Waterloo Road Age Textual Analysis

In the clip from Waterloo Road age is represented in contrasting ways to show a difference in power from each character of a different age. They are shown in contrasting ways by the way that the Director portrays them. The teachers are very patronising, uncool and are very unpopular by the teenagers. The teachers are there as an authority figure. The Director positions the audience to relate to their relevant age group, offering a variety of Narrative plots and characterisation.


In the opening scene, the first character that is introduced is made very clear to the audience through the pace of the footsteps and the close up shot of the feet between the chair legs. Shallow Focus was also used in this shot to portray the importance of these footsteps and warn the boys to be cautious of what is about to happen. The slow movement of the feet would tell the audience that this is a teacher approaching as the slow pace builds up tension which any pupil would feel as they hear these footsteps. It also helps the audience to understand that the boys have done something wrong. Cuts are also used to move forward and back from each shot of the feet and the boys and this would create more suspense.

Cuts were the first technique to be used and this was done between each shot. It was done mostly when the teacher has to rush out of the room to deal with the girl that is starting a fight with another school boy. Cuts were used by the Director to show how rapid events can start in schools and quickly they have to be dealt with to prevent them from happening again. An Ellipsis was used a lot when the girl was fighting the school boy. This was done by not including the scene when she pushes him into the room that she then goes into intimidate him in. As an audience, we would know that she has done this through the way that she pushes him out of the corridor. This was done to speed the action up and to create an ambiguous effect. Continuity Editing begins the scene as it is clear that there was a storyline behind the camera incident and why the teacher and pupil don't get on. This was done purely to carry on the storyline from the series and to enhance the relationships between characters. Shot-reverse-shot was also used a lot between characters as they were talking to different people. It was used the most In the first conversation with the teacher and pupils. It switches between the characters a lot which shows confusion as the pupils are acting as though they don't know what is going on. This fits the stereotype of teenagers hating school and being resilient to certain events. This was done to add a realistic approach to a pupils school life but to exaggerate how teachers and pupils can get on by showing 2 sides of the spectrum. Fast Paced Editing was used during the intimidation scene as all the shots were placed together very quickly to show how fast her anger was building up. The Director would have done it to add to the rush and intensity from both characters. As one character got angrier, one character got more nervous.
Non-Diegetic Sound was done through the music that was played in the background. This worked well with the intimidation scene as the music sounded like a heartbeat which could represent the school boy's heart beating faster and faster as his asthma attack begins to start. Diegetic Sound is also used when the dialogue starts, this relates onto Synchronous Sound as there were many sounds such as: constant chatter in the corridors of the school, slow foot pace from teachers and patronising tones from teachers. The main time in the clip that this happens would be with the distress in the young school boys voice as the girl begins shouting at him and intimidating him. The distress in his voice highlights exactly how scared he is and how uncomfortable he is around this girl. This would have been the directors intention as he wants the girl to look stronger and have power over him. 
All of these points were done by the Director, yet again to show realism, but also to add extra impact and drama to the scene. It was done to enhance the schools environment and show that, although this shot is based on one character, there are still people having their own conversations and school problems behind the scenes. Patronising voices were done by the middle aged teacher as he feels as though he has authority and is better than the children. He is portraying his dominance over them. He also does this by clicking at the boys to pass over the camera to him. This is a very important gesture to make to show authority and dominance. The language that the pupils use is also influenced by the people around them. The girl says "about my mum being a big hoe bag" This would be suggested that she has caught this on through her peers and this matches reality as teenagers are seen as being influenced greatly by their peers and following what they do. The language throughout this clip evidently shows this.
The younger teacher also seems very patronising and judgemental about the kids by the way that she speaks about them as she says "What do kids know about fashion." This also fits the stereotype.
An establishing shot was used when the pupils were walking down the corridor to establish the scene and to show that it was a school environment. It would have been done to set the scene and show how normal this school is and how standard its appliances and resources are. Medium Shots were also used quite a lot as people had conversations with each other. It was used mostly when the girls were talking in the corridor.
This would have been done to establish a character after the scene has been set. It could have been done in this instant, to introduce us, as an audience, to her uniform and could make us gain an opinion on her as a character by the way she holds herself and the way that she dresses. This also then relates onto the use of Canted Angles. This was used when the girl, as previously mentioned, drags the boy into the other room and begins intimidating him. It is used when she is towering over him to suggest that she has authority over him and he is weak and scared of her.Before the fights begins, a hand-held camera is used as the teacher rushes out of the classroom and eventually enters the room where the fight is taking place. This was done to show the rush that he was in and how urgently he was needed at the scene to help the boy. This was effective to helping the audience understand that school children place themselves on a ranked list and some teenagers are feared by others. This is the case in this situation and the Director would have done it to show that some teenagers are timid and some can be aggressive. A low angle is also used here to make her seem supremely powerful over him. An Insert Shot was used right at the beginning when the camera is slotted into the boys pocket to hide it from the teacher. This would have been done to show that they boys have done something bad and therefore need to cover up their mistake. Its a sneaky move via the boys so therefore required a discrete shot which would have been selectively chosen by the Director to portray this thought of the boys.
At then end of the clip, the teachers outfit is very uncool and he seems to be trying extra hard to gain popularity and attention from his pupils. This fits the stereotype of adults being unaware of popular culture. He is wearing his jeans really low which is where teenagers fell it is cool to wear them and he is wearing baggy clothes which is most associated with teenagers.  The teenagers also have their own sense of style as the girls have their shirts very low with their ties matching so that they are showing off their cleavage and one of the boys wears a scruffy jacket and comes across as a lazy character. He also has his tie really far down. This portrays the girls as wanting to flaunt themselves and caring for other peoples opinions a lot and the boys don't seem to care and just want to be themselves. The maintenance man also has a pen behind his ear and is wearing scruffy clothes which is typical of someone form this area of job. This was done so that he would stand out as the Maintenance man and wouldn't be mistaken as a teacher. Finally, there were a lot of educational posters placed around the school, not just in the classrooms, but in the corridors as well. This would be exactly like a school in real life as almost all schools are covered with educational posters and information around their schools. This would be done to yet again show realism and the scene becomes more believable when there are educational resources placed around the set.

