Audience and Institution Practice Essay

           Question 1:  Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied.

   

     Marketing is very important to make a successful film. When making a film, marketing is needed to attract viewers and showcase what is coming out. The more effective the marketing strategies the more likely that the film will get viewers. The failure or success of marketing strategies has a large impact on how well the movie does.

    Film companies use many different approaches to help promote their products. Having a good marketing strategy makes people more likely to watch the movie. For example, Walt Disney, this company uses big promotion techniques to get viewers. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 used cross-promotion to promote the movie. The movie was targeted towards families and children. To get families interested they promoted the movie on the board game monopoly. If someone was going to buy the board game monopoly and it brought home, the kids would be more likely to want to watch the movie because they will see the movie cover whenever they play. Every time the family brings out the game or puts it back, the family would have to see the movie on top of the box. This creates enthusiasm for the film. Cross-media Convergence was also used for this film. Disney made ads with Dairy Queen to help promote the movie. As someone who has eaten at Dairy Queen, this type of promotion would make me more aware of the movie, and I would be more inclined to watch the movie. This encourages people to watch the movie because everywhere they look, they would see it. It is also in the back of their minds because they have seen a commercial or the promotion in the store. The target audience needs to be considered in the marketing. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast does a great job of knowing their audience. This movie needed some marketing because people already saw the original and they could watch it at home anytime they want, instead of going to the movie theater. They used synergy to promote the movie on ABC on the bachelor. They used people from the movie to host the bachelor edition. People get to know some of the actors that are going to in the movie and they might recognize someone they like which would make them want to watch the movie even more.

    Good marketing can lead to a successful film. The movie Jurassic World won two awards in 2015 and was the third-largest grossing movie of all time. The movie used cross-promotion to get reruns of older Jurassic Park movies. There were also sneak peeks of the movie on NBC. By doing this people were more interested and since the old movies were being played people were now caught up. This would make people want to watch the new movie. This type of marketing would attract new and old fans of the movies. One example of where marketing did not work well is the movie Ugly Dolls. The movie only made 8 million dollars on opening weekend. This movie had some marketing strategies, but the marketing did not work, so the overall movie was a flop. To start, the posters for the movie were dull, and most of them did not hint at what the movie was about. If someone were to see this, it probably would not attract them, and they would not think about it. Their target audience, children, usually like brighter colors to grab their attention. They also tried to use viral marketing, but it did not work. There was a website set up for a younger audience, however, not many people knew about the website, so the news did not spread around it. If the audience felt more involved when using the website, they would be more likely to tell their friends and family. Most of the movies I watch or go to see in the movie theater are recommended to me, so if the marketing is not good no one will talk about it. They had some good elements when it came to advertising, but it was not enough. Overall, it did not address the movie as much as it should. People need a good reason to go to see a movie, and the promotion usually creates that reason. In this case, it did not pique people’s interest, and the film did not do well. Without good marketing strategies, the promotions do not connect to the people. This shows that movies need effective marketing in order to be successful.

   Without effective marketing, a film cannot be a big success, if one knows it exists, then no one can talk about it. A film has to be marketed, so people learn what it is about, so they will be interested. If the marketing does not gain positive feedback, then the people who were going to watch it probably will not go.

24 Extract Practice

   The theme of the extract is that sometimes people have to whatever it takes to overcome evil. Throughout the extract, the detective uses various techniques to try to get information from the woman. The director is trying to convey is suspense. The director wanted the audience to be eager to keep on watching. The director uses small details to make the actions of the characters even greater.
   
    The first scene starts with a woman sitting in an interrogation room. The setting of the interrogation shows that the woman in the room is important because it sets up the storyline. The woman is holding some information, this makes viewers wonder what is going on and why she is there. This creates a feeling of suspense. When the man who is questioning her walks into the room there is a zoom to show the camera in the corner of the room. This zoom shot of the camera shows that there is someone is watching them. This makes the audience wonder why he is looking at it and why the camera being there would matter. The zoom also shows that the man may be planning to do something that he does not want anyone else to see. The close up of their faces emphasizes the tension between them, this shows that something big has happened or is going to happen. There is also a graphic match when the woman glance at a prop, the clock. The clock makes ticking sound just like a bomb would when it is counting down. It shows the amount of time they have left before the bomb is set off. This builds even more suspense because it means they are under a time constraint. The lighting in the room is dim. This sets the mood of the scene and reflects the overall feeling of the scene, making it mysterious. This gives off the feeling the woman has done something very bad. Throughout the scene, there is no dialogue between the characters, the score just starts to intensify. The music makes this even more suspenseful because it looks like it is going to lead to some big action.
 
  In the next scene, they have a dialogue. The dialogue between the two characters becomes intense and shows the tension between them. As the dialogue continues the detective gets frustrated. Viewers are left wondering how much time until something goes wrong. There is an over the shoulder shot during the dialogue from the woman’s point of view. This shows how angry he is towards her and the actions she has performed. The high angle of the detective demonstrates that he is the one in power and he is trying to get her to give him more information about the bomb. The shot-reverse-shot to the room and then to the officers outside shows how worried they are that something dangerous might happen in the room. During this the woman’s face is calm, this gives off the feeling that she has done this before and is a threat. This makes the viewers also think that something is going to happen, and this keeps them on their toes. They will continue to watch because they want to know what will happen next.

   The last scene is an action match of the detective running towards the woman and pushing her to the wall. The viewers are most likely surprised that it happened and are wondering if it is going to escalate. The diegetic sound of him breathing in deeply before pushing the woman lets the audience know that he was angry. The man hesitates because he knows he can get into trouble, but he risks it because he has to find out where the bomb is. The split-screen reveals what is happening in the integration room and what is happening on the outside. This demonstrates the chaos that was created. The officers and the defective on the outside did not think he would go that far. For the viewer, this makes them anxious because they are probably wondering if they will get there in enough time before the woman gets seriously hurt. During the split-screen, there is a tracking shot of the officer run towards the door to stop what is happening. The officer is in a hurry because he does not want anything to happen to the woman because she has some valuable information.
 
