The representation issue in this clip of ER was age, this can be seen the most pronounced in the young boy in the first scene.

The shot starts with two doctors one that seems to be reading out tests and another who seems to be older, she praises the younger male doctor on the tests and suggests another test, this age is the typical stereotype where with age you gain knowledge and authority. This is then confronted once the younger doctor opens the door to the young boys room, the second the door opens the boy says “Did it work?” the fact that he started the conversation with a question shows that he isn’t your typical young boy, once the doctor takes about 2 steps into the room the sound from the lobby instantly stops, however it seems to perfect to be from the door closing as a ringing telephone stops at the end of the ring rather than midway, this suggests to me that this sound is non diegetic and it was dubbed onto the shot.  When the doctor is closer and asks how did he know this the boy closed a book, as a member of the audience i would have suspected it to be a comic book or possibly a drawing book however it was a Sudoku book, this dilemma really helps to shock the viewers into a state of distress this can also be seen with the doctor later in the dialogue. The boy seems to be of very high intellect as he seems to know all the correct vocabulary and even says he persuaded a grad student to do a muscle biopsy, as said previously the doctor doesn’t feel comfortable with his knowledge so he tried to re apply the typical doctor patient roles which could also be seen as parent and child, another example of a conflict between age. The lack of sound in this room also is conflicts the stereotypical child as children never like to be left on their own or in silence, you would expect him to be listening to a ipod or watching a film. During the convocation there is plenty of shot reverse shot, however the boy seems to be interrupted by the editing, whereas the shot are edited in a way where the doctor is never cut the boy is, he starts a sentence then another shot is used this is most likely used to show the doctors distress over the young boys knowledge.

Going from this sick boy back to the emergency room we see another young boy, this boy is approximately the same age however he is with his mother and the doctors appear the get down to their knees to be less intimidating, this never happened with the ill boy, the doctor which was much older than the ill boy remained standing the whole time. The audience is then taken from the extremes of age, from a young boy around 12 to a lady in her 70’s, she is much calmer and appears to be smiling, this is against the idea that with age you gain knowledge, she says she is in the hospital to breath the air, this could possibly be a comical way in commenting on how old people are always at the hospital, the younger female doctor that speaks to her seems to be nice but rude when she says “Knock yourself out”. The next scene in which we see a conflict with age is in a side room where they are trying to save a man’s life, the older bald male doctor seems to be belittling the female doctor who thought the man was a drunk; this is another sign of the gain of authority with age. In this room there is the most common sound associated with a hospital, the heart monitor beep, once the man is stable the heart monitor quietens to show relief in the female doctor.  the next scene is cut to by matching the female doctor on the right an a nurse leaving frame on the left, these line up with the two young doctors in the next scene, the dialogue used suggests immaturity of a level thought to be below their age.  With these younger doctors there seems to be no markers of importance except the tracking shot, this can be seen when there is multiple people that walk between the camera and its target, the two doctors.  The doctor that came out of theatre also seems to be immature as he risks jail when a bullet was “lost” this is not very professional, and is another sign that with age you don’t get more professional/mature.

With all these representations of age i think that it is clear that the message of this clip is that age doesn’t matter, it isn’t a solid sign of maturity nor knowledge, the characters used to portray this have been highly exaggerated however this works to their benefit,

Cross media convergence and synergy are vital processes in the successful marketing of media products to audiences to what extent do you agree?

I agree to some extent, some films have used synergy allot and not had box offices figures to back the idea that it is vital, some small independent films have had a very little budget and not been able to afford these expensive marketing techniques and have still had amazing box office figures.

Firstly ill be looking at the pre production phase, my case study “The Hunger Games” (2012 Gary Ross), this was produced by Lionsgate and Color Force. Color force being the smaller company was entered into an agreement with Lionsgate to produce the film.  Its main role was to provide the finance and supplying equipment. Lionsgate uses Synergy as it own 19 media companies, this means it has the ability to provide equipment, music, distribution and exhibition on one of the tv channels it owns. This ability makes a company seems much more enticing for a smaller company to work with on a production as having all this in-house technology and expertise means it is cheaper. The rights of the story where bought for around $200,000. However it wasn’t this simple, Suzanne Collins the author of the book series had received many offers for the rights and she had declined them, however Gary Ross the man that later went on to direct the film won her over by promising her that the story would be kept as close to the original story as possible. Again this is synergy and convergence, this is the coming together of screen writers and authors to convert a piece of old media, the book into a newer format a film. The inbetweeners was previously a TV series it then was then made into a film, to keep costs low the original tv production company Bwark productions was also used to create the film with the financial backing of channel 4. This is another example of synergy in the successful production of a film. 

