Friday, 2 February 2018

Class Essays on Marketing, Production and Distribution


Essay on Marketing/Circulation

Disney is a huge conglomerate who own an immense number of well-known companies such as Pixar and LucasFilm. They are the second largest media conglomerate after Comcast. They are best known for their film studio, which is one of the largest and best-known studios in American cinema.


  Favreau introduced the film by putting out teaser trailers eg at Super Bowl and released stills from the film to give an insight of the film. In order to appeal to a variety of audiences through the trailer, they chose to write from ‘the producers of Pirates of the Caribbean’ instead of the producers of Cinderella from example. This was more likely to attract male audiences. A Jon Favreau also deliberately wanted the animals to seem realistic so it would seem more suitable for older people. 


  Disney in 1967 and 2016 released different trailers, with 1967 trailer was a lot less quality and was nowhere near as good as the new one, this is because technology has become better and the budget Disney had to create the trailer was much bigger. The new jungle book trailer has marketed the film in a darker and more sinister way. Disney has made the film have more suspense by making the film not appear light hearted and a sing along film like it did in 1967. The 1967 trailer is more upbeat making it appeal more to a younger audience. The 2016 trailer is not only appealing to children but an older audience who watched the original jungle book. Due to this, the story is being portrayed in a more intense film.


  The famous jazz singers were shown to be in the film in 1967 as people wanted to watch the film because they are in it such as in 2016 people watched the film for actors such as Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.


  There are many similarities between the 2016 and 1967 Jungle Book film posters for example Disney re-created some of the posters by featuring one animal on the front of a poster as the feature much like in 1967 in order to focus on main characters and showcase their personalities before the audience would see the film. However there are many differences for example in 1967 the jungke book film was a cartoon and therefore the posters represent light hearted humorous cartoons suitable for their target audience of young children and families compared to the 2016 posters. The 2016 posters feature a human boy who plays the lead with a much darker and sinister feel due to a dark muted colour scheme with a focus on a flame torch appealing to a new more male and adult audience.


  Is the term used by Walt Disney for its policy of putting may of its most popular home video releases of Walt Disney on moratorium. Each Disney  film is available for purchase for a limited time, after which  it is put "in the vault" and not made available in stores for several years until it is once again released. This also means digital copies are not available on Disney Movie when those movies are currently in the Disney Vault.


  After the 1967 film was released there was another film that was released called the jungle book 2. This was not a huge success because most people felt that after the first one there wasn’t a need for a sequel to the film which was already a massive hit. But this was in the period after Walt Disney had died so the company had a massive slump and this film was one of the reasons why. In the 2016 jungle book was released as a live action in comparison to the humorous and childish 1967 film. This was because they had widened the demographic to increase sales due the slump that occurred during the 70’s. They aimed to appeal to a wider range of audience and not just kids which revived him and bought more viewers. The VHS and DVD rereleases were created and released due to the hype and excitement of the first jungle book film dying down and the rise of DVD films. Disney wanted to jump on the rise of the DVD with the new release of the jungle book.


  To conclude, marketing has obviously changed. You could argue that with its licensing deals with Kenzo and its focus on aggressively targeting a secondary audience to build profits on the back of a family audience who always turn out for Disney films you could argue that Disney have grown smarter and more precise with their planning, however we must also not forget that there are still lots of similarities between the two eras, for example the use of stars and red carpet premieres to promote a film remains in place as does the creation of character posters and trailers as the fundamental basics of  Disney marketing so to me what is  forgotten is that Disney as a conglomerate have always been a master at marketing, it is why they are the number one entertainment conglomerate in the world and  yes some of the practices have changed but the whole reason why there was new version of The Jungle Book in the first place was because of the success of the first film, a success driven by an effective marketing campaign.


 

Essay on Jungle Book production

 
   Disney are a major multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. They are the world’s second largest media conglomerate after Comcast.
 
   Disney’s reputation in filmmaking is very well known which allows Disney to experiment with different film types and not have that much backlash as people will still go and watch the film. Disney has a reputation as a company that has a yearly plan which works and makes them the most reputable kids film company in the world. Disney managed to capture audiences in 1967 and 2016 due to the recreation of old, traditional films for example The Jungle Book. In 2016, Disney made a live action Jungle Book which not only appealed to young children but also to people who watched and loved the original. However, there have been films that haven’t done as well as planned for example, The Sword in the Stone.
 
