“Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices”. To what extent would you agree with this statement, within the media area you have studied?


I would agree the statement, that media depends upon marketing and distribution as it is the most important factor to consider within the filming industry. We can really see the differences between a film which has had major marketing and distribution and see how it can influence the film’s success. Although, both factors are extremely important within media, in order to create a popular film.

20^th Century fox is a huge film company which has been around since 1935, and from then has produced many famous and successful films, such as, home alone, alien and avatar. By having such popular and well made films the success of the company has overshadowed others making it one of the biggest film companies. Therefore the company can connect with other distribution networks, and television companies to ensure more money is brought forward and to create bigger and popular filming productions. For example the film ‘Prometheus’ was certainly going to be successful as it was with the company of 20^th Century Fox so already had a good reputation, so they didn’t need any media convergence as Fox is already such a big name. However I would question how the film could become anymore successful if it were to converge with another company. The film had an extremely good marketing technique, such as; TED Talks (included a video featuring Guy Pierce as fictional Weyland Industries head Peter Weyland, giving a TED talk in 2023. The piece was first screened at the real TED conference in February. According to the LA Times TED organizers helped to make the film look like what they envision a TED talk will really be like in the future), websites, TV spots, trailers, twitter (#areyouseeingthis). The Prometheus twitter account received 15 million followers. By having most of the vertical marketing used with technology and media, it appeals to a wider audience such as young adults and adults who use technology everyday as it is easy to get hold of information and trailers of the film and keep them updated on the films latest updates of trailers and gossip from the film.

 

Another example of a successful film is Kick Ass with quite a high budget of thirty million dollars. The budget had to be quite high in order to overcome from the special effects used within the film. With an amazing use of production companies such as Plan B entertainment, Lions Gate entertainment, and Marv Films, the film was already going to be a success because of the convergence of the three companies, as well as, Brad Pitt co-producing the film. The viral marketing was another strong point, as I mentioned in Prometheus’s success, this film had; numerous trailers, TV spots, blogs and websites. Kick Ass the comic book and the film were actually written at exactly the same time 'so it was a very sort of collaborative, organic process'. There were many magazine features including the comic, with references to the video game, of the film which was released after the film’s success but proved to cause some controversy from the quality of the game. However the slight disappointment of a famous cast ruined the film slightly, as there was Aaron Johnson who was best known for playing Robbie in Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging, may have pushed viewers away, instead of attract them to towards the film. If there were to be a list of big names it would attract any audience to see the film as they are all known for their previous roles in other successful films. Although, bar all of the negative points I have made about the film, the total income was over ninety million dollars.

 

The Kings Speech however was a much smaller production with Momentum Pictures, with a budget of £8,000,000. The film mainly relied on the marketing and distribution of the film, otherwise it would not have received the critical reception that it did. It did so well with awards, by winning an Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay.
The film had received 12 Oscar nominations, more than any other film in that year. Besides the four categories it won, the film received nominations for Best Cinematography and two for the supporting actors, as well as two for its mise-en-scène: Art Direction and Costumes.

As ‘The Kings Speech’ was not able to have a huge budget, it had to be made recognizable. With the budget of £8 million it didn’t have the potential to compete with some of the other major blockbusters out at the time. By making the film recognized, viral marketing was used. ‘The film was made just in time to enter it into several film festivals in the hope that national newspaper journalists will enjoy it’. The reception of the film was good, before the film was released into cinemas people were excited for it, and whether not it will be any good. Many different posters were released along with some trailers. The posters have a simple image of characters with some positive quotes from critics. This way the audience feel implied to go and see. The posters are very cleverly made as they don’t give anything away about the film, therefore remains a mystery. The trailer is also extremely important as it is promoting the films and showing the best bits without giving away the ending. In the UK and Ireland, the film was the highest earning film on its opening weekend; it took in £3.5 million from 395 cinemas. The Guardian said that it was one of the biggest takes in recent memory, compared to Slumdog Millionaire (2008), which, for example, two years earlier earned £1.5 million less. Convergence and synergy are extremely important factor to make a successful film. Bedlam and SeeSaw converged together to create The King’s Speech. They form different platforms such as posters, soundtracks and trailers.