Essay 3

What Impact does media ownership have upon the range of products available to audiences in the media area that you have studied?

The impact for both Star Wars the Force Awakens and Ex Machina varies a lot as Star Wars was owned by Disney, Badrobot and Lucasfilm and Ex Machina is owned by DNA Film and Film4. Disney is a conglomerate company so therefore, they are recognised by all different audiences due to how popular their films, and their company, is. This means that Disney is able to provide a big budget and add in a lot more special effects with the money that they have provided. Due to the big budget, the special effects will be extraordinary and will enhance the films technical difficulty. This would then make the film more enjoyable for viewers who have already seen previous films and even new audiences as the special effects would draw them in.  Locations are also a factor that can be varied due to the budget that is put in place. This is shown by Star Wars have a number of different filming locations, 8 to 9 in total, whereas Ex Machina had only one or 2. By having a bigger budget, it meant that the production companies are able to expand their locations to all over the world. This also varied the audience type as the film was not just filmed in one Countries studio or one particular location.

The Stars are also important to help the films popularity as if the stars aren’t recognised then people may not know whether to go and watch considering that they don’t know the actor’s capabilities. Star Wars has Harrison Ford, Oscar Isaac and Domnhall Gleeson who are well known and recognised actors in film and are recognised for their outstanding achievements. Domnhall Gleeson also stars in Ex Machina so he would be a huge reason for an audience to watch the film as he is known for his exciting films and his brilliant capabilities.  As bigger companies can provide bigger budgets and bigger opportunities, the contrast for a small company would be real as they have less capabilities and resources are less accessible to them. It also differs as Disney kept all of the money from Star Wars as they are the owners of Lucasfilm so therefore any of the money made will stay within their company. This differs for Ex Machina as DNA Film and Film4 are independent companies so would therefore remain all of the profit within their companies. The institution plays the most important part within the film as they are the ones who decide what is in the film and what will be done with the film and who will be cast. Therefore, the impact that the production companies and distribution companies have on the film and the products that are made is significant and can also help with how populated the film is.

