Was Radiohead's "In Rainbows" business model a success?

Was Radiohead's "In Rainbows" business model a success?

On the 10th October 2007, Radiohead released their anticipated album online for free, or any price the user wanted to pay. They did this with no record label, and so kept all the profits. Even with people able to choose to pay nothing, the "In Rainbows" project still made Radiohead more money than they had made for the release of any other album. Radiohead's profits didn't just come from the later release of the CD, donations or the limited edition box set that was released on the same day as the download though, as most the profit came from the touring that Radiohead did later in 2008.

As success is mainly seen to be through the sales of the album, (although reception is also important), the main question is "did the business model pay off? The download site was up for 3 months, and during that time the album was downloaded 1,200,000 times. Wikipedia states that one third of the people who downloaded paid nothing for the download, and that the average paid was £4. If two thirds of 1,200,000 paid £4, then Radiohead made £3,200,000. The £40 box set was also bought by 100,000 people, which means that they made another £4,000,000 just for the box set. In total, Radiohead made a profit of £7,200,000 in a three month period without selling a commercial CD.

The CD was released on the 31st of December 2007, two and a half months after the release of the download and the box set, and were forced to sign with a record label to produce the CDs.

Thom Yorke claims to have released the album online in such an unorthadox manner was also because "every record for the last four—including my solo record—has been leaked. So the idea was like, we'll leak it, then." This claims that releaseing the album for any price was a move against piracy. However, in the first week of its initial release, the album was downloaded 500,000 times illegally using BitTorrent, so this part of the scheme was less successful. People may have done this to avoid giving an email that was required to download the album legally, or due to the relatively slow download speeds that plaged the site for the first few weeks.

Given the profits, asking the question "why would Radiohead let people choose what to pay" seems stupid, but then imagine that Radiohead had other plans for the scheme. If all Radiohead were after is the money, then consider that profit to be pocket change for them. Radiohead have a massive fan base, and releasing something to the public for free is always a good method of enlarging it further. That so many people downloaded the album illegally is also a good sign in this case, as it increases the amount of potential fans. In June of 2008, Radiohead started the "In Rainbows tour", which spanned across the globe. Given that there were likely over 50 concerts, with an average of _____ people going to each one. If each person paid the £42.50 fee for a ticket, then Radiohead made a further profit of ______. This figure dwarfs the profits from the sales of the album, and so it could be said that the business model was to attract the audience, and then later charge a larger audience far more than they would have paid for the stand-alone album. Due to this, I would have called the business model a complete success.


Now if only people would donate for my album...



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Rainbows#Sales_and_chart_placings

http://www.gigwise.com/news/37670/exclusive-radiohead-sell-12million-copies-of-in-rainbows

Thriller Evaluation

In what ways does our media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We didn't want to challenge the Thriller genre, but use its conventions to make our film as close to the conventions as possible, and so we focused mainly on the "use and develop" aspects. As previously mentioned, we decided to take aspects from different thrillers and create a film which expanded on the conventions of the genre. This meant watching various different thrillers and finding themes, styles, ideas and techniques which are used regularly in the films. We then studied these (see my posts on thriller signifiers) and tried to incorporate them into our film (which is discussed in the shot evaluation). When we asked our media class whether "Selecting mise en scene to create particular effects" was successful, we recieved an average score of 9.2 and we told that the "black and white worked". We did decide to have an Asian actor for the lead, which is a rare occurrence in a British thriller, where the lead is most often white (“The Third Man”, “The Beat That My Heart Skipped” and “Phone Booth” all have white protagonists for example). We thought it would help to attract an Asian target audience, as well as the more stereotypical white-male target audience. We also tried to create a visual style with our film, which I have already discussed in previous posts. Our film is black and white, which is how the older thrillers were often filmed (such as “Vertigo”, or more recently, “Sin City”, which is filmed in black and white for the same reasons as us.), as it creates a high contrast between the only two available colours, which are always clashing. We made the film quite dark looking, as to relate to the theme of crime. We also used the contrast between black and white to highlight certain points of the film, such as the staircases we use, which are often black against white, to show the viewer when the character is walking, or how we used silhouettes to highlight the character against the background, to make them stand out. This has also been discussed in previous posts. When we asked members of our media class the question "Shooting material that is appropriate to the opening of a thriller film (was there evidence of thriller signifiers?)", we received possitive feedback and an average score of 9.1 out of 10, showing we managed to recreate the thriller genre.

