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Synergy within the Creative Industries

According to the DCMS the constituent vocational sectors which make up the creative industries are:

“• Advertising and marketing

• Architecture

• Crafts

• Design

• Fashion

• Film, TV, video, radio and photography

• IT, software and  computer service

• Publishing

• Museums, galleries and libraries

• Music, performing and visual arts.” [1]

Synergy is a term which describes the working together and crossover of skills within one industry sector to another. Due to this Synergy is often used within the creative industries. One example of synergy is advertising embedded within film. This is also known as product placement and it is an extremely effective way of advertising products. A famous example of this is in E.T. when Eliot is out looking for E.T and you see him with a bag of Reese’s pieces as he leaves a trail for E.T to follow. 

[2]

This Way of advertising can have extremely positive effects for the product being advertised. An example of Synergy  being successful with advertising in films is the use of a Mini Cooper in ‘The Italian Job’ which came out in 1969. Due to how iconic the scenes became, in the 2005 remake, they asked BMW if they could use their newest model for the film and they were given 30 cars to use. As a result there was a 22% increase in sales after the film was released. 

Another common example of Synergy would be the combination of film production and music in the form of music videos. Different artists sometimes put a lot of effort into their music videos. An example of this would be BTS’s Music Videos (a famous Korean boy Band), as their music videos are often used to carry different deeper meanings with great cinematography. Musicians have also been known to spend a lot of money on music videos as it is seen as a good way of showcasing their music as well as capturing a large audience. The most money ever spent on a music video was on Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson’s ‘Scream’ video which costed around $7 million. The video then went on to win an award at the 1995 MTV video music awards for best dance video [3] This highlights the significance of synergy between video production as Artists wouldn’t spend  millions of dollars on videos if they weren’t important and influential in promoting their songs.

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Another form of Synergy that you see is CGI (Computer generated images) in films which is the combination of film and IT sectors. CGI is used to digitally create special effects, characters, and even worlds in films. This is being used more and more often and has become incredibly advanced since it was first introduced in 1970 with computer animation being created by layering 2D images with computers onto films. Now CGI can be used to create almost full films such as the live action Jungle Book that came out in 2016 which allowed for realistic animals to be created within the film without using actual animals. [5]  

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Due to synergy, when considering working in the creative industries it is important to consider the importance of interdisciplinary skills, which are also known as transferrable skills. Transferrable skills are basically skills that you can use in more than one sector. These skills are often broken down into ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills. ‘Hard’ skills tend to be skills that are easier so quantify and are easier to learn such as: research skills, interviewing skills, being able to use software such as word and basic computer skills, being able to use social media and presentation skills. Whereas ‘soft’ skills are hard to quantify and are not easily taught, such as: communication skills, confidence, time keeping, problem solving, and being able to work well with people. These are all skills that are easily transferred from sector to sector in the creative industries and would make it easier to fin a job if you have them.  They are also becoming increasingly important with the commonality of synergy within the Creative Industries and would provide flexibility for work and make finding work easier.

Links:

[1] Prospects,  https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/job-sectors/creative-arts-and-design/overview-of-the-creative-arts-sector-in-the-uk   November 2017

[2] https://makeagif.com/gif/product-placement-reeses-pieces-on-et-_-hYWk

[3] The journal https://www.thejournal.ie/expensive-music-videos-1280612-Jan2014/

[4] https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiBsu2w7_feAhUoCcAKHXzSAsQQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Ftitle%2Ftt6663870%2Fmediaviewer%2Frm2067095296&psig=AOvVaw1daWnuoWhnoXhSY-yRJcsI&ust=1543521372871453 

[5] https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/05/12/how-cgi-changed-movies-forever_a_21358758/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_cs=n9xxTTwv4Ym7azN75lQE_Q

[6] https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiDoKvz9vfeAhXEI1AKHTgrCo4QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywood.com%2Fmovies%2Funreal-jungle-book-gifs-reveal-the-sets-amazing-cgi-transformation-60630168%2F&psig=AOvVaw38I0KBot5OxquZ3hTdG3GX&ust=1543523378187641