The audiences that would appeal to these films range significantly as their genres are completely different. Star Wars is a continuous film and is also an action film so would apply to all ages, whether they are older generations who have seen the films before or younger adults who have been brought up around Star Wars and have grown as fans. This would appeal to a general audience due to how well the film was marketed and publicised throughout the media. On the other hand, Ex Machina would appeal to individuals aged over 15, as the certificate for this film is 15, and any sci-fi fans. This is due to the technicality involved and the violence that can be shown at the end of the film. The film is very complicated and can be difficult to understand. Another way within which the film would appeal to audiences is due to the type of film that it is. Star Wars is a mainstream blockbuster and would apply to any audience as blockbusters can be the most recognised film. This film uses the 4 Quadrat technique as all audiences can be shown to enjoy such a film and can range its expertise to excite all ages. In contrast to that, Ex Machina is a niche film which is made through an independent company. This could have an extreme effect on what type of audience goes to see the film as it could be viewed as less exciting and could only appeal to sci-fi fans. The profit from both films has a huge range as Star Wars was viewed at the cinemas and purchased in lots of other ways after the cinema release date whereas Ex Machina was not available in many options after the cinema viewings. Due to the range of products that were released by the distribution companies on both sides, the profit varied a lot. Ex Machina took a lot less profit than Star Wars and this is due to the size of the Production Companies that worked with the film.

The amount of products that were also produced after the film was initially released varied a lot as well. Star Wars was released in cinemas in both 2D and 3D whereas Ex Machina was only show in 2D. This can have a huge impact on audiences as some audiences would want to see films in 3D to enhance their experience but this isn’t provided at all for Ex Machina. Star Wars then also came available on DVD and Blu-ray almost 6 months after it was released in cinemas and sold rapidly to the public. This was publicised almost as much as what the film was so that Disney could have as much success with the DVD as they could with the initial film that was released. The DVD for Ex Machina was not shown in the media much at all and the public had no way of being aware of the DVD being released. This would have meant that the profit for the DVD was also low as it would only be made visible when individuals entered a shop and saw it for sale. There is also a Blu-ray version of Ex machine but the prices for these DVD’s compared to Star Wars are so far away. The DVD retail price for Star Wars was £10 and the Blu-ray DVD was sold for £15 whereas the DVD for Ex Machina was sold for £5 and the Blu-ray was sold for £7.

Streaming and downloading was also made available for Star Wars as it is due to be released on Netflix and was also available on Putlocker. This was not the same for Ex Machina as no release date for any film websites such as Netflix has been made available. This would then make the film very inaccessible for people who may no longer have a DVD player and watch the films online. This is very popular in this generation so for the film to be published on these websites would be of a very big loss to the Production Companies. Piracy has also occurred a lot in this generation due to illegal film websites and this can have a very negative impact on the films as people are not paying to watch their films but would be one of the only ways that people can watch Ex Machina, so therefore technique would affect Ex Machina the most.

Other products such as comics, games, toys, apps and books have been made for Star Wars and were very popular. This wasn’t done for Ex Machina due to the budget not being able to stretch as far as this. They both had a brilliant soundtrack but only one was released on CD and this was for Star Wars. Star Wars also had a Snapchat filter, its own Lego and was used on Subway food cups and wrappings. This used the media to their advantage and portrayed their film to as many audiences as possible. This then had a positive effect on the film.

Overall, I feel that media ownership has a huge impact on the range of products that become available to an audience because they provide a budget that would then lead on to different ways of viewing a film and have access to it. They also have the expenses to go as far as they can with the film and portray it to different audience types. This then leads to either the film having a lot of extra products or a lot less.

Film Piracy

The movie industry excels in selling dreams. But since the dawn of the digital revolution, there is one narrative they've consistently and conspicuously failed to sell: that piracy is theft and consumers who indulge ought to feel guilty about it. Recent research by Ipsos suggests that almost 30% of the UK population is active in some form of piracy, either through streaming content online or buying counterfeit DVDs. Such theft costs the UK audio visual industries about £500m a year.

Hypothetically, two movies come out on the same day: The Wolf of Wall Street and the new Transformers. You are allowed to see one in an IMAX theater and you will illegally download the other one online. Most people would choose Transformers over The Wolf of Wall Street due to the fact that there are robot dinosaurs and everyone else is going to see it in theaters. Those robot dinosaurs will look a lot cooler in a theater rather than on a laptop. Many people then realized how lacking the movie really was after walking out of their local theater’s showing of Transformers: Age of Extinction. Meanwhile, many of the same people went on to watch The Wolf of Wall Street online to realize that it was actually a really good movie. Most people don’t realize that this is at all a problem, and at first glance it’s not. However, after more in-depth research, the problem soon becomes apparent. Transformers: Age of Extinction only gained an 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (Transformers, Rotten Tomatoes), one of the most critical and most trusted film-review sites online. The Wolf of Wall Street, however, gained a 77% rating on the same site (Wolf of Wall Street, Rotten Tomatoes). It was also nominated for five different Academy Awards. The Wolf of Wall Street is clearly the better film. Yet, besides the fact that Transformers was clearly not a great film, it somehow managed to be named the highest grossing film worldwide of 2014 and earned over one billion dollars in the Box Office (2014 Worldwide Grosses). The Wolf of Wall Street went on to be the most pirated film of 2014 with over 30 million illegal downloads (Spangler, 1) and didn’t even gross $117 million, giving the producers and the studio under $17 million after the production cost, which is not a much of a profit at all for such a high-budget film.

