Audience and Institution Practice Essay

On all levels, it can be agreed that marketing has a significant impact on the media area of film. It’s very often that when you are browsing a grocery isle or watching television that you would see advertising or marketing for different films. Whether it be to increase attention drawn to a film or to gain more profit in the long run, marketing and advertising are very often used for films. Marketing allows for movies to gain traction and as a result, more net earnings. Most if not all films have some sort of marketing to allow for these results, making the marketing a crucial part of the film distribution process. 

One example of a film that exemplifies the importance of marketing is Spider-man Homecoming. The movie was a massive success with a worldwide box office amount of around $880,166,350. That could largely be attributed to the use of marketing in its release stages. One way they created hype for the movie was releasing toys and action figures from the movie before it premiered. This helped to get the attention of the movies target audience of children and get them to want to watch the movie. Another example of how they got the attention they did was through the partnership they had with cinnamon toast crunch, a breakfast cereal brand, which included toys from the movie inside their cereal boxes. This was a prime example of synergy. Uses of marketing like this have a large effect on a film’s success. 

Another film that shows the importance of marketing in film is Furious 7. This movie had several ways of marketing that all held importance and brought in revenue. An example of cross promotion they did was teaming up with the phone brand OPPO to host events and make posters. These promotional events and posters would draw in an audience and gain the movie some traction. They also teamed up with Forza Horizon, which is a video game to release a car pack in the game. This also gained attention to the movie because those who play a racing game, might like a movie that also features cars that they see in the games. It reaches the demographic that the movie is aiming for since people who like cars would probably like the movie and they would also probably be playing that game. The box office of the film was around approximately $1.515 billion, which was a success all things considered. A major part of this success was definitely due to the marketing. 

In some cases, however, the marketing doesn’t have much of an impact on the film’s success. In the movie Uglydolls, the movie had a lot of potentially good marketing, with posters depicting actors voicing the characters, many of them being famous or singers. Showing the singing voice actors in ads made sure that it was known that the movie had songs and was aimed at kids. They even partnered up with Cold Stone Creamery and had an ice cream flavor to promote the movie. Despite this, the movie didn’t do so well in the box office. At the start of the launch of the movie, it only netted around $8.5 million according to an article on Cartoon Brew. This isn’t very good considering the movie is the second-widest independent animation release. However, this is only one example of marketing not helping much and considering there are other factors going into the movie not doing well it isn’t a full reflection of the importance of marketing in film. 

Overall, marketing has a significant impact on the media area of film and is shown to be of some importance to film’s success. Whether it’s increasing attention the film gets or gaining more profit in the long run, marketing and advertising are have much importance in the media area of film.  

Game of Thrones Extract Essay

For my extract, I watched a clip from Game of Thrones. This extract was about a man named Stannis who was trying to convince a court that he was a rightful ruler. He has with him a man named Davos who vouches for him and declares that he would be the most suitable ruler for various reasons. The extract is tense and seems to be going for a bit of a dramatic feel. The overall meaning I believe the extract was going for was that loyalty and honesty deserved to be rewarded. This theme was conveyed through the use of various techniques which built up the importance and seriousness of the message.
In the first scene, it starts with a zoom of the two characters and then an establishing shot of the boat they are sailing in on. The zoom displays the intensity of the two characters and sets the tone for the rest of the extract. The characters look as if they are about to face something either challenging or important, which enhances the feel of the drama. The establishing shot showing the large boat on the empty coast makes the scene feel all the more dramatic, as it shows the importance of the characters since they are riding in on a large boat. The characters themselves wear clothes that seem to fit the plot of the show, which makes it seem more fantasy-like, as no one today would typically wear what they are wearing. The lighting of this scene also sets the mood for the rest of the extract. The lighting is dim and dreary, which makes the scene have a feeling of dread and furthers the intensity of what is about to take place. Overall it doesn't make the scene feel like a happy one. The background music furthers this by playing a sad sounding instrumental tune. It makes the scene feel even more glum than it had before, which is most likely what the director was going for.
In the next scene, the background music that had previously been playing stopped, making the scene a lot more quiet. The scene went from non-diegetic sound to having completely diegetic. This built up the suspense for what was to come and the importance of the message that would be said. The theme itself was conveyed through dialogue in the extract. This was a great choice on the director's part because it really helped show their vision.
In the third scene, the characters try to convince the court that Stannis would be a good ruler. Davos explained that his loyalty to rules and honesty made him deserving of the rule. He further showed this through his hand, which was shown to have no fingers because Stannis himself got rid of them. The reason is revealed that he used to be a thief and was punished for it. This shows his loyalty to Stannis and further shows the point. The costume design and character design showing this, very much helped show his point.
Overall, these decisions evidently conveyed the meaning of the extract very well. The camera angles and shots showed mood, which made the following scenes feel important. The mis en scene made the extract feel like it was in the time period it was set and helped convey theme. The sound also conveyed importance of the message given. All of these came together to construct the meaning behind the extract.

