Audience and Institutions Essay

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

Audience consumption has drastically changed over time. As the duration of time continues technology is becoming more advanced. The way people are consuming films went from having to leave one's home and watch it on a big screen, to enjoying it from the luxury of one’s own home. Part of the reason why there’s such a big change in the film industry specifically is because people are finding ways to make life more convenient.   

The first time a film was shown in a movie theater was in 1905, by Nickelodeon. From there cinemas popped up all around the world and the film industry really begun. However, distribution of movie theaters might not be the best option when it comes to getting the most out of one’s money. When films are distributed to movie theaters the film maker gets a portion of the revenue as well as the theater itself. The recoupment waterfall “comes in from a variety of sources and the money is then handed back to the filmmaker via a number of third parties. Along the way, these third parties can recoup the money they spent up front promoting the film and also charge a pre-agreed fee for their work” (How is a cinema’s box office income distributed, 2017) So the film maker and movie theater don’t really get an even share, it’s more of the middle man that benefits off of audience consumption in movie theaters. For the movie The Beauty and the Beast the box office alone made $1,263,521,126. One can only imagine how much of it went to the middlemen and how much really went to the producer/movie theater. An example of the middlemen in this case would be the companies used in synergy and cross promotion for the film. Kohl’s released exclusive items and carried out other merchandise that was based on the movie as well as Morgan Taylor releasing movie-themed nail polish colors.  As technology advanced things began to come easier to us, we now have smart phones. Film producers can now distribute their films to companies like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc. There is of course still a middleman but the amount of them is dramatically decreased. People are switching over to these companies rather than going out to the movie theaters anyways. People want convenience in today’s world so if they can watch a movie without the hassle of getting ready and driving to it, they will take it.  According to the statistics of frequency of going to movie theaters to see a movie among adults in the United States as of June 2019, 46 percent of American adults said that they go to the movie theater very infrequently which is once a year or less. While the statistics of the number of Netflix paying streaming subscribers worldwide from 3rd quarter 2011 to 1st quarter 2020 show that the number of subscribers went from 21.5 million in 2011 to 182.86 million in 2020. The numbers show the insane increase of people that have switched over to the world of convenience over the recent years.  

Audience consumption has changed over the years as technology has changed. People watched films in movie theaters for the longest time and still do, but more people are watching them on their phones through streaming apps, so they won’t have to leave their houses. 

Sources  

Watson, Amy. “Movie Theater Attendance Statistics in U.S.” Statista, 27 Aug. 2019, www.statista.com/statistics/264396/frequency-of-going-to-the-movies-in-the-us/. 

Watson, Amy. “Number of Netflix Subscribers 2019.” Statista, 22 Apr. 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/250934/quarterly-number-of-netflix-streaming-subscribers-worldwide/. 

“How Is a Cinema's Box Office Income Distributed?” Stephen Follows, 31 May 2018, stephenfollows.com/how-a-cinemas-box-office-income-is-distributed/. 

Triple Threat

Here is our final task.

CCR

Here is my CCR that I filmed. For this I had my mom and sister help me. This process took a total of two days. Me and my sister filmed the scenes on monday. I went back and looked at the footage later on to start editing. When I looked at the footage I realized that I had to refilm some of the scenes. By this time it was already dark so this extended the filming process. The next day we put on the same clothing and refilmed. This process took an hour. I had my mom film some of the over shoulder shots. My sister helped film some of the medium shots. To keep the camera still we used a tripod. The tripod was only supposed to be for cameras. I had to make the best of what I had during my time. I put rubber band around the phone and tripod. This ended up working very well and there was no problems with it. For the attire me and my sister wore semi-formal attire. I wore black work pants with a dress shirt and she wore a dress shirt with a skirt. I chose this attire for us because I wanted it to be in the form of a talk show. I knew from watching shows like Ellen that the attire is semi-formal which is why I leaned toward this. I added in music and sound affects to make it seem more like a talk show as well. Here is what it turned out looking like.

Commercial

Here is our commercial that we did prior to our final task.

Music video

Here is our music video that we did before our final task.

