Audience and Institutions Practice Essay

Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied.

        When it comes to the distribution of a new product, especially in film, the success of that product heavily depends on how it is marketed. In other words, to provide the best success for a new film, marketing strategies need to be applied precisely, to draw an audience into watching that film. The role of film marketing is how to get the support of an audience to watch a new movie made by the producers. Marketing also helps increase the profit for those distributors and the ones who are involved with the creation of a movie. People would not know a movie exists if it hasn’t been marketed correctly. Such elements found in film marketing are advertising with social media, cross-promotion, cross-media convergence, and other digital strategies.

        Technology has helped a lot with the promotion of new products in the film industry. A great example of this marketing can be seen with the conglomerate, Walt Disney Studios. There are numerous adored movies created by Disney, and they are always displayed on incoming trailers and/or websites, even as advertisements on social media. Marvel Studios is one of the many subsidiaries that this large company has, and every time there is a new movie, superheroes can be displayed in public, this is done with cross-media convergence. On the boxes of food in grocery stores and even the toys that are sold in Walmart or Target, can help convince people enough to go and watch the marvel movie that had just come out. ‘Black Panther’ is one of many films that was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures Motion Studies. Of course, a strategy used for the 2018 film is marketing, which has been mentioned. The distributing company created a budget on what to spend their money on, and calculate a way to find more profit. It is promised that some of their budgets contained merchandising because their purpose was to generate more excitement and interest among the public for the film. Clothes, toys, and even keychains were found on many websites to appeal to people of all ages so that it would not be limited to a specific audience. With no limitations, the conglomerate was sure to be seeing profit with a new movie that was produced in one of their studios. Comcast owns Universal Pictures, and they have created the franchise of ‘Fast and the Furious.’ The movie that has a lot of meaning to the franchise would be ‘Furious 7,’ because one of the actors, Paul Walker, had been in a terrible accident that took his life. A song in the film was even dedicated to him. Fans of the series were devasted, especially the actors who grew close together while filming all of those movies. Not only did the ‘Furious 7’ gain much attention from that, but there were other reasons, such as a new ride at one of the theme parks owned by the studio. Following synergy, the company also had a plan of cross-promotion of creating a video game based on the movie. This could appeal to the older audience who has an interest in the movie and likes to play video games. Technology has been used in general and it has been said in both examples of how production companies are able to benefit from their hired distributing companies.

The way audiences are involved in film marketing is viewing the new movie and purchasing products. For example, ‘Spiderman: Homecoming’ was produced by Columbia Pictures, but distributed by Sony Pictures. In this distribution process, merchandising can be followed. Thus, toys were created based on the movie and can be seen as cross-promotion to promote the movie to kids. It was not just toys, but clothes and other souvenirs that were made to create hype for the movie, before it came out. Another product would be the new spiderman game that was made for audience members who were gamers. The intention was to get as many social groups into viewing ‘Homecoming.’ Synergy with the superhero could also be seen with foods seen around the grocery store, like on a box of cereal. Spiderman had partnered with many companies, such as Kellogg’s and Pepsico. This returns back to how audiences are involved with marketing because kids would want their parents to buy these new toys, and eventually get excited to watch a movie with a likable superhero. An older audience, most likely parents and young adults, would also want to spend their spare time enjoying this new movie. In other words, whatever the audience purchases in this process, is where that money goes to the distributors and especially those who were able to make the movie happen. The point of the conglomerates and subsidiaries gaining profit connects as well. These large companies who create films all depend on their audience to make it successful, and of course, the people to watch their movies need to be found first.

Overall, I still stand on the point where marketing helps greatly with how successful a film can be. It is included in the film process since it has to be in the budget for the making, but it is a vital factor if directors and producers want to get the movie out into public view. It is all about driving the audience into the theaters to watch the movie, whether they end up having a good review or not. With a good or bad intel, the large companies get the profit that they need to end up making more films for the world.

Extract Practice: 24

        In this extract, I believe that the director is trying to involve the audience with the intense situation happening between the characters. The genre that was most likely chosen by the director would be “thriller.” He/she wants the audience to feel the stress a detective goes through when it comes to getting the answers of a suspect who wants to outsmart him. This situation is very extreme, as lives are put out on the line due to a bomb. The detective’s job could also be lost because he is threatening the woman as he interrogates her, which is frowned upon in that industry. 

The first thing that was noticed in the extract was the close-ups on the character’s faces. The author could have chosen another angle or shot but I believe that they went with it because they were trying to get the attention of the audience to focus on the facial expressions. Lighting in the next few scenes is low. However, it is bright enough to shine light on the character’s faces, and have the setting visible. But with low lighting, it can also cast shadows to make things look mysterious, which is probably what the director wanted to do. The location should be established as an interrogation room, where the detective is interviewing his suspect with a pressing attitude. There are hardly any props or furniture because the director wants his audience to have their central point on the sound. It then leads to the next scene of other agents observing this interrogation from another room, on some monitors. 

