Revision - Component2a - Film Industry

Curran and Seaton - Power and Media Industries

• The media industries tend to be owned by a small group of people limiting the ideologies that are presented to the audience
• Conglomeration
• Where one company 'buys out' other companies, in order to become larger and to eliminate competition.

David Hesmondhalgh - Media Industries

• Media industries are organised in certain ways.
• Vertical Integration
• Where an organisation acquires another organisation 'up or down' in the production chain. For example, Paramount Pictures own Showcase cinemas.
• Horizontal Integration
• Where an organisation buys others in the same sector. For example, Stream publishing focuses purely on magazines.
• Digital/Multi Media Integration
• "They buy into other related areas of cultural industry production to ensure cross-promotion"

Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt - Regulation

• 'Regulation' refers to the rules and restrictions that every media industry has to follow. For example the UK film industry must use the BBFC's age certifications, and television must adhere to OFCOM's regulations

• There is a struggle in recent UK regulation policy between the need to further the interests of citizens (by offering protection from harmful or offensive material), and the need to further the interests of consumers (by ensuring choice, value for money, and market competition)

• The increasing power of global media corporations, together with the rise of convergent media technologies and developments in the production, distribution and marketing of digital media have placed traditional approaches to media regulation at risk.

• Online media production, distribution and circulation in particular often allows producers to completely ignore media regulations

Question: How have the films you have studied been shaped by economic factors?

Underline

How have the films you have studied been shaped by economic factors?

Knee Jerk

Both films have been absolutely influenced by economic factors, with I, Daniel Blake being an independently produced film with political themes, and Straight Outta Compton being a major release with mass market appeal.

Plan

• I, Daniel Blake distributed by eOne films

• Straight Outta Compton distributed by Universal Pictures

• Ken Loach is the director of I, Daniel Blake

• I, Daniel Blake was made in 2016

• Straight Outta Compton was made in 2015

• I, Daniel Blake was produced by BFI (royal charter) and BBC

• Straight Outta Compton was produced by Legendary Pictures

• Straight Outta Compton is Biopic

• I, Daniel Blake is a Social Realist film which are usually hard hitting, political films

• I, Daniel Blake is a little indie film

• Straight Outta Compton is a major film

• Advertising Strategies

• Social Media

• hashtag straightouttaxxxx

• hashtag wearealldanielblake

• I, Daniel Blake made 15.8mil

• Straight Outta Compton made 201.6mil box office

Content

• Straight Outta Compton

• Trailer uses remixed, modernised, versions of the original songs, targeting not only an existing fanbase, but also a new audience.

• Straight Outta Compton cut the film down that was shown in cinemas to be suitable for a wider range of audience giving it an age certificate of 15 meaning that their profits will increase, however they still distributed the 18 version but online so it didn't affect their profits as much as it would if they distributed the 18 into cinemas.

• Straight Outta Compton can be accessed digitally showing that they are getting more money from distributing it to a range of sights. Also through marketing techniques they can build up an already founded fandom so digital streaming sights will be more willing to pay a big fee for the movie as they may think they will get more subscriptions.

• Straight Outta Compton had a budget of 28-50million. It is a mid to high budget for Hollywood films. High stakes in terms of budget.

• The trailer had 7.5 million views, indicates a viral online success.

• Target audience is a mass, generalised audience, with a particular focus on young, black men.

• Predominantly black cast, and a black director. From a sociohistorical perspective it is deemed as a hard sell.

• Teaser photos released days before the film's release, on social media. Downloaded 6 million times. Innovative marketing strategy and an example of viral marketing.

• Regulation: BBFC 15 certificate when released theatrically. Film was re-edited to ensure a lower age certificate to reach a bigger audience and teenagers with expendable income.

• Film was also released as an 18 rated directors cut.

• Distributed through Netflix reaching a larger home audience. Also Now TV.

• Produced by Legendary Pictures, a higher producer specialising in big budget blockbusters.

