Audience and Institution Practice Essay

Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied

                Year after year billions and billions of dollars in revenue is made from the film industry. Many people wonder how such an abundance of money is made. Marketing is the simple answer. The number of media outlets owned by companies has become less and less in recent years. Instead of thousands of small companies, there is multiple conglomerates dominating the scene through effective marketing strategies. These conglomerates use a variety of methods to market their films such as: cross promotion, merchandise, and home exhibition. 

            Various big-time companies come together with similar interest to promote their products using cross promotion. Toy companies, food companies, and department stores are all in interaction with film corporations. For instance, Jurassic World partnered with famous toy company, The Lego Group, creating dinosaur action figures. Additionally, Jurassic World also partnered with prominent candy company, Mike and Ike, producing Jurassic World themed candy boxes. Another example of this, is when the creators of multibillion-dollar corporation, Universal, released one of their most popular projects, Furious 7, and teamed up with the video game creators of Forza, to make Forza 2, which was based on the Furious 7 movie. In Furious 7’s first weekend of being released, it accumulated a whopping $143.6 million, and continued to collect $384 million worldwide later that week. The utilization of simple market strategies, strategies as easy as cross promotion, can lead to major success, and an amazing outcome.

            Hundreds of well-known film companies around the globe almost always distribute their movies through home exhibition. Famous enterprises like Walt Disney Pictures, Mandeville Films, which was previously a subsidiary of Disney, and Universal, have all brought their movies to households globally. The audience can finally watch the movies they love so much from their own tv screen. On September 15, 2015, Furious 7 was released on Blu-Ray and DVD. Likewise, on June 6, 2017, a couple years after the home exhibition of Furious 7, Walt Disney Pictures and Mandeville films brought one of their most renowned movies, Beauty and the Beast, to homes everywhere via Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD, and On Demand. To add on, in 2018 the distinguished film was later released on one of the biggest streaming platforms in the world, Netflix. The extensive marketing of Beauty and the Beast led to a vast stream of revenue; the movie is ranked 76 all time, and collected approximately $1.3 billion worldwide. The amount of profit earned was tremendous, and could not have been done without substantial marketing, not to mention an immense portion of the earnings was ancillary revenue.

            Merchandise is most likely the most common and frequent form of marketing due to its success. World renown businesses such as Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios, Disney and Universal all create merchandise for their newly released films. Most recently, Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios came up with a Spider-man Homecoming video game for the ps4 to raise their revenue stream. This game is familiar to kids and teens throughout the world that own a ps4 because the amount of sales blew through the roof, making it a definite topic of discussion. Furthermore, the two major organizations created action figures and games to get kids to want to watch the movie. Another prime example of this is Jurassic World; after the movie became a huge hit, many Lego sets, video games, and even an app were created to further market the product. Limited DVD sets were even being distributed with the addition of toys, figurines, and posters. Moreover, Disney is one of the best merchandise distributors on the planet. When their Beauty and the Beast film released, ornaments, clothes, dolls, etc. were also added to the Disney shop. Disney even teamed up with Target to create costumes, Hallmark to release Beauty and the Beast themed mugs, and Hot Topic released film inspired shirts, accessories, etc. The ancillary revenue of all these films is absolutely massive. Without merchandise companies can lose about half or more of their revenue from the film. Without a doubt, marketing is the most crucial part about making money in the film industry, without it there would be no profit to be made.

            In retrospect, the film industry is one of the most challenging industries to thrive in. The use of different types of marketing all contribute to the success of sensational film companies world-wide. Continuing to use effective marketing strategies like home exhibition, cross promotion, and merchandise will all be vital to a film conglomerates survival. Companies persistently pursue new approaches to marketing, to assist them in thriving in today’s demanding economy.

Extract Essay

                Today’s society is filled with tons and tons of social problems, one of the biggest issues is violence. Specifically, police brutality, the movie 24 is a perfect example of what is wrong with our law enforcement system today. The author was trying to portray how unnecessarily aggressive the cop was being to a helpless lady. He resorts to unneeded violence for no apparent reason, but personal interest. The extract shows multiple scenes giving context on how violent and dangerous the cop really is.

To begin with, the first scene shown in the extract the directors uses multiple techniques to help highlight his point. For example, he uses over the shoulder shots, dialogue, and the interrogation room. When the main character enters the room, he makes eye contact with the woman sitting down in the chair. The constant back and forth of the camera over each character’s shoulders, gives viewers a feeling of unease and highlights the importance of the conversation between the two characters. Eventually, they began having dialogue between each other, this gives everyone context on the situation, and why the two characters are there. The cop uses threats, and force with his words, showing how unnecessarily aggressive he is. This all takes place in an interrogation room which gives the whole scene its mood. If it were anywhere else, like in the middle of a bright sunny park, the whole dynamic of the scene would be ruined. It also gives the cop the opportunity to show how violent he is when no one else is around.

Furthermore, in the second scene shown in the film the producers use minuscule techniques that don’t seem important, but are actually vital to the scene. For instance, in this brief scene of these unrevealed figures in a computer room, the film maker uses eye line matches, and close-ups. The scene begins with a close-up of a computer or tv screen showing the cop interrogating the victim. This close up is extremely important because it emphasizes that the cop has to be monitored. It implies that his actions are unpredictable, and can hurt the woman at any time. The next thing the camera shows is two anonymous people viewing the tv in an eye line match. The eye line match shows the suspicion in the scene and gives the scene a serious mood.

