Monday 3 June 2013

Last Min Revision:

AMC's Mad Men S5E11 - ' The Other Woman' Directed by Phil Abraham and Written by Matthew Wiener. Attracts its audience by use of enigma codes , ensemble cast and relatable plots.

 ABC'S Lost S1E2 - ' The Pilot Part 2' Directed by J.J Abrahams ,story by Jeffery Lieber. Attracts is audience by use of a polysemic narrative, complex character roles and lack of non diegetic sound.

 BBC's Louis Theroux - ' The Most Hated Family In Crisis' Directed by Emma Cooper. Attracts is audience by keeping to the BBC's permit of Inform ,Educate and Entertain. Theroux attracts a niche subject matter and his presenting styles.

 Sin City (2005) Directed by Frank Miller is a neo noir graphic novel adaptation (hybrid genre) . Uses conventions of voice of via non diegetic sound. Superhuman strength and reoccurring motifs of depression , paranoia and Corruption.

 District 9 (2009) Directed by Niel Blomkamp is a hybrid genre of Sci/Fi - Part Mock Document. This conforms to its genre via the uses of interviews holding time codes and on screen graphics allowing breaking the fourth wall (acknowledgement of the camera) Aliens and humans coexisting with body gore.Similar films: The Fly(1986) , Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956) and Avatar (2009)

  Fish Tank (2009) Directed by Arndrea Arnold. Lies within the social realism genre.Conforms to its genres conventions by the use of hand held camera cinematography , shallow depth of field, no non diegetic music, evolving around the representation of the under represented ( working class)
Similar films : Saturday Night And Sunday Morning (1960) A Taste Of Honey (1961)

 Nirvana - Nevermind (1991) Produced by Butch Vig and signed to Geffen Records after leaving Sub Pop. ' helped popularize the Seattle grunge movement' 'changed the ideologies within mainstream music.Smells like teen spirit replaced MJ'S 'Dangerous' at no1# on the billboard. Has had over 107,000,000 views on youtube. Over 30,000,000 hard copies were released worldwide. They used PR stunts to gain more fans by the two step flow theory of T.V shows. Given producers such as Andy Wallace who did Slayers 1990's album more job opportunities.

 Lady Gaga - The Fame (2008) Interscope records.Hold Para social relationships with fans. ' Product Placement' a 1/3 of her income is via product placement.Huge success in global sales.Is the most followed person on twitter with 37mil+ followers. She used her para social to answer her fans questions via youtube. 

Radiohead - The King Of Limbs (2011) Self released via the internet. ' changed the mindset of distribution and record companies' 'DIY music marketing' . Was the 8th studio album and released as MP3 and WAv formats before hard copies of Vynil and Cd. The album was one of the most successful selling albums as they allowed fans to pay what they felt should be paid for the work.

Tuesday 21 May 2013

B4. Explore the marketing strategies used by your selected industry? - Nirvana

The music industry had relied on certain market strategies to promote and gratify it's audiences. For example Nirvana an alternative grudge three piece band from Seattle. For Nirvana's promotion and releasing it was left down to self promotion and the record label as digital technologies (on demand) wasn't available at the time in the 1990's when 'Never mind' Nirvana's second album which was signed to DGC's records. Due to digital technologies not being available at the time Nirvana's promotion was typically due to the relevance on mainstream T.V to which the band would pull PR stunts in order to put the water cooler theory into place to establish word of mouth via its audiences gratifications. For example when the three piece band went on top of the pops to promote the band they were told to lip sync to the music. The band took this to their advantage's to promote the subculture and ideologies of 'Nirvana' being an anti-mainstream band that are rebelling against mainstreamers consumption habits.
In the 90's the band switched record companies from Sub Pop and underground indie label who took first steps to popularise 'grunge' music however the record company was too underground to gain the band any promotion this was shown in the release of Bleach (1989) as it failed to chart which is why the band signed to Geffen records to re-release the album and managed to hit number 33 in the charts . Geffen is an mainstream american label that artists such as Elton John , Kylie Minogue and Cher were all signed to. This allowed Nirvana to gain slots within TV shows such as Top Of The Pops and Jonathan Ross's show to allow promotion. Although the band was unable to release their music digitally at the time of the album to major companies such as iTunes , Spotify and Youtube at the time it didn't stop them releasing it later as digital copies making the music more accessible to their audiences creating a longevity for the bands income. Digital technologies have allowed an audiences consumption habits to change , audiences can now access the music within an impulse purchase allowing the new generating to access the older music. Digital technologies allowed nostalgia marketing to take place through fan sites such as youtube, twitter and Facebook to which the 20th Anniversary release took to a mass audience.