Final Task Video

This is my group's final task opening sequence, Substitution. We worked very hard on it and the results turned out great!

CCR Part 4

This in my final part for my CCR of my group's opening sequence, Substitution.

CCR Part 3

This is the third part to my CCR of my group's opening sequence, Substitution.

CCR Part 2

This is the second part to my CCR for my group's opening sequence, Substitution.

CCR part 1

This is the first part to my creative critical reflection for my groups opening sequence.

Music Video

This was my groups music video project. We chose a song and made a music video of part of the song.

Commercial

This was our first video project we did this year for AICE media studies. We had to create a commercial of a product of our choice. Me and my teammate chose Zephyryhills.

Filming

This week, we didn’t really have the chance to film again. We both haven’t had the opportunity to get together for different reasons. I’ve been busy and my partner hasn’t been able to either. This means we weren’t able to film anything new for our project. This is a slight problem but hopefully soon we will be able to. We still have a few things that might need refilming. The last scenes in particular might need it. Overall though, we are getting close to finishing our project. We just need those final scenes done. Then we’ll be on our way to finishing.
Another thing we weren’t able to do since we couldn’t get together is edit. All of the editing has to be done on one computer which raises a few issues. The computer used can’t really transport to school for us to finish. This means we have to edit it all outside of school. It isn’t too much of a problem but we still need to get together to get it done. One thing we were still able to do was dump previous footage online onto the google drive to upload it to the computer. That way we can access it anywhere. This was useful since we couldn’t do much in school. We could at least get one thing done.    Despite these setbacks we are on our way to being completely done with the video though.

Editing Blog

We ran into a few problems from the start when trying to edit. We tried to open up pinnacle studios and were met with a screen saying that it wouldn't respond. I reloaded the computer a few times only to find out that it just wouldn't work. I then put that computer away to get another one and try again. I repeated the same process over again with the new one. Yet again I was met with the screen letting me know it wouldn't work. I tried one more time with a third computer but none of them would work. It was then we realized we would have to do most of the editing at home. So, I uploaded the footage to the google drive and logged off. I volunteered to do some of the editing on my own at home since we needed some edited for our peer review.
To edit we decided to use imovie since it had a lot of the same functions and was easy to access and use. One good thing was importing the footage took little to no time since we had uploaded it onto the google drive already. Then, I sorted through the footage and found all of the usable clips. From there I organized them and put them in. Then I shortened the clips to the correct length so they moved cleanly from one scene to another. Another thing I did was add background music to build suspense in the scenes. I had to go online and find royalty free music that was downloadable and get it from there. I found one that really worked and added it on to the video. This really enhanced the feeling we were trying to go for in the video and actually made it a lot better thematically. Overall, we were able to get a lot done for our first time editing, and most of what we have left is just adding the titles.