• Distributed by Universal Pictures, a vertically integrated, international conglomeration.

• An international marketing campaign, targeting the big movie territories.

• Social media marketing, viral, hashtags...

• Star appeal - sold through the likeness of NWA.

• I, Daniel Blake

• The trailer had 1.2 million views. Word of mouth, viral media.

• I, Daniel Blake can be accessed digitally showing that they are getting more money from distributing it to a range of sights. Also through marketing techniques they can build up an already founded fandom so digital streaming sights will be more willing to pay a big fee for the movie as they may think they will get more subscriptions.

• Co-produced by many smaller organisations and stakeholders.

• A British, French and Belgian co-production, demonstrating internationalism.

• Small, specialised and niche audience necessitates its budget its met through a variety of sources.

• Risky from an economic perspective: heavily politicised ideological message, favouring the left wing labour party.

• Depressing and hard hitting theme.

• Largely unknown actors, lacks star appeal.

• Low budget leads to low production values.

• Subsidised cinema tickets at £3.50 in order to ensure a working class audience are able to see it.

• However, the film predominantly attracted a white middle class audience, which is typical of Loaches films.

• Also released in other European countries, Moi, Daniel Blake.

• Won the Palme D'or, the biggest prize at the Cannes film festival.

• I, Daniel Blake was funded by a range of different companies this was to reduce the risk of the films and to be risk-adverse.

• Screened in social clubs in events around the UK.

Revision - Component1b - Advertising

In component 1b Kiss of the Vampire poster will not come up in Component 2 Section B. Additionally, only AUDIENCE style questions, not INDUSTRY questions will come up if advertising appears in Component 2 section B

Question: Explore how audiences can use or interact with the advertisements you have studied?

Underline

• Explore how audiences can use or interact with the advertisements you have studied?

Knee-Jerk

• The adverts I have studied offer their target audiences several uses and interactions, though primarily this is motivated by power and profit by selling a lifestyle to the audience.

Plan

• Selling Lifestyle
• Target Audience
• Ideology
• Anchorage
• Cultivation Theory - George Gerbner
• Reception Theory - Stuart Hall
• Soundtrack (Wateraid)
• Stereotypes
• Binary Oppositions - Claude Levi Strauss (Structuralism)
• Lexis
• Close-Ups
• Mise-en-Scene
• Setting
• Guilt Tripping
• Pick'n'mix Theory - David Gauntlet
• Identity
• Positivity
• Intertextuality

Introduction

• The adverts I have studied offer their target audiences several uses and interactions, though primarily this is motivated by power and profit, and by selling a lifestyle to the audience.

Content

• Wateraid Advert - 2016

• On screen graphics at end of adverts states: "text SUNNY to XXXX to give £3". SUNNY has positive and utopian connotation, providing the audience a definitive way to interact in a positive manner.

• Representation of Zambian woman: audience (target working class and white) form a binary opposition between themselves and Claudia. Emphasises the preferred reading to be sympathetic, and once more encourages donation.

• The audience is positioned with Claudia with a low angled tracking shot following her feet as she walks, forcing the audience to empathise to Claudia's situation.

• Convention of charity advert: close up of black persons feet, wearing flimsy shoes.

• Symbolic code of bucket, symbolises poverty, and is connotative of central african identity.

• Setting: quintessentially 'African', MES of girls with buckets on heads, the hazy sunlight drifting through scrubby trees and the laughing children playing next to a water fountain provides the audience with the pleasure of escapism.

• Diegetic singing, togetherness, and borderline worship of water presents a positive stereotype of black people, yet also reinforces the ideological perspective that poor, black african people should be thankful for the intervention and charity of white people, or at the very least, British people.

• The capital of Zambia is Lusaka, a well developed city. The reason why the advert isn't set in Lusaka is because it isn't the real 'Africa'. The representation of Zambia is misleading focusing on a small, rural village rather than the semi-affluent city of Lusaka.

