New Zealand Film Industry Essay Example for Free

New Zealand Film Industry Essay Why did the New Zealand government offer Warner Brothers incentives to film â€Å"The Hobbit† in New Zealand? Analyse how this will affect the New Zealand film industry and New Zealand society. Warner Brothers, one of Hollywoods most famous studios, was founded in 1923 by four actual brothers: Jack, Sam, Harry Albert Warner. On April 4, 1923, with help from a loan given to Harry Warner by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. I believe that production of H0bbit movie is benefit for New Zealand economy and New Zealand Government provide that incentives to Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers is the front of any entertainment industry with its films to television, home entertainment/DVD, and inter-active creativity. New Zealand has a reputation of being in the Top Ten filming locations in the universe. Warner Brothers choose to make the film in New Zealand because they know that New Zealand infrastructure is pleasing and natural. New Zealand is an open economy and it is cost-effectively workable and attractive for large budget international productions. Firstly, it is important to know that what kind of advantage to New Zealand with the Hobbit movie. New Zealand has a both advantages comparative and absolute. Comparative advantage means â€Å"A situation in which a country, individual, company or region can produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than a competitor.† (Gans, King, Stonecash, Mankiw, 2011) And Absolute advantage means â€Å"The ability of a country, individual, company or region to produce a good or service at a lower cost per unit than the cost at which any other entity produces that good or service.† According to new Law New Zealand have low labour cost means lower opportunity cost. And New Zealand has land, resources and pervious knowledge. For this two reason New Zealand have both advantages. Warner Brothers has reached a deal with the New Zealand government to keep The Hobbit in New Zealand. As part of the agreement, the government will â€Å"introduce in parliament legislation sought by Warnerà ¢â‚¬â„¢s that would clarify the employment status of film industry workers.† It is being presumed that the intended effect is to, â€Å"make unionization of the film industry more difficult or impossible. â€Å"Ever since Jackson’s LOTR trilogy put New Zealand on the map, so to speak, the country has benefited greatly from the rise in tourists. Indeed that has been factored into a â€Å"long-term strategic partnership† the country has struck with Warner Brothers which will see joint promotion of New Zealand as a film production and tourism destination. The incentives provided to Warner Brothers committed more New Zealand taxpayer money to the movies. (Cheng, 2010) As well as broadening the criteria for its large-budget incentive program – which will give WB an additionally rebate of up to US$15 million – the NZ government will also provide up to US$10 million for marketing costs. On top of the obvious benefit of keeping The Hobbit on home ground, New Zealand will also host one of the world premieres for one of the films. All this just goes to show just how important The Hobbit is for New Zealand. It has been said that the production will pump U.S. $200 million into NZ’s economy. (Cheng, 2010) It is important to know the reason as to why the incentives were offered to Warner Brothers. It is stated that â€Å"the Key Government thinks that this little country can and should afford to pay these subsidies to a giant foreign corporation.† (Roger, 2010) It was highly noticeable of the government when it cowardly agreed into Warner Brother’s demands for limited and striking subsidies saying they were worth it because New Zealand’s opportunity to grow in the economy was at stake as other countries waited in the line for ‘The Hobbit’ movie. The Government was under so much pressure from the other film businesses as rivalry was intense from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and many more countries as they all wanted a movie like ‘The Hobbit’. That was the reason the incentive of changing labour laws was undertaken in such an urgency as the government did not want to further deviate expenditure of public money while having to fight back to match the massive tax breaks offered by other countries. Warner Brothers received tax subsidies of $100 million and â€Å"government agreed to give up to $34 million of tax breaks† (Cheng, 2010) through civility of New Zealand’s tax payers. More compromises were approaching as the Government eluded the standard democratic process to move forward with Parliament legislation that undermined the Employment Relations Act, and also benefited the international film company with $25 million. The government flaunted this as triumph for the film industry in New Zealand. The New Zealand government or national party is ideologically placed on the right wing of the spectrum. Right wing means In politics, right-wing describes an outlook or specific