Question 4
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
New media technologies have transformed over the last 50 years, this transformation has brought benefits to both society in general and the film industry. One of the main processes for new technological development is digitalisation – where platforms are broken down into binary codes, this is where we start to see a shift from analog to digital systems. New media technologies is demonstrating a few trends, one of which is miniturisation. Miniturisation is where new media platforms start to decrease in size and connect to each other. For example in the late 70s people used to carry large cassettes to play music, it then decreased in size with the likes of the Sony Walkman in the 80s and 90s. In the early 2000s music players become even small Eg Ipod nano. However, you could infer that home cinema is getting bigger. TV’s are now 50 inch plus.
There was also other trends, especially in portability. New technologies has now become multi functional. A key example would be the mobile phone. In the past you would need a music player/CDs/DVDs/portable camera/camcorders/buy games from shops/ use computer for surfing internet. BUT! It has all come into one format. The mobile phone is a multi functioning device. It has allowed society to take pictures, watch film, video, play games whenever and wherever they like.
New media technology has also created synergy and convergence. Synergy in my own words is where concepts become more interconnected, analog systems were all separate but have now all come into one (mentioned above). Synergy has benefited the film industry as one concept can go across different plat forms. For instance, the Star Wars franchise has the film, game, soundtrack, toys, spin off shows and much more. As a result, this enables the film industry to cross advertise by using one of many concepts. (briefly said above) convergence is where platforms are coming together (again its the process of miniturisation – these two have almost the same meaning), the phone is an example of convergence which has been broken down to digital code (binary, coding/decoding) to make our lives a lot easier.
Impacts on media industries/audiences?
Production – has made making films a lot easier with the likes of cheaper and more accessible equipment. For example, YouTube streaming and making videos with little or no cost and cheap cameras.
Distribution – has allowed film industries to use social media for viral advertising – where people share and tell over via word or mouth, thus raising awareness to different audiences.
Exhibition – cinemas can now project films digitally and can screen things using satellite – cinemas no longer require large projections of film it is all done on one disc.
Advantages
- Films now have alternate revenue streams
- Easier to make films – cheap equipment
- YouTube, Netflix and Amazon makes it easier to distribute films and for audiences to view them
- Social media – viral advertising at low/minimal cost Eg Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
- has enabled people to become more creative Eg with special effect, animation and arts etc
Disadvantages
- Piracy has become easier – the film industry has lost control of its products and money
- Streaming things illegally – cinemas revenue declining as less people watching
- However, new media technologies has made people become more lazy as they expect the tech to do it for them – WE GET TO COMFORTABLE AND START TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT !!!!!!!!!
Over the course of my Advanced Production, I had used many forms of media technologies Eg phone, camera and social media platforms like Whatsapp, prezzi and Facebook. Seen as the last Evaluation question is about how we used media technology in the construction of research, planning and evaluation. I thought that it would be quite cool to use technology to answer a question about technology. Here is our video:
Evaluation Question 3
Why is audience feedback important in the media?
Throughout out “Advanced Production”, obtaining feedback from audience/peers has been something that i’ve used the whole way through my Media coursework. The feed back as helped me to understand where I have gone wrong and what I need to do to improve. As a result, this has enabled me to perfect my work to the best of my ability. I had applied the same concept of getting peoples opinions with our short film and both ancillary texts (Poster and Little White Lies review).
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Understanding audience behaviours has allowed us as a group to come up with an appropriate certificate rating for our short film (most of information has been mentioned in previous posts). The certificate rating we went for was 12a, which is seen as THE most popular age rating certificate filmmakers try to get into, they will do what it takes to get into that age category. The simple reason is because the 12a certificate has the biggest target audience. This is because, not only that the BBFC advise you to be 12 to watch the film but due to the “a”(adult) it means that parents can take their children below the age of 12 to watch that particular film, therefore generate more revenue for the film. Audience feedback for the film industry is even more essential, block buster films like Star Wars, Hunger Games and Harry Potter all go through a series of audience feedback for example, they would look at what the critics have said seen as they have direct access to the film before the general public, filmmakers would use focus groups, public consultations and many more. The film industry must take audience feedback seriously because if they don’t then they are in for an upset when the film is released, as they have not taken into account what their desired audience has said. It also requires heavy investment in the techniques they used to get audience feedback.