Peer Review Blog

This week on Monday, we had our peer reviews. The peer reviews were basically where we had to give what we had worked on so far to another group for them to review. While our video was being reviewed, we reviewed another group's video. The night before peer reviewing, I had to edit some of our video since we hadn't been able to yet. Thankfully, we had something to show the next day during the peer review. The way the teams were decided was by picking a number on a piece of paper from a box. The number we chose was the group we looked at. When I got to class on Monday, my teacher wasn't there so I just followed the instructions on the board. I first checked which group was reviewing mine and gave them my group's video. Then I went and got the sheet we were filling out for the peer review. It had a series of question we had to answer based on the video we watched. After that I found the person who we were going to review and got a copy of their video to watch. Me and my partner watched the video at around the same time so we could talk with each other to help grade the video. We had to check for the amount of titles, sound quality, and lighting quality. We also checked for the different angles used when filming. A lot of it was just checking yes or no to the questions. After, finishing, we talked to the people who reviewed ours. The main critique we got from the group that graded our video was to have better lighting in the shots. That will be something we edit later to make it look better. Overall this helped show how far we've progressed in the project.

Filming blog progress

This weekend, me and my partner filmed 3 of our scenes for our project. We were happy to finally be able to get some work done despite our previous setbacks. To start off, I rented out a camera and tripod so we could film the scenes. We didn’t actually end up using the tripod but it was nice to have it in case we needed it. We filmed the scenes at my house and shot some scenes both indoors and outdoors. It ended up being filmed at night since that was when the scenes took place. I had the script and storyboard opened up on my phone so we could reference it throughout the filming process. During a majority of the filming I was acting in the video. I played the main character in our film. This was new for me and I found it really fun. I also set up the props for the shots.
When we were filming, I helped direct what was happening too. There were a few scenes where I wasn’t the one acting as well. In those scenes I was the one filming. I set up the camera for those scenes and the props surrounding it. I helped direct the person acting in that moment what to do. In the scenes without actors I helped set up the scene. I also reshot the shots that didn’t look so great. One more thing I did was record audio to voiceover a part. I used the camera to get audio of an actor saying a line.

Filming Blog Didn't Get To Film

This week, our class started the filming process of our project. This included going outside of school to film for our video. A lot of students started filming for their videos over the weekend. Not everyone could film, however, due to being unavailable. My group, for example, was not able to film. Since it was a holiday weekend, my teammate and I didn't have the time to meet up. My teammate was out of town and I was pretty busy. So unfortunately, we haven't been able to get a lot done for our video. Thankfully, it is only the first weekend we had to film so we still have time to get our work done. There were other things we were able to get done though.
Though this happened, we were able to get some work done despite not being able to meet up. In class we didn't have anything to edit, so we planned. This included a variety of things we had to schedule. We scheduled when we would meet to film, which helped organize what we were doing a bit. I checked my schedule and my partner's schedule to see when would work best. Then I helped decide what day we would film. We decided that this weekend we can since we are both free. We also decided where we were going to film first as well. Luckily, we have time to film the parts we need and get it done. All of this helps us prepare to actually film our project.

Storyboard Blog

This week, we created our storyboards for our movie clip. These storyboards help us plan out exactly what shots we need for each scene. We had to include a few different kind of camera angles and shots as well. For example, in the first scene we used an establishing shot, medium shot, and medium close up. The establishing shot will help show where the scene is taking place. We also used an action match to transition to scene 2. Using the storyboard really helped plan this out. Another type of shot we used was a wide shot. These shots and camera angles were used frequently in different scenes. Occasionally a specific type of shot is used again to show parallelism between another scene.

Schedule, Location, Participants,Health Blog

For this google slide, we had to plan out certain things further. This included the schedule, location, participants, and health. The schedule should be 1-3 slides, the location 1-2, the participants 1-2 and health 1-2. For our slide show our schedule was 1 slide, our location 2, our participants 1, and our health 1. For the location(s) we had to include pictures of each. We had a total of seven slides in this presentation. We decided to organize the schedule slide in a table format. The dates are on the left and what we will be doing on each date is on the right. We made sure to also consider many things when creating the health slide because we want to stay safe while filming. This slideshow will be very helpful when we are filming the final task.

