Audience and Institution Practice Essay

To what extent is digital distribution vital to the media area you have studied?

    Digital distribution is one of the most important parts after film-making that there is and has changed the way films can be advertised and essentially influence the profit they can make. It contributes to releasing new movies on streaming sites such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime or on the internet using websites such as YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. It also makes new or old movies be able to be bought digitally like on iTunes or On Demand or downloaded illegally on sketchy websites. Even theaters have become digital now using DCP’s to play their movies. Nowadays Digital distribution is crucial and in most cases the only way you will be able to watch a film due to COVID-19.
    Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther are two movies that were both distributed by Walt Disney, but in some ways took different approaches in how and where they would be distributed. They both decided to distribute their movies to specific theatres to have a red carpet premiere in order to promote their release dates. Due to media ownership Guardians of the Galaxy was not able to be streamed on services like Hulu or Netflix because of owning rights, this causes the movie to make less money then it could’ve. Although people were still able to buy it on DVD or on websites like Amazon. On the other hand, Black panther was distributed on all streaming services including Netflix making it gain more attention and money because it was easier to access to a wider audience. It also was distributed to theatres to have a “...a special screening in Los Angeles on January 29, 2018.” To add on, Disney Plus uses consumption by allowing viewers to see that their movie is going to be taken out of Netflix and placed into their own digital streaming service. By taking out Guardians of the Galaxy and Black panther from other streaming sites and putting them on their own this helps them because by distributing their movies digitally; Walt Disney will make all of the money they usually would without paying other companies to stream them.
    Spider-Man is another successful movie making more than $880 million worldwide and was the sixth highest grossing film of 2017. This movie would be digitally distributed on Youtube, Amazon, and ITunes, but is not free on each of these apps. Spider-Man is a superhero who most teenagers and kids are attracted to. Sony used synergy to their advantage by digitally distributing video games made by their own gaming companies and then marketing to a younger audience. In 2018 “Marvel's Spider-Man” was made, this game “...broke records and became the best-selling first-party title ever ousting God of War from the top spot…” By late November of 2019 the game sold over “9 million copies worldwide.” On top of the money made from streaming services and 880 million from movie theatres, they made an additional 9 million from the video game.
    Jurassic world is another movie that was highly popular and made “...$1.6 billion in box office revenue...” and ranked “...sixth among the highest-grossing films of all time.” To gain attention Jurassic world marketed by putting trailers on the internet, TV, and before other movies would play in theaters. This was done digitally and would be a very successful method for them. To add on, they created a website filled with information, facts about dinosaurs and they even had a “live broadcast” with interactive webcams. This helped in creating excitement before the actual movie would come out. After it did, the movie did incredibly well as you can see from how much it made. They would later distribute the movie on Disney’s streaming service ‘Disney Plus’ allowing them to have more control of where their movies were being put out and where viewers would be able to watch them.
    In conclusion, technology has allowed digital distribution to become one of the main ways people are able to watch films on their phones, tablets, and other devices. By distributing these films on our devices it allows audiences to watch their favorite movies in the comfort of their own home. Digital distribution has impacted films and revolutionized them for the better by allowing us to play games featuring our favorite characters, it has allowed theaters to use faster methods in screening by sending films digitally using DCP’s and now we can even download the movies to our phones from websites. Digital distribution is so important and now that everyone is stuck at home it is so sweet to still be able to have entertainment and enjoy the heroes we love because if not for Digital distribution none of the early access or old movies we like would be available to us.