Re-editing blog

On March 20th, 2020 we re-edited our film. Though it was very close to being done we had to add some final touches. One of the issues were the titles. We did not add all of the titles that were needed and were supposed to be in there. This was important because everything needed to be how it was supposed to be planned prior to actually executing. I am talking about the small PowerPoint that we made in which laid out how the titles would be seen. Another thing that had to be changed was the font. At first it was hard to read. Due to the fact that it was too small and not spaced out enough. We made some small adjustments and it looked better. The score was also having a bit of an issue. We wanted the score to be placed in a certain place so the song coincided with the film. This was very important because it is used as our sound effect. The whole score is something that you would probably hear in a comedy movie. So it has little jumps and sound affects in it. So for example, when Darren tripped we edited it to where there's a slight change in the tune to exaggerate him falling.  I went back and looked at our peer review sheet. We made sure that we had all of the requirements in the film. This was not done at school. This had to be done at home due to the COVID-19 issue that is still happening. Here’s a picture of what it looked like when I was re-editing the film.

Re-shooting blog

The day we re-shot our scenes was Tuesday, March the 17th. Tuesday was the day that we reviewed our film. We went over all of the footage that we had. We looked back at our peer review sheet to see what concerns there was about our film. The other group said that the lighting could be better. So we got right to work on that. After looking at the film a new times over I saw that Darrens and Ashley’s scenes could be better. I also realized one of the scenes where I am petting my dog could be better too. So we went to Darren’s house first. Darren was already there so it was me and Ashley arriving there. Like always it was a bit of a drive but we had to get it done. We reshot scenes two through five. There was no problems with the filming and everything ran smoothly. I filmed his scenes this time. Ashley filmed Darrens scenes last time so we decided to take turns. The only problem we had that was a little annoying was the script. We had to keep looking back and fourth at the shooting script to make sure we had all of the angles correct. But I’m doing this we were able to make sure our film was as precise as it could be. Here is a picture of one of the scenes that we refilmed on Tuesday. As you can see the lighting is a lot better.

Filming Blog: Our last day filming!

Tuesday March the 12th, 2020 marked the last day we filmed our scenes. Ashley, Darren and I ran to my car right after the bell rang. I talked about filming at a nearby school so I wouldn’t have to hassle driving them home after. We all decided that this one elementary school two minutes away from the school we go to would suffice. We didn’t think about the times and ran into a little problem. The elementary school had just been let out. Kids were coming from every direction. None of us had been to that elementary school either so I didn’t know where to park. Once we finally parked it was time to shoot. For this day of filming we had planned to shoot part of scene eight and the whole scene nine. When we were looking at the script however we noticed that one of our scenes were missing. I know we had a tenth scene but I could not find it anywhere. So, we remembered what the last scene was and took care of that as well. The last scene was all three of us walking to class together. When we had to film each other’s scene we alternated who was filming. I filmed Ashley’s scene where she was on the phone then started walking. Ashley filmed Darrens scene when he was running to help me pick up my books. I thought that this would make the whole process a little more fun for everyone. Then it came down to the scene with all of us in it. We thought about how we would film this so it would be the perfect angle to get what we wanted in the frame. We ended up setting our filming device on top of my car. I put a water bottle behind it to get the perfect angle. Here’s the end result.

Filming blog: Ashley's house

Today is March the ninth, 2020. Today we reviewed our peer review sheet that our classmates used to grade our movie. We went over all of the things that we did wrong and could improve. I kept a mental note as well throughout the process of filming today. One of the things that our classmates said was that we needed better lighting. So, I made sure we had good lighting for the scenes that we filmed at Ashley’s house to avoid the same mistake again. I drove Ashley, Darren and I to her house. This was about a 15 minute drive so it wasn’t too bad. Once we got there we immediately started filming. We started at scene one; I filmed Ashley’s alarm clock. In her case it was her phone. We then kept on going through the scenes shooting one by one. I had some trouble making sure that I could get shots that showed the whole scene. This was essential to get the scene we planned on doing based on our story board. We filmed her scenes up until scene six. We only filmed up to scene six because after this the setting changes and we would have to move to a different location. We didn’t have time for this today so we would have to plan another day to film scenes seven through nine. After I was done filming her scenes we discussed when our next day to film would be. We decided that tomorrow would be our best bet. All of us were free for a few hours so I decided it would be better to just get it out of the way. So, tomorrow we will film scenes seven through nine. We will have to remember to bring the same pair of clothing that we had on for tomorrow’s filming. This picture is a snapshot of one of the scenes that I filmed today.

