Trailer - Magazine Front Cover

Analyse 3 magazine front covers...

Ensure that your annotation covers all the areas you learnt how to analyse at AS including

•           typography, Cover lines - Masthead

•           mode of address

•           ratio of photography to text

•           framing

•           types of shot and photographic codes

•           language code and register

•           lighting

•           objects and props

•           tagline

•           convergent links

•           colour palette.

Think About the following 

·         What is advertising?

·         What is its purpose/why do companies advertise their products and services (Look and understand the AIDA model)

·         What is being advertised?

·         Who is the advert targeting?

·         What stereotype is being used?

·         What message is being sent to the audience/receiver?

Trailer Ancillary-Film Poster for your film

As you need to produce a film poster for one of your ancillary tasks you need to firstly research into them. You should analyse a variety of different genres and approaches (again I would suggest you analyse 3-6 film posters). Use the following to guide you:

Posters occupy a space between art and advertising. They have a clear commercial purpose - to promote an event or product - but they also have artistic value. People buy them and hang them on their walls. Museums have whole galleries devoted to poster art. When analysing a poster it is important that you evaluate both how well it fulfils its purpose (ie promotion) as well as its aesthetic value. ("aesthetic value" means their value as artistic creations.)

First StepsWhen analysing a poster, you should consider the following broad questions before you start to focus on the details:

• What are the main colours used in the poster and what do they connote?
• What symbols are used in the poster? Do you need audience foreknowledge to decode the symbols?
• What are the main figures/objects/background of the poster? Are they represented photographically, graphically, or illustratively?
• Are the messages in the poster primarily visual, verbal, or both?
• Who do you think is the intended audience for the poster?
• Given that all movie posters have the same purpose - to get audiences to go see a movie - what persuasive techniques are used by the poster?
• Which genre conventions are referred to?
• Is a star used as a USP (unique selling point)?
• Are "expert witnesses" (ie critics) quoted?
• What pleasures (gratifications) are promised by the poster?
• How is attention gained (humour, shock, surprise)?
• How does the tagline work? (humour, pun, alliteration etc?)

Production Constraints
The poster can also give you important information about the production context of the movie:

1. How much does the poster tell you about the institutional context of the movie's production?
2. How important is this information on the poster (think about information hierarchies)?
3. How important a part of the whole marketing campaign is the poster? Where is the poster placed?
4. How expensive was this poster to produce?

Critical Evaluation
Finally, you have to pass judgement on the poster. 

• Is it an effective poster? Why?
• Does it communicate effectively with the audience?
• Are there any alternative readings which might harm the message of the marketing campaign?
• Is the poster offensive in any way?

Music Video Analyse 3 contemporary Magazine advertisements

Digipaks (CD albums) are often advertised in music magazines prior to their release.  An advert would normally be A4 in shape.  You need to find at least three adverts for albums / singles in a similar genre to the video you are making and analyse them.

Your analyses could be done as a normal blog entry but you must have visual images of the “adverts” so the examiner can see what you are talking about. 

When analysing them you should consider all of the following things:

Ensure that your annotation covers all the areas you learnt how to analyse at AS including

•           typography,

•           mode of address

•           ratio of photography to text

•           framing

•           types of shot and photographic codes

•           language code and register

•           lighting

•           objects and props

•           tagline

•           convergent links

•           colour palette.

Think About the following 

·         What is advertising?

·         What is its purpose/why do companies advertise thier products and services (Look and undertsand the AIDA model)

·         What is being advertised?

·         Who is the advert targeting?

·         What stereotype is being used?

·         What message is being sent to the audience/receiver?

Analsye the following:

·         Typography (font type, colour, layout)

·         Images used

·         Layout

·         Slogans

·         Quotes/album reviews

·         Release date

·         Record label

Music Video Ancillary task Analysis – CD Digipack

A digipak is a CD Case, normally made of card, which has several folding panes (squares) along with either one or two plastic holders for the disc/s inside.

For this task you need to find and analyse at least three digipaks.  For each digipak you must analyse all

the packaging (inside and out) rather than just the front cover.  Your analyses could be done as a normal blog entry but you must have visual images of all the “panes” so the examiner can see what you are talking about. 

When analysing them you should consider all of the following things:

• ·         What conventions of a CD Cover / Digipak does it include / leave out?
• ·         Colour
• ·         Wording
• ·         Font
• ·         Choice of Images
• ·         Design / Layout

How do these elements communicate the genre, or attract an audience?

