Little Sprouts
Contact: Debbie Fixter
Company: Little Sprouts - Community Interest Company
Filming - 22/09/16 - 4 hours
Today I was involved in work experience filming a promo video for Little Sprouts, a company that using cooking lessons as an engagement tool for people and individuals from any background who may have disadvantages in their life. The promo was being made as part of a competition to win a sum of money to help the business.
Once we were there for the filming, we split into 2 teams. One team filmed the cooking lessons while the other filmed interviews with everyone. I was on the interview team. One by one, we got members of staff and members of the program to come and speak about what Little Sprouts is and how it helps them/how they are involved. I did camera work for the interviews, working with Rhys who was sound operator and Kane & Chloe worked together overseeing he interviews and asking questions.
River Tees Rediscovered
Contacts: Jenny & Christine
Company: Stockton Borough Council -
Pumping Station - 2/11/16 - 5 hours
Today we filmed at the Tees Cottage Pumping Station to gather footage for the River Tees Rediscovered project we are working on. This project is being made to promote all kinds of businesses, places and events along the river tees. Taylor, Chloe & I arrived at the pumping station at 11:00 and we filmed until 16:00. We were given a tour around the station by the volunteers and we filmed in every room to make sure we had a huge variation of footage to choose from. Taylor and I shared the camera work on this shoot, switching between, just about, each room.
Editing - 9/11/16 - 3 hours
Today was the first day of editing the River Tees Rediscovered footage. I got the footage from the pumping station off the SD card and began to put it together into a 30 second promo piece. Each member of the class put together a 30 second piece which will all be edited together to make a final, full length promo.
Editing - 16/11/16 - 3 hours
Today I finished off the edit of the 30 second River Tees Rediscovered promo and exported it. I then
transferred the finished piece over to Kane and Jess who began to put together the full length promo.
Preston Park
Contact: Adam
Company: Preston Park Museum & Grounds
Meeting - 30/11/16 - 2 hours
Today we went to a meeting with Adam from Preston Park Museum. He is asking us to make a promo video, showing off what the volunteers at the park do throughout the year. He took us around the museum, showing us the areas he wanted us to film in the promo. We also looked at storyboards and discussed ideas, getting a clear idea of what we needed to do.
5 December 2016
28 November 2016
Unit 27: Factual Programme Production Techniques for Television - Working Blog
25/11/2016
Today was our first day of filming. We went to Gifted and Blessed to meet Ian and Angeline, who were already there. Me & Kane filmed inside Gifted and Blessed, getting lots of cutaways while Ian and Angeline were busy, while Taylor & Rhys captured footage outside and along the high-street for establishing shots.
Once Ian was free, we got an interview with him. I set up the main camera with Kane, who also asked questions in the interview. Since the main camera was a static shot, Kane covered it while questioning Ian and I covered a different angle on the DSLR camera. We got 20 minutes of footage for this interview alone, which meant we had plenty of footage to use in the edit. The content of the interview was very good too. Ian started speaking to Debbie at one point, at which I started to film Debbie, which would have been a nice shot to cut back and forth from, but Debbie asked not to be in the film, so it can't be used.
Next, Bernie arrived so we got an interview with her. Her interview was shorter as she had less time before she was busy, however her answers to the questions were very interesting and offered a slightly different look at Spiritualism compared to Ian. This interview lasted 10 minutes. We also got an interview with Angeline. We asked her what it was like to spend time with psychics all day for her job and she gave some interesting insights.
2/12/2016
Filming was cancelled, hoping to reschedule for another day.
6/1/17
This was the first day filming again after multiple cancellations due to illness.
I was unable to make the shoot on this day due to prior commitments. However, I tried to be as involved as I could be without being there. I suggested ideas to the rest of the team and made sure I was aware of the plan for the day.
Kane, Rhys & Taylor went to Gifted and Blessed and met with Ian, Bernie & Angeline. Ian had offered to give Taylor a reading so we could witness one first hand and film it. A two camera set-up was used to film the reading, which went on for almost an hour. After the reading was filmed and the team headed back home from the shoot, Taylor filmed everyone in the car talking about their thoughts after seeing the reading.
9/1/17
This was the first day of editing the documentary. I started by going through the footage that I hadn't seen due to not being at the shoot. I edited together the reading, which is a significant part of the documentary however it took up a lot of the 10 minute limit. I also started editing the introduction. I still need to make a start on editing the interviews with Ian & Bernie.
10/1/17
Today was our first day of filming. We went to Gifted and Blessed to meet Ian and Angeline, who were already there. Me & Kane filmed inside Gifted and Blessed, getting lots of cutaways while Ian and Angeline were busy, while Taylor & Rhys captured footage outside and along the high-street for establishing shots.
Once Ian was free, we got an interview with him. I set up the main camera with Kane, who also asked questions in the interview. Since the main camera was a static shot, Kane covered it while questioning Ian and I covered a different angle on the DSLR camera. We got 20 minutes of footage for this interview alone, which meant we had plenty of footage to use in the edit. The content of the interview was very good too. Ian started speaking to Debbie at one point, at which I started to film Debbie, which would have been a nice shot to cut back and forth from, but Debbie asked not to be in the film, so it can't be used.
Next, Bernie arrived so we got an interview with her. Her interview was shorter as she had less time before she was busy, however her answers to the questions were very interesting and offered a slightly different look at Spiritualism compared to Ian. This interview lasted 10 minutes. We also got an interview with Angeline. We asked her what it was like to spend time with psychics all day for her job and she gave some interesting insights.
2/12/2016
Filming was cancelled, hoping to reschedule for another day.
6/1/17
This was the first day filming again after multiple cancellations due to illness.
I was unable to make the shoot on this day due to prior commitments. However, I tried to be as involved as I could be without being there. I suggested ideas to the rest of the team and made sure I was aware of the plan for the day.
Kane, Rhys & Taylor went to Gifted and Blessed and met with Ian, Bernie & Angeline. Ian had offered to give Taylor a reading so we could witness one first hand and film it. A two camera set-up was used to film the reading, which went on for almost an hour. After the reading was filmed and the team headed back home from the shoot, Taylor filmed everyone in the car talking about their thoughts after seeing the reading.
9/1/17
This was the first day of editing the documentary. I started by going through the footage that I hadn't seen due to not being at the shoot. I edited together the reading, which is a significant part of the documentary however it took up a lot of the 10 minute limit. I also started editing the introduction. I still need to make a start on editing the interviews with Ian & Bernie.
10/1/17
24 November 2016
Unit 6: Critical Approaches to Creative Media Products - Task 2
Social Media
In the build up to the 2016 US Election, twitter has been one of the most popular platforms for the candidates to share their views. It’s used as much as it is because it is so accessible. It makes it very easy to for the candidates to get their messages across to their audience directly. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have each been incredibly active on Twitter, sometimes interacting with each other which has led to things getting heated at times, even to the extent of being classed as a ‘Twitter War’.
In one example, when Obama endorsed Clinton, Trump tweeted, “Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama-but nobody else does!”, to which Clinton quickly responded: “Delete your account”. Trump responded again with “How long did it take your staff of 823 people to think that up--and where are your 33,000 emails that you deleted?”
Other twitter users quickly got involved; the most popular response was from a user being “Fuck you both. Stop arguing on Twitter. I'm scared for either one of you to run this country.”. This was only one of the many tweets in response to their interaction with each other. The responses ranged from very negative to very positive for both sides of the argument.
Other twitter users quickly got involved; the most popular response was from a user being “Fuck you both. Stop arguing on Twitter. I'm scared for either one of you to run this country.”. This was only one of the many tweets in response to their interaction with each other. The responses ranged from very negative to very positive for both sides of the argument.
Out of the three tweets, Hillary’s got the most retweets and likes. It actually went viral with 556,456 retweets, a significant amount of retweets more than her usual, which usually range from around 100,000 to 150,000. While the responses to both of Trump’s tweets stayed serious and mostly political, because to the viral status Hillary’s tweet got it reached a much wider audience who were not political and was responded to with a lot unpolitical tweets, many of the responses even coming in Gif form:
Many people believed this Twitter interaction seemed unprofessional however this wasn’t the only time the two used social media in this way. There were many other occasions where both Trump and Clinton tweeted badly about each other. Trump even coined the hashtag #CrookedHillary and often used it in his tweets when speaking of Clinton. This presidential election was like no other because the amount of aggressive back and forth the two candidates would have on Twitter. While it may seem unprofessional to many people, it’s actually very smart from both sides. The use of Twitter not only broadens the candidates audience/following, it accesses a younger generation who might not usually pay attention to politics.
It can be proven that the use of attacking the opposing candidate over social media is a successful publicity tactic as some of the most popular tweets from both Trump and Hillary have been the tweets aimed at each other, as shown by the earlier examples. The use of “Delete your account” by Hillary is a very common term used by the younger, more social media focused generation which allowed her to access that part of her audience, whereas if she was to tweet about political issues, there would be a significantly smaller amount of response to it.
Jon Keegan wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal which live-updates a comparison of Trump and Clinton’s twitter profiles. Below is a graph from the article, showing the amount of followers both Trump and Clinton have gained since announcing their candidacy.