Peer Review Blog

Today is Tuesday March the 3rd, 2020. We did our peer reviews today in class. My group peer reviewed group number three. For this we were told to take a piece of paper that was up at the front of the classroom. On this paper we had a format laid out in which we were supposed to answer and check off. Some of the things we had to check off included titles and camera angles. The main idea of the story that we watched was a girl gets kidnapped. Her friends are trying to find her throughout the intro. But, it turns out that one of the people are traitors. The titles on the film are really good. The only thing is that when the teacher was talking to us about the titles they mentioned staying to one font to look more organized. But I personally like that it's different fonts, it makes the film more unique. One thing i really liked about the movie was the use of props. In the beginning they used masks to represent the bad guys. I feel like if they didn’t do this, it might have been hard to differentiate between the girls friends and the people that kidnapped her. It also makes the movie more interesting because they’re adding more things into the film instead of just themselves. One suggestion that I would make for the film is that they increase the volume during the dialogue part. We were watching this in a predominately loud classroom. Therefore it was harder to hear even with the volume all the way up. The score however was easy to hear and there was no problems with that.

Filming Blog: Darren's house

Yesterday was February 25th, 2020. This concluded the second day that we were filming. For this day we decided to be more organized. The first day of filming was more like trial and error. We found out what worked and how well we worked together. I drove myself to Darren's house which was about a 25 minute drive. I took Ashely and Darren as well because we went straight there from school. But I had to drop her off after which was a bit stressful. She lived farther from Darren to her house it was about a 35 minute drive. Once we got there we had to go back and look at the storyboard as well as the shooting script to make sure we were doing the correct angles for the shots. We shot scenes one through five which meant we still have five more scenes to film. Throughout the entirety of the filming, I was mainly the one that was shooting. Ashley and Darren were filming when I was acting so we thought it would be fair to switch the roles up for each persons scenes. We didn't have any complications filming this time because I think we got used to the filming process. The only thing that was a minor inconvenience was the fact that Darren lived far. After we were done filming I made sure I dumped the footage. How I did this was insert the SD card into the side of the computer. I downloaded the footage from the SD card onto my laptop. I went to my google drive and then went to "File upload". After this a box popped up that had all of my files in it. I uploaded every single video that was in this file to my One Drive. The picture is from a scene in which Darren is looking through his clothes trying to find an outfit for the school day.

Filming Blog: Our first day filming

Yesterday was February the 23rd, 2020. This officially commended the first day of filming for the short film. We got delayed a week due to busy schedules like I mentioned in the last blog. But, Sunday was a perfect day that we all had free. I got off of work at four o'clock so we started filming around four thirty. I thought that filming would take longer but in all honesty it only took about an hour and a half. We decided to film my scenes first but for no particular reason. So, Darren and Ashley came over to my house and we started from the beginning. In this whole day of filming, my role was being the actor. So I was constantly behind the camera acting out the scenes. This proved to be a bit difficult because we're friends so we goofed off a little bit. I could not stop laughing when we filmed the second scene. This was when everyone is getting out of bed and I have to roll out. It was just funny to me and them so we had to do a few retakes for this scene. A problem we came across was space. When filming we had to make sure we could get the good angles and make sure that I was fully in the frame. This was difficult because the area of my house that we we're filing at was a hallway so it was sort of hard to get everything in the frame. Another issue that we faced was filming with my dogs. One of my dogs are male and doesn't like new people coming into the house. Darren is a male so this is self explanatory. For this scene I had Darren go to another room and had Ashley help me film this scene. This picture is from scene two where I roll out of bed.

