1.1 Identify the industries within the Creative Media sector
The UK Government Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) definition recognises twelve (12) creative sectors, down from fourteen (14) in their 2001 document. They are:
> Advertising
> Architecture
> Arts and antique markets
> Crafts
> Design
> Designer Fashion
> Film, video and photography
> Software, computer games and electronic publishing
> Music and the visual and performing arts
> Publishing
> Television
> Radio
1.2 Identify cross-industry ownership in the Creative Media sector
CROSS-INDUSTRY OWNERSHIP - the term for one company owning sister companies within different media branches.
Good examples of this are the BBC and Virgin.
The BBC were originally just television channels (BBC1 and BBC2), broadcasting entertainment and news across both their channels, but has since expanded into over 10 channels (BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, BBC News 24, Parliament, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC Alba and BBC America to name a few), a publishing company for magazines and a worldwide television broadcast empire, BBC Worldwide LTD, as well as BBC radio stations and iPlayer. The BBC business monopoly spans Television, Radio, Publishing, and Software, computer games and electronic publishing (with the releases of numerous Doctor Who games across several platforms).
Virgin, and its creator Richard Branson, has managed to break into an array of different markets with the Virgin brand, and is perhaps one of the best examples of cross-industry ownership, due to the immediate differences between each of the brand labels Virgin has acquired over the years; including Virgin Music, Trains, Broadband, Phone, TV, Airways, Galactic, Money, Mobile and Holiday Cruises. It is doubtless that Virgin spans a plethora of markets and certainly has its fingers in a lot of pies on many different stands at the bake sale.
1.3 Identify the relevant relationships between a range of industries within the Creative Media sector
Most industries in the world often interact with others in order to create a more powerful effect on their target audience and the general public.
This would be, for example, one company hiring an advertising firm to promote them and help them to sell their product. While this is going on, the advertising firm may be establishing connections with a video production company to create a viral video or online advertisement to help spread the word of the product via the internet as well as through the traditional poster/magazine advertising and selling the product to retailers.
Whilst the video may be in the first stages of production, the advertising firm may hire a "behind the scenes" photographer to help market the product a bit more, showing the viewer what happens on the other side of the screen; and alongside all this, the original company or advertising firm may suggest that special graphics are needed in the video, and pitch this to the video production company, who would subsequently contact graphics design companies who acts accordingly.
This creates a web of different companies working together on the same project, and the different sectors of the industry (in this case, publishing, advertising, design, film, video and photography).
2.1 Outline the stages of a specific Creative Media project life cycle
In the Creative Media sector, there are four stages in the project life cycle:
> BIRTH (INITIATION) PHASE - Everything is defined and the first ideas for the project emerge.
> PLANNING PHASE - The project is now planned out in more detail, and is given a bit more flesh and content, and is split up into different tasks and sub-tasks, with resources allocated to each, and an estimated completion time is established.
> EXECUTION & CONTROLLING PHASE - The project is carried out, and all the relevant tasks are performed by the assigned people, and the deadline worked towards. This is perhaps the most important phase of the lot, being the phase in which the project tasks are performed, and in which quality and standards must be maintained in order to meet the client's needs.
> EXIT (CLOSURE) PHASE - The project is completed, and the participants are debriefed, and the project manager ensures that the project is completed.
2.2 Identify teams and activities relevant to a specific project
Every project requires different teams of people, each assigned to a different task. For instance, those working on a film would have the audio team, the lighting team, the special effects team, the make up team etc.; whereas those working on a video game would have the storyboard team, the animation team, the concept artists, voice actors etc.; so the teams vary from project to project as necessary, each working on their own section or task.
3.1 Outline the aims of a specific Creative Media organisation
Different Creative Media organisations will have different goals and different projects. For instance, a television company will have different aims to a publishing firm, but ultimately their goal will be to produce something to please the client and complete the project in a reasonable period of time in order to generate a profit.
The aims and objectives of companies in any scenario can be brought under four generic categories:
> REPUTATIONAL - most companies want to ensure they have a good reputation amongst the public, their target audience and their competitors. This includes advertising and publicising the company, in particular younger businesses, and those with fewer in their employ.
> ADVERTISING - a more exact way of demonstrating a business's reputation, and is a way to spread the company's brand and get it out in the public consciousness, in order to get some attention from a target audience the company maybe hasn't tried to tap before.
> PROFIT - the main goal of a business: to make money. Without earning capital and generating a decent income in order to pay taxes, bills and purchase new resources in order to continue to manufacture and research new products and maintain a steady profit:expense ratio.
> FUTURE - future aims and objectives are similar in purpose to short- and long-term plans (usually 1-5 years). Company officials will discuss the best course of action for their short- and long-term goals for the business, in which direction they are headed as a corporation, and which way is the best to influence the course of the company in order to generate the best result.
3.2 Identify the role of a specific team within the organisation
An organisation can be broken down into several different departments, each with a different role to play and a function to perform. For instance, there would be a financial department, an administration department, a PR department, an HR department, Research and Development (R&D) et al.
The role of an individual department can vary slightly from company to company, but are fundamentally the same. For instance, the Finance department would be responsible for tracking the company's income, expenses, allocating budgets to other departments for resources they want/need, liaising with suppliers and writing up invoices for clients, customers and/or retailers; whereas the R&D department would be looking into developing a new scope for business, and looking across the market for a gap that could be exploited, and comparing the product in development to existing models from competing companies, as well as any similar products in order to determine important defining factors such as price, size/scale, target audiences, ease of use, advertising methods, name and features.
The R&D department would also seek what customers want in the product, so may compile a questionnaire/survey (which would be conducted via the internet, face-to-face interaction, over the phone etc.) in order to gather information relevant to the product, and find out how to improve it by adding or removing features the consumers like/dislike respectively.
3.3 Outline the relationship between the specific team and others within the organisation
A specific team will have a tighter and better relationship with each other, as they are interacting with each other more and constantly assessing each others' strengths and weaknesses in order to maximise efficiency; whereas the relationship between team members and others within the organisation can easily vary from person-to-person, as one team member may have a friend in a different department, and may know other people from previous jobs, school, tasks or from out-of-work activities (such as the gym or sporting clubs), and as such, there could be people without the team who gets on with team members A, B and C, but doesn't get along with D or E.
4.1 Identify the individual roles within a specific team
4.2 Outline their responsibilities within a specific project life cycle
A team will have numerous roles and responsibilities within that team, each person assigned to a specific task, usually playing to their stronger skills, and if need be, sub-teams are allocated. The roles usually vary from industry to industry, but there are a couple which apply across the board:
> Project Manager - the leader of the team, the project manager is in charge of overseeing the project and quality controlling as the project advances. The project manager dictates which tasks are done in the project, who performs them and in what order they are done.
> Salesperson - the person who pitches the product or product idea to clients or to their superiors within the organisation.
> Researcher - researches the current market for the product the team is developing and designing. This includes looking for gaps in the market, researching similar products, price-checking, looking into the competition and finding out how best to improve the product.
> Financier - deals with the budget and dealing with suppliers and retailers, dealing with expenses and profits, and how much capital is allocated where.
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