Many people believed this Twitter interaction seemed unprofessional however this wasn’t the only time the two used social media in this way. There were many other occasions where both Trump and Clinton tweeted badly about each other. Trump even coined the hashtag #CrookedHillary and often used it in his tweets when speaking of Clinton. This presidential election was like no other because the amount of aggressive back and forth the two candidates would have on Twitter. While it may seem unprofessional to many people, it’s actually very smart from both sides. The use of Twitter not only broadens the candidates audience/following, it accesses a younger generation who might not usually pay attention to politics.
It can be proven that the use of attacking the opposing candidate over social media is a successful publicity tactic as some of the most popular tweets from both Trump and Hillary have been the tweets aimed at each other, as shown by the earlier examples. The use of “Delete your account” by Hillary is a very common term used by the younger, more social media focused generation which allowed her to access that part of her audience, whereas if she was to tweet about political issues, there would be a significantly smaller amount of response to it.
Jon Keegan wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal which live-updates a comparison of Trump and Clinton’s twitter profiles. Below is a graph from the article, showing the amount of followers both Trump and Clinton have gained since announcing their candidacy.
As shown, Trump has gained over 6 million more followers on Twitter than Clinton has over the same amount of time. Clinton actually announced her candidacy months before Trump did but had a much slower gain of followers compared to Trump’s sudden rise in Twitter fame. It is obvious from simply looking through Trump’s Twitter profile that he is the most controversial, or at least most brutally honest, out of himself and Clinton. This would suggest the controversy in his tweets gained more attention than anything else that was being said by any other presidential candidate. By using Twitter in this way, Trump managed to frequently catch the attention of even the least politically involved Twitter users.
21 November 2016
Unit 6: Critical Approaches to Creative Media Products - research
"I like it because I can get also my point of view out there, and my point of view is very important to a lot of people that are looking at me," Trump said
General Statistics:
- The internet has 3.17 billion users
- There are 2.3 billion active social media users
- 91% of retail brands use 2 or more social media channels
- Internet users have an average of 5.54 social media accounts
- Social media users have risen by 176 million in the last year
- 1 million new active mobile social users are added every day. That’s 12 each second
- Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp handle 60 billion messages a day
- Social Media Users:
- 4Chan: 11 million users
- Airbnb: 50 million users
- Facebook: 1.71 billion users
- Flickr: 112 million users
- Google+: 300 million users
- Instagram: 400 million users
- LinkedIn: 450 million users
- MySpace: 50.6 million users
- Periscope: 10 million users
- Pinterest: 100 million users
- Reddit: 36 million accounts
- Snapchat: 100 million users
- Twitter: 320 million users
- Wechat: 1.12 billion users
- Weibo: 600 million users
- WhatsApp: 900 million users
- Youtube: Over 1 billion users
- 500 million people visit Twitter each month without logging in
- There is a total of 1.3 billion accounts, but only 320 million are active
- Of those, 44% made an account and left before ever sending a Tweet
- The average Twitter user has 208 followers
- But 391 million accounts have no followers at all
- There are 500 million Tweets sent each day. That’s 6,000 Tweets every second
- Twitter’s top 5 markets (countries) account for 50% of all Tweets
- It took 3 years, 2 months and 1 day to go from the first Tweet to the billionth
- 65.8% of US companies with 100+ employees use Twitter for marketing
- 77% of Twitter users feel more positive about a brand when their Tweet has been replied to
Unit 6: Critical Approaches to Creative Media Products - Task 1
Task 1:
Understand how media producers define audiences for their products
Quantitative audience research
Quantitative research is when a company gathers information in large amounts, A way of doing this might be by collection information via surveys of different types of groups. Different kinds of surveys may be mail surveys, telephone surveys, internet surveys and face to face public surveys.
Qualitative audience research
Qualitative research is gathered to get a target audience's range of behaviour and perceptions. This research is usually done with smaller groups of people. Unlike quantitative research, which is statistical, qualitative research is are more descriptive of the audience. Some ways of gathering qualitative research are individual interviews or group discussions.
Understand how media producers define audiences for their products
Quantitative audience research
Quantitative research is when a company gathers information in large amounts, A way of doing this might be by collection information via surveys of different types of groups. Different kinds of surveys may be mail surveys, telephone surveys, internet surveys and face to face public surveys.
Qualitative audience research
Audience classifications
Audience classification is the recognising of demographics in an audience. Demographics are the characteristics of the audience. These can be factors such as Gender, Age, Sexuality, Religion, Income, Socio Economic status etc.
Audience classification is the recognising of demographics in an audience. Demographics are the characteristics of the audience. These can be factors such as Gender, Age, Sexuality, Religion, Income, Socio Economic status etc.
2 November 2016
Unit 62: Digital Video Production for Interactive Media - Task 1
Purposes Of Digital Video
River Tees Rediscovered have requested we make a short film which will promote the projects which run along the River Tees, hoping to increase awareness and increase visitor numbers. In this task, I will present examples of Digital Video and how it is used so River Tees Rediscovered can use similar methods with their project.
Starting with the same kind of digital media we aim to create, Short films. Currently, one of the best platforms for short films is Vimeo. Founded in 2004, Vimeo is a video sharing website in which users can upload and share their own creations. Unlike other video sharing websites, Vimeo is primarily used by aspiring filmmakers and the website itself promotes that, sharing 'Staff Pick's of the best short or experimental films every few days, as seen in the screenshot below which shows Vimeo's home page:
In this example of Digital Media, the media (short films) is very accessible to the people using the site with 'the best' short films being presented in a very prominent banner at the top of the page. The banner shows a series of 5 short films that Vimeo recommend you watch. The colours are very bright and draw attention to the banner since the rest of the website background is plain white.
This is the sort of digital media that could help River Tees Rediscovered on their own website, having a banner at the top of their site showing the short film we create. This would instantly catch the attention of the audience, drawing them in to watch it before they do anything else.
Advertisements are also shown before the majority of videos. They are usually 30 seconds and can often be skipped however the shortness of these videos means they should aim to grab the attention of the viewer in a very short time.
Promotional material could be a very helpful digital media method for River Tees Rediscovered as they could advertise the short film and their other projects through YouTube and other websites which allow advertisement
User Generated Content - YouTube
YouTube is also the biggest and most used website worldwide for use created content. Anyone can create a video and upload it for the world to see. Too put the scale of YouTube in perspective, in the 10 years it has been running there have bee approximately 816,417,600 hours of footage uploaded to the site. Because anybody can upload a video, the types of video can range from an official film trailer by a professional companies verified YouTube channel to a lyric video to a song which somebody decided to make in their spare time. There is a such a variation of content on the site. The home page of the site is set out to show a mixture of all the kinds of videos from different creators. The videos on the home page are often the videos which have received the most attention i.e. most views, best like/dislike ratio etc.
Since anybody, anywhere can watch videos someone has uploaded, many random, second thought videos people upload have actually gone viral and sometimes led to the uploader receiving internet fame, even if just for a short time. However, many professionally made videos, intended to go viral also have received massive attention on the internet. Viewers are able to share the videos they watch on sites such as Facebook or Twitter. This makes YouTube the perfect platform to upload a video to be shared on other sites, possibly in hope of it going viral.
A codec is a software used to compress or decompress a file. Some codecs can work on all platforms. However certain codecs only work on specific platforms. For example, some codecs work only on PC and would not work when the file the codec compressed/decompressed was used on a Mac.
Some of these Video Formats are better than others. For example, the H.264 video format is considered the new standard when compressing a video down. In comparison, H.264 is now much better for compression then MPEG-4, which was considered the standard previously. H.264 has advantages over MPEG-4 such as a smaller file size for longer recording time better and more fluent video quality and playback after the compression.
Compression can be either lossy or lossless. Lossless means that when a file is compressed, none of the information is lost. This means that you would be able to decompress the file afterwards and the file would be restored to it's original condition with all the original information. However, with lossy compression, some of the information is removed from the file. This means that if you were to decompress the file again, it would not be the same as the original as some of the information has been permanently lost. This does not mean that it is majorly noticeable to anyone looking at the photo but not all the information will have been restored.
Lossless compression is mostly used in image files whereas lossy compression is mostly used on video files because it is not entirely detectable to an audience. An example of lossless compression is the GIF image file type. An image file type that does use lossy compression is a JPEG.
1080p is now the standard in television and film but YouTube and other online video uploading sites allow much higher video quality to be used. The highest quality available now is the recently incorporated 2160p, otherwise known as 4K.
River Tees Rediscovered have requested we make a short film which will promote the projects which run along the River Tees, hoping to increase awareness and increase visitor numbers. In this task, I will present examples of Digital Video and how it is used so River Tees Rediscovered can use similar methods with their project.
Short Films - Vimeo
Starting with the same kind of digital media we aim to create, Short films. Currently, one of the best platforms for short films is Vimeo. Founded in 2004, Vimeo is a video sharing website in which users can upload and share their own creations. Unlike other video sharing websites, Vimeo is primarily used by aspiring filmmakers and the website itself promotes that, sharing 'Staff Pick's of the best short or experimental films every few days, as seen in the screenshot below which shows Vimeo's home page:
In this example of Digital Media, the media (short films) is very accessible to the people using the site with 'the best' short films being presented in a very prominent banner at the top of the page. The banner shows a series of 5 short films that Vimeo recommend you watch. The colours are very bright and draw attention to the banner since the rest of the website background is plain white.