   This showed that in the end, people will do anything to overcome evil. The director’s vision was to create something suspenseful and would keep the audience wanting more. The director uses camera angles and movements, sounds, editing, and mis-en scene to show all of this.

CCR

This is the final CCR that I did. When I was filming the CCR I thought that it would be harder than the other project because there was a longer time requirement. We had to make the CCR 12 to 15 minutes but ended up making it 18 minutes long. After editing it down I was able to make it 14 minutes long. For most of the questions, I split them into two-part to answer them thoroughly. I wanted to make sure that I reflected on what I have learned from this class. When making the CCR I planned what I was going to say. I decided to make it an interview and I had my mom ask me the questions. With three other people in my house, it was kind to film because I wanted the background to be quiet. I didn’t want anyone to walk in the background. When I finally got to film the CCR I filmed for around 25 minutes because I had to restart two times. Overall, I feel that I got to say everything that I wanted. One thing I think I could have done better was the eye contact because my eyes would start to wonder sometimes. I decide to edit the same music we used in our movie for the background music of the CCR. I also added in some movie clips as examples of what I was talking about. I thought that it was easier to do the CCR on my own because I could reflect on my own thoughts. When doing the CCR with my group it was short and we could not meet the time limit. There was no organized plan, so no one knew what to say. When I did it feel that I was able to show what I learned and say what I learn about this entire process. I had a fun time making this a showing what I have learned.

Final Task

This is our final movie, Operation T.N.T. I was an actor and I play a kidnapper and one of the friends. This time when we were making this film, we were more organized. We planned out our filming days, and what scenes we were going to film. We filmed at two different locations. The first time we were filming went great, but we ran into a slight problem with the second location. Originally, we planned to film at the Broward College Library. However, they closed it due to the COVID-19. All our backups were also closed. We came up with a quick plan and found a library to film at. For the project, we were not able to edit together so one of us edited it at home. We texted each other to try to help when Rejoice was editing. When it was being edited, we realized it was too long. Some of the scenes had to be sped up some we could meet the time requirement. When looking back at the at our storyboard I noticed that it was too much, and the film would be too long. I am glad that we took out some of the parts because it would make the storyline unorganized. The group has gotten better at the filming process. When filming the movie, I felt more relaxed and natural in front of the camera. We were able to film our movie much faster because we knew how to use the equipment. Having done our other project made this project much easier and we have really improved.

Music video

This was the second project my group and I worked on. Since we did this project right after the commercial we were more familiar with the equipment. When we were doing the music video we ran into some problems. We were supposed to all film the music video together on the same day. However, we were not able to schedule on the same day. We decided that we would split up the parts we do. I did the scenes with the popcorn and some others. While Sabrina shot most of the other scenes. Rejoice was one the one that edited all of our parts together. We were able to put everything in the right order and make it look. Our music video could have been better and more organized. This showed us that have a backup plan is important. For this music video, we didn’t really have a backup plan so when it came time to film we could not find a time we could all meet. Making the music video showed us how to plan in detail. Working on this project improved my production skilled a lot from the time of the commercial. I learned a lot of new things about the filming process. There is a new camera movement I learned how to do from making this video. Doing this helped me when I was doing my final task. This also showed us that we need to learn how to time manage and schedule better. When planning the final task we were way more prepared.  

Commerical

      This is the very first project my group and I did for this class. This commercial was shot at our school since it was our very first project. We first started out with learning about the equipment and how to take care of it. We learned how to operate the camera and how to use a editing software. We had many different options when it came time to choose what kind of commercial, we should make. We decided to make a commercial about Fort Lauderdale High School. This commercial was about informing people about our school. We wanted to show the kind of programs that are offered at our school. I was the main actress and I wore a Fort Lauderdale High School shirt to match the commercial. In the video, we did not speak because we decided to so a voiceover. In the voiceover, I spoke about the buildings and what classes are typically in them. When we were filming, we had to get use to the equipment since it was our first time using it. It took us some time to get the camera set up and make sure everything was working correctly. This helped us to get our first experience at filming. We were able to learn how to actually film some shots. Looking back at this commercial I feel like we could have done better. However, since this was my first time filming that was to be expected. I feel that is commercial has helped me improved my production skills. This commercial shows how far I have come with my production skills. Through filming this commercial we were able to learn how to handle the equipment.

Filming Blog: Final Day Filming

On Tuesday we shot our last scenes of the film. We were able to film in the second location we had planned. We filmed the camera movement and camera shots we were missing. For these scenes, I played one of the friends. I was the one friend who went on a search for information on how to find the missing friend. At first, we considered using the computer as part of the research. The room that we were using was not that big so we would not be able to capture the scene the way we wanted to. There were also a lot of books that we had planned to use as props on the table, but it was better if we did not use them to make the scene look better. We decided to use library books since we were already in the library. The only difficult part of that scene was trying to figure out how I should position myself so Rejoice could get the shot. We did not want to film anyone next to us or make it awkward. We just decided to move to another section. I had to run out the door for that scene to make our action match and it turned out great. The other scene that was filmed was the phone scene. We used my phone since it was the only one that would be able to show the text message without anyone having to touch it. The scene was easy to film because it just involved sending a text and no one had to act. After we finished filming we looked at all the scenes and looked if the sound was okay. We wanted to make sure we did not miss anything. I am happy that we are finally done filming. All we have to do now is edit the movie and then it is done.