'A Field In England' Ben Wheatley

a) How was this film released? (In what way, on what platforms)
It was released on DVD, Blu-Ray, Video on Demand, Cinema and Field Cinema 

b) Why was it released in this way?
Each platform provided different benefits 

c) What are the advantages of this method of release? 
DVD can viewers can dive into various extra features, Film4 is broadcasting the with an introduction and interview with the director and VoD viewers can catch up on what they missed.

d) What are the possible disadvantages of this method of release? 
It could mean that it affects how much they would have made in cinemas 

e) Why does this method of release suit a smaller, more niche and independent style of film, rather than a mass market, major studio, mainstream blockbuster?

Synergy task

Synergy is when two things work together to benefit themselves.
One example of synergy is that Ben Wheatley's film season is shown on film4 before they released 'A Field in England'. This benefits Ben Wheatley and al his previous films before 'A Field in England' as well as promoting film4 as it would increase the number of audience viewers.

Another example of synergy is that the character of Bond, Daniel Craig, featured in a Heineken advert in the style of the Bond movie and he also wears a Rolex. This benefits both the new films Spectre and it also promotes Heineken so they both work together to promote each other as they are both popular.

Merlin extract - Class Representation

One way in which editing is used to portray Merlin as lower/working class is through the use of fast paced editing during the fight between Merlin and Arthur. The editing technique makes Merlin look unskilled with the weapon and uncontrolled, almost like he doesn't know what he is doing. Arthur swings at Merlin with the weapon and it goes into slow motion which is contrasted to Merlin a he is skilled and knows what he is doing. This shows that Merlin is uneducated to use weapons and fits with the lower class representation.

Distribution Questions

1) How many of the 'Big Six' studios also own distribution companies? 

- All of the six majors also known as the 'Big Six' have their own distribution companies in the uk. 

2) Have a look at the new releases in UK Cinemas this week and see if you can work out what the following distribution terms mean, and find one example of a film released 

a) Limited - select number of cinemas 
b) Key Cities - major cities cinema release 
c) Wide - majority of cinemas but not all, all parts of the country
d) Saturation - large scale release across the majority of cinemas 

3) Now have a look here, and see if you can find out what these more complicated distribution strategies are:
e) Platform Release - releasing the film within 2-3 steps, firstly releasing in 10-20 screens then stepping up to 500+ screens

f) Non-Theatrical - releasing the film straight to DVD. 

4) What is interesting or different about the release of the following films?:

• Veronica Mars- released 
• A Field In England
• Frank

Social Class Article

The article refers to the different classes as having the 'Seven Deadly Sins'

One being how you talk which is referred to as being the "U and Non U".

For example: 

A lower class person is more likely to say "pardon?" whereas a higher class is more likely to say "sorry?" or "what?"

However, if a lower class person were to say "what?" They would initially drop the 't' to make it sound like "wha?"

Another word is 'toilet', upper class people are more likely to say "loo" or "lavatory" whereas a lower/middle class person is more likely to say "gents" or "ladies" or just call it a "toilet" or a "bathroom".

Another word is 'napkin', most upper class people would refer to it as a "serviette" whereas a lower class person is likely to say "napkin" 

Another big term used is 'dinner' or 'tea' 

Tea is usually around 4o'clock after lunch when you have scones and tea. Upper class people refer to dinner as 'supper'.

 

Exam Question

"Evaluate the role of Digital Technologies in the marketing and consumption of products in the media area you have studied" 

Digital technologies play an increasingly important role in the distribution, marketing and consumption of media products in the film industry. One film that has fully utilised modern digital technologies and taken advantage of technological convergence is Disney's Star Wars: The Force Awakens. One example of this is the official star wars app on android and iPhone which allows you to purchase tickets for the films,  make yourself into a star wars character, access the trailer, has links to the social media sites and allows other fans to comment and like things. 

Another prime example is the social media sites such as Facebook, twitter and Instagram which allows fans to follow the pages and post in to them adding their experiences with star wars movies, games etc and allow fan to interact with other fans by sharing and using hashtags so everyone who clicks on that hashtag can see what you think of star wars. 
The current twitter page has 1.71m followers which tells us that it is very popular and is successful in interacting the audiences. 



Another main example of digital technologies is the youtube channel which releases different versions of the trailer, the original trailer and a video of the actors surprising the fans over webcam, this interacts with the audience and the fans as it allows them to see the actual actors in star wars speaking to the fans. And also shows the actors having interviews and allows the fans to have an insight on what goes on backstage. 