This is the sort of digital media that could help River Tees Rediscovered on their own website, having a banner at the top of their site showing the short film we create. This would instantly catch the attention of the audience, drawing them in to watch it before they do anything else.
Promotional Material - YouTube
Another type of digital media comes in the form of promotional material or advertising. YouTube, another video sharing website similar to Vimeo, heavily advertise on their website. From the second you are on the home page, advertisements are seen before anything else however these adverts fit in well with the rest of the site as they link to videos which have been uploaded in exactly the same way any other use content will have been uploaded and is equally accessible. The home page advertisements blend in even more on Mobile Devices as they are displayed exactly the same as other videos just with an 'Ad' symbol underneath.
Another type of digital media comes in the form of promotional material or advertising. YouTube, another video sharing website similar to Vimeo, heavily advertise on their website. From the second you are on the home page, advertisements are seen before anything else however these adverts fit in well with the rest of the site as they link to videos which have been uploaded in exactly the same way any other use content will have been uploaded and is equally accessible. The home page advertisements blend in even more on Mobile Devices as they are displayed exactly the same as other videos just with an 'Ad' symbol underneath.
Advertisements are also shown before the majority of videos. They are usually 30 seconds and can often be skipped however the shortness of these videos means they should aim to grab the attention of the viewer in a very short time.
Promotional material could be a very helpful digital media method for River Tees Rediscovered as they could advertise the short film and their other projects through YouTube and other websites which allow advertisement
User Generated Content - YouTube
YouTube is also the biggest and most used website worldwide for use created content. Anyone can create a video and upload it for the world to see. Too put the scale of YouTube in perspective, in the 10 years it has been running there have bee approximately 816,417,600 hours of footage uploaded to the site. Because anybody can upload a video, the types of video can range from an official film trailer by a professional companies verified YouTube channel to a lyric video to a song which somebody decided to make in their spare time. There is a such a variation of content on the site. The home page of the site is set out to show a mixture of all the kinds of videos from different creators. The videos on the home page are often the videos which have received the most attention i.e. most views, best like/dislike ratio etc.
Since anybody, anywhere can watch videos someone has uploaded, many random, second thought videos people upload have actually gone viral and sometimes led to the uploader receiving internet fame, even if just for a short time. However, many professionally made videos, intended to go viral also have received massive attention on the internet. Viewers are able to share the videos they watch on sites such as Facebook or Twitter. This makes YouTube the perfect platform to upload a video to be shared on other sites, possibly in hope of it going viral.
Film Trailer - IMDb
The first thing a user will see when they open IMDb is a series of links to the latest film trailers. This is a form of promotional material but not just for the film, it also helps the site as well. When someone visits the site they instantly see trailers and feel inclined to watch them and even if they don't want to watch any of the trailers shown they will be under the impression IMDb has many other trailers to view. This will also be shown by the 'Browse more trailers' button below the 3 shown on the main page.
The first thing a user will see when they open IMDb is a series of links to the latest film trailers. This is a form of promotional material but not just for the film, it also helps the site as well. When someone visits the site they instantly see trailers and feel inclined to watch them and even if they don't want to watch any of the trailers shown they will be under the impression IMDb has many other trailers to view. This will also be shown by the 'Browse more trailers' button below the 3 shown on the main page.
Virtual Reality Tours - Google Maps
Virtual Reality Tours are a form of Digital Media in which a user can navigate around an area which has been captured by 360 degree cameras and aims to simulate actually being in that area. The most common form of VR Tours is Google Maps which allows you to explore the entire world via VR Tour or, as Google call it, Street View. On Google Maps the user drags a small orange figure onto the map, anywhere in the world, which will transition them to Street View, allowing them to explore the area without actually being there.
Virtual Reality Tours are a form of Digital Media in which a user can navigate around an area which has been captured by 360 degree cameras and aims to simulate actually being in that area. The most common form of VR Tours is Google Maps which allows you to explore the entire world via VR Tour or, as Google call it, Street View. On Google Maps the user drags a small orange figure onto the map, anywhere in the world, which will transition them to Street View, allowing them to explore the area without actually being there.
Virtual Reality Tours are also used in other ways too such as on University websites, allowing the users to explore the accommodation and other facilities without having to visit the University itself.
There are all kinds of different types of Digital and Interactive Media which use different file types/video formats. There are all kinds of Video Formats but here are some of the most common ones:
- QuickTime (H264)
- AVI
- Windows Media Video (WMV)
- MPEG-4
- FLV
- WebM
Some of these Video Formats are better than others. For example, the H.264 video format is considered the new standard when compressing a video down. In comparison, H.264 is now much better for compression then MPEG-4, which was considered the standard previously. H.264 has advantages over MPEG-4 such as a smaller file size for longer recording time better and more fluent video quality and playback after the compression.
Compression can be either lossy or lossless. Lossless means that when a file is compressed, none of the information is lost. This means that you would be able to decompress the file afterwards and the file would be restored to it's original condition with all the original information. However, with lossy compression, some of the information is removed from the file. This means that if you were to decompress the file again, it would not be the same as the original as some of the information has been permanently lost. This does not mean that it is majorly noticeable to anyone looking at the photo but not all the information will have been restored.
Lossless compression is mostly used in image files whereas lossy compression is mostly used on video files because it is not entirely detectable to an audience. An example of lossless compression is the GIF image file type. An image file type that does use lossy compression is a JPEG.
Websites such as YouTube or Vimeo accept all these different video file types. YouTube also gives recommended resolutions when uploading video files to their site:
- 2160p: 3840x2160
- 1440p: 2560x1440
- 1080p: 1920x1080
- 720p: 1280x720
- 480p: 854x480
- 360p: 640x360
- 240p: 426x240
1080p is now the standard in television and film but YouTube and other online video uploading sites allow much higher video quality to be used. The highest quality available now is the recently incorporated 2160p, otherwise known as 4K.
18 October 2016
Interviewing In Documentary - Notes
Types of Question
Closed Questions:
Can be answered with either a single word or a short phrase, no room for elaboration
- They give you facts
- Easy to answer
- Quick to answer
- Keep control of the conversation
Usage:
- Opening & Closing
- For testing understanding
- Setting up a desired positive or negative mind set
- For seeking yes to the big question
You can turn any opinion into a closed question that forces a yes or no answer by adding tag questions
Open Questions:
Likely to receive a long answer, deliberately seek longer answers
ACTIVELY LISTEN TO THE ANSWER
- They make the respondent think/reflect
- They will give you opinions and feelings
- They hand control of the conversation to the respondent
Usage:
- To develop conversation
- To find out more about a person
Closed Questions:
Can be answered with either a single word or a short phrase, no room for elaboration
- They give you facts
- Easy to answer
- Quick to answer
- Keep control of the conversation
Usage:
- Opening & Closing
- For testing understanding
- Setting up a desired positive or negative mind set
- For seeking yes to the big question
You can turn any opinion into a closed question that forces a yes or no answer by adding tag questions
Open Questions:
Likely to receive a long answer, deliberately seek longer answers
ACTIVELY LISTEN TO THE ANSWER
- They make the respondent think/reflect
- They will give you opinions and feelings
- They hand control of the conversation to the respondent
Usage:
- To develop conversation
- To find out more about a person
Unit 27: Factual Programme Production Techniques for Television - Task 1
Task 1a
When making a documentary or factual film, there are many key issues you need to look out for and may need to deal with depending on your subject.
There are many different types and styles of Documentary. However the main way in which Documentaries differ is whether they are Objective or Subjective. Factual films can approach their subjects either objectively or subjectively. Objective documentaries are mostly unbiased (the direction most documentaries tend to follow) while Subjective documentaries offer a specific point of view.
In Objective Documentary, sometimes called Direct Cinema or cinéma vérité, the film maker tries to show the events in the most unbiased way possible. This means they have to avoid letting their opinion slip through during the process of making the film and make sure to stay impartial and avoid any kind of manipulation of events during the post production. An example of an Objective documentary would be 'Jesus Camp'. This is an interesting objective film because it still led to a very one sided view from the audience as they had a very negative response to the subject, an evangelical summer camp. However, the film makers were very unbiased as they showed all the sides of the subject equally, in fact, most of the time they just showed the events at the summer camp as they were. It was just the choice of the of the audience to feel negatively about it rather than being influenced by the film to feel a certain way.
In Subjective Documentary, the film maker bases the film around their opinion of the subject. While this style is rarer in bigger films, there are some well known film makers who have made subjective documentaries. Michael Moore is one of these film makers. He's made documentaries such as Fahrenheit 9/11 & Bowling For Columbine, which are very controversial topics. While most controversial documentaries would come under Objective as it can be risky to be bias about those kinds of subjects, Moore is bias and uses his opinion, making the films subjective and much more personal. Subjective documentaries often have the filmmaker appearing in front of the camera participating in what is happening. Moore does this, and another good example of someone who makes their documentaries this way is Louis Theroux. He is always on camera conducting interviews as opposed to being behind camera and making the contributor the full centre of attention. Being more of a personality in your documentary doesn't necessarily take away from the focus of the subject however it is hard to be on camera, giving direction to the documentary, and not let your opinion come through.
