Audience and Institution Practice Essay

5. In relation to the media area you have studied, discuss the ways audience consumption has changed over time.

               Over the years film has undergone a lot of change. However perhaps the most dramatic of those changes has occurred relatively recently with advanced technology. New discoveries and inventions have dramatically changed the way films are consumed, especially in recent years.

                To start off, one way that film has evolved in recently is in the way it is marketed. While in the past, movies may be advertised through posters, or TV ads, recently there has been a big shift towards online advertising. According to the article How Tech Has Shaped Film Making: The Film Vs. Digital Debate is Put to Rest by Charles Matthau “Distribution through YouTube has been the most common form of marketing.” An example of a movie that used the internet to market their movie is Jurassic World, who aired their trailers on the internet. This is a very effective way at advertising as it can reach more eyes. Another way of advertising could be making a video game, another new from of marketing. A movie that used this to advertise could be Spider-man. A Spider-man game was released prior to this movie, and it was good for getting people excited for the movie.

                Another way that the consumption of film has evolved, is how it is presented to those who don’t see the movie in theaters. In the past, the only way to watch movies at home was through DVD or there was a possibility a film would air on TV. However, with the recent boom in streaming services, streaming movies has become one of the top ways movies are viewed.  Because of this, practically every major movie that has been released has gone up on one of the many services. An example of this is Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, which was released on YouTube, Vudu, Netflix, and many other services. This allowed more people to be able to watch the movie and has made it so seeing a film in theaters isn’t pretty much the only option. Also, Blue ray is a recent invention, that is similar to a DVD, but some movies use Blue ray discs instead of DVDs as another way of watching a film from home. An example of a film that used Blue Ray is Beauty and the Beast (2017). Film has become a lot more accessible over time.

                There are many other ways that film has progresses. For example, movies can be recorded for much cheaper through digital cameras. Also, editing has is much easier, and better than ever before. Finally, with everything being shot and edited digitally, it is much easier to preserve for future generations. Overall, film has become much more accessible and appealing to potential viewers, this has allowed the film industry to continue growing and evolving.

24 extract essay

The director through this clip is trying to tell the audience that violence isn’t always the correct way to get what you want. Through this excerpt, the interrogator is trying to get the woman to tell him information about a bomb that he thinks she had something to do with. This turns into a negotiation, but he is unwilling to give her anything. The man eventually gets extremely frustrated, throwing a table and almost choking her. Though his actions were extreme, she gives him no information.

            This scene is very dimly lit through, this creates a serious and intense mood. This makes the audience get more interested in the scene. The scene starts with the man walking into the room with her. We see this through an over the shoulder shot, this shot shows him walking in, as well as his facial expression and body language, this is important to develop the mood of the scene, as he looks angry when he first enters the room. When he walks in, the camera zooms into the woman’s face. This is used to humanize her in a way, even though she may have done horrible things, she still is a person. After that, a dialogue starts between him and her. This gets very intense at times, and eventually causes him to freak out. During the dialogue, there are a lot of jump cuts, they are used to quickly show their reactions to what the other is saying, it allows for a smooth conversation.

            There is also a shot reverse shot when they’re talking to each other, this is a way to build tension between the two of them. This tension is built up as you can see him get madder as she refuses to give her the information he wants. After that, he flips over a table, this table is a good prop, as it represents a barrier between them, when this barrier is removed, everything goes downhill in the negations. A use of diegetic sound is the loud bang the table makes when it falls. This slam represents a break of anarchy, because right after it hits the ground it gets very intense and physical.  

            All these choices of camera angle, shots, movement, editing, sound, and mis en scene all build up to the climax where he becomes very violent with her. This choice by him may have cost them the information they need, and if he didn’t get so mad, they would’ve been better off.

My CCR

   
      This is my CCR. It is a reflection of my work on the final project. In this video I answer 4 questions. I answer these questions truthfully. This is supposed to be a critical reflection on my process. My mom helped my do this interview. I had to answer the questions for a total of 10 minutes, and I did it.  I covered how we used technology, challenged conventions, and how we improved over the course of the process. I think I did a good job of recapping our process. Overall I had a lot of fun throughout this process. I also learned a lot. I will hopefully find a good way to use these skills in my life. I think our project turned out well. This CCR is just a way of my telling everyone how I did, and the role I played. I was the main actor. But I also helped with a lot of the other aspects. I hope I answered the questions well. I think I did. I am looking forward to seeing how I can use these skills in the future. This was a great experience.