The demographics for my overall target audience are ages 12-25 but the film is targeted at teenagers, therefore the main target audience are ages 14-18. This is because we thought that at this age they would be able to cope with the typical horror film and not be scared after viewing it.
The social class levels for our short film would range between D to B. This is professional jobs such as teachers, police officers or admin staff. Then semi and unskilled manual jobs for instance manufacturing, production line jobs or cleaning etc.
In terms of the income level, we wanted our short film to appeal to middle class and working class people. From the research that i found, it said that the majority of UK’s population is middle class and working class. Their income levels range between £22,000-£45,000. Therefore, they are more wiling to go out and watch our short film.
It is important to focus on demographics but when it comes to marketing our short film to desired target audiences I had to carefully consider their psychographics as it divides the market into social class, lifestyle, personality and characteristics. The Scourge is a mainstream short film but it also appeals to explorers. These are people who seek discovery, energy, individualism, adventure and experience – typically young teenagers. This is in relation to our short film as it is fast paced, energetic and builds suspense, leading to the jump scare scene and it matches my desired target audience.
In relation to the uses and gratifications theory, it states that audiences play and active role in getting pleasure out of viewing different forms of media. One reason they might watch “The Scourge” is because of escapism. It temporarily allows the audience to forget about mundane life. This means the audience will be hooked with The Scourges interesting story line.
Feedback on my poster
(Here is the link to my questionnaire that i created – https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeH7f0WD7cAQf907jncZ3eAVBSrN8_MRZ4356EbU2cYu8NOtw/viewform)
One of the software’s that I had used in order to get audience feedback was Google forums. With this software you can plan events, make a survey or poll, give students a quiz, or collect other information in an easy way. The method that I had decided to use into order to get feedback was through social media. When I created the survey I had sent it out to at least 15 people who are apart of my desired target audience. Getting this feedback it vital as it would enable me to improve my final media product. Here are some of my findings:
The feedback to me as an individual and our group was very useful because it allowed me to find out what other people thought of my poster, what was good about it, what isn’t good about it and what could be improved. By taking on board the feedback, it would help me to make my poster more visually pleasing thus attracting a wider audience.
Q1 – The first question was (how much does the font match the context of the poster?) there was a mixture of responses ranging from a score of 6 – 10, which is really good as it implies that i had used the right font in order to match the genre. The mean (average) score for that everyone submitted is (8.7).
Q2 – The second question was (what genre do you think the film is?); just by looking at the poster of the film. 84.6% said that the genre was horror and 15.4% said that they thought it looked like a thriller film. These results are really good because at least my poster accurately conveys the codes and conventions of a horror poster, despite 15% of people said it was a thriller which isn’t too bad because the two genres are very similar. At least no one thought that it was a comedy or a romance film :).
Q3 – The next question is (what was good about the poster?). Just to summarise, one of the main positive about the poster was the design. A lot of people that conducted the questionnaire praised the design (disintegration) this is my main strength. Another thing that was good about my poster was the use of colour. I had purposely used the colour red as it it very bight and it stands out “Scourge“. The colour red also has a plethora of connotations, which are fear, danger and blood. Another person had said that the tagline was cleverly used as it would make them want to watch the film “FEAR IS ONLY AN ILLUSION” (reasoning behind the tagline and the design is on my prezi for my Q2). (https://prezi.com/aiq1xti1rkqk/evaluation-question-2-how-effective-is-the-combination-of/)
Q4 – I had also received quite a lot of things that were bad about the poster. “the background picture doesn’t match the horror theme” , “The background picture could have looked more scary” , “use of lighting in the background could have been more darker”. However, there were a few people who said that there was nothing bad about the poster which is good :). On the whole, one of the main downfalls of my poster was the background. I could have made picture of the house look a little bit more spooky, this could have easily been done if I had used the colour grading tool on photoshop to change the contrast and brightness to have a darker effect.