Title Design Blog

This week we worked on our titles for our project. The title we will most likely go with is "Substitution". We decided on this because we felt it accurately described a part of the plot of our project. The font we decided on was spectral. This is a good font for our genre and fits the theme we are going for. It will be in bold and all caps. The text will be white to contrast the night background and it will be in size 48. We decided to make the titles fade in and fade out of the screen. We decided this because it would fit the title "substitution" as the titles would substitute each other and or take their place and will disappear after 2 to 3 seconds. The leading spacing would be 1.5 and the tracking spacing would be normal.

Dialogue and Sound Script

 For this blog/assignment, we had to create a shooting script. This is like a script on what is occurring in the final task scene by scene. It includes the camera angles, movement, character movements, and what is going on in each scene. The only thing that is not in this script is the dialogue. We were told to think of it as a storyboard but in written format. We had to display this script in a google slides presentation. There is one slide for each scene. We were required to have at least 10 scenes for the final task. Each slide includes what is going on, with camera movement, angles, or editing to go with it. This script will be extremely beneficial when shooting the final task.

Shooting Script Blog

For this blog/assignment, we had to create a shooting script. This is like a script on what is occurring in the final task scene by scene. It includes the camera angles, movement, character movements, and what is going on in each scene. The only thing that is not in this script is the dialogue. We were told to think of it as a storyboard but in written format. We had to display this script in a google slides presentation. There is one slide for each scene. We were required to have at least 10 scenes for the final task. Each slide includes what is going on, with camera movement, angles, or editing to go with it. This script will be extremely beneficial when shooting the final task.

Title Research: The Dead Zone

This blog is title research on the movie 'The Dead Zone' from watchthetitles.com.

How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?

20 titles were displayed during the opening sequences of the film.

What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?

Images of nature/ a town, which is most-likely the setting are prioritized.

What connotations do the images carry?

The images carry a mysterious connotation because the audience wonders the significance
of the images and may infer they are of the setting.

How is the genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?

The thriller genre is reinforced by bringing a sense of mystery by playing mysterious-sounding
music and showing images in which the audience does not understand the significance of yet.

How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?

The movie creates a sense of mystery by showing the images and the music as well as titles.

What strategies are used to ensure the film appears to its target audience?

Strategies of suspense and mystery are used to attract audiences who crave the common
aspects of the thriller genre and who may of read Stephen King's novel, which the film is based on.

How has technology been used effectively? (Consider camera angles, transitions and editing
techniques)

The editing techniques are very appealing, with an outline of the title over the background images
appearing more and more as time goes on. There is also a fade out at the end of the title.
There also is a lot of motion during the images being displayed, but not in an unprofessional way.

Title Research: Seven

This blog is title research on the movie 'Seven' from watchthetitles.com

How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?

31 titles are displayed during the opening sequence to the film.

What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?

Images of newspaper articles and what looks to be evidence of the article content is
prioritized in the opening scene.

What connotations do the images carry?

These images carry a negative connotation as well as suggests an eerie/creepy mood.

How is the genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?

The genre is reinforced by playing intense and scary music. This creates a level of suspense
often seen in thriller movies. 

How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?

It creates this level of suspense and makes the audience wonder what is going on next. It
leads the audience to have to infer what the movie is about or what is going on.

What strategies are used to ensure the film appears to its target audience?

Strategies of suspense and intensity gets the audience nervous and intrigued, wondering
what will happen next. Looking at the intro, it uses common thriller conventions, which attract
usual audiences of thriller movies.

How has technology been used effectively? (Consider camera angles, transitions and editing
techniques)

This intro uses transitions in between titles well. The titles are able to be read easily when they
appear, and when they're not on screen, interesting flashes and glimpses of pictures appear that
make the audience want to keep watching.

Title Research: Split

This opening sequence was found on Art of the Titles.

How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?
I counted twenty five titles displayed during the opening sequences of the film. Almost at the beginning of the opening sequence, the main movie title showed up. Directly at the end was the director's name.

What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?
Images of a girl being transported in a dark laboratory looking building are prioritized. Whenever a title shows up the screen cuts to black with the title.

