Mock exam

QUESTION 1

Class and status in the Merlin season 1 episode extract is represented well by the director James Hawes well in the clip through the use of camera, editing, sound and misc-en-scene.

In the extract the first shot appears to be from a slightly elevated level from our protagonist, the first shot pans as Merlin walks to create an establishing shot, this shot shows a luxurious castle like indoor courtyard with stain glass accompaniment.  Firstly, this shot represents class and status as the environment clearly juxtoposes our main character, with a light violin non-diegetic rift. Merlin is represented by the higher angle out of place as the audience is looking down on him. It is obvious this shot was used to demonstrate Merlin isn't allowed here, the scene and camera shot is used to represent Merlin's social status to be very low and to be of a class not suited for nice formal environments.

In the clip class is represented to be a heavy influence on people, Merlin when in a room looks through a lady's objects, the use of fast paced editing cuts really represents how curious lower classed people are of upper class culture, through the use of shot reverse shot showing close ups and under the shoulder shots of his hands really demonstrates the representation of lower classes bewilderment to upper class customs.

As Merlin searched through these objects a hay object is shown, using a zoom this emphasises how this this object is different from the others, in this sequence of quick paced editing the zoom to the hay object has many significations, indexical signifies of hay are a lower class use of bedding, this sticks with the theme of curiosity Merlin has, this emphasises how Merlin is confused why someone of a higher class has a lower class object, the clip represents the conflict created when different classes mix.

Misc-en-scene and sound represent class throughout the clip continuously, people of low class are shown with bleak coloured clothing whilst people of social significance ever in class or status wear brighter or shiny clothing for example as the lady approaches Merlin she is shown to wear a colourful purple dress, or the antagonist in the fight wearing shiny armour. But significantly, non-diegetic sounds also represent class and status in these two characters aswell, as the lady approaches non-diegetic sounds which are very formal build up slowly, making the scene more intense, as these two classes clash non-diegetic sounds are used to almost make people of higher class seem more important, as in the scene the purple dressed lady is cored as she walks in by a small string orchestra. Differently, as the fight happens there is a prevalent switch and juxtaposition of non-diegetic tones, the fight showases an environment of a lower class shown by diegetic sounds of animals, as animals signify farmyard, Light quick based violin rifts in major key key represents the informal class of the market area yet for the castle, the non-diegetic tones are much more formal in a minor key, representing higher class to be alot more serious and formal.

During the fight the antagonist steps onto a see-saw like object looking down at Merlin on the floor, this use of a low angle shot puts the audience in the position of the lower class citizens looking up at the higher class man being agressive, this shot is used to represent people of higher class to look like the enemy of lower class citizens. As this is the first episode director James hawes intentionally used this shot to present and establish this class struggle quickly, presenting to the audience to have sympathy for the lower class as the shot is used to put the audience in the "shoes" of the lower class, the extract represents sympathy in this shot for the lower class.

Finally as Merlin: our protagonist, talks with the antagonist editing is used to represent the dominance of higher class as this use of shot reverse shot using over the shoulder shots show more of the antagonist in the quick paced  editing style even as he taken his first shot at Merlin, he jumps out of shot at a over the shoulder angle representing by this long take that higher class dominates lower class in the clip, as Merlin dodges and comes back the shot signifies that the audience prospective should be mainly focused on the higher class man.

In conclusion class and status are represented in the clip to be two conflicting things, the conflict of higher and lower class is represented to be dominating by higher class.

QUESTION 2

Technological convergence and synergy are very important for institution and audience, yet there is a real juxtaposition between larger conglomerates and independent companies in the film industry. My case studies of Star Wars: The force awakens and BFI's The falling starring Maisie Williams can help identify that.

Disney recently bought Star Wars production Lucas Film in October 2012 for $4.06 billion, and Disney being one of the larger 6 main conglomerates produced the seventh instalment of the franchise, Disney are owner of 4 main subsidiaries, walt disney studios (owning Marvel, Pixar and their own record label) , Media network(TV, radio and internet), Disney Resort(owning the park companies). Disney have used their subsidiaries which are important as this helps them produce a huge synergy, including their subsidiary of merchandise.

Star wars all time gross is around $30 billion with 138 games grossing $3.7 billion, but 2 lines of toys, the first prequel selling 3.75 billion units and another with company hasbo between 1995-2011. Disney now after the release of the force awakens released a whole new toy line, yet this time synergy between Walt Disney and their Marketing subsidiary now is helping their profit growth and are expecting $5 billion 12 months after the films release of 17th December of 2015/

Differently, the falling was given £750,000 by BFI to produce the film making around £375,000 in box office, BFI (British Film Institute) and BBC films produced the film. The juxtaposition between these 2 films are huge as the force awakens is likely to gross $1.9 billion and from George Osborn £20 million of their $200 million budget was gifted to them, the falling unlike Star Wars didn't show technological convergence and synergy like star wars did.