Piracy has become more of a problem in the past decade than it ever has before, specifically movie piracy. In fact, a study from Columbia University came out recently that said at least 45% of US citizens pirate movies actively, but that number bumps up to 70% if you include the younger demographics as well (Mick, 2). This act of pirating is growing more and more common every year and most people do it mindlessly, not realizing what it costs. Everyone has seen the text at the beginning of movies saying “Piracy is not a victimless crime,” and this is completely true. Piracy is extremely harmful to the movie industry and its effects are larger than anyone could imagine.

But Where Do These Pirated Movies Come From?

There are many different ways that people pirate movies. One of the most classic ways people pirate is by “leaking” them. This involves a person going into a movie theater with a camera or a phone and recording the movie as it plays. It is usually a poor quality, but many people still download these recordings anyways instead of going to see it in a theater. This usually occurs when it is only in theater since that is the only version most people are able to see. Sometimes these leaks occur before the movie is even premiered, often because it is filmed during a special premier before the opening night. This is referred to as a pre-release, and they tend to result in a 19% decrease in how much the movie makes at the Box Office (Hart, 2). Many people defend pre-releases because it gives a movie more publicity so more people would want to see it, but the facts state otherwise. Leaking a movie that’s in the theaters always tends to decrease how much the movie makes regardless of when it is released and sometimes even leads to the movie not even making as much as there was put into it.

One of the other common ways for a movie to be pirated is for it to be digitally hacked. This one has become more common lately as technology improves. One of the most extreme and recent examples was the Sony hacking. Though some people will claim that Sony faked the hacking, evidence shows that they were legitimately hacked. During this hacking, many of Sony’s movies were released illegally online, such as Annie and Fury (Note: Annie had not even been released yet). A hacking involves someone digitally cracking into the studio or company’s computer system and taking the movie from their files. This logically would actually decrease a movie’s Box Office revenue by even more than someone’s recording of the movie would because it’s a better quality.

There are more ways to watch a pirated movie other than just downloading it online. In fact, some people tend to start their own pirating businesses. It’s very inexpensive and easy for a person to start one of these businesses. More recently, people only need to buy a bunch of blank DVD’s, the same amount of DVD cases and a computer that can burn a DVD. From there, they must find a source to get the pirated movies from. Sometimes they will personally film them in a theater, or find a hacked or leaked version online and download it. After that, all they need to do is download the stolen films onto their blank DVD’s and sell them to anyone who is willing to purchase it. Within a short amount of time, this person has made a great deal of money that should have gone to the movie studios.

What Kind of Effect Does it Have?

Most people would just say that pirating has a small effect on the industry and that the studios already have enough money. They believe watching a movie online isn’t going to hurt anyone. The Motion Picture Association of America looked into this belief and discovered that piracy costs around $20.5 billion annually in the United States alone (Plumer, 2). In fact, a study back in 2005 estimated that a 10% decrease in worldwide piracy, including both film and music, over the course of four years would add 1.5 million jobs, $64 billion in taxes and $400 billion in economic growth (Kai-Lung). That, however, was ten years ago and is outdated. Those numbers are likely to be much higher today due to inflation and an increase in popularity of the film industry. This means that the studios are making much smaller amounts of money than they should be making from their films due to piracy.

Quit Talking Numbers. How Does it Effect My Movie Experience?

The decrease in money from studios will often decrease the quality of other movies and even sequels, but more often it will decrease the quantity. A studio is much more likely to throw all of their money into the next big franchise sequel than give half of it to the franchise and the other half to a movie like Twelve Years a Slave simply because Twelve Years a Slave won’t sell as well in theaters as the franchise movie will. Movie studios and production companies don’t look at reviews and DVD sales nearly as much as they look at the Box Office Revenue, or how much it makes in the theater.

