Audience and Institutions Essay

Savanna Nemmers

Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied.

    Marketing is one of the most important elements of a film. Marketing builds the audience and ensures the film’s targeted consumers will want to watch the movie. There are even more marketing opportunities now than there has ever been before. As technology continues to evolve and improve, more marketing methods are introduced. This is vital because of how important marketing is in the film industry. 

How well a film does is significantly impacted by the marketing campaigns and methods used to promote it. An example of a successful marketing campaign would be the film Black Panther. This film was promoted through the release of merchandise like games and clothes. Introducing these clothes and various other products for the film led to more excitement, interest, and anticipation for the movie. This movie's strong marketing made sure to include products that could appeal to people of all ages, which helped create a wider audience made up of kids, teenagers, and adults. Black Panther also used cable networks to expand their campaign. For example, BET released reruns of an old animated series of Black Panther that originally aired back in 2011. Black Panther had made around $361 million in its first weekend alone. The different ways the film was marketed greatly impacted the success of the movie because of the ways it expanded the film’s audience and got the general public talking about it. If a film has a bad marketing strategy, there is a higher chance it will flop. Without marketing, the targeted audience will not be engaged, there will be less anticipation, and less knowledge that the film is even being released. 

Cross promotion is another method of marketing that can greatly impact the success of a film. The movie Jurassic World is a prime example of how cross promotion can successfully be used to promote a film. Since Universal Studios is their parent company, they are able to get Comcast’s television companies to run earlier Jurassic Park movies. They have movie marathons for the Jurassic Park franchise with sneak previews with Chris Pratt and Spielberg on NBC. Marketing like this increases interest from the public because it makes them more familiar with the film and it teases them with sneak peaks that leave the audience wanting more. Jurassic World also partnered up with other companies such as Lego to make toys, video games, and Jurassic World themed snacks. Jurassic World made over 1 billion dollars and is still selling DVD versions of the film. This further demonstrates how marketing for a film greatly impacts it’s success and how vital it is for a film.

Another marketing strategy is through hosting special events for the film. Marvel used this method to promote Black Panther. Chadwick Boseman, the lead actor in the film, participated in an event for the mobile game Marvel Contest of Champions. Marvel Studios also hosted a New York Fashion Week event, where pieces inspired by the movies were showcased. The New York Fashion week allowed a way for the movie’s marketers to appeal to a different form of art, in this case fashion. These special events help the franchise branch out to different types of audiences allowing for a larger number of consumers when the movie is released. Another example of when a film used specials to promote their movie is in the marketing for the live action film of Beauty and the Beast. A couple of the movie stars hosted a special edition of “The Bachelor '' on ABC to promote it’s upcoming release. Frequent viewers that see the Beauty and the Beast themed episode are more likely to get excited about the film and see it when the movie is released. The success of Beauty and the Beast was a result of a huge participatory effort made by fans and non-fans that became excited and involved because of the marketing techniques the film used.

Social media is a huge way films are promoted. This way of marketing is especially increasing in popularity because of the expanding different ways it allows audiences to discover films. Apps like Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube, and Snapchat are some major platforms that marketing teams use to their advantage to promote their film. For example, the marketing team behind the 2016 Ghostbusters film used snapchat to promote their film. They created a snapchat filter that allowed for the apps millions of users to turn themselves into Ghostbusters. The filter added a zappable ghost to the user’s screen all while playing the film's theme song. Since snapchat is an app where you can post images and send pictures to other people, the filter is spread around to an enormous amount of people allowing for more people to find out about the film. Ghostbusters isn’t the only film to use snapchat to its advantage. Movies such as Pitch Perfect 2, Deadpool, and X-Men Apocalypse also had a special snapchat filter right around the time the film was to come out.

Overall, marketing is extremely important and vital to films. Marketing and promotion allows for there to be a wider audience and gets their movie more well known. Good marketing leads to greater success of the movie because it gets the general public engaged, interested, and excited about the film.