British Class System

Indie Film Marketing Research

For my research I chose to look at the documentary film 'Amy'. 'Amy' was produced by 'On the Corner Films' and was distributed by 'Altitude Film Distribution'. The documentary film was released in 2015 and was aimed at her life and the tragic ending to it.

The marketing was organised by a lady called Lia Devlin who made sure that every route they took positioned the film as a mainstream event rather than a niche film release. This included a teaser campaign which made headlines around the world to a publicity campaign managed by the agency 'Organic'.

The official poster designed by a company called 'Wonderland' won best poster campaign three times in a row as well as the documentary campaign and the trailer. The trailer was made up of clips from the film which consisted of Amy talking about how she felt about depression and her fame which is one of the main reasons head of Altitude Film Distribution, Hamish Moseley thinks it was such a big hit in the box office. Since the film has been released, it has reached a worldwide hit of $8,390,554. 

'Hustle' Gender Representation

How does camera, mise-en-scene, editing and soundtrack represent gender?

One way in which the soundtrack represents gender in this extract is that it presents women as being very manipulative. This is shown when the lady loses her ring and she is frantically listing chores for the owner of the shop to complete for her. The dialogue she uses also shows she is very bossy, for example she says "i need an entire shop search" and "call me as soon as you find it". This is going against the representation that men are the demanding ones as the lady is shown as very demanding and manipulative. This also shows that she is overreacting and being hysterically irrational.

The young lady in the shop is also being shown as being very judgemental which can be shown when there is a cutaway from the conversation between David Walliams character and the other lady in the shop. The young lady's facial expression in the cutaway shows that she is almost looking down on the other lady as she is unable to pay for the expensive dress. However, this could also show that she is being sympathetic. Both the judgemental and sympathetic attitude support gender stereotypes about women.

Throughout the extract there are various cross cuts. The cross cut between the dress shop and the gentlemen's club is shown when David Walliams' character skips off excitedly when he has found out that the lady will purchase the 3,000 pound dress.  As he exits the scene there is a wipe which is followed by the cross cut to the club. This shows a strong juxtaposition between a stereotypical female environment and a male environment and also presents David Walliams as being quite flamboyant which is counter stereotype of men. The female environment in the shop is very light and glamorous whereas the club is very dark colours and they are all smoking and drinking.

Lenny Henry

- He believes there is slow change and effort being made to show how black/asian actors are being portrayed withing the media.

- Broadcasters should widen what they put on television so it fits all ethnically different people

- There is only a small percentage of  black and asian actors within the media and there should be more

- He thinks that producers should include and produce more racially diverse television programmes that include actors from different ethnicities and backgrounds.

Star Wars Case Study

It is estimated that there is a production budget of $200m, with a further $243m spent on marketing, distribution, and distribution & marketing of digital, dvd, & blu ray.
Marketing products such as an app and an uprising game which is supposed to 'fill the gaps' between episode 6 and the new release of 7. This is a significant moment for mobile gaming, which until recently has more often been a source of licensing dollars rather than new stories for the franchise.

The Uprising gaming app designed for Android and iOS is a feature for closing the gap between the recent star wars, Return of the Jedi and the new soon to be released Star Wars, Force Awakens. It has been a massive hit with the fandom due to the wait between episode 6 and 7.  

The themes of this app consists of allowing you to design your own theme within the app, connecting with others around the world which i believe is a very important factor as it allows the audience and the fans to be very proactive within the fandom. This also allows people to unlock characters the more they play the game and has pop up notifications within the app to release updated events and news to do with star wars. 

It also has a live countdown to the release of the new star wars film, the force awakens.

Approximately $3 billion a year is spent on producing merchandise and licensed clothing to promote the films of Star Wars. Disneyworld has made a new Star Wars area in the theme park. 

Desperate Housewives Stereotypes

Susan Mayor - a divorced mother with a sense of humour for drama and in search for love. Represented by a damsel in distress who can't handle anything and is stressed and needs to be relieved by a hero. This suggests that women are disorganised and rely on men.

Lynette Svaco - a former business woman turned stress out stay at home mum of 4. Represented by the Earth mother who is full of abundance and fertility and is shown drowning in the large amount of children she has. This implies that women are irrational and can't handle anything alone.

Bree Van De Kemp - the seemingly perfect mother struggling to save her marriage.  Represented by the temptress who physically attractive and brings out their downfall. This shows that women are being treated as objects who can be replaced easily by the man.