In conclusion to this I feel that with the research and the knowledge on these films the most important part of successful media is to depend on marketing and distribution, as viral marketing and posters and TV spots are what sell the film. If there were to be no marketing the film would not be recognised. In my opinion it doesn’t matter how good the quality a film is, it is the distribution and marketing which declares the decisions of the audience and critics. However I still believe that it is very reliant on vertical distribution if a high budget was used.

Sexuality

Is the sexuality of the characters easily identifiable?
Yes the characters are easily identifiable as there is a first shot of the two young ladies, one of which is trying on a dress. We see that they are quite close friends, but it is questionable. One of the girls is the narrator, and she says the line ‘She looked so beautiful’, immediately after this is said, the friendship barrier has been broken, and we see the admiration towards the ‘lady’. In the next scene we see the two women in bed together, the non-diegetic sound increases in pace to reflect passion and the secretive nature of one of the woman’s sexuality. The woman holds back, and seems to be rather nervous to ‘touch’ the woman, scared for the other to find out her feelings towards her friend. Whilst the homosexual woman is fully awake the other woman is fast asleep, portraying that she doesn’t know her friends feelings towards her and seems quite naïve towards the unknown situation.
 
Is the sexuality represented as being important in their life?
Yes it appears to be a big part in the homosexual’s life, although homosexuality is shunned in this era, she has to keep her sexual feeling aback, and not show them. Within the next scene the homosexual woman is painting in the garden with the other woman painting her young, naïve and vulnerable body. With slightly paced shots of the woman’s body parts shows she is trying hard to hold back but is almost impossible. Going back to my point on sexuality being shunned upon, the man we see recognises the sexual feelings the woman has and attempts to change her mind about the sexuality.
 
Are particular sexualities seen as more powerful, better, and normal? If so, how?
In my opinion the main sexuality which stands out is the heterosexuality, as within the era that was the tradition, it was the unwritten rule, and there is no other way. This was portrayed with the heterosexual man shown with more authority with high angle shots making the woman look vulnerable and an outcast to society because of her sexuality.
 
What message is the clip aiming to portray about sexuality?

The clip is trying to show how the history of sexuality has changed throughout the years and what torture homosexuals went through. One thing I have noticed is that there were no stereotypical views on sexuality within this clip. Nowadays lesbians would be stereotypically seen as dressed in a more ‘manish’ matter, and in a modern day society would have spotted the fact that this woman was a lesbian due to what she was wearing. Whereas in this era it is hard to identify the feelings and the look of a ‘homosexual’ person. It is presented with emotion rather than the aesthetic features. The woman is seen as emotional and never happy with herself because of the major secret which rules her life.

Sexuality in EastEnders

In this scene we see Syed reveal his secret to his wife. Syed's wife does not take the news very well and attempts to try and change his mind, but with Christian in the room this makes it difficult for her to accept that he is gay, which portrays that she is still in love with Syed as Christian makes sly comments such as 'we share the same bed', he is almost casting revenge towards Syed's wife, because of the strong jealousy towards her. This clip is extremely emotional and traumatising.

In this scene we see the families reaction towards the 'coming out' of Syed. As we can see the family do not take it well. As the family are so religious, they also find it hard to accept the concept of the sexuality of Syed. Syed and Christian are now seen as outsiders and do not belong in the community they were originally in.

 

The Kings Speech on Prezi

Regional Identity- Doc Martin

Within this extract of Doc Martin, regional identity is presented by the four main areas of filming; Mis-en-scene, camera angles, editing, and the use of sound.

In the first shot we see a low angle sink shot; it’s dark, and dull, with old run down furniture. The camera then pans up the characters, revealing themselves; the plumber, the son, and Doc Martin. Instantly we see that the composition is a '3 shot', and the doctor is towering over the other characters showing higher authority and has a shallow focus on the doctor. Although the Doctor is higher in authority anyway, it really accentuates this, and makes it more prominent. The big plumber is also slightly higher in position to his son.

 With the lighting Doc martin is slightly lit with the natural lighting peeping through the curtains. The diegetic sound reveals that the characters are not equal by their accents. The plumbers are strong Somerset accents, whereas the doctor has Standard English, and is spoken with diction. The scene is extremely long, and doesn’t cut until 21 seconds. This portrays that the conversation is dragging, and droning on, and is boring.

