2 How and why do programmes such as the MOBO awards appeal to niche audiences?

3 What are the advantages and disadvantages for performers of using the internet as a marketing tool?

The diet coke advert is definitely proof of this ‘female gaze’ theory

Press Complaints Commission – the body that oversees the press in the UK, monitoring the newspapers for inappropriate content and investigating complaints.

British Board of Film Classification – gives certificates to films in the UK based on how suitable they are for particular audiences.

]]> http://ozgenur.edublogs.org/2011/02/16/76/feed/ 0 http://ozgenur.edublogs.org/2011/02/16/news-values/ http://ozgenur.edublogs.org/2011/02/16/news-values/#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:35:05 +0000 Ozge http://ozgenur.edublogs.org/?p=68 Definitions.

Threshold:

• an event has to reach a certain threshold before it becomes news- a small tremor might not be news whereas a sizable earthquake reaches the threshold to be reported. A house burglary might not be crime news but a violent murder will be. The intensity of an event/issue is important, too. The more violent a demonstration or murder, the more newsworthy it becomes.

Negativity:

• this is when in the media bad news is highly rated than good news and is more newsworthy.

Continuity

• A story that is already in the news gathers a kind of inertia. This is partly because the media organizations are already in place to report the story, and partly because previous reportage may have made the story more accessible to the public (making it less ambiguous).

Another example of intertextuality is when a character mentions that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had become “the biggest thing on a campus that included nineteen Nobel Laureates, fifteen Pulitzer Prize winners, two future Olympians, and a movie star,” a clear hint to that fact that Natalie Portman was a student at Harvard at the same time as founder Mark Zuckerberg. A lawyer goes on to ask who the movie star was and the character replies “Does it matter?” This  may seem like a small detail that isn’t important but it has been picked up by a number of different newspapers and online blogs and has been used in the promotion of the film. The director Aaron Sorkin even admitted that Natalie Portman gave him insider information on the very secret clubs of Harvard.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/09/30/social-network-natalie-portman/

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/09/the_social_networks_weird_nata.html

For this project, my partner and I decided to work on brief one, which consisted with creating a video trailer for a movie made by ‘Primetime Productions’. This movie was to have a budget of only £5 million so we had to make sure that it would seem like it was made with that amount of money.  Along with a number of pages of research we had to create and design our own print articles, making sure that they appealed to the right target audience given to us by this production company. We had to ensure that this trailer would be suitable for the audiences between the ages of sixteen and twenty five. To make sure that we wouldn’t be making any major mistakes, we done a clear research into other movies that had been made for this audience and with a similar budget so that we wouldn’t move away from what the brief was asking of us.

Once we had picked our genre (horror, thriller) we began researching so that we wouldn’t do anything wrong. The films that we particularly focused on were ones such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and ‘Cloverfield’ both of which give us the sense of a homemade movie, filmed with a hand held camera, as we were planning to do. Cloverfield is not only a thriller but it also has many aspects in its trailer that we thought we could base ours around. For example, it starts off with equilibrium and gives us a huge sense of normality until something comes along and causes disruption.  28 Days Later is also a thriller that we looked at. It didn’t necessarily have a plot similar to the one of our trailer, but it was made using quite a low budget as I showed in my research and planning.

The camera work done for the filming of this trailer was purposely done so that it would have an amateur feel. We wanted this film to seem as indie as possible and we thought that making it seem like a documentary would be interesting. So we tried to make it look as shaky as possible. Due to the fact that we wanted the trailer to put many question marks in audience’s heads, we didn’t use a whole load of speech in it. There is of course some dialogue, but much of it is drowned out by the sound of the dark music that we picked. There is no use of props because they weren’t really needed. Jasmine and Charlotte who were both in the trailer stayed in their own clothes the pretty much were the same as their characters, simple college students in London.

The dark, empty rooms were one of the many codes and conventions used. It gave the trailer a sense of horror and also, with the music, seemed quite complete for any typical thriller. We also filmed quite a lot in the evening, not only because the school was empty but because it helped us create that eerie image. Also, the fact that the characters are mainly in the dark and that the amount of light is a reoccurring motif in the trailer could be used to suggest that they are not only literally in the dark but that they also have no idea what is going on around them. We also used long, empty corridors with barely any lights on accept from at the end of the corridor, suggesting that our characters may have to take a risk and travel somewhere for them to get to this light. The colours that are in this trailer are a variety, but mainly darker, less ‘happier’ colours.

I believe that we have met the brief in terms of target audience. Primetime asked for the trailer to appeal to a wide range of age groups, from teens to mid-twenties.  We tried to ensure this with a number of different methods. For example, the fact that the girls are of the ages of around 16-18 will help us appeal to that specific audience. Also, the darkness and eeriness of this trailer may help to attract the older audiences. I think that one difficulty we may face is attracting a male audience because of the lack of men characters shown in the trailer.

For my print wok, I decided to base my articles around ones of ‘New’ and ‘Empire’ magazines.  New is somewhat a gossip, real life magazine that focuses on the lives of celebrities and sometimes gives film reviews, instead of picking to do a film review for this magazine, I wrote an article that was set out like a questionnaire, with Jasmine the main subject in it. The Empire magazine print work was a film review, which Empire does for almost all up and coming blockbusters and also for some indie films. The design that I created for both of these magazines was very different, as they both have very opposite target audiences. When it comes to the design and to the language used by Empire, we can call it much more sophisticated. They use only a certain amount of pretty mutual colours, reds, blacks and sometimes blues. Whereas ‘New’ magazine is very bright with big headings and bright reds and pinks. Empire appeals to a certain audience, one that is interested in films and keeps up with upcoming ones and probably to a more middle class one as well if we think about the price of the magazine and the fact that it is released once a month.  New magazine on the other hand comes out much more frequently and can appeal to working class as well as middle class, mainly women.

Distribution wise, the trailer should be shown at cinemas where the certificate of a film playing is similar to the trailer that I have produced.  I don’t believe that there would be any issues when it comes to regulation or media law, as we do not claim anything that is copyrighted by another person. The songs that we have chosen to use are copyright free pieces and there is no logo placement or advertising in the trailer. The plot does not include clear stereotypes, but our main two girl characters are clearly in trouble, which could lead to them being called damsels in distress. Other than that, there are no other characters which could be called stereotypes. The girls are both very vulnerable to this ‘creature’ that is hunting them.

The brief asks that we produce a two minute trailer, along with two print articles and a maximum of six pages of research, I have done all of these. The research includes a shooting schedule and various things that I thought I may need when I started to film the trailer. Overall, I believe that there were a number of things that me and my partner did correctly when our project had finished. We knew exactly what target audience we were aiming our trailer at so we didn’t move away from any of our first aims. Also I was very pleased with how my print work turned out to look and I believe that I stayed true to the real designs of those magazines. I think that one certain weakness was that when we first started off, we were very excited and had numerous ideas in our heads about what we wanted to do, and we didn’t write all of this down. Also, when the time came for us to actually start filming, it was quite clear that we didn’t have all of the equipment that we needed to put all of our ideas into action. If I could change one thing, it would be that we stick more to the shooting schedule that we had written up because things may have been much easier if we had done that. Also I think it would have been better if my partner and I had spoken over some things more clearly. Overall, I am pleased with how this project turned out and believe that we done our best to make it as good as possible.