The distribution phase is where synergy and convergence is its most prolific, Lionsgate distributed the film, due to them owning a distribution company it would be easy to say that the price was reduced, however my second case study “The Inbetweeners” had a tiny production company called Bwark production, it didn’t need much of a distribution campaign, it had most of its advertising via word of mouth. The convergence of technology’s allowed a TV series like The inbetweeners to be converted into a film to be shown in a cinema. Many a distributor would love this to happen to their film as most of their job is being done by the audience meaning there job will be easier and cheaper. However The Hunger Games didn’t have as large word of mouth, it relied on a large advertisement campaign. This included old methods like: Billboards, posters on bus stops, posters on the buses, trailers in cinemas and on tv. It also included techniques which are becoming more relevant to the youth audience of this production, this involved things like facebook pages, twitter accounts and blogs for the characters. One of the best examples of synergy and convergence in this case study is from the use of twitter, Out of the 20+ people in the distribution team only one was picked to run the blogs. This person then decided that they should cut up the new poster and send it to 100 different twitter accounts, these twitter accounts where owned by film magazines, critics and cinemas, next is where the synergy comes in, all these people posted their part of the image and The Hunger Games twiter hunt started.  The internet had be used to promote a film on level never seen before, the best part about it is cost, Nothing.

In my opinion synergy and convergence is one of the most important processes in the successful marketing of a film, using synergy means that you can use separate companies which specialise in their area, giving an overall better experience to the audience, and in the case of the distributor information. As technology improves and new mediums for media are created i think convergence will become increasingly more important aspect, as films are shown on a large variety of platforms, looking back a year or two, some film consumption medium like Xbox, PS3, blu ray and 3d where un thought off, the programs for xbox and ps3 didnt exist, Blu ray and 3d was seen as to expensive to use in terms of the technology needed. Just looking at the future i think convergence of technologies will become more and more important as we evolve to consume media in different ways.

Clip

Portrayal of ethnicity through mise en scene/actors

At the start of this clip we are presented with a very strong black stereotype  the actor chosen is covered in expensive bling like big diamond earrings a big silver chain and tattoos, whereas Ben a gay black man is dressed very professionally in a black suit and tries not to make eye contact, he also changes the words he used to be some "cooler" words. Next the audience is shown two maids, due to their ethnicity they associated with this job, this is already negative portrayal , the fact that are also stripping for extra money degrades them more. The male asian man seems to be coated in stereotypes  the old thick glasses the age and the idea that they are rich also perverted. The actor doesnt even speak he seems to make very primitive grunting sound suggesting that he is a negative portrayal of a Asian man. How ever when the younger maid walks out she shows how she is a regular person, not this very isolated lump of meat as portrayed with the older maid. The higher members of staff seen in the corridor scene are both white British  suggesting a time locked establishment. The main chief is also a stereotypical europium.

Essay plan

Media production is dominated by global institution which sell their products and services to rational audiences  to what extent do you agree.

This question is looking at big global companies mostly Hollywood.

1. List some large "global" production/distribution companies use the hunger games (Lionsgate) and some statistics
2. through hunger games say how they used the large " global" power to their advantage
3. Confront large and small production companies
4.china being closed and only several 3d/IMAX films being allowed in giving larger companies the upper hand to 1billion people
5.  use film4 as a British interdependent production company
6. problems that they might run into being small
7. the advantages ( ability to produce some controversial material)
8. conclusion sum up my feelings and say how Hollywood is starting to get competition from some other parts of the world mainly India with the number of films being produced. the idea that it will always be a problem and how its unfair that smaller companies don't have as much money to spend on their productions

The inbetweeners movie

The hunger games

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJpMtam_TrM

Gender
Camera
The camera is an amazing tool at getting a directors interpretations across to the audience. This can be seen at the start where the shot used is a mid shot with what could be seen as a high angle as the camera appears to bt tilted up at her face. This camera level and her eye angle makes the whites of her eyes realy stand out making the stereotype of women holding there emotions in hand more realistic.  ( not to do with camera but this is really screaming out at me the man is is torn clothes and the maid are in uniform signifying the ladies are submissive.) The master a male charcter is always shown above her looking down possibly suggesting power, even though we dont see him and her in the same shot we are shown high angle shot upto him. In these long shots we also see a lady, dressed in a red dress no shots are devoted to this lady in a personal aspect this just as important as a shot, it suggests that there is no place for this very very sterotype of lady, the dress signifying femininity and the red signifying danger or love. The shots used on the lady are always to the extremes eg a long shot or a extreme close up, this is showing the edginess of her character yelling to the audience that something isnt quite right with her in comparison the master, always seems to be shown with ether a long shot or a mid shot there isnt alot of fluctuation making him seem a bit boring. Once the table has turned the camera is manipulated to show her power over him. The camera is now made to track her face no mater what as she lifts her head the camera rises to follow. In the scene where we see her sitting on the stairs the camera is at eye level , showing that she is with the people she isnt above them in anyway. This re-enforces the audiences siding. Once the doctor is back the camera angle changes to one that better shows how the master has lost his power a low angle shot is used.

