Don't forget to click "older posts" and read this blog as well!
Friday, 24 April 2009
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
COURCEWORK
I have decided to move all the things about coursework to a separate blog so it is all in one place and roughly in chronological order. the link will be posted here later.
thankyou
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Podcast update
Me and tom are having trouble finding a decent (free) RSS feed to host the files on.. sorry about that...
Coursework update
My group has FINALLY finished shooting and editing the middle section of the piece and now all we need to do is one 'pick up shot' before our 'final' cut is ready. The music has all been created through garage band loops and i think they have been rather effective within the piece, but they were very time consuming to make. I will hopefully have the links up, and a copy of the film so far by the end of this week. in case you are wondering where our story boards are, they are on the way! the filming plans have had to change due to availability of the group members and also the weather - i.e the week of snow days.
On thursday the group delved into Live Type and created the credits, these are in the font 'black gothic' with 'horizontal blur' entrances as they fit in with the Jason Bourne thriller esc aspect of the piece.
now all we need to do is get a voiceover sorted and then finally create the DVD we have already created the background music, but me and James have yet to do the pictures for the menus.
The reason for no recent Blog updates is simply because all the work i have been doing is in the editing and it would have been good to upload the piece at the beginning and end of every lesson, but unfortunately the macs have a problem with logging into facebook, blogger, youtube.. so this was impossible, and because the files were in HD my internet connection keeled over and died when i tried to upload the video. also many of the changes made were small, but effect the overall feeling of the piece, which many people may miss.
I hope i can get all these things sorted, so keep you eyes open for more updates!
Monday, 23 February 2009
Essay on media institutions
Discuss the issues raised by the institutions needs to target specific audiences within a media industry which you have studied
The first issue that is raised by the media institutions is audience its self. This is an issue as the media institution has to find the correct audience that the film is tailored to and then market the film to them appropriately. This can be difficult as if the film is marketed wrong then the film will flop as the wrong people will be informed of the film and the people who would watch the film will be insufficiently informed. An extreme example of this is to not market the next saw film on TV on a Saturday mornings, as all the children watch TV at that time, and all the people what would be interested in the trailer are probably hung over in bed. This would then result in fewer people knowing bout the film and thus less people watching the film as they do not know about it, and so the film will make less money. The first step in this is to correctly identify the target audience and then market the film appropriately.
The issue of target audience is also important in the creation of a film, if a film sticks to a certain type of audience then they are more likely to sell the film to that audience, so the wider the audience targeted then the better the film will sell better, for example in the UK Wallace and Gromit sells very well as it targets everyone, it entertains old to young, unlike Ali G, which has a 18-30 niche. Now because Wallace and Gromit has a larger target audience then the chances are that if it is a good film then it will sell better, as there are more people that will buy it. This also applies to age certificates; there is no point in having a film that is aimed at 14 year olds ending up with a 15 certificate. This also applies to the size of audiences; a film given a 18 will have a smaller audience
Another issue raised by the institutions is actually creating the media text for the specific audience, which is an overlap with the above paragraph. The institution must be careful to keep the film on the target audience as if it is marketed for teenagers, but ends up being aimed at 20+ then the film will not do as well as it has a slightly childish undertone to it.
A key issue is also the distribution of the film. The institution has to decide how the film will be distributed; will it be released in other languages? Will it be released in cinema multiplexes? Or will it go straight to DVD? And then when it comes to DVD release how will it be released? Through a distribution company like InDVD, or will the film producers use a more famous distributor? The distribution is an important issue that is raised by the British film industry. An example of this through a film called Yasmin the producer was Film 4 and I believe that they got the distribution completely wrong, they only released the film in small overseas cinemas and on the film 4 channel, the film was then released to DVD using InDVD as a distribution company the film never sold well because no one could get hold of the DVD or go to a cinema and see it. This resulted in the film being a flop. This can be avoided by using cinemas as a platform to get your film in the media spotlight and also to use more famous and well connected film distribution companies this will result in better DVD sales and hopefully the film will then not be a flop.
