Office Communications (OFCOM), is the communications regulator that regulates the TV and radio sectors, fixed line telecoms and mobiles.
Codes of Practice
A set of written rules which explains how people working in a particular profession should behave.
Press Codes of Practice

All members of the press have a duty to maintain the highest professional standards.The Code, which includes this preamble and the public interest exceptions below,sets the benchmark for those ethical standards, protecting both the rights of the individual and the public right to know.
Media Representation
Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures.
A few examples of this are: in The Simpson's and in Family Guy, Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin are represented an average American man- Fat, Lazy and unintelligent.

TV Companies Ownership

Sky

British Sky Broadcasting (better known as SKY TV or BSkyB), was formed in October 1990 specialises in telecommunications and media industry. The company was formed when Sky television and British Satellite Broadcasting, who were both struggling financially, merged to become BSkyB (Sky) and now has over 10 million subscribers.

Sky is listed on the London Stock Exchange with News Corporation owning a controlling 39.1% of the company.  In 2010, News Corporation launched a takeover bid but withdrew the bid in July 2011 because of The News of the World’s alleged phone hacking scandal, causing the newspaper to be shut down. ITV has been the subject of a flurry of rumoured take-over and merger bids since it was formed. For example, on 9^th November 2006, News International announced that it had approached ITV about a proposed merger. The merger was effectively blocked by BSkyB on 17^th November 2006 when it controversially bought a 17.9% stake in ITV for £940 million. The plan would see News International Group acquiring Sky’s stake in ITV plc in exchange for Sky taking full control of Channel 5. However, no move materialised and News International Group sold Channel 5 to Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell in July 2010.

Sky has had a lot of criticism of how it influences TV and how they make more money.  On 12th July 2011, former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown claimed that Sky’s majority owner, News Corporation attempted to affect government policy with regards to the BBC in pursuit of their own commercial interests (i.e. BSkyB). He went further, in a speech in Parliament on 13th July 2011, stating:"Mr. James Murdoch, which included his cold assertion that profit not standards was what mattered in the media, underpinned an ever more aggressive News International and BSkyB agenda under his and Mrs. Brooks’ leadership that was brutal in its simplicity. Their aim was to cut the BBC license fee, to force BBC online to charge for its content, for the BBC to sell off its commercial activities, to open up more national sporting events to bids from BSkyB and move them away from the BBC, to open up the cable and satellite infrastructure market, and to reduce the power of their regulator, OFCOM. I rejected those policies." Also a lot of people aren’t happy that when you by a Sky box, you have to buy Sky Sports and Sky News in a way of Sky getting more money. Even if you have Sky Sports and Sky Movies, you might still have to pay to watch live boxing and the latest movies on Sky Box Office which is overpriced in my opinion. They also get a lot of money through companies and business’ wanting to advertise on Sky and wanting to sponsor some of their programmes.  Also a TV license costs £145.50 and they have over 10 million subscribers and their tax bill equals to 7% of their revenue, so a lot of money is coming in and not a lot going out which is key factor in their success.

BBC

British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is probably the biggest cross-media companies in Britain. Founded on New Year’s Day 1927, ever since then the BBC has gradually got bigger every year until they are as big as they are today. Currently owned by Lord Patten of Barnes (Chairman) and Mark Thompson (Director-General).  The BBC is funded differently to other media companies. They get their money through the TV licence. For their TV channels they get £7.96 per month per household, for their radio stations they get £2.11 per month per household, for their online services they get £0.66 per month per household and for other costs they get £1.40 per month per household. Another way they get funding is when a programme like Strictly Come Dancing, where the viewing public pay to ring in vote for their favourite acts, the BBC earn lots of money from these phone in shows and if you want to ring Radio 1 to ask them to play a song there is a fee you have to pay to phone or text in.