How does our media product represent social groups and why?
As in most thrillers, the male lead in our film is strong, powerful and dominant, which helps to attract a male target audience and keep them engaged. We only used male characters because that is what the people who watch thrillers are normally expecting, and as mentioned, we want to keep the target audience that watched thrillers, Which our research claims is young to middle aged adult males. Our film makes crime seem very dangerous and unforgiving, portrayed by the death of one of the criminals in the film. The protagonist is also shown to be intelligent, powerful and cool, which are attributes the target audience will likely want to have, and so the film tells them that by mirroring the main character, they can become him. However, because he is so detached from the target audience (being a criminal, and by his quiet, almost inhuman attitude), he is only escapism to the audience, and not a very influential character. However, John Vanik is shown to be the polar opposite of Smith, as he is arrogant, and stupid. In this sense, we represent criminals in a negative way. Because Vanik is the antagonist, and the protagonist kills him, Smith's character becomes more desirable, because in killing Vanik, Smith is doing something the audience would likely want to do, but as the audience still realises that killing is wrong, he is further detached from reality. As the protagonist is the only Asian character in the film, he portrays the race in the same way as himself, with no other character, which can have a very powerful effect on the audience. As previously mentioned, the character is intelligent, powerful and cool, and so he portrays the entire race in that same way. Our film also represents the genders differently. As the entire cast is male, we create a very wide, varied representation of males, in comparison to females, who are completely left out, and are therefore made to seem less important and less likely to be criminals. As the target audience is male, however, we want males to seem more important and dominant than females, so the audience can better relate to the characters on screen.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I would try to get my film distributed by Miramax, as they are a company which have distributed other films similar to/ films which influenced our film, such as "Sin City" and "The Faculty". This means they have experience distributing thrillers, which leads to better advertising and therefore a higher chance of the film being successful. Thriller fans would also be more likely to look at the new films from the company as the company produces many famous thrillers such as "No Country for Old Men", “Essex Boys” and "Reservoir Dogs", meaning that my target audience would be very easy to locate.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
The members of our group compared research into what types of films different demographics were appealed to and discovered that out of our interviewees, males aged around their young twenties to late thirties were watched the most and were most interested in thrillers. This set us a target to appeal to, and we modelled our film around this. We then looked at the questionnaires of those who fell in our target audience, and looked for patterns in their interests. We noted that most people were only interested in the more recent thriller films, such as "Psycho", and prefered films such as "Sin City" and "Se7en". We also noticed that the people we chose in our target audience mostly prefered thrillers about crime syndicates and the underworld, such as "Resevoir Dogs", so we made our film about crime syndicates. Due to this, people who enjoy the more recent thrillers which are about crime syndicates become a part of our audience. The Asian lead in our film would also especially appeal to the Asian community.

