KEY MEDIA CONCEPTS: THE FILM INDUSTRY

Explain how changes in technology have affected audience behaviour in the media area you have studied. (Oct/Nov 2020)

Use the attached source to write an outline of what you have learned about how audiences have embraced the digital video market. It is clear that the use of digital video has shown significant growth, whilst the demand for films on physical video has markedly declined although BluRay is the the most resilient format

(Source: https://www.bfi.org.uk/industry-data-insights/statistical-yearbook )

The most popular documentary feature on physical video in 2020 was the biographical film Finding Jack Charlton (Table 4). The portrait of the footballer-turned-manager is one of four sports documentaries in the 2020 top 10 list, alongside The Three Kings, a film about three of Scotland’s greatest football managers, Diego Maradona, a biography of the celebrated Argentinian footballer, and Free Solo, the Oscar® winning film chronicling the first-ever ropeless ascent of the el Capitan peak in Yosemite National Park by American climber Alex Honnold. The list also includes four war-related documentaries, headed by the 2018 and 2019 top earning documentary film on physical video, They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson’s homage to the troops of the First World War.

The best-selling foreign language film on physical video in 2020 was South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s black comedy Parasite. The multi-Oscar® and BAFTA winning title was the highest grossing foreign language film at the UK and Republic of Ireland box office in 2020 and currently ranks as the territory’s all-time top earning foreign language film release. It is one of seven titles in the 2020 physical video top 10 from Asian countries. For the first time since the 2013 top 10, the list features no titles from the Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli.

KEY MEDIA CONCEPTS: THE FILM INDUSTRY

How to tackle essay questions about different types of cinema? How to defend independent cinema which has smaller budgets and more national concerns?

You can start by identifying the different types of products and the different ways in which global, international, national and niche audiences are engages and served. Using your case studies, you could analyse what Hollywood majors offer audiences and how those audiences are reached; then look at UK cinema (WT films, Loach films, Bait) as comparison; add in Cuaron's Roma.

One aspect that characterizes some Big Six productions is the franchise film.

 

For Martin Scorsese, Marvel films are not cinema: "I’ve tried to watch a few of them and that they’re not for me, that they seem to me to be closer to theme parks than they are to movies as I’ve known and loved them throughout my life, and that in the end, I don’t think they’re cinema. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.

"Some people seem to have seized on the last part of my answer as insulting, or as evidence of hatred for Marvel on my part. If anyone is intent on characterizing my words in that light, there’s nothing I can do to stand in the way.

"Many franchise films are made by people of considerable talent and artistry. You can see it on the screen. The fact that the films themselves don’t interest me is a matter of personal taste and temperament. I know that if I were younger, if I’d come of age at a later time, I might have been excited by these pictures and maybe even wanted to make one myself."

To understand what Scorsese means by  franchise films and theme parks, we turn to Dalecki's 4S megafranchise model (below). Scorsese's opinion and Dalecki's analysis contributes to discussions about the different audience pleasures and qualities of franchise action films and independent cinema.

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).

TV DRAMA: COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN

You have before you a paper copy of a real student exam script on this question. In class today, read the script and make judgements on why this student achieved such high marks.

This should support your own exam responses. We will also go through real student Section B exam responses on the film industry, again, to scaffold your own good practice. The two essay questions are on convergence and synergy as well as on audiences..

QUESTION: Answer the question below, with detailed reference to specific examples from the extract only.

1   Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs representations using the following:

  • Camera shots, angles, movement and composition

  • Editing

  • Sound 

  • Mise-en-scène     [50]

Extract : Coming Down The Mountain Extract goes from start to 4.58 only.
June 2012 Coming Down the Mountain, Julie Anne Robinson, BBC, 2007 
In point: 19 seconds (Opening of drama after fade out from black) 
Out point: 5 minutes 17 seconds (“I had to get some space” – end sequence before scene changes from bus to party)

Coming Down The Mountain, for BBC One, is the first TV drama written by the award-winning novelist Mark Haddon (The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time), and bears his distinctive and powerful simplicity of style.

This original and poignant 90-minute film looks at the unusual relationship between two teenage brothers. The film sees through the eyes of a typical teenage boy, with a very colourful interior life.

"We're just an accident. A load of mixed-up chemicals. Change the recipe and we'd be really big potatoes with eye-tentacles... Of course, sometimes they do change the recipe and you get a brother who really is a big potato with eye-tentacles. And then you might as well talk to the dog..."

Teenager David (Nicholas Hoult - Skins, About A Boy) falls in love for the first time and life couldn't be better. The only fly in the ointment is his 17-year-old brother, Ben (Tommy Jessop), who has Down's Syndrome. The family's world revolves around Ben's needs while David's are unwittingly neglected by their parents (Neil Dudgeon - Sorted, The Street - and Julia Ford - All About George, In A Land Of Plenty).

They decide to move the family from London to "the back of beyond" for the sake of Ben's education. David loses love, friends and his school. His antipathy to Ben grows and grows to the point where he decides to push him off a mountain and get rid of him once and for all. The drama takes the two boys on a journey to the dangerous and strange wilderness of Snowdonia.

Mark Haddon says: "I began writing Coming Down The Mountain with the idea of creating a meaty role for a young actor with Down's Syndrome. It ended up as a film about the stuff of every teenager's life - love, sex, friends, school, depression, anxiety, parents, parties, siblings, mountains, murder, ice-cream, Darth Vader, nipple-rings."