  During the production process of the 2016 Jungle Book Favreau adopted many techniques used in other Disney films that were similar to the jungle book for example the Lion King, where similar style scenes were used to enhance the creation of the film and create similar themed scenes in a whole new film. Favreau did this due to the popularity and success of the Lion King, however instead used CGI to create realistic looking animals and move away from a cartoonish appearance that appeals to a more limited audience.  The animals are seen to be quite realistic because even in the posters that they used to promote the film you can see how good the animals look. Also as seen in the trailer Baloo is one of the best graphically edited characters in the entire film with the character having it look like all of its individual hairs the movement and the speech.
 
   They used the original film and also the book. However, the team were told not to read it in advance as they didn’t want to scupper the creative flow.
   Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. In the visual effects industry, rotoscoping is the technique of manually creating a matte for an element on a live-action plate so it may be composited over another background.
  Xerography is the way of animating and colouring the original 1967 jungle book.  Xerography is the process of coloured powders adhering to parts of a surface remaining electrically charged after being exposed to light from an image. This created the bright and vibrant colours of the jungle book.
  The colours were used carefully to captivate the audience to certain parts of a scene, and create contrast. For example, the tiger is the most colourful of the animals yet he is the most hidden, whereas Baloo is the blandest yet captures the attention in a scene through his actions. On top of this, with Kaa’s scenes, the variety of swirling colours in his eyes capture your eyes, as they would for Mowgli.
  To conclude, the production process of both Jungle book films places technology and the experience of the audience at the heart of development. This commitment has not changed in the 80 years since the release of Snow White and by examining the production processes of both Jungle Book movies you can tell that the focus on technological change is just as important now as it ever was.


Essay on Distribution

 Disney is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. Disney has created and brought many films during its time as a film company. Disney is very popular among a ranges of ages, especially when they recreated old, traditional films for example The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast. They are the world’s second largest media conglomerate after Comcast.
Disney have a cross promotional happy meal with McDonalds which brings attention to their films and gives McDonalds a toy to put into their meals, this allows films such as the jungle book to gain exposure from kids having the toys of the film before they even see the film. Disney’s relationship with Walmart allows Disney to make toys that are sold in Walmart which brings revenue to both companies and allows Disney more money to make their film.

Over the next few years, Disney have a plan to form their very own in-house streaming service to carry its own intellectual property. For example, Disney have been removing their films from services such as Netflix so that essentially, they are exclusive to their own media streaming service. 

In 1967 Disney relied on services such as radio and TV to promote their film as well as film posters compared to the 2016 film which used a teaser trailers as well as partnership and cross promotion with big brands such as Walmart and McDonalds, allowing them to focus on appealing to their target market as well as a new audience as Disney first promoted the 2016 jungle book on the super bowl in an attempt to appeal to a wider male audience and adults instead of just families and young children. Other ways Disney promoted the 1967 Jungle book film was through re- releases of the film in special editions to make it seem limited edition.

  A term used by Walt Disney Studios for its policy of putting many of its most popular home video release of Walt Disney on moratorium. Each Disney film is available for purchase for a limited time, after which it is put "in the vault" and not made available in stores for several years until it is once again released. This also mean digital copies are not available on Disney Movies Anywhere when those movies are currently in the Disney Vault.

The distribution of JB16 was all about making the jungle look realistic while still having that movie feel. So due to the trailers that came out which was about 2 minutes long and the teaser trailer which was about 1.30 minutes long. And the several posters which interpreted lots of things such as who the characters are played by and what they will look like on the big screen. 

The jungle book spent $175  million of the film and The film became a huge financial success and a surprise hit. Earning $364 million in the United States and Canada and $602.5 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $966.6 million, against a budget of $175 million. The IMAX and 3D showings of the Jungle book attracted audiences through the gimmick of 3D and IMAX, The advantages of these help attract more audiences. Some of the audience possibly aren’t as interested in the story as much as the 3D IMAX. Similarly, the use of the technologies alongside the CGI meant that a darker version of the film could captivate a larger demographic, while also still appealing to children. The 3D IMAX versions also show how large Disney has become has a company, with the ability to create large blockbusters in these technologies.
  To conclude it is important to stress the importance of distribution to a conglomerate like Disney. Without effective distribution patterns films could easily underachieve profit wise for example but it must be remembered that distribution cannot be seen in isolation because it can quite easily be linked to the principle of synergy, as one business theorist states ‘industries rely on repetition through use of stars, genres, franchises, repeatable narratives and so on to sell formats to audiences, then industries try to impose scarcity to keep demand high.’ This is very true of Disney who with the original Jungle Book 1967 found himself with limited avenues of distribution – namely TV  and film, thus to keep The Jungle Book characters fresh in the minds of audiences the company created other programmes and ancillary products from 1967  to the early 2000’s to keep alive the idea of the characters so that in the future there could be a potential remake or reboot of the original film, these other programmes included Talespin, a cartoon starring many of the characters from the original film and Jungle Cubs – another cartoon which explored Baloo, Shere Khan and other characters’ lives as children, the aim of these products were to not only to keep audiences entertained but to keep the Jungle Book franchise fresh and active although more importantly , a means by which one media product can promote another media product by the same company, a term called synergy `and one which will only improve with the creation of Disney’s new streaming service in 2019


