THE FILM INDUSTRY

On Tuesdays, we work on Section B of the exam, the film industry.

In today's lesson, we launch our preparation for Section B of our year 12 exam. This exam question will be an essay-based question on the film industry (one hour).

We look at Hollywood  and 'the Big Six' who, according to Dalecki are characterised by the 4S megafranchise model: 

• The 'big 6' Hollywood studios chase mass mainstream audiences often with formulaic films that Dalecki called 'the 4S megafranchise model' (sequalization, story, spectacle, synergy). 
• To explain this model: Hollywood is renowned for producing blockbusters with strong narratives, often part of a sequel, usually with larger than life characters, using exciting, spectacular, complex sets often in exotic or extravagant locations.
• Sequalization You look up Box Office Mojo and see for yourself how many of the current box office successes are sequels. Sequels often command a loyal, ready-made audience, although some brands aim to expand their traditional audiences. Captain Marvell (directed by Boden and Fleck, 2019) starred Brie Larsen as the first female captain Marvell, to address female audiences.
• Story Notice that this kind of film tends to prioritise story over character development
• Spectacle Exotic locations, expensive sets, elaborate post production (VFX), motion capture - these are all examples of 'spectacle'
• Synergy Distributors target audiences via an interconnected web of companies which all promote the film as a package of products, through horizontal integration. This is synergy (we will give as many details as possible from our Disney / Warner case studies).

By contrast, we look at the UK film industry which tends to offer different genres of film, such as films with social issues, literary adaptations and historical films. We will take Working Title films as a case study, with films such as  The Theory of Everything.

• Today, we view two trailers: I, Daniel Blake (director Ken Loach). The genre is social realism. It features a particularly British subject matter, but was lauded at the Cannes Film Festival. You can see from the opening of the trailer that it was lottery-funded through the BFI.

• Next, we screen an example of spectacle 

  QuickSilver Scene "Kitchen" - X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014)

• What examples of British film can you offer? What counts as a 'British film'? The Imitation Game 
• Working Title productions capitalize successfully on a particular vision of Britain that is readily marketable internationally, such as literary adaptations (Tinker Tailor), period drama/ history (Mary Queen Of Scots 2014) , romcom (About Time), humour (Jonny English and World's End), characters (Legend, Rush) . Bridget Jones's Baby (2014) illustrates how WT uses Hollywood model of sequels, unsurprising as its parent company is Universal.

Our aim is to cover all aspects of the CIE specification for Section B:

PRELIMINARY EXERCISES

You create evidence to show that you have understood the language of still images as well as of moving image. 

Save your work to a desktop folder for the moment; we will make our individual blogs later.

Today's lesson is modelled by students from previous years, so check out their Preliminary exercises, as we did in the lesson.

Your document: PRELIMINARY EXERCISES with the following opening sentence, then your evidence of first the stills then the continuity exercise.

I have studied the language of film using Daniel Chandler's The Language of Television and Film

Take a selection of the following still photos.  Read what Prof. Chandler says that they are used for so that you can write a line or two yourself to caption your photo:
LS long shot
MS mid shot
CU close up
BCU or ECU big close up / extreme close up
Low level
High level
Bird's eye view
Canted angle

Your CONTINUITY EXERCISE
This is to show that you have had a chance to practise 'Hollywood editing' or 'continuity editing', that is, putting together a series of clips that delvers a simple narrative.

Suggested shots:
Establishing shot
Tracking shot
Tilt up / tilt down
Pan left / pan right
CU
Focus pull / zoom in
Two shot (shot with two people in it)
Over the shoulder shot
POV (point of view shot)
Shot / reverse shot

In the edit, you will LABEL THE SHOTS
If you wish, add non-diegetic sound (like music or sound effects).

3 CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION

Use PIKTOCHART for this presentation to present the response to:
How did your production skills develop over the course?

Your title could be:MY PRODUCTION SKILLS DEVELOPMENT 

The order to approach this is chronological ( = what you did first) so the work flow is Preliminary Exercises, Research, Planning, Construction, then Evaluation. We can at the moment cover part way into Construction (as we have done some filming and perhaps a bit of editing). WE will complete this task later but break the back of it now.