position that accepts or supports social hierarchy or social inequality. Social hierarchy and social inequality is viewed by those affiliated with the Right as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, whether it arises through traditional social differences or from competition in market economies. It typically accepts or justifies this position on the basis of natural law or tradition. Therefore favors free trade, globalization and open markets. They also want more FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) such as the Warner Brothers Hobbit investment. (rejuvenation) The NZ Film Industry will be affected both positively and negatively. â€Å"A 2008 report found that film and television industry injected $2.5 billion into NZ’s economy† (TVNZ-One news, 2010) The positive thing is that the more contractors get to keep their jobs; New Zealand has been able to build its flexible status again after the boycott scenario with The Hobbit. If the movie was not made in NZ then there would have been long term damage to the NZ Screen production sector and the economy. The negative consequence is that Film industry will be affected by the reductions in rights of NZ workers in Film Production as the Warner Brothers do not want to go through any cases regarding employment regulations after losing a case in the Supreme Court during their previous movie production. Warner Bros. has closed its office in New Zealand. The distribution office shut down at the end of May although Warner Bros. reaffirmed its commitment to business in New Zealand and, they said the work would be outsourced to a local company. The shutdown will raise questions in New Zealand because the Government changed employment law and provided tax breaks to get Warner Brothers to make The Hobbit there. For that The Prime Minister John Key said, â€Å"The Hobbit films have created 3000 jobs. They were crucial to New Zealand for our movie industry; it was a very positive step that the Government took. I’m not sure what has happened in Auckland, but I don’t imagine it’s many jobs.† Warner Bros. have had an office in New Zealand since 1947. (News, 2012) If the Hobbit was move from New Zealand than tourism is decrease and most of societies and their livelihood based on the jobs in tourism sectors are may be close and it’s affected very badly. One society in particular would have been drastically affected and that’s the people in Matamata near Waikato region. This would have been a major hindrance as after the Lord of the Rings movie, that place had been made world famous with its Hobbiton set. Although it’s been seven years since the release of The Lord of the Rings, Matamata and the society persist to bring in benefits after the production of The Lord of the Rings attracting more than 200 000 people each year. So by providing incentives to Warner Brothers government has saved the local societies from being drained out of tourism revenues. Changes to labour law were considered unacceptable and unfair law change. The New law was seen to create a default position, categorizing all film production workers as independent contractors. With my evidence now I know I have clear my doubts about what kinds of incentives are provided to the Warner Brothers. I am used the different sources and it’s quite helpful for increase my knowledge on globalization infusion on our economy, government role in economy, etc. I agree that there is an on-going debate with National party in the Parliament since the Green and Labour party continue to oppose the changes of the Employment laws that accommodate the foreign transnational companies’ demands which affect the tax payers either directly or indirectly in our country. The evidence have however raised a question for me and that is whether the NZ Government that poses a nation-state will be able to keep hold of its decision making powers or whether the power will be soon shifted in the hands of dominant international corporations. Bibliography TVNZ-One news. (2010, october 4). Retrieved from http://tvnz.co.nz/entertainment-news/australia-lobbying-hobbit-3816847/video : http://tvnz.co.nz/entertainment-news/australia-lobbying-hobbit-3816847/video Cheng, D. (2010, oct 27). Hobbit to stay in NZ. Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1objectid=10683486 Gans, J., King, S., Stonecash, R., Mankiw, G. (2011). Interdependence and gains form trade. In Globalisation and Business Enterprise (pp. 266-267). Auckland: Custom for AUT University, Faculty of Business and Law. News, O. (2012, June 19). Warner Brothers shuts down NZ office. Retrieved from http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/warner-brothers-shuts-down-nz-office-4937753/video rejuvenation, M. (n.d.). Ideology The New Zealand Legion. Retrieved from http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/the-new-zealand-legion/ideology Roger. (2010). Retrieved from Roger Award Winner. for the worst Transnational Corporation operating in Aotraroal?New Zealand : http://canter bury.cyberplace.org.nz/community/CAFCA/publications/Roger/Roger2