In many cases, piracy of a film will even damage the likeliness of a franchise sequel. For example, the Kick-Ass movies came to an end due to lack of funding from piracy. According to Chloë Grace Moretz who stars as “Hit-Girl” in the series, Kick-Ass 2 was one of the most pirated films of 2013 despite having an extremely low Box Office Revenue (Highfill). Because of this, the plans for the third movie in the series have been cancelled. Whether or not you like the Kick-Ass series, it is clear that piracy has become a serious problem and will only continue to damage the film industry.

What About New Movies That Aren't Franchises Yet?

It is not franchise movies that need to be worried about, though; it is the movies by the independent filmmakers. Due to the increase in film piracy, production companies and movie studios are now much less likely to loan money out to an independent filmmaker with an idea than they are to a team of writers and producers working on a Harry Potter spin-off. When people think of the term ‘independent filmmaker’, they think of a man in his 20’s with an Associates Degree in Theatre that wrote a screenplay in two weeks. Though these people are independent filmmakers, I refer to the higher kind of independent filmmakers that actually make Oscar nominated films, but take out enormous loans to do so. Now, due to piracy, no matter how many Oscars their movie is nominated for, many filmmakers are having to foreclose their houses or take out further loans from a bank to make up for the losses in the Box Office for their film due to piracy. It also means that the studios do not get their money back that they invested with and therefore stop funding films without promises of success like Birdman or The Theory of Everything, both of whom won Oscars this year.

Now Let's Think More Economically...

The loss of money affects more than just the filmmakers and studios, however. It helps the entire economy grow due to tax and job increase. Pirating less films will mean that the studios will get more money, which leads to more movies, which employs people like hairdressers, electricians, actors, costume designers and countless other occupations. This will add more jobs to the United States and will also add more tax money to help the country.

But Is It Really Stealing?

Many people argue that piracy is not illegal because they are not technically stealing anything. Though they are not physically taking away anything from anyone, they are stealing intellectual property. Just because you can’t hold a movie file in your hands does not mean that it is not someone’s property. Downloading a film online is the equivalent of stealing a movie from a movie store. It may not come in the same fancy case as a movie at the store, but it still carries the same contents. By pirating a film, you are stealing the money that should have been paid had you watched the movie legally. You do not have a right to watch whatever movies you want to watch without having to pay for them just as I do not have a right to walk into the local Dollar General and eat their candy bars without paying first. As much as people may argue it, film piracy is stealing. It is not your property, so it is not yours to take without paying for it first.

Going Back to my Original Example at the Beginning of All of This...

The Wolf of Wall Street was 2014’s most pirated movie with over 30 million piracies worldwide. Let’s do the math to see how much money piracy actually robbed this movie of had these people gone to see it in a theater instead. In 2014, the average price of a movie ticket in the United States was $8.17 (Linshi, 1). When a person goes to see a movie in the theater, the money spent on the ticket goes to two different places. It is split between the movie studio and the movie theater, with more going to the theater the longer the movie has been out (Campea). For the purposes of now, let’s average that overall the theater and the studio would each get 50% of the ticket price. Now for the part with the actual math. If each illegal download of The Wolf of Wall Street, which more specifically evens out to around 30,035,000 downloads (Spangler, 1) equals one movie ticket that costs $8.17, and the movie studio only gets half of the amount from each movie ticket, that results in about $122,692,975 that was robbed from Paramount Pictures for just that one movie. That amount stolen was more than the movie actually made in the Box Office, and that is assuming that only one person watched each illegal download. Several of those downloads were most likely copied onto multiple different blank DVD’s and given out to others to watch illegally. That is even more money that was robbed from The Wolf of Wall Street. In the Box Office, the movie barely broke even out of how much they spent making the film. These numbers would have helped the studio, the filmmakers and the crew a lot more in order to make even more Oscar nominated movies. Unfortunately, these thirty million people seemed to overlook that.

Now the Real Question: How Do We Stop Piracy?

It all starts at home, just like it takes a spark to start a fire. Many people argue that “everyone is watching movies illegally online, so why is it different if I do it?” Well the same argument could again go for people that steal candy bars from a store. It may cost more than you like and others may do it, but it is not your property to steal. Like voting, if just one person takes a stand against piracy it will make a difference. Simply quit pirating movies or watching them online. There are many different excuses people use about watching movies online illegally, but it does not override the fact that it is illegal. Even streaming movies online is illegal if it is not authorized by the studio that made the film. If you aren’t willing to pay to watch the film, you aren’t allowed to watch it. This is the way the industry works.

