Storyboard

 This blog contains the storyboard for our current film opening project.

In class, when we were first brought back to storyboarding from our last project, our teacher had given us a helpful video on how to construct a better storyboard for our current project.

This was our very first sample, prototype, and raw storyboard where we basically constructed our ideas of the final concept we've decided on this film opening project.

We then upgraded into this, another rough draft just as a vision of what it would be like in "storyboard" form

Here are our final storyboards for component one, completely drawn by Cassie, with the help of Me, Tisha, and Kim's ideas aswell.

Self Reflection:

The storyboards we have constructed wouldn't just make me and the rest of the team have a clear vision of the scenes we have to create and how to stick up to our blueprint, but the whole process also helped us gain more creativity as we kept on adding ideas to our concept. This benefits us as we get to learn more from each other, getting to know the genre well and gives us steps on how to construct the scenes well.

Classwork

 This blogposts contains information i have learnt in class

Media consolidation - Media Consolidation refers to the concentration of ownership of our media sources (news, film, TV, radio, video games etc)

into the hands of fewer and fewer corporations.

Advantages of media consolidation:

• Able to provide content for niche audiences

• Improved quality due to better funding

• It is cheaper for the audience

• Converging technologies (eg. we can now get our TV, phone and internet from the same company, making things

• simple)

• Diversification - less risk for the media company. (if something fails, it is not too much of an issue)

• Can reach a larger audience.

Disadvantages of media consolidation: 

• smaller/independent media outlets can’t compete with the production quality

• Illusion of choice

• Lack of competitiveness and alternate view points. Every TV channel is expressing the same viewpoint.

• The focus is making money, not good content

• Less local news

Curran & Seaton Theory

• The mass media is owned and operated by fewer and fewer companies. (media consolidation into conglomerates.

• (conglomerates - conglomerates are large parent companies with smaller independent entities that may operate

• across multiple industries.)

• Mass media is driven by political agendas and economic influences.

• The rise in new media is associated with the decline of quality content. 

• Web users have a larger voice and can challenge conglomerates.

Vertical integration - it is when one company owns more than one stage of the media chain. (production, distribution, exhibition)

Benefits of owning all stages of production:

For the company (eg. Disney):

• Creative control over story, script, design, editing, rating, marketing

• Able to use more characters that appeal to a wider audience. 

• Increase revenue (don’t share profits)

• Access to user data (tailor content, suggestions)

For the audience:

• More content, intertextuality (intertextuality - the relationship between media products where one text references another text by reusing some of its ideas and meanings)

Horizontal integration - when one company owns more than one stage within the same level.

• It also allows companies to diversify their content, profit etc. it also allows for cross - promotion, and different media platforms bring access to different audiences.

• Audiences can benefit because it gives them more exposure to their favourite media properties/characters, and can increase engagement. (children who are exposed to character when they are young will more likely consume the same property when they are older)

Synergy - mutually beneficial cross promotional strategies used by companies. 

How synergy benefits both parties:

For examples James Bond 

Benefits for James Bond:

• High pays from companies

• More locations, tax free

• Luxury brands to bolster Bond’s image

• More awareness (each company will have its own Bond marketing campaign)

• A chance to reach new markets/audience

Benefits for companies:

• Get to be associated with Bond

• Good advertisement for locations

• They can include the character in their marketing campaigns

• Bond fans may purchase products they see on screen

Hypodermic Needle theory (not really a working theory anymore) 

It assumes the audience as a sponge, absorbing ideologies from the media passively, without any questions  

Two Step Flow theory

Expand the passive audience theory to suggest that people have their interpretations formed by opinion leaders (opinion leader - an active media user who interprets the meaning of media messages or content for lower-end media users. / trusted members of the community -> celebrities, influences)

Uses & Gratification (Blumer & Katz)

The audience is actively using the media to satisfy some of our bas social needs;

• Diversion - a form of escapism from the stresses and strains of life. Maybe all media falls into this group

• Personal identity - the media supplies us with role models and ways of understanding our place in society

• Social relationships - people make connections with performers they see on the screen, they also form relationships with people in society when discussing the media product

• Surveillance - audiences use the media to gather information

Past Paper Practice

‘In the world of media ownership, bigger is always better.’ To what extent is this true in the media area you have studied? [25 marks]

How to answer:

• Topic sentence that answers the question

• Outline the company, what it owns

• Give an explanation of vertical integration

• Introduce the media and how it was produced, distributed and exhibited

• How does this benefit the company?

• How does this benefit the audience?

• Are there any disadvantages?

• How do the ideas of Curran and Seaton fit this case study? (what is the company’s ideology? What economic influences played a role? Has this integration resulted ina decline in quality?)

Self reflection:

This blogpost act as a notepad for me, classwork notes help me recall terms i may have forgotten ever since we learnt it in class which provides information for me when i am trying to study on this term's theories

Script/Screen Play

 Here is the script and screenplay for my Film Opening project

Tisha and I did most of the work on the screenplay with the help of Kimora and Cassie's help through out the script and what we would like the characters to say.

Self reflection:

The screenplay helps us keep in track of what the actors must say during filming, this helps us stay on theme and not make up ideas on the spot risking being further away from what our genre has to stick up to as we prepared this screenplay way ahead of time with good research constructing it.

Screen Test

 This blog post contains the screen test results we were tested on

Our class decided to do a small activity which was doing a short screen test to find out who was capable of acting in front of the camera as was most suitable to be the actors and actresses for out film opening project.

Here is the link to our screen test in video form

Our group then decided to make a screen test for the four of us and some of our friends to do them as well, helping us find potential actors for our film opening project

Self Reflection:

The screentests allow us to test ourselves to see if we were meant to be behind the scenes or even up as actors. This allows us to find potential actors for our project in order to execute the character's personality well.