The question asks for specific, detailed evidence of what you have learned how to do, using critical reflection in your expression and creativity in your presentation.

Start with your Preliminary Exercises: what did you set out to achieve and how did you show what you had learned? You have 4 separate topics here: the exercise on camera angles & shot types; the 'on the set' post; the continuity exercise; the 'table top' exercise, which was a proper film opening practice complete with live action filming, editing in titles and credits, and laying down a soundtrack.

• Camerawork (shot types / angles and what they are used to draw attention to, like CUs, ECUs), 
• using equipment (identify it), bubbling the tripod
• lighting exercises
• filming and editing an opening sequence (genre conventions; rostrum shots; adding title; adding credits; selecting soundtrack; adjusting sound levels and adding spot sounds); creating a sense of enigma
• filming and editing a continuity sequence (establishing shot, two-shot, shot-reverse shot, motivated edit, point of view shot); editing to create pace

RESEARCH What did you learn about the importance of researching genre and audience? How did your planning skills develop? Did you collate work using platforms like Piktochart, Scoopit? Did you create an audience questionnaire and then collate the results?

PLANNING Did you use iMovie to hot-seat characters, with scripts prepared for interviews?

CONTRUCTION When cameraman, what techniques did you use and improve?

When editing, what techniques did you use? Did feedback make you look critically at the sequence order and pace of your editing?

What lighting issues did you encounter when filming? Did you learn to learn to adjust levels when editing?

When recording sound, what challenges did you encounter that you had to solve?

Did you make props using PhotoShop for your production?

Did you make videos or sound files to use in your film?

Did you design a Production Company ident? How did you make it and what new skills did you use? You may have used FinalCut, StopMotion, Giffy.

EVALUATION During the reflective process of your Creative Critical Reflections, what new platforms did you use, such as infographics like Piktochart, slide presentations like Slideshare, Visme, Canva?

TV DRAMA: HOUSE

We analyse the opening sequence from an episode for HOUSE .
In particular, we use the exam technique of dealing with all aspects of mise-en-scene first, then camerawork, then sound and editing. This enables links to be made across the whole extract about how meanings are made.

Mise-en-scene

• Follow the TEE exam technique: terminology, specific detailed example, explanation / analysis, as in the example below.
• The hospital setting shows a modern, expensively equipped medical facility with monitors, intravenous drips, hospital gowns. This creates verisimilitude - authenticity - realism
• The difference in dress codes contributes to the representations. House is unshaven, with unbuttoned shirt and scruffy clothes that are not pressed. This reveals how much of a rule-breaker he is, contributing to the persona of a cantankerous, awkward, Vicodin-addicted misfit. 

TV DRAMA: SALVATION

We analyse the opening sequence from SALVATION Episode 1.
In particular, we use the exam technique of dealing with all aspects of mise-en-scene first, then camerawork, then sound and editing. This enables links to be made across the whole extract about how meanings are made.

For mise-en-scene:

• settings (such as the MIT grad student lab, MIT lecture theatre & technology for Darius's lecture, below; the Pentagon interior)
• casting choices (such as Harris's strong jaw, Grace's flawless hair)
• people's clothes & props (such as Liam's bare feet; Jillian's hair; Darius's outfit)
• lighting (gloomy interior of Liam's early morning lab; sharp lighting of lecture that showcases the glamorous imagery; daylight sunshine on the lawns of the privileged MIT campus; interior lighting of secretive Pentagon offices) 

For editing:

• the rapid pace of the cuts as Liam rushes from office to lecture

Camerawork

• Pan around Liam's MIT grad lab
• wide shot of Darius lording it over an adoring MIT audience; wide shot from behind to show how huge the audience is and how engaged they are
• point of view shot on Liam's bare feet as he arrives 
• panting at the lecture
• close ups on Jillian's smiling face as she makes eye contact with Liam

1 CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION

HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCTION REPRESENT SOCIAL GROUPS & ISSUES?