What Can The Theaters Do?

A way for movie theaters to prevent piracy is to change their types of projectors. In the past, the government came up with a way to prevent the filming of a movie in the theaters. They did this by projecting an infrared spectrum over the projected film. This infrared image was not visible to the audience, but it would make the video on the camera someone brought into film the movie into a very low quality that would make the video almost unbearable to watch. Since then technology has improved to attempt to improve the quality of the filmed video regardless of the infrared. Though this has worked to an extent, film pirates have not yet fully recovered from the addition of the infrared. Only more research will be able to help improve the projectors so that this does not happen anymore.

What Happens if Someone gets Caught?!

When it all comes down to it, one of the major reasons you should avoid pirating movies is that its an enormous risk. Since it is illegal, there are certainly punishments for those that choose to break this law. These punishments are severe. For example, if a person is convicted of a misdemeanor in piracy, as in they only downloaded or uploaded a small amount of movies without the owner’s consent, the person would be punished with up to a year of prison time and would have a fine of up to $100,000, depending on the extent of the piracy. That, however, is just for a small offense. For someone that downloads or uploads movies illegally without the owner’s consent in large amounts will be charged with a felony. The punishment of this crime is up to 5 years of imprisonment and up to $250,000 in fines. The fine, though, can be more. In some cases, the fine is set as double what the person gained for pirating the films if they made money off of it, or it set as double the amount of money the person cost the studios he or she stole from (AlanS). In any of these cases, it is clear that movie piracy is not worth the risk.

Piracy is Clearly an Enormous Threat

Filmmakers are in danger of losing their jobs and the movie theaters are in danger of only showing films like Transformers sequels and Terminator reboots. Helping the film industry does not just entail not illegally watching a movie, it also entails going to see those movies in a theater to reverse the mistakes made by those who don’t realize the consequences. Some of the greatest films do not get the proper credibility in the theaters because people are too distracted by other films or because people would think it’s smarter to illegally watch it on their computer than paying to see it in a theater. As stated earlier, this has many more consequences than these people would think, such as taking away jobs, taking over $20.5 billion from the US film industry and decreasing both the quantity and quality of the very movies they are downloading. In addition, is it really worth spending five years of your life in prison just because you didn’t want to pay to watch a movie? It’s time to stop pirating and to stop making excuses for watching a movie illegally online. Film is a form of art. People use it to tell their stories.

Disney as a Conglomerate

Disney is a conglomerate A media conglomerate, media group or media institution is a company that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet. Media conglomerates strive for policies that facilitate their control of the markets across the globe.
Disney owns

• Walt Disney Studios
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment
• Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group:
• Touchstone Pictures
• Pixar Animation Studios
• Lucasfilm
• ESPN
• ABC Entertainment Group
• Marvel Entertainment
• Disney Music Group

The media industry is dominated by 'The Big Six'

Why might conglomerates be seen as a negative?

Global conglomerates can at times have a progressive impact on culture, especially when they enter nations that had been tightly controlled by corrupt crony media systems (as in much of Latin America) or nations that had significant state censorship over media (as in parts of Asia). The global commercial-media system is radical in that it will respect no tradition or custom, on balance, if it stands in the way of profits. But ultimately it is politically conservative, because the media giants are significant beneficiaries of the current social structure around the world, and any upheaval in property or social relations—particularly to the extent that it reduces the power of business—is not in their interest.

Essay 2

Evaluate the role of digital technologies in the marketing and consumption of products in the media area you have studied.

Star Wars the Force Awakens and Ex Machina were distributed and marketed in very contrasting ways to each other due to different budgets and distribution companies. Their popularity was based upon how much marketing was done and how well recognised the film is due to this. Through marketing, each film is aimed at a different audience type and this is shown through their certificate and popularity.

Digital technology is very important to how a film is marketed and distributed and can influence a lot of people’s ideas and opinions surrounding the films. In this generation, the way that a film can be recognised is through how often it is shown and used on social media websites and through online sources such as YouTube. It also widens the availability for people to be able to view the film or watch teasers and trailers to enhance the film and raise awareness of the product. Star Wars the Force Awakens is a 12 certificate and would be classed as a mainstream film compared to Ex Machina being a 15 certificated film and being a niche film. My point of view is that marketing through digital technologies is one of the most important factors to marketing a film and enhancing its popularity. It is the best way to get people of all ages to recognise and show an interest in a film that they may not have considered before. Star Wars the Force Awakens was marketed in the best ways and Disney used their popularity to their advantage.