Final Project

     This is our final project that we completed at the end of the year. This is a 2 minute opening to an original film. Our opening follows a crazy boy who is obsessed with superheroes. This obsession leads to him going off the edge and killing his mother. After our opening cuts off the story goes even crazier, as a full police chase breaks out. We decided on this story after watching multiple thriller movies. We found out that we should use a lot of over the shoulder shots, and wide angles based on this watching as well. Carter came up with the idea, and we all liked it. We then wrote a elevator pitch. After that, we made our storyboard. Tim helped a lot with the storyboard. Finally it was time to record. The group decided that I would be the main actor. I also helped a lot with directing, even though Kyle did most of the directing. Kyle did an amazing job with editing. He used a lot of techniques while doing it also. I think the editing really elevated our movie. This project was really a accumulation of our skills that we learned throughout the year. I think this turned out well. I am proud of my team.

Music Video

     This is the music video we did in the middle of the year. This was a fun time to record. I played the main character who loses his dog. My dog played the dog. This was a music video to the song "Gary Come Home" from SpongeBob Squarepants. This is a very sad song about SpongeBob losing his pet snail. This was probably the most fun project to record. One Saturday, Kyle came over to my house and we filmed it in about 4 hours. We watched a lot of sad song music videos and decided the types of shots and movements we wanted weeks before we recorded. Tim helped a lot with the creation of the shots and storyboard. When we filmed it was a little difficult to get my dog to cooperate for some shots. We eventually got it though, by using a lot of treats. I think this turned out very well. It uses the common tropes in sad music videos very well. It also has a happy ending. We all helped Kyle edit most of this as well. We helped decide on certain filters, and editing techniques he used. Overall I think my acting got better over this project. I also got better at coming up with plots and stories, and directing. All of these skills would be very useful for creating our final project.

Commercial

     This is the commercial we filed at the beginning of the year. For how inexperienced we were at the time, I am pretty proud of it. This is a commercial for Gatorade. For this commercial we did the story of a track runner. We decided on this after watching a lot of Gatorade commercials. After watching those commercials we found a common trope. It was that all of these commercials showed an athlete doing what they are best at, then at the end they drink Gatorade to refuel themselves. This whole commercial was recorded in one day. I remember that when we recorded this, our camera died. Luckily we had some very helpful peers who were also on the track who let us use their battery for a few minutes before we had to go back inside. Of course we switched the batteries back before going inside. When we recorded this, I was the main director. I was the one determining most of the shots. Because of this, the other 3 members were actors. They were all the people our main character (Sean) ran against. I was in the movie for one scene where I played Sean's coach. I told him good job, then threw him a Gatorade. Overall, I think this is a good commercial for the time limit and lack of experience we had at the time. Kyle also i=did a great job of editing. This diffidently helped us develop our skills for our other projects.

Issues caused by COVID-19

      Recently there has been a outbreak of a deadly virus. This virus has resulted in the cancellation of schools, businesses, and movies. This will prevent us from reshooting and re-editing our film. This has also led to some block busters getting postponed as well. Movies like ‘Mulan’ and ‘Fast and Furious 9’ have been postponed. While this may result in our movie being a little below the quality we would’ve wanted, we will have to turn in what we have. In the case of these major movies, the shooting has been finished already. They will need to postpone the distribution of the movie for business reasons. We aren’t getting back to school until at least the 15th. We don’t really know at this point. However if we do get back the 15th, and the due date doesn’t get postponed then the movie and CCR is due the day we get back. We are going to have to edit this as well as we can with what we have. That will all be up to Kyle however. This is because we are advised to not leave our houses unless it’s necessary. So hopefully he can get something good together. In the mean time we will study for our Cambridge exam. We will also discuss how to make the movie better over calls. In the other movies, they will do similar things. They will have to cut out scenes to make the movie ready for release when this passes. It will be interesting to see what happens. This is an article that talks about the movies and what is happening. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-03-12/coronavirus-movies-cancelled-postponed?_amp=true