The media institution must also use the correct technologies to distribute their media texts an example of this is BLU-RAY films these are high definition films that run in 1080p (screen resolution) and so have a high visual and also it allows the film to be played in fully uncompressed 7.1 surround sound this technology is expensive and so the films brought out in BLU-RAY should be chosen carefully, for example a drama would benefit little from being in HD yet a Pixar film like WALL-E benefits massively as it is computer generated animation. An example of the British film industry using this technology is through freesat. This is free satellite TV which can support HD the BBC is using this and now many of its programs can also be viewed in HD this targets the more ‘tech savvy’. Another form of media is now also through 3G technology, for example on the iphone this is being utilized by game developers targeting wide audiences of commuters by creating games for the iphone. I believe that this technology could also be used to distribute phone magazines to the commuting audience. A way in which British film could improve the viewership is by putting their films on LOVEFILM.com which is an online film rental website. This would increase the viewership of the film and then the audience for the film comes to that film as it will be listed under the certain genre and also in specific lists i.e. action/adventure or family films. Another way for the British film makers to target the specific audiences is to use something like the BBC iplayer and for a fee the audience could gain online access to all the films made by that company.
Another view of the film producers using technology to facilitate a more accurate targeting of their audience is to use market research tools i.e internet viewer trackers to see what kind of people are watching the films i.e. on YouTube they can see how many people are watching the trailer, but they can also find out where that person lives, how old they are and what gender the person is. This information could then be used to market the film to the more specific audience. This tracking also occurs with Tesco club cards, LOVEFILM subscriptions and the 4OD catch-up service. The company could gather all this information and use it to refine what audience to market to.
An issue also raised by the media institutions is the audience strategies in facilitation or challenging institutions’ practices. Firstly audiences can facilitate the British film industry by watching the films, through the different distribution channels for example on TV, from blockbuster or on the internet (legally) this is the audience facilitating the media institutions products. Other strategies include having a love film subscription or buying the DVD this is also reflected in other media institution such as magazines which also often have a tie in website to allow the audience to access the magazine in a different way. The main industry that is challenged by the audience is the gaming industry. This is where the community is taken very seriously by the developers, and often the developers will changes aspects of the game if there is a massive community outcry. And example of this is before Battlefield Bad company was released the developers announced that extra weapons would be available as payed downloadable content, but after a massive community outcry through gaming websites calling for a boycott of the DLC (downloadable content) and all the fans of the series spamming the DICE forums Dice actually changed the game so you could unlock these weapons. The gaming industry is hugely influenced by the audience challenging the institutions that create the games and without that the institutions would not be as successful because the reviews of the games would be bad and so the sales of the game will be far lower than if it was getting ‘rave’ reviews but this is also because Games are far more expensive than films at £40 each the audience want to invest in an enjoyable game and with the audience input this is more easily achieved. The challenging is mainly done on the internet and on the official developer’s site, mainly on forums and this is why all the film companies cannot be challenged: the audience does not know what they are getting from a film before they watch it or they will give away the plot. This results in audience challenging being done through the press i.e. the daily mail and not a community as a whole. Film makers only really have the viewership numbers and critic reviews to gauge the audience’s reaction on.
In conclusion there are many issues brought up by the media institutions need to target specific audiences and there are some specific things that need to be done to achieve the right targeting of the right audiences. For example creating the text for a specific audience, then using technology to finds out a more refined idea of the audience and then marketing appropriately subsequently the institution needs to distribute the text appropriately. And then if the institution meets the criteria then the film should not flop.
The first issue that is raised by the media institutions is audience its self. This is an issue as the media institution has to find the correct audience that the film is tailored to and then market the film to them appropriately. This can be difficult as if the film is marketed wrong then the film will flop as the wrong people will be informed of the film and the people who would watch the film will be insufficiently informed. An extreme example of this is to not market the next saw film on TV on a Saturday mornings, as all the children watch TV at that time, and all the people what would be interested in the trailer are probably hung over in bed. This would then result in fewer people knowing bout the film and thus less people watching the film as they do not know about it, and so the film will make less money. The first step in this is to correctly identify the target audience and then market the film appropriately.
