Audience and Institution

Jack Mickow

“In relation to the media area you studied, discuss the ways audience consumption has changed over time”

            In the area of film, audience consumption of movies has severely changed over time. The past decade has been the most influential to change, as it has been the most revolutionary in technology consumers can buy. These radical changes allow movie developers to cater to more and more as technology has reached to all corners of the world.

            Back in 2015, a movie called “Furious 7” was released at the SXSW Film Festival, lunching it into the public view. Here, they also used many global locations to draw in the public to the movie. Universal studios produced the movie a conglomerate of NBC, who owns Universal theme parks. They implemented this movie in their theme parks and made a ride about the movie. To further their outreach, they teamed up with a brand, OPPO, where they had promotional events about the movie to draw in crowds. On April 3rd, 2015, they released the film and the box office took in 384 million the opening week. This means people flooded into large and small movie theaters to view the movie, showing audiences heavily appreciated the ability to go into theaters. On September 15^th, 2015, the same movie was released on disc. This delay was intentional, as they knew the movie theaters would be the real success, not wanting to put too much into the disc version. There is no where online where you can find the movie Netflix and Hulu do not have the rights to the movie, as people chose to view it in theaters over in home exhibition. Jurassic World had a very similar outcome. They did lots of cross promotion within their conglomerates and blew up the movie with as much advertising as they could do. This lead to the release on May 29^th, 2015 being highly lucrative with 4274 theaters showing the movie. However, they have not put the movie on any streaming service as people chose to go out and watch the movie in theaters.

             Producers began to see a trend where people wanted to watch movies form their home, not always wanting to go out to watch a film. Future movies began to take note, like the movie “Beauty And The Beast.”  It was a very different scenario than “Furious 7”. Audiences flocked to movie theaters and it was the favored way of viewing movies. However, this movie took a very different approach to keeping up with the societal normals as consumption changed.  Before its release date on March 17^th, 2017, they chose to market the movie using Synergy.  Disney, the creators of the movie, teamed up with ABC, to use their show, “The Bachelor” as a way to expose audiences to Beauty And The Beast from home. They did this by showing an ad for it during the episode.  This strategy worked as the box office took home over 500 million. However, this was not their plan to have an audience. They knew people wanted to have home exhibition now, and needed to keep up with the change in movie consumption if they wanted success. They released the movie in 2018 onto Netflix, a popular at home streaming service and to On Demand on June 6^th, 2017. This is the way movies are going, less theater exhibition and more at home viewing. People are doing this as it if safer, more cost effective, and less stressful than having to go out and view a movie. If movie production companies want to stay afloat, they need to keep up with the changing audience.

            The movie, “Joker” was the perfect example of how filmer’s and producers adapted to the consumers push for staying at home for movies. They choose to favor an online release, only doing 335 million in box office sales at its release week. The thing the production crew at Warner Brothers did differently is they teamed up with streaming services, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video to have the movie release on their websites the same day as the theater exhibition.  This was the best thing to do as people do not want to not leave their house to see a movie, so bringing the movie is perfect. This was a big step in giving the consumer what they want as the previous years people were forced to go out to see a movie.

            People no longer want the theater exhibition. They want to view movies from the comfort of the own home. Moving form theater releases to online releases is the only way producers will be able to keep with this new trend in the consumers of wanting to stay home. I would also believe that due to the Corona Virus, this will speed up even more, as the public no longer can even be at movie theaters, so in home viewing is the way of the future, and movie theaters are no longer what the consumers want.

Extract Practice - 24

In the movie” 24”, the female characters nerves and shows how she is trying to keep calm while being interrogated about a bomb through the use of building suspension by having her interrogated by a man. The authors vision is to portray a scene where the lady is caught in the act of crime, then gets pressed so hard, she begins to crack and the truth starts to come out, along with the mans anger. This leads the viewer to believe that she cannot handle the pressure as the scenes lean toward her plot being uncovered by the man. What gives this away is the use of camera angles, shots, sounds, and Mis En Scene all purposely used to show the true meaning of the story.