Privacy is incredibly important in a factual piece as real people and real events are being recorded. As a film maker you have to be very careful when respecting someone privacy who is in the documentary as they might not want you to use certain information or even in some cases they might not want you to show them on camera. Often in Documentaries about controversial topics contributors may request not to have their faces shown or even have their voices disguised as they could be endangering themselves and/their family and friends due to their involvement in the subject. One extreme example of a persons identity being kept completely hidden in in 'Exit Through The Gift Shop' in which famous street artist Banksy is heavily featured throughout the film in sit down interviews but his face is never shown and his voice is always disguised. What is different about this situation is that many people know of Banksy and his work but not who is he is. Interestingly, due to this, there is no way of knowing that the person in these interviews even is Banksy. If you were to breach these privacy requests it would be considered unethical. In some cases contributors have been misrepresented or so they claim to have been and they might not like what they have been shown saying. However, this does not necessarily go against the persons privacy as they should understand that everything they say can be recorded and can be used and in some cases, while considered unethical, manipulated in post-production.
Speaking of Representation, Documentaries often go into a lot of effort and specific detail when trying to represent different people. Things such as clothing and even location can all be specifically chosen by the film maker depending on how they want the contributor to be represented. While location might not seem important to someone's representation,, it can chance the audiences perception of someone without them even realising which is why film makers often plan the representation of their contributors down to the smallest detail. An example of this can be seen in one of the pieces I worked on for work experience. We had to make a promo video for a group of ex-criminals, ex-drug users etc. and just people who weren't doing so well for themselves. In one of the sit down interviews we had with a contributor, we had them sit in a specific place which didn't look very nice and his clothing choice, while not chosen by us, represented the sort of background he had come from which together represented him instantly as someone who was probably of a lower class. This could be considered manipulation because while you aren't faking anything, you are exaggerating the truth and what is already there.
Task 1b
I need to understand all of the key issues mentioned above when making my own documentary. My documentary will be about Spiritualism which is a subject that many people believe in while many others do not, making the audience very split. While I could head in the direction of being bias in my film and choosing one side to talk about, this won't be what I'm going to do. My approach will objective and be as unbiased as possible in the way I present the subject.
At the time of writing this, I am sceptical about Spiritualism however other members of my team fully believe in it. This should help keep the documentary impartial and keep a balance in the direction of the film as it can be very easy when having a belief that weighs more to one side to start being bias, even without realising it.
I will have to be careful about privacy because I would like to film some of the readings the mediums will do however they can be very private and personal so I would need to ask permission and even if i got permission I would need to be respectful and no get involved in any other way than filming.
As for the representation of the Spiritualists at Gifted & Blessed, I wouldn't want to purposefully make them look weird or odd as one of the aims I have for the documentary is for people to watch it and see normal people who just happen to be mediums and spiritualists rather than present them in a way the audience who aren't familiar with Spiritualism would think they were weird. Of course, I also wouldn't want to change the way they present themselves much because I would want people to see them for who they actually are.
When making a documentary or factual film, there are many key issues you need to look out for and may need to deal with depending on your subject.
There are many different types and styles of Documentary. However the main way in which Documentaries differ is whether they are Objective or Subjective. Factual films can approach their subjects either objectively or subjectively. Objective documentaries are mostly unbiased (the direction most documentaries tend to follow) while Subjective documentaries offer a specific point of view.
In Objective Documentary, sometimes called Direct Cinema or cinéma vérité, the film maker tries to show the events in the most unbiased way possible. This means they have to avoid letting their opinion slip through during the process of making the film and make sure to stay impartial and avoid any kind of manipulation of events during the post production. An example of an Objective documentary would be 'Jesus Camp'. This is an interesting objective film because it still led to a very one sided view from the audience as they had a very negative response to the subject, an evangelical summer camp. However, the film makers were very unbiased as they showed all the sides of the subject equally, in fact, most of the time they just showed the events at the summer camp as they were. It was just the choice of the of the audience to feel negatively about it rather than being influenced by the film to feel a certain way.
In Subjective Documentary, the film maker bases the film around their opinion of the subject. While this style is rarer in bigger films, there are some well known film makers who have made subjective documentaries. Michael Moore is one of these film makers. He's made documentaries such as Fahrenheit 9/11 & Bowling For Columbine, which are very controversial topics. While most controversial documentaries would come under Objective as it can be risky to be bias about those kinds of subjects, Moore is bias and uses his opinion, making the films subjective and much more personal. Subjective documentaries often have the filmmaker appearing in front of the camera participating in what is happening. Moore does this, and another good example of someone who makes their documentaries this way is Louis Theroux. He is always on camera conducting interviews as opposed to being behind camera and making the contributor the full centre of attention. Being more of a personality in your documentary doesn't necessarily take away from the focus of the subject however it is hard to be on camera, giving direction to the documentary, and not let your opinion come through.
Privacy is incredibly important in a factual piece as real people and real events are being recorded. As a film maker you have to be very careful when respecting someone privacy who is in the documentary as they might not want you to use certain information or even in some cases they might not want you to show them on camera. Often in Documentaries about controversial topics contributors may request not to have their faces shown or even have their voices disguised as they could be endangering themselves and/their family and friends due to their involvement in the subject. One extreme example of a persons identity being kept completely hidden in in 'Exit Through The Gift Shop' in which famous street artist Banksy is heavily featured throughout the film in sit down interviews but his face is never shown and his voice is always disguised. What is different about this situation is that many people know of Banksy and his work but not who is he is. Interestingly, due to this, there is no way of knowing that the person in these interviews even is Banksy. If you were to breach these privacy requests it would be considered unethical. In some cases contributors have been misrepresented or so they claim to have been and they might not like what they have been shown saying. However, this does not necessarily go against the persons privacy as they should understand that everything they say can be recorded and can be used and in some cases, while considered unethical, manipulated in post-production.
Speaking of Representation, Documentaries often go into a lot of effort and specific detail when trying to represent different people. Things such as clothing and even location can all be specifically chosen by the film maker depending on how they want the contributor to be represented. While location might not seem important to someone's representation,, it can chance the audiences perception of someone without them even realising which is why film makers often plan the representation of their contributors down to the smallest detail. An example of this can be seen in one of the pieces I worked on for work experience. We had to make a promo video for a group of ex-criminals, ex-drug users etc. and just people who weren't doing so well for themselves. In one of the sit down interviews we had with a contributor, we had them sit in a specific place which didn't look very nice and his clothing choice, while not chosen by us, represented the sort of background he had come from which together represented him instantly as someone who was probably of a lower class. This could be considered manipulation because while you aren't faking anything, you are exaggerating the truth and what is already there.
Task 1b
I need to understand all of the key issues mentioned above when making my own documentary. My documentary will be about Spiritualism which is a subject that many people believe in while many others do not, making the audience very split. While I could head in the direction of being bias in my film and choosing one side to talk about, this won't be what I'm going to do. My approach will objective and be as unbiased as possible in the way I present the subject.
At the time of writing this, I am sceptical about Spiritualism however other members of my team fully believe in it. This should help keep the documentary impartial and keep a balance in the direction of the film as it can be very easy when having a belief that weighs more to one side to start being bias, even without realising it.
I will have to be careful about privacy because I would like to film some of the readings the mediums will do however they can be very private and personal so I would need to ask permission and even if i got permission I would need to be respectful and no get involved in any other way than filming.
As for the representation of the Spiritualists at Gifted & Blessed, I wouldn't want to purposefully make them look weird or odd as one of the aims I have for the documentary is for people to watch it and see normal people who just happen to be mediums and spiritualists rather than present them in a way the audience who aren't familiar with Spiritualism would think they were weird. Of course, I also wouldn't want to change the way they present themselves much because I would want people to see them for who they actually are.
19 September 2016
LIFT - Documentary Analysis
Synopsis
Filming inside the lift of a block of council flats, a man captures footage of residents and meets many different personalities.
Review
LIFT was a very basic but also very unique documentary. The film follows a film maker who waits in a lift with his camera and films everyone who enters, hoping to document a kind of story through peoples real lives. He asks the members of the community that frequently use the lift, and appear several times throughout the film, questions they really have to think about. The questions he ask can vary from "Where are you going today?" to "What did you dream of last night?". Many questions are very thought provoking and generate very interesting and some very compelling answers from people. LIFT, while seeming like a 'nothing' film, actually feels so much bigger and more important due to the things the people in the lift say when given certain questions. One man talks about his parents dying and the impact it had on his life while another talks about her thoughts on religion and how important it is to her.
Analysis
This was an objective documentary as their was no specific point of view given. The film maker just observed residents and asked questions that were very open and could've had an answer for any view.
The narrative forms naturally to an extent however the presence of a camera in the lift forces people to have conversation so the atmosphere isn't as awkward as it would be standing in silence.
With a more planned out structure the film wouldn't have worked as well as the randomness and the unexpected conversation is what makes the film more interesting and entertaining. With a proper structure the film wouldn't have seemed as genuine and would have felt more false.
Filming inside the lift of a block of council flats, a man captures footage of residents and meets many different personalities.
Review
LIFT was a very basic but also very unique documentary. The film follows a film maker who waits in a lift with his camera and films everyone who enters, hoping to document a kind of story through peoples real lives. He asks the members of the community that frequently use the lift, and appear several times throughout the film, questions they really have to think about. The questions he ask can vary from "Where are you going today?" to "What did you dream of last night?". Many questions are very thought provoking and generate very interesting and some very compelling answers from people. LIFT, while seeming like a 'nothing' film, actually feels so much bigger and more important due to the things the people in the lift say when given certain questions. One man talks about his parents dying and the impact it had on his life while another talks about her thoughts on religion and how important it is to her.