The issue of target audience is also important in the creation of a film, if a film sticks to a certain type of audience then they are more likely to sell the film to that audience, so the wider the audience targeted then the better the film will sell better, for example in the UK Wallace and Gromit sells very well as it targets everyone, it entertains old to young, unlike Ali G, which has a 18-30 niche. Now because Wallace and Gromit has a larger target audience then the chances are that if it is a good film then it will sell better, as there are more people that will buy it. This also applies to age certificates; there is no point in having a film that is aimed at 14 year olds ending up with a 15 certificate. This also applies to the size of audiences; a film given a 18 will have a smaller audience
Another issue raised by the institutions is actually creating the media text for the specific audience, which is an overlap with the above paragraph. The institution must be careful to keep the film on the target audience as if it is marketed for teenagers, but ends up being aimed at 20+ then the film will not do as well as it has a slightly childish undertone to it.
A key issue is also the distribution of the film. The institution has to decide how the film will be distributed; will it be released in other languages? Will it be released in cinema multiplexes? Or will it go straight to DVD? And then when it comes to DVD release how will it be released? Through a distribution company like InDVD, or will the film producers use a more famous distributor? The distribution is an important issue that is raised by the British film industry. An example of this through a film called Yasmin the producer was Film 4 and I believe that they got the distribution completely wrong, they only released the film in small overseas cinemas and on the film 4 channel, the film was then released to DVD using InDVD as a distribution company the film never sold well because no one could get hold of the DVD or go to a cinema and see it. This resulted in the film being a flop. This can be avoided by using cinemas as a platform to get your film in the media spotlight and also to use more famous and well connected film distribution companies this will result in better DVD sales and hopefully the film will then not be a flop.
The media institution must also use the correct technologies to distribute their media texts an example of this is BLU-RAY films these are high definition films that run in 1080p (screen resolution) and so have a high visual and also it allows the film to be played in fully uncompressed 7.1 surround sound this technology is expensive and so the films brought out in BLU-RAY should be chosen carefully, for example a drama would benefit little from being in HD yet a Pixar film like WALL-E benefits massively as it is computer generated animation. An example of the British film industry using this technology is through freesat. This is free satellite TV which can support HD the BBC is using this and now many of its programs can also be viewed in HD this targets the more ‘tech savvy’. Another form of media is now also through 3G technology, for example on the iphone this is being utilized by game developers targeting wide audiences of commuters by creating games for the iphone. I believe that this technology could also be used to distribute phone magazines to the commuting audience. A way in which British film could improve the viewership is by putting their films on LOVEFILM.com which is an online film rental website. This would increase the viewership of the film and then the audience for the film comes to that film as it will be listed under the certain genre and also in specific lists i.e. action/adventure or family films. Another way for the British film makers to target the specific audiences is to use something like the BBC iplayer and for a fee the audience could gain online access to all the films made by that company.
Another view of the film producers using technology to facilitate a more accurate targeting of their audience is to use market research tools i.e internet viewer trackers to see what kind of people are watching the films i.e. on YouTube they can see how many people are watching the trailer, but they can also find out where that person lives, how old they are and what gender the person is. This information could then be used to market the film to the more specific audience. This tracking also occurs with Tesco club cards, LOVEFILM subscriptions and the 4OD catch-up service. The company could gather all this information and use it to refine what audience to market to.
An issue also raised by the media institutions is the audience strategies in facilitation or challenging institutions’ practices. Firstly audiences can facilitate the British film industry by watching the films, through the different distribution channels for example on TV, from blockbuster or on the internet (legally) this is the audience facilitating the media institutions products. Other strategies include having a love film subscription or buying the DVD this is also reflected in other media institution such as magazines which also often have a tie in website to allow the audience to access the magazine in a different way. The main industry that is challenged by the audience is the gaming industry. This is where the community is taken very seriously by the developers, and often the developers will changes aspects of the game if there is a massive community outcry. And example of this is before Battlefield Bad company was released the developers announced that extra weapons would be available as payed downloadable content, but after a massive community outcry through gaming websites calling for a boycott of the DLC (downloadable content) and all the fans of the series spamming the DICE forums Dice actually changed the game so you could unlock these weapons. The gaming industry is hugely influenced by the audience challenging the institutions that create the games and without that the institutions would not be as successful because the reviews of the games would be bad and so the sales of the game will be far lower than if it was getting ‘rave’ reviews but this is also because Games are far more expensive than films at £40 each the audience want to invest in an enjoyable game and with the audience input this is more easily achieved. The challenging is mainly done on the internet and on the official developer’s site, mainly on forums and this is why all the film companies cannot be challenged: the audience does not know what they are getting from a film before they watch it or they will give away the plot. This results in audience challenging being done through the press i.e. the daily mail and not a community as a whole. Film makers only really have the viewership numbers and critic reviews to gauge the audience’s reaction on.
