EVALUATION QUESTION 3: DISTRIBUTION

This week your PRODUCTION PREP is to complete evaluation q.3 on DISTRIBUTION:

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

• PRESENT THIS IN PREZI EXPLAINING WHICH DISTRIBUTION COMPANY WOULD PRESENT YOUR FILM AND WHY YOU CHOSE THAT COMPANY (their track record)
• SAY WHAT DISTRIBUTORS DO (digital and conventional screenings, cinema exhibition, DVD and other sales) 
• and HOW THEY RAISE AWARENESS ( P & A, film websites with interactivity, TV spots, trailers) 
• EXPLAIN THE RESEARCH YOU DID TO FIND OUT ABOUT DISTRIBUTORS  (FDA, Launching Films, video presentations from this site)
• GIVE EXAMPLES OF CASE STUDIES ( eg Shifty, The Disappearance of Alice Creed. a film by your chosen distributor)

We have already done the work below (on the class blog):
The Film Distributors Association website explains the film industry, distribution and marketing. We study three presentations. Today, INSIDE FILM DISTRIBUTION: PART 2 THE CAMPAIGN Launching Film site here
You watch the presentation again for PREP and write a detailed post in which you present your understanding of the campaign process, ready for your evaluation question number 3. Follow the steps in the presentation; use your own words to present your points but quote where necessary. Give your source (the person and their job title).

REPRESENTATION IN TV DRAMA: THE INDIAN DOCTOR

This week your EXAM PREPARATION PREP is to write up the answers to the following questions, which are starting points for your comments.
The opening episode of The Indian Doctor (BBC1 2012) here
We analyse how the representation of ethnicity is constructed through mise-en-scene, camerawork, editing and sound.

1. How does the soundtrack function? What does the title wording suggest about representation?

2. Whose viewpoint is the audience made to share, and how?

3. How is Indian ethnicity constructed? How is the Welsh community represented?

4. How are Prem and Kamini constructed as outsiders?

5. What does the editing (shot reverse shot; framing, reaction shot) contribute to the representation?

6. Mise-en-scene: how are Prem and Kamini positioned as outsiders through their clothes?

7: Editing: what do the clips from the contemporary film 'The Millionairess' contribute

to the representation of Asians?

8. What does the representation of an Asian doctor by Peter Sellers contribute in terms of racist humour?

9. Comment on the arrival of Prem and Kamini in the village hall during the screening. How is the 2012 audience meant to understand this scene?

10. How is the Welsh community represented?

CONSTRUCTION: SOUND

Soundtrack for thriller film

Royalty free soundtracks: try AudioJungle
for film company ident, look here at a site where you can browse by mood and theme:

EXAM SECTION B: AUDIENCES & INSTITUTIONS

The specification is on the left. 

We analysed the ways in which the candidates' own experience of media consumption illustrates wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour. 

• With increased technological convergence and the trend of consumers as producers, younger audiences such as myself and my friends tend to buy and view films on stand-alone devices such as computers, tablets, mobile phones, rather than in-cinema on big screens.
• With this in mind, Peter Jackson filmed The Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as The Hobbit trilogy in 48fps, a much faster frame rate in order to make his films more attractive to younger audiences and draw them into cinemas. Jackson on 48fps: see http://mediaclaremont.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/48-fps-hobbit.html
• The Hobbit benefited from the faster frame rate because its genre relies on spectacle for its impact on audiences; there are two different types of thrill. One comes from the shocking representations of orcs, combat and conflict in the battle scenes, speed and motion in the chase sequences, and the constant sense of jeopardy, all of which are typical genre conventions for this type of big screen blockbuster, a genre that currently seems to dominate Hollywood productions.
• Then there is the type of spectacle that relies on breath-taking beauty created using VFX, such as the realm of the Elves with the architectural splendours of their kingdom, the enchanting faces, costumes and jewels.
• The use of 3D technology is another choice that audiences like myself have to weigh up when choosing what to view and where to view it. Higher admission prices for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug have to be set against greater 'thrills and spills' of 3D. Whereas five years ago, 3D would only be available at major centres, now even my local cinema offers the choice of 2 or 3D thanks to the proliferation of digital projection.
  
