Stopping my procrastination

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MY PHONE

This is my biggest distraction as I sit looking at social media sites for absolutely no reason. The best way for me to avoid this is to turn it off. I usually look at my phone out of habit so if i looked at my phone to then see it was off I would then remember that it’s off for a reason and I need to get back to work. 

Next three weeks

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Week 1;

  • Reasearch Press and Editorial Photographers ready for the 14th Feb.
  • Record our genre analysis podcast ready for the deadline. 

Week 2;

  • Make sure I have everything prepared for my interview.
  • Work on our documentary

Week 3; 

  • Go to Falmouth for my Uni interview.
  • Hand in our genre Analysis podcast. 

Goals

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Make sure I achieve an overall grade of DDD by June 2014. I will do this by trying my hardest on any upcoming projects and improving any previous work i’m not happy with. i.e; Improving Natalie and Nicks units.

LO4 Relationship between audiences and films

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In this assignment I will be talking about how the genre of a film can relate to an audience, how a rom-com genre film relates to audiences and how it effects an audience or viewer. I will look into different sections of film analysis and see how it changes how an audience views the particular films.

Active spectatorship

What is the relationship between the film or genre?

Passive or active? Rom-coms do tend to be more passive as the audiences aren’t likely to get as involved as perhaps the fandoms involved in a super hero genre.

Pleasure

How does the audience gain pleasure?

Rom-coms are stereotypically known to attract a female audience, this is due to the romance some people may feel they can relate to the romantic story-line or even just wish for that type of romance to happen in their life. It’s a type of fulfilment, when they can completely relate to the main characters, or even just be attracted to the main characters. People also enjoy the comedy side as it’s something that can make them laugh, make them happy.

Frameworks of interperitation

Some films can be interpreted in different ways, how the character may be feeling, what different signals and gestures mean. Sometimes a director may feel they want to leave something up to the audience, even when they themselves have a clear view of how they wish that scene to be interpreted.

This happens a lot in all films but not so much in rom-coms I feel as it’s a genre that can be structured around bonds, friendships and relationship. They’re usually easy going and easy viewing, for the audience, this is why each scene is usually drawn out step by step for us.

Media Literacy

Your ability to recognise and analyse media, how you view the genres, modes and forms or it. The more media literate you are the more signifiers, jokes and connotations you will pick up on. Rom-coms don’t tend to be media literate, as I said above rom-coms do tend to be easy going, and involve easy viewing. Some jokes made may involve you needing to be media literate but it’s mainly a clear genre.

Intertextuality 

Does the film often reference other texts, medias or films.

Often films are taken from books for example, Twilight, Perks of being a wallflower and Harry Potter. This applies to rom-coms, directors taking ideas here and there. Often with Holly Wood produced rom-coms you would find that the story lines can be quite similar. This is because these Hollywood directors know what works and makes a good movie so they pick and choose ideas from previous film productions.

Preferred reading

What is the preferred reading of this genre? Audiences can often relate to rom-coms making it a preferred reading, viewers often agree with the storyline of the producerS. They see it from their view-point and like each direction the story has been taken.

Visual effects

It’s not that common that any visual or special effects are used in the rom-com genre, although it can’t be ruled out completely as some films do still use these effects. An example of this is the beginning of the film ‘The Vow’ where theres a crash scene, this would have used visual effects, creating a brilliant scene within the film. It really helps emphasis parts of a storyline depending on how it used.

Fandom

Fan + Kingdom = Fandom

Fandoms are a group of people who get together to appreciate something they all feel passionately about, big examples include; Harry Potter fandom , Mean Girls, Lord of the Rings etc. Fans can ‘ship’ characters, write their own adaptations of stories and just over all appreciated the director or authors work.

With rom-coms it can happen with particular actors more than films I feel. There are a majority of actors that only act with in the same genres, or one genre more than another.

Interactivity

How does it interact with the audience? The story lines are how the directors mainly interact with the audience, they use the characters to be relative to the viewers. People often watch romances because they can relate to the stories and the characters, or they want to be able to relate to the stories, everyone wants to end up happy and stereotypically a rom-com will end with a happy ending leading to the two main characters finding love, typically with each other.