In the next shot, the plumbers son says ‘unless it came from the old asylum in town or it could be a literary reference’  this changes the way we perceived this character, he is well educated but then his father brings him down by saying ‘what are you on about boy?’ It’s condescending and patronising, therefore brings the education barrier down, and makes him look a fool.

When the plumber tweaks the wrong part on the sink the water starts to gush out. After this incident happened, the cuts are faster and the pace becomes quicker because of the straight cuts.
The scene becomes complicated and there are many distractions, with the digetic sounds of water, the Doctor swearing, the phone ringing and shouting. A strike of panic waves across the scene.  

Prometheus Prezi

Prometheus on Prezi

Hustle-Gender Essay

In an extract of the TV drama Hustle, gender is presented in different ways with stereotypes. In TV dramas stereotypically we expect females to be hardworking, likes shopping, perfect, make-up, clean and classy. The males tend to act like the alpha male, strong, have high paid jobs, and into football and rugby. There are six characters that I am going to analyse and feed back on their behaviour and appearance and whether I think it will fit in with the stereotypical type of male and female.

The shop we first see is obviously designer, as we can tell that there are not many items and looks really well made dresses. Therefore we expect the type of customer to be a rich, classy female who knows what they want in life. Whereas in the men’s club we expect to see the men laughing, drinking, smoking and joking.

 

The first scene is in the designer clothing store, with back lighting, cream shades and chic dresses, then the camera pans onto an older lady who seems to look out of place with grey hair, piled up messily. She pulls out a dress which is out of her price range. The shop assistant is extremely condescending towards her, and only gets on with rich people, therefore wants this lady out of his shop as soon as possible.

 Once the older lady scurries out, the camera immediately goes to the other lady in shop, called Sarah, who is part of the scandal which is about to take place. The camera starts on her ring, a huge diamond wedding ring. This portrays wealth, and the shop assistant skips over to her almost as if he is excited.

 

The next scene is presented with a ‘wipe’ editing technique, and the sound effects to go with it. This links to the idea that she is in a changing room. The shot is over the shoulder and mirrored so that the audience can see the back of the dress with the crystals and the reaction that the dress provides. I noticed that there was a slight drum roll after the shop assistant reveals the price, as to whether she was going to buy the dress or not.

On the other hand we are introduced to some more characters, which are in a different setting, of a men’s club with no females. The surroundings are darker in colours, there is smoking and drinking occurring and it isn’t very well lit. We see an older American man who would be stereotypically be classed as ‘posh’ as he was dressed well, with a silk handkerchief in his pocket. We later on realise that the well dressed man is trying to con the other man, who is dressed in all black, and looks too scruffy to be in the men’s club. The American man is getting the scruffy man drunk in order for the con to take place smoothly.

 

The scene is swiftly changed by another ‘wipe’ edit, this time with a non-diegetic sound of a zip, which goes back to the designer store. The camera then focusing on the woman’s bag. The camera quality seems to have changed to a hand held camera, as it seems shifty and jerky, which portrays panic, and moves around with Sarah round the shop. The lady is screaming and is hysterical which represents a ‘typical female’. ‘My husband will kill me’, this implies that the ring is extremely expensive and is the end of the world to this woman. She is playing the role as a typical ditzy, female blonde. Within this scene Sarah breaks the 4^th wall, by quickly giving eye contact to the audience (camera). This then engages and involves the audience to be part of the chaos that is occurring.

Yet again another wipe edit is used, to swiftly move on to the next scene. This time we see the shop assistant on his hands and knees attempting to look for the expensive ring. The con man then enters the room, like with Sarah and her ring, focusing on one feature on the person, the conman is first seen with a zoomed in close up of his shoes, which look like they are designer and strikes him as being wealthy. There is then a slow pan up his body, with a low angle shot making him look higher in authority and the shop assistant looking vulnerable whilst scrambling to find the ring. Although the conman is dressed well, his accent is cockney which brings his status down, he is not a typical ‘business man’, as he is chewing gum, scratches his nose, and uses the term ‘bird’, for his wife. Although he is extremely streetwise and knows what he is doing and wants. He too breaks the 4^th wall, by giving eye contact to the audience.