MEST 1 Section B | What is the relationship between the media products in your case study and the advertising industry?

 

Brainstorm initital thoughts on the question  

Find examples from all of your films to illustrate the question (for each platform)

Make sure you've used Media terminology in every sentence

Prepare a 3 minute presentation of the question and your case study to the rest of the class.

Brainstorm:
- Synergy
- Themed Merchandise (Clothing, Sountracks, items that associate with film or originals)
- Fansites (FanPop)
- Social Networking (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest)
- Official Websites (advertising products & merchandise)
- Posters
- Trailers (View count, comments)
- Marketing Campaigns



Life As We Know It, The Back-Up Plan and I Give It A Year have been influenced by the power the advertising industry has over it, and the use of Synergy and merchandise has possibly made the films more successful and increased sales and given the film a wider audience profile.

PRINT
For advertising this is the least popular form as it's doesn't receive as much exposure therefore companies will release magazines and posters for the film but also post interviews and exclusive information online so that more people are likely to view it. 

BROADCAST
YouTube Trailers:
Life As We Know It (2010) - 7.3 million+ views
The Back-Up Plan (2011) - 230,000+ views
I Give It A Year (2013) - 590,000+ views
Rental on LoveFilm & NetFlix means that this company can advertise their capability of having films for rent before it is released on DVD but also the film institution can continue an advertising campaign after the cinema release to attract to a wider audience, especially those who missed going to the cinema or prefer watching films at home.
Also this applies to more current methods of watching films such as downloading to Apple products (iPhone, iPad ect.) also Sky offer 'SkyGo' where you can watch films online and on other devices while out.

E-MEDIA
Major advertisement is now done through social networking such as Facebook & Twitter.
Life As We Know It - Facebook: 600,000+ likes
                               Twitter (Warner Bros.): 515,000+ followers
The Back-Up Plan - Facebook: 280,000+ likes
                             Twitter (CBSFilms): 14,000+ followers
I Give It A Year - Facebook: 14,000+ likes
                          Twitter (StudioCanal): 16,000+ followers
User Generated Content -
Fansites such as FanPop has forums for all 3 films
YouTube, people upload personal reviews of film, fanmade trailers, sequels and can comment meaning the audience have social interaction which leads to the film being advertised to a wider audience without intention.

SYNERGY
Synergy plays a big role in the relationship between the media product and the advertising.
Merchandise comes about from this, the film Life As We Know It has a soundtrack, wallpapers and a set of newborn baby items including bottle, changing kit ect. similar to what the actual film had. The Back-Up Plan had the clothing the main character (Jennifer Lopez) wore up for auction plus a soundtrack. At the moment I Give It A Year only has a soundtrack because it's a new release. 
The first two films have DVD's out with bonus information and scenes plus a version for Blu-ray. 

Case Study Question | Audience

'Audiences are becoming increasingly powerful in shaping media output'

With reference to your case study, how far is this true?

I think that to an extent the audience is becoming more powerful in shaping media output. In my case study I am looking at the three following films: Life As We Know It, The Back-Up Plan & I Give It A Year. All of which follow the Romantic Comedy genre and have three different platforms for the film; E-Media, Print & Broadcast to reach a wide audience and promote audience interaction to help shape media output. 

The film 'Life As We Know It' has various social networking sites such as Facebook with over 600,000 'likes' on it and over a 1000 people talking about it, also the institution, Warner Brothers has a Twitter account for interacting with their audience. Facebook can give the audience the opportunity to comment, review, look at pictures/interviews and find exclusive information while Twitter is good surveillance according to the Uses & Gratifications Theory due to it being more informative about their films. Another social networking site that Warner Bros. Entertainment have just announced on the Life As We Know It Facebook is that they have registered on Pinterest, a modern site for 're-pinning' images and information, similar to blogging. On this site they have made 'boards' for trailers, merchandise, images, quotes, film posters and one's for their most popular films (Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter ect.) This gives the audience a chance to look at exclusive content, there is a section for film screen shots and links to merchandise such as a shot of the family in the film and the baby wearing a Batman costume, Warner Bros. have commented giving a link to where you can buy the exact outfit due to demand from the audience. This film was shown in cinemas and found to be popular making over $100,000 dollars at Box Office, it was then offered on Lovefilm for a period of time due to it being popular to quite a wide spread audience, following this it was released on DVD in the US and sold over a million copies in a month. On Youtube the audience have uploaded fan made trailers or their own versions of the storyline, this is User Generated Content and is also found on sites such as FanPop where there is Forums for discussing the film such as favourite parts, characters and what they would like to see.

Next the film 'The Back-Up Plan' has similar social networking sites, on Facebook the page almost has 300,000 'likes' and over 500 people talking about it. The film also has it's own Twitter account, alongside the institutions one: CBS films. People have the opportunity to look at new information and pictures plus leave comments and reviews, when the film was first released there were plans to release the DVD a few months later as usual however a large proportion of the audience wanted a bonus soundtrack, due to this high demand the institution released a soundtrack a a few months after the DVD. For User Generated Content on YouTube there are some fan made videos for the film and also one for the main male actor Alex O'Loughlin also on FanPop people have created Forums for the film so that people can discuss and leave comments. 