How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our audience by creating a main character that the audience could relate to, as people enjoy watching a film with a character they can relate to, so that they can imagine themselves in the film. Therefore, our protagonist is male and in his mid twenties to late thirties. (The younger side of this spectrum so that the audience can imagine themselves as slightly younger). Our choice of distributor would also attract our audience asthriller fans are likely to go to Miramax as they often distribute popular thrillers. We also used editing and filming techniques from the most popular thrillers, so to make our film feel similar to the films the target audience enjoyed.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
By the end of the project, we had learnt how to use all of the equipment we were provided with to a reasonable standard, and there are few things that we would have done if we had possessed the skill. The video camera, tripod and Adobe Premier Elements 1.0 were the three most important things that we had to learn how to use. We have learned the limitations and advantages of using each of these things, which I will now list. We used a relatively cheap handheld camera for filming, and during the continuity task and the thriller task we learnt some of the negative and positive points about it. Many of these were obvious, especially the advantages, such as its ease of use, its small size, which allowed us to carry and film by hand; and the speed at which it turns on, ready for use. However, we later discovered that the camera had many limitations which we had to work around while planning or filming, depending on whether the issue was anticipated or not. The camera creates a very low quality image in comparison to the stunning HD images we are often used to seeing in a professional film, but we realised this and there was nothing we could do to change it. We also knew that we there were issues when moving the camera, because the camera uses an auto-focus mechanism which means that the camera will blur the desired part of the scene for a few seconds before focusing. This meant that we were forced to use still shots for a lot of the film. This also affected zooming in, as the camera would keep re-focusing, often at the wrong part of the scene. The zoom function was hard to use as the button for it was very small and delicate, and so maintaining a zoom, or using a slow zoom were very hard to do, especially together, which is what we wanted to do. The battery of the camera was another anticipated problem, as we were forced to stop filming when the batteries died, although we had filmed everything we needed by this point anyway. The sound quality was also low, much worse than the quality of the video. To get the best out of the built-in microphone, the camera had to be close to the source of the sound, and background noise had to be kept to a minimum. The dark was an unanticipated problem we had, as we had never filmed in the dark, and did not realise that it would compromise the quality of the film. When in the dark, the camera lost a lot of visual quality and refused to focus. However, the places we filmed were well lit, even for the night time, so this was less of a problem than it could have been.The tripod was another vital part of equipment we had never used before this course, and so we had to learn how to use it. It was useful for holding the camera still, and used it for nearly all of our shots, even the moving ones, as we could move the camera on a pivot. We also used it for getting the camera into places previously unacceptable to us, such as holding the camera over the staircase in our film. However, the tripod could only extend to a certain height, which limited us to an extent. The shot which looks like it is from a security camera was shot with the tripod fully extended, and if it had been longer we might have tried to get the camera higher.The software we used was what limited us the most. Like the camera, it was created for ease of use and simplicity, and so it was easy to learn how to use the program and perform simple, essential tasks such as editing film together, uploading content, adding other types of media to the film and adding special effects to use on the media. However, there were very few useful effects, and changing how much we wanted to use the effects was very hard to do. There were also very few fonts useful for the style of our thriller, and so we had to find a free font online to install, using http://www.cooltext.com/. We then learnt how to install new fonts to the computer so they could be used by the program. However, editing was for us the hardest process, and all the questions we asked our media class regarding editing had the lowest scores. We have learnt, however, as we asked for feedback mid-editing, and recieived an even lower score then. This shows that we have developed our understanding and have since improved our editing even further.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?What would you do to the project with more time? Although we tried to learn everything we would need for the full product in the preliminary before we started the thriller, there are some things that we had not prepared for, and had to learn during the process. This includes several of the shots we used, such as the birds eye view shot of the staircase, which we originally planned to perform by holding the camera over the balcony with our hands. However, we could not get far enough, and had to use the tripod as an extension. We also learnt about the importance of proper lighting. We didn't use any lighting effects in our thriller or continuity, relying on natural lighting. We were very lucky that all of our shots worked, although there are still some parts which we thought would have profited from better lighting. I feel we have also learnt about the basics of the film making process. Starting with nothing, we still managed to create an interesting, successful film. Because we finished early, we had ample time to make changes, go back to the audience, ask for feedback and continue to make changes until there were no improvements that could be made (decided by viewers and the group). However, we would have profited with more skill and better equipment. This is mainly in the special effects part of editing, as better equipment while filming would likely only have resulted in a higher quality image, which does not particularly matter in this project. The main thing I would have liked to change was the effects we used on the text. I would have liked to make the text we used flicker, as mentioned previously on my blog, but we lacked the knowledge and equipment to do this successfully. I also would have liked to redo the shot where the ceiling partly obstructs our view, but even if I redid the shot perfectly, the mise-en-scene of the car park would have changed, the characters would look different (different hair for example) and the weather could be different which would mean that the shot would not fit into the rest of the film.