To add on, the last scene I will be reviewing uses some of the most commonly used filming techniques. These techniques are sound mix, dark lighting, and action match. The scene has a mix of different sounds while everything is going on. The characters have dialogue while there is noise in the background. These different combinations of diegetic sound, ambient sound, etc.… all contribute to giving viewers a sense of anxiety and nervousness while watching. The dark lighting also plays a huge factor in the feeling the audience receives. Anytime it’s dark, people get a certain eerie and skeptical feeling. This is exactly what happens to people watching this scene with dim lighting. Additionally, action match played an essential role in the entire scene. The cop brutally shoves the woman’s chair all the way to the wall and begins to choke her. As he is pushing the chair the camera gets multiple angles of this happening. This technique gets multiple points of view of the uncalled-for ferocity and how scared the victim is.

In retrospect, these plethora of techniques and little skills the film maker utilized all contributes to the leading theme of the film which was police brutality. The main character could have had a completely different approach that was more positive to get the information he needed. Instead, he uses brute force and aggression which leads to a waste of time. These different film methods all help capture these horrific scenes and enhance them. This movie was created to show the audience the whole truth about police violence.

Critical Creative Reflection

This Critical Creative Reflection project was extremely tedious and time consuming. It was such a struggle to export my video. I finally finished it days prior to the due date. I waited a couple days to post it on my blog, but I realize its not as simple as I thought. Everything was giving me a problem so I had to figure out a solution. I finally found a way to upload through a different platform. In this video I get asked questions about the Aice Media Studies class. I answer these questions and give insight on the class and my honest opinions. I play the role of a podcast host and me, myself. I gave details in multiple aspects of the class as a whole. Being creative inside quarantine was tough, but I tried my best. I went back and forth between a podcast host and me. It's kind of like an interview. This video is one of my last projects so I put all of my effort into it. It took me days to plan this video. It also took me days to film it. Not to mention It was also a super long process to edit it. I hope everyone likes it. All I can do is put my maximum effort and hope for the best. This video is basically an overview of how I felt about the class.

Final Task Movie

My final movie task was extremely difficult. It took up a lot of personal time and effort. I drove miles and miles away to get this project done. I drove to my families house, because one of my family members decided to help me. It was also convenient that there was a park nearby which is where I wanted to shoot. This was a lot of trial and error for me. Not everything went perfectly how I wanted, but I still got the result I was looking for. I had many different shots, angles, etc. The basis of my movie was about a young teen who's a basketball player. He recently just lost one of his loved ones who was influential on his basketball career, before a big game. He goes through a series of flashbacks, and memories to remember his loved one. I had the film all planned out. The only thing I had to do was execute. I got a series of family members to help be in the film, and shoot. After I got all the clips I needed, I started to edit. The editing process was a tedious one. I had to spend hours at my computer and phone just to get the transitions, and effects I wanted. I put forth my maximum effort and time. All I can hope for is that everyone will enjoy it. This is a movie put my time, effort, and heart into, and I'm proud of it.

Filming blog: Dreaded quarantine

I've been in quarantine for quite some time now. It has been over a month now and I'm beginning to get worried. At first I thought this "break from school" would only last after spring break. Looking at me now into weeks and weeks of quarantine I'm extremely scared. I've been hearing rumors of not even going back to school for the rest of the school year. This whole virus has struck the world by storm, and cost the lives of thousands. It's ruined the plans of everyone. I was planning on playing basketball for my travel team this summer, but my plans were ruined. The disappointing part is this was supposed to be a break out year for me. This just goes to show that not everything will go as you expect, so live everyday as if it were your last. I also planned of going back to the Philippines, where I was born. There's still a possibility of me going, but it's highly unlikely. School from online is harder than I thought it would be too. I thought being in school with a teacher was hard enough, but this is like a horror film. I have no physical person to guide me through the lesson, so it slows my learning process. If I have to continue doing online school the rest of the year who knows what my grades will be like. I'm trying my best, but there's only so much I can do. I feel worse for the people in other parts of the world that have it worse than I do. I can't imagine what they're going through. I think we should use this time to all come together as human beings. This is one in a lifetime things not many people go through things like this. I hope everyone gets better and we can all recover from this.

Editing blog: nothing’s changed

It’s been over a week on lock down. I still haven’t gone outside the house. I can’t lie completely hate this. I feel like the whole world is still. I also think this has to be the worst break from school I’ve had. Not only me but my classmates as well dread this time. During this time we’re usually out of this house having fun. We’d be going to the beach, mall, etc. I feel like I'm locked in a little prison cell. There's only so much I can do at home. I've been trying to entertain myself by playing video games, watching movies, and eating. If this continues to happen I might go insane. I don't know when we're going back to school, or even if we are. I used to complain about how I hate going to school. Now it's the complete opposite, I miss seeing my friends and having human interaction. The most I can do is text and face time my friends. Everyone seems to be with their family though. I hope this virus doesn't get any worse than it already is. If everyone just listened and stayed inside maybe this would all be over. All I can do is hope for the best.

Filming blog: still at home

These past couple days have been rough. I’ve been at home all week. All of south Florida is basically on lockdown. I lost power a couple times and my internet went out. I’ve been trying to pass the time by playing video games, basketball, and watching movies. Nothing seems to satisfy my interest. I haven’t had any word from my school. Only news I’ve got, is that we’ll be resuming classes online. I’m not sure when but I’m assuming after spring break. Online classes has to be one of the worst things that happen to me. Myself as a learner needs to be hands on. I don’t learn best through a computer screen. I need physically help from a teacher. I don’t even know how we are going to learn online. I’m contemplating on if we’re going to video chat our teachers. Another option is we start with brand new teachers all over again. That would be terrible. Hopefully this virus calms down and everything can resume normally. I hope they don’t take away time from our summer because of this problem. Anyways, I never really appreciated school until now. I hope everyone is safe and doing well.