Extract Practice-Game of Thrones

    The theme behind the extract is dense and suspenseful. The characters look uncertain of what is to come ahead. When they get to their destination, war and blood look as though they are going to be in the near future. A war for the rightful king to reign.
    In the beginning of the extract, the first scene begins with a high angle looking down at a ship. Non diegetic sounds of birds are loud, while the ocean waves take them to their mysterious location. Mountains and little islands surround the boat creating almost suffocation. After this, the camera focuses on two male characters. The camera slowly zooms in making you question what they are looking at and why they have such serious expressions. Incidental sound adds to the suspense and disgusted looks on their faces by allowing the audience to hear the tension. Another key thing I recognized was their outfits, the costumes in this extract are of medieval time and the clothes they are wearing are fancy, which is only worn by people of a higher power or ranking. In these times there was a lot of war, so it makes me question is something big coming? Using these different camera angles and sounds it shows the audiences the emotions the characters are going through and how they feel. Following this is a zoom out showing us a large statue of a soldier with its sword cut in half enforcing the idea of my theme of war.
    To continue, the next scene follows the two men from the ship into a shaded, mostly empty dark room. The only set design is the chairs and long table, creating a lonely environment. The action match from the conversation to one of the male characters pacing back and forth in a long hallway shows how impatient and frustrated the man is getting. Meanwhile, his companion is calm, reserved, and is trying to ease the situation. You can tell he is someone who takes care or works for the man. Later, the three men finally join the other two. Although they have been waiting anxiously they are uncertain of the three men beyond them and look as though they are questioning if they can trust them. This action match follows my theme by proving the character's uncertainty.
    In addition, the next scene is filled with the most dialogue and continues to have a shot/reverse-shot of each character discussing who should be in charge. One of the three men insults the “lord” and calls the other a thief. The characters continue to go back and forth and it just seems that they cannot come to a conclusion. Going back to my theme one of the three men remains unfazed by what the “lords” friend is saying to him. The three men have much more power than the other two and you can hear this by the dialogue and what the way they are speaking to each other. This goes back to my theme because there is conflict between the rights of who will reign the kingdom and who is really in charge.
    Furthermore, there seems to be no more options because the three men just will not listen or try to understand what the two main characters are saying to them. At this point one of the main men is not willing to bargain anymore and he goes to the fullest extent. He is shown in a medium long shot and approaches the men directly and close. His demeanor changed and his seriousness to its fullest. He takes off his glove to show the three men that his “lord” did make him pay for his crimes by cutting off the ends of his fingers. To add on, a reaction shot follows this by the face of the one of the three men. He is shocked and now understands that the “lord” acts like a true king and gives their people what they deserve when they have done badly. The reaction shot follows my theme by making the audience realize that one of the main characters was trying to prove a point that the other deserves the throne because he is not scared to draw blood.
    In conclusion, throughout each scene it is evident that the author is trying to portray the theme of war, consequences, and rightful ownership through the scenes following these two characters. At first there was mystery and suspense, but that would be uncovered by the truth of the matter. Which is, who shall reign? My theme was justified by the actions of both the main characters and the reactions from those against them. Their point was proven and left the opposers speechless.

Opening Sequence Film & CCR

The opening sequence I filmed with my group is called, "The HOUSE ON 10TH AVE"! Below, I attached the opening sequence in Google Slides along with my CCR interview. Out of all the films, this was the most fun to film. It was the hardest to film compared to the other two. Currently, there is a lot going on in the world so I wanted to do more editing on the titles. It was disappointing that we could not make the titles how I had planned because it would have added the extra horror feel to the film. I came a long way to be able to film such a project at first I didn't even know how to cut scenes or even add titles. Now, I can do all that and much more. The biggest thing for me during this film was the acting. It was hard to make your movements and expressions seem genuine. Even when I was talking it sounded like I had no emotion sometimes. It was not entirely easy to film. The first issue we had was searching for props because many stores didn't have any scary props due to the fact of it not being Halloween season. I made fake scar wax with flour and Vaseline and I made fake blood with corn starch and food dye. Next, was meeting up and having to film several weekends to film this includes re-filming at different locations. This was due to numerous reasons being the weather or members of the group weren't able to film, but we figured it out by scheduling. The last issue was to change the shooting script and sound script throughout filming. Although this may happen when filming, we ended up having a completely different script. This helped make the acting more realistic and allowed us to be more creative. I created this horror film because I love horror movies and anything scary. The idea just seemed like something fun I could make with my friends. All in all, this was the last film I got to create with my friends and though it is sad that I won't be filming anything anymore. It has opened my eyes and made me question if I want to pursue something in film. Anyways, I hope you take a look at my film and enjoy it.

 

Music Video Film And CCR

Below, I attached the music video in Google Slides and the CCR. This was the second film I did in AICE Media Studies. This was the second hardest film. It was also the second most fun one. I genuinely enjoyed filming this video because of the dancing and props. One disadvantage my group and I had was getting the film to match up with the audio of the music. The second disadvantage was the editing process. There were a couple of scenes that were short, so the frames stopped working. My favorite part was the matching transitions. We came up with a bunch of those. Even though we matched the lyrics to our actions. The ending was also very fun and was only shot once. However, it was difficult to find props to help portray the lyrics and costumes. I decided to organize it. Anyeska used items she had at her home for props and bought matching sunglasses for all the character's costumes, except for a "birthday suit" for one of Lesly's scenes. For this project, I taught everyone a simple dance and that is the one we did. I didn't want to have the same dance as the original. We filmed at Anyeska's house. This film had a ton some retakes throughout the two days of meeting up, because of mistakes in acting or when creating the transitions. To end with, this was a fun music video to film and really let us get creative.