In marketing, Star wars were aware of their audience being predominately male had marketing synergy with Cover girl and max factor being female products this use of synergy is important to Disney or Lucas film as an institution as more female audiences are encouraged to see the film starred by Daisy Rigley, John boyega, and original cast of Carrie Fischer, Mark hamil and Harrison Ford.

Director JJ abrams when producing the film reconstructed the original trilogy, to try to recreate the magic. After recent success of new Imax 3D technology Abrams was unsure whether to use original 35mm film with a 2,35:1 aspect ratio or 20mm film as technological convergence of cinemas are more supportive of it as cinemas can charge more for Imax making better gross profit. Abrams went with the 35mm and used 20mm to accompany secondary shots using camera rigs for 3D technology. From this Abrams' conformity demonstrates the growth of technology and how it converges with film.

The falling wasn't filmed in IMAX, and only shown in 2D for 4 weeks emphasising how important technological convergence is to audience, and audience are more likely to watch a film of better technology.

Disney when creating the force awakens website teamed with subsidiaries Disney Studios and their media network, promoting Disney's synergy. The sight is comatible with mobile devices, tablets and computers showing virtual reality. Technological convergence is apparent in this as they include synopsis of the films, trivia and reviews excluding the use of other websites such as IMDB and Wikipedia converging different technologies into one platform. Critics claim a real reason the falling didn't gross profit was due to this ignorance of marketing and technology, due to the fact the budget was small of course only showing 1 trailer compared to 3 the force awakens released.

Disney are planning to release the force awakens on blu-ray with their second screen technology, which allows consumers to sync the film with from second screen apps to access featurettes from their devices, smartphones or tablets. These include bonus scenes, triva and BTS. This is an example of technological convergence which is important to the institution and audiences as consumers of the product are more gratified which markets it better making more profit for the institutions.

Synergy is important to the Disney Institution when producing John Williams score, Disney Studios could produce this using their own record label, releasing this on December 17th also creating more "hype" for audiences, hearing this grows nostalgia levels making the film more profitable as different media platforms are released and saving the franchise money through the synergy of Disney's subsidiaries.

In conclusion the used synergy and convergence is important to the institutions as it can save them money and help them produce more consumables yet ignorance of this like the falling is important to audiences as it determines if they will want to see it or not. As the feelings only real marketing was inclusion of Game of thrones Maisie Williams.

Documentary notes

Pre production:

Pre-production is a fairly loose term which refers to the tasks undertaken before production begins. Exactly what is included in this stage depends on the medium and situation.

For a small video company, pre-production may refer to everything that happens before shooting begins, for example, meeting with the client, research, storyboarding, location planning, etc.

For feature films, pre-production is more specific and only begins when other milestones have been met such as financing, screenplay, casting and major staffing. In this case pre-production includes:

• Location scouting
• Prop and wardrobe identification and preparation
• Special effects identification and preparation
• Production schedule
• Set construction
• Script-locking (semi-finalisation of the script)
• Script read-through with cast, director and other interested parties

Production:

In film and video, production refers to the part of the process in which footage is recorded. This is what most people imagine when they think of a film being made — actors on sets, cameras rolling, etc. The production phase is also known as principal photography.

In large feature films the beginning of the production phase marks the "point of no return", i.e. the point at which it is no longer financially viable to cancel the project. At this point it is almost always cheaper to continue until the project is finished than to deal with the financial fall-out of canceling.

The goal of principal photography is obviously to record all required shots, however it is fairly common to shoot "pick-up" shots in post-production. Pick-up shots may be required when a mistake is noticed, a script change is made (this is unusual), or even if a performance is deemed to be unsatisfactory.

In music, production usually refers to the creative direction of a project. Unlike a film producer who is more of a manager, a music producer has a very hands-on role in the creative development.

Distribution:

• A film distributor is an independent company that acts as an agent for a filmmaker (or film production company) to market and circulate a film in festivals, theaters, television, home video (DVD, Video on Demand, Download, etc), and for educational purposes (curriculum tool, conferences, social/cultural/educational organizations, etc.).
• Educational distributors - release films and other visual programming that can be used as educational tools. They may distribute to: schools, libraries, universities and colleges, museums, media centers, conference programmers, social and health service providers, professional/employee associations, government, community and grass-roots organizations
• Home video distributors - release films in various forms that can be purchased for home viewing. This includes VHS, DVD, Video on Demand, Internet Download, Pay-Per-View, etc.
• Television - release films and other visual programming to network and cable TV, public access TV Theatrical - release feature, documentary, and short films to the theater circuit

Synergy and convergence of Star wars compared to the falling

Disney are one of the 6 larger conglomerates and after 2012 expanding their cross-media ownership for $4.05 Billion to own subsidiary Lucas Film, producers of the Star Wars Franchise. Disney's revenue in the fiscal quarter of 2015 to nearly $13.4 billion. Disney are made up of four subsidiary divisions- The walt Disney Studies(Owning of Marvel, Pixar and animation and Lucas Film, including Film studios, record Labels); Parks and resorts(Theme Parks); Disney consumer products(Merchandise, publishing), Media networks(TV, radio, internet). Disney are an example of cross-Media ownership and this benefits them as it allows them to use synergy within separate subsidiaries.