• Tide - 1950's

• The producer has taken this approach to using a stereotypical housewife as the main selling point in the advert this is so it is identifiable with the target audience which is a working class housewife and advertising the product as something new and exciting to entice the consumer into buying.

• 'You women' direct mode of address, positioning target white working class audience in a community, which can be achieved through purchasing Tide.

• The Housewife, repeated across many Tide adverts is an aspirational figure. Slim, attractive and amorous, she provides the audience with the use and potential interaction of living an ideal lifestyle.

• Promotes cleaning and ashing clothes as positive and optimistic lifestyle. Reinforces the stereotype that women play a limited role in society.

• Reinforces patriarchal hegemony.

• Sociohistorical context of the 1950s limited roles and opportunities for women.

• Z line rule provides the audience with a simple and easily followed set of instructions, allowing them to feel confident to use the product.

• Cultivates the ideology that women are housewives and live in a patriarchal society. Provides male secondary audience the advantage of a subservient wife.

• The colour red is highly connotative of love and passions, a paradigmatic of the romance genre (intertextuality) allowing women to identify themselves as the hero of the story.

• Red signifies and emphasises the quality of the product, and royal significance of the brand.

Revision - Component1a - Advertising

Component 1 - Section A

Kiss of the Vampire Poster & 'US' Movie Trailer
Explore the ways in which these adverts use representations to position audiences.
You should make reference to:

• How groups are represented
• Intertextuality
• Genre Conventions
• Viewpoints and Ideologies

Use the bullet points given in the question to make reference to as a plan, write a paragraph on each bullet point to ensure discussion of all topics to make sure nothing is left out and everything has been explored.

• Underline
• Underlining the key words in the question will help from keeping you going off on a tangent.

• Knee Jerk reaction
• Your immediate response is the one you have familiarised yourself with the most and there is certain aspects that would jump out at you.

• Plan
• All key words/theories need to be written down.

• DAC
• 12 marks or higher you need an introduction. For this question the introduction should be shorter than normal. DAC - Definition, Argument, Context.

• Paragraphs

Knee Jerk Reaction

• Binary Opposition between the bunnies and the chaos and darkness that has been happening in the trailer. 

• There are similarities in how representations position audience through horror paradigms, however 'US' focuses primarily on a black family, which is highly subversive/atypical.

• Normally a movie uses black people as a token character however this trailer is subversive and a few white token characters are used.

Plan

• Binary Opposition - Claude Levi Strauss

• Semiotics - Roland Barthes

• Mise-en-scene - Lighting - very low key lighting a generic paradigm of a horror movie.

• Stereotypes

• bell hooks - feminist theory

• Ethnicity

• Hermeneutic code

• Symbolic code

• Genre/horror conventions

• Judith Butler - Gender Performativity

• Character Archetypes

• Intertextuality - Of the music at the beginning is a remix of a classic which could be seen as a binary opposition

• Referential code - Jaws T-Shirt

• Representation - Stuart Hall

• Paul Gilroy - Post-Colonial theory

DAC

D - Positioning is an essential technique for producers, as it allows the audience to be placed in a particular situation. One of the most effective ways to do this is through representation, the re-presentation of a group, issue or event.

C - In order to explore this idea, I shall be referring to the theatrical poster for the 1963 British Hammer horror Kiss Of The Vampire, and the 2019 theatrical trailer to the modern horror film US.

A - There are similarities in how representations position audiences through horror paradigms, however US focusses primarily on a black family, which is highly subversive/atypical.

Content

• KOTVP 
• The stereotypical way of a man controlling a woman is portrayed in the poster but only on one side of the poster, it is shown on the left hand side as we see the woman laying lifelessly whereas on the right hand side we see a binary opposition as it is the woman controlling the man so the left side and right side have switched roles showing the movie is subversive but not too subversive that it would upset the audience in 1963 as the ideas of woman having power was unheard of.