     My product uses conventions such as a mixture style, which is a combination of narrative and performance. Although we are dancing in front of the camera we also are telling a story about someone being lazy and not wanting to leave the house. We also use popular camera angles used in many other music videos such as wide, mid, and over the shoulder shots. Props are also used such as in other music videos (confetti and signs with “no”). Some ways we challenge conventions is  lighting from Mis-En-Scene, most music videos you see have a lot of colors or special effects. We did not add any special effects and our music video was not colorful at all. If anything the audience may have gotten a sad feeling at first because the lightning is quite dull, but when the music starts playing and we dance the tone immediately changes. Another way we challenged conventions was by not adding any sound or background noise to the music video. We did not want to distract the audiences with other noises. We want them to pay attention to the storyline and what is happening. Editing we used that is also different from most music videos is adding the lyrics at the bottom. Our video was filmed in a house, so this gives the audience  a safe, happy feel; unlike other music videos that have many different locations that do not correlate with each other.Our music video represents many social groups some are introverts, lazy people, and those who just simply do not want to leave the house sometimes. This song applies to all age groups and all races. Everyone has had a day where they did not want to leave their house. Depending on how you look at the video some issues you may think are being addressed are people with social anxiety who do not like to leave their house due to their illness or people who do not like to talk or communicate with others. Although, the song was targeted to those who are lazy and just do not want to do anything that day. Hence why most of the lyrics talk about staying home, not answering phone calls, and not doing anything.

    My product engages with the audience by being relatable and having an upbeat sound. Putting the lyrics underneath the scenes of the videos allows the audience to participate and be more engaged. Since we are dancing in the video this encourages others to get up and dance with us. People might also find humor in our video such as the scene where Lesly is calling me and the name on my phone says missed call from “Crackhead Les Les”. My product in this film can be disturbed in many ways as a real media text. The distribution of this product will go through platforms such as YouTube ,Facebook, and sites like  Instagram. These sites are widely used platforms, by all ages and reach millions of people. People create parodies and remakes on YouTube just like we did on our music video. We would advertise our video on instagram, so that way people could find it and share with others.

    My production skills developed enormously throughout this project. One of the biggest skills I learned was how to film camera angles. Last time we depended on the tripod a lot, but while filming our music video we hand held the camera in most of the scenes besides all of the dance scenes. This helped me become a better filmmaker.  I also learned to be more coordinated and focused. I was able to tell what camera angles looked best for the particular scene we were shooting. I also gave some sense of direction to the dancing scenes. My editing did get better, by Lesly explaining to me what they did while I was gone and him showing me the different techniques they used before the film was turned in.

    My project involved a lot of integrating software, hardware, and online. I used software which was the editing program, Pinnacle Studios. Pinnacle Studios was used to edit and create the film. I used hardware, which was the camera to record the scenes that are shown throughout the film. The camera was provided by the school. Lastly, I used online, which is a part of the editing program. It was used to retrieve the song and email communication to export all the footage for download.

Vans Commercial Film And CCR

This is my commercial blog. Below, I attached the commercial in Google Slides and wrote the CCR. This was the first film I made in AICE Media Studies. It was the shortest film I did. It was the easiest to film for me. The editing wasn't that hard. It was easy because it was such a short film that it didn't take much time to edit.  It was fun being able to match and show off our product together. I enjoyed working with my friends. It’s cool to see how far I have come with my acting, filming and editing skills. I remember I loved acting and recording my friends. It was fun trying to figure out how to do our own effects like Lesly's shoes changing. If I could change something about the film I would change the fact that it took place at school.  I didn't have as much creative freedom and I would have preferred to go elsewhere. I would have liked to go to a skate park or beach because the brand represents those places.I was a bit camera shy, but I worked through it and got my scenes done. Working with my friends was great. Lastly, I believe our commercial came out well. It was hard work but fun nonetheless. Overall, I really enjoyed our first film together.