Obviously, The force awakens is just another instalment of one of the biggest Film merchandise synergies ever selling  3,850,000,000 units of Kenner toys between 1978-1985 then selling 5,537,000,000 Hasbro units between 1995-2011 when the separate trilogies came out, as well as 138 video games sold making $3,400.000,000, In total the franchise before the Force Awakens had a revenue of $28,000,000,000 approximately. 

Toys and collectables are the most mass produced merchandise of Star Wars you can get. There are tens of thousands of toys collected by tens of thousands of people starting in the 1970's following the initial release. 

There is a huge amount of Star Wars clothing and accessory merchandise in numerous retailers. There are shirts, leggings, shoes, hats, costumes, hair accessories, wigs, makeup, jackets, jewelery, baby clothes, sew on patches, bags, underwear and so on. You can buy this kind of merchandise from almost anywhere online and in high street stores such as Forbidden Planet and exhibitions like Comicon, where people also dress as the characters. This is only popularized by Lucas Film delivering their product on more than one media channel. 

The Force Awakens being the most anticipated film of 2015 has been marketed well through Media Synergy, Media synergy is the way in which different elements of a media conglomerate work together to promote linked products across different media, and The force awakens unlike The smaller independent film The falling didn't lack this at all, Sky have a channel dedicated on Sky Movies to the Star Wars franchise called Sky movies Star wars, this channel's advertising is obviously marketed at the fans where I can see a number of media conglomerates working together to sell and promote their products, for example CoverGirl and star wars have partnered on Force Awakens styled make-up, Duracell and Star wars partnered also to advertise batteries and other produces, Subway in 110 countries selling Star Wars force awakens kids meals and even Max factor also.
Their Media convergence in more Make-up lines has significant connotations, The Force awakens use of Media convergence is to market the film to a larger audience out of Star wars' stereotypical audience, marketing at females as Star wars' target audience is stereotypically known as more male, this use of media synergy is blatant to help push this new instalment onto a larger audience. 

Synergy is used in the Force awakens in many ways, The poster is of the film promotes different sub-parts of the film, its soundtrack scored by John Williams, The soundtrack alone shows the application of technological convergence and cross media convergence as cross media the soundtrack can be accessed by purchasing a CD or downloading on Itunes and by listening to the music whilst watching the film, Using the Apple platform to access The force Awakens shows how convergence has been used, but Technological convergence the soundtrack can be accessed/Purchased/Consumed via the internet, ipod, mobile phone via Itunes and the ever growing Youtube which The force awakens even has their own channel to converge that market. Another use of Synergy used by Disney is that their subsidiary Walt Disney Studios record labels can produce John Williams score.

Differently, previously Star wars merchandise would have been made seperately, but now synergy has been used in the different subsidiary of Disney in Disney Consumer products, The Force awakens has a new fresh range of Toys and other Merch, In cinemas as The force Awakens was played merch Odeon and Lucas converged to help sell new merchandise to fans coming to see the film, Disney expect an Ancillary revenue of $5 billion 12 months after the films release alone.

Disney used synergy to promote the release of The Force awakens by releasing the John Williams score through Disney's record label. The album generated publicity which encouraged people to see the film, as there is a form of nostalgia towards the soundtrack being very recognizable. 

New technologies are used by disney in the production of their films. The force Awakens was filmed in digital 3D using 35mm lens with a 2,35:1 aspect ratio(Cinemascope), Originally they wanted to shoot in Imax 70mm film instead being a more popular technology, but used the 70mm film to accompany certain shots, this subtle approach to filming the force Awakens reflects the popularity of IMAX 3D techonology with film studies. Studios like IMAX 3D for a number of reasons, serveral recent 3D releases have been hugely successful such as Avatar which grossed $2.7 billion. Cinemas can also charge more for tickets to see IMAX 3D films. Use of IMAX 3D also helps to tackle piracy and encourages people to pay to see the film at the cinema, as pirated copies will not be in 3D. Filming in IMAX 3D is more costly than 2D. The force Awakens used the Pace fusionm rig, a 2 camera rig which films images simultaneously.