• MES of darkness, the night setting is connotative of the horror genre and is highly typical. Positions the audience as fans of the horror genre.

• Gesture and performance of the women reinforces their role within the film, and conforms to patriarchal hegemonic norms and standards.

• Woman on the left takes the role of the 'damsel in distress' archetype, positioning the audience in the role of a heterosexual man.

• Van Zoonen - Male Gaze: MES of the exposed skin, is a combination with the stereotypical attractiveness of the women assumes a heterosexual male target audience, and reinforces ideas of patriarchy.

• Iconography of the full moon hints at the supernatural elements of the film, positioning the audience through the use of hermeneutic codes.

• While the film is set in exotic eastern Europe, the actors are predominantly white and British, which reinforces patriotic viewpoints.

• US
• Almost exclusively black cast would be unthinkable in 1963, purely because the film could be seen as being financially unviable.

• Therefore for a horror film, a very atypical situation.

• Father wears a Harvard, connotative of wisdom, intelligence, and middle class identity subverts the stereotypical middle class family through the main characters ethnicity.

• Ink stains function as a hermeneutic code, and are highly paradigmatic of the psychological horror genre, to target a specific audience.

• All black cast positions audience as a young, middle class black person, subverting the expectation the audiences are predominantly white.

• Over the shoulder shot of walking along the beach, MES lightening functions as a proairetic code, suggesting bad things are going to happen.

• Extreme close up of woman's crying face is connotative of the horror film, and positions the target audience directly with the young, black protagonist.

• Referential code to the Directors earlier film Get Out, allowing it to target a pre-existing audience.

Online Media - Industry

Attitude Mini Research Task

• Who publishes Attitude?
• Stream Publishing Limited
• What other products does the publisher publish?
• Hertz, Vauxhall etc.

Stream bought Attitude to reduce their competition as they already have bought a gay magazine so by buying the bestselling gay magazine they are conglomerating to reduce the competition which is an example of horizontal integration and risk adverse practices. 

2/3 of a magazines revenue comes from sales and a 1/3 comes from advertisements. If a magazine didn't include adverts then the cover price would increase (Example adbusters which RRP is £11.99).

The audience for Attitude is a professional male meaning that they have cultural capital and quite a prestigious job.

'Pink Pound' - Because gay men won't necessarily have kids they are seen to have more money and more expendable income so they can spend it on your product.

The only reason for a media product to exist is to make money. It is a consumerist society.

Brand Identity is the ideology of an institution (an institution being a company) what is it actually putting out there.

The inside front cover double page spread is £157,000.

Synergy is where two things work well together, convergence leads to synergy.

Stream have internationalised their brand. They own a gay dutch magazine even though its published in English.

Companies try to be risk adverse by using multisector and multimedia integration. David Hesmondhalgh produced the idea of multimedia integration.

Attitude Online - Theories (Hall & Gilroy)

Misogyny - The hatred of women.

Stereotypes and Inequality in Attitude - Stuart Hall

• Stuart Hall suggests that the media and the power of media representations play an important role in defining the ideological thinking of audiences regarding specific groups.

• Hall's argument that stereotyping, as a form of representation, reduces people to a few simple characteristics or traits Hall's argument that stereotyping tends to occur where there are inequalities of power as subordinate or excluded groups are constructed as different or 'other'.

• Hall's work focuses on the use of stereotypes by the media - arguing that stereotypes work by reducing characters to simplistic physical characteristics and behaviour traits. Hall argues that stereotypes reflect the amount of power that social groups have within society, and that negative stereotypes reflect, in Hall's view, social inequalities or the wider views of society. In other words, the construction of specific groups as 'outsiders' or 'others' by media products mirror their social exclusion from wider society.

Theories around ethnicity and post-colonial theory - Paul Gilroy

• Post-colonialism is the study of the impact that being under direct rule has had on former colonies. For example, despite being a tiny island, Britain colonised and declared ownership of many countries, including India and Australia.