            The opening two shot scene shows their exchange in the interrogation room and allows you to see the women’s facial expressions, giving away her cover, allowing the reader to realized she is stuck and is getting in a bad situation because we can see her expressions. The following over the shoulder shot of them talking shows the man getting angry with his aggressive nature, forcing her to start to talk, showing the viewer that she is not able to deal with him. These convey the movies plot of her not handling the pressure as these shots directly show her not keeping up with his talking because the viewer can visually see her face and emotions.

            The cross cutting going from the interrogation room to the computer room shows the intensity of the scene, adding to her anxiety as she is getting choked out without help. This allows the reader to see through her actions as we realize she is vulnerable because she freaks out. Also, the speed of the cross cutting gives more anxiety to the shot as this speeds up the movies tempo. The next jump shots create a similar effect, when the guy flips the table, she squirms and begins to fall apart. This once again shows her starting to break. This means she cannot handle the pressure and revels she is in over her head, exactly what the author wants to show. These editing shots point towards her breaking point as they express her distress and lack of ability to fix the situation.

            The dialogue is probably the number one thing that shows the dire situation as we can hear it in her voice that she is timid and afraid due to her high pitched, very slow voice. On the other hand, the man uses a loud overcoming voice to try and break her. She also cannot give an answer to him as when asked, she tries to avoid the question. The score in the movie really drives the tension in the room upward. The low drumming and high pitched noises are used to show her lack of ability to answer, driving the directors vision of showing that the man is going to win her over and break her.

            The props in the movie like the tables, camera, and chair all are used to show the seriousness of the situation. In the interrogation room, they are all used as devices to get her to open up. He flips the table, shoves the chair into the wall, and eyes the camera to scare her. All of these are all intended by the director to get her to open up the man, while causing her pain so the reader can understand the situation. Also, these are done to draw in the audience as it is live action and shows her at her most vulnerable.

            Finally, the costumes in the movie show her lower statue as she wears a collared shirt not buttoned up all the way, not pressed, and is dark in color. This all points towards the idea that she doesn’t care about her appearance because she isn’t put together. This is a similar theme in most criminals and crooked people and the director is hoping that most would be able to know this and acknowledge she is a crook getting ready to break under the pressure the man created. Most of the people going against her are wearing proper fitting suits and are very presentable, showing the contrast in the two parties, just as the movies author intended.

            Overall, my idea on what the director was trying to do was pretty spot on. They wanted to create a serious, yet intense scene that conveyed the idea that people cannot handle the pressure, especially if they did something wrong. My idea was pretty spot on, I said that those in the wrong cannot handle the truth and all this was found by my interpretations of the shots, camera angles, sounds, and mis en scene.

Final Project CCR

        Attached is my creative critical reflection for my final movie project. We did as best as we could due to the COVID-19. I wanted to be honest and not lie as to why the video came out the way it did. We have came so far in media and we are afraid this movie is not our full potential due to COVID19. We wanted to develop it so much more. We wanted to incorporate a chase scene and finally have dialogue. In my CCR I reflect on how we tried to base our approach on real action movies so we could get the best thing possible. I was honest and explained how we did and did not complete this. It was a hard fight but we got as much as we could. The Corona Virus totally ruined our progress.
       In my CCR I go into depths as to why it has affected us so much. For example, this virus has essentially stopped us from going outside. This put us in a terrible situation as out video takes place outdoors. Another problem created by the virus was that it limited our ability to meet and film as we were forced away and not able to film. It was such a hardship to do this project, we had no answers. We looked to our teachers for answers on how to finish, they could not give us an answer. There is no chance to finish this project, yet what we have is on par with big action movies. This makes me proud as we were able to do so much before we were forced to stop. I hope to still be given credit as we gave it our all with the time we had. I have individually progressed so much from our first video many months ago. Overall, it was a fun project that I really want to finish because we had a perfect setup and vision.

Partial Final Movie

Attached is our final project movie, it is not done due to COVID-19 and I had no way of meeting or editing it further. We have done the best we can given the situation, the movie is not done.

Commercial

Attached is my Nike Commercial. This was done at the start of the school year

Music Video

Attached is a link to my Music video, "Closed on Sunday" by Kanye West. This was done about half way through the school year.

