Unit 1- Analysing media products and audiances: September 2014

Unit 1 script

Hello my name is Bailey and I work for Mediwise and I have been tasked with investigating warp films

1.)Ownership: I will first be investigating Warp's ownership. Warp are an indie company which was established by the founders of warp records, Rob Mitchell and Steve Beckett. Indie company is short for independent company which means that they are not part of a conglomerate, a conglomerate is basically a larger company that is made up of smaller companies or 'subsidiaries'. An example of this is 21st century fox and the subsidiary 20th century fox. Usually the subsidiaries in a conglomerate all specialize in different areas in order to access a wider range of media e.g. Film, T.V, Radio etc, for example in the case of 20th century fox there is the film company '20th century fox' the T.V channel Fox T.V and Fox News.However Warp are an independent company which means that they are self run and self funded. However they do operate as a cross media company because they also have a record company called warp records.

2.) Operating Model : The two companies, warp films and warp records cross promote each others products for example when Aphex twin, a band signed with warp records did the soundtrack for a film by warp films called dead mans shoes and so Aphex twin promoted dead mans shoes and dead mans shoes promoted Aphex twin. Warp cannot be vertically or horizontally integrated because they have to work with Film Four and optimum releasing, who are owned by universal studios, to distribute their products. There are 3 stages to the production process: Pre-Production, Production and Post-production. In pre-production there are the storyboard team, the script writing team, casting, financing and location scouting. In Production there's the editing team, the actors, the lighting department, visual effects team and the film crew. In Post-production there's the CGI team, the video editors, the audio editors and the marketing team.

3.) Products: Warp films specialise in making Films and to do this they work with Film 4 and optimum releasing to make films like Four Lions and This Is England. Their counterpart, Warp records specialise in music with bands such as Aphex twin and Grizzly Bear signed to them. Warp X specialise in Digital films. Warp films cater to a small group with their products because they are an indie company, with films like Four Lions they cater to a niche audience.

4.) Market Position: Warp are successful because they make a good amount of money for example Four Lions made $2,126,104 (~£1.2 million) in the international box office. considering that they are an indie film company so I would consider them a successful company. Big talk productions can be considered as a competitor to Warp films because they make the same product but make films that are arguably more popular however both Big talk and warp are indie. Warp's film This Is England was successful in America which would make Warp successful internationally. Big talk productions film 'Paul' was quite successful in the US grossing $97,984,015(~£60 million), this makes Big talk productions internationally successful.

5.) Competitors: See-saw films are the company behind the hit film 'The kings speech' and can definitely be considered to be a competitor to Warp films since their film was praised by many reviewers. Another competitor is big talk productions who are credited with films such as Hot fuzz, Shaun of the dead, Paul and Attack the block. Warp stand out form their competitors by making social realist films that are supposed to be realistic.