One of the BBC’s main selling points is that they are very diverse with their numerous TV programmes. BBC One is quite adult contemporary as they quite often record shows like The News, Eggheads, Bargain Hunt e.t.c. BBC Two is also adult contemporary as record shows like Coast and Weakest Link however they record shows like Mock the Week and Match of the Day 2 which swings the target audience towards male’s over 25. BBC Three is aimed at 16-34 year olds and mainly specialise in comedy programmes e.g. Family Guy, Little Britain, Gavin and Stacey, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps e.t.c. They also often air live music from festivals e.g. Glastonbury and Radio 1’s Big Weekend.  BBC Four is also adult contemporary as it shows a lot of history documentaries, live performances of classical music like BBC Proms and a lot of animal documentaries e.g. Life and Blue Planet.

There has been a bit of controversy within the BBC for many reasons. Firstly there is the licence fee which some people think is overpriced. However I wouldn’t mind paying that much because it means the BBC can make better quality programmes because they will have a bigger budget and it means there are no adverts during shows. However there are some negatives, people with lower incomes pay more for their licence fee because they can’t pay it all at once they charged more for delay of payment and get charged and extra fee for paying on their credit card because they can’t afford any other type of payment. Also now because a lot of channels have an online player and very little adverts are played on the online channels so people are paying licence fee to have no adverts when the likes of ITV have an online service which has little adverts shown. Secondly there was a big deal over political correctness within the BBC so throughout all their programmes from Question Time to Match of the Day; they can’t be biased to one person or team or group e.t.c.  The BBC also can’t advertise because of the licence fee. The reason is that it is a public service broadcaster and not a commercial broadcaster so the public don’t want to be paying their hard earned money for a load of adverts.

Film Ownership

20^th Century Fox

20th Century Fox are a subsidiary company of multinational media conglomerate News Corporation. In the early days, Fox were struggling financially and had to sell parts of their headquarters and fire a few actors/actress’ including the likes of Marilyn Monroe to keep them afloat. They also had to rush film productions to get the filming done in the time limit without having to pay more to spend a few extra days filming. However as a last ditch plan to earn some money they made a big budget film called The Longest Day and was recognised as one the best World War II films of all time. From that money they created various Box Office hits including, the original Planet of the Apes, Sound of Music and of course Star Wars. From these profit making films, the chairman of Fox, Dennis Stanfill, invested in other ways to make money including, resort properties, soft drink bottles and Australian theatres in order to make more money. In 1935 20^th Century merged with fox to become 20^th Century Fox and started trading business together ever since

Film Financing

There are many ways for film companies to get the proper finances for their film. One way film companies get extra funding is called product placement where for example, in the James Bond films, he always drives an Aston Martin, so Aston Martin pays the film producers to use their cars in the James Bond films. Another way to get film financing is Government Grants, this is when a number of governments run programs to subsidise the cost of producing films. Governments are willing to provide these subsidies as they hope it will attract creative individuals to their territory and increase employment. Also, a film shot in a particular location can have the benefit of advertising that location to an international audience. Government subsidies are often pure grants, where the government expects no financial return. Another way of film financing is tax schemes. A number of countries have introduced tax legislation that has the effect of generating tax deductions for producers or owners of films. Schemes are created which effectively sell the tax deductions to wealthy individuals with large tax liabilities. The individuals pay the producer a fee in order to obtain the tax deductions. The individual will often become the legal owner of the film or certain rights relating to the film, but the producer will in substance continue as the real owner of the economic rights to exploit the film. However governments are beginning to recognise that tax deductions are an inefficient way of supporting the film industry. Too much of the tax benefit is siphoned off by promoters of the tax scheme. Also, films with little commercial or artistic merit are produced simply to generate tax deductions. In 2007 the United Kingdom government introduced the Producer's Tax Credit which results in a direct cash subsidy from the treasury to the film producer. Another example of film financing is private equity financing. Generally tax-advantaged film and television investment for individuals comes with little risk. Most often, the cost of production is recouped by a combination of federal and state tax incentives, thereby eliminating most of the risk. The main source of film financing is debt finance. There are four different ways of financing; Pre-sales, TV-presales, negative pickup deal and gap/supergap financing. Firstly pre-sales is based on the script and cast, selling the right to distribute a film in different territories before the film is completed. Once the deal is made, the distributor will insist the producers deliver on certain elements of content and cast, if a material alteration is made, financing may collapse. In order to gain the “big names” essential for drawing in an international audience, distributors and sale agents will often make casting suggestions. Pre-sales contracts with big name actors or directors will often have an "essential element" clause that allows the buyer to get out of the contract if the star or director falls out of the picture. The reliance on pre-sales explains the film industry's dependence on movie stars, directors or certain film genres. Upon signing a pre-sale contract, the buyer will pay a 20% deposit to the film's collection account, with the balance due upon the film's delivery to the foreign sales agent. Usually a producer pre-sells foreign windows/rights so that the producer can use the value of those contracts as a part for the production loan that is provided to finance the production. Secondly, TV pre-sales is more usual for a producer to sell the TV rights of a film after it has been made, it is sometimes possible to sell the rights in advance and use the money to pay for the production. In some cases the television station will be a subsidiary of the movie studio's parent company. A negative pickup deal is a contract entered into by an independent producer and a movie studio wherein the studio agrees to purchase the movie from the producer at a given date and for a fixed sum. Until then, the financing is up to the producer, who must pay any additional costs if the film goes over-budget. Superman and Never Say Never Again are examples of negative pickups. Finally, gap/supergap financing is a form of debt financing where the producer wishes to complete their film finance package by procuring a loan that is secured against the film's unsold territories and rights. Most gap financiers will only lend against the value of unsold foreign rights, as domestic rights are seen as a performance risk, as opposed to more quantifiable risk that is the foreign market. This means that the foreign value of a film can be ascertained by a foreign sales company by evaluating the blended value of the quality of the script, its genre, cast, director, producer, as well as whether it has theatrical distribution from a major film studio all of this is taken into consideration.