Filming Blog: Unfortunate events

Today is February the 20th, 2020. As of this moment I have not started filming. My group has very tight schedules. One of the members in my group has chess club and work after school. The other group member has to go to environmental club after school and volunteer. I work two jobs and have tons of homework to do. Just like everyone else. So, it's hard to find a good time to film especially after school. Our first day that we are going to film is February the 22nd 2020. I suggested we should film this Saturday because everyone is free for a few hours in the morning. The plan for Saturday is this; we film scenes one through five. However, then scenes won't be filmed for all three of us. We'll have to just film the scenes I am in. This must be done this way for a specific reason. In our film we each show our morning routines in our own houses. So, we're not going to go back and forth to houses. We live great distances away from each other so were only filming one group members scenes a day. This way we can make sure we shoot and also do any reshoots from the footage we just took to make sure we do it correctly. Scenes one includes a picture of the alarm clock with the sound of it going off. Scene two includes me getting out of bed then walking to the bathroom. Scene three includes me trying to brush my teeth. Scene four includes me walking back to my room then attempting to dress myself. Scene five shows me walking to my kitchen and saying hello to my pets. This picture is of my room of the setting that we will mostly be filming in on Saturday.

Planning blog: Storyboard

Planning blog: Title design

For this blog we figured out our titles. This was a difficult and exhausting task because we couldn't make up our minds. Each of us wanted to be something that collided with one another. For example, two of us wanted to be producers or directors. We finally sorted everything out and came to a conclusion. For our titles we just provided the basic musts for a film. This included directed by, produced by and edited by. For our font we chose to go with something that can be taken lightly. Rather than something that is bold and harsh because that's not what the film is about. We chose it to fly onto the screen because we thought it would add a little touch of playfulness into it instead of it just appearing onto the screen.

Planning blog: Location, participants, health and schedule

For this blog we planned out the entire process of production for our film. It took a little while because had to ask for permission from our parents and administrative authority. Here we decided on our set locations, who would be participating in our film, health and safety concerns and a schedule which would work for us. It was very important for us to decide on a set schedule because this is what would allow us to construct our film. We discussed job dates, appointments, family plans and other reasons we would not be able to film and chose days which we practical and convenient to everyone. We also assured that throughout the filming process we were secure of our health and safety and relied on the support of trusted adults for monitoring us. For our locations we decided to film at our own houses because it was convenient since we had ownership to it and did not have to worry about asking for permission to film. We could use anything as props because they belonged to us. For our school we made sure to get permission from administration and for the bus stop we thought it was a good location since it was not private property and could be filmed on freely. Discussing these factors with my group assures us that we will run on schedule with plenty of time to make mistakes, fix them and adjust our film to make it the best it can be.

Planning Blog: Shooting Script

This is my groups shooting script for our final task. It is an outline what we will be done in our video. The script is divided by scene. We decided to include the shots so we would be better prepared when it came time for filming. During the time we were writing our script, my group and I were collecting props for the project. We were discussing how we would make it all come together. We still haven't decided when we are going to film. We still need to find out when all of us can find a day in which we can shoot the video.We will be focused on getting our scripts done so we have a sense of direction. By the end of this week we hope to get permission to film on our desired location.

Planning Blog: Sound Script

       In these slides, it contains all the sounds and the dialogue that will be heard in our movie opening. The majority of our opening scenes will just be natural sounds rather than dialogue because there is barely any characters interactions. The opening of our movie mostly take place in each of the character's house and they are beginning their morning routine to prepare for school. Therefore, most of the sounds will begin from the alarm clock ringing next to each of the character's bed to the sound of running water as some starts brushing their teeth or taking a shower before getting dressed from school. Then, then the sounds of the opening will transition onto the outside streets as the character's begins heading out. So the noises of cars zooming by and the sounds of chattering students as they reach school campus will be heard in the background once they reach school campus. Dialogue will be heard between the characters as they began to see each other at the end of the opening of the movie since they begin meeting each other at school. So overall, that the entire sound script for the entire opening of the movie. There will be natural sounds and dialogue throughout the opening of the movie. There may be some additional sounds along the opening as the script is not completely accurate but the group will be sure to follow the script as much as possible.