Jungle Book Interview Script


Jungle Book Interview




Thursday, 1 February 2018

Industry Key Word Research

INDUSTRY KEY WORDS


·         BARB - The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board is the organisation that compiles audience measurement and television ratings in the United Kingdom.

·         WEBCASTING LICENSE - If you operate a service that streams sound recordings online, then you will need a Webcasting Licence; Allows you to webcast as a service.

·         TECHNOLOGICAL CONVERGENCE - Technological convergence is the tendency that as technology changes, different technological system sometimes evolve toward performing similar tasks.

·         WEB 3.O OR SEMANTIC WEB - a proposed development of the World Wide Web in which data in web pages is structured and tagged in such a way that it can be read directly by computers.

·         INTERNET OF THINGS - The Internet of things is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity which enables these objects to connect and exchange data.

·         BINGE-VIEWING - watch multiple episodes of (a television programme) in rapid succession, typically by means of DVDs or digital streaming.

·         DAB - Digital audio broadcasting is a digital radio standard for broadcasting digital audio radio services, used in countries across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.

·         TRADITIONAL MEDIA - television, radio, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, tax press and other print publications.

·         GOOGLE ANALYTICS - a freemium web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic.

·         RAJAR - stands for Radio Joint Audience Research and is the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK. It is jointly owned by the BBC and the Radiocentre on behalf of the commercial sector.

·         NRS - The National Readership Survey is a joint venture company in the UK between the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, the Newspaper Publishers Association and the Periodical Publishers Association.

·         MIDAS - Midas Media is a digital marketing agency that focuses on content marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing

·         CULTURAL IMPERIALISM - Cultural imperialism comprises the cultural aspects of imperialism. Imperialism here refers to the creation and maintenance of unequal relationships between civilizations, favoring the more powerful civilization.

·         DEMOCRATISATION OF THE MASS MEDIA - the introduction of a democratic system or democratic principles in the mass media.

·         EFFECTS OF PIRACY – the effects of the unauthorized use or reproduction of another's work.

·         HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION - Horizontal integration is the process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain. A company may do this via internal expansion, acquisition or merger.

·         VERTICAL INTEGRATION - the combination in one firm of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate firms.

·         DIVERSIFICATION - the action of making or becoming more diverse or varied.

·         ALTERNATIVE MEDIA - Alternative media are media that differ from established or dominant types of media in terms of their content, production, or distribution.

·         CONGLOMERATE - a thing consisting of a number of different and distinct parts or items that are grouped together

·         GRA - Games Rating Authority

·         PEGI - Pan European Game Information is a European video game content rating system established to help European consumers make informed decisions when buying video games or apps through the use of age recommendations and content descriptors.

·         MEDIAWATCH UK - formerly known as the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (National VALA or NVLA), is a pressure group in the United Kingdom, which campaigns against the publication and broadcast of media content that it views as harmful and offensive, such as violence, profanity, sex, homosexuality and blasphemy.

·         IPSO - Independent Press Standards Organisation.

·         WATERSHED - an event or period marking a turning point in a situation.

·         OFCOM - The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the UK government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.

·         MEDIAWATCH - is a media monitoring organization

·         BBC CHARTER - The BBC Charter established the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). An accompanying Agreement recognises its editorial independence and sets out its public obligations in detail. Each Charter has run for ten years.

·         SYNERGY - the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.

·         PSB - public service broadcasting refers to broadcasting intended for public benefit rather than to serve purely commercial interests

·         BROADCAST CODE - was a set of ethical standards adopted by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) for television.

·         IWF - The Internet Watch Foundation is a registered charity based in Cambridgeshire, England. It states that its remit is "to minimise the availability of 'potentially criminal' Internet content.

Thursday, 30 November 2017

Different Perspectives



What do you notice about the difference in content and how the articles convey this information? Why do you think that is?