    The product we used, uses conventions in many different ways. One way we use conventions is when we had the characters wear clothes that represent our brand “Vans”. This appears to the audience that the people wearing “Vans” must really enjoy the clothing. Another convention used is Nick having a skateboard, then skateboarding and actually knowing how to do tricks. This creates the idea that people who skateboard like and do wear this brand. Using the natural light and having such a bright background makes the atmosphere seem happy and calm. We challenge this convention of calmness when Lesly falls down the stairs and says in frustration, “I can’t do anything in these”. My film represents all different races, ethnicity's, and genders. We showcase this by having four different stereotypes: the runner, regular citizen, model, and skateboarder. All with different jobs and lives, but they come together in the end to help this person who fell down the stairs because of their old worn-down shoes. The film embraces that not only can these stereotypical characters in “Vans” are the only people who can wear this brand, but a skateboarder, model, or even a regular person can wear it. “Vans” is for everyone. The film does not discriminate it has both male and female characters evenly. The main character of this advertisement is a young black male. Issues our film addresses is having things that need to be replaced. Things that can cause harm and trouble for some. Having shoes that literally are so old you trip and fall is no good. So that’s why we are advertising that you buy new ones that are reliable enough for running, sturdy enough for riding a skateboard, and fashionable enough to take pictures with.

    Audiences will cling to our commercial because the opening scene is someone falling down. Your first reaction would probably be, “what happened?”. “Is this person okay?”. “I wonder what he will do next?”. Someone who finds people falling or getting injured as a humorous thing would also result in them wanting to keep watching. Following up is a scene of someone skateboarding, which would catch someone’s eye if that is something they were interested in or enjoyed watching. This is the first scene where our logo “Vans” is shown. “Vans” is already a popular brand, so people will definitely want to see how the company will represent itself and show the audience how they are the best brand. We will prove to the audience you should buy the items we sell over any other company. Our products are reached to kids and adults, people who already support us will definitely watch our advertisement because we are something they already invest in. People will say “wow” to the falling, the music added in, the voiceovers, the characters, and all in all the hard work that was put into the commercial. The voiceover isn’t sad, dull, or boring. The person speaking is happy, upbeat, and really is excited about talking about our company. As we wore and used “Vans” differently, we show the audience that Vans is the best product for different activities like running, skateboarding, and modeling. Different ways we would get the commercial to the public is by posting it online. For example, YouTube or I could create a website. I could also pay other companies to show my advertisement on their games, videos, television channel, and web browsers. The film is produced by us, the people who made the film. We produced, wrote, directed, and did everything needed for the advertisement. You could also pay someone to produce the film for you. As I said before, the advertisement would be distributed to different websites and companies to reach audiences. Marketing would be on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, and other platforms. The actors, actresses, and film crew could post about the advertisement on their social media or somewhere that connects a lot of people to get it out there.

    While creating this advertisement I matured and learned so much about the hard work and diligence it takes to create something such as a film in such a short amount of time. I’ve developed many tricks and skills that helped me for more future films. Production was something I loved doing as well as shooting different camera angles and using the camera. In the beginning when you first grab that tripod and camera from the teacher, you don’t know what to expect. I mean, especially since it’s your first time and there is not much experience yet. Before I didn’t know how to create a film, how to use a camera professionally, and how to edit. I researched a lot about how films are made and everything else, including the three main steps of stage production. Throughout the project I learned various things more and more. Eventually I got used to the process, but there's always room for improvement. My production skills have finally grown. Even though sometimes the editing software wouldn’t work or I had to keep repeating steps because something went wrong. I stayed persistent and did not give up. I have seen great improvement in my production and editing skills throughout the making of my film. Editing techniques I learned to complete this project was voice overs, cutting, speeding, filling in, adding text, sound reduction, and background music cropping. Before starting this film, I knew only the basics of film production. This project has helped me increase my skills and has allowed me to have a wider understanding and respect for other filmmakers. To add on, I learned to work as a group, share my thoughts with my friends, communicate, and in the end gain confidence in myself. I am now able to thoroughly get my ideas across and developed. Another thing that did not just advance my production skills, but also my peers was how we edited our film together as a group. Practicing always helps you get better and we showed this in our production skills. The more films we create throughout this class, the more advanced we will get at creating them, and the more we will grow as a filmmaker.