Rainbow Six :: essays research papers

I Recommend Rainbow Six Author:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tom Clancy Number Of pages:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  740 Characters:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  John Clark an ex Navy Seal   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alistair Stanley executive commander of Rainbow Six   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Domingo Chavez, the captain of team two Clark is the commander and in charge of starting a new European anti-terrorist group called Rainbow Six. Rainbow Six is split into two teams; team one and team two. These teams are the best there is. They are based in Hereford, England, but any European country can call on them at any time. They run three miles in twenty minutes, every mourning at six am. Only one team is on-call at a time. The team that is not on call will be doing live fire practices. In the first six months of being operational they are called on three times. The first incident happens in a Swiss bank where terrorists taken control. They also have a hostage. Team two successfully takes them out, with only one hostage killed (he had already been killed before they got there). The first mission helps to organize them and fix a few holes in there planning. The second mission is in Germany; an international trader is taken hostage in his mansion. This mission goes too well, thanks to the snipers. No hostage deaths, bu t all the terrorists are killed. The last mission is they are called upon is in Spain, where a team of terrorists take an amusement park and thirty children. They demand their leader, a man named Jackal be released from prison (he was the guy who took the Swiss bank). So to take them down they use a program to disable their cellular phones, their way of communicating, they kill the terrorists one by one till there all dead. Only one child is killed by the terrorists. In the meantime while this is happening, an American hires the ex-KGB agent Popov, now freelance. Popov is hired to get people to do the job in Switzerland, the bank taking, and the taking of the International trader in Germany. The person that has hired him is the Boss, owner of a multi-national pharmaceutical company that has deals with extremely deadly viruses. The Boss is extremely wealthily. Popov is living in New York he is flying back and fourth from Europe to organize these things. Popov in an attempt to figure out who is thwarting the operations watches the surveillance tapes and notices the same man smoking a cigar after each take down.

