Unit one - LO2

 I'm not here this week! So I've set cover work. This cover work is related to LO2, which is advertising and distribution. Again, for a full list of the LOs, click here. We've already covered these terms, but clearly you must go in to significantly more detail, and of course construct case studies. 

You will cover one media product each session, Titanic in the first on Monday, and Assassin's Creed on Wednesday.  I have specially selected these examples as there is LOTS to write about for both of them!

Lesson one (Monday) - pre-millennial case study - Titanic (1997)

Titanic was, for some time, the highest grossing film of all time, and started an absolute media frenzy many years before the prevalence of social media and digitally convergent technologies. In many ways, Titanic can be seen as one of the final purely traditional marketing campaigns for a massive blockbuster film. The soundtrack, production details and extensive marketing campaign all combined to enthral  massive audiences for years, and the film became a cultural phenomenon.

Task one - Wikipedia trawl

Go to the Titanic Wikipedia page and jot down some key facts about the product. Five minutes! That's all!

Remember, while Wikipedia can never be 100% reliable, it's a great place to start with general facts and figures!

Task two - Advertising and marketing

Find and save as many examples of marketing and advertising for Titanic as possible. Please upload these to your blog post as a big old mass of pictures.

Examples of advertising include:

• Theatrical posters
• Trailers (put in a screenshot!)
• Print adverts
• Publicity stunts
• Soundtrack CD
• Live events and premieres
• Magazine front covers
• VHS front cover
• Merchandise including clothing
• Fan produced material including parodies

Task three - trailer analysis

How does this trailer appeal to a mass audience? And how does this trailer maximise the chances for the film's financial success?

Analyse this trailer, making notes under the following headings:

• Cinematography
• Edting 
• Mise-en-scene
• Voiceover
• Colour
• Setting
• Production values
• Soundtrack
• Etc

Remember: these case studies are ones which you can and should use in the exam, should the right question come up!

Extension: choose another film released in the 90's, and explore it's marketing campaign, using the lists above.

Lesson two (Wednesday) - post-millennial case study - Assassin's Creed Valhalla (2020)

Released comparatively recently, Assassin's Creed Valhalla is an excellent example of a post-millennial marketing strategy involving digitally convergent media. Also, as a video game, its marketing material and strategy may vary wildly from that for Titanic... Or does it?

Task one - Wikipedia trawl

Go to the Assassin's Creed Valhalla Wikipedia page and jot down some key facts about the product. Five minutes! That's all!

Remember, while Wikipedia can never be 100% reliable, it's a great place to start with general facts and figures!

Task two - Advertising and marketing

Find and save as many examples of marketing and advertising for Assassin's Creed Valhalla as possible. Please upload these to your blog post as a big old mass of pictures.

Examples of advertising include:

• Posters
• Trailers (put in a screenshot!)
• Print adverts
• Publicity stunts
• Soundtrack CD
• Live events 
• Magazine front covers
• Merchandise including clothing
• Fan produced material including parodies, fan art, and so on
• Social media posts, both official and fan made

Task three - trailer analysis

How does this trailer appeal to its audiences? And how does this trailer potentially appeal to people who normally do not play videogames?

Analyse this trailer, making notes under the following headings:

• Cinematography
• Editing 
• Mise-en-scene
• Language
• Voiceover
• Colour
• Setting
• Production values
• Soundtrack
• Etc

Remember: these case studies are ones which you can and should use in the exam, should the right question come up!

Extension: choose another game released in the last ten years, and explore it's marketing campaign, using the lists above.

Unit One - LO1 - Job roles and production processes

The following are a broad list of media related roles, which at a pinch could be related to the film industry. Copy/paste them in to a blog post

• Digital marketing 
• Social media officer
• Producer
• Assistant producer
• Director
• Assistant director
• Editor
• Concept artist
• Set designer
• Carpenter
• Runner
• Hair and makeup
• Costume designer
• Cinematographer 
• Camera assistant
• Lighting technician

Task i - For each of these roles, first define them, using a search engine to help you

Task ii - Next, sort these roles in to three categories: preproduction, production and postproduction

Extension

Visit prospects.ac.uk and take the quiz to discover the perfect job for you. This is also a great opportunity to chat to Michael about media and careers and uni and Squid Game and anything really...

Unit one - LO1 - independent label research

 Independent label case study - Warp records

Starter - Come To Daddy video, 1995

Watch the video as a class. 

***WARNING! Contains creepy images and some flashing lights!***

Answer the following questions:

• In what ways is this promo an effective marketing tool? (LO2)
• Who is this video targeting, and how does it do so? (LO4)
• How does this video use mise-en-scene, setting and colour grading to create meaning for the audience? (LO3)
• What regulatory issues does this video potentially raise? (LO6)

Check out this post for a reminder of the learning objectives for this unit. This task covers four out of six. That's pretty good going! Maybe the exam is actually pretty straightforward after all?

Task - Wikipedia trawl

You have five minutes to find as much information about Warp records as possible, just using its Wikipedia page...

Remember, while Wikipedia can never be 100% reliable, it's a great place to start with general facts and figures!