Editing Part 2

Our filming has not progressed much since last class. I had sports after classes and the timing was not working. We hope our timing  will not be affected by this Corona Virus. We realized there might be a little bit of a crunch with our filming due to to this. We are too far progressed on our editing, and don’t have enough good video to use. This isn’t a big deal as we have planned out a filming time, but we want to keep moving. Due to this, our editing has moved forward a lot. The peer reviewer gave us a few things to key in on and I think we have capitalized on these and made a much better movie. We redid the whole sequencing from clip to clip so make a smoother line of events. This also helps the reader keep interest, as they constantly done see our poor mistakes.

The biggest challenge we faced during this was the sound. When I was with Alex I screwed up the audio. It was all shifted and I didn’t know how to undo this. I went without letting him know and then we realized it was an issue. I should not have not hid this and it created more problems than it was worth. We had to go back in, and remove the music, and insert it again to set through the video properly. We also had to cut some clips and reedit them to fit the new format of the song. All of this was not major, but it shows us we couldn’t keep redoing everything when we make a little mistake. Another thing we did not too well editing was the importing. For whatever reason, we were having trouble inserting out clips into the software, and spent way to much time trying to just get the videos ready to work with.

Final Project Progress

From our last class we have not gotten much done. We are still sticking to plan, but working much slower. We have not been able to film as we simply could not get together. I worked all day Saturday and they had soccer practice. By the time I was off, it was dark and we need light to continue our filming. This left Sunday, and due to poor weather, it knocked away the whole day. This left us some time to discuss the next week what our plans were. We knew we had to continue the progress, and finish filming. We just needed to make sure we were all on the same page with what we wanted to do. We deliberated how the movie was going to end as our original ending could no longer work.
        We decided we would fake me jumping into the water, as it was not safe to jump in for real. We could not actually film me jumping in, but we could make it seem like I do. We want to film me jumping off, and cutting right before I do. Then have an shot of me from below jumping into a pool so it will create the same effect. I think this is the best as it will create the same effect for the ending. They proposed we end differently, sort of like a chase that keeps going. I did not like this as it doesn't keep the story going. We also discussed the continuous editing. From the peer editing, we knew what had to change and we were ready to implement these things until we had more footage. Having a gap week was nice as it allowed us to regroup and get ready for a big week to progress.

Editing After The Peer Review

We have now had several filming and editing sessions under our belts and are getting closer to having a finished product. The teacher assigned us a peer review to try and push ur to do better. I like this as it forces us to consider an outside element. It is very similar to how a Cambridge grader will look at our paper, so their feedback was very helpful in what we needed to do next. We know we need to finish the film, but for what we have done it was not that bad. Our filming was very solid. The reviewer gave us a positive sign on our angles saying they were very fluid. This meant all those times we spent arguing were actually useful. They may have seemed pointless and stupid, but they now have meaning. We questioned each other and pushed each others boundaries and wanted each other to crack to be able to put our clips in the movie.
Our editing was not going as good. Alex, in charge of editing had run into some problems allowing us less time. The camera and Sd card had been left at my house, and Alex had the vision for editing, so I waited to let him do his work. This meant we were going to have less time to edit, and this was made clear by our reviewer. They said our clips were together good, but we have too long of shots, lack proper transitions, and have un needed title screens. This was good to hear though. We all think our movies are good, so hearing negative feedback helps. We couldn't hold grudges here as we all had similar ideas for editing. We also had to switch the font of our title screens and this was a minor disagreement. We settled this easily but we have bigger issues we must move onto, like finishing the video and making sure we hit all our major plot points.

Peer Review

Our peer review didn't go as expected. We thought we were in a good spot as we thought everything was going well. Our reviewer did not think the same. They thought the start was good but it quickly fell apart. They liked our start but they thought our titles were on the screen for too long. They also think we transition too many times with the car. I guess this makes sense as this really does not help move the plot along. Cutting it back might make sense as it would allow for more action later on. They also didn't like the fact that we took so long to transition from the car to the house. They did however like the trunk shot and said it was not expected.
They did not like the timing between Jorge getting out of the car, because the editing could be more seamless allowing for a better shot. This made sense as we knew we could edit this together, but chose not to so we could focus more on other elements. With all these negatives, there was some positives they liked. They noticed our variety of shots, we had nearly every one on possible. They also liked how you could tell where they story was going. They didn't see the whole video, but they could tell how it was going to go and knew it would be good. This was a relief as we were afraid our story didn't have a good plot to watch. Overall, the peer review process was nice as it was the closest thing to an actual grade we are going to get before we send it to Cambridge. We hope to really bring it to the next level as this was eye opening as to what we need to do. The next thing we want to do is to is reshoot and edit some of these key scenes they told us about and finish up the movie.

