Friday, 28 November 2014

SOCIAL GROUPS IN YOUR FILM OPENING

Evaluation q.2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Use PINTEREST to collate your collection of social groups. Search for images from films of similar characters. Post them on Pinterest and caption them. See PINTEREST here
  • What are the social groups represented in terms of gender, age, class, race, occupation, sexuality etc?
  • Is gender represented in a stereotypical way e.g. women as passive, men as dominant? 
  • What about the other social groups?
  • How does this link into the target audience that you outline in q.4?
PREP: POST ON YOUR BLOG BY THURSDAY 4 DECEMBER
 

Wednesday, 26 November 2014

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS:



Summer 2012
Extract : Coming Down The Mountain
The question was 'How is the representation of disability constructed?
Summer 2012 video

PREP: HAND IN YOUR COMPLETED ANSWER ON PAPER BY TUESDAY 2 DECEMBER

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

THE HUNGER GAMES: DISTRIBUTION STRATEGIES

We research what strategies Lionsgate used to promote The Hunger Games. We collect the information and present it as a PowerPoint uploaded to Slideshare. This case study will illustrate points that we make in the summer exam as well as inform our understanding of how to reach our own film audiences for our film opening.
  • On your blog post as your introduction to your Slideshare, sum up what you learned about the various platforms used and how they functioned.
  • Indicate how your marketing tactics have been influenced: what platforms will you use?
 

Friday, 21 November 2014

Thursday, 20 November 2014

FILM INDUSTRY EXAM QUESTION

322 EXAM PRACTICE QUESTION:     What impact does media ownership have upon the range of products available to audiences in the media area you have studied?     (50 Marks) 

HERE ARE YOUR FIRST 4 PARAGRAPHS.

START I have studied the film industry. In this essay, I understand 'media ownership' to mean both the Hollywood film industry and independent British film producers and distributors. First, I am going to write about the Hollywood 'big six' using as my case study Disney as an example of the mega-franchise model. Then, I plan to examine British film, using as my case studies Working Title and a selection of independent films with small budgets and niche audiences.
You read up on the Hollywood 'big six' and megafranchises, including Dalecki's 4-S megafranchise model and the synergy it produces.
You watch my Prezi on megafranchises.

To begin with, I will define 'range of products' in relation to production values (big budgets, high production values, CGI, motion capture, exotic locations, expensive casting and so on), big distribution budgets (interactive websites, range of trailers, luxury brand tie-ins, syndicated TV channel advertising, P&A saturation and so on), diverse film products (DVD, BluRay, 3D, IMAX, downloads and so on) and entertainment super-texts (like theme parks and video games). In other words,  I intend to show that Hollywood mega-franchises dominate because of their ability to generate constant synergy: for instance, the Disney Stores promote the consumer products which promote the theme parks which promote the television show. 
You study and present Disney The Avengers as a case study.

However, I also intend to argue that Hollywood's focus on certain film genres (sequels, prequels and superhero film) actually narrows consumer choice. By playing safe as they aim for global markets, Hollywood develops films that offer archetypes, story and spectacle, whereas British film and independent film producers in general offer more diverse film genres.

Therefore I intend to define 'range of products' in terms of 'range of genre' and show how smaller film makers make a wide range of films that offer what national audiences need. I will examine how smaller film makers tackle issues relating to genre, casting, production values, distribution, building audiences and exhibiting films.

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

ATTRACTING AND ADDRESSING AUDIENCES

To plan for Evaluation question 5 on attracting and addressing audiences, I researched a case study to investigate how distributors attract and address audiences (source: Bauer Media Advertising):


Tuesday, 11 November 2014

RESEARCH: HOW BRANDS TARGET AUDIENCES

I need to plan how to reach my target audience. Therefore, I need to know who they are (factors that may be relevant include age, gender, ethnicity, social class), what their media needs are (so that I can produce a product that they will want) and how to reach them (to market my film). I will show how my research has shaped / influenced my planning. 

I started by investigating how brands target audiences in preparation for creating my own audience profile for my AS Foundation Production.  
As part of distributing my film, I will be devising marketing strategies, such as reaching out to my target audiences through a film website, Facebook page, Twitter page and P&A (a film poster). 
In addition to profiling my audience, I will work out why they enjoy the genre. Why would they want to watch my film? What makes my film different from competing films ? How will my film appeal to viewing needs of my target audience?

Who Is My Target Audience: Action Steps

1. Who is my primary target audience? For example: British, male and female 18-45+ who love thriller films, TV crime drama and psychological thrillers.

2. What makes my film stand out from the competition? For example:  Our film is about a war photographer who suffers from post-traumatic stress and kidnaps a child.

3. Why should my audience watch my film? For example:  Total Film / Empire / Cinema Scope / Slant / Sight and Sound says: Most powerful psychological thriller since Don't Look Now!
Time spent understanding my audience will help me create a profile of my ideal audience member. This information will then be useful when I create my marketing strategy.

Audiences can be segmented and defined by their GEARS
Gender
Ethnicity
Age
Region / nationality
Socio-economic group

My research demonstrated that all products (including mass media products such as print magazines) have clearly segmented and distinct audiences based on gender, age and socio-economic groups as these examples illustrate (source Bauer Media Advertising):






My target audience consumes mass media platforms such as radio, so I investigated the target audience for Kiss, which is an example of a large niche audience ('young, London, dance music'). I could make a radio trailer to promote my film and air it on Kiss:



In Maslowe's Hierarchy of Needs, audiences have different levels of needs, with higher level needs - such those driving as media consumption - motivating people only once lower level needs are met.

 


There are several models of audience behaviour, two of which construct audiences in contrasting ways (passive or active):
The Media Effects model or 'hypodermic syringe' model sees audiences as passively led, influenced and manipulated by all that they consume as gullible and impressionable.
The Uses and Gratifications model presents audience behaviour as active choices (uses) that are pursued to meet (gratify) a variety of needs. For Blumler and Katz, these four needs are for entertainment/ escapism/ distraction, seeking information (sometimes called surveillance), personal identity (to support our world view) and social relationships (bonding 'water cooler' moments with friends or family as well as on-screen relationships with favourite performers).

The two-step flow model of audience behaviour.
Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet analysed the voters' decision-making processes during a 1940 presidential election campaign and published their results in a paper called The People's Choice. Their findings suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow. This diminished the power of the media in the eyes of researchers, and caused them to conclude that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpreted texts. This is sometimes referred to as the limited effects paradigm. (Source: Mediaknowall.com)
 
Socio-economic bands




I looked at iTunes Movie Trailers to find out what audiences were currently offered: