Monday 12 December 2011
Thursday 8 December 2011
SLIDE 1: Film Media in Context
Q1) How does the industry promote film to audiences using:
• Print Media?
• E-Media?
• Broadcast Media?
A) The first teaser for ‘Super 8’ was shown all the way back in 2010, a year before the actual release date in 2011. The trailer was shown with Iron Man 2, a long awaited sequel which itself was heavily marketed. http://www.empireonline.com/News/story.asp?nid=30081. Kyle Chandler who played Joes’ father appeared on the David Letterman talk show speaking about himself, amusing the host and audience, and also promoting the film. He begins promoting the film at ‘5:10’ where he says, “Super 8 is, your gona like this movie, comes out Friday 1st, it’s a good movie.”
Super 8 was heavily marketed on the internet on sites such as youtube, facebook and twitter, itunes, official websites and unofficially websites created by fans of Super 8. The official Super 8 Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Super8Movie) which has 575k fans, posts links of cast interviews, opportunities to buy Super 8 merchandise such as the soundtrack, tshirts and the DVD. This is also done on the twitter fanpage (https://twitter.com/Super8Movie) which has 16,500 followers and on the official website.
Print media is a now a declining media platform however is still very effective. ‘Super 8’ featured in Empire Magazine, The independent, The Times and the free magazine, the Metro; who have all done a review on Super 8 however Empire Magazine was the only UK magazine to do interviews with JJ Abrams, Spielberg and the cast of Super 8 as they won the rights for some sort of exclusivity, attracting users to subscribe to the premium magazine. Also the interviews and reviews are available online for free one the empire online website on many other websites.
Q2) Now look at each platform individually:
• What are they key issues and changes taking place in each platform?
• Print Media is not instant and free like E-Media
• TV is becoming less dictated by scheduling (Sky+), more and more specialist channels, competition from the likes of You Tube
• E-Media is hard to police (piracy); people are bombarded with information; social networking and increasing audience participation (user generated content).
A) Print media has been in a steady decline over the past 10 years. This is because the same content found in newspapers is found cheaply and quicker using e media or perhaps broadcast media, (although not as much). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/.
E Media has been on the increase in the past 10 years. This due to technological advances which have allowed us to take advantage of faster internet speeds. In 2001 the fastest internet available cost £39.99 and was at 512kb. This means that a full blu ray movie would take 2 years and 3 months to complete downloading, in 2011 that speed has increased meaning blu ray movies are faster to download taking almost 3 hours and 30/45 minutes on a fibre optic connection.
Broadcast media is also changing rapidly. People are no longer dictated by show scheduling. People are able to record their favourite shows in advance using recording satellite receiver boxes. Also over the past 2 years, catch up online sites have been created allowing audiences to catch up on any programs they might have missed. Sites like these include www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer and www.channel4.com/programmes/4od .
Q3) How is each platform responding and adapting to these issues and changes?
Focus on how they are adapting to:
• CHANGING TECHNOLOGIES
• CHANGING AUDIENCE BEHAVIOURS (all audiences, not just the young!)
A) The print media platform has attempted to adapt. The Daily Mail had attempted to follow a subscribe only system where you pay for a monthly subscription in return for exclusive news and also archived news. This was a major flop which caused Daily Mail to stop this subscription only system and allow reader to read for free. This then meant they would make money from advertising. They do still have a similar service running on Ipad which allows readers to pay for a subscription service in return for the daily mail app which is called MailOnline.
The E Media platform has also attempted to adapt to these changes. Internet is now becoming our main source of social interaction due to social networking sites. It is also the main way in which we input information. Rather ‘leaning back’ and allowing information to be fed to us through the force feeding tube known as the television, we are now able to take a’ lean forward’ looking for information that we want to see and having to skip past the things that do not interest us. By offering these catch up sites and online newspapers, we are able to find the media that we would like to digest. Audiences are now taking a much more active part in taking in information.
The broadcast media platform has not adapted fully in my opinion. Whats happening is that channels are filling scheduling time with repeats of previous programs, something which is no longer a commodity and is easily accessible via e media. Also, more and more channels seem to have a +1 addition allowing audiences to catch up however audiences can now catch up when they feel they have the time to do so.