Group prezi

Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw68eolT39A

ethnicity

editing 

This clip uses a lot of eye line match and reverse eye line match, these are where the camera shots are manipulated to show a character looking away into the distance then showing what that character is looking at. I like how this editing technique works especially well with women, in hotel bableon you can see from the managers facial expressions that something is wrong, next I see something that is very clever, it is a mix of a action match and a graphic match, at first glimpse the person running down the corridor is the same person however its not it is Benjamin and Charlie the director has combined the movement of Benjamin with that of Charlie, this may not be substantial but all these little edits build up and shows the audience things that they consciously might not understand. When Jackie realises that one of the illegal immigrants is missing a cutaway is used to show the man, this combines with the music is used to build tension as the it may only be a short shot the time the audience spends watching her build tension about what is going to happen with the immigrant. The director of this episode wants it to feel life like, this can be seen through the use of invisible cut, there is no real empresses on change of shot eg no fade to black is used.

Films have several key stages from script to screen; these are pre-production, production, distribution and exhibition.

Preproduction is the first stage of making a film, this is where the producer decides on a story, if its unwritten he or she might hire a script writer, however is it is already an existing idea than  the producer will have to acquire the rights. Once the screenplay is written the producer must start looking at the cost, above the line this includes things like big name cast, there support usually important characters just not a well-known name, day performers people that play a small role and stunt performers , below the line would include things like wardrobe , food, accommodation. Once a financial plan is written up the producer must find a financer. For this the producer must portray his idea to a board, in the financing stage of Avatar James Cameron was nearly turned down by Fox, it was only when he took his idea to Disney that Fox exercised its right to first refusal but even then they were weary and requested two other financers to help. Next is the task of hiring the main cast, the filming crew, location scouts, casting director, costume designers, and the director et cetera. In the case of James Cameron’s Avatar there was no need to hire a scriptwriter, director or buy any rights to content as he wrote the script himself, he also asked a man called Jon landau to co-produce, he knew this man was a good producer after they both worked on Titanic and made $2.2 billion at the box-office. In avatar james Cameron was very personal with his his designers sometimes inviting them back to his California home to help create the Na’Vi. The digital designers in avatar took inspiration for the “Halleluiah Mountains” from some mountains that a location scout found in china.  

Now that the finance, crew, cast and locations have been scouted it’s time to film. In the production phase the raw footage is gathered, the most time efficient way of filming is to have the set builders, wardrobe and makeup a step in front of the camera, that way the cast can show up get there outfits and makeup then start filming. Throughout the production process there will be still photographers. Their photograph will be used later on in the distribution and exhibition phase. In my case study avatar there was more time spent on post-production than there was in production, this is due to most of the film being CGI however James Cameron did use people to act out the movements of the Na’Vi. Due to the nature of Avatar the film was relatively cheap when it comes to locations this is because most of the film being filmed in studios then the backgrounds being computer generated and added in. Post-production however wasn’t so cheap, due to the nature of this film most of the finance was spent on CGI, a digital effects studio called Weta digital took on the task of making Pandora. Once rendered the film was 17GB per minute.

With the final film rendered it’s now time to look at marketing and distribution of the film. Distribution companies usually like to buy the rights to a film, that way they have total control and access to all of the profits. The distribution company will view the film and decide the target audience. Once a target audience profile is made the film will be sent to editors for a trailer to be made. There is usually around 3 types of trailers made. One will be shown on Tv this is will be very limited in length due to time slots, an online trailer this doesn’t really have a time limit due to hosting being free eg youtube. Trailers can also be shown in the cinema before films these are also limited to around one minute. The still photographs that were taken in the production phase may now be used to produce other marketing material, depending on the audience profile and audience size it could involve strategically placing posters in bus shelter or posters on busses that may pass or travel in a area associated with a specific audience.  Avatar was distributed by Fox, due to it being such a large and prolific distributor worldwide it used all its assets, I believe this is one of the reasons avatar was so successful due to the market campaign being of biblical proportion. The website is presented in around 17 different languages, there was a huge amount of merchandise that could be bought McDonalds did a worldwide toy making campaign helping spread the word. Most film shown ~2months before its release had the trailer played before it. But one of the most important things is that it also targeted social media, when you think of a sci-fi film you think of teenagers and kids. Targeting social media sites like facebook was very important due to the target audience.