Establishing shot of boys' shared room

David tries to distance himself but is always tied to Ben by duty

David vocalises his resentment forcefully

The three-shot shows that he is protective to his vulnerable brother despite his resentments.

TV DRAMA: CONSUMING PASSION

Component 2: Media Texts & Contexts

BBC's TV drama Consuming Passion: 100 Years of Mills and Boon offers a wide variety of representations as practice textual analysis for the Section A exam question. 

• You are given 4 pages with screenshots of key moments on the left hand side and space on the right hand side 
• As you watch the screening, identify how media language creates meaning
• 3 of the first 4 are modeled for you as examples
• 
  
  
  
  

FILM INDUSTRY REVISION: WEBSITE & TRAILER ANALYSIS

Case studies on our list: Captain Marvell, Sorry We Missed You, Bait, Roma

Today, we look at how the film trailers for each promote the film, examining the trailers in detail and making notes. PREP Complete this revision and be ready to answer questions. In class, we note that is important to read all the class blog notes on these case studies so that you can use theorists to support your essay points. Marks are are awarded for this: Analysis of how meaning is created (AO2) [5 marks]

Q.1 Take one of our case studies. Explain how its website promotes the film.

Q.2 Take a second case study. explain how its trailer promotes the film.

Captain Marvell 

Roma

Sorry We Missed You

Bait

SUGGESTED THEORISTS

You have requested a shortlist of theorists for the Media Texts and Contexts exam.

You will also no doubt recall the lesson on theorists on 8 March on this blog.

By the time you sit the exam, you will have covered a unit on Media Ecology and studied additional theorists, which will be also be relevant to your AS exam work

Theories of Media Language:

·       Semiotics: Barthes  - (denotation, connotation), representation

·       narratology, including Todorov   

..      Propp - narrative theory 

        genre theory, including Neale.

·       structuralism, including Lévi-Strauss - binary opposition

Theories of Industries:

·       power and media industries, including Curran and Seaton.

·       theories of regulation including those of Livingstone and Lunt

·       theories of cultural industries including those of Hesmondhalgh.

 

Theories of Representation:

·       theories of representation, stereotyping including Hall

·       theories of identity including Gauntlett

L      the male gaze - Laura Mulvey

·

 Theories of Industries:

·       power and media industries, including Curran and Seaton.

·       theories of regulation including those of Livingstone and Lunt

·       theories of cultural industries including those of Hesmondhalgh.

 

Shirky -

argues that ‘everybody make media and that the industry is increasingly driven by audience feedback systems'

 

 

Theories of Audience:

·       media effects, including Gauntlett

·       cultivation theory, including Gerbner

·       reception theory, including Hall - (how audiences decode texts) - active / passive audiences

·       theories of fandom, including Jenkins

·       theories of ‘end of audience’, including Shirky 

      Blumler and Katz - audiences use media to gratify needs (= democratization / active audiences) 

Henry Jenkins - participatory culture Prosumers / prosumerism 

Dan Gillmor - the audience is now the producer.  We are a nation of Netizens and prosumers

 

 

 

 

 

Paper 2 Media Texts and Contexts

Section B: Media contexts Answer one question from Section B. You should make references to at least one case study in your answer. [June 2021]

EITHER 2 Analyse the ways in which technology is changing the way we consume media. [25]

• unpack what 'consume' could include
• explain that 'we' can refer to different kinds of audiences, various situations (including current trends and forthcoming changes) and various platforms, which you will discuss as you analyse film consumption 
• make a note of how your own personal consumption could be useful in illustrating your response
  
• planning: in your notes now, write down which case case studies you could use, starting with the Hollywood majors. Aim for at least 3 studios / film companies / films
  
• next to each film, make a note of the different technologies that audiences access, keeping in mind the actual question, so that each topic sentence (sentence that starts a paragraph) is expressed relevantly
• if you start with BP or CM, you can explain the different platforms that audiences use to watch the film but also the different technologies that they use to access trailers, information about the film, social media and so on
• proceed with other case studies; you could now analyse the ways in which Roma offered a range of different audience experiences
• what is the recent news about Netflix?
  
• Loach films: how did audiences consume information about IDB and SWMY?
• you can use any case study that you wish as long as you answer the question set
• can you refer to any theorists? See the post on theorists above
  
• have you used relevant terminology like convergence?

Examiner Report

Question 2 Analyse the ways in which technology is changing the ways in which we consume media. 

The question was clearly accessible to all candidates, as most had some first-hand experience to discuss, thus eliciting a wide range of answers. Most case studies tended to focus on the film and music industry resulting in some accomplished responses. The most interesting and engaging responses were from the games industry, as they were often quite personal and well supported with detailed and relevant case study knowledge. 

The strongest responses displayed direct engagement with the question, with comprehensive evidence from case studies and a diversity of texts and institutions offered. Weaker answers were merely a personal discussion of streaming services and the closure of cinemas during the pandemic, lacking any meaningfully detailed case study support, rather than evaluating the ubiquity (or not), of consumption, and deploying a limited technical vocabulary. More confident answers were able to discuss consumption of cross platform media, including the notions of an active/passive audience, prosumerism, democratisation and interactivity. In most cases, relevant media theory was largely ignored, resulting in the lack of any informed critical debate.