Audience and Institution Practice Essay

Area: Film

Question: 'Nowadays, everybody consumes media texts in the same way.' Discuss with reference to the media are you have studied.

‘Nowadays, everybody consumes media text in the same way” in the film world this is very much true statement. From the rise of use on social media to the marketing schemes used, people are more likely to see the same things. Or for a more specific group, certain promotions are created differently for different groups to accept or be interested in the film. 

Cross promotion is used massively in this aspect. “Black panther” was based on a hidden city with futuristic elements such as extremely cool cars and vibranium, Lexus later on came out with the Lexus LS 500 while promoting the movie. Viewers now see this as their moment to upgrade their car and live in the moment from the movie. In a way both companies (Walt Disney Pictures Motion Studios and LEXUS) profited off of this moment using the best marketing scheme needed to get their viewers interested in the future. “The LEGO Movie” created by Warner Bros. and Burger King both benefited when “Burger king” sold meals and gave out LEGOLAND coupons. Young consumers were interested in the fact that they were able to be a part of the Lego movie by going to Legoland and eating food at the same time. 

Cross media convergence is used for the audience to understand media text as well. Before “Furious 7” was released we were aware of Paul Walker's death. The song “see you again” was then released with the trailer of the movie. That signifies that the movie was not only about fast cars but also about heartbreak. When the song was released, people instantly got hooked to the song including myself. The song made the trailer more appealing and with the trailer being more appealing, it brought in more viewers. Another soundtrack that brought everyone together was The Lion King Soundtrack by Queen Beyoncé that promoted the new and improved version of the Lion king. Now, many older people love Beyoncé and the youth love The Lion king movie. With the hit song “Spirit”, Beyoncé was able to spread the message that “your destiny is close” as a way for it to correlate with Simba finding himself. 

There are many times in movies, when one does not exactly understand the meaning behind certain text however, cross promotion and cross media convergence brings accessibility. With some of the highest grossing films being connected to other promotion materials, there is a win on both ends. To add on, you are attracting viewers with different techniques to understand the film better.

Game of Throne Extract Essay

For the Game of Thrones extract, the theme was pretty self explanatory. It was a mysterious scene with Lord Stannis and his “Wingman” on a journey. There was no word said on the ship, but the look on their face emphasizes that something was about to happen. The conversations held before and after they were approached by the three men sets the atmosphere that there is animosity. With that strong hostility of different views the wing man is trying to influence them on believing in his partner but we don't know what will happen next. To visualize it better, the establishing scene was set. It was Lord Stannis and his wingman on his ship heading to their desired location. There was an Aerial shot taken as the ship was crossing a territory which can be seen as high angle. An eyeline match occurred. In this scene, the other object was a person, the wingman stared at lord Stannis and lord stannis stared back at the wingman. A shot reverse shot also occurred, the wing man was going back and forth with one of the three men. Sound wise, Diegetic and non-diegetic sound could be heard. The diegetic sound was heard because of the workers' loud movements and the background music all being heard at once. Non diegetic sounds were heard once every footstep was made and when the door door opened. Mise-en-scene essence included costume and lighting. The costumes included a lot of long and heavy clothing that was dark. The lighting had an overbearing amount of cool colors.the dull blue and green with brown and other shadowy colors brought the dullness into the scene. 

CCR III

CCR II

Opening Sequence CCR

Before creating the Creative Critical Reflection, I wrote the questions out. I opened up a document and fully understood and answered every question to the best of my ability. This process took forever but so was my journey. After completing the writing portion I had the perfect idea to do a talk show. Because I’m an only child, no one else was around to join so I was the host and the guest. I decided to make my mom record me as the host first. In those scenes, I asked the questions that were needed. After that I was recorded answering the questions. In some portions of the video, I was looking at my laptop screen. That is because I became a little forgetful after doing so much recording. I later on realized I need to stop looking on the screen. I started to answer the question at the top of my head for the sake of a good quality interview. After recording, I realized I answered every question just like how I wrote down. To make the video better, I added an intro and outro like Youtubers. I realized that I actually like recording myself and talking into the camera. I found joy in editing for the first time as well. I also added examples to spice up the video. I did so, so that the viewers could enjoy watching the video and show that I know what I’m talking about. Making a twelve minute video  was new for me but I believe I found a new hobby. Because of these projects, I believe I will take filming and editing more seriously. 

The next two blogs are part two and three of the blog. 

Third Project: Opening Sequence

Creating the opening sequence was definitely a challenge. We had to create a pitch that we all liked. We chose to do a suspense/horror film. Luckily, in the start of the year we did a PowerPoint on the genre so I had prior knowledge. The story board was another story. There were 10 pages to do and it really made us think. We knew it had to match up with our film so it took a while. It also had to correlate with the location. The day of filming, we lost a member and gained three other members. We all met up at the library and I gave everyone a run down on the script.  There were times when we would be in the middle of film and stop just to make sure we were following the storyboard. That was because I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted to be captured from a different camera angle. Which meant a lot of takes and improvisation. Everything was filmed on my phone so all I had to do was airdrop everything on my laptop. When home, I converted every video into MP4. I placed all the videos in and later on realized we had to re-film. We did do it but it was in the middle of the pandemic so we didn’t get the outcome we were expecting. I decided to tweak the video that was not up to par for us and tried to make it work. I added the necessary title and sound. In the end, the final project was finalized and matched up with our very amateur expectation. 

Second Project: Music Video

The second project was a music video. In this music video there was a lot of confusion. At first a Christmas song was chosen because the holiday was approaching. I thought a less traditional song would be better though. I pitched the idea to the group and they actually agreed. We chose “No Fear” by Dej Loaf. Research on the genre was done of course. Due to the fact that it was a hip hop/ RNB song, it wasn’t a hard project to complete. The genre is very common and accommodating. The Mis-en-scene element such as clothing is an everyday attire for today’s teenagers. We chose to film on the beach because it gave the carefree feeling we wanted to express in the video. Creating the story board was simple as well. We drew a sign where we would be singing in the car. We tried to do that scene, however it wasn’t working out. We later on just decided to do everything on the beach. We didn't film the day we wanted because of miscommunication. Because we don’t want to mess the other member’s schedule up, we filmed on a school afternoon. Brandon recorded while namya and I acted. After filming the only difficult thing was matching up the song with the video. This was my first time editing on IMovie and that’s when I realized it was an easier program to use.