• These ideas and attitudes continue to shape contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the postcolonial era.

• These postcolonial attitudes have constructed racial hierarchies in our society, where, for example, white people are by and large given more positive and important roles than BME people.

• Media producers are also guilty of using binary oppositions to reinforce BME people and characters as 'others'.

Attitude provides a very stereotypical representation of gay men - six packs, stereotypically attractive males.

There are different gay communities other than attitude - the other stereotype of gay guys are referred to as looking young and being 'twigs'. Also another representation of gay males is 'bears' where they are fat hairy men etc.

Attitude Online - Initial Analysis

Attitude Online

• Sans-serif font makes the article more modern and formal rather than it being serif and less serious. Showing that the topic is a serious topic to be spoken about.

• The basic straightforward colour scheme connotes a neutral and easy to read and informative article.

• The headline which will get you clicking is in caps. The folio 'opinion' is in caps as well, the reason why they included these folio's is to make the website easy to navigate and being able to include more stories in different categories.

• Attitude Online is a gay magazine - they appeal to this audience by including topics such as west end dancing that a straight audience wouldn't be familiar with.

• The reappropriation - using a slang or offensive word to describe yourself.

• Stereotypically a good looking man who will be attractive to gay men.

• The man is dancing and he is in character. The image has connotations of old school musicals which is anchoring and codified as gay.

Attitude Website - How are gay men represented?

• Lots of conformity to stereotypes for men being quite vain specifically on weight loss and improving muscle definition. A focus on aesthetics.
• Example Article - Want to improve your weight loss, muscle definition, and conditioning? Crossrope has the answer.

• Hyper sexualised - The models are posed in such a way that you couldn't think its not about sex, it tells us that the representation of gay men is that they are open and in your face.
• Example Article - Meet the ridiculously beautiful boys of e4's 'shipwrecked' reboot.

• ...however, the magazine and website has a definitive target audience, and may go 'hidden' in the general populace so it isn't in your face its only if you look for it you will find it.

• Articles focusses on the team's body image as opposed to their sporting prowess, again reinforcing an emphasis on aesthetics.
• Example Article - Gay rugby players of the King's Cross Steelers strip off to talk body image.

• Extravagant and with exotic lifestyles - maybe regarded as camp
• Example Article - Thailands best spots for a romantic escape.

• Proud and self-confident. Gives audience the confidence to come out and to live with pride
• Example Article - AJ Pritchard wants to be the first professional dancer on 'Strictly' in a same-sex couple.

• Gay men are sexualised most of the models have ab's and muscles so they are stereotypically attractive. They are encoding straight men such as Cristiano Ronaldo to look homosexual, it is a singular and stereotypical representation. Rather than just making them out to be a celeb for what they're famous at they're showing that they are attractive aswell.
• Example Article - Here are Cristiano Ronaldo's hottest ever moments to celebrate his birthday.

• In this website we see a singular, stereotypical representation also like Woman magazine. However, the difference is that Woman magazine is not made to want people to sleep with them and more to appeal to woman for inspirational purposes rather than sexual purposes.

• Heteronormativity - We assume that people are straight - however we have the opposite here and see a specific representation of masculinity.

• There is a great extent of singular stereotypical representation of masculinity as it is all over the website of these big muscly stereotypically attractive guys this could make males feel inferior and intimidated as this is adopting feminist standards. Hyper-masculinity goes beyond the stereotypical male.

• Stereotypical gay people are usually deemed as feminine skinny and not very manly. However, these guys on Attitude magazine are the complete opposite which leaves the primary audience confused due to these stereotypes being completely broken.

• If this is all we see on Attitude being the gay primary audience seeing the same body type over and over again, not being able to see anyone without that body type. It creates a cultivation of what males need to look like, this could send the primary gay audience into a bit of a panic and they may become intimidated.