The Daily Mirror goes into a lot more graphic detail when explaining the event and what happened. The Times on the other hand missed out a lot of information eg. how it happened, unlike the Daily Mirror, who explained the actions in full. This is because The Daily Mirror is a tabloid and its audience likes to read more dramatic news, "if it bleeds, it leads"

Thursday, 16 November 2017

Guardian Newspaper article analysis


This is an analysis of an article from the Guardian Newspaper on the 13/11/17




Newspaper Codes and Conventions



Codes and Conventions:

Masthead (MH) - title of the newspaper displayed on the front page
Barcode (BC) - used to scan the newspaper when purchasing. It is an optical, machine readable representation of data and contains information such as price.
Caption (C) - brief text underneath an image describing the photograph or graphic.
Headline (H) - a phrase that summarises the main point of the article. Usually in large print and a different style to catch the attention of the reader.
Main Image (MI) - Dominant picture, often filling much of the front cover.
Page Numbers (PN)- A system of organisation within the magazine. Helps you to find what you want to read.
Target Audience (TA) - People that the newspaper aims to sell to.
Pull Quote (PQ) - Something taken from within an article, usually said by the person in the main image.
Classified Ad (CA) - An advertisement that uses only text, as opposed to a display ad, which also incorporates graphics.
Skyline (S) - An information panel on the front page that tells the reader about other stories in the paper to tempt them inside.
Edition (E) - Some newspapers print several of these every night, these are versions with some changes and maybe additional late stories.
Stand First (SF) - Block of text that introduces the story, normally in a different style to the body text and headline.
Byline (B) - The line above the story, which gives the author's name and sometimes their job and location.
Body Text (BT) - Also known as copy. Written material that makes up the main part of an article.
Standalone (SA) - Picture story that can exist on its own or on a front page leading to a story inside.
Centre Spread (CS) - A photograph often in full colour, that runs across the middle two pages.
Lead Story (LS) - Main story, usually a splash.
Gutter (G) - The blank space between margins of facing pages of a publication or the black space between columns of text.
Folio (F) - Top label for the whole page. Can relate to the area covered in the paper for example, National or a big news topic such as Social Media, Syria.
Page Furniture (PF) - Everything on a page except pictures or text of stories.


Friday, 10 November 2017

Revive Analyisis






1) What was the task you were given and who was your target audience? As the audience wasn't typical of the product how did you manage to sell it? What was the name of your brand?
The task was designing a sports drink for over 60s. We sold it by showing an entertaining women reflecting on her youth and used upbeat song. The name of the brand was Revive and the tag line was so good which was said throughout the song.

2) Who did you work with and how did you divide the research, planning, filming and responsibilities?
I worked with Connor, Harriet and Rachel. I was the 'actor' in the video so was filmed doing different sporting activities. Harriet filmed the majority of the running shots and Rachel did the underwater ones and dancing ones. We all planned together by making storyboards and rough plans and individually researched other adverts to see how they promoted the product. Connor was the main editor with Harriet and myself editing certain parts along the way. Harriet also did the voiceover for the advert.

 3) How did you plan your sequence?
We made storyboards, picture and writing, in order to plan effectively.

4) What research and planning did you undertake?
I looked at previous sports drink adverts and analysed how they promoted their product. Harriet made a rough drawing of a drink and annotated it to see how we could advertise it. We also made a props list and made the bottle so it suited our audience.

5) What was your initial feedback? What did others say about your production? How successful was your sequence?
Our initial feedback was that we needed to make the production more cohesive and add nature sounds. We also got told to add emphasis on the product by changing the brightness/ contrast when the drink is introduced.

 6) Identify what went well and with hindsight what you do to improve/do differently.
In hindsight, to improve, we would stabilise the shots to make them flow and have the end shot clearer and put more emphasis on the drink.

 7) What have you learnt from completing this task (groups skills, communication, compromise, using your initiative, creative input, production skills, editing etc)
I have learned that when working in a team, different people have different skills so are more confident in different areas of the production. Also I have learnt that when an idea is put forward we should try it out first because it may make the production better and also when in a group compromise and communication is key in order to have a successful production.

8) Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing your future productions?
Yes it will be significant because I have leant a lot about editing which will benefit me in the future and I have learnt to use my initiative in order for the production to be a successful as it can be. Also I have learned how to work with different people and let ideas develop.
 

Newspaper Terminology


Stranger Things Representation Essay

One very evident representation shown within season 1, episode 1 of Stranger Things is the role of single mothers. Being a major character...