This is the second part of Creative Critical Reflection question 1. It is an analysis of REPRESENTATION.

Step 1

Refer to your Scoop.it which is your archive collection of the people and ideas in your production.

Write about what topical issues, debates and events in the news, both historical and recent, you have encountered. They will reflect the concerns of our time, the kinds of issues that interest media audiences like your target audience. 

This might be the time to add to your Scoop.it.

Step 2

What films have been made about these topics? Screenshot and caption them. You may have archived them in your Scoop.it. Update if necessary.

Step 3

How have you represented issues, people and places in YOUR production? 
You will need to screenshot casting and mise-en-scene and decode the representations. 

Define the term STEREOTYPES and state why media use stereotypes. Did you use them?

Refer to Stuart Hall's work on encoding and decoding meaning in media language.
You have already done work on CASTING in which you draw attention to your REPRESENTATIONS.

2 CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION

HOW DO YOUR PRODUCTS ENGAGE WITH THE AUDIENCE AND HOW WOULD THEY BE DISTRIBUTED AS REAL MEDIA TEXTS?

HOW DO YOUR PRODUCTS ENGAGE WITH THE AUDIENCE?

You make an audience profile that demonstrates understanding of the fact that all products are targeted at specific audiences. You show that you know the target audience for your film by creating a profile of them. You then show how you engaged them through marketing strategies. You also write about your production itself: the ways in which the film diverts your audience and how the opening creates suspense /enigma, how the people in your film interest your audience, how its genre is signalled, thereby making it easier to understand. When reading this, do you recognise some of the strands of the uses and gratifications model of audience behaviour?

WHAT YOU WRITE

SLIDE 1
TITLE: MY TARGET AUDIENCE
or DEFINING MY TARGET AUDIENCE
or..
I needed to plan how to reach my target audience. Therefore, I needed to know who they are (factors that may be relevant include age, gender, ethnicity, social class), what their media needs are (so that I could 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.
......................................................                 .................................             ..................................................
SLIDE 2
TITLE: HOW BRANDS DEFINE AUDIENCES

I started by investigating how brands define audiences in preparation for creating my own audience profile for my AS Foundation Production. 
For example, I saw how Bauer Media, NME and Sky defined audiences. This helped me profile my audience. ADD YOUR 3 SCREENSHOTS HERE ON THIS SLIDE 
Mine are below; I have emailed you the same but feel free to use your pwn)
................................                         ...........................................................                  ..........................................
SLIDE 3 
TITLE: AUDIENCE THEORY
I have researched various aspects of audience theory, such as whether audiences are considered passive or active, how audiences are defined and segmented, what audiences aspire to and how they use media to gratify their needs. I have considered how the notion of audience is linked to theories about how audiences interpret texts, such as reception theory. I have also looked at current ideas about the notion of audience, such as participatory culture.
ADD YOUR SLIDESHARE ABOUT MEDIA AUDIENCES
...................................              .......................................                 .........................           ...............................
SLIDE 4 
TITLE: MY AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

I devised an audience questionnaire and analysed the results
Your Slideshare goes here
When you have results, they go here BUT you need to get more respondents to you audience questionnaire.

.....................................              .......................................                 .........................           ...............................
SLIDE 5
TITLE: MY AUDIENCE PROFILE
or WHO IS MY TARGET AUDIENCE?
I analysed my questionnaire data and I created an audience profile
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 kind of films and television are they likely to prefer? 
3. What platforms do they choose to watch films and where are they likely to see information about films?
4. What brands do they prefer? (food, clothing, media)

Make your audience profile in PP or in Photoshop 
See examples below on Audience Profiles 

Lewis Harland: audience profile for Out Of Sight 2012

You can easily make an Audience Profile in PowerPoint, like the one below for the year 12 film Fractures which is half finished. It took about 5 minutes.
Remember to use social media visuals as your target audience will use Instagram, FB, Twitter, YouTube for info about films.
WHAT TO WRITE: draw attention to the new ways in which audiences interact with films, such as FB, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube trailers as well as the traditional film website and P&A.