• The actual purpose of Attitude Online is to promote the magazine and selling it. This is an example of Digital Convergence. This is an example of the push pull effect, people are being pushed away by the technology and internet however the producers are pulling them back in by advertising the magazine all over the homepage.

• By the magazine being online it lets gay men who are closeted to look at the content without needing to admit what they are however a gay man who is closeted wouldn't want to go out and buy the magazine as they will be afraid that their sexuality will come out.

• Attitude is not offering a diverse representation of men.

Attitude Magazine - Front Cover Textual Analysis

• There is a prominent Z-Line in the front cover, we are automatically seeing the attitude brand along with the models face then as we scan over to the bottom we are aware of who the model is. So we get 3 main points of information just from the first glance of the magazine making it informing.

• The facial expression from Jake Shears looks almost like he is in shock and he is looking right at us as the audience positioning us in this shot, by the look on his face its as if us as the audience has done something bad and been caught connoting the badness of it which could lure into sexual connotations aswell.

• The colour scheme contrasts well with the black, white and hot pink this makes it seem vibrant and with the use of the hot pink this connotes femininity and we can almost tell straight away that this man is gay and/or represented as gay. The black background also emphasises the other colours and the bold headlines such as 'Masculinity' at the top of the magazine.

• The Mise-en-scene of the models costume makes him seem even more feminine and gay, the way his shirt is unbuttoned but still covering his body gives a sense of a hermeneutic code as although his shirt is covered there is a reason for it being unbuttoned so we can assume that there is to be some sort of sexualising within the magazine.

• His nail vanish and makeup acts as a binary opposition and a reject of the hegemonic norms. We do not expect a male to be wearing makeup or nail varnish so it is a shift of the hegemonic paradigms of a male. Also with the red nail vanish it is a connotation of sexualised aspects.

• The sell line is something that gives you a sneak peak on what is inside making the consumer feel promised that there is something inside so they would buy the magazine.

Online Media - Industry and Audience

We do not understand algorithms, we do not understand why these videos are so popular but why are these videos being created?

Zoella's Thumbnail and Video Titles - Textual Analysis:

• Using brands in the thumbnail and description as they're pre-established brands which will generate her revenue. For example when she posts a video with asos in the title if someone types in asos to shop there then zoella's video will show up in her google results.

• Her face is in every single thumbnail, and it is the exact same facial expression in every single one of her videos. Her thumbnails work and they get clicks because her face looks interesting and inviting it also looks approachable so it is appealing to the younger audience.

• Her font is always the same which is handwritten this connotes that she's laid-back, non-threatening which works and gets more people clicking on it.

• 'reacting' is a key word in thumbnails and extremely popular which is why Zoella uses these words instead of others in order to get views.

• Zoella has stamped her name on all of her video titles, this is to make ease for the audience so when they type her name they don't need to go onto her channel to find her videos they're just there straight away, and most vloggers do it because it works.

Algorithm

• A set of rules to sort certain things 'If i do this then this does that'

Netflix

• Audiences no longer exist. All that remains is a hyperreal construction forged by algorithms.

• Netflix watches what you watch and keep data on what you like to watch they're do it to get data rather than views and clicks.

Zoella is not targeting an audience, but it using algorithmic practice to target a theoretical machine fabricated audience.

We are living in a particularly boring and utterly incomprehensible science fiction novel.

Clickbait

• The correct words are being used like 'crazy' 'photos' 'perfect timing' which clickbait articles know works therefore they use it.

• Hyperboles and exaggeration is used in clickbait articles as producers know it works so when they click it gives them views and revenues.

Zoella is a hyperreal construction of Zoe Sugg, her friends, her family and even the internet itself, which is confusing as the internet itself is confusing and we don't understand how it but it works.

Youtube is trying to engage hyper engagement. It is creating a vicious circle which is not ethical at all, people with mental health issues will be watching youtube videos and get sucked into specially recommended videos which fills their brain with rubbish.

All these conspiracy theories are exploiting those who are vulnerable.