Tuesday 5 May 2009

Year 13 Media Studies Work

Watch the DVD entitled ‘The Perfect Scary Movie’ and make any necessary additional notes.

There are plenty of Sci-fi and horror films on TV over the next few days - E4 has The Fantastic Four (2005) on tonight and tomorrow – has the ‘high concept’ superhero film taken over from science-fiction? Shaun of the Dead (2004) is on ITV2 tomorrow – horror comedy hybrid? A pastiche of the Romero films? ITV4 has two Hammer Horror film Scars of Dracula (1970) and Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) on tonight and tomorrow – consider the development of technical codes and look at the lovely technicolour. FilmFour has the 1954 version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on this afternoon – relate Nemo to the idea of the ‘mad scientist’. Kate and Leopold (2001) is on BBC3 tomorrow and merges science-fiction and romantic comedy with great success – consider ‘hybridisation’. Star Trek: Nemesis (2003) is on C4 on Saturday – think about films and audience – Trekkies are a good case study. ITV has Eight Legged Freaks (2002) on Thursday and Red Dragon (2002) on Saturday.

Choose any two or three of these films to watch, analyse and use as examples in the following essay:

Discuss how and why film genres change over a period of time.
[45 marks]

Write at least two sides using the films we’ve seen so far and any relevant films from your own viewing experience.

The argument you could follow is – film genres change
reflecting 1. changes in society (feminism for example) 2. changes in moral standards (more gore) 3. changes in technology (gore shown in a more scary way 4.different style of directors (more women directors for example), more independent directors.

Don’t forget to mention conventions, narrative conventions, feminist film theory if applicable, audience theory if applicable, and a small example of textual analysis to support your point.

E-mail the essay to my school address or via Miss Legg if you can’t remember mine. You can also contact me through the department blog…

Questions on The Film Industry DVD

Questions – The Film Industry – Production

What is the role of the producer? What different elements does it contain?
What are the four ‘blocks’ that Nick Powell talks about?

The IDEA

What makes a good script? What must it include?

The PACKAGE

What does the PACKAGE involve and who is it aimed at?
What is ‘script development’?

Attracting investment

Who can UK film producers go to for finance?
How many partners is typical for a film?
What is a co-production deal? Where might a UK film producer find it?
What is the negative side of having a single investor?
How does a UK film producer decide on the best deal for each film?

Planning

What’s the role of the producer in planning the shooting schedule of the film?
Who is the director’s ‘right hand’?

Budget

What is the significance of the budget?
How is the budget broken down?
What are ‘above’ and ‘below-the-line’ costs?

Audience

What question should an executive producer ask of every film?
Why is audience so important?

Marketing

Why is marketing considered a hidden cost?
What is the importance of genre in marketing?
What is the ‘need to see’ and how does it work?
What are the significant differences between Hollywood and the UK film industry?

Questions – The Film Industry – Distribution 1

What is the distributor’s job?

What different ways do distributors acquire films?

Marketing

Where do distributor’s start when marketing films?

Why is genre important?

Target Audience

Who are the most frequent cinema audience?

Release date

Why is it so important? Why are the school holidays so popular?

Film research

Why does it happen? What does it involve?

Marketing budget

How is the budget decided upon? Once the budget is estimated, what tends to be the percentage spent on marketing?

Advertising / publicity

What three sections does this involve?

Questions – The Film Industry – Distribution 2

The marketing campaign

Why do distributor’s find it so difficult to get their message to stand out?

What remains the most important marketing tool for a film?

Why is synergy important?

The poster

Why is poster art important? Why do they ‘tease’? What should a good poster reveal?

The trailer

Why is the trailer important?

What three different types of trailer do you have?

Why would the ‘perfect’ trailer not have voiceover?

How is a TV trailer different?

Digital/Multimedia

What two basic uses can distributors make of the internet?

PR/Publicity

How can you get free publicity for a film?

Tracking

When are tracking figures first released? What are they tracking?

Why is ‘word of mouth’ king?

How do distributors create ‘buzz’?

Why is the opening weekend’s ‘three day figure’ so important?

Questions – The Film Industry – Exhibition

What happened in the summer of 2007?

What do exhibitors need and what are the problems/developments facing them in the 21st century?

What has driven the rise in cinema audiences since 1984?

Cinema location

Why were the older multiplexes out of town? What did they need? What’s happened in recent years?

Curzon Cinemas/City Screen are ‘niche’ exhibitors – how do they compete against the majors?

Audience

Who are an increasing part of the changing audience of cinema goers?

How do ‘film bookers’ decide on what films go where? How far in advance are films booked? When are their decisions reviewed?

Audience again is vital! The Vue cinema chain spent millions doing research called ‘mosaic profiling’ in the last few years. What did they discover?

How do people decide which cinema to go to? Where does ‘brand’ tend to be in the top ten?

How do Curzon cinemas attempt to differentiate between themselves and the majors?

What percentage of audience leaving a cinema did not know the name or brand of that cinema?

What’s going to happen with the arrival of digital projection?

How is digital 3d likely to change things?

How will the digital screen network help niche exhibitors like Curzon reach a wider audience than their typical 25-45 age range?

How are cinemas attempting to differentiate themselves from home entertainment?

Year 12 Media Studies Work

The most important thing I need you to do is e-mail the passwords to your e-mail accounts so I can upload your films and preliminary tasks from home into your blogs.

You can already view your films here and your preliminary tasks by searching within You Tube for “alleyn’s media” (use the speech marks to define your search) and my surname. If you can’t find anything then e-mail me and I’ll supply you with the link.

1. Finish watching The Film Industry programmes on your DVD on Production through to Piracy: the End of Cinema. Answer the questions on the sheets already given to you and e-mail to my school address by Thursday.

2. Finish reading the booklets on all different aspects of the Film Industry. E-mail me if you don’t have them at home and I can send you new copies via e-mail.

3. Once you’ve done that attempt the essay question below, remembering to provide plenty of specific examples. Complete this essay inside 60 minutes and have your notes with you. The next essay I set will be a mock where you shouldn’t have any notes and needs to be done within 45 minutes.

Essay:

Discuss the ways in which media institutions and audiences have been affected by the increase in digital proliferation, within a media area, which you have studied.

Candidates must choose to focus on one of the following media areas though you may make reference to other media where relevant to your answer.

• Film
• Music
• Newspapers
• Radio
• Magazines
• Video games

[50 marks]