Brand identity

Brand identity refers to how a brand differentiates itself from other brands. Without a brand identity, it would be impossible to try and tell brands apart, and marketing strategies would be rendered largely pointless.

How does Warp records construct a brand identity?

Watch at least some of the following videos, and make notes on how Warp records has cultivated a brand identity. You may wish to make notes under the following headings:

• Mise-en-scene
• Editing
• Colour
• Celebrity and personality
• Genre and conventions

Squarepusher - Terminal Slam
Autechre - Gantz Graf
Aphex Twin - On
Oneohtrix Point Never - Lost But Never Alone

How is Warp's brand identity constructed?

• Selection of artists with a similar sound allows Warp to communicate with audiences that they are associated with a particular genre
• Experimental music may have a niche audience, but it allows Warp to target a gap in the market
• Specialisation: Warp have cornered the market in experimental music, which allows them to market their music more effectively
• Allows Warp to organise tours and promotions more effectively 
• Music videos share an abstract aesthetic, with confusing, glitchy details
• Music videos and promotional material typically misses out the artists themselves
• All music videos share a similar, busy, glitchy aesthetic
• Abnormal characters and visual details

Warp films case study

Choose any of the films produced by Warp's film arm, Warp Films. Here are a few, but you can do any one you want

• Tyrannosaur
• Four Lions
• Submarine
• This is England
• Dead Man's Shoes

Watch the trailer for your film, and answer the following question:

In what ways is the film you selected marketed towards its target audience? And how does the selection of this film reflect Warp's brand identity?

What makes an indie film indie?

List two characteristics of an independant film

• Low budget
• Lack of complicated editing techniques
• Unknown actors
• Natural, unshowy colour grading 
• Naturalistic settings 
• Soundtrack - use of less famous music, perhaps less emphasis on music in genral
• Lack of CGI and expensive effects
• Less commercial themes and plots
• Less exciting themes
• Lower production values
• Less concern about age rating (This Is England is a BBFC 15), less concern about marketing to children 

Practice question

Explain two ways that an independent company you have studied created successful media products. Use examples to support your answer [4]

Remember: 4 marks = 2 ways and 2 examples (one for each way)!

What makes a company 'successful'?

• Making money/revenue/profit/financially successful
• Making PROFIT
• Multiple brand deals
• Strong Brand Identity - allows it to appeal to a niche and enthusiastic audience
• Critically successful 
• Commercial success (makes money relative to cost of production)
• Distributed in a variety of different ways
• Entertainment value
• Present a message or ideology 
• Raises awareness of issues
• Appeals to a range of audiences
• Appeals to a small but enthusiastic audience

Unit one - LO1 - conglomeration and ownership structures

What is conglomeration?

• Conglomeration is the defining business model of our time.
• A conglomerate is a large business which has become large through the process of buying other businesses.
• Think of a huge blob, ‘glomming’ on to everything else. That’s a conglomerate. It's an aggressive business practice that prioritises profit and growth over everything else.
• Typically, a conglomerate owns lots of little companies that are responsible for the production, distribution or exhibition of the film.
• And the companies a conglomerate owns are called subsidiaries

An example of a major conglomerate - Sony

Who are they and what do they do? You have five minutes to find out as much information as possible!

Facts and figures

• Founded in 1946 in Tokyo - post war Japan
• 59 office locations in 45 countries
• CEO - Kenichiro Yoshida
• 128 billion USD

Products and services

• High end electronic products, including monitors
• Cameras
• Playstation
• Products
• Robots
• TVs
• Record Players

Subsidiaries - a wide range of subsidiaries allows a conglomerate to appeal to multiple audiences!

• Sony Entertainment
• Sony Computer Entertainment 
• Stake in Marvel, in particular Spiderman
• Hawkeye innovations
• Aiwa 
• Gaikai
• Sony Music
• Sony music publishing 
• AWOL (record label)
• Crunchyroll 
• Funimation
• Spotify (stake)
• Insomniac
• Sony Pictures!!!
• Sony Marketing Inc

Vertical integration and horizontal integration

Back in the good old days of the early 20th century, organisations were typically vertically or horizontally integrated. Now, things have changed quite significantly, and enormous conglomerates are often both vertically and horizontally integrated. But what do these terms mean?

Horizontal integration: Is where a conglomerate owns other companies in the same sector

Example: Disney own and have bought out Marvel Studios, Lucas Film and Pixar

Vertical integration: Is where a conglomerate owns companies in different sectors. In short, they own the method of production and distribution. This practice is highly anti competitive

Example: Disney, own Disney Plus, a range of distribution and production services

Multimedia integration : Where a conglomerate uses digital technology to integrate business

Example: Netflix, who use digital tech to distributive and produce films and TV shows rapidly 

Convergence: the coming together of previously separate media industries

Example: use of mobile phones to access absolutely every form of media

Synergy: The advantages of convergence

Example: music videos are two previously separate industries that work particularly well together 

Case study: Sony and Spectre

Case studies are ridiculously important: you  will be asked to make reference to explicit examples in the exam. The more notes you make now, the better your mark will be in the exam. It's very straightforward!