Q5 – Finally, the last question that the audience had given feedback was “What do you think could have been improved?”. I had a mixture of responses, here are some of the things my target audience said: “More of a hint as to what the film is about” , “better layout on the poster” , “improve the background pic of the house” , “add more detail in the black boarder at the bottom”.
Once we had finished filming we thought that it would really cool to see how some of the younger students in our school would react to our short film. So what done was that we had a camera set up in the room to film the students reaction, in doing this it was good to hear some of their feedback and complements. Here is the video (6:20 reaction part and feedback):
As a part of this evaluation question I also interviewed a few people who were in my target group and who would be in my desired target audience, here is the video:
Lastly, I also had some audience feedback on my review…. here is an example of one person:
My Film Review
Our teacher Mrs Warner had to get us prepared before we go off by ourselves and write out Little White Lies film review on our short film. In the introductory lesson, we had to get familiar with the style in which LWL writes, we had done this by reading a lot of articles and and pointing out common words. We done this by looking and the structure of the reviews, the format and the layout. A part from the style and format that LWL uses we had to depict the language style they used as well. We had to identify any interesting words that we could possible use in our own review.
In all honesty, my first draft wasn’t all that but who would ace it on their first try, as i was writing this I struggled but eventually after reading more articles I then understood the style. In relation to the feedback that I got: A good first attempt but overall yo need to imagine yourself as a LWL reviewer. Avoid using comments like “i like/ i thought” but instead give your article judgement Eg in places the acting is weak etc, don’t go into too much detail, keep it brief and add a rating score at the end.
Down below is an image of my final draft:
Little White Lies
Little White Lies (LWL) is a small independent magazine company which is published by a organisation called Church London. The church of London publishes two magazines LWL and Huck which is predominately aimed at High class Hipster. TCO London organise events, market and advertise articles and sometimes design film posters.
Magazines can be distributed through the mail, sales by newsstands, bookstores, or other vendors, or through free distribution at selected pick-up locations. The subscription business models for distribution fall into three main categories. Here are a few clips which show us a sneak peak of how LWL design its magazines.
The article originally started off as an adventure sports and lifestyle magazine but then went into bankruptcy, then few degree students decided to revive the magazine and their final degree project but became really popular and then was commercialised in 2001 but sold their first issue in 2005 to book stores and cinema chains The design of each issue is inspired by its feature film, often represented on the cover by an illustration of its lead actor. The cover of that film will also influence the design of its interior aspects Eg editorial icons, coloured fonts, style of pictures, chapter heading etc. LWL film articles are usually sold monthly and has a design team based in Shoreditch, London. The articles are found in WH Smtih or Fopp in central London. LWL are also involved in film festivals, special events, cinema chains, film clubs. In addition, the publication company liaise with Future Shorts who organise film festivals. The small articles are priced between £5 – £10 but the slightly larger editions are priced between £15 – £30.
Researching into Film Magazines
Just to give you an understanding, ive gathered some facts and statistics on the magazine market and how it operates.
Facts and statistics worldwide 2016
-
Full 2015 UK magazines ABC circulation breakdown: 60 out of 442 titles grow sales
- Magazines reach 37 million adults every month
- Around 16 million adults engage with magazine content on their mobile phone every month
- The magazine/print market it valued at 12 million but the mobile magazine market is valued at 16 million.
- £943 million spent on magazines in 2015
- Circulation – the overall market for magazines in 2016 – consumers spend over £1.1bn annually on magazine media
- Over 800 million magazines will be distributed across the UK in 2016
Top film magazines worldwide
1. Entertainment weekly
2. Variety
3. OK! Magazine
4. Backstage
5. Star
6. Little White Lies
7. American Cinematographer
8. Empire
9. Call Sheet
10. Sight and Sound
I know its not in the top 10 but Total film is a popular UK film magazine (:
There are a plethora of ways in which you can obtain information about films. Some of which are film magazines, websites and reviews. Nowadays most people get their reviews from digital copies instead of hard copies. This is because if the development in technology (digitalisation) which as allowed us as the audience to access a wide range of information through Eg the internet/websites/ web 1,2 and 3.