New technologies have benefits and disadvantages for companies like Disney. Proliferation of Hardware and Widespread has lead to increased piracy, as well as offering a wider range of entertainment choices competing for the audience's attention. A consequence of this has been declining DVD sales. In order to combat this Disney have developed their use of digital distribution and electronic sell-through. Disney recently launched Studio all access which allows consumers to purchase a copy of the film and then access it in a variety of formats on a range of devices. for Example the Toy Story 3 DVD came as a multi-pack featuring DVD, Blu-ray, streaming  and digital download copies. Disney are also planning to launch Video on demand service to allow consumers to instantly access their films through cable and digital television. Disney are planning to release The force Awakens on DVD product Second screen which allows users who have bought the blu-ray editions of certain films to download an app for a tablet, phone or computer. Whilst they watch the film consumers can sync this app with the film allowing them to access a range of additional content( Trivia, games, storyboard,etc.). This use of Technological convergence allows the experience of the consumer to be more interactive. It also benefits disney by encouraging consumers to purchase their products.


LucasFilm subsidiaries: Skywalker sound, THX, Lucasarts and Lucasfilm animations. Now owned by disney.

The Force Awakens Audience and Institutions COMPARED to The falling

COMPLETEDAs of November 2015

POST-PRODUCTIONAs of November 2014

Completed principal photography.

PRODUCTIONAs of April 2014

Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn revealed on April 2 that the new Star Wars had already begun filming and most of the cast was set.

PRE-PRODUCTIONAs of October 2013

Producer Bryan Burk stated that principal photography will likely commence in Spring 2014.

DEVELOPMENTAs of November 2012

Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine screenwriter Michael Arndt will write the screenplay for the new Star Wars film. JJ Abrams will direct. Slated for a 2015 release.

ANNOUNCEDAs of October 2012

Upon purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney, the studio announced a targeted 2015 release date for Star Wars: Episode VII. Followed by additional Star Wars films every two to three years.

CONCEPTAs of October 2010

Star Wars The Force awakens-

Representatives from Lucasfilm met with Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to agree to produce Episode VII in the UK. Osborne also committed £25 million ($37 million) of public money towards the film, claiming it was a boost for British culture and the film industry. The Falling Didn't even have that big of a budget just demonstrating how large conglomerate industries, their Budget was funded solely by BFI with £750,000 independent film producers cannot try to compete with these larger conglomerates just on the bases alone of how films are produced in industry. 

production spaces at the Bad Robot facility were converted for shooting of Episode VII for the benefit of shooting a minor portion of the film in the United States

The Force awakens like any film had production risks, with the large budget spent can it make the money needed to make profit, The Falling didn't make a profit which raised the ideas of the 4 risk questions
What level of audience will it attract?
Level of Funding neccessary?
Is it Marketable?
Will the funding make a Proditable return?

Well, The falling was a 15 rated Drama mystery, and being a british independent film audiences obviously weren't as interested why it grossed a total £359,082

The film was set in an old mansion like grammer school with off set countryside shoots, this low budget makes sense as no special effects or expensive effects were used.

This Film wasn't marketable, only 1 trailer came out, the only aspect which was slightly marketable was the fact game of thrones Maise Williams was set to star, fans of the show may have been interested.

Will the inclusion of famous Maise Williams the film could have made profit, as well as the low budget Profit could have been made as it is a well organized well shot put together film

Differently, 

The Force Awakens had a huge advantage on its side, Star wars being a massive influence in Pop culture and the Star wars trilogy revolutionizing the way film is made, as well the more recent prequels didn't receive well with fans, the original star wars came out almost 40 years ago so older audiences and newer younger audiences, fans of the ever growing merchandise and smaller franchises( Clone wars, Lego etc.) were attracted to this movie.

Star Wars originally was made great by its revolutionary practical effects, and the prequels were dubbed for bad CGI use, The force awakens filmed on 35mm IMAX supporting cameras de-constructed the originals by piece to remake what made the orginals so great and the prequels unloved: Practical Effects, Light humour, How it was shot, real sets and not green screen, Blue screen used instead of green, casting relatively unknown actors, crafting ships and props to life size as well as re hiring John Williams to score the movie. In December 2015, The Mail reported that Ford will be paid $25 million plus a 0.5% share of the revenue. Ridley and Boyega each will receive $460,000 plus a share if the movie grosses over $1 billion. Fisher received $1.5 million and Abrams was paid $5.1 million plus a 2% share of the revenue. For the original 1977 film, Ford was paid $10,000 (equivalent to $39,000 in 2016).  The Budget was neccessary for the idea created by JJ. abrams. 

Star Wars Episode I although unliked by fans, it grossed $1,027,044,677 

worldwide, and if in plateo with the idea of long awaited sequels first instalment grossing well Jurrassic World's $1,668,984,926 or The Hobbit's $1,021,103,568 or even Toy Story 3's $1,063,171,911 can prove this, it was almost inevitable that The Force awakens would make profit, infact the force awakens £200,000,000 budget was made profit of £45,000,000 in the opening weekend.

Audiences and Institutions