With this company being a conglomerate they have many people involved that can help the film reach different audiences and they can also use their different technological advances to spread the word more effectively and create word of mouth in a more outstretched way. It takes a lot for people to go to a cinema to watch a film now when it is made available in more formats. This would mean that marketing would need to be at its best and well stretched to ensure that people are aware of this film. Disney did this for Star Wars, as they had a budget of $306 million, so they used adverts, twitter, Facebook, snapchat, websites and YouTube videos of teasers and trailers to draw people into their new film. This then caused the film to be more widely recognised. In comparison to Ex Machina, which only had a budget of $15 million, so they didn’t have all the advances that they needed. This then led them to therefore only using one type of social media, Tinder. This did help the film to be recognised but its popularity remains very low compared to Star Wars the Force Awakens.

Each film used very different technologies to distribute their film as they both have a very large different in expenses. They both used cinema adverts but to different extremes. Star Wars the Force Awakens had numerous adverts shown over many different films being shown whereas, due to the budget, Ex Machina struggled to get their advert shown before many films. This meant that people were unaware of when the film was to be released and what the film entailed. Many people who have seen the film Ex Machina and have done reviews on the film have explained how they may have only seen the advert in the cinema once compared to other people saying that they had seen Star Wars quite often. Star Wars also used TV adverts better and to their advantage a lot more as their trailer was constantly played in adverts of many popular TV programmes such as soaps and big films on TV channels such as Channel 4 and Film4. With the trailer being shown numerous times, it showed that people then recognised the advert and became aware of when and where the film would be shown. Ex Machina was not as well populated in this field of marketing as there were hardly any adverts shown on TV so they missed their peak time of being recognised when big TV shows were on. This would have caused a big loss for the film as this is a main way of marketing for a film as in this generation almost everyone sits down and watches TV at night so this would be the most populated way to market a film. If the budget was a fraction larger and TV adverts were considered more excessively then their population could have been much higher. There are also new social networks and technologies that are used by nearly everyone with a smart phone such as: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and even Tinder, which was a very popular dating app at the start of 2016. Most things on the internet nowadays are recognised by social media and nearly everything that is in need of promoting is on a type of social media.

When it comes to film, online interviews and teasers and trailers are a great way at seeing the film from a cast member’s point of view and also having an insight into what the film entails. This would be useful for people who may be considering going to watch a film and want to know spoilers or extra so that their enjoyment of the film could be improved. Digital use is a very important aspect of engaging with an audience nowadays as the quality is outstanding and it can be done on memory cards which are very easy to distribute to cinemas and companies that would then show the film in other formats. Tinder was also used very well by the film Ex Machina. This is an unusual way for a film to be promoted but it was a very successful way and proved to have a positive effect on the films population. SXSW (South by South West) is a film festival that can include conferences. It can be used to inform people about up and coming films or festivals and can involve questions and answers about a film with Producers, Directors and actors.

Both films used different techniques when marketing and distributing their films. Ex Machina needed an innovative marketing scheme as their budget was a very small one so that had little to work from. Whereas, Star Wars the Force Awakens had a very traditional marketing technique as they used all of the usual methods of adverts, billboards and social media. Both films used trailers and cast interviews. Ex Machina had fewer interviews as theirs only consisted of Domhnall Gleeson and Alicia Vikander and the Director, Alex Garland. This was because the film was not seen as important because it wasn’t a mainstream film and all interviewers and chat show presenters would want to talk to film producers and actors form big name films. Star Wars however was shown on many chat shows such as: Graham Norton Show, ABC news shows and the Ellen show, each one of these shows are popular in their own demand and in different counties and communities. All of these chat shows have very high viewing rates so therefore this interview would have been watched by many different audiences and raised a lot of awareness about this film. Social media was also used a lot, in a huge contrast, to each other. Star Wars used a range of social medias such as: Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram.