• Very strong box office figures reflect the success of the genre: Smaug came top with $318 million in global ticket sales.

SOCIAL GROUPS: CHILDLESS WOMEN

• Women are usually represented in film as lovers (and therefore potential mates) or mothers (with children or step-children). 
• Stereotypical successful role models of women as mothers are seen in many films whereas childless women (and women who are working mothers) are often presented as counter-stereotypes in a negative way. 
• A dystopian world where women cannot conceive is presented in Children of Men (Cuaron, 2006).
• Girls are socialized as mothers through dolls. 

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THE CULTURE INDUSTRY

We started with a moment's theory, looking at Theodore Adorno, using Prof. David Gauntlett's resources at theory.org.uk HERE.

EVALUATION QUESTION 2: SOCIAL GROUPS

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For the second evaluation question use Pinterest, a website similar to Blogger and especially Tumblr in the way that users can upload images by pinning them to their virtual boards and comment on them. An example is below.

In class today, we define which social groups are represented, thinking of gender, age, ethnicity, social class. We noted, for example, mothers with children, a doctor / psychiatrist, a childless woman, a skateboarding teen, a supermarket worker, a flirtatious woman who is the object of desire. 

This allows you to answer the question in a Mood-board style, with an image to back up the brief notes which inform the examiner how your film represents certain social groups.

Click here to access Ben Murray's Pinterest mood-board. 

PLANNING: CALL SHEET

MY CALL SHEET

Each group will produce a call sheet for each shoot (do not post your phone number or email online, though, but let your group have it)  as in this example.

• Title of page: AS Media Studies Call Sheet for [name of your film]
• Shoot date
• Location
• IMAGE: FROM GOOGLE MAPS
• Crew: [name of person, their phone number, their email]
• Crew: [name of person, their phone number, their email]
• Crew: [name of person, their phone number, their email] etc..
• Camera equipment (this heading then lists camera stuff)
• Lighting equipment (this heading then lists lighting stuff)
• Props (this heading then lists all props)
• Wardrobe [name of character]
• Wardrobe [name of character] etc

GENRE & REPRESENTATION

We start with the BBC news about current film awards BBC News and Entertainment
We examine issues relating to the Golden Globe awards:

• the target audience for different Golden Globe nominations, such as whether American Hustle is mainstream drama (American Hustle won three awards)
• why audiences select certain films by director (e.g. Martin Scorcese; Leonardo DiCaprio won best actor in a comedy or musical for The Wolf of Wall Street.)
• the biopic and historical film as genre (Steve McQueen's historical tale 12 Years a Slave received the top honour of the night, winning best film drama.)
• mainstream / niche
• national / international / global
• awards ceremonies as marketing tools

Analysis of representation using Ricky Gervais's Extras, episode with Orlando Bloom

• How the lighting in the first part constructs the two central characters as figures in a light-hearted, feel-good romance with a guaranteed happy ending
• How the lighting changes from high-key, intense colour suitable for drama to cold, harsh light suitable for reality television when the cameras pull back to reveal that the first part was a TV drama being filmed in a courtroom set.
• How the protagonists are constructed as lawyers through the wigs, gowns, collars
• How the two protagonists have equal importance because of the frame composition: they are positioned in the frame in symmetry, taking up equal space.
• How Orlando Bloom is constructed as arrogant, self-important and assertive through body language (leaning on wooden jury rail into the jurist's space), dialogue (" on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean they ignored Jonny Depp and said 'Who's that loser; we want Orlando!") and close ups ( smirking, stroking his own face).
• How Ricky Gervais is represented as fighting failure, dismayed by his friend Maggie, struggling to gain her support through shot-reverse-shot (CU of reaction shots such as eye rolling as Maggie lets him down)