What connotations do the images carry?
The images carry a dark feeling to them, which accurately represents what the thriller genre is like. It may make viewers feel unsettled and know that something is very off with what is happening.

How is the genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?
The genre is reinforced through the dark feel of the outset through making the viewers have a strong sense that something is wrong. The lighting of it helps establish something is darker as well because of it not being very bright and being very yellow and dismal. The thriller genre relies on the feeling of fear or unease at times so this really emphasizes that.

How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?
It makes the viewer want to know what is going on because not much is clear yet.

What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to it's target audience?
The film uses a popular themes of kidnapping in the genre which may appeal to the target audience since they are used to it. They also use common camera angles in the genre as well like low angles and close ups. The audio is creepy as well, so that also might draw it's target audience in because of the fear factor.

How has technology been used effectively?
The lighting of the shots convey the genre well and make the unsettling mood clear in the opening sequence. Also, camera shots convey the actions being done well. The cut to black and split up titles for the titles also makes the name "split" come into play.

Title Research: Zodiac

This opening sequence was found on Art of the Titles.

How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?
I counted thirty titles displayed during the opening sequences of the film. Around a quarter of the way through the opening sequence the main movie title showed up. Directly at the end was the director's name.

What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?
Images of the man's drawing and work are mainly prioritized in the opening sequence though they show his morning schedule. He is in most of the shots. This emphasizes that he is one of the main characters.

What connotations do the images carry?
The images carry a lighthearted feel to them, which is a stark contrast to what the genre is like. It may make viewers wonder what will happen to make things change moods and become possibly darker.

How is the genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?
The genre is reinforced through the lighthearted feel of the outset through making the viewers have a slight sense of unease. The lighting of it helps establish something is darker as well because of it not being very bright. The thriller genre relies on the feeling of being on edge so this emphasizes that.

How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?
It introduces a new thing happening to the main character which leads the viewer to want to understand what happens next. The main character is told to go somewhere which leaves a bit of mystery.

What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to it's target audience?
The film uses a popular actor in the genre which may appeal to the target audience. They also use common camera angles in the genre as well. The song choice in the beginning was similar to other songs used in thriller movies as well, so that also might draw it's target audience in.

How has technology been used effectively?
The lighting of the shots effectively convey the genre and make the mood clear in the opening sequence. Also, the low angle and medium shots convey the actions being done well. The text used for the titles also set the genre well. Since the movie is about the zodiac killer, using magazine cutout like letters makes it appeal more to the theme.

Title Research: Watch the TItles

This site is called watchthetitles.com and we are looking at it to help us with research on titles. This site is going to help tremendously with the final task. The first two minutes of a film include a large amount of titles. Because of this, research is required to make sure that our titles are accurate. They also should follow the conventions of our genre (thriller). On this site, there are multiple categories of titles to watch. This includes films, TV shows, and video games. For this research, we will only be watching titles from movies in our genre. The site also includes a list of movie designers, as well as movie studios. The site also allows you to search for keywords. This helped a lot because we were able to search up our genre and find titles from that genre to watch. Before being able to look at the site ourselves, our teacher gave us a rundown on how to use this site (and another). Using the site is fairly simple- you can select the type of media that you want to watch the title sequence from. It then gives you a list of them (movies in this case) to browse through and watch. Overall, we believe that this site will prove very helpful in researching titles and with the final task.

Title Research: Art of the Title

One website we are using is Art of the Title. We are using this website to research title sequences of movies of the same genre as ours. They seem to be a great website for finding title sequences of recent movies. They have a variety of title sequences of all kinds of movies on this website, including ones which we plan on using to look at to research for our movie clip. The website has title sequences of different movies from comedy movies to horror movies. It even has some show's opening title sequences as well. It also includes lists of a lot of designers and studios that made the title sequences. One thing it has that is useful is articles about some of the title sequences. These are helpful in finding descriptions of the sequences. It also gives descriptions of each title sequence which is extremely helpful. When using the website, you can search for specific movies you want. Which turned out to be really quick and easy. Another thing it allows you to do is search keywords to find specific genres of opening titles. We found this to be even more helpful in finding good opening titles. Overall, this website will really help in our research.