In conclusion there are many issues brought up by the media institutions need to target specific audiences and there are some specific things that need to be done to achieve the right targeting of the right audiences. For example creating the text for a specific audience, then using technology to finds out a more refined idea of the audience and then marketing appropriately subsequently the institution needs to distribute the text appropriately. And then if the institution meets the criteria then the film should not flop.
Scrabble controversy
Recently there has been a large complain launched by parents buying their children scrabble on the DS on the grounds that it contains offensive language. The Daily mail jumped on this, like every other outrageous game related topic they can find. They use an example of the game having the word tit in it; this apparently is considered offensive to the children even though the word tit also means a small garden bird. The scrabble dictionary as many avid scrabble players know is rather extensive covering all words, why do parents not realise the children will be children, and if you give them a bunch of letters to play around wit the first thing they will do is see how rude they can make a sentence I remember playing scrabble for this reason entirely and; laughing my head off as I laid down some childish words, who hasn’t done something like this?. Countless angry parents have since written in to the daily mail about how the game developers can have the audacity to include words like balls tit and other mildly rude words. It’s not like the Ai is spelling c*%$ or f?@* continually. Another gripe brought up by the wonderful daily mail readership is 18 rated games a lady wrote in to say that she had bought her child an 18 rated game and was disgraced that the characters swore in it.
how protective do parents need to be, is this too far? why does the daily mail hate games?
how protective do parents need to be, is this too far? why does the daily mail hate games?
Monday, 16 February 2009
Podcast
yesterday tom Arch and I recorded our first podcast, at the moment we are having a few problems with bouncing the audi file and also finding a site that will host the file, but hopefully it will be sorted by the end of the week.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
filming update
Today my group filmed more of our coursework, we now have the beginning and the end of the opening to the film. The clips are in the process of being digitalized, and after what will hopefully be our final filming session tomorrow we can ged town to some editing.
Thursday, 22 January 2009
Coursework
This week we have been getting down to work on our courcework. 'we' being James Duddy, Bobbi Gosen and I. We have written the script, the synopsis, drawn the story boards, written up the costumes and planned the shooting dates; all this will be online soon, so please bear with me.
Thursday, 27 November 2008
essay for mrs francis
here is my most recent homework on "how is youth represented in skins"
How Is Youth Represented In Skins?
[I chose to write this essay on the first 10 minutes of the first episode of skins
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=F_6EHGLtuVc&feature=related ]
In skins youth is represented in a number of different ways. Firstly through the mise en scene of Tony’s room. His room is quite modern, like you would expect of a 17 year old. He also has a speaker system with his iPod connected and he has a bed cover with a naked man and woman on it. This represents youth in a modern way, as tony is up to date with style and technology. Youth is also represented through mise en scene in Sid’s room. Sid’s room is a mess with cloths everywhere and a used plate on his bedside table. This is representing youth as lazy and untidy. Tony’s sister is represents the rebellious side of youth. She arrives back at the house in the morning with loads of dark makeup on and sneaks back into the house. This is representing the cliche of the youth sneaking out of the house without parents consent.
The editing also represents youth in the way that the editor has used cross cuts to show each character doing a different thing in the morning, e.g nips tanning her legs and Jal practicing her musical instrument. The editor uses underpinning to show the reactions of the characters, which represents the youths reaction to ‘popping’ Sid’s ‘cherry’ which is of irritation or distain. This shows youth as sex conscious and sex driven. The editing Is also used to show the rush of Tony’s sister getting changed in the morning. This represents youth because she is pushing her limits, or cutting it fine as she could be discovered but she is displaying the classic youth trait of being rather nonchalant about it.