So the film has now been advertised and the interest is out there, all that needs to be done is a release date to be decided. This is extremely important, Fox wanted to be extra careful with this release as they were already wary at the start. The date has to be selected by following a few principles, time that is relevant to the target audience eg school holidays for teenagers, holidays or time of the year depending on the genre of the film eg Halloween or valentine’s day, the state of the economic climate as there is no point in releasing a film when the economy doesn’t let people afford to go to the cinema and finally one of the most important. Competitor films there is no point in releasing a film that is the same genre or has a similar plot if one is going to be released and shown around the date you have planned the release. Once a date is decided the cinemas will buy right to show it from then on it is up to the cinema company as to which cinemas will show it. Avatar was released between the 16^th and 18^th of December 2009 it was shown internally on 14,604 screen with 3671 utilising the 3D technology that James Cameron was so head locked on using.  In the UK the first week it was shown in 503 cinemas and the second week it was shown in 485, this is surprising that it was sustained another week in so many cinema, a true sign that the film was a huge success. 

Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VgzEgamtVo
social class
sound

Sound can be used to inject a directors or writers portray of a character  gender,social class or sexuality, here the sound is focused on class.This can be heard when the young boy is in his house there is no non diegetic sound, due to the absence of this we the audience get a more sinister impression. Music is generally used to show emotion, no music being played suggests that there is no emotion between the family meaning the boys is purely used to work and make money.
When the boy is walking in the dark many sound motifs are present in the form  of owls, these re-enforce the visual set making sure the audience know it really is the country side, there is also more non diegetic sound in the form of music, its very slow with low instruments, this music gives sinister connotations, possibly suggesting the boy is going to steal something or that he knows what he is doing is wrong. However once the boy looks through the window some new non diegetic music is played, this has a lot better connotations, hinting towards a more inquisitive feeling than one of theft. When the camera is taken to the work seen a more upbeat happier sounding piece of non diegetic music is played, even though people are working hard, this suggests that the people or the upper classes are so pompous that they don't register people of lower class as having emotions mostly boredom and tiredness. This music then changes slightly to music that is even more stereotypical very slow and has fluctuation in the volume.

Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPBE6YNoP5w
This clip ison sexuality ill be looking at sound.

At first the audience is introduced to two female characters  one Spears to be a servant and one a lady with a higher social class. At first the voice over seems legitimate and in now way sexual. This triggers a slow classical piece of music to play, this music appears to be period and fits in well with the scene. This music is also a sound bridge as it continues between the scene in front of the mirror and the scene where the lady is in what appears to be a study. When the audience is presented with her unusual behavior in the bedroom they are confronted with her sexuality. Through the music the audience is injected with some of the ladies passion, the slow violin is amazing at transferring her emotions directly to the viewers. The next scene where we see the lady painting a picture of the servant the director through use of music has  portrayed a sense of confusion, this can be heard due to the use of use of these wind instruments. There are also sound motifs in the  form of birds, these birds help to set the scene and reassure the audience that they really are in the country side. When the man touches her arm a sound in played, it gives connotation of confrontation.
The next non dietetic sound the the audience hears is ery, and builds suspense its volume increase until the climax where the man licks her hand.

Clip

Merlin

Class/status mise en scene
From the start the audience is overloaded with the visual representation of merlin and the castle he is in, we have this stereotype of a dirty peasant however merlin is very different he appears to be dressed in very clean leather, he has not dirty on his face and his teeth appear to be perfect. This subjects that there is something that isnt quite right here, also the audience is automatically made aware that they should be on his side due to him being the protagonist with low social class and status.The colour of merlins cloths compared to the lady is very important, during this era purple was a colour only worn by the VERY rich or royalty whereas merlin is in just normal leather that doesn't seem to be dyed at all. In the street the audience is introduced to another high status and class person, prince Arthur his status is easily identifiable due to the armed guards that are following him. Arthur also has a higher status as seen by the battle he always seems to be making merlin step back as he is the aggressor.

