Live at the Chapel 24/03

Today in the session we were working with The Jackhammer Blues band as the Chapel has done several times in the past. The band was comprised of three members, two guitarists and a third member who switched his role for each of the three songs as did we. I was given the clapper board and had to open each video, my job was reasonably simple as I had to clap the board and get out of the shot. Production was once again fairly straight forward aided in part by the fact that the band had been to the Chapel several times before and so knew the process.

Live at the Chapel 17/03

Today's session saw us recording a group of five primary school aged children, which was for me and a number of other students involved in the Chapel sessions a new experience. While not the most warming to children I dreaded the session from the minute I heard about the plan, even more so when I realized that we were understaffed meaning that many usual roles would have to be rearranged and changed to accommodate the issue. My role in particular was on the lighting desk, dimming the lights at the end of each performance. This was simple enough, the only complication was that I had a headache which I just grinned and ignored for the better of the production. In terms of production issues there were none that I noticed other than a few mistakes in the performance which were redone. They performed three modern pop songs, all of which have been in the charts in the last few months. The session was more about them enjoying themselves and creating a memory than creating a professional product which is why there were a few mistakes that were brushed over plus the girls upbeat attitudes seemed to rub off on everyone else and the session itself.

Crunchyroll

   Crunchyroll is an American website and international online community focused on streaming East Asian media including anime, manga, drama, music, electronic entertainment, and auto racing content. Founded in 2006 by a group of UC Berkeley graduates, Crunchyroll's distribution channel and partnership program delivers content to over five million online community members worldwide. Crunchyroll is funded by The Chernin Group and TV Tokyo.

   The service started in 2006 as a for profit upload and streaming service. Some of the content hosted on Crunchyroll, such as fan-subbed versions of East Asian shows or bootlegs of official US releases of anime titles, was illegally hosted without permission from any rightsholders or the fansub team responsible. However, Crunchyroll eventually removed copyrighted content when requested by the rightsholder.

   In 2008, Crunchyroll secured a capital investment of $4.05 million from the venture capital firm Venrock.  The investment drew criticism from anime distributors and licensors Bandai Entertainment and Funimation as the site continued to allow users to upload illegal copies of licensed titles.

However, Crunchyroll eventually began securing legal distribution agreements with companies, including Gonzo, for an increasing number of titles. On January 8, 2009, after announcing a deal with TV Tokyo to host episodes of Naruto Shippuden, Crunchyroll stated that it was committed to removing all copyright infringing material from its site and to hosting only content to which it had legitimate distribution rights.

   In 2010, Crunchyroll announced its acquisition of the North American DVD rights to 5 Centimeters Per Second. This was the first DVD release licensed by Crunchyroll.

As of summer 2011, Crunchyroll offers over 200 anime shows and more than 200 Asian dramas to users, although not all programming is available worldwide due to licensing restrictions.

On December 2, 2013, The Chernin Group announced that they have acquired a controlling interest in Crunchyroll. A person with knowledge of the transaction said the price for the acquisition was close to $100 million. The Chernin Group said that Crunchyroll management and existing investor TV Tokyo will maintain a "significant" stake in the company.
   Crunchyroll has a number of competitors including Netflix though Netflix has only a small number of comparisons to Crunchyroll in it's comparatively small anime collection. As such it's more major competitors are those delivering similar products at a similar level those being Funimation and Animax both of which have a community attached to them as well as a streaming service.
   The service users are varied in gender and age with a mix of interests (something that has been reflected in the service provided) but most are working class with an average amount of spending power allowing them to spend 10-50 pounds on their own entertainment.

   Crunchyroll regularly monitors it’s streaming service and forums to see what it’s users are viewing, reading and talking about to see what series are gaging interest, from there Crunchyroll contacts  companies involved in the production of the product to arrange a contract deal for the streaming and of that product. Crunchyroll also communicates with fans and users through the use of social media, this method has proven to be extremely successful after a mass of viewers hoped for a sequal to one of the most popular anime of 2012 “Sword Art Online.” Crunchyroll saw the mass of interest the series created and fed back to the series creators who in early autumn 2013 released the information that the next series would be released in the summer of 2014.

   Crunchyroll as a streaming service can be compared to a number of similar services that have arisen over the last few years such as LoveFilm and Netflix, these two being it’s main competition though it can most easily be compared to the WWE Network as while there are other anime streaming services out there both of the services have a similarly massive library of content.

Lionsgate

Lionsgate Entertainment was formed in 1997 by Frank Guista. Lionsgate is known for having a large and varied library of distributed and produced films and television programs from saw and the Hunger Games franchises to Mad Men and Hells Kitchen though most people associate the company with macabre and often controversial productions.

As mentioned above Lionsgate entertainment has an expansive selection of films that it distributes and produces, probably most notably: the Saw franchise is centred around John Kramer, a bitter old man with terminal cancer who after the loss of hisunborn son to fleeing drug addict and eventual divorce of his wife turns to testing the fabric of the human body and mind with brutal death machines designed to make the prisoner choose between life or death. The series ran for seven film, two tie in videogames and a single one off comic.

On the other end of the spectrum is LOL, a coming of age high school comedy drama is a film following Lola Williams and her friends as they deal with high school life and each other in a world that is constantly connected by the social media. This one off film, for the most part got a negative reception but does show the range of films Lionsgate Entertainment is involved with.

Somewhere in between the two extremes are films like The Hunger Games and its upcoming sequel: Catching Fire. Both are adaptations in a series of Teen books written by Susan Collins following a teenage girl thrown into a televised life and death game in a dystopian future United States. The film does well for it’s fairly family friendly 12 certificate in keeping with fans of the books (which are considerably violent) happy.

Competitors-  It’s key competitors are 20^th Century Fox, Universal, Paramount and Sony Pictures.

Audience- Lionsgate figure out their target audiences (mixed genders ages ranging from 12- 40) via Cinema and DVD sales as well as chatter on social networks and Youtube video views along with word of mouth and press reviews and articles.