Analysis
This was an objective documentary as their was no specific point of view given. The film maker just observed residents and asked questions that were very open and could've had an answer for any view.
The narrative forms naturally to an extent however the presence of a camera in the lift forces people to have conversation so the atmosphere isn't as awkward as it would be standing in silence.
With a more planned out structure the film wouldn't have worked as well as the randomness and the unexpected conversation is what makes the film more interesting and entertaining. With a proper structure the film wouldn't have seemed as genuine and would have felt more false.
16 June 2016
Unit 8: Understanding the Television and Film Industries - Task 4 - Timeline
The technology of the Film industry has been growing since the late 1800's. A huge amount has happened in that time and this timeline a summary of everything that has happened so far:
1889
The first ever motion picture camera is commissioned by Thomas Edison and built by William Dickson. It is named the Kinetograph.
1894
The first ever motion picture studio, the Black Maria, is built as well as the first Kinetoscope parlour where people can go to watch films.
1895
The Lumière brothers invent the Cinematograph, a combination between camera and projector. They held the first ever private film screening.
1905
In Pittsburgh, the first ever movie theatre is opened.
1910
Thomas Edison introduces the Kinetophone, an early attempt at a sound recording device.
1911
The first feature film, Enoch Arden, is made by D.W. Griffiths and screened for the first time.
1922
Power of Love, the first 3D film, is released.
1924
Walt Disney releases the his first animated film and the first of his 'Alice' comedies, Alice's Wonderland.
1927
The Jazz Singer is released which is the first feature length film with synchronised sound.
1935
The first all colour feature length film, Becky Sharp, is released.
1937
Walt Disney's first feature length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, is released. It is the first fully hand drawn feature length animation.
1941
In Citizen Kane, Orson Welles redefines the medium of film by subordinating all previous technological and cinematic accomplishments to his own cinematic vision, using newly developed film stocks and a wider, faster lens,
1953
Hollywood develops wide-screen processes such as CinemaScope.
1955
1960
The Academy awards Ampex with an Oscar for technical achievement.
1964
Red Desert makes great use of the recently perfected zoom lens, which increases the optical mobility of a shot.
1976
Rocky is the first film to incorporate the use of Steadicam.
1977
Star Wars is released and uses new, ground breaking special effects.
1990
Computer-based non-linear editing systems are introduced and begin to dominate post-production.
1995
Toy Story is released and is the first completely computer generated feature film.
2009
Avatar uses 3D heavily and causes it a rise in popularity. The film also uses many other ground breaking special effects no other film had used before.
1889
The first ever motion picture camera is commissioned by Thomas Edison and built by William Dickson. It is named the Kinetograph.
1894
The first ever motion picture studio, the Black Maria, is built as well as the first Kinetoscope parlour where people can go to watch films.
1895
The Lumière brothers invent the Cinematograph, a combination between camera and projector. They held the first ever private film screening.
1905
In Pittsburgh, the first ever movie theatre is opened.
1910
Thomas Edison introduces the Kinetophone, an early attempt at a sound recording device.
1911
The first feature film, Enoch Arden, is made by D.W. Griffiths and screened for the first time.
1922
Power of Love, the first 3D film, is released.
1924
Walt Disney releases the his first animated film and the first of his 'Alice' comedies, Alice's Wonderland.
1927
The Jazz Singer is released which is the first feature length film with synchronised sound.
1935
The first all colour feature length film, Becky Sharp, is released.
1937
Walt Disney's first feature length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, is released. It is the first fully hand drawn feature length animation.
1941
In Citizen Kane, Orson Welles redefines the medium of film by subordinating all previous technological and cinematic accomplishments to his own cinematic vision, using newly developed film stocks and a wider, faster lens,
1953
Hollywood develops wide-screen processes such as CinemaScope.
1955
1960
The Academy awards Ampex with an Oscar for technical achievement.
1964
Red Desert makes great use of the recently perfected zoom lens, which increases the optical mobility of a shot.
1976
Rocky is the first film to incorporate the use of Steadicam.
1977
Star Wars is released and uses new, ground breaking special effects.
1990
Computer-based non-linear editing systems are introduced and begin to dominate post-production.
1995
Toy Story is released and is the first completely computer generated feature film.
2009
Avatar uses 3D heavily and causes it a rise in popularity. The film also uses many other ground breaking special effects no other film had used before.
Unit 8: Understanding the Television and Film Industries - Task 1 - Case Study
Marvel Studios
Marvel Studios (originally known as Marvel Films until 1996), is an American motion picture studio based at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It was founded by Avi Arad in 1993. It is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios and uses vertical integration as it has subsidiaries of its own such as Marvel Music, Iron Works Productions, Incredible Productions etc. Marvel Studios was bought by Walt Disney Studios in 2009 for a huge $4 billion and since the purchase the company's net worth has grown to a $9 billion, due to the success of the 'Marvel Cinematic Universe' films. They also produce TV shows too such as Agents of Shield and Agent Carter and Netflix Exclusive shows like Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.
Miramax Studios
Miramax is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. It is head quartered in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in 1979 by the Weinstein brothers, Bob and Harvey. However, in 1993 the company was acquired by the Walt Disney Company. The Weinstein brothers still had a large amount of control over the company despite now being a subsidiary of Disney. The Weinstein's eventually left the company in 2005 and in 2010 Disney sold Miramax to Filmyard Holdings. The company currently has a net worth of £457 million. Since it started Miramax has produced some of the biggest films such as Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, The Aviator etc.
Marvel Studios (originally known as Marvel Films until 1996), is an American motion picture studio based at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It was founded by Avi Arad in 1993. It is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios and uses vertical integration as it has subsidiaries of its own such as Marvel Music, Iron Works Productions, Incredible Productions etc. Marvel Studios was bought by Walt Disney Studios in 2009 for a huge $4 billion and since the purchase the company's net worth has grown to a $9 billion, due to the success of the 'Marvel Cinematic Universe' films. They also produce TV shows too such as Agents of Shield and Agent Carter and Netflix Exclusive shows like Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.
Miramax Studios
Miramax is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. It is head quartered in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in 1979 by the Weinstein brothers, Bob and Harvey. However, in 1993 the company was acquired by the Walt Disney Company. The Weinstein brothers still had a large amount of control over the company despite now being a subsidiary of Disney. The Weinstein's eventually left the company in 2005 and in 2010 Disney sold Miramax to Filmyard Holdings. The company currently has a net worth of £457 million. Since it started Miramax has produced some of the biggest films such as Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, The Aviator etc.
Unit 8: Understanding the Television and Film Industries - Task 2 - Flow Chart
In groups, we made flow charts showing the responsibilities of jobs in the Film & TV industry. Job types were split up among the groups. My group worked specifically on showing the links between roles in Technical and Construction. The photos below show the job roles in these categories and which jobs are higher than others with more responsibility:
Unit 8: Understanding the Television and Film Industries - Task 3 - Contracts
The Contracts in the Film & TV industry are unlike contracts for traditional jobs because of the Industry being so flexible and constantly changing.
Full Time
A full time contract is more similar to a regular job's contract in comparison to, for example, a freelance contract however it is less likely to get a full time contract in the film industry. As it says in the title, someone with this kind of contract would work full time and be permanently attached to the company until the project was finished, working a set number of hours per week. A full time worker always gets company benefits such as pension, sick pay, maternity and holiday leave. Job roles that are most likely to be under a full time contract are managerial, editorial and financial. An example of someone on a full time contract would be someone high up, possibly in charge of the company/project.
Part Time
A part time contract means you work just a small amount of what a full time contract would ask for. Similarly to a full time contract, this contract gives a set amount of hours a week, just not as many. Also in the contract are similar benefits a full time worker gets, just less because of the lesser work hours.
Freelance
Freelance contracts are the most common contracts in the Film Industry. Technical & Creative jobs are most likely to be under freelance contracts. Unlike a full time contract, these kind of contracts are temporary and they will only last for so long. In a freelance contract, the employee might still be entitled to company benefits however it depends on the situation and the company they are working for. However, while they might not definitely get company benefits, a freelance worker gets to be in control of a lot more due to not fully working for the company and just being hired temporarily. An example of someone freelance would most likely be someone in a role such as a Camera Operator.
Confidentiality
Contracts sometimes can contain confidentiality agreements. This is an agreement that the worker signing the contract is bound by law to not speak about or give any information about the project they are working on until further notice or a previously agreed date. This means that the worker giving away the title of the project, any plot details or their involvement is breaking the law as well as a breach of their contract. This is often used on contracts on Hollywood blockbusters like Star Wars for example which, even though people knew it was being made, had a huge amount of secretiveness around it with nobody except people working on it knowing the plot until it's release.
Exclusivity
Some contracts contain exclusivity agreements meaning the person signing the contract, by law, is only allowed to work for one company for an agreed amount of time (usually the duration of the project). This means that if the person who signed the contract went to work for a another company during their agreed duration of time, payment can be suspended and employment even terminated as a punishment. This is most likely used on contracts signed by Directors working on a series of films so that they will definitely attached for the production of all of them.