We Started to Film and Edit!

       Coming off an used week was tough to get the ball rolling. We all had bust schedules and knew filming this weekend was going to be tough. It was nasty weather and I worked all day Saturday. This meant Sunday was the only option. We came to an agreement that I would just film only shots where nobody was in. This would be fine as we at least would get something done. Filming was simple, we just took a bunch of pans and tracking shots. These weren't that hard as my brothers we able to assist if I needed to drive for the shot. The end of the filming got a little off. The clouds began to roll in and the sun left, leaving the shots dull. This was a problem as we figured they may not match the earlier shots taken.
       Editing these shots was surprisingly easy compared to last time. We had all the files on a drive, and simply moved them onto the computer. This was a little hard as importing them was different than usual because of the computer. Otherwise, everything went smoothly. Editing was different because usually we just put them in order and break them up and line them up. This time we had to leave holes in the videos to add film with us in them later. We also learned all those shots we took when it was cloudy out were not usable. There was too much of a difference in them and it looks like they are two separate scenes. This was not the look we wanted so reshooting is going to have to happen. This will not be a big deal as we ned to go to the same places to shoot with us in the shots anyway. For now I am happy with where we are at as it gives us a good look at where we are going.

We Couldn't Film For Final Project!

Last week we were given instruction to start filming for our final projects. We had plans to film and we even began to talk the time we would meet. This was all going to work because I could drive and get them. Then I got permission to film in my house so we all thought things were going to get done this weekend. We had all set our plans and were going to film on Sunday, a holiday. This was already going to be an issue because we could not film at the park we were going to because of a sewage spill that took place near by. We worked past this issue by deciding we would only film the first part having to do with the street and house. Then, we could no longer film in the house because there was going to be too many people home. This meant we were going to try and film at Alex's house. This also failed because his mom did not want us there when his sister was studying.
This concluded Sunday and we got nothing done. Monday was going to an issue filming too. I got my wisdom teeth out. This meant I couldn't drive to get my partners. We figured if they got rides we could still film around the house, but this was not true too. I ended up not being able to move and didn't want to do much due to the pain. We figured we could at least walk through the house and run through our plan. We did this and decided to switch a couple minor things that we thought would make the movie better.  Overall, we wasted time and did not film, but it was good due to the fact that we got to refine our movie. This was not ideal, but we still have plenty of time to film to make a good movie.

Storyboard for Final Project

Attached is our scene ideas for the movie. We had a debate on how we wanted to do things because we all saw different visions. These were solved quickly as we were able to settle our differences. We did this my dividing up who got what slides. This allowed us to divide them based on who wanted what. This meant we could have different visions and for them still to work. I think this will really help in the long run as we now are not disagreeing on what we want. The hardest thing was probably having to cut things out that were not important enough. We only had so many slots for scenes, and this meant much of our ideas wouldn't make it. We ended up voting many off and decided we liked what we had, and if we end up changing things this is ok too as we have planned many backup plans in case of failure.

Planning: Location, Participants, and Health Blog

Attached is our planning slideshow. We were assigned to plan out the specifications of our filming process. In this blog it talks about our filming locations and the participants. Along with the participants and the locations, we also had to plan out what out health and safety resources will be. With this being planned, we also had to plan out what our filming process will look like until the date we will turn in the final product. To compose the schedule we began by listing the pre-production dates and task. The pre production consisted of planning, storyboarding, and finalizing ideas. After this we listed the production dates and task. During the production we will be primarily filming.To end off, we listed how we will finalize our film. The post production consisted of the editing that all go into finalizing the film.

Planning: Title Design

Attached is our plan of our title design. We wanted to keep is simple, yet still useful. We wanted to not do too much as this would take the attention off the actual film. We are going to use only one font, spectral. Our hope for only using one is to keep it simple so not too much is going on. This will also allow the viewer to take in the blogs while still watching the movie. We also plan on keeping the movie simple by fading in and out the titles. All of this will allow for a simple title display that will show all the information. We also only plan on using contrasting colors like a black back round and white letters. This is easy and good because it allows simplicity which is not a bad thing in films.