Microsoft

Question 1 Developing customer intimacy is essential for developing a sustainable competitive advantage. Whether the products of an organization will have any market potential depends on whether the customers like them or not. Therefore the management of an organization will have to develop an intimate understanding of the customers’ tastes and preferences if that organization is to stay of ahead of the competition. The process of developing customer intimacy is to conduct periodic market research on what the customer expectations are. One of the first companies to market itself through developing customer intimacy was Dell Computers. Michael Dell wanted to build computers not through idea generation from its internal engineering personnel but through data collection on what the customers’ tastes and preferences were. The founder of the company himself spent a significant amount of time with the customers to determine what they wanted to see most in a computer. The hardware manufacturing company also developed a website by means of which the customers could share their opinions with the company. As a result, the company hit the fortune 500 list in a very short time. Being in constant touch with customer requirements enabled Dell to develop customer intimacy that also enabled them to develop their products and services very quickly. Question 2 The external environment of an organization is the industry in which it operates. The industry is affected by a number of forces such as political, economic, sociological and technological. Therefore a business organization in particular has to conduct a PEST analysis periodically. A company such as Microsoft has to take into account the forces of the external environment very carefully. On first appearances, the political environment would not seem to affect Microsoft’s operations significantly. However Microsoft is frequently thrust into anti-trust suits the outcome of which would depend considerably on the prevailing political environment. The company would be hard hit if the country it is operating in went through an economic downturn. Whenever there is an economic downturn, companies tend to invest less and one of the first operations that experience cost-cutting is information technology. Therefore, demand for Microsoft’s products and services would go down when the economic environment is unfavorable. Corporate social responsibility is a very critical issue in today’s business environment. Therefore Microsoft has to fund community projects from time to time in order to endear itself to the society. That is part of the sociological environment. Also relevant in this respect is how the society views the complexities of adopting new technologies. Microsoft would also be affected very significantly by technological shifts. For example, when the use of the internet caught on, Microsoft had to reengineer itself completely to stay in business because previously it had decided not to enter the Internet. Question 3 Price is the risk that is at the forefront of the customers’ minds when making a purchase. When making a purchase, consumers must make sure that the price they are paying is equivalent to the value they are receiving in return. If this risk remains high for the customer, then the company will have a negative image in the minds of the customers. Therefore the management of that company must work to reduce that risk. One method is to offer customers price guarantees. This means that the customers will be paying the lowest possible price available anywhere. Some companies even offer to lower the price even further by a certain percentage if after purchase, the customer comes across another company offering a lower price still. Price guarantees are an admirable way to attract customers in the current age of the Internet because a lot of customers prefer to make their purchases online if the products they are looking for are available there. This enables to them go price shopping. Rather than walking miles to compare prices, customers shopping online can simply surf and compare sitting in the comforts of home. If they come across a certain company offering price matching or price beating, then customers will be hooked immediately because they can stop price shopping right there. Another perceived consumer risk is how they will be viewed by the society when they buy a certain product. The way to mitigate this risk is to promote certain products as status symbols and the demographics of the people who purchase those products. That will have a positive effect on the customer psyche. Question 4 The phenomenon of price sensitivity is a function of demand and supply. When prices are lower, people buy more and vice versa. However there are times when demand peaks and during these times there is lower price sensitivity. Business organizations can take advantage of these times to raise the prices of their products and services in order to maximize their revenue. For example many people like to go skiing during school vacations. As a result, skiing resorts raise their prices when school is in half term because that is the time when demand for skiing is very high. All the parents like to take their kids skiing during that time and they are willing to pay a higher price at the time. So peaks and troughs in demand are the top influencers of price sensitivity. In other words, the management of the business organization has a powerful tool in the form of price sensitivity by taking demand seasonality into consideration. However price sensitivity also depends type of goods. If the goods in question are necessity goods, then price sensitivity will significantly affect buying behavior. If the goods are status symbols however, then raising prices will not affect demand. Question 5 A business organization must promote its products and services in order to attract demand. The management has four methods with which to conduct the promoting. It might want to go for advertising. Usually the media used for this form of communication is radio, television or the internet. It is a non- personal form of communication. The advantage with this form of communication is that it has a wide reach. If the advertising is broadcast by means of the television for example, then millions of people will be exposed to the message. It also has a high emotional value. The second form of communication is personal selling. As the name implies, this has a personal touch because usually the company sends out its sales representatives door to door promoting its products and services. The advantage with this form of communication is that consumers can ask questions and find out whatever they need to find out about the products immediately. Another form of communication is sales promotion whereby consumers get something else into the bargain when they purchase a product. The advantage with this form of communication is that it motivates the consumers to consider buying something that they had not bought before. Last but not the least in the list of communication techniques is public relations. This promotional technique is most useful when the management is trying to build a good corporate image. BIBILIOGRAPHY Kotler, Philip., and Gary Armstrong. Principles of Marketing. Prentice Hall. 2005. Cateora, Philip, and John Graham. International Marketing. Prentice Hall. 2005. Kerin, Roger A., et al. Marketing. McGraw Hill/Irwin. 2005. Nagle, Thomas T., and John Hogan. The Strategy & Tactics of Pricing: A Guide to Growing More Profitably . South western college pub. 2007. Â  

Social Work Practice The Use of Self Free Essay Example, 2250 words

Social work profession promotes social change, problem-solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilizing theories of human behavior and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work. From protecting children, looking after the unemployed to caring for the elderly and others going through trauma or grief in their lives, the social worker plays an important role in the uplift of the community and the society at large. Although the social worker s role is important to the community, there are, however, ethical and good practice considerations that have to be kept in mind when practicing social work. Social workers have to live within the limits that are imposed by the law and may also have to work against prejudice in order to make a difference for the better. Social workers have to be clear about w hat is expected of them and what can be considered to be a job well done. The personal histories and characteristics of social workers can influence their work with clients. We will write a custom essay sample on Social Work Practice: The Use of Self or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page How the social worker s self is manifested during social work encounters and practice can make a lot of difference to the outcome of the efforts that are directed for the benefit of those who are in need of the social worker s assistance.