Title research: Eva

During the opening sequence of the film there are titles displayed eighteen.  The movie Eva is about a programmer named Alex. He returns to his home town after ten years to work on a robot boy. He uses his ten year old niece, Eva, as his muse and inspiration.The opening sequence shows many images and varying perspectives of design. They are meant to mimic the behavior of interconnected elements inside a neural network. There is incredible detail in the images. Soon the neural elements start to transform into mechanical looking tools and objects representing the elements of the robotic child. The visuals of the neural network and the mechanical objects are connotative of the elements of the a robotic being. They do not contain the spiritual and emotional elements which make up the human brain. That is why the neural networks in the opening sequences develop into machinery. Through this the genre is also reinforced. Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction that typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as this one which would be advanced science and technology. The extremely delicate and intricate visuals show ideas which are far beyond our modern day technological platforms. To ensure it is appealing to the right audience the title sequence uses technology in motion demonstrating the futuristic elements of the genre. Through delicate and intricate details of the title sequence were made possibly through 3-D animation. This is a useful form of animation because it allows for movie designers to reproduce something that can not be produced in real life or would be to difficult to reproduce. 3-D animation is also used for efficiency. Sometimes designers find it quicker,cheaper and more practical to produce designs through technological platforms. With the use of technology the designers were also able to capture obscure angles and camera movements. Computer animation can also be more versatile when capturing certain views of something because their are no restrictions such as those found in real life. As a result their is a variation of close-ups, zooms, pans, and tilts which are produced from computer software are created.This can be used to enforce anticipation and excitement while also foreshadowing parts of the film or the main story line.

Title research: Dunya and Desi

In the beginning sequence of the film Dunya and Desi there twenty-one titles displayed. The story revolves around two eighteen-year-old best friends who are experiencing their own personal crises which leads them to the same country on their own adventures. There is a pattern of feminine and girl imagines prioritized in the opening sequence. There are female products scattered all over the opening credits such as makeup, magazines and other miscellaneous items that would be found in a young women's room. This is likely representative of their age and signifies that they are still young and growing because it looks significantly of how an older women's room would look. There are also several photos showcased of Dunya and Desi. Many of their photos together are prioritized in the opening sequence because their friendship is what drives the plot. It is important to the development of the story line. The images are directly connotative in showing the audience that Dunya and Desi are best friends who play a big role in each others lives and that they are still maturing and growing together. The genre of the film is comedy. The messy and unorganized images can reinforce comedy. As compared to a horror or thriller the opening sequence is very playful and all over the place. To make its appeal to its target audience it creates a disorganized sequence which many people can relate to and find amusing. People are often satisfied when plot lines and characters are realistic and relate able to it's audience. The opening sequence was done with real props and a camera. This allows for traditional camera work such as zoom ins and zoom outs. The role of the movements in the opening sequence are to show off the titles. I think it was very clever for the designers to fit the names of the titles into objects in the room. The camera does a good job making sure that the titles are visible and stand out even though that they disorganized a bunch of other objects but focusing on the titles and making them stand out from everything else.

Title Research: The Final Destination

How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?
The movie The Final Destination was the second movie we chose to research. There was a total of 21 titles displayed throughout the 1 minute and 29 seconds. We found this beginning sequence on watchthetitles.com

What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?
The whole beginning sequence of the movie is based on humans getting killed in different ways. In the beginning the director uses an x-ray kind of vision to show the animations. He or she displays humans getting killed in multiple ways. It ranges from a person getting nails stuck in their head to someones head getting sliced open vertically. For the animations it's not always a whole persons skeleton being killed. The director uses blood splatter to represent a person being killed. For example, there's a scene in the beginning sequence where a train is coming and the audience can assume it hit a person because what followed was blood splatter coming toward the screen.

What connotations do the images carry?
The connotations of the images show that the movie following it is going to be scary or about death. The images show something that people are scared of which is death. This means the beginning sequence makes the audience feel scared or anxious.

How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?
The animations shown in the beginning sequence reinforces the genre through symbolic codes.
The images in the beginning give people that scared feeling which reinforces the genre. The director  made sure to include animations that go with the movie because it would not enforce the genre whatsoever if they showed animations of bunny rabbits in the beginning sequence.

What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to it's target audience?
The target audience for The Final Destination is anyone that is ages 16 and up. The movie leans toward people that enjoy scary or gory movies. The animations of people dying help to keep the audience engaged or actually want to see the movie.

How has technology been used effectively? 
A bunch of different angles have been used in the beginning sequence which helps keep it less boring which will in-turn keep the audience entertained. The art of animation has also been effectively used. This got the point that the movie will be gory an scary across without it being too gory. Editing was a good part of the beginning sequence because it goes hand and hand with the animation. This just made the sequence more appealing.