Practice Extract Essay: 24 Extract

Savanna Nemmers

The director’s main purpose in the “24” extract is to create intense and suspenseful scenes that demonstrate people will go to extremes to get what they want. The director uses many strategic camera movements, angles, and editing techniques to create these suspenseful situations. The intensity in each scene is also increased because of the editing and actual camera shots.
In the first scene, a zoom is one of the first camera movements used. The zoom is used to show the female lead’s facial expression when the male character enters the room. The zoom in that shot creates a tense situation and indicates to the audience that the two characters are not allies. An eye-line match is also used in this scene when the male lead spots the camera in the room. This increases the tension of the scene because it indicates the character has something to hide or may plan on doing something he does not want recorded. Next, a cutaway is used to reveal the woman has a team of people watching what is happening in the interrogation room, ready to help her at any moment. In the cutaway, the two main people there for back-up are dressed in formal attire and are standing in front of two tvs, displaying what is happening in the room. This creates suspense because the audience and back-up can see what is happening but do not know what the man is willing to do to get the information he wants from the woman or when he may lash out. The whole first scene is creating an intense situation and emphasizes the male wants something from the woman and will not stop until he gets it.
The second scene uses an eye-line match again to show the woman looking at the clock and checking the time. Diegetic sound of the clock ticking is also used in this scene. Both of these techniques place an emphasis on time and the fact that their time may be limited which further increases the suspense of the scene. A tracking shot is used to follow the male as he paces back and forth while trying to get the information from her. When she does not give in, a low angle is used to show him hovering over her and looking down at her. This signifies that he may feel he has power over her in this situation and intensifies the scene because of the way he is trying to show dominance over her. Both the tracking shot and the use of the low angle intensify the scene greatly. A cutaway is then used to show the viewing room again. In this clip the woman’s back-up is seen watching what is happening with concern on their faces. The director may have shown this because if viewers see that that other characters are worried about the woman, the audience will be put more on edge and become even more emerged into the intensity of the scene.
The final scene uses shot reverse shot while the main characters exchange dialogue. For a moment, the male character starts to stare in silence and the shot reverse shot continues to be used during this silence between the two characters. This strategically built up major suspense until the male finally lashed out. The director did it this way to keep the audience on edge, wondering what is going to occur and then shocking the audience when the man finally reaches his most extreme point to get the information he wants from the woman. In the clip, diegetic sound of the chair being dragged across the floor and then slammed into the wall is used. The scene then immediately goes into a split screen. The split screen allows the viewers to see what is happening in the two different settings. While the woman is being choked by the man, the audience can also see her back-up coming to save her which creates a chaotic and intense scene. A two-shot was used to show the man holding the woman in a choke hold which created an intimate yet extreme situation. This scene greatly built up suspense and heightened the intensity by using the different sounds, camera movements, and editing skills.
Overall, the director’s vision was meant to emphasize the importance intensity and suspense can have on a scene by showing a situation where someone went to extremes to get what they wanted. The director used many different camera shots, angles and movements, as well as many editing techniques to heighten the intensity and suspense levels of the film.

Practice Extract Essay worksheets

This assignment was to fill out worksheets about the camera movements, angles, and editing techniques used and then do a T.E.A. analysis for each scene. Attached are those worksheets.

Mantis creative critical reflection

The last task we had was our creative critical reflection. This reflection was made in a 12-15 minute video where you’d answer four important questions pertaining to your movie and process producing it. I decided to do mine as if it were a game. In the game I’d pull questions at random from a bowl and answer them. I separated the four questions into six so I could go more into depth with my answers. I think this was a fun take on answering these questions however, presenting makes me nervous and I think the camera made me nervous. I answered these questions the best I could and I was able to still give examples with evidence.

The final: Mantis

This is the first two minutes of a movie that I have wrote with my teammates. In this project we had to research not only the type of genre for the movie, but we also had to research the conventions of the opening credits for these types of movies. The sound and music had to go along with the clips being shown as well as help tell the story. This project took several months because of all of the research, planning, filming, and editing. This project was definitely the most challenging, however, it taught me the process of shooting a movie. Although only the opening sequence was filmed, each step a cinematic production would take was followed in this project. My teammates and I had to make a schedule for filming, make a shooting script, a sound script, and a storyboard. The editing process of this project also took the longest because of how much detail goes into making a thriller like this. I personally love how our film came out and think it definitely earns the thriller title.

The music video: no scrubs

This is my music video from earlier this school year. This was a very fun project because it allowed a lot of creativity from my group mates and I. The first thing my group and I did was choose a song. We ended going with the song no scrubs! This was a contemporary r&b song so we had to research the conventions of the music videos in that genre. I learned about how much costume, lighting, and location affectS the feeling and atmosphere of a music video. This project also taught me about time management since this was a project to be done out of class. Editing was a little bit more challenging then I’m used to because each clip that was in a different location needed to still match up with one another.

The first project: commercial for vans

This was the first project I did in this media class. My teammates and I had to research a company’s  commercials, and then create our own commercial for that brand. This was the project that taught me how to research the different types of genres for tv shows, movies, and commercials. This commercial project also taught me that there were and the different ways to capture a targeted audience. This was also the first project that I worked with my teammates, Haylie and Kelly. Since this project,  I have furthered my skills in editing. I have learned how to incorporate sound affects and use new kinds of transitions. I feel this was a very good introduction project because it was a beginners version of what the next projects would be like. This personally was my favorite project because it was fun, allowed creativity, and taught me how using conventions could lead to a great outcome that was still uniquely my own.