Personally, I am very pleased with our finished video. We did everything we set out to do when we planned to do it, learned new things and created a final piece which was far more successful than I ever could have anticipated.

Working Title Films

Taken from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Title_Films
Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in London, England. The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1984. It produces feature films and some television productions. Eric Fellner and Bevan are the co-owners of the company now.
The company gained mainstream traction after the unexpected global box-office success of Hugh Grant-starrer, Four Weddings and a Funeral. Among the company's films are Richard Curtis-scripted romantic comedies, which usually star Grant, and Coen Brothers' films, but has in recent times moved into many other types of film, such as United 93.
In 2004 it made a profit of £17.8 million pounds sterling.[citation needed] As of 2007, all its films are distributed by Universal Studios, which owns a 67% stake in the company, and many of its recent films are co-productions with StudioCanal. The remaining shares are owned by the company's founders, BBC Films, and private investors.[citation needed]
The film company also has a smaller low-budget film brand, WT2 (Working Title 2) which has produced films such as Billy Elliot (2000) and Shaun of the Dead (2004).[1]
Recently the company produced Burn After Reading, a comedy starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

Cassie in "Skins"

Cassie is first presented to us in the first episode as a kind, but ditsy, head-the-clouds girl who is mentioned to be in a clinic, although we are not told why, and many things about her are made a mystery. In the second episode, which is where this short extract takes place, nearly all of the focus is on Cassie, revealing her personal life to the audience.

The scene opens after a clip of the boys of the show running away from a house half naked while the sound of a non-diegetic rock music sets the mood and adds to the frantic feeling of the scene. When the the scene ends, and we cut to Cassie sitting on a bus, the sudden loss of the music is creates a powerful contrast, emphasizing that she is not a part of their hectic, happy-go-lucky group. Not fitting in is one of the major themes in this clip, and is shown at various points. To further emphasize how she is different to them, and as we are now shown, all other people too; soft, instrumental music fades in to replace the rock music. By all other people too I am still focusing on the bus scene, where there are various signs showing us that she doesn't fit in to regular society. Buses are very regular objects in society, and this tells us that the people on the bus are likely to be ordinary too. In this scene, Cassie, in her stunning white dress, blond hair and pale complexion looks almost angelic, which is the first thing which suggests that she is out of place, whilst surrounded by a very dull, simple mise-en-scene and passengers wearing school clothes, suits or just regular clothing. This is another contrast which presents Cassie as an outsider. However, the music and her appearance tell the audience that she is still a character to care about, and that she is sweet and thoughtful, which we already know from our past experiences with her. She is again left out on the issue of eating. Cassie is shown to be anorexic, which is the reason, or one of the reason that she was in the clinic. When she sees the post-it note stating "eat" and places it on the window, the camera shows us several shots of people in the bus eating socially, which is something Cassie does not do, again making her out-of-place. This is again shown when the young girl offers Cassie a biscuit, which is then pulled away from her. The young girl in this case could represent the innocence of youth, and reminds Cassie of how she used to be, carefree and without any of her current problems. When she doesn't take the biscuit, it reminds her of how far she has come.

Her lonely characteristics are also shown when she returns home, and it is clear that she does not relate properly to her parents either, who seem to care a lot more for each other than for Cassie or even their new baby, shown by how she interrupts them at the start of the scene, and how little they pay attention to her afterwards, when she lies about eating, before promptly leaving again. This relationship between her parents is also shown in the mise-en-scene, in the paintings that the husband drew mostly of Cassie's mother naked. The one in particular that shows how they ignore their children is the one in the baby's room, which shows Cassie's mother giving birth, but all the attention is fixated between the artist (her Father) and the subject (her Mother), leaving the baby out of the focus, even just after birth.