Disney

Walt Disney is a massive company and is the largest conglomerate in world in terms of revenue, first founded by Walt Disney and Roy Disney in 1923. Despite being known as a family company it has come under much criticism for having racial and sexual subliminal and hidden messages. For example in The Lion King, the voices of the hyena’s were voiced by black people, people saw this as racism because they thought Disney were getting the message across that black people were evil and scroungers. They also came under pressure from the human rights division by having poor work facilities for people who make Disney’s merchandise. In the same way, the animal rights co-operation complained that at one of Disneyland’s theme parks, Animal Kingdom were keeping animals in captivity and reported that many animals had died due to accidents. Also one of Disney’s companies ABC Network came under a lot of criticism for wanting to show controversial TV programmes on significant dates. They wanted to show a 2 part documentary called The Path to 9/11 on the 10^th and 11^th September 2006. Also they scrapped an idea of filming a storyline on, One Life to Live, about a school shooting rampage on the day the Virginia Tech massacre occurred on April 17^th 2007. Disney has had many partnerships with other film companies but has always broken down between the owners. Disney’s and Pixar’s partnership broke up after the production of Toy Story 2. The film was intended to go straight to video but Disney disobeyed so they could get more money.

News Corporation

News Corporation, owned and founded by Rupert Murdoch in 1979, is the world’s second largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue. News Corporation mainly concentrate on newspapers and own over 200 different newspapers in a number of countries and own 29 different magazines, mainly based in the UK, USA and Australia. However one of the biggest scandals of 2011 broke out revolved around News Corporation and its owner Rupert Murdoch. In July 2011, News Corporation had to shut down The News of the World due to allegations of phone hacking. Various victims include, former PM’s, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair and family victims of the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks. Due to these allegations, News Corporation withdrew its bid to purchase the final 61% stake in Sky to completely overtake the company. In August 2005 the Murdoch family owned approximately 27% of the shares, however nearly all of the shares were voting shares and Rupert Murdoch retained effective control of the company. Nonetheless, John Malone of Liberty Media had built up a large stake, with about half of the shares being voting shares. Therefore, in November 2006, News Corporation announced its intention to transfer its 38.5 per cent managing interest in DirecTV Group to John Malone's Liberty Media; in return it bought back Liberty's 16.3% shares in News Corp., giving Murdoch tighter control of the latter firm. Murdoch sold 17.5 million class A shares in December 2007.