Genre Research '47 Meters Down' (2017)

Camera angles:

One camera angle they use very often in the film is close ups.

In a lot of the scenes the characters are in small spaces and to show that, they used close ups.

They also used POV shots to show things from the character’s point of view and increase suspense.

They also used wide shots a lot, since most of the scenes are underwater and they needed to show all of the open space and sharks.

Costumes, lighting, actors, makeup, props, setting: 

The characters change between a few different costumes throughout the film.

At first they are wearing tropical clothes and bathing suits that you could wear to the beach.

They also wear dresses and party attire in the beginning of the movie.

For the majority of the movie they wore scuba gear and diving suits though.

The lighting at the beginning of the movie was bright and natural.

When they go underwater it gets darker and more blue tinted.

When something starts to go wrong it is usually darker or redder in color.

Throughout the film they wear no makeup since they go underwater and are at the beach for all of the scenes.

The props they use are the equipment on the boat and the diving equipment.

The setting is in the middle of the ocean in a cage underwater.

Sounds:

At the beginning, there is a song playing over the clips. This happens again whenever there is a montage or timeskip.

They also have water noises prevalent throughout the film.

Editing:

A lot of the film was one like event occurring, but there were many cuts between the shark and the divers.

Elements of thriller in the movie:

Suspense and mild body horror are shown in the movie. Those are also common in the thriller genre.

What elements of the genre did the movie have that you liked?

I liked how the movie left you on edge for a lot of it and made you feel nervous for what would happen next.

What elements of the genre did the movie have that did not appeal to you? 

I usually don’t like gore or body horror so I didn’t really enjoy the shark attack scenes.

Genre Research 'In the Tall Grass' (2019)

Camera angles:

Throughout the movie they use a variety of camera angles.
To start off, when the movie begins they use and aerial shot of the car and field of tall grass.
They also use a tracking shot of the car and a few close ups of the faces of two of the main characters.
They also use panning and tilting to show movement in the grass.
There are also a lot of low angles and medium shots used.

Costumes, lighting, actors, makeup, props, setting: 

The characters wear normal clothes, with the pregnant woman wearing a dress and everyone wearing casual attire.
The clothes get increasingly more dirty to show passage of time in the field.
The characters don’t ever change costumes because of it taking place in the same day.
The lighting is pretty natural, only changing when it turns to night.
Though when the characters see visions the lighting turns red and green to show it is unnatural.
The props the characters have are the things they brought with them into the grass.
For example the necklace the pregnant woman had on her that her ex gave her.
Other than that they didn’t have many props. The setting is a large neverending field of tall grass next to a church.

Sounds:

At the beginning of the movie they used non-diegetic and diegetic sound.
There was a song playing from the start of the movie that was revealed to be playing from the car’s radio.
In the background there was yelling from the people in the tall grass,
which would get louder or quieter to show the distance between the characters changing.
When it cut to the car the song became background noise.
The movie also relied on the sound of grass moving throughout it.
Some of the sounds were also just the sound of the characters walking in the mud.
They also played whispering and chanting whenever it reached a climatic point to show suspense.  

Editing:

One of the main things they used in the movie was blurring and focusing.
It would slowly reveal what was happening by slowly focusing on the subject in front of the camera, leaving you to want to know what was happening.
They also used slow motion on the grass in some parts to show the rain or blood dripping on it.
They also used a lot of cuts from scene to scene. 

Elements of thriller in the movie:

The movie kept the viewer in constant suspense and never really gave too much information, leaving those watching on edge.
There were a few points where you would think you understood something,
only to be revealed that something else entirely was going on which would surprise you.

What elements of the genre did the movie have that you liked?

I enjoyed some of the suspense and getting to see if what I thought would happen would happen.

What elements of the genre did the movie have that did not appeal to you? 

The constant shift from point to point left me a little confused so I didn’t particularly like that.