During the opening Tony exercises when he gets up, which is representing youth as being self conscious and prepared to do something about it, it also breaks a stereotype of laziness. Yet, a the stereotype of the ‘war at home’ between the parents and youth. It is shown through the way in which Tony unnecessarily winds up his dad by jumping out of the toilet door and claiming the lock is broken. Tony’s dad swears the whole time, yet the youth do not, and are more selective with the language they use. The colorful language used by the dad and not tony represents the fact that youth can be mature and not a carbon copy of the “father figure”
Tony appears to get the “1up” on his father by infuriating him so much yet the dad often appears in positions of power. This shows that whilst it may appear that Tony has the control, really he doesn't. In the extract the youths are portrayed as very social, they all have there phone near them as they sleep and they are all up for going to the party. Also at one point Tony has 3 calls on the line.
Another portrayal of youth that I noticed was of alternate lives. This is shown in Tony’s sister as she returns from her nights escapade, also this is shown in the muslim boy who’s phone rings during the prayers, he drinks and wants to have sex that night, thus showing that he has a dual identity as he would not be able to do such things if he was a devout Muslim. This seems to be consistent with Sid as his dad does not know what he gets up to during the parties.
Skins also portrays youth as being open about their sexuality. This is shown when maxi talks about his “big gay night out” and when Tony is talking about getting Sid laid at the party that night. It is also shown when Tony is looking at the woman changing across the road
Digetic and non digetic sound is used. An example of this is when Tony gets up and is working out. Rap music is played to portray the style of his life and how it pumps up the youth to do more energetic things. Another example of this is when tony is o the phone you can hear the conversation, without all the cross cutting, this portrays a more relaxed attitude that the youth seems to have. Also digetic sound is used when Tony turns his stereo on max volume to aggravate his dad heavy rock / thrash metal is played in the cliche of loud teenage screamo music
In conclusion through the characters, the mise en scene, the cinematography, the sound and the editing youth in skins is portrayed as being comfortable with their sexuality, self conscious, mischievous, sex obsessed, rebellious, modern socialites.
Thursday, 6 November 2008
africa+media
I spent the last two weeks in africa, so sorry about the lack of posts
in those two weeks i had some rather interesting media exposure.
Firstly i appeared on the kenyan "NTV" in a news report on the beauty of kena and lake Navasha. this is because of the presidential campaign for popularity and his policy if giving more money to the national parks
secondly on the 8 hour flight to and from kenya i watched many of the recent films and i would like to say a few words about each of them.
clover-field - an interesting film and i enjoyed the blair witch project style filming but the over half of the dialogue consisted of "ROB" or OH MY GOD" which gets rather infuriating after a while.
The hulk - this film i really enjoyed especially the special effects and the problems of being the the hulk made this film a compelling watch. this is a film that i believe would look awesome on blu-ray.
Iron man- again a good solid film, the elements of comedy were good and the fact that it didnt try to be gritty and real like the latest Batman really sold the film for me.
This is vegas- again another excellent film, the acting was great and there were some really good laughs it in
Get Smart- this film is on par with many ledgendary films such as anchorman and Dont Mess With the Zohan some of the scenes had me in fits of laughter, it actually brought tears to my eyes
finally i watched: Don't mess with the Zohan - this is now one of my favorite films but seriously not one to watch with the parents. there is a "moral" to the story but it is not rammed down your throat. if you are a fan on Adam Sandler films then this is possibly better that Happy Gilmore.