Gabrielle Solis - an ex model whose unhappy marriage leads to an affair with the gardener. Represented by the unfaithful wife who sees a dull or distant future with her husband. This shows that women are being shown as unfaithful and disloyal.

Gender Represntations

Emotional	Prudent	Co-operative
Community minded	Compliant	Rational
Efficient	Competitive	Individualistic
Ruthless	Submissive	Sensitive
Dependent	Independent	Demure
Controlling	Confident	Strong
Ambitious	Aggressive	Assertive
Selfish	Selfless	Domesticated
Violent	Powerful	Competent

Cultural Hegemony

cultural hegemony describes the domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class, who manipulate the culture of that society — the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores — so that their ruling-class worldview becomes the worldview that is imposed and accepted as the cultural norm; as the universally valid dominant ideology that justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural, inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class. 

Hotel Babylon - Mise-en-Scéne

One way in which Mise-en-Scéne is used to present race is through the use of props. When Ibrahim has been captured the rest of the employees pack away his stuff including his uniform and photos of his family. The way that Jackie is packing away the photos of his family represents the fact that he now has no one and everything has been left behind including his other family who he worked with. This makes us sympathise with Ibrahim and the others as they have lost a part of their team. 

Moreover, when Jackie and the rest of the hiding employees run out to try and convince the immigration officer to let Ibrahim go the hotel manager calls Jackie's name and uses her body language to signal her to move the immigrants along as if she is brushing away like dirt. This again makes us realise who is on the side of the white people and makes us sympathise with the illegal immigrants as they are being treated extremely badly and unfairly. 

When the camera moves towards the prop, the hoover after Ibrahim has been taken away it shows that it is a symbol of Ibrahim and who he is, which is a cleaner. This also shows that he's not classed as much, the white immigration official steps over the hoover as if it is small and weak like Ibrahim. Which tells the audience that he is socially inferior and lower than the rest. 

Finally, another use of Mise-en-Scéne that the director has chosen is when Jackie locks the door and there is a close up of the key turning. This shows that the illegal immigrants are trapped and can't escape which again, makes us sympathise with the employees. The immigrants are all on the bottom floor whereas the legal employers are all on the top floor which creates a literal form of superiority against inferiority between the immigrants and the non immigrants. This makes the audience realise who is classes as a higher status and who is not, they also have to hide and can't be seen which shows that they are always on the edge of being taken away and have to be careful. 

Love Thy Neighbour

In Love Thy Neighbour episode 1 series 6, the main white protagonist gets the privilege of shaking a man’s hand who is part of the government and says that he will “never wash this hand for as long as I live”. He then goes off to the next door neighbour to tell him to take his poster of the tory down but mistakes his hand gesture as anteing to shake his so he reacts by his touch ad says “you’ve contaminated my hand” suggesting that the black man is unclean and unhygienic. This implies that the white man thinks he is superior in contrast to the black man and that the white man is more socially acceptable than the black man.

The two protagonists also end up having an argument about the posters and the white man says “you tar brush tory”. By using the word ‘tar’ he has used a common racial offence which was used mostly in America when a lot of racial movements and groups were arising and ended around the mid-1970s. This suggests that the white man, again, feels socially superior against the black man and feels he can use racial terms to associate him with.

These factors show how racism was being portrayed in media and shows how the white man has always been represented as being the one higher up than the black person. White people have been represented as ungrateful and racist and ones who always put themselves higher than anybody else, especially black people, and black people have been represented as week and socially inferior towards the white people. Both races have a stereotype against them. 

Warner Brothers Case Study

Warner Brothers was founded in 1923 and is an American entertainment company that produces film, television and music. As one of the major film productions it is an addition to Time Warner and its headquarters are based in Burbank, California. The top grossing film that Warner Brothers has produced is the Dark Knight which was released in 2008 reaching $534,967,645. Its 5^th most grossing film was Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone which reached $317,575,550. Its total income for 2014 was $12.526 billion.

 The Dark Knight: Action, Drama, Crime Released on 18th July 2008 (USA) IMDB rating: 9.0 Gross (opening weekend) in the UK and USA: $158,411,483 (USA) (20 July 2008) (4,366 Screens) £11,191,824 (UK) (27 July 2008) (502 Screens) Total Gross by 2012: $534,858,444

Race and Ethnicity

Saturday Night Fever Exam Feedback

T: 4/10 Some terminology used but inaccuracies
Ex: 12/20 Range of examples from at least three areas mostly relevant
EAA: 11/20 Basic understanding of how technical aspects construct representations
                Try and write about representations created rather than narrative. Cover all four areas and revise editing.