For extra points you could also examine past covers and show how they have developed/remained a strong artist identity. Use the following to guide you:

·         Images used (layut, colour, style etc)

·         Text (fonts, size, positioning , colour etc)

·         Style - photography, art, animation, retro

·         Use of genre signifiers - are there any signifiers exclusive to the band/genre

·         Relationship between text and images - how do they work together ie anchorage

·         Visual representation of the music and concept or theme

·         Branding of the artist

·         Insitutional identity, indie or mainstream, British etc

·         The functions served by the digipak - what are the functions of the front, back etc

*I would think about choosing the same digipak for the magazine advert and the digipack textual analysis so you can see how they are working together as part of a marketing campaign. You could also look at what other tools they used to market this album; websites/tour adverts/viral marketing techniques etc.

Example of textual analysis

Introduction to Genre

Film Genre Film genre is an important concept for critics, film-makers and audiences, as well as media theorists. Film genre has both academic and practical applications as films are categorised by genre at every stage of their existence, from the initial approach the screenwriter takes, to where they end up on the shelves of your local store, to how their impact on cultural history is assessed. A lot of formal study has been conducted into the categorisation of film through various paradigms, and into how that categorisation informs our understanding of the film as text. There is also a lot of commercial interest in the way people classify and choose to watch movies — this is very important for the initial marketing of a movie, and for companies like Netflix or LoveFilm, who rely on genre categories to help their customers make their picks. There are two basic approaches to the study of film genre: Descriptive Approach to Film Genre The first, and most straightforward approach to analysing film genre is descriptive, which involves viewing a film as belonging to a category, or as being an example of an established type. The film is perceived as sharing aspects and attributes (such as structure, theme, or visual style) with other films in the same category, and is analysed comparatively. This approach relies heavily on the use of genre paradigms, or readily identifiable elements such as costume, location, character archetypes, shot transitions, or plot content. The descriptive approach involves putting a large number of films into a small number of groups — sometimes individual movies defy this kind of rigid categorization. Depending on how genre boundaries are drawn, a single film can be defined as belonging to several different genres at once. The descriptive approach sometimes means an over-emphasis on the formal and stylistic qualities of films, and doesn't take into account how a film's meaning and impact may change over time, and when viewed by different audiences. Genres can be as much about the differences between two films as about the similarities — if films are too similar to other examples within their genre, they're likely to be rejected by audiences as unoriginal. Functional Approach to Film Genre The second approach is functional, where the genre film is perceived as "collective expressions of contemporary life that strike a particularly resonant chord with audiences" (Experience & Meaning in Genre Films BK Grant, Film Genre Reader 1986). The repetitions of patterns in a genre film are the repetitions of social questions that we need answers to as part of our shared social experience e.g. What is frightening, or what possibilities do we fear? (horror films) What is criminal, or what are the boundaries of social morality that we must not cross? (gangster films) What is morality? (melodramas) What is acceptance and belonging? (romantic comedies) What is alien? (science fiction) What is the future? (science fiction again) These questions get repeated from generation to generation, as values change. Therefore genre films are a product of their socio-historic context; watching them becomes a cultural ritual whereby hegemonic values are examined, and either shift or are reinforced. A combination of these two approaches is perhaps the most successful one - whereby a film is considered as both part of a paradigmatic set, and as the product of a time and place. Useful Links: Generic Conventions & Genre Evolution FilmSite.Org - a clear and simple introduction to genre from a descriptive point of view. Genre Explained - downloadable booklet from Kingswood School Google Movie Genre Portal Sub Genres Film genres derive from literary genres in the first instance. However, film genres must constantly evolve and mutate, spawning sub-genres, otherwise they will inevitably stagnate and become very repetitive. There are only a finite number of plots, after all, and telling a similar story over and over again within the same set of genre paradigms gets very dull. Subgenres can develop in response to a movie that pushes genre paradigms, and is successful, or in response to external socio-historic factors, and can cross traditional genre boundaries. For instance, the recent global economic meltdown has created a whole subgenre of movies about recession, from Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell (horror), to Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story (documentary) to Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Action Subgenres - by William C. Martel Subgenres of the Hollywood Thriller - useful list by Lauren Flanagan Sci-Fi Subgenres - sophisticated list from cuebon.com Genre Hybrids Film genres need to be fluid, consisting of a shifting, constantly evolving set of paradigms, otherwise cinema as a form would stagnate, with film-makers forced to tell the same stories, in the same style, over and over again. Given that there are only seven basic plots, the only way to keep thrilling and surprising audiences is to keep framing those plots in fresh genre combinations. Often these combinations are something of a 'mash-up', the putting together of conflicting genres that might not, initially, seem like a good match. As horror movies are perennially popular, film-makers might start with a set of horror paradigms to guarantee audience interest, before throwing other tropes into the mix. This gives us genre hybrids like: Horror Romance (e.g. Twilight) Horror War (e.g. R-Point, Dead Snow) Horror Historical Drama (e.g. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) Horror RomCom (e.g. Shaun of the Dead) Further Reading Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and The Studio System— Thomas Schatz (1981) McGraw-Hill Film/Genre - Rick Altman (1999) BFI The Media Student's Book Branston/Stafford (1999) Ch 8 pp105-124