Wednesday, 1 October 2008
the internet
its a fascinating thing, but I bet you didn't know this:
the "surface" web is the part of the internet that the average surfer sees, i.e it appears on all the search engines. the size of the internet in 2000 was roughly 167 terabytes. (1 terabyte is 1,024 gigabytes)
But in contrast the "deep web" contains an estimated 91,000 terabytes these are websites that are private, only registered users can enter the deep web also includes sites not linked to search engines, or hyper-linked this is to prevent ''web crawling"
(source wikipedia)
this blew my mind when i found out the figures but it is interesting that most of the internet is hidden and unavailable to the public. People have started search engines that search the deep web, but it is far more difficult to sift through for information, this is because it also consists of documents, like e-books and large data bases.
below is a link to a deep web search engine, many other companies are attempting to harness the power of the deep web search.
http://www.closerlooksearch.com/index.aspx
today
In media studies we learnt about media institutions and how they create a text to convey a meaning to the audience. we also learnt about some examples i.e Richard Murdoch with sky, and the news papers he owns
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
my recent media exposure has been
wipeout pure which i bought from the psn store, damn good game in my opinion
also i have listened to much music on the bus and whilst doing homework.
and i went to a 'finance' talk in the careers library which seemed more like an advert than a talk about a career prospective...
also i have done some internet surfing, youtube, blogger (obviously) umm, facebook.... the usual
and i watched half of jarhead and all of were soldiers, which are two very different war films but they are both exceptional and well worth a watch!
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Hi guys this is just a post with some of my favorite youtube videos enjoy =]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt5P_zvE5qY this is a armstrong and miller classic sctech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwNQf08Kxsw this is another classic from these guys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4LifZpnT1c this is ruseel howard, he reguarly is on mock the week, pure comedy =]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGuYojcmZpI this is of takeshi's castle a halarious japanees gameshow, you have to watch to understand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt5P_zvE5qY this is a armstrong and miller classic sctech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwNQf08Kxsw this is another classic from these guys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4LifZpnT1c this is ruseel howard, he reguarly is on mock the week, pure comedy =]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGuYojcmZpI this is of takeshi's castle a halarious japanees gameshow, you have to watch to understand.
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
My Media Exposure Diary
thursday
4 40-5 30 muic, on the bus
7:00 8:30 music, msn, facebook
7:30- 8:30 battlefield bad company [ps3]
8:45 9:30 music [homework] msn, facebook
9:30 10:30 tv
friday
7:30 - 8:15 music walking the dog
4:40 - 5:30 music [homework] msn, facebook
7:00 - 9:30 battlefield bad company online, [ps3]
10:00 music at party
saturday
11:00 12:00 tv
5:00 7: 30 warhawk online, fracture demo, pure demo [ps3]
8:30 10:45 ocens 13 bly ray
10:50 12:450 ps nation podcast
sunday
10:00 1:00 battlefield bad company, cod5 official trailer
4:00 5:30 music- [homework] msn, facebook
6:00 7:00 scrubs
9:00 10:45 battlefield bad company online, super stardust HD, facebook, msn
monday
7:30 8:15 music on the bus
10:30 11:50 music in double free
12:50 1: 30 music in free
4:40 5:30 music on the bus
6:00 7:00 music [homweork]
8:00 10:30 battlefield bad company warhawk, msn, facebook
10:30 11:00 tv
11: 00 11:40 1up podcast
tuesday
7:30 8:15 music on the bus
4:40 5:30 music on the bus
6:00 6:30 tv
6:45 8:30 MGS4 got stuck =[
8:30 10:00 tv
10:00 10:30 sarcastic gamer podcast [homework]
my first note is that i have rounded up these times for ease of calculation.
From thursday to tuesday, i have spent
8 hours 10 minutes listening to music
4 hours 50 minutes on msn and facebook
13 hours on my playstation 3 =s
5 hours watching tv
2 hours 15 minutes watching a film
3 hours 10 minutes listening to podcasts
Well in conclusion to this invasive study, i have realized that i spend a LOT of time on my ps3, but in all fairness i have not had much homework to do this week but still, 13 hours is a very long time.... i have also realized that i do not spend as much time watching tv as i used to. and not as much time listening to music as i thought i did.
this has been an interesting experience as i never relised i spent so much time exposed to the media, i managed to rack up a grand total of roughly 38 hours and 35 minutes media exposure!
until next time, goodbye
Thursday, 11 September 2008
today (9/11/08)
had a good day in media studies today, we took photos displaying emotions.
I will post them soon!
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