Classwork Monday 4th

My own experience of media consumption, in many ways, demonstrates and mirrors current trends in audience behaviour. As time has gone on media and the ways we watch and consume it has had to evolve and adapt to make it better to suit us, the consumers of this media who are constantly wanting better. In the past we used to use different ways to consume media such as video tapes, DVR's, DVD's, CD's etc..., these forms of media over time started to slowly go out of fashion as new advances in technology have taken over, but especially in the last 2-3 years they have rapidly gone out of style causing many video rental places to go out of business causing sales to drop over 86% and losing around about 16.8 billion dollars in average yearly revenue. This was ultimately because they had become outdated and streaming services like Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, Lightbox, and Neon had become too popular and convenient than going to buy or rent a DVD at the store whereas you can just make a quick and easy subscription that over time ends up being cheaper and gives you access to more and even better varieties of movies. Also over time these streaming services have taken over things like cable and things like sky tv with almost 50% of people in the age gap of around 18-40 in America watching things more conveniently on at least 3 of the hundreds of streaming services out there, which is because of the convenience and ability to watch at any time of the day or night with the convenience of youtube being able to watch entertaining content and Netflix and other services like Disney+ to watch movies and series, rather than having to go the store/cinemas or waiting on the TV for the show/movie you want to watch comes on. On the other hand the illegal streaming of movies has become increasingly more and more popular over time, with the convenience factor but also the fact it is free and you don't have to pay a subscription fee to watch the movie. Also there are still some people who would prefer to go and rent a video from the store here and there but for the general populous they would choose to use some sort of streaming service be it legal or not. Also we find that when there is a lot of hype around some sort of film film or something people will rather go to the cinema for a few reasons. Family time, hanging with friends, dates, getting an earlier look at a movie rather than waiting for it to come out on these streaming services, with ought the guarantee that particular film being on the particular streaming service that you have chosen to use (this can also be a big reason a lot of people illegally stream movies, so they can get it early while still having the convenience of being at home), and over all just the experience of going to the cinemas. 

For me I actually prefer to watch movies from these online streaming services, just because of the convenience of being able to go watch a movie at any time at the comfort of your own lounge or bedroom etc... rather than having to wait for it to come on on the tv, however I would think it would be cool to have a small DVD store for rentals, just to have some nostalgia that when I am feeling like getting out a little I could just drive down to the store and rent a movie. I also like going to the cinemas sometimes to hang out with some friends or just spend some time with my family. Also another contributor to the increase in people watching movies thru streaming services is the fact that technology in itself is becoming more advanced in the sense, you are able to watch movies/series on the go with the ability to download these streaming services to your phone, for example Netflix and Disney+, also with the out dating of DVD's/CD's and the introduction of all of these streaming services a lot of DVD stores around the world have gone out of business, especially in places like Australia only having 8% of the amount there used to be. Also there have been upgrades to technology because of these adaptations with laptops losing DVD/CD pots on the side of them and being able to add larger storage capacities, better processing systems introduced to run things like Netflix and Disney+, or even larger battery capacities.

Big blockbuster movies such as movies like "ATL" often had large budgets to use for production, advertising, promotions, adverts and other forms of advertising it before it was released in cinemas. This would increase the popularity and hype of the movie because actors and others would have done countless interviews and promotions to get the hype up for people to watch it even more. Whereas smaller and less well financed movies did not get such big budgets to use for advertising etc... like the well known NZ film "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" which only allowed for a few interviews and advertising campaigns to allow hype for the movie. Although this was the case "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" actually did very well making $1,263,000 which is the largest amount of money made by an NZ made film, this then lead to the lead actor "Julian Denison" landing a role in well known movie Deadpool 2 because of his excellent performance in this smaller film that got good attention.