.................................................................                         .........................................           ...............................
SLIDE 6
TITLE: OUR MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION STRATEGIES:
According to Matt Smith of Lionsgate, speaking on the FDA site, the spend on digital has increased enormously. Audiences expect to see information about film releases online. What is more, distributors now cut their films for phone screens, using portrait rather than landscape. They also make them shorter as attention spans are shorter. Because of this, distributors screening a trailer add an advisory notice at the start telling audiences  not to jump sites (clicking off) as a trailer that's worth watching is coming up.

As part of distributing my film, I have devised marketing strategies, such as reaching out to my target audiences through a film website, Facebook page, Twitter page, Instagram and P&A (a film poster). 
Here you put your film website, Facebook page, Twitter page, Instagram or P&A (a film poster). Divide up the work. There is no need to create one each: give an account of what YOU individually made first and then copy the others from your production team.
.................... .......
SLIDE 7
TITLE: OUR FILM'S USP

MY FILM'S USP

In addition to profiling my audience, I worked out why they would enjoy our film. 
Ask yourself: 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?

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.

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!

This next hint is taken from the Teaching Trailers resource but what it says about a film's USP can apply to film openings, too.

How do Trailers help fill cinemas?
Trailers are part of the marketing campaign and they may use the genre to gain audience interest. However at the same time they must show how the film is different, new and something that hasn't been made before in that particular genre. This is the USP (unique selling point). The USP is the thing that separates each movie and they must convey this within the trailer. 
USP could be: 

• the innovative use of special effects

• an unusual mix of genres

• a popular star

..............    .................            ............

MY RESEARCH INTO HOW BRANDS PROFILE AUDIENCES IS BELOW:

Some brands go further than merely have Twitter feeds: I also discovered how a really big budget can buy cross-platform integration of a film launch with an existing successful product that engages an established successful audience. In this example, Lionsgate's Nerve (2016) was linked to Celebrity Big Brother by Sky Media

"We all know young people are big users of social media, and therefore to truly engage with this audience, the use of a social platform was key within the campaign. Furthermore, reports show that 74% millennials, particularly 14 to 17-year-olds, regularly use smartphones during TV viewing*. A programme was needed to unite the target demographic by driving social media conversations.
Since its launch, Celebrity Big Brother has been the most talked about TV programme on Twitter, topping the Instar Social leader board as Twitter’s most-talked-about TV show during the 29 day series. Offering a strong teen audience on-air and mass social following online, Celebrity Big Brother provided the perfect platform for the ‘Nerve’ film launch."

"The integration of Lionsgate film ‘Nerve’ was a great success for Celebrity Big Brother, demonstrating a seamless brand integration. The high-pressure challenges of ‘Nerve’ the film translated well to challenges for the housemates. They launched the task just 2 days before the opening night of the film and successfully integrated the look and feel of the Nerve brand. This partnership demonstrates that, when executed well, promotional activity in Big Brother can enhance editorial and leverage for brand awareness in show.” 

BELOW IS WHAT WE COVERED EARLIER IN THE WEEK: HOW WOULD THEY BE DISTRIBUTED AS REAL MEDIA TEXTS?

Follow the guidance on the OCR Claremont A2 blog here
See how my students have followed the guidance :Claremont student blogs here and here.

Work your way logically through all the steps of the question. Illustrate points with screenshots: a picture is worth a thousand words!

Update the FDA screenshots. Here is the FDA  website that you used for research.

RESEARCH ON THE FDA WEBSITE

The Role of the distributor is to sell the film to cinemas so that the film can earn a revenue. They do this by:

- Identifying its audience
- Considering why they'd go see the film
- Estimating the revenue
- Persuading exhibitors to play the film to the public (in a cinema)
- Developing plans and partnerships
- Building interest and buzz about the film

- Aiming to convert as much interest as possible into film visits

SLIDE 8 and the following slides (you decide how many & how much can fit onto each one).

TITLE: 

HOW WOULD MY FILM BE DISTRIBUTED AS A REAL MEDIA TEXT?