Ex_Machina Research

producer
DNA Films and Film4
director
Alex Garland
distributor
Universal Films
cast
Alicia Vikander, Oscar Issac, Domhnall Gleeson, Sonoya Mizuno
budget
$15 million
locations
Norway and England
technology
No green screens, a costume made of grey mesh
number of screen - opening weekend
1255 (USA)
number of screens - peak number
2004 (USA)
box office figures
$36.9 million



the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
Ex Machina was produced by two British production companies. These are both well established, but they are not as popular as others. Also, some people believe that British companies do not make films as good as American production companies (such as Paramount and Warner Brothers). Another issue is that the film had a very low budget compared to other films. People may be put off to watch a film with a low budget because they think it will not be as good as a higher budget film. An example of this is Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This had a budget of $306 million, which exceeds Ex Machinas budget of $15 million. Ex Machina was not able to have a larger budget because it was produced by two smaller companies.
the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing;
The two companies that collaborated together were Film4 and DNA Films. This was in hope to make a bigger profit from the budget that they had. They marketed the film in many different ways, the stand out for them was using Tinder. Tinder is an online dating app where you can find people around you. At the SXSW Festival in Austin, users of Tinder had seen a woman called Ava. She is a character in the film, so not actually a real person. The people who swiped right for her started to have conversations with her, thinking as if she was a real person. She asked questions just how she did in the film, but the majority of users did not suspect it was not real. This was used to promote the film and encourage the users to go and see it.