The film 'I Give It A Year' has almost 14,000 'likes' and 600 people talking about it, these numbers are quite low in comparison to the other films however this film has recently been released so has not been so widely spread through social networking. On Twitter the film institution is StudioCanal and has almost 17,000 followers.

 (Unfinished)

In what way has new and digital media impacted on the products in your case study and how they are received by the audience? | 20 Bullet Points

In what way has new and digital media impacted on the products in your case study and how they are received by the audience?  

1. Introduction with reference to digital media and my products in case study
2. More detail on my case studies and a background into the films 
3. Fan sites - Audience having chance to put forward their personal opinion/review of film. Pages on websites such as Facebook & Fanpop
4. Social Networking - Websites 
5. Life As We Know It - A Facebook fan site where people can comment, review, get inside information and pictures about the film. Also a Twitter for the film institution (Warner Bros.) for information on that film but also there upcoming films, advertises whole institution. 
6. The Back-Up Plan - Facebook for commenting, pictures, interviews and clips and also a Twitter page for the film and also one for the institution (CBS Films). 
7. I Give It A Year - Facebook page for pictures, clips, commenting and new information on the film and how successful it is, due to being a new release
8. Sites such as Netflix offer exclusive viewing of new films such as Life As We Know It & The Back-Up Plan, also LoveFilm offer online streaming of these and also a home delivery so that you can watch it on DVD, often companies such as this will offer the films before they are released on DVD meaning they're exclusive and increase the interest of the audience. 
9. Some films offer merchandise alongside the DVD such as clothing, calendars, signed posters ect or something specifically associated with the film, this also gives companies a chance to advertise under their conglomerate.
10. Compare traditional forms of media advertising for films and newer ones such as social networking and giving the audience more of an opinion.
11. Demonstrate how new digital media has had a major impact on the success of films, especially as audiences feel more involved and are inclined to watch something as there is so much more coverage on it and easier to access for information
12. Uses and Gratifications, why are people more interested in films with heavy digital media advertising - surveillance, diversion, personal identity ect.
13. Classification - who is the film advertising to and how are the methods attracting this audience

The Male Gaze Theory

Laura Mulvey is a british feminist film theorist that was born on 15 August, 1941. She is known for making a number of theories relating to feminism in the media. One particular theory that she made that has become famous to those studying the media is 'The Male Gaze'. Laura Mulvey stated that in classical Hollywood cinema they created the film to have the spectator in a masculine subject position, with the figure of the woman on screen as the object of desire. She further went onto say that Hollywood female characters of the 1950's and 1960's were presented in a provocative manner and "coded with to-be-looked-at-ness". This relates to the 5th point in Goodwins theory that states music videos have particularly voyeuristic treatment of women, supporting the statement.
Laura said that they were two modes of the male gaze that would present women in a negative light. This first was the 'voyeuristic view' (i.e. seeing women as an image "to be looked at") and "fetishistic" (i.e. seeing women as a substitute for "the lack," the underlying psychoanalytic fear of castration). This theory compared with Goodwins fifth theory just proves that women are presented in a biased light in the media.


Video to be analysed by this theory:

Where I am with Case Study

Films: Life As We Know It (1)

           The Back-Up Plan (2)

            I Give It A Year (Nothing completed yet)

1.  Analyse the trailer - Yes for films 1 & 2

2.  Analyse the website - Yes for 1, however there is not website for film 2 as the institution did not believe it would be a big hit

3.  Analyse a fan site - Yes for 1 and 2, need to look more into User Generated Content

4.  Find a few twitter comments about it 5. read a few articles from different websites about it.

6.  Find out how much it cost to make - Yes for 1 and 2 ($38,000,000 and $35,000,000)

7.  Find out what awards it won - Not completed for either

8.  Find out if there are any additional things being sold like posters/other merchandise - Started and found some for film 1 but not many for film 2 (change film?)

9.  Know who was producing it and what else they had produced.  The same for directing - Know producers and directors for both but need to look into what else they have produced/directed

10.  Find out about the marketing campaign and how they did it - Looked at posters, social media, Youtube for film 1 and 2

11.  Look at what fans were saying about the film, perhaps watch some interviews with the cast and director - Found reviews for 1 and 2 plus fan sites, need to look at clips of cast and directors

12.  Find out what impact winning awards had on the film and its' box office takings - Need to start this for films

13.  Think of theories to apply to the film and what sorts of questions they would be good to use in - Todorov and Propp would be good for audience questions

14.  Look at old mark schemes and see what sorts of things they are looking for and what the questions were - Had brief look for mock questions but need to look in more detail to work out a structure and find exactly what I need to include for various questions

15.  Practice answering questions and think about what I felt I should have known but didn't and how I could find out that information - Answered some questions but need more in-depth knowledge that is specific to questions likely to come up and know exactly what is needed for them so I can 'pin' down the answer.