Media Industry Overview

Author: Bill Fischer

professor of Digital Media, Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University.

Image: Kendall Digital Media student: Jericho Castillo (screen capture from an interactive info-graphic)

Epicsite.org

 Media Industry Overview  

Understanding how the creative process works in typical media production companies and agencies is critical to understanding where you fit with the skill-sets you have developed. There are two diagrams below, one each for advertising and entertainment. As you can see, the process is nearly identical, but there are some important differences in the terminology and players.

 Entertainment  

Game, animation and film studios usually invent their own projects, on the speculation that they will be able to sell enough 'copies' to to make a profit. For this reason Studio executives and producers are influenced by users (audience). Producers not only develop projects but also methods for measuring the success of projects (metrics). These metrics could include profits, studio reputation in the form of good reviews and experience that can be leveraged in future projects. Once a project is launched, it goes into production. Here the director manages a team of creatives to make it real. Because there is often a lot of risk involved, user experience testing (market testing) is often done and projects are then influenced by the results. 

The diagram above shows the flow (left to right), the degree of influence (thick to thin line) and where the collaboration occurs (overlapping shapes).

There are many variations on this structure. In small studios, individuals will wear several hats (producer/director,  story artist/production designer/animator). In large studios there may be more layers in the organization (producer > show runner > multiple directors  > story artists > lead artists > production artists)

 Advertising  

Advertising agencies usually solve problems for clients, that could include improving sales, adding customers, improving brand image or simply delivering information. For this reason marketers and their clients are influenced by users (consumers). Marketers not only develop projects but also methods for measuring the success of projects (metrics). These metrics could include sales increases, name recognition, human behavior and audience building that can be leveraged in future projects. Once a project is launched, it goes into production. Here the director manages a team of creatives to make it real. Because there is often a lot of risk involved, user experience testing (market testing) is often done and projects are then influenced by the results. 

The diagram above shows the flow (left to right), the degree of influence (thick to thin line) and where the collaboration occurs (overlapping shapes).

There are many variations on this structure. In small studios, individuals will wear several hats (marketer/producer/director, Graphic Designer/illustrator/animator). In large studios there may be more layers in the organization (marketer > producer > multiple directors  > writer > graphic designer > photographer > developer)



 Take Aways:  

• When working in commercial media markets, young creatives need to be prepared to accept and execute input from producers, directors and marketing metrics. 
• Most skills that young creatives possess are portable between the advertising and entertainment industries.