Thursday 16 May 2013

Old and New Comparisons Of Genre With John - Genre Theory

"Genres are created through a process of repetition and recognition leading to anticipation and expectation" Graham Burton 2000 - Film Theorist

Genre (Conventions)  - Representations (Characters / CRASH ) - Narrative (Themes / Roles / Theory)

How typical are your three main texts of their genre:
Answer by referring to:
- Key signifiers and iconography
- Storyline's and plots
- Characters and their functions
- Stars / Celebrities
- Camera , sound , editing
- Dialogue , language, music.

Genre / Expectation
 - As genres become established audiences begin to have certain expectations.
- Ever genre contains generic conventions that an audience could expect.
- Sin City , Fish Tank , District 9 rely upon differing conventions relating to genre.

Like Genre:
Familiar , understand them and like them.
Give us an informed choice.

How Genre Changes
- All texts combine:
"familiar and unexpected" (G.Burton 2000)
"same but different" (Mickey Lace 1999)

How Genre Changes
- repetition of the conventions could lead to boredom. To keep us interested producers offer us what we know with a  twist. This can be within:
- Hybridity 
- New technologies
- Modern in social issues
- Different characters

Hybridity/hybrid: 
-The fusion of combination of different genre styles.
- Repetition and difference: most media texts have a pattern of repetition and difference. They have identifiable similarities, but contain new elements.

Steve Neale: (Film Theorist)
"genres are instates of repetition and difference" he add's that "difference in absolutely essential to economy of genre"


Tuesday 7 May 2013

Social Realism - Fish Tank

1) How typically are your chosen texts of their genre?

Fish Tank (2009- Directed by Andrea Arnold) is very typical to the social realism genre this is shown through narrative structure and genre conventions within the medium such as diegetic sound , hand held cinematography and unknown actors.Fish Tank uses predominantly diegetic sound through out the film this is shown in the scene where Mia (Katie Jarvis) shows Connor (Michael Fassbender) her dance for her audition to work .By using diegetic sound only it add's no emphasis towards the daily ground the characters take part in allowing an audience emotionally react to the situations realistic.The use of close up's in this scene highlights where the sound escapes from being speakers plugged into a cd player. The cinematography in Fish Tank consists of hand held work with a narrow depth of field this convention is used to make the issues appear realistic as the eye would see. For example in one scene Mia runs away from Joanne her mother (Kierston Wareing). We are shown a sequence which chases Mia with hand held camera shots following her down the corridor and the stairs again to focus on the reality of the location and how the eye would see.Another convention which makes Fish Tank typical to its genre is the use of unknown actors such as Katie Jarvis. Arnold spotted Katie in the location of Barking London arguing with her boyfriend when she approached her with the role of Mia. Katie portrayed Mia's character in the location of filming making the use of unknown actors a typical genre convention.

Louis Theroux - Audience Response


Louis Theroux: 'I'm not out to take advantage of anyone. I'm just being me' 'The Independant'

Critics have accused the presenter of tricking interviewees by pretending to be a bumbling fool – a faux naif - 'The Guardian'

So Louis bumbled along in his typically goofy – but unusually straightforward – manner, rebutting the Westboro arguments with simple comebacks - 'Metro'

There was nothing sly or underhand about Theroux’s approach to his subjects and at no point did he attempt to trick or cajole them into looking bad. - 'Metro'

So when you cover a group like this, you take a gamble that you will be able to get under its skin and reveal something - 'Louis Theroux BBC News Interview'

Theroux pretty much gets nothing other than a replay of the things he already got in the first film.- ' Bob The Moo - User Review- IMDB'

Theroux is seen as a weasel and they are keen to make sure and give him only the party-line without any cracks. - ' Bob The Moo - User Review- IMDB'

This was a unnecessary film that offers nothing and one of his weaker films as a result.- ' Bob The Moo - User Review- IMDB'

EVIDENCE 

Grace is surrounded by three other members of the family to make sure Louis can't break her down.