Social networking

Social networking is often used to connect with their fans, FaceBook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube are the most commonly used. Twitter accounts are often being created and updated by a member of the production team, either for the film or for characters in the film to connect and talk to the audience. Rom-coms definitely do use social medias as often these films are targeted at teenagers and upwards. Teenagers are known for their constant inernet use and social media presents so any film production company would be missing out by not creating these accounts.

Pre and post viewing experiences

How fans engage in the films before they come out. Twilight is a great example of this as there is such a huge fan base, as a majority of the fans may have already read the books and seen the previous movies there was a huge excitement before each film was released. Fan-fiction is a way of the audiences and fandom creating their own endings and ideas of what they want to happen.

This is also continued after, reviews are an obvious example fans and critiques explaining if they enjoyed what happened, if it was their desired outcome and just the over all opinions they had.

Conditions of reception

Cinema

This is generally the best way of viewing a film. For starters the overall quality of the film screening and sound quality are way better than what you can achieve at home either online or via DVD. They screen you are watching on is very large so no matter where you sit you have a brilliant view. The overall atmosphere is brilliant as it is a room full of fans interested in the same film as you all bearing the same excitement for what you’re about to view.

DVD or Blue-ray

Although still a good quality way to view, the experience is effected depending on where you view it, if you were to play the film in your living room with your family or friends you are likely to enjoy it just as much.

Online

Watching a film online would give no where near the same amount of pleasure as watching in a cinema. 9/10 times you will not be viewing to a very high quality and it’s very common to get constant buffering depending on wether the copy is legal or illegal, you don’t receive the same atmosphere but still have the opportunity to enjoy the movie, depending on how passionately you feel.

In conclusion the genre of a film effects a lot within the movie or how the audience feel about a movie. Obviously someone will experience different emotions when viewing a romance as to when they view a horror movie, everything within a film has been done for a reason.

Publicity and Marketing stategy

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In this assignment I will be talking about different forms or publicity and marketing behind a film production, explaining  different promotional techniques with in the film Monsters University.

Advertising; How does the film promote itself? what is it’s advertising campaign?

http://monstersuniversity.com/edu/ :University Website. This is where people have the option to sign up, view maps, pictures, buy merchandise! All in the university style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBzPioph8CI :Trailers. Shown on-line and on television, for millions of people to view worldwide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgtVM7uD-Ws :Interviews with different actors. On-line interviews for people to view, with many different cast members, getting a feel for their parts and job roles. This is a great way to promote the film further.

https://www.facebook.com/PixarMonstersUniversity :Social media. They’re using social media sites to put themselves out there further, Facebook reaches so many people, as does Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr.

Reviews; Good review site: Rotten Tomatoes.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/monsters_university/

Showing how popular the film already is before the release date, the result of good marketing. There are already 16 counted reviews before the film has even been released. The reviews discuss the storyline, what pixar has decided to do, the trailer and everything else about the film so far. The reviews are from different papers, magazines and Holly Wood directors.

86,634 People have voted on whether they want to see the film. There is a 98% want to see result, showing the popularity of the upcoming film.

Chat shows

Chat shows are a fantastic way to promote a movie. It usually involves either an actor/actress or director, producer appearing on a well know chat show, which is then broadcast to thousands of people depending on how big the show is.

http://collider.com/dan-scanlon-monsters-university-interview/ Interview with the director. He’s helping to promote the film at Disney’s Comic-con.

This interview took place at a large event, which would have been heard and viewed by many people, which is a brilliant way to advertise, especially from the point of view of the Director, that knows the film inside out.

Product tie-ins

When people use synergy to promote them selves through different medias.

http://monstersuniversity.com/edu/store.html The official store, showing merchandise related to university products.

http://www.disneystore.com/monsters-inc/mn/1000035/ The Disney store merchandise, showing more child based products, cuddly toys,  child shirts..

Premiers

Premiers are the official screening of the film worldwide, it commonly has appearances from the actors, actresses, directors, producers and general cast and crew that made the film happen. Depending on how big the film is depends on how large the premier is.

June 20th, Monsters University Premier.

