Audience and Institution Practice Essay

Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied.

After spending months and years putting together a film, comes a time were producer and production companies have to come up with ways to promote their movies. When it comes to the idea of marketing for films, the importance of marketing becomes questioned. Marketing is the idea where companies promote their product. So, when it comes to marketing films, the process is very important. Marketing for films is important because it provides the movie with exposure and it helps the production companies gage if the film will hit or not and it gives the companies an idea of how and to which theaters, they should distribute their films to. 

To start, the idea of marketing is significant because marketing films help bring attention to the film and promote the film. Many production companies take the same approach when it comes to promoting their film. For instance, the majority of companies use posters to advertise their films. For example, “Jurassic World” created various posters once they announced the release of their movie. This is a good way to kind of capture what is going to happen in the movie and spread it to the people. From this, movie lovers will gain interest in the movie and want to watch it. On top of creating posters, many companies take the approach of using cross-promotion to promote their films. For instance, “Furious 7” used the approach of using cross-promotion. They partnered with the game “Forza Horizon” to create a game that revolved around the film. This allows people with another way to get a feel for what they can expect before watching the film. Moreover, production companies also throw special events to promote films. For example, the production company (Marvel Studios) of the film “Black Panther” hosted fashion week, so they could show off some costumes from the actual movie. Overall, there are various approaches that companies use to promote their movies, whether it be using posters, cross-promotion, and throwing special events. These different kinds of marketing styles all have a common goal of promoting these films.  

Secondly, marketing films help the production companies get a feel for, whether or not their films will be successful once being distributed. Many companies do this by creating merchandise and advertising it. Referring back to “Jurassic World,” they created posters to announce their film. Once they announced their film, they also released toys with “Lego” in stores. Wat this allows the company to do, is get an idea for how many people are interested in the film. They use the sales from the toys and merchandise that they created to gauge how likely their film will be successful once released. For example, “Guardians of the Galaxy” partnered with the board game “Monopoly” and created a “Black Panther” inspired monopoly game. This allowed marvel to get an idea of whether or not the movie will be hit based on the sales of the game, along with other merchandise that they released.  Based on the hype around their merchandise and games, they were able to estimate how well the movie was going to do. As a result of this, the movie ended up being “#1 ranked” and generated “$146,510,104 on the opening weekend.” Overall, the use of marketing for films is a very good way to help the production companies gauge how well their movies will do. 

Lastly, the use of marketing for the film is important because it provides the production company with the idea of how many ways and platforms, they should release the film on. The success the companies receive through merchandise, posters, and cross-promotion with other companies, allows the companies to get a better idea of how much anticipation is behind the film. The more success is related to more anticipation. For example, very unfortunate news that was released before the release of the “Furious 7” film was the death of one of the main actors “Paul walker.” This very unfortunate news sparked an anticipation level behind the film because many people wondered how the movie would’ve turned out. This gave the production company, the idea that this movie was highly anticipated. Which is why they ended up publishing the movie in theaters, DVD, and Blu-ray. This allowed the companies to generate around 500 million dollars’ worth of profit only from the first week of releasing the film. Another example of this was with Marvel and their film “Guardians of the Galaxy.” This film was number 1 ranked and generated almost 150 million dollars on the opening weekend.  With this kind of success, this caused marvel to release the film on 4K-UHD, DVD, and Blue-Ray. Along with releasing them on those platforms, they also released the film on YouTube, Amazon Prime, Vudu, Netflix, Google Play, and iTunes.  Overall, the marketing of the films and the success of the marketing helps the production companies determine whether or not they should release their product on multiple platforms. 

To conclude, marketing in the film industries does hold a significant amount of importance. This is due to the marketing helping promote the film, helping the production company gage the success of the film, and providing the companies with enough information on whether or not they should release the film on multiple platforms. Overall, the marketing is significant in the film industries because it allows the films to gain exposure and become successful.

"24" Practice Extract Essay

The film “24” is one of thousands of films that have been produced. This film consists of an undergoing interrogation, where a female actor has committed a crime by programming a bomb to go off. The interrogator is male actor who is really questioning the action to resolve the issue and deprogram the bomb. Throughout the extract the interrogator uses most of his power to try to get information from the lady. This led me to believe that the author's vision for this film was to portray that the good will do everything in their power to overcome obstacles and be victorious over the bad. 

            To start off, the extract begins with a fade into the scene which shows the women sitting in the chair. This shot is filmed with a close up shot, along with this shot there’s also some background music playing slightly. This close up of the women sitting in the chair shows her facial expression, as she waits to be interrogated. It clearly shows that she is planning what she is going to say, as she maintains a serious look on her face and her eyes wander around her surroundings. 