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The Creative industries

When thinking about the Creative industries, people often think that it is simply a group of people who use their imagination and skills to form creative and original ideas and creations before sharing them with the world and generating money from them, however, the official definition for the Creative Industries, which was written by the Department for Digital, Culture, media and Sports (DCMS) which was created in 1997, “…those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent which have a potential for job and wealth creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property” (‘Creative industries Mapping Document’, 2001).[1] Within the Creative Industries there are many different sectors such as Film, T.V, Music, Drama, Photography, Art, Dance, Animation etc. 

In recent years, there have been many developments that have really affected the industry. With the development and growth of new technologies and social media, it is not surprising that this has had a large impact on how practitioners create and share their work. An example of this would be photography. Technology has come a long way from the early 2000s, Cameras such the Nikon D90 which was released in 2008 [2], while advanced for the time, did not have anywhere near the same quality of images and variety of settings as the most recent Nikon D3500 SLR camera which was released in 2018 [3]. Photography has also been influenced by the growth and improvements in mobile phones, as often phone cameras are very effective as their image quality is very high. This makes it easier for photographers  as phones are easier to carry around and are readily available to take photos with. With the growth of Youtube and other social media sites, it is much easier for people to create films and share it with the world whilst creating revenue from it. With advanced and easy to use editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, it has made video editing a lot easier over the past few years for practitioners to edit videos and films for only £19.97 per month [4]. This has been extremely important in the development of film over the years as it is simple and available for anyone.

The Creative Industries are also very important to the UK’s economy. In 2016 the Creative industries contributed to 5.3% of Britain’s GVA, making it the third highest contributor for the UK. This shows that the Creative Industries are crucial to the UK’s economy. 

As well as this, the Creative Industries has had “ the greatest percentage increase between 2015 and 2016 (7.6%)”[5]. As well as this, the Creative Industries contributed £91.8 Billion to the UK’s GVA [5].

This all shows how the Creative Industries are increasingly vital to the UK’s economy, and will likely continue to grow in importance for the UK.

The Creative Industries play a very important role in influencing culture. It is often hard to pinpoint how much of our culture is influenced by the Creative Industries and we often don’t notice how great the influence is. Fashion, music and dance often play an important part in culture, such as Kilts, Ceilidh dancing, and Ceilidh music are often associated with Scotland and Scottish Culture. [6]

 Our culture is also heavily influenced by film and television, especially from America. People in Britain have started to use more American words, pronunciations and terms due to the high quantities of American films and TV programmes that we watch in the UK The creative industries also give us an insight into other cultures and as Kpop and Anime become increasingly popular in the UK, this gives us an opportunity to see what Korean and Japanese culture is like, as well as influencing our own culture at the same time.

[1] [Online] Available at:  ‘Creative industries Mapping Document’ 2001 www.culture.gov.uk  

[2] [Online] nikon.com Available at: https://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/d90/ 

[3]  August 30, 2018 nikon.com [online] Available at: https://www.nikon.com/news/2018/0830_dslr_01.htm 

[4] [Online] adobe.com Available at: https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/premiere.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwMKpiM-f3gIVQ7DtCh1FUwWtEAAYASAAEgLPA_D_BwE&sdid=88X75SKR&mv=search&s_kwcid=AL!3085!3!273770875677!b!!g!!%2Badobe%20%2Bpremiere&ef_id=W9Ct4QAAAGeuDvP@:20181024173737:s

[5] [Online] DCMS Sector Economic Estimates 2016: GVA Report www.gov.uk Found on: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dcms-sectors-economic-estimates-2016-gva  Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/662958/DCMS_Sectors_Economic_Estimates_2016_GVA.pdf

[6] [Image] Available at: http://www.edintours.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/ceilidh-Ghilie-Dhu-rights-min.jpg