Awards

Some production companies create a film with the hope of winning an award. It can help to be more appealing to an audience, as it makes people believe its a brilliant film, excellent performance, really depending on what the award is for.

I don’t believe Monsters University is being made in the hope of awards, it’s made for entertainment.

Online Presence

This is how they present themselves on-line, via social media sites, websites, etc.

http://monstersuniversity.com/edu/

This is one of the best ways of on-line promotion Monsters University has created. An actual website in the style of a university site, featuring different options that you would usually expect.

There is also a form of social media sites set up for the productions by Pixar, helping to promote the film further.

Audience Research

Audience research is often used by producers to communicate with their audience, using surveys, test screenings, drafts, focus groups, one-to-one interviews. They can find out about ideas, demographics and anything else they wish to find out during their audience research.

The director of Monsters University showed an audience at D23, sketches during the production process, to show ideas and to get professional views and advice.

The promotions and trailers would be shown on-line as kids have a wide variety of ways to access the internet, now. The adverts shown on television would usually be mid-day for children to see while they’re at home with parents.

Distribution

Monsters University; Major release! Pixar is a major production company and produces films worldwide. The film has had a lot of advertising and will be shown in all major cinemas after the premier date.

The first showing was 8th June in the USA at an international film festival in Seattle. The next two showing are also at film festivals in Australia and USA, after that the official releases begin, the majority being released to 18 different countries on 20th June 2013, a further 10 on the 21st June then another 22 releases up until the 23rd August. Interesting, as releasing it at different dates will help on-line piracy where as releasing it on the same date in all countries would avoid this situation slightly.

In conclusion I have found how well the directors and producers have produced the audience in the production of Monsters University. Discovering how different audience research has helped to move the process along.

Film Production Factors.

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Financial determines 

How much money was available, What was the budget? When did it take place, recession?  Where did funding come from, International co-production?

Compare how the got funding/how much?

Culture and politics of the country in which they are produced dictates they type of film it produces.

The science of governing people, things change through out time periods, cultures, beliefs.. effect things.

Distribution and Exhibition

How well its distributed to people, what countries its seen in, where its advertised, where its shown.

Some films wont be distributed to all countries, wrong messages, not enough money..

Exhibition means where it’s shown.

ashbournecollegefilmstudies.wordpress.com

Trends in the Industry

What trends where around when the two films came out? Good way to become popular.

What did the audience want? Genres, Actors, Sequels, 3D…

Trends influence the popularity and creation of a film.

Genres at the time of production 

Our current trends in cinema; Super hero films, Apocalypse movies, Ensemble comedies, 3D Action films.

Genres that were popular when the two films came out.

Why were the genres so popular? What is it about them the audience enjoy?

Technologies of production 

Technology is always changing/ improving.

The technology is becoming cheaper, more people can access it and can produce something. Not only film studios can make films.

Stars power and representation 

What power do these stars have in the films? Certain actors were tied to contracts.

What used to be a star is changing. What do they represent? how do they reflect the time?

What do the actors say about the time the film was made.

Representation that actor has, what they show (represent) in the character they play.

Social issues at the time of production 

Whats happening at the time?

Films tend to deal with issues that are taking place at the particular time whether its serious or just slightly relatable.

Does it convey a message people can relate to?

Regulatory issues eg BBFC

‘regulation’ and ‘film’ tag; bcotmedia.tumblr.com

Things are more lenient in this day and age, sex, nudity, comedy, violence.

Laws have changed, can you get away with more now?

Compare what the two films went through during production, release.

What is acceptable now that wasn’t then?

Synergies between films

When different media combines.

Sequels, Reboots, Remakes, Adaptations, Prequels; No originality at the moment.

Hollywood produce things they know are going to sell. Recent films relate to other medias to survive.

Forest Gump originally based on 1986 novel by Winston Groom 

Nature/Structure of the industry

vertical integration; one company produces it, distributes it then exhibits it. The way it was in 30’s/40’s/50’s

Classic Hollywoods big five;

  • MGM, Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, RKO, 20th Century FoxLaws were put into place to make it fair on other production companies, it wake it fairer on producers outside big studios.