Louis questions Gramps the paster of the church how many children he has. In response Gramps confronts Louis about this as he knows that Louis knows how many children Gramps has. Louis tries to question him about the loss of his children yet Gramps doesn't give him an answer and requests that Louis questions him about something important.

Tuesday 30 April 2013

Lost Audience Responses:

SeasonTimeslot (ET)No. of episodesPremieredEndedTV seasonRankU.S. viewers
(millions)
DatePremiere viewers
(millions)
DateFinale viewers
(millions)
1
Wednesday 8:00 pm
25
September 22, 2004
18.65[61]
May 25, 2005
20.71[62]2004–05#1515.69[63]
2
Wednesday 9:00 pm
24
September 21, 2005
23.47[64]
May 24, 2006
17.84[65]2005–06#1515.50[66]
3
Wednesday 9:00 pm (October 4, 2006 – November 8, 2006)
Wednesday 10:00 pm (February 7, 2007 – May 23, 2007)
23
October 4, 2006
18.82[67]
May 23, 2007
13.86[68]2006–07#1315.95[69]
4
Thursday 9:00 pm (January 31, 2008 – March 20, 2008)
Thursday 10:00 pm (April 24, 2008 – May 29, 2008)
14
January 31, 2008
17.77[70]
May 29, 2008
13.99[71]2007–08#1913.17[72]
5
Wednesday 9:00 pm
17
January 21, 2009
13.32[73]
May 13, 2009
9.43[74]2008–09#2810.94[75]
6
Tuesday 9:00 pm
Sunday 9:00 pm (May 23, 2010)
18
February 2, 2010
14.30[76]
May 23, 2010
13.57[77]2009–10#3110.08[78]


In addition to traditional terrestrial and satellite broadcastingLost is available from various online services, including Amazon Instant Video,Hulu, and Netflix.It was one of the first series issued through Apple's iTunes Store beginning in October 2005.On August 29, 2007, Lost became one of the first TV programs available for download in the UK iTunes Store.

A video game, Lost: Via Domus, was released to average reviews, developed by Ubisoft, for game consoles and home computers, while Gameloft developed a Lost game for mobile phones and iPods.

"The Lost Experience. An official fanclub was launched in the summer of 2005 through Creation Entertainment.










Tuesday 23 April 2013

- Most Media Texts Target A Wide Range Of Audiences , How True Is This To Your Chosen Texts?

Matthew Wiener's 'Mad Men' aired on AMC and Sky Atlantic targets a niche audience therefore not targeting  a wide range of audiences. I will use reference to the series 5 episode ' The Other Woman' to which it  reached over 2million viewers. It's preferred audiences are typically targeted by the scheduling of the show as most viewers are typically aged 18+ thus AMC and Sky Atlantic's airing time of 9pm allowing it's preferred audience to be active. By airing the show at 9pm it will target it's niche audience as they come home from work and settle for the night gratifying them. 'The Other Woman' plot is based  around a pitch to the car company Jaguar to get the job in their advertising campaign.'The Other Woman' holds an ensemble cast which have various ideology's within for example in ' The Other Woman' this is shown through the complex representation of female cast and the models of behaviour they hold. 'Peggy' played by 'Elizabeth Moss'  a work enthusiast uses her knowledge to gain employment and leave the company .The reason for casting 'Elizabeth Moss'  for this role is she is less attractive than 'Christian Hendricks' who plays 'Joan'. 'Joan' is totally the opposite to 'Peggy' she suppresses herself by sleeping with Jaguar's Boss in order for the company to get the job. 'Joan' is sexualised throughout the episode as they purposely use costume to hug her curves allowing her cleavage to be on show at all times where as 'Peggy' is constantly covered in smart attire.  Mad men attracts it's niche audience by gratifying it's audience through personal identity as due to the scheduling time of 9pm it's audience will be at home from work while the children are in bed as they can relate to the work life and family aspects that 'Mad Men' holds as the plot evolves around 'Don Draper' and his work and family life which is why the show is aired at 9PM. So therefore i believe that although most media texts do target a wide audience it's proven by 'Mad Men' that you can target a preferred niche audience through certain techniques.