            The following scene begins with the interrogator walking into the room. This is filmed with an over the shoulder shot from the perspective of the women being interrogated. As soon as the interrogator walks, into the room it's very clear he’s angered by the actions of the women. The over the shoulder shot of the man walking into the room, clearly shows the distress and anger he has toward the person he is going to interrogate. 

            Once both actors have made it into the interrogation room. The shots being used are shot reverse shots which are showing the women and the man’s expression during their first encounter. The background music continues to play, which shows and builds up the intensity of the situation before anything is said between them. Then, the camera pans off and zooms into a camera in the corner of the room. This pan and zoom to the camera show the audience that the actors know they are the only ones in the room, but everyone outside can still observe what is going on.

            Once the camera has been shown, the camera switches back to the over the shoulder shot from the women’s perspective. This shot continues to show the man closing the door behind him and approaching the table where the woman is sitting. The camera then cuts to another close up of the women and shows her calm facial expression. This close up of this woman remaining calm, can lead the audience to believe maybe this isn’t her first time being interrogated because perhaps if it was, she would seem a bit more nervous. 

            After the close up of the women, the camera switches to a close of the man staring the women down. This is filmed at a low angle. This low angle was chosen when filming this shot, because it shows the women look up at the man. This can be interpreted to be showing that the man is showing his superiority and authority over the women. He proceeds to put a paper on the interrogation table, which is probably a police report of some sort, stating her crime. The shots continue to switch between close ups of the man and the women with no words being said and background music playing. These close ups of the man and women show their facial expressions as they prepare themselves for the interrogation. 

            In the next scene, the office where the observing on the inside of the interrogation room is being shown. Inside the interrogation room, and on the outside of the interrogation room it is very dark. The lack of light in both settings portray the sinister and mysterious e feeling of the crime that the women committed or knows about. Another switch that happened was, the clothing of the women and men were very casual, and the clothing of the office actors were very business and professional attire. This switch from casual and professional clothing can show that the interrogation room is more of a casual and normal conversation, where the observing going on, on the outside of the room is full of expertise and examination. 

            After this, the film returns back to the interrogation room. The women are the first to speak and she tells the interrogator that if they want to disable the bomb, they need to get her out of the room. She then proceeds to mention that she is aware of someone else that knows there the bomb is. The interrogator proceeds by asking her to reveal the name of this person and she responds by mentioning that she won’t tell them who it is. This dialogue of the women and man speaking is providing intel of what the situation is and why they are so urgent to resolve it. 

            After the woman continues to deny the interrogator information, his frustration starts to become more noticeable, due to his actions. In the next wide shot, it is showing the interrogator flipping the table in front of the woman and then getting up in her face. When he is in her face it switches to an over the shoulder shot. The wide shot of the mane flipping the table shows the frustration he has built up during her denial of information. 

            In the next scene, it shows the people on the outside’s reaction toward the interrogator's action. This jump cut to the people on the outside shows their reaction in which they seem worried and anxious on what will happen next. The man then proceeds to sit down and an eyeline match is shown between the interrogator and the woman. This eyeline match between the woman and the man shows a different facial expression. The women is shown to have a smirk on her face, while the man is clearly upset and stressed 

In the final scene, the man pushes the women’s chair up against the wall and begins choking her. While he is choking her, a close up is used. This close up shows the change in facial expression because no man is the one with a sinister look and the woman has a fearful look on her face. Once this close up has finished it switches to a split screen of the man choking the women and the officials outside the room running towards the room to break up the aggression. This split screen shows the two events going on at the same time which presents the urgency that the officials have to get into the room and break up the situation. 

Overall, the assumption that the good will do anything to overcome obstacles and become victorious over the bad, was very accurate. Throughout the film, it was shown that the interrogator was using all of his power and authority over the women to resolve the issue which she presented by planting a bomb. To be more specific, he risked losing his job by putting his hands on the women and choking her to death to try to get information out of her to stop the bomb.

Movie & CCR

This is the actual movie that my group and I could actually produce. It is unfinished to the global pandemic of the coronavirus. Although this prevented much work from being done, we were able to put half of it together. 

This is the completed video CCR that corresponds with the final task of creating the movie. 

Music Video & CCR

This is the actual music video that my group and I put together. 

This is the CCR's to the music video that we were assigned to do. 

Commercial & CCR

This is my first film project of the year. We instructed to make/ recreate a commercial from a list of companies provided. My group an I decided to make our own Nike commercial.