Full Time
A full time contract is more similar to a regular job's contract in comparison to, for example, a freelance contract however it is less likely to get a full time contract in the film industry. As it says in the title, someone with this kind of contract would work full time and be permanently attached to the company until the project was finished, working a set number of hours per week. A full time worker always gets company benefits such as pension, sick pay, maternity and holiday leave. Job roles that are most likely to be under a full time contract are managerial, editorial and financial. An example of someone on a full time contract would be someone high up, possibly in charge of the company/project.
Part Time
A part time contract means you work just a small amount of what a full time contract would ask for. Similarly to a full time contract, this contract gives a set amount of hours a week, just not as many. Also in the contract are similar benefits a full time worker gets, just less because of the lesser work hours.
Freelance
Freelance contracts are the most common contracts in the Film Industry. Technical & Creative jobs are most likely to be under freelance contracts. Unlike a full time contract, these kind of contracts are temporary and they will only last for so long. In a freelance contract, the employee might still be entitled to company benefits however it depends on the situation and the company they are working for. However, while they might not definitely get company benefits, a freelance worker gets to be in control of a lot more due to not fully working for the company and just being hired temporarily. An example of someone freelance would most likely be someone in a role such as a Camera Operator.
Confidentiality
Contracts sometimes can contain confidentiality agreements. This is an agreement that the worker signing the contract is bound by law to not speak about or give any information about the project they are working on until further notice or a previously agreed date. This means that the worker giving away the title of the project, any plot details or their involvement is breaking the law as well as a breach of their contract. This is often used on contracts on Hollywood blockbusters like Star Wars for example which, even though people knew it was being made, had a huge amount of secretiveness around it with nobody except people working on it knowing the plot until it's release.
Exclusivity
Some contracts contain exclusivity agreements meaning the person signing the contract, by law, is only allowed to work for one company for an agreed amount of time (usually the duration of the project). This means that if the person who signed the contract went to work for a another company during their agreed duration of time, payment can be suspended and employment even terminated as a punishment. This is most likely used on contracts signed by Directors working on a series of films so that they will definitely attached for the production of all of them.
8 June 2016
Unit 26: Film Studies - Task 4 - My Relationship With Film
One of the most important parts of a film is its audience.
As part of an audience, you interact with the film. A film’s audience can
determine its popularity and status in culture. It is almost impossible to
create a film for everyone due to the difference between the individuals who
make up the audience and the way each single person reads the film and is affected
by it.
Spectatorship of a film can be seen in two different
ways. Active Spectatorship suggests
that audiences are made up of individual active spectators who each are
different and will have different reactions to a film. These active spectators
are independent in choosing what films to watch and do not just watch what they
are told to. Passive Spectatorship
suggests that a film audience’s knowledge or life experience has no effect on
their reaction or reception to the film they view. Often, film directors
actually prefer their audience to be passive. They will put very obvious
preferred readings in their films so the audience will react in the way they
want. These preferred readings can be conveyed to the audience through choice
of music, lighting and cinematography in hope that this would cause a specific
emotional response. Some film makers do like the audience to have a more
personal response and be active spectators. They sometimes encourage their
audience to interpret the film in their own way. However, in bigger Hollywood
blockbusters, a preferred reading is usually put forward to the audience and a
Director has a specific idea of the plot and characters that they want the
audience to understand. A common use of active spectatorship is leaving an open
ending to a film. Open endings leave a sense of ambiguity for the audience and
allow them to use their imagination rather than being told exactly what
happened. An example of an ambiguous ending is Memento. The film finishes by
totally changing what the audience thought they knew and leaving them unsure
what to think.
Audiences can gain four main types of pleasure from watching a film; personal relationships, personal identity, diversion and surveillance. The most common of these four is probably Diversion, this is because it is the most common reason a person wants to watch a film. Films allow a person to divert from their own lives and escape into another reality. Many films offer huge amounts of escapism to an audience such as, Lord Of The Rings or Star Wars, which take place in other worlds we aren't familiar with. Personal Relationships or Personal Identities are when an audience feel a personal attachment to characters in a film or can relate to the characters. For example, The Inbetweeners movie is very relatable to groups of young 'lads', especially in the UK, as they will have experienced very similar situations. Older men can also relate to it as they can remember being in similar situations when they were younger. Other examples could be 'stoner' movies as 'stoners' will likely relate to the characters and topics in the films due to their lifestyle. Some films fall into the Surveillance type. In these kind of films the audience are often educated because they are watching a film which explores a subject, idea or even culture, for example, that the viewer isn't aware of or familiar with. A lot of foreign films are surveillance because of the look at a different culture. For example, 'Sin Nombre' is a Spanish film which explores gang culture. Anybody from a different country and totally unfamiliar with any kind of gang culture would be educated by this film.
A viewer's response to a film can differ depending on their Media Literacy. Depending on an audience's knowledge of the media and how film works, they can have a different interpretation. For example, some one like me who is a film student will view films very differently to a casual viewer due to the fact that a film student knows more about how a film is put together and how stories work whereas a normal film goer would have more a simple idea and not look into those kind things. An example of the responses differing could be seen with 'Memento'. The film has a non-linear timeline and the audience have to think about how the story pieces together rather than it all just happening chronologically. While someone with better media literacy than others might find that very interesting and enjoy the challenge of piecing it together, someone with less media literacy/a casual film goer might just find the story confusing and boring and they might prefer to see a film which happens chronologically.
Intertextuality is where a film references another piece of media. This includes parodies, spoofs and homages. In parodies/spoofs a film is deliberately referencing another piece of media, usually in a comedic way, sometimes even mocking it. In 'Hot Fuzz' the entire Hollywood action genre is parodied throughout the movie with characters acting in similar ways to popular 'action heroes'. Specific moments from films such as 'Point Break' are also parodied however could also be classed as a homage to the film. In homages, a director purposely references a piece if media in some way in their own film but, unlike parodies, homages tend not to be comedic and are usually meant to show an appreciation for the thing they are referencing.
Pre & Post-viewing experiences and a persons opinion on a film can be affected by different aspects. For example, a person who watched all the trailers a promotion for the film they are seeing might have high expectations and be let down however someone who saw nothing beforehand would have no expectations. Trailers can have a large effect on people experiences with films. Often, in comedy trailers the best jokes are shown to get the best laughs and gain audience however this leads to all the best jokes being heard before the film and the audience being let down. Similarly a trailer can give away too much plot, a problem many people believe to be in today's cinema. A recent example would be the trailer for 'Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice'. With people an audience already gathered from simply the announcement of Superman and Batman being in a film together, you would think there would be no need to give away too much plot. However, the trailers released before the film came out revealed what many considered to be far too many plot points and even giving away twists which, had they not been mentioned in the trailer, would have been very entertaining to an audience when watching the film in the cinema. This, among many other reasons, contributed to overwhelmingly bad reviews from critics and fans alike.
Audiences can gain four main types of pleasure from watching a film; personal relationships, personal identity, diversion and surveillance. The most common of these four is probably Diversion, this is because it is the most common reason a person wants to watch a film. Films allow a person to divert from their own lives and escape into another reality. Many films offer huge amounts of escapism to an audience such as, Lord Of The Rings or Star Wars, which take place in other worlds we aren't familiar with. Personal Relationships or Personal Identities are when an audience feel a personal attachment to characters in a film or can relate to the characters. For example, The Inbetweeners movie is very relatable to groups of young 'lads', especially in the UK, as they will have experienced very similar situations. Older men can also relate to it as they can remember being in similar situations when they were younger. Other examples could be 'stoner' movies as 'stoners' will likely relate to the characters and topics in the films due to their lifestyle. Some films fall into the Surveillance type. In these kind of films the audience are often educated because they are watching a film which explores a subject, idea or even culture, for example, that the viewer isn't aware of or familiar with. A lot of foreign films are surveillance because of the look at a different culture. For example, 'Sin Nombre' is a Spanish film which explores gang culture. Anybody from a different country and totally unfamiliar with any kind of gang culture would be educated by this film.
A viewer's response to a film can differ depending on their Media Literacy. Depending on an audience's knowledge of the media and how film works, they can have a different interpretation. For example, some one like me who is a film student will view films very differently to a casual viewer due to the fact that a film student knows more about how a film is put together and how stories work whereas a normal film goer would have more a simple idea and not look into those kind things. An example of the responses differing could be seen with 'Memento'. The film has a non-linear timeline and the audience have to think about how the story pieces together rather than it all just happening chronologically. While someone with better media literacy than others might find that very interesting and enjoy the challenge of piecing it together, someone with less media literacy/a casual film goer might just find the story confusing and boring and they might prefer to see a film which happens chronologically.
Intertextuality is where a film references another piece of media. This includes parodies, spoofs and homages. In parodies/spoofs a film is deliberately referencing another piece of media, usually in a comedic way, sometimes even mocking it. In 'Hot Fuzz' the entire Hollywood action genre is parodied throughout the movie with characters acting in similar ways to popular 'action heroes'. Specific moments from films such as 'Point Break' are also parodied however could also be classed as a homage to the film. In homages, a director purposely references a piece if media in some way in their own film but, unlike parodies, homages tend not to be comedic and are usually meant to show an appreciation for the thing they are referencing.