• Print Media?
• E-Media?
• Broadcast Media?
A) The first teaser for ‘Super 8’ was shown all the way back in 2010, a year before the actual release date in 2011. The trailer was shown with Iron Man 2, a long awaited sequel which itself was heavily marketed. http://www.empireonline.com/News/story.asp?nid=30081. Kyle Chandler who played Joes’ father appeared on the David Letterman talk show speaking about himself, amusing the host and audience, and also promoting the film. He begins promoting the film at ‘5:10’ where he says, “Super 8 is, your gona like this movie, comes out Friday 1st, it’s a good movie.”
Super 8 was heavily marketed on the internet on sites such as youtube, facebook and twitter, itunes, official websites and unofficially websites created by fans of Super 8. The official Super 8 Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Super8Movie) which has 575k fans, posts links of cast interviews, opportunities to buy Super 8 merchandise such as the soundtrack, tshirts and the DVD. This is also done on the twitter fanpage (https://twitter.com/Super8Movie) which has 16,500 followers and on the official website.
Print media is a now a declining media platform however is still very effective. ‘Super 8’ featured in Empire Magazine, The independent, The Times and the free magazine, the Metro; who have all done a review on Super 8 however Empire Magazine was the only UK magazine to do interviews with JJ Abrams, Spielberg and the cast of Super 8 as they won the rights for some sort of exclusivity, attracting users to subscribe to the premium magazine. Also the interviews and reviews are available online for free one the empire online website on many other websites.
Q2) Now look at each platform individually:
• What are they key issues and changes taking place in each platform?
• Print Media is not instant and free like E-Media
• TV is becoming less dictated by scheduling (Sky+), more and more specialist channels, competition from the likes of You Tube
• E-Media is hard to police (piracy); people are bombarded with information; social networking and increasing audience participation (user generated content).
A) Print media has been in a steady decline over the past 10 years. This is because the same content found in newspapers is found cheaply and quicker using e media or perhaps broadcast media, (although not as much). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/.
E Media has been on the increase in the past 10 years. This due to technological advances which have allowed us to take advantage of faster internet speeds. In 2001 the fastest internet available cost £39.99 and was at 512kb. This means that a full blu ray movie would take 2 years and 3 months to complete downloading, in 2011 that speed has increased meaning blu ray movies are faster to download taking almost 3 hours and 30/45 minutes on a fibre optic connection.
Broadcast media is also changing rapidly. People are no longer dictated by show scheduling. People are able to record their favourite shows in advance using recording satellite receiver boxes. Also over the past 2 years, catch up online sites have been created allowing audiences to catch up on any programs they might have missed. Sites like these include www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer and www.channel4.com/programmes/4od .
Q3) How is each platform responding and adapting to these issues and changes?
Focus on how they are adapting to:
• CHANGING TECHNOLOGIES
• CHANGING AUDIENCE BEHAVIOURS (all audiences, not just the young!)
A) The print media platform has attempted to adapt. The Daily Mail had attempted to follow a subscribe only system where you pay for a monthly subscription in return for exclusive news and also archived news. This was a major flop which caused Daily Mail to stop this subscription only system and allow reader to read for free. This then meant they would make money from advertising. They do still have a similar service running on Ipad which allows readers to pay for a subscription service in return for the daily mail app which is called MailOnline.
The E Media platform has also attempted to adapt to these changes. Internet is now becoming our main source of social interaction due to social networking sites. It is also the main way in which we input information. Rather ‘leaning back’ and allowing information to be fed to us through the force feeding tube known as the television, we are now able to take a’ lean forward’ looking for information that we want to see and having to skip past the things that do not interest us. By offering these catch up sites and online newspapers, we are able to find the media that we would like to digest. Audiences are now taking a much more active part in taking in information.
The broadcast media platform has not adapted fully in my opinion. Whats happening is that channels are filling scheduling time with repeats of previous programs, something which is no longer a commodity and is easily accessible via e media. Also, more and more channels seem to have a +1 addition allowing audiences to catch up however audiences can now catch up when they feel they have the time to do so.
