PLANNING: TOPLINE and BIG QUESTION

Watch this presentation by Frank Ash then write your own Topline and Big Question for your film opening. You write up a blog post explaining all this. You include a visual from the Frank Ash presentation, explaining who he is and what you learned from the presentation. Your blog post title is PLANNING:  THE TOP LINE AND BIG QUESTION

For Frank Ash, Creative Consultant who has taught storytelling and creativity techniques to teams across the BBC and beyond, it is important to focus on the audience: what will interest the audience? How will the narrative develop? 

"So, if you’re aiming for your film to reach a large audience online, making sure it has universal appeal will be key"

TOP LINE DEFINITION: Think about your favourite book or film or any ‘good story’ you recently watched online, could you sum up its narrative into ‘one elegant sentence’ to provide its ‘topping’

BIG QUESTION DEFINITION: What was its big story question, and how important was it to your appreciation of the text?"

TREATMENT See separate post for how to write a treatment. 

• After writing the treatment, you create a STORYBOARD  (hand drawn on the sheets that I give you)
• and a SHOTLIST (a collaborative document that you can do together in GoogleDocs).

RESEARCH: TRELLO

It may help you to keep track of your work using TRELLO

Trello  is an organizational tool that will help you track what you need to do and what you have done. This is my example. As you complete each task, you can move it across (like a fridge magnet) from To Do, then Doing, then Done..
I have created a Trello list for Planning, then one for Construction, then one for Evaluation.

October: Research
November: Planning

December: Construction (Filming and Editing)
January: Evaluation 

EDITING

Before you edit your clips, we watch and discuss editing technique using !3 Creative Editing Techniques.
We discuss continuity editing and the 180 degree rule.

AUDIENCE THEORY

Are audiences passive or active? Both MediaKnowall and BBC Bitesize are useful resources.
The Uses and Gratifications Model of Audience Behaviour positions an audience as active:

The Hypodermic Syringe model positions an audience as passive:

Reception theory (reader response theory) positions an audience as active

PRELIMINARY EXERCISE

Plan, shoot and edit a very brief piece of moving image.
Include a two- shot, a shot-reverse shot, an over-the-shoulder shot and any other shot types that are necessary.
Edit in Final Cut. Add sound if you have time.

THE FILM INDUSTRY: MARKETING

We draft together the first part of the exam essay on marketing which you hand in on Friday 28 September.

THE FILM INDUSTRY: MARKETING STAR WARS

Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied. [50]
(CIE 9607/02 Key Media Concepts Section B 2015)

Your exam essay might ask you to write about marketing films, so we prepare detailed case studies that are interesting to read and easy to remember. Here is Disney's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. We pick a Disney film as Disney is a prime example of the Hollywood 'Big Six'. This case study can be used to illustrate Dalecki's 4S megafranchise model (sequel, synergy, story, spectacle).

We read the article The Force Is Strong With 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' Marketing and learn the key points of the marketing strategy.

What is synergy?

Synergy refers to the horizontal integration model, films whose core value is their deployability across multiple media platforms, as well as their “sequelizability” and ability to be cross-promoted with other media texts. Top decision makers within contemporary media conglomerates understand that every piece of media under the same brand-umbrella promotes every other piece of media under that umbrella. (Dalecki, 2008)

How is Disney a good example of synergy?

As former Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner put it, “The Disney Stores promote the consumer products which promote the [theme] parks which promote the television shows. The television shows promote the company. It’s constant ideas.” (Miller 1990). This can also be described as constant media synergy, wherein everything within a franchise promotes everything else. (Dalecki, 2008)

Read the article below by Julia Greenberg in Wired (2015) entitled

'How Disney is making sure that you will never be able to escape Star Wars". 

Print out the chart and learn the key headings: 

media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products, interactive.

"WHEN IT COMES to marketing, Disney has it almost too easy.

"Just consider the past few weeks. The entertainment giant launched a Pixar clip where the characters personifying emotions in Inside Out react to the Star Wars trailer. ("I love this trailer!" Joy says.) On Disney-owned ABC, Good Morning America’s anchors revealed new Star Wars toys and dressed up as Star Wars characters with their very own recreated trailer. ("This is awesomeeee!" Jesse Palmer shouts.) The company has also released Star Wars clips during evening programming on ABC and ESPN.

"For Disney, such cross-promotion—known in corporate-speak as synergy, where two or more divisions of a company increase value by working together—is business as usual. After all, the company owns not only one of the biggest film franchises ever but a major sports network and a major broadcast network, not to mention Pixar, which has made some of the most popular movies. With so many outlets available for promoting Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the question isn't "Where can I see more Star Wars?" but "Where can I not?"

Article by Julia Greenberg in Wired (2015)