Pre & Post-viewing experiences and a persons opinion on a film can be affected by different aspects. For example, a person who watched all the trailers a promotion for the film they are seeing might have high expectations and be let down however someone who saw nothing beforehand would have no expectations. Trailers can have a large effect on people experiences with films. Often, in comedy trailers the best jokes are shown to get the best laughs and gain audience however this leads to all the best jokes being heard before the film and the audience being let down. Similarly a trailer can give away too much plot, a problem many people believe to be in today's cinema. A recent example would be the trailer for 'Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice'. With people an audience already gathered from simply the announcement of Superman and Batman being in a film together, you would think there would be no need to give away too much plot. However, the trailers released before the film came out revealed what many considered to be far too many plot points and even giving away twists which, had they not been mentioned in the trailer, would have been very entertaining to an audience when watching the film in the cinema. This, among many other reasons, contributed to overwhelmingly bad reviews from critics and fans alike.
Unit 26: Film Studies - Task 3 - Producers and Their Audience
‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ continues the saga, following Episode III. In this installment ex-Stormtrooper Finn,
scrappy desert dweller Rey, and droid companion BB-8 get caught up in a
galactic war when they come across a map containing the whereabouts of the
missing Luke Skywalker. They soon embark on an adventure that brings them
face-to-face with heroes from the past, as well as new villains such as Kylo Ren and
the First Order.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens turned out to be one of the most financially successful films of all time, but how did it manage to gain such a response?
First of all, the producer of the film, Disney, needed to identify the audience. This wasn't difficult due to Star Wars being one of the most well-known franchises in the world. Audience research, for most films, would usually be done by looking at previously released films and seeing what the reactions, interests and preferences of audiences who went to see them were. Next, audience targeting would take place, in which the producer would promote the film to the audience they had decided on. In Star Wars' case, when announced in October 2012, the news was reported worldwide meaning everyone knew and heard about it. The franchise already had its audience figured out due to a previous 6 movies so audience targeting was the priority for this production.
The movie had a huge amount of promotion, mostly due to its announcement in 2012 and the subsequent 3 year build to the release. Having 3 years to promote the film gave the production company a huge ground to work with. In this time they released several trailers, posters, had the cast go on chat shows and held press junkets for journalists to interview the cast, all allowing the film to get a major media presence in the build up.
One example of promotion on a chat show was The Graham Norton Show. On the show, a collection of cast such as John Boyega and Daisy Ridley talked about the film and why people should go and see it. As well as this clips were shown from the film to promote it even further.
A huge event for the film was the premiere in December 2015, a huge event where the film is screened for the first time to the public and there are even more press interviews and more promotion. While many premieres are held before the films general release, this one was held on the same day as the general release. This meant there were no pre-release screenings for critics to review the movie. While most reviews ended up being very positive anyway, having no reviews beforehand meant there was no influence on the audiences response to the movie other than the movie's advertising itself, meaning the audiences attitude to the movie beforehand will have been mostly positive. While reviews would be out as soon as the first day of release, the main target audience the producer was going for were the people who would have gone to midnight screenings or seen the movie within the first few days at least.
Once the film was released and critics reviewed it, they were incredibly positive. This allowed the film to be marketed by showing 5 star reviews and quotes from critics. Quotes such as “Star Wars is back, and this is just the beginning” and describing the film as an “outrageously exciting and romantic return to a world you hadn’t realised you’d missed so much”. While their main target audience probably wouldn't pay attention to this kind of thing, more general audiences seeing such overwhelmingly positive reviews might influence them to go and see them film too.
There was also a huge amount of merchandise to accompany the film such as toys, clothing etc. One product that was a big deal among fans was the Sphero BB8 Droid. This was a miniature, remote control version of the BB8 droid in the movie. It can cost upwards of £90 however sales for the product were incredibly high. This was released before the release of the movie however fans still bought the product anyway. That sums up the attitude audiences had to the film as they were so confident it would be good from what they had seen in the marketing from the producer they ended buying expensive products attached to the film. This also goes for clothing as many of the target audience bought T-shirts with the films logo on it before seeing the film. This was great for the producers of the movie because alongside their marketing, people buying T-shirts and even just talking about the movie was free advertisement.
The marketing tactics of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' were incredibly successful and, as I previously mentioned, actually led to the film being one of the most successful films to ever be made. The film made $247,966,675 in its opening weekend box office and by the end of its theatrical run made a total of $936,662,225, breaking the all-time domestic record. A large reason for this could be the marketing that accompanied the film and the long time that was spent on it. This film is a great example of the relationship between Producers and audience.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens turned out to be one of the most financially successful films of all time, but how did it manage to gain such a response?
First of all, the producer of the film, Disney, needed to identify the audience. This wasn't difficult due to Star Wars being one of the most well-known franchises in the world. Audience research, for most films, would usually be done by looking at previously released films and seeing what the reactions, interests and preferences of audiences who went to see them were. Next, audience targeting would take place, in which the producer would promote the film to the audience they had decided on. In Star Wars' case, when announced in October 2012, the news was reported worldwide meaning everyone knew and heard about it. The franchise already had its audience figured out due to a previous 6 movies so audience targeting was the priority for this production.
The movie had a huge amount of promotion, mostly due to its announcement in 2012 and the subsequent 3 year build to the release. Having 3 years to promote the film gave the production company a huge ground to work with. In this time they released several trailers, posters, had the cast go on chat shows and held press junkets for journalists to interview the cast, all allowing the film to get a major media presence in the build up.
One example of promotion on a chat show was The Graham Norton Show. On the show, a collection of cast such as John Boyega and Daisy Ridley talked about the film and why people should go and see it. As well as this clips were shown from the film to promote it even further.
A huge event for the film was the premiere in December 2015, a huge event where the film is screened for the first time to the public and there are even more press interviews and more promotion. While many premieres are held before the films general release, this one was held on the same day as the general release. This meant there were no pre-release screenings for critics to review the movie. While most reviews ended up being very positive anyway, having no reviews beforehand meant there was no influence on the audiences response to the movie other than the movie's advertising itself, meaning the audiences attitude to the movie beforehand will have been mostly positive. While reviews would be out as soon as the first day of release, the main target audience the producer was going for were the people who would have gone to midnight screenings or seen the movie within the first few days at least.
Once the film was released and critics reviewed it, they were incredibly positive. This allowed the film to be marketed by showing 5 star reviews and quotes from critics. Quotes such as “Star Wars is back, and this is just the beginning” and describing the film as an “outrageously exciting and romantic return to a world you hadn’t realised you’d missed so much”. While their main target audience probably wouldn't pay attention to this kind of thing, more general audiences seeing such overwhelmingly positive reviews might influence them to go and see them film too.
There was also a huge amount of merchandise to accompany the film such as toys, clothing etc. One product that was a big deal among fans was the Sphero BB8 Droid. This was a miniature, remote control version of the BB8 droid in the movie. It can cost upwards of £90 however sales for the product were incredibly high. This was released before the release of the movie however fans still bought the product anyway. That sums up the attitude audiences had to the film as they were so confident it would be good from what they had seen in the marketing from the producer they ended buying expensive products attached to the film. This also goes for clothing as many of the target audience bought T-shirts with the films logo on it before seeing the film. This was great for the producers of the movie because alongside their marketing, people buying T-shirts and even just talking about the movie was free advertisement.
The marketing tactics of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' were incredibly successful and, as I previously mentioned, actually led to the film being one of the most successful films to ever be made. The film made $247,966,675 in its opening weekend box office and by the end of its theatrical run made a total of $936,662,225, breaking the all-time domestic record. A large reason for this could be the marketing that accompanied the film and the long time that was spent on it. This film is a great example of the relationship between Producers and audience.
11 May 2016
Unit 26: Film Studies - Task 2 - Comparing Hollywood & British Film Production
Since the first World War, Hollywood has essentially dominated Britain's entire film industry. America's industry was growing at a faster pace than Britain's and it never caught up. Since then the film industry in America has been made up of a series of global media conglomerates with many subsidiaries while Britain is full of smaller, more independent companies.
The British Film Industry is often referred to as a 'cottage industry'. This refers to the smaller scale of the industry compared to Hollywood. The 'cottage industry' targets mainly British audiences, unlike Hollywood, an industry which is globally known and has a worldwide audience.
But Hollywood & British Film production aren't as separate as you might think. The majority of 'British' films are actually funded by American corporations as part of a co-production. This is because many of the top British companies are subsidiaries of American companies. For example, although people tend to class the Harry Potter films as British, they are distributed and partly funded by large American companies like 20th Century Fox and Sony. This actually means they aren't making all of the profit from one of their industries biggest franchises, which stops the British film industry being able to rise, not even necessarily to the level of Hollywood, but higher than it currently is.
As for the content both industries produce, they are totally different. Hollywood are known for their 'Blockbusters' and their 'big action flicks' while the British film industry usually create much more down to earth, relatable and realistic films. For example, some of the most popular and successful British films are This is England, Kes and Trainspotting. All three of these films are based around working class characters and areas in England. Kes follows a young boy who spends his free time caring for a pet falcon however around the main plot the character deals with many of the issues that working class people would deal with when this film was released (1969) and also is shown taking part in things that people in Britain would be able to relate to. Trainspotting & This is England are more modern films with very similar themes. Once again, both follow a group of working class characters. However, in both of these films there is a lot of drug use, which people consider a very large problem amongst the working class, which means both of these films have a very honest look at Britain.
