Convergence is both a blessing and a curse for the UK film industry because it opens up more and more ways by which people can access media, yet opens up opportunities for crime and other things that could harm the film industry.
Convergence is the coming together of 2 or more technologies e.g. a newspaper with an online version, or a film, with a website, and then an accompanying game.
This is a good thing because it means that more money can be made from one product, in the case of Quantum of Solace, the accompanying game made a lot of money, and this is a common occurance, with various media associated with the film being fruitful to the makers. Other examples of successful convergence is advertisement, that makes an audience want to go and see a film. Posters on the underground and on buses, billboards, and internet sites that takes aspects from the film and use it to attract customers to go and see the film all show conversion, with different media joining together for one purpose.
Film piracy is a huge threat to the UK film industry, film theft and online copyright infringements represent a major threat to all elements of the UK film industry, which means that a lot of money that should be being made by the film companies is being lost and made elsewhere.
Q2. How has the internet allowed film-makers to find and attract audiences in different ways?
Online advertising is a very strong way of attracting audiences. A small banner at the top/to the side of the screen can attract someone without them necessarily realising. Also, there are many different websites that can promote films such as facebook, youtube etc. by way of different medias. Youtube has the capacity to show adverts and seeded videos from the film, and facebook is possibly an even stronger site for film promotion, simply because people put their opinions of the film on facebook and so therefore influence other people's decisions on film choice, as well as producers making pages with links to the website of the film, videos and games where applicable, all of which help promote the film.
Q3. Summarise how you think sites like YouTube, MySpace and Facebook are good for film audiences. What do they let us do that we couldn't before?
Sites such as youtube can allow the uploading and streaming of adverts for films, which allows audiences to see the advert if they havent caught it on television.
Social networking sites provide the opportunities for films to set up 'pages' that people can 'like' and on which there is information regarding screenings and dates etc. There are also links back you youtube etc. to increase potential audience size.
Also, advertising on banners at the side of pages etc. means that there is more and more space for advertisers to advertise and attract an audience.
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