i daniel blake

Question 1

product context

Answer 1

• it is an independent social realist film directed by renowned filmmaker ken loach
• received funding from BFI and BBC films
• contemporary social and political issues addressed in the film
• was exhibited at many film festivals, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and was nominated for many awards including several BAFTAs.

Question 2

Social & political contexts:

Answer 2

• addresses contemporary British social issues such as poverty, the welfare system, and the Work Capability Assessment.
• portrays a group of traditionally underrepresented characters in Newcastle struggling in poverty to gain benefits and support
• conveys a clear left-wing political message and criticises specific government policies.
• Ken loach is a social campaigner known for his socialist political views, the intended audience is educated, media literate and socially aware

Question 3

Significance of economic factors:

Answer 3

• The funding bodies are the BFI (through National Lottery Funding) and the BBC.

Question 4

Processes of production, distribution and circulation and the impact of digitally convergent platforms:

Answer 4

• I, Daniel Blake is a low budget social realist film, funded by the BFI and BBC.
• It was filmed largely on location (hospital, job centre etc.), features lesser-known actors and does not rely on special effects.
• The I, Daniel Blake website includes links to social media and the trailer offers a hashtag (#idanielblake) suggesting links with Twitter
• An assumed older audience be more likely to see the trailer at the cinema and less likely to search for it on the internet? Consider how the film was marketed more traditionally (poster campaign, trailer in cinemas etc.) as well as online
• The film was exhibited at various film festivals and received a theatrical release in Britain and various other countries, it was later released on digital download and DVD/Blu-ray

Question 5

How media organisations maintain, including through marketing, varieties of audiences nationally and globally:

Answer 5

• The marketing materials establish the status and reputation of film – positive critical comments on the poster, reference to the Palme d’Or award in the trailer etc.
• The genre (British social realist film) and director Ken Loach are important factors in maintaining an audience. Loach has a long history of directing work in the genre
• Other potential audiences can be targeted through the trailer references to the BBC, BFI and the Palme d’Or. The assumed education and level of media literacy is to be high in this target audience
• The trailer explores specific governmental policy which also may suggest audiences will have an awareness of political and social issues in the UK.
• The only specific “star” identified in the trailer using intertitles is the director Ken Loach.

Question 6

theory
curran and seaton

Answer 6

• The trailer seems to offer an experience that sits outside the logic of profit and power and may arguably also demonstrate a level of variety and creativity that does not reflect Curran and Seaton’s ideas about the impact of media concentration
• the trailer is able to offer a more adventurous production due to socially diverse patterns of ownership or (as above) Loach’s own pre-sold audience