Al 3 of these films had a low budget compared to something being made at the same time in the American film industry. For example, Trainspotting (1996) had an estimated budget of £2,500,000 while an American film such as Die Hard: With A Vengeance (1995) had a budget of $90,000,000. This is due to the huge difference in money the British and American film industries had and still have.
There are all kinds of methods for funding British films. One way is through BBC films. This method works by getting in contact with BBC films either through an agent or individually with your pitch or idea. BBC films is an established film production company with a high income due to their position in the film industry, which means the offer great funding towards any film that they decide to produce.
Another method is through the BFI Film Fund. Using money from the UK national lottery, the BFI provide investment in a film production to support it. This is a good method for smaller films and film makers that usually wouldn't get funding for production. They also support and fund UK distributors, sales agents and exhibitors.
Companies such as Film4 fund several feature films a year through using both licence fee and equity investments.
British films can qualify for tax relief funding. This is a method where the UK Government directing assists the production, providing that it meets the requirements. They need to either qualify as an official co-production or pass a Cultural Test. The Cultural Test consists of a series of statistics about the film and depending on if the production fits into those statistics it will dictate if it is eligible to be a British film. Tax relief funding encourages further investment, benefits many film making aspects, supports more UK independent productions and encourages minority co-productions where the UK spend is less than 25 %.
The technology used on a production can effect the production's process. For example, if the film was going to be shown in IMAX it would need to be recorded with an IMAX camera. Filming 3D movies is a very similar case. Having extra technology like this used on the production adds cost and means less of the budget can be used on other aspects of production. Having a Blu-Ray or DVD release of the film is also an extra cost, including the additional features likely to be added to them like behind the scenes footage.
Speaking of Blu-Ray & DVD releases of films, while they are the main source of distribution in both the British & US film industry, they are only one part of the release. Another part of the distribution are the trailers and other promotional material. Promotion of films in the UK film industry and the US film industry can be similar however America tends to promote their films on larger scale. For example, in America, there are often huge billboards with the poster for the latest blockbuster movie on display. The UK also have posters on billboards and have other ways of showing the latest films however, these are usually also filled by films from the American industry. Even in the UK the posters we see are advertising America's latest blockbuster. Fully British movies are often promoted on a much smaller, lower level. Rarely will you see a poster advertising the latest film in the British film industry because America has dominated the entire global film industry so much.
Because Hollywood is such a dominating industry compared to Britain, they can use both Vertical & Horizontal Integration. Vertical Integration is when a large conglomerate owns different companies that work on all 3 stages of the film from production to distribution. This is a huge advantage for conglomerates as they are able to cover the entire film themselves. They can save time and money because they do not have to pay any extra money to another company to do it for them. Buying companies to work on each individual stage of the film is, in the long term, very expensive however it will almost definitely save the conglomerate money meaning they will generate more income.
Horizontal Integration is essentially the opposite of Vertical. It's when a conglomerate goes into business with other companies through acquisition. This means the different companies from different sectors of the film industry can then work together on the same project. This means that there is no need to bring anyone else in to help work on the project meaning that money will be saved. An example of this would be the production of Skyfall (2012). The film, produced by Sony Pictures, needed a song and they got Adele to make one specifically for it. Since Adele was already singed to Columbia records, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment, Sony would make money from the film and the music.
Horizontal & Vertical Integration are not often used in the UK film industry without the British companies involved being subsidiaries of American conglomerates.
One of the many differences between the British Film Industry & The American Film Industry is the ratings system. Britain has the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) while the US has the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The ratings in the UK consist of U, PG, 12A, 12, 15 & 18 while in the US it consists of G, PG, PG-13, R & NC-17. America's rating system can be seen as less strict than in the UK because younger viewers are actually allowed to see higher rated films in US theatres. For example, in UK cinemas, adults accompanying children under the age of 12 are not allowed to take them into any film rated higher than 12A while, in the US, adults are allowed to take children of any age up to 17 years old to see a film that has been passed as high as R (Restricted).
The British Film Industry is often referred to as a 'cottage industry'. This refers to the smaller scale of the industry compared to Hollywood. The 'cottage industry' targets mainly British audiences, unlike Hollywood, an industry which is globally known and has a worldwide audience.
But Hollywood & British Film production aren't as separate as you might think. The majority of 'British' films are actually funded by American corporations as part of a co-production. This is because many of the top British companies are subsidiaries of American companies. For example, although people tend to class the Harry Potter films as British, they are distributed and partly funded by large American companies like 20th Century Fox and Sony. This actually means they aren't making all of the profit from one of their industries biggest franchises, which stops the British film industry being able to rise, not even necessarily to the level of Hollywood, but higher than it currently is.
As for the content both industries produce, they are totally different. Hollywood are known for their 'Blockbusters' and their 'big action flicks' while the British film industry usually create much more down to earth, relatable and realistic films. For example, some of the most popular and successful British films are This is England, Kes and Trainspotting. All three of these films are based around working class characters and areas in England. Kes follows a young boy who spends his free time caring for a pet falcon however around the main plot the character deals with many of the issues that working class people would deal with when this film was released (1969) and also is shown taking part in things that people in Britain would be able to relate to. Trainspotting & This is England are more modern films with very similar themes. Once again, both follow a group of working class characters. However, in both of these films there is a lot of drug use, which people consider a very large problem amongst the working class, which means both of these films have a very honest look at Britain.
Al 3 of these films had a low budget compared to something being made at the same time in the American film industry. For example, Trainspotting (1996) had an estimated budget of £2,500,000 while an American film such as Die Hard: With A Vengeance (1995) had a budget of $90,000,000. This is due to the huge difference in money the British and American film industries had and still have.
There are all kinds of methods for funding British films. One way is through BBC films. This method works by getting in contact with BBC films either through an agent or individually with your pitch or idea. BBC films is an established film production company with a high income due to their position in the film industry, which means the offer great funding towards any film that they decide to produce.
Another method is through the BFI Film Fund. Using money from the UK national lottery, the BFI provide investment in a film production to support it. This is a good method for smaller films and film makers that usually wouldn't get funding for production. They also support and fund UK distributors, sales agents and exhibitors.
Companies such as Film4 fund several feature films a year through using both licence fee and equity investments.
British films can qualify for tax relief funding. This is a method where the UK Government directing assists the production, providing that it meets the requirements. They need to either qualify as an official co-production or pass a Cultural Test. The Cultural Test consists of a series of statistics about the film and depending on if the production fits into those statistics it will dictate if it is eligible to be a British film. Tax relief funding encourages further investment, benefits many film making aspects, supports more UK independent productions and encourages minority co-productions where the UK spend is less than 25 %.
The technology used on a production can effect the production's process. For example, if the film was going to be shown in IMAX it would need to be recorded with an IMAX camera. Filming 3D movies is a very similar case. Having extra technology like this used on the production adds cost and means less of the budget can be used on other aspects of production. Having a Blu-Ray or DVD release of the film is also an extra cost, including the additional features likely to be added to them like behind the scenes footage.
Speaking of Blu-Ray & DVD releases of films, while they are the main source of distribution in both the British & US film industry, they are only one part of the release. Another part of the distribution are the trailers and other promotional material. Promotion of films in the UK film industry and the US film industry can be similar however America tends to promote their films on larger scale. For example, in America, there are often huge billboards with the poster for the latest blockbuster movie on display. The UK also have posters on billboards and have other ways of showing the latest films however, these are usually also filled by films from the American industry. Even in the UK the posters we see are advertising America's latest blockbuster. Fully British movies are often promoted on a much smaller, lower level. Rarely will you see a poster advertising the latest film in the British film industry because America has dominated the entire global film industry so much.
Because Hollywood is such a dominating industry compared to Britain, they can use both Vertical & Horizontal Integration. Vertical Integration is when a large conglomerate owns different companies that work on all 3 stages of the film from production to distribution. This is a huge advantage for conglomerates as they are able to cover the entire film themselves. They can save time and money because they do not have to pay any extra money to another company to do it for them. Buying companies to work on each individual stage of the film is, in the long term, very expensive however it will almost definitely save the conglomerate money meaning they will generate more income.
Horizontal Integration is essentially the opposite of Vertical. It's when a conglomerate goes into business with other companies through acquisition. This means the different companies from different sectors of the film industry can then work together on the same project. This means that there is no need to bring anyone else in to help work on the project meaning that money will be saved. An example of this would be the production of Skyfall (2012). The film, produced by Sony Pictures, needed a song and they got Adele to make one specifically for it. Since Adele was already singed to Columbia records, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment, Sony would make money from the film and the music.
Horizontal & Vertical Integration are not often used in the UK film industry without the British companies involved being subsidiaries of American conglomerates.
One of the many differences between the British Film Industry & The American Film Industry is the ratings system. Britain has the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) while the US has the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The ratings in the UK consist of U, PG, 12A, 12, 15 & 18 while in the US it consists of G, PG, PG-13, R & NC-17. America's rating system can be seen as less strict than in the UK because younger viewers are actually allowed to see higher rated films in US theatres. For example, in UK cinemas, adults accompanying children under the age of 12 are not allowed to take them into any film rated higher than 12A while, in the US, adults are allowed to take children of any age up to 17 years old to see a film that has been passed as high as R (Restricted).
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