Sunday 4 December 2011
‘Super 8’ Cross Media Case Study
Broadcast/Moving Image
• The first teaser for ‘Super 8’ was shown all the way back in 2010, a year before the actual release date in 2011. The trailer was shown with Iron Man 2, a long awaited sequel which itself was heavily marketed. This led to the trailer being discussed on internet forums and created a massive buzz. The timing of the teaser and what it contained led fans to believe that it was a sequel to Abrams’ successfully viral marketed film, Cloverfield. The trailer itself is thrilling and had been specially tailored for the audience that Iron Man 2 had attracted. The children were not made to be the protagonists, the scenes shown where mainly the most visually satisfying such as the train crash and the monster breaking through the door. The music is also much more different and is clearly been put in the teaser to create suspense among the cinema audience. See Below
• After leaving the audience to analyse the teaser trailer and make their own judgements as too what the trailer was for, Abrams gave the world another taster of ‘Super 8’ by putting the teaser on television during the ‘Super Bowl XLV’ which attracted around 162.9 million views worldwide. According to Wikipedia, ‘It was the most watched single program of any kind in US TV history’. I don’t believe there could have been a better place to put that teaser. This teaser sent off a contrasting view of the film compared to the last teaser trailer that was shown. This teaser had much more high-key lighted shots of the film and clearly showed the children to be the protagonists rather than just token characters. This teaser also had a voice over, which is a convention usually found in fairytales and movies for more younger audiences. This teaser had become viral, being shared among followers on twitter, leading it to be a trending topic.
• One of the issues with marketing a movie with young actors playing the main roles is that them promoting the film is much harder to do. This is often left to the few older members of the cast one of them being Kyle Chandler who plays the father of the protagonist Joe. He appeared on the David Letterman talk show speaking about himself, amusing the host and audience, and also promoting the film. He begins promoting the film at ‘5:10’ where he says, “Super 8 is, your gona like this movie, comes out Friday 1st, it’s a good movie.”
Print Media
• The poster for the film is simple, but very effective. The main object is the damaged lens of ‘Super 8’ camera that is still filming. The lens is facing the viewer creating the sense of a direct mode of address. The image creates enigma codes for the audience making them question who was filming and why they left it on, questions that are answered once you see the film. The names of the producer and director of the film are places at the upper portion of the poster in a white font which is creating a contrast between the black background. At the bottom portion of the poster, there is brief credits to the companies that have produced and filmed the text.
• There are also various reviews of the film by ‘the telegraph’ and ‘the Metro’ who not only print the text, but also place it on the internet. This is an example of Convergence.
E-Media
• Super 8 was heavily marketed on the internet on sites such as youtube, facebook and twitter, itunes, official websites and unofficially websites created by fans of Super 8. The official Super 8 Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Super8Movie) which has 575k fans, posts links of cast interviews, opportunities to buy Super 8 merchandise such as the soundtrack, tshirts and the DVD. This is also done on the twitter fanpage (https://twitter.com/Super8Movie) which has 16,500 followers and on the official website.
• The official website http://www.super8-movie.com/, allows fans to purchase the DVD, read a brief summary of the story, pictures of the film, cast, crew and notes, and the ability to register for updates allowing you to be the first to know about the anything ‘Super 8’. The site also has an ‘editing room’ which allows fans to construct a trailer from clips of the film allowing them to make their own ‘Super 8’ film. http://www.super8-movie.com/editingroom.html
• On the MailOnline website, they posted an article which allowed fans to enter a competition to win an all expenses trip to ‘Paris though a lens’. This increased the buzz among fans prompting them to enter the competition, which is now closed. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/prmts/article-2026966/Experience-Paris-lens-Super-8.html
• On the Super 8 offical website, there is also a link for views to ‘Read the Super 8 comic online’. The comic itself is free to read and is entertaining as well, however it is not directly related to the film. https://read.dccomics.com/comixology/#/issue/11143
• After fans had analysed the first teaser shown during Iron Man 2, they found a hidden message, “Scariest Thing I Ever Saw”. This led to a fan made website, http://www.scariestthingieversaw.com/, which simulated an old computer and contained various clues to the film's storyline.