Planning: Dialogue + Sound Script

Attached is our presentation on the sounds going on in the movie clip. We felt presenting it scene by scene would be best, as it very logically shows the progression of our sounds. We wanted to start off not diving into action, so we have little to no sound. As we progress in the presentation you will see there is more and more dialogue and diegetic sound. We thought this would be best as we want to build suspense. Another reason this presentation is important is because of the fact that it will be used as a check list for us. We can compare it to the scenes we have and make sure we hit everything we want. We did not include it in the slideshow, but we have multiple plan-b's if one of these sounds doesn't work out and we cannot create it correctly. The biggest thing in the presentation we liked to see is the continuation of the music. This will allow for a clean flowing 2 minutes as making it choppy with too much sound and music may not be best for the movie as a whole.

Planning: Shooting Script

Attached is our planned out shooting script. We wanted to incorporate a chase scene as it was something we all grew up watching. We went from scene to scene and tried to portray each of the major plot points of the first two minutes. The hardest part of making this script is going to be keeping to it. During the writing, we had many disagreements of what we wanted, and had to cut out many good ideas. We knew we wanted to use many unique shots like trunk shots, but still wanted to keep the plot normal through use of things like wide shots. We really like how we have developed the movie so far, I just do not know if everything we have in mind like the crane shots will work. We also have a few extra backup plans if things fall through. However, I dont think we will need to go to these extremes as none of out locations are changing and we have minimalistic props. These such locations are houses, public parks, and docks, all of which are public access and never close.

Title Research: Venom

There were twenty two titles displayed during the opening sequence of the movie Venom including editors, actors, and directors. There was a street view, and then it changed to an array of abstract black red and white pictures. They probably represent the Venom. They play fast, intense music throughout the entire opening sequence which . adds to the intensity of an action themed movie. The title sequence makes the viewer wonder what the Venom really is, because of all of the abstract pictures and videos. They added in music from a popular modern artist to connect with their targeted audience, as young people will most likely be watching this movie. The editing made this title sequence, there were a lot of abstract pictures and videos that were put together really smoothly. The transition between the different pictures and videos are extremely smooth.

Title Research: Code 8

I watched the title sequence of Code 8. While watching the title sequence I kept note of 29 separate titles that appeared throughout including directors, editors, and actors. Images that have to do with what the narrator is saying pop up on the screen and move and change rapidly. For example, there was a picture of a man working. The connotation to this image is that people with powers are being forced to work. There is energetic and intense music in the background which matches with the action theme. When they show the fast and a lot of the time distorted pictures it causes an enigma, and pulls the viewer in. They talk about what is going on in the time of the movie, which appeals to what . the audience wants to watch. The editing technique was very effective. They had many transitions and glitch effects which added a lot to the title sequence.

Title Research: Spiderman

How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?
There are 25 opening title sequences. 9 of these are title slides with the acting list and 12 of them were the movies production jobs.
What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?
The images prioritized in the scenes were the large  spiderwebs, Spiderman himself, and the buildings used to hold the names of the production cast. These are all important to the movie so establishing them now is good to the reader.
What connotations do the images carry?
In a way, the title slides are rather scary as they are black with chrome. They also sit on screen for a longer than usual time, building negative suspense that may worry some viewers.
How is the genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?
The genre is first reinforced by the sounds. They play loud dramatic violins to start building suspense. The sounds also speed up to start the fast paced feel. They also use the webs, spider mans signature move in the title scenes to give the reader a piece of the movie while viewing the title scenes.
How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?
The film does this through the use of dark imaging. They keep things dark and show only outlines to create suspense. They also bring the effects on and quickly off the screen to make the reader concentrate harder on the screens.
What stratagies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?
The biggest thing they do is show Spiderman. This gives the reader a detailed view of him, allowing them to see what they came for right from the start. They also play dramatic strings to entice the reader into wanting to see more, just like sound in other action movies.
How has technology been used effectively? 
The biggest use of technology here was editing. There were little camera shots other than extreme closeups of Spiderman. The movie does a great job at showing the spiderwebs and quickly moving them off the screen to not show too much. They also edit in the moving buildings which was nice to keep things moving. They do some cool sequences with the letters showing everyones name also to keep it visually appealing.