Creative Critical Reflection

           1.     How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues? 

My product uses many of the same conventions as Nike does in their commercials. Nike commercial tend to be revolved around athletics. Of course, our commercial is a track commercial. In our commercial we were athletic clothing branded by Nike, like the athletes in the commercials wear. All our accessories like bags, bottles, and headbands were also branded Nike. Our commercial represents all athletes who run track. It shows what it takes to be a track runner and how Nike portrays athletics to be when you wear their brand.

 2. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text? 

      Our Nike products engage with audiences that are linked to athletics. Our commercials would be shown during intermissions of sporting events. People who watch sports, are usual active or have children that are active. So overall, our commercial is bound to catch people’s eyes when shown during sporting events because they fit the scenario and the genre of television being shown. Not only could our commercial be shown within sporting events but it can be distributed before YouTube videos that have to do with athletics. Usually people who watch YouTube are millennials. Usually millennials who watch sport related videos, like sports. So, if my Nike commercial was to be distributed before sports related commercials, these kids will be more inclined to ask their parents for our products.  

              3.     How did your production skills develop throughout this project? 

My production skills developed tremendously throughout this production. Before this production, I’ve never used a camera, tripod, or a SD card. This production helped me learn how to use a SD card, how to set up a tripod, how to set the camera on the tripod and how to use the camera. Once the filming came to an end, I learned how to edit using the software provided by the school. Before editing on the school computer, I’ve learned how to edit videos on FinalCut Pro. Once I started editing on the school computer, I got the hang of all the button on Pinnacle Studios and the process of editing was facilitated. 

  4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project? 
                  In our project many technologies were integrated. For example, when we began filming       the technologies we used were, a Camera, Tripod, and a SD card. Another technology that was used in our project was a SD card reader. The SD card reader was used to help transport our footage to our computer. Unfortunately, our computer crashed when wanted to start editing so we were forced to switch to a laptop. So, another piece of technology used was a USB drive. The USB drive was used to transfer the footage from the computer to the laptop. The last piece pf technology used in our project was the editing software itself. To edit our commercial, we used Pinnacle Studios. The software was easy to use, and it did a great job editing our final commercial

Re-shooting After the Peer Reviews

          Due to this whole corona pandemic, it has been very hard for any school work to be completed. My group member and I have had many late nights stressing over what and how our grade in Media studies will turn out. This is due to us not being able to finish recording and touching up our movie. We've all been available since we are out of school. But our parents don't let any of us go out. We text in our group chat asking what we should do but it's hard to answer based on the lack of information and answers. We weren't able to reshoot after our peer review. Which is a bummer because we had so much that we could've improved with what we got done before the coronavirus. Considering we weren't able to film in 2-3 weeks. My group and I only have abs half of our film done.  

          After the peer reviews, we received new ideas. These ideas were extremely good and really would've added a spin to our film. The consisted of adding transitions and different shots. Along with this they even gave us some ideas on how to put a spin on our original idea. Thanks to corona my group and I won't be able to do this. This sucks for us because we were actually enjoying making our movie. We had much fun brainstorming, filming, and editing. But thanks to this global pandemic we aren't able to continue filming. This is extremely unfortunate because we only got around half way done. This may be saddening but the only thing that matters as of now is everyones health. 

Our Struggle With Editing and Filming

          If we remained on a regular schedule, we would've been in school this week and completing our filming process. We wanted to finish filming this week so we could have an adequate amount of time to edit the movie.  But as we know and have seen all over the news, the worldwide pandemic of the COVID-19, also know as the Coronavirus is stopping us from doing this. This virus has had a rapid spread across the world, because of the amount of interaction between humans. To avoid the spread of the virus and people getting the virus. People have been instructed to leave the house as little as possible. This pandemic is playing an important role in my group and I's delay on our process of completing our film. The first problem that this virus has created for my group and I, is not giving us the opportunity to see each other at school. Usually, we talk and discuss when we are filming and for how long. Since we aren't attending school it is harder for us to communicate and film after school one day. 

          Although we aren't able to see each other at school, we have group chat were we text and discuss different things. Something my group and I has discussed a lot recently was, when we are going to finish filming. Everyone is available and can film due to our open schedules, but the only problem is our stay inside situation. Their parents along with mine are very strict about going out. They are concerned because they do not want us to be in contact with anyone who may have the virus. Considering we have to film at a public park, where many people may go since everything else is closed, is not our parents favorite idea. With many people in attendance at the parent, it increases the contamination and a possibility of getting the virus. Besides filming being our problem, we also have to worry about editing. Our project isn't due yet but the due date hasn't changed. Our time is getting shorter, and our amount of work is staying static. With us not being able to film, it is also leaving us with much to edit. Regardless of the situation we are working to overcome this obstacle, and film very soon so we can finish our project.