Introduction to Film Trailer Research

GENRES OF VIDEOS

Using the internet, you need to write in your own words, what genre means, giving examples of videos that match each category by embedding clips into the blog entry.  You might also like to comment on which category your video will fall into or explain if it will be a hybrid of two or more categories.

RESEARCH INTO THE MOVIE INDUSTRY

For this entry you need to carry out some research into the movie industry showing your knowledge and understanding of how the industry works etc.  This entry should be completed as some sort of slide show either on Slideshare, Prezzi or Powerpoint and then uploaded to your blog.  In your presentation you could cover some / all of the following points:

·         How are films generally made?  What is the production process?

·         What is the purpose of a film for the companies that make them? Difference between Institutions?

·         Who are some famous directors and why are their videos so well known / successful?

·         How much money is usually spent on the average movie?  Have any been made very cheaply or are there any that have had huge budgets?

·         How do audiences access movies?  Where can they be seen?

THE MEDIA INDUSTRY IN THE DIGITAL WORLD

·         Research into the development of web 2.0 and TV, including channels (MTV), the Internet, technology and explain how this has changed the music industry. Consider the production, distribution, marketing and promotion process. What is happening to the production company?

·         What is the impact of Video on Demand?

THE HISTORY OF THE MOVIE INDUSTRY

·         What is the history of movie industry video in your chosen genre?

·         Create a timeline; using visuals (including stills) to create a timeline of the genre. You should also include any new media technologies that impacted on the production and consumption.

·         This one is pretty awesome!

·         http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/10/31/horror-cinema-02.jpg

ANALYSING Trailers

Intro

·         Institutional/reference information

·         Which video are you analysing, who directed it?

·         How is the Institution looking to sell this  movie?

·         What image of the director/studio is being offered?

·         How does this video relate to previous videos by the director/studio?

·         How would you describe the audience for the videos you have analysed?

What genre? How can you tell – what conventions

·         What do you know about actors, stars, writers etc? Bearing in mind their associations, meanings and histories, why have they been chosen for genre piece?

·         How are characters used – heroes and villains etc established. – Vladimir Propp

·         What is the narrative or the logic of the order of its component?

·         How have specific narrative techniques been used? – Todorov!!!

How is meaning being represented at connotative and denotative levels

·         How are non-verbal communications (gestures, facial expressions) being used?

·         What can we tell from the positions of characters or objects?

·         How have clothing, props, mise-en-scene, sets and setting been used?

·         How have soundtrack, commentary and language been used?

·         What is the tone of the text? How does it change?

·         How are sound and visual techniques used to convey meaning? (e.g. camera positioning, editing, the ways that images and sounds/words are combined to convey meaning).

·         What is the iconography of the text? What are its dominant images and their relevance to major themes of the text?

·         What genre does the text fit into? How can you tell?

·         Who is being represented by the text?

·         In what way?

·         By whom?

·         For what purpose?

Theorists/Theories

v  Stuart Hall’s Audience Reception Theory – preferred – film appeals to main audience who have seen the show before, know the story and accept the ways the characters have been represented.

v  Todorov

v  Vladimir Propp

v  Uses and Gratifications – Diversion from every day life, Surveillance – insight to life in New York in the 1980s – information on homosexuality and HIV/AIDS which was said to be the “gay plague” at this time. Personal identity and relationships – audience can build up their own views and apply to their own lives from the relationships shown in the film.

v  Maslow – Physiological needs – shelter, warmth, food etc – characters have this but due to poverty, have very little, esteem needs – part of a group, audience part of a fan base – fans termed ‘RentHeads’ – Belonging and Love – various relationships both heterosexual and homosexual so it appeals to a diverse audience etc…