• The film was released on June 9, 2011 in Australia, June 10, 2011 in the United States, and August 5, 2011 in the United Kingdom. On June 8, Paramount also launched a “Super 8 Sneak Peek” Twitter promotion, offering fans a chance to purchase tickets for an advanced screening, taking place on June 9, 2011 in the United States.
• The first teaser for ‘Super 8’ was shown all the way back in 2010, a year before the actual release date in 2011. The trailer was shown with Iron Man 2, a long awaited sequel which itself was heavily marketed. This led to the trailer being discussed on internet forums and created a massive buzz. The timing of the teaser and what it contained led fans to believe that it was a sequel to Abrams’ successfully viral marketed film, Cloverfield. The trailer itself is thrilling and had been specially tailored for the audience that Iron Man 2 had attracted. The children were not made to be the protagonists, the scenes shown where mainly the most visually satisfying such as the train crash and the monster breaking through the door. The music is also much more different and is clearly been put in the teaser to create suspense among the cinema audience. See Below
• After leaving the audience to analyse the teaser trailer and make their own judgements as too what the trailer was for, Abrams gave the world another taster of ‘Super 8’ by putting the teaser on television during the ‘Super Bowl XLV’ which attracted around 162.9 million views worldwide. According to Wikipedia, ‘It was the most watched single program of any kind in US TV history’. I don’t believe there could have been a better place to put that teaser. This teaser sent off a contrasting view of the film compared to the last teaser trailer that was shown. This teaser had much more high-key lighted shots of the film and clearly showed the children to be the protagonists rather than just token characters. This teaser also had a voice over, which is a convention usually found in fairytales and movies for more younger audiences. This teaser had become viral, being shared among followers on twitter, leading it to be a trending topic.
• One of the issues with marketing a movie with young actors playing the main roles is that them promoting the film is much harder to do. This is often left to the few older members of the cast one of them being Kyle Chandler who plays the father of the protagonist Joe. He appeared on the David Letterman talk show speaking about himself, amusing the host and audience, and also promoting the film. He begins promoting the film at ‘5:10’ where he says, “Super 8 is, your gona like this movie, comes out Friday 1st, it’s a good movie.”
Print Media
• The poster for the film is simple, but very effective. The main object is the damaged lens of ‘Super 8’ camera that is still filming. The lens is facing the viewer creating the sense of a direct mode of address. The image creates enigma codes for the audience making them question who was filming and why they left it on, questions that are answered once you see the film. The names of the producer and director of the film are places at the upper portion of the poster in a white font which is creating a contrast between the black background. At the bottom portion of the poster, there is brief credits to the companies that have produced and filmed the text.
• There are also various reviews of the film by ‘the telegraph’ and ‘the Metro’ who not only print the text, but also place it on the internet. This is an example of Convergence.
E-Media
• Super 8 was heavily marketed on the internet on sites such as youtube, facebook and twitter, itunes, official websites and unofficially websites created by fans of Super 8. The official Super 8 Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Super8Movie) which has 575k fans, posts links of cast interviews, opportunities to buy Super 8 merchandise such as the soundtrack, tshirts and the DVD. This is also done on the twitter fanpage (https://twitter.com/Super8Movie) which has 16,500 followers and on the official website.
• The official website http://www.super8-movie.com/, allows fans to purchase the DVD, read a brief summary of the story, pictures of the film, cast, crew and notes, and the ability to register for updates allowing you to be the first to know about the anything ‘Super 8’. The site also has an ‘editing room’ which allows fans to construct a trailer from clips of the film allowing them to make their own ‘Super 8’ film. http://www.super8-movie.com/editingroom.html
• On the MailOnline website, they posted an article which allowed fans to enter a competition to win an all expenses trip to ‘Paris though a lens’. This increased the buzz among fans prompting them to enter the competition, which is now closed. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/prmts/article-2026966/Experience-Paris-lens-Super-8.html
• On the Super 8 offical website, there is also a link for views to ‘Read the Super 8 comic online’. The comic itself is free to read and is entertaining as well, however it is not directly related to the film. https://read.dccomics.com/comixology/#/issue/11143
• After fans had analysed the first teaser shown during Iron Man 2, they found a hidden message, “Scariest Thing I Ever Saw”. This led to a fan made website, http://www.scariestthingieversaw.com/, which simulated an old computer and contained various clues to the film's storyline.