Cassie shows that she is very attached to the baby, more so than the parents, showing us that Cassie is responsible, and likes children, which is shown by how willing she is to spend time with the baby, offering to take care of him. This could be because Cassie is happy in the company of a person that can't judge her or insult her, but only love her as much as she does. However, it could also be argued that Cassie herself wants to be a baby again, to be young and innocent, which fits in with the toddler on the bus offering her food and how it made her want to be that young and innocent again. This also fits in with her drinking from the baby's plastic beaker and explains the non-diegetic lullaby that plays over the top of the same scene, when she is putting the baby to bed. In the same scene, Cassie takes a drug, which is shown to be one of her forms of escapism, and then looks up at a mobile hanging above her, which is clearly imitating the same view that a baby would have looking upwards from a crib. This tells us that in her escapism, she is a child again, proving my hypothesis.

Problems in the project and feedback from members of our media class

What problems did we have when creating the media product?
The largest problem we had when creating our thriller was time, and how we should use it. Our original piece was over three and a half minutes, and so we needed to cut it down to the two minute limit. We realised this very early on, and so decided to cancel filming the first part of the opening, as it was deemed unnecessary, and would have no purpose besides making the opening longer. We eventually decided it would be best to cut down a lot of the speech and the reaction shots, which took about 40 seconds off the film. We also we forced to cut down on nearly every shot, in order to make them flowing and to shorten the film. This was hard to achieve as we had to time each shot change to the beat of the music, and still find room to place the credits. The shot we cut the most was the staircase shot, where we get a birds eye view of Tanwyn while the voiceover plays. We originally had the entire sequence from him at the bottom to top, but cut it because we thought it was boring, and because it took up too much time. The biggest problem I had with the finished piece has already been mentioned in shot evaluation, and is the black bar which obscures a lot of the side on shot of the two characters as they first meet.

With the members of our group agreeing that we could find nothing else to improve, we asked members of our media class to fill out a sheet with the following questions, and mark each point with a score out of 10. We had decided beforehand that if the average score for a point was under 8, that we spend some more time to improve the part with the low mark. Our target is so high because it has been said that all the power in the film industry is held by the audience. If the audience likes our film, then it can normally be called a success.

Average out of 10 & some comments left by the interviewee

Holding a shot steady: 9.5 + Steady throughout

Framing shots and choosing what to include and what to leave out: 9.2 + Good angles & left out irrelevant stuff

Using a variety of shot distances: 9.7 + Plenty of varied shots

Shooting material that is appropriate to the opening of a thriller film (was there evidence of thriller signifiers?): 9.1 + Stairs and narrow corridor + lots of thriller signifiers

Selecting mise en scene to create particular effects: 9.2 + Black and White worked

Editing so that meaning is clear to the viewer (was there a readable narrative?): 9.3 + Easy to follow & creates mystery

Using varied shot transitions and other effects appropriately: 8.2 + Music fitted the mood

Using sound with images and editing sound effectively: 8.2 -Sometimes hard to hear voice-over and speech +Music fitted the mood

Using titles effectively: 8.5 - Credits could have been up for longer

Any other points? (Representational issues? Effectiveness of characters? Did the opening hook you?): 9.0 -The swearing wasn't very classy "Dickhead"

We were very pleased with these results as we had no parts which had an average score of under 8. Because this meant we did not have to improve any parts of the film, and we still had a lot of time left due to finishing very early, we decided to put some more work into two out of three points that had a score of 8 to 9 . They are as follows.

Using sound with images and editing sound effectively: 8.2 -Sometimes hard to hear voice-over and speech +Music fitted the mood

Using titles effectively: 8.5 - Credits could have been up for longer

Both of these points were very easy to edit using the editing software, only requiring us to raise the volume bar of the speech layer of the software, and increase the amount of time where credits were shown using the time stretch tool. We have gone back and asked the same members of the media class, and they agree that these areas have since been perfected.