Feedback from the Continuity Editing Video

Looking back at our video we decided that overall the video needs to have in-between cuts between the actions made by the characters, for example, when Sophie is walking down the stairs side on, she goes to walking facing forward without any in-between cut. The match on actions made in the video turned out very successful, you can see these match on actions when Hollie is walking out of the door frame and the camera moves on to an over the shoulder shot. You can also see a match on action when Hollie drops the box and the camera cuts to a closer shot of the box falling on to the floor. Another improvement that we could have made was trying not to disobey the 180 degree rule, this happens when Hollie does a roll and the camera is looking down at the two characters and also when the box is kicked to Sophie, whilst editing we had to reverse the frame to make sure that the 180 degree rule worked.

City Of God opening extract

 In the opening of the 'City Of God' extract the director has chosen to use fast paced editing throughout the whole of the opening, especially the beginning when the knife is being sharpened and is slicing through the frame. By doing this it emphasises and reflects the pace of the protagonists life is fast and dangerous and something could happen at any moment of his life and there is violence and nose around him at all times.

Another use of editing the director has chosen is the eyeliner match of the chickens eyes from him looking at the pot to the feathers being plucked to the feathers on the floor and then onto the chickens eyes again. This makes us feel sympathetic towards the chicken as we know exactly how he is feeling, that he is panicking because he knows he's next in the pot.

Furthermore, another edit the director has chosen is the cross-cutting between the two boys walking and the chicken chase. By doing this the audience are aware that the two groups will meet later on in the sequence and this also shows that the antagonist chasing the chicken is after not only the chicken but he's also after the protagonist. This foreshadows the chickens life with the protagonists life as he is surrounded by danger too.

A shot reverse shot is also used at the end of the extract when the protagonist is in the middle of both the police and the group of antagonists chasing the chicken which emphasises his surroundings and shows the audience what he has had to put up with all his life and the two sides he's against or stuck between. he has in choice and he feels separate and wants to escape from a dark future ahead of him.

Horror Movie Poster

This is my horror movie poster which was created using photoshop. to edit this image which was originally in colour, i made it black and white then changed the brightness up and the contrast up to create the dark and bright effect in the eyes and on the face.

Continuity Editing Video Plan

Narrative:
Two characters meet in a cafe to exchange a mysterious parcel who are oblivious of the fact that someone is taping them.

Characters:
Two secret spies. (Sophie and Hollie)

Costume:
Black hoodie, sunglasses

Props:
small box and tape

Shot list:
close up
dolly zoom
high angle
medium shot
two shot
tracking shot

Camera Movements Video

Casino Royale - Mise-En-Scene

In this scene, the key light on Bond is directly on him defining his muscles on his torso and his biceps which looks like an artificial light coming from the lantern. This created shadow on his back and as there is no fill light it creates a bigger shadow on side of the room which is on the left of the frame. However, there is back slatted light as it looks like it is coming through the floorboards exposing the mysterious and almost dangerous looking background, this light            looks quite natural so there is a contrast between the two article and natural lighting. There is also a smaller lantern on the back wall revealing the dangerous objects like the chains.

The setting looks very mysterious and gloomy it almost looks like he is in a basement or underground somewhere which the slatted light emphasises. the props that are used makes the scene look very dangerous and quite scary as there are chains and ropes and the man who has tied up Bond is holding a whip of some sort. the floor and the walls look like they are deteriorating which shows a sign of neglect and abandonment.
Props used in this scene are dangerous looking objects such as ropes, chains and whips. This reveals a sense of torture as Bond is tied up to a chair. This creates quite a nerve shattering, 'on edge' feel to the scene.
The body language of the two characters reveals their emotion, the man standing over Bond looks confident in the way that he is standing and presenting himself. He is making himself in control of this situation whereas Bond, is tied up and cant move is vulnerable, he has his head down which shows he may even be quite scared and frightened about what is going to happen to him.
The costume hasn't got much to it as Bond is wearing nothing which also adds to the point that he is feeling vulnerable and unprotected physically and mentally. The man on the other hand is wearing a suit which shows he is someone who is maybe high in power to Bond maybe another secret agent who is on the opposing side to Bond.