• The film was released on June 9, 2011 in Australia, June 10, 2011 in the United States, and August 5, 2011 in the United Kingdom. On June 8, Paramount also launched a “Super 8 Sneak Peek” Twitter promotion, offering fans a chance to purchase tickets for an advanced screening, taking place on June 9, 2011 in the United States.
Thursday 20 October 2011
Review Of 'Super 8'
'Super 8' is a blockbuster, directed and written by J.J Abrams and produced by Steven Speilberg. The film is a tribute to Steven Speilberg's classics such as E.T, Jaws, Jurrasic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the remake of 'War of the Worlds'. This film tick all the boxes for me. Horror, Suspense, Mystery, a fantastic storyline, the typical Spielberg spectacle we expect in all of his movies and a hint of comedy. This mixture of film conventions suggests a trybrid of genres; horror, sci-fi and comedy.
The film is set in the summer of 1979 in the town of Ohio, USA. The protagonist of the film is a 14 year old boy, Joe, who we first meet on sad terms; whilst he is grieving the death of his mother who died in a factory accident. Abrams has done this intentionally so that we feel sense of pity and therefore the audience begin to empathize with him which is what the director wants. To take his mind of this tragedy, Joe begins to help his best friend, Charles who is directing his own film for a festival using his Super 8 camera- hence the name of the movie.
This film does not follow typical Hollywood ideology because it does not follow the 3 stages of narrative suggested by Todorov. This movie starts in disequilibrium and disorder but then finishes in equilibrium and order. This disequilibrium is the death of the protagonist's mother. Why would Abrams do this? I think it is because he is attempting to identify his own 'aeteur' as a director and break the norm.
All in all Super 8 is a fantastic film and would recommend it to everyone from all ages and genders because not only does it take us back to the past, but it also suggests the future hinting the possibility that one day, we can have Hollywood style cameras and film our own high quality movies. This offers escapism, visual pleasure, engima codes and different style of Hollywood movies.
AA Rating? 9/10
The film is set in the summer of 1979 in the town of Ohio, USA. The protagonist of the film is a 14 year old boy, Joe, who we first meet on sad terms; whilst he is grieving the death of his mother who died in a factory accident. Abrams has done this intentionally so that we feel sense of pity and therefore the audience begin to empathize with him which is what the director wants. To take his mind of this tragedy, Joe begins to help his best friend, Charles who is directing his own film for a festival using his Super 8 camera- hence the name of the movie.
This film does not follow typical Hollywood ideology because it does not follow the 3 stages of narrative suggested by Todorov. This movie starts in disequilibrium and disorder but then finishes in equilibrium and order. This disequilibrium is the death of the protagonist's mother. Why would Abrams do this? I think it is because he is attempting to identify his own 'aeteur' as a director and break the norm.
All in all Super 8 is a fantastic film and would recommend it to everyone from all ages and genders because not only does it take us back to the past, but it also suggests the future hinting the possibility that one day, we can have Hollywood style cameras and film our own high quality movies. This offers escapism, visual pleasure, engima codes and different style of Hollywood movies.
AA Rating? 9/10
Friday 14 October 2011
review of year12/13 films from media awards!
My favourite y12 film was 'johnny' made by Aftab and Uzair. The reason for this is because the music, storyline and effects used appealed to my age range audience which is 15 to 18. The could of made the movie more diverse by using females aswell. My favourite year 13 production was the 'call of duty' movie. This is because it also appealied to my gender group and age group. To improve there production they could of used more upbeat music to really excite the viewers.and ausience
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