Using the internet, research how Sony used its power as a conglomerate to produce, distribute and market Spectre. 

Find evidence of Cross media ownership, horizontal/ vertical integration, synergy, marketing, affiliations, and so on. Feel free to share information with those around you

• Production companies, distribution companies

Released in 2015

Produced by Eon Productions, famous for making James Bond films

Distributed by Sony Pictures

• Pre-production, production and post production details

Shot from December 2014 - February 2015

Most expensive exploion ever!

Filmed in five different countries, very expensive production, that allows it to target multple audiences

• Budget, box office (ticket) sales

880.7 million $$$ worldwide

245-300 million $$$

Huge financial success!!

70.4 million $$$ on opening weekend, second highest at the time

• Examples of marketing

Williams F1 team branded with Spectre Logo

Official website, with a range of teasers and trailers - allows Sony to target hardcore fans of the franchise

Teaser: short trailer with very little information to create hype and excitement among fans

Aston Martin unveiled new car as part of marketing strategy

• BBFC Age rating (and why)

Initally rated as 15 by the BBFC. Sony edited the film to make a suicide scene less prominant, which allowed the film to be released as a 12A

Commercial, mainstream films genrally avoid 15+ ratings in the UK, in order to maximise audiences

Make sure your research looks good! That means pictures, headings, variation in font... good!

Unit one - LO1 - media sectors and industries

Introduction to unit one - breakdown of LOs

 

Examples of media sectors

The following links will help you research how the media industries are structured

Print/ Publishing - https://ribbonfish.co.uk/blog/10-influential-uk-based-magazine-publishers/

https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/biggest-magazine-publishers-uk-2021/

Film - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_film_studios

https://www.screendaily.com/features/the-brit-50-the-top-film-production-companies-in-the-uk/5134037.article

TV - https://www.televisual.com/news/the-uk-s-top-100-tv-production-companies_bid-380/

Video Gaming - https://www.alltopeverything.com/top-10-biggest-video-game-companies/

https://builtin.com/media-gaming/indie-game-developers

Music - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_industry https://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2011/may/01/ten-best-british-indie-labels-in-pictures

Industry terminology and examples

Three hour lesson - camera shots, movements and angles

For this task, you will exploring how shot types, camera movements and camera angles can be used to create meaning for the audience. All of these elements come under the umbrella of cinematography

Key term: cinematography - everything to do with the camera

1 - Researching cinematography

Use this link to help you understand the different shot types. Make notes in your own words under each heading: please do Not copy and paste. Your notes can be very brief, 

• bullet
• point
• style
• notes

2 - Creating a cinematographic resource

1. You will create a Google Slide/ Doc handout that identifies the following shot types. 
2. You will be taking the photos in small groups. If everyone turns up, that means groups of four!
3. Every shot you take must be clean, in focus, and accurate. Please only submit your best work.
4. Other students are taking exams. You must NOT annoy anyone. Do NOT talk in the corridors (even quietly). Do NOT shoot anywhere near buildings. Go to the woods!
5. Do not leave site, even to take a single shot

You must include the following:

• Establishing Shot
• Extreme Long Shot (XLS)
• Long Shot (LS)
• Medium Shot (MS/2S)
• Medium close up (MCU)
• Close up (CU)
• Extreme close up (ECU)
• High Angle (HA)
• Low Angle (LA)
• Over the Shoulder (O/S)

Extension - more work!

If this sounds too easy, then shoot examples of the following shots

• Bird's eye shot
• Worm's eye view
• Canted angle/Dutch tilt
• Shallow depth of field
• Any other crazy shots you somehow know about...

Here's a good example of what you can achieve. Note how every shot is clean, clear and in sharp focus? Do that?

3 - The connotative features of cinematography...

...is a slightly more sophisticated way of saying "the meanings of cinematographic choices". Producers don't just mash stuff together and hope for the best! Believe it or not, they think carefully about how to best affect (and manipulate...) the audience...

EITHER

Complete the chart on different types of camera movement.  

OR

Create a new document, using your images from task 2, labelling them with the connotations of each shot

             

4 - Textual analysis

Pick a scene from any film you want on YouTube, and write a brief analysis on how the cinematography creates meaning for the audience. Have fun!

Starting a new blog on blogger

We're ditching Wix and moving to Blogger. This will take a little while, but everything will be so much easier from now on.

Step one

Sign in with your gmail account

Step two

Search for 'blogger'

Step three

Run through the process of starting your blog. Since your Google account is set up, this should be a matter of coming up with a URL (website address) for your blog. 

Make a note of this address, because you'll be emailing me with it

Step four

Under 'themes' pick 'simple theme'. This makes life ridiculously easy, and it makes your blog super easy to read and mark. You can change the colours later, but 'simple theme' is where it's at

Step five

Under your dashboard, click 'pages' and create three new 'pages' called UNIT ONE, UNIT TWO and UNIT THREE. I'll walk you through this bit: it's easy but I need to show you exactly what to click on.

Step six

Populate your blog with the following posts:

It Follows: genre analysis (the mini mock exam)

Summer work (this could be screenshots or screencaps or whatever)

Media sectors worksheet (again, post a screenshot)