The magazine market is now struggling because of new digital platforms whereby content is usually free and genuinely up to date. However magazines are usually out of date as the publishing organisations designs the magazine months in advance, therefore publishing companies cant keep up with the regularity of the internet. Magazine companies cant necessarily get people to pay for their articles when they can get them for free. The three biggest film magazine publishing companies are Empire, Little White Lies and Total Film. Eventhough there are lots of sources of information, there are still many people who buy magazines despite the fact that the market is declining for example, “Die hard film fans” , “Film Buffs” and the older generation.
One of the first British film magazines which originated around the 1900s was called the “Cinematography and Bioscope Magazine”. This magazine informed and kept the general public up to date on the latest films, they would usually discuss any issues or development in the film industry. The next important film magazine which was called “The 
Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly” which started in 1907 and focused on business developments in the world of cinema. This film managzine was booming in the Uk magazine market from 1913 to the 1960s, this
magazine posted more interesting content which would appeal to the public not just people who are involved in the film industry; this film magazine would publish topics on “How to get a job in Hollywood”. The next really interesting UK film magazine is called Empire which is still going up to this day and age (was founded in 1989). The Empire is UK leading film 
magazine which gives the audience more interesting content besides the business aspect of film. This magazine gives the audience insight into film stars lives, various film facts, reviews of upcoming films and films that are going to be released. Hotdog British film magazine had a very short life spam of only 6 years (2000 – 2006) and offered a quirkier edge to mainstream movies like Wizard of Oz, Se7en, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory etc.
There are approximately 7 different British film magazines that are published in the UK ranging from: Empire, Total Film, LWL, Sight & Sound, British film, Cinema X, Stardust, Take one and Screen International.
Film magazines are still very traditional, lots of them are still selling but not as much as they used to (10-20 years ago). Film magazines appeal to a very niche target market audience. Most of film magazines nowadays make their profit from advertising, whereas decades ago most of their profits would come from sales which is why the market has a very editorial environment, meaning companies can advertise their brand or product. The top three most successful British film magazines are
- Empire
- Total Film
- Little White Lies
- Sight and Sound
Online publications have revolutionised the way we can view and read articles. Film magazines can also produce a hard copy of the article but the technological advancements over the last 50 years have allowed film publishing companies to release a digital copy online via websites. By publishing them on the internet it then makes it more accessible for people in different segments of the market Eg Teens and young adults. The relationship between the film magazines and film industry can be seen as quite symbiotic in the sense that it is a mutual need… they both need each other. Film magazines need the film industry to write about and film industry need film magazines to write reviews based on their films.
Making my Poster
The time is finally here, one of the last stages of the Advanced Production. At this stage, we had to create our own posters for our short film. So im going to briefly explain what I did at each stage of me making my final poster.
Stage 1 – in this stage I decided to use a green screen in the photo shoot. The green screen made it easier when trying to crop the image of Ciprain, this is because green is a colour that it not common on people, thus it is used as a contrast. Additionally, it makes it easier to use the lasso tool to trim the image via pixels
Stage 2 – at this stage I had to select my favorite images from the green screen photo shoot. This is the image I liked the best because I had applied the rule of thirds and Ciprian was well positioning in the centre of the camera. Also the external lighting that we used was done to perfection as there were no dark patches on his face. I also liked the fact that we is directly looking at the camera/ audience.
Stage 2 – in this stage I looked at a plethora of different image manipulations that you could do in Photoshop and I went with the disintegration effect whereby it looks as if the face if peeling away . This conveys a sense or eeriness and gets the viewer questioning what the film is about. I stated off by using my sisters digital drawing pad which allowed me to do this to perfection. I selected ‘liquify image’ on Photoshop and covered it with another layer mask behind the image.
Stage 3 – I then had to download a particular brush for the brush tool which looked like cracked glass, this allowed me to manipulate the image and chip away at it until I got the effect I wanted.
Final outcome for disintegration effect
Stage 4 – in the stage I then had to import the pictures of the location as a background. I then added another grey layer on top of the background to make it slightly grey. After this I downloaded the fonts for the credits and title for my poster. After I selected the gradient tool I used the black boarder at the bottom. This is the area where I add my credits etc.
Stage 5 – in the final stage of my poster I then added i the tagline, release date and credits.
Luke's Advanced Production 2017 