After presenting that there are supervisors watching the interview, the second scene is now both of the characters communicating. The sound you hear in this scene is the dialogue between the suspect and the detective. An interrogation cannot just be silence, so the director created a plot of the woman knowing about a bomb, and wanting to outsmart the man. While this conversation goes on between the two, editing is incorporated into a shot-reverse-shot. This was added to the scene to follow the dialogue of the characters. That way it shows who is talking and what their actions or expressions are while the camera is on them. Another example of how the expressions are presented is zooming. After one of the characters would talk, it would cut to an already close shot, followed by zooming more into the face of the other. This movement keeps the audience engaged since the camera is going into a focal point; in this case, the face of the characters. The zooming also has an effect of claustrophobia, which can lead a person to feel anxiety or stress. It is assumed when watching a show or a movie when the camera zooms far into a character’s face, it is for something dramatic or important.

In the third scene, you can hear the incidental sound that plays along with the actions. This music is supposed to create a feeling of stress or intensity between the characters and the situation they are in. The loud music plays in the ears of the audience and it affects them, by making them worry about what will happen next. The sound is followed up by a split-screen edited in. The director wanted a scene of the supervisor running towards the room they are in, to stop whatever the original detective had started. Assuming he/she wanted to show both the events occurring at the same time; the scene escalated so quickly, that it shows scene A of the supervisor trying to go and stop whatever is happening in scene B. It later matches up into one scene once all characters are in the same location. The vigorous event had finally ended after the tension between the detective and the suspect was removed.

To summarize, the director’s vision is surrounding the idea of putting the audience into the scene, and having them feel what the characters are feeling. He/she wants to evoke a feeling of stress or anxiety because if they were in that situation, their lives would be at risk. All of these filming elements help the director present that idea to the viewers, of how intense an interrogation could be. 

CCR Question 4

CCR Question 3

CCR Question 2

Critical Creative Reflection

This is my reflection on the final task that was made to be submitted to Cambridge. I made separate videos for each question. They will be on separate blogs, so the one below is the first question. I managed to pass the minimum time for the CCR, so each video is approximately 3-4 minutes long. The theme for this was a talk show hosted by my dog, Milo. I am very happy he cooperated with me. He was able to look at the camera when I asked him to, and there is a little surprise at the end of the whole presentation. My voice may sound shaky, and I do stutter, but those are my flaws when I am present in front of a camera. Answering questions in an interview is much harder than remembering lines for a part as an actor. I was still able to deliver the answers to the questions. Editing probably took an hour for each video. I have never used a voice over for any of my videos, but it is great that I finally got to use the tool in the end with my CCR. I just wish that I had another person to do my dog's voice for me. Also, I added a split screen of my dog "reacting" to the song as it played next to him. I had to sort through the videos and organize which ones went with each question. After figuring out where each video went, I had to record my voice, with the lines that my dog would be "saying". Therefore, I had a script for the dialogue my dog would have, and I added some of the things I would say to him as well. This was a little difficult because I had to edit it all on my phone, on iMovie. Unfortunately, I did not have any clips of behind the scene footage to put in the CCR because I do not have the SD card, and my friend was not able to send the videos. However, that should not really affect my grade as a whole. Thankfully, I was able to finish the movie and reflect on this whole journey in AICE Media Studies.

Final project: Movie

I am posting the final task that I have been talking about for the past 2 months. The movie had to be between a minute and 55 to two minutes flat. This was obviously more time than the music video, and we had to create our own story. In a music video, the song tells the story, but with a movie, my group and I had to create a pitch. This was all a very long process because the storyboard took even longer to create. We needed about 10 whole pages for our plan for the final task. Everyone had different ideas of what to do, and we ended up picking a thriller based on a kidnapper and his next victim. Of course, we had the idea for a thriller movie, but we had to create a whole opening sequence. A movie can open in so many ways, and that is what my group had to work on. We established characters and provided some background of who they are. After finding out about characters, we had to establish their setting and actions. The story for the kidnapper and the victim would be that they are getting ready for different reasons. But the parallels with this is that one is getting ready to kidnap his next victim, and the other is getting ready without knowing that she will be the next victim. This is obviously a more complex story than what a commercial and music video has to offer. Continuing on, film days were very long, especially after being at school all day. We upgraded to another camera, that gave a better quality than what a regular phone would. There was a wider variety of angles, shots, and movements. We were able to incorporate a trunk shot, which I never thought I would use for this class. I also added the idea of putting an action match with water. We needed an action match, but no one had an idea of how to do it. This was perfect for our two different characters because one could be showering, and that helps transition into the next scene of the guy turning off the water to brush his teeth. We have obviously come very far in this class, with all the work everyone has put into their videos; especially with mine (my group's). This project was very stressful but very much worth it.