    The hardware I used was the camera to film the commercial. The entire group along with an outside friend were in the film advertising the product. One software that was used was the school’s computer. On the computer, Pinnacle Studios was used to edit. Transferring the footage from the camera to the computer we then started to edit the film into a 30 second film. Originally the amount of footage recorded was about 5 minutes as the raw film. Recording the voice over many times gave us multiple options to choose from. We would declare what sounded the best and what the finishing voice over would be. It was important to choose what would fit in the film. Technology was a huge part in creating this film. If it wasn’t for having technology, we would have not been able to edit or add to the film. By using an editing software from my computer or just a random online program, the process of making this film would have taken a tremendously longer amount of time. Rather than just using the school’s computers. As easy and reliable as it would be, it was very important to me that I was able to use an actual good quality camera instead of something low quality such as the camera on my computer or phone. Filming on my phone would not have made the video look or sound as beautiful and spotless as it turned out to be. Filming on my computer would have caused many issues such as angles, use of shots, placement, audio, and especially camera quality. Though my phone was not used for filming it served many other purposes. One of these purposes was research. I researched the conventions and different editing techniques used in commercials to advertise the product more efficiently. I also used my phone to watch other Van commercials, in order to look for certain eye-grabbing techniques. “Vans” uses advertising for their product in order to be more appealing to the audience. Using our phones allowed us to keep in touch with each other and contact my teachers for any help. Personal laptops were another form of technology that was utilized. As I did with my phone I watched Vans commercials on my laptop as well. The school computers were useful, but limited. The computers gave many problems such as being slow, there weren’t enough, and they did not work all the time. One example of this is when I was trying to cut up a scene in my commercial, the computer took several minutes to load and accomplish this act. Another problem I faced with the school computers was the crashing. For example, when I was trying to import several raw scenes into Pinnacle Studios; the computer shut down the application and gave an error notification. This wasted time and caused stress because we had to redo our process from before. Besides the crashing and speed of the computers, they were very effective in helping create the advertisement. All these forms of technology made it more convenient for us students to create a commercial that we were proud of.

Re-Editing Blog

    Re-editing our film has been a top priority for the past few days. It has been quite a struggle since we could not use the computers at school anymore. Transferring from Pinnacle Studios to Lesly's computer software has been a bit hard because Pinnacle Studios is what we were used to using. This has to be a change though because in the worst scenario Pinnacle Studios would just never load and we did try multiple different computers. When we were lucky and it worked that’s when we were able to edit. We now switch between both Pinnacle studios and Lesly's computer programmed video editor. This is due to the fact that we wanted to start at home and continue because the computers at school would sometimes be slow. So, Lesly imported all the scenes and put them in order of the storyboard. Therefore, we’d only have to split each scene in order to add specific details. For instance the titles design, transitions, and special effects. Since the titles in Pinnacle Studios did not have anything that would go with our theme, we used Lesly's editing software to edit the design of each title. This process was grueling because we had to decide which fonts and styles we wanted to use. Many fonts were very similar and were only different in tiny aspects.

    First, we wanted to find a scary font for the title of the movie, but at first we couldn’t so there was a basic one. We also wanted to fix the rest of the fonts, so it would match well with the title font. Anyeska and I found a scary dripping font which we changed to red and a green background. It looked as though blood was dripping, which helped create spookiness. The other titles were changed also, and the color along with it being red. After this, Britania began looking for transitions to add between each scene. It would be more entertaining and create suspense, and overall improve the smoothness of the film. So we thought about adding them at the beginning, when the girls are playing Frisbee as their title appears, to transitioning to the next person. Another detail we did was special effects. Lesly added a scream in the scene where Britania is separated from the group and sees the entity again before she gets possessed. Lesly and I also added a screeching effect when an eye line match was created between the monster and Claire. Below is a picture of me re-editing the beginning of the film.

Editing Blog: New Software

    Today the group and I re-filmed some more scenes that did not turn out good from before. So, once again we have to dump those scenes from the SD card to the computer. We cut unnecessary parts from each scene and continued to edit. We added titles and decided on a regular font for now. The font is white and does not appeal to our theme, but this will be changed later on. We added all of the titles we needed in the beginning. I added a creepy transition to the title of our movie. This will let the audience know the movie genre is horror. Along with this I added creepy music in the beginning. Lesly and I looked for copyright free music online and found plenty of amazing options.

    I edited the music to lower and completely disappear by the time the characters started with dialogue. Creating suspense from the very beginning. Since we couldn’t use a computer from school due to the Corona Virus epidemic. We decided to use Lesly’s computer editing software. Using his editing software we designed a scary edit to compliment the audience’s watching experience. This technique was found from previous horror films that have been made. This technique was to edit some quick pans of scary objects we filmed. One of the props was a scary doll, spiders, and a broken mirror. For the edit, the filter of the pan was changed. I also changed the color to black and white to adhere to the horror-like theme of the film. Below is a picture of the new editing software on Lesly’s computer that we are using.