Cutting it

In this clip the audience is presented with the dilemma of gender, we see a complete role reversal in which the female is the more dominant character and the male is submissive however the audience is given little reminders to the stereotypes by emotional interactions in the cab. Camera The director has used the positioning of the camera, shot type and movement to help transfer his portraying of the genders to the audience in a efficient way, the first shot we see is a mid-shot, showing both the male and the female in the cab, however it is filmed from an angle that makes the male character look larger and the female smaller , this could possibly be where the director wants to remind the audience of the stereotype of males being more powerful and important than females, this is furthermore demonstrated by the extreme close up of her hand and his, there is a huge comparison in there hand size. Also we see that she shows the affection first which is yet again demonstrating the stereotypical portray of women, that they are more emotional showing mental weakness. But from here on the audiences view on women is dramatically changed. The female hardly never leaves the shot, in the close ups of the male pretty much all of them have the side profile of the females head and all but one shot of the woman doesn’t contain the man. This is starting to show her importance and that something isn’t right. The next scene is set with a tracking shot that pans to follow an ambulance, Once they get out of the cab the audience is hit with a real dilemma, the lady pays, this isn’t considered the gentlemanly thing to do. She is now being the more dominant person in this scene. This is also proven in the way the camera is maneuverer to track the movement of her, she is always kept as the main target even though she only moves a few centimetres the camera movement is over reacted to help make her importance obvious. Now the audience has been informed of her importance they are shown multiple shots in which the camera is at eye level with her and looking up at the man, this looking up could be seen as authority however in this context I think it is more hinting towards the male being seen as bad. When she is in the office there never is a shot which starts on her face, they all seem to pan or are pulled on a dolly this is used to create a sense of anticipation as each time it cuts back to the man the shots become more personal eg the first shot with the lady the camera is pointing at her notes, this shows her insignificance as at that point she is just a number and a name on some paper, then it pans up to her face, a very personal thing also the tears help to add emotion making the whole shot more breathe taking. The man is seen with a longshot and he isn’t that easy to distinguish from the rest of the pedestrians, next we see his fingers playing with his engagement ring, this helps the audience to develop deeper sympathy towards him. Editing Cutting it like most British dramas used continuity editing, this is where the clips are edited in a order that makes sense rather than jumping from time and plot, it also used invisible editing, this is where the cuts seem to be flawless and they are supposed to not be noticed so there is no fade outs. Due to the nature of this clip and the amount of dialogue there is lots of shot reverse shot between the male and the female during their conversation. Crosscutting is used to compare how the man is coping with the stress to the woman in the office. The audience is shown what could be called a reverse eyeline match, this is where we see an object then a pan up to the character showing them looking off, it is used to show a person’s emotions towards that object, we also see a eyeline match where the man stands up to look across the road, from seeing him look of into the distance the viewers are then shown a show of the female walking back to him. During the collision time appears to be slowed down, this creates suspense and it combined with a heartbeat to make it more effective. Sound The first scene the audience hears diegetic sound and ambient sound, tis helps to set the scene and helps the audience begin to build up a mental image of the location, all of the sound in this clip is synchronous meaning that is synchronised with the object emitting it. The tone used by the actors ios also important, the lady never seems to become angry whereas the male when he hears that she is going to see her consultant gets angry and raises the volume of his voice slightly, this is an attempt to state his dominants over her. at around 2:13 a non digetic sound is introduced in this clip it is music, the music starts out quiet and builds up. The song has a strong beat and is quite slow, the vocals are calming, when the scene is changed to the lady in the office the song calms nearly to silence with just the beat, this is give it a sad connotation and to build suspense., its used as a sound bridge as it switches between scenes. Some sound effects are added to help the audience to mentally visualise the impact between he lady and the car, the volume of these sound effects are substantially higher than the surrounding to give them maximum impact on the audience. Mise en scene At the start of the clip as I stated earlier she is presented in a stereotypical way, this is shown through her body posture, she is lent on his shoulder showing she is showing him affection. In the cab most of the males close up shows the female’s side profile in some way, this is hinting on her importance that she has to be in all of the shots. Once the shot changed to a different scene the audience automatically knows where they are, the way the ambulance is going so slowly it can be guessed that they are at a hospital with even seeing the sign. The consultants room is crying out with massive connotations, the way the desk seems to be arranged with almost military precision suggesting that the man is very professional about his job, the dark shadow around the desk could be interpreted as an otherworldly experience where someone is judged before being sent to heaven or hell, her very upright and strong posture with her legs together and her hand on her lap, could be seen as her child hood in the head masters office. The closing of her folder and the tears are very good at building tension as we don’t know if they are tears of happiness or sadness. During the crash the director has deliberately blocked the crash from sight with a bus, this with the sound effects forces the audience to imagine making the scene more memorable. Next to her body there are 3 pots of white flowers across the floor, signifying the death and remaining the audience of their marriage proposal. Here we also see the man break down into tears breaking the mentally strong stereotype yet again.