They had their trailers and other videos such as teasers posted onto Facebook and pages were created by fans about the film with videos and spoilers posted on there and this became well known through people sharing and liking each photo and video that was shared. They also used Twitter by creating a hashtag for Star Wars the Force Awakens and yet again posting all of their videos and information on these pages too. Another way that they sued social media was through snapchat and this was done by them having their own snapchat filter that people could then put on their faces and show to their friends. By one individual sending this Snapchat to another or placing it on their story, they are instantly sharing the awareness and could convince someone to go and see the film with them. This then increases profit and would introduce new people to the film. Ex Machina on the other hand, didn’t use as much social media as it wasn’t all accessible. They used Facebook and Tinder. A page was created on Facebook which their trailers and interviews, as well as teasers, were placed on, and they also shared images and spoilers, as Star Wars did. This is again, a very popular technique to use and is a brilliant way of distributing their film to different audiences.

Tinder was also a very extravagant way that they used social media. They created a profile for Ava and their computer aided system started a conversation with people that matched themselves with Ava. They would keep asking very intriguing questions so that they draw their audience in. When each “person” then feels as though they have fully connected they are asked where they can meet and named somewhere that Ava would really like. This would then lead onto a message saying whether they were successful in their “test” and transfer them to their Ex Machina site. This would then make someone intrigued so they would therefore search the page and research the film further. This could then maybe influence someone to go and see the film as they have associated themselves with the character and understood what the plan of the film and the character would be. Above the line and below the line marketing was used for both films as they each took different methods from different sides to distribute their films. This is a positive and effective way for the film to be distributed. They both used online and TV adverts which are above the line and they both used social media which is below the line. This is a diverse way of marketing and does show how each distribution company for the films differs as they used numerous different types of marketing techniques between the two of them.

The way that people are able to view films in this generation differs a lot compared to 20 years ago when certain technologies weren’t invented. Ex Machina was released in cinemas on January 21^st 2015 and on their opening weekend they made $5,349,500 and it was shown on 1,255 screens in the USA. They had a steady opening weekend but the production company would have expected a lot better from the film. Compared to Star Wars, this was a minor profit as they made $529 million in their opening weekend. Star Wars the Force Awakens was released in cinemas on the 17^th December 2015. From the first day, this film was extremely popular and thoroughly enjoyed by many different types of audience members. This ranged from older adults who would have watched the first Star Wars films to younger teenagers who have been brought up around Star Wars and are huge fans. Ex Machina was then released on both Blu-ray and DVD, similar to Star Wars the Force Awakens, but retailed at a much smaller price than Star Wars. On amazon, Ex Machina retails at £3-£4, and was released on July 14^th 2015, whereas Star Wars the Force Awakens retails at £9-£10 and was released on 5^th April 2016. Blu-ray DVD is also very similar as Ex Machina retails at £4-£5 and was released on 1^st June 2015 and Star Wars the Force Awakens retails at £14-£15 and was released on 18^th April 2016. The difference in price can also show popularity as people aren’t willing to pay more than £5 on Ex Machina because it wasn’t as expected yet because of popularity and special effects involved, Star Wars retails higher as people are willing to pay that little extra. Both films are also available on Google play and YouTube and can also be sold through YouTube. Neither films are available yet on Netflix but Star Wars is available on Amazon Prime and is very popular through this was of consuming the product. Unfortunately, for big film companies, piracy is a big problem for their films as people are now able to illegally download and watch films without having paid. This impacts the film’s profit massively as they aren’t receiving as much money as they could. Putlocker is the main website that is very popular and used by many people. These films can both be shown on this website.

Overall, I feel that digital technologies are a very vital role when marketing products. It played a vital part for Ex Machin as the way they used their budget for digital technologies was very imaginative and efficient. Star Wars didn’t need as much marketing as it is already a well-recognised film but through the excessive marketing they did, through technology, the film took a large profit and exceeded all expectations.

Theorists

Tessa Perkins
Tessa Perkin's 5 assumptions of the stereotypes are identified as ones that can be challenged and these are:

• Stereotypes aren't always negative
• They aren't always about a minority or less powerful group
• They are not rigid or unchanging
• They aren't always false
• They can be about a certain group.

All assumptions can be shown within the Hotel Babylon clip that we analysed. The first point of all stereotypes not always being negative is true as in the extract one of the Immigrants in the cupboard shows how to help someone when they have passed out by rubbing jam on her gums which would give her an instant sugar rush. This shows a positive stereotype as ex nurses who are trained that now maybe aren't as fortune have the skill sets to carry on and be able to help people in the future. At the end of the extract they are all sat in a community whilst they are eating which shows how positive their environment can be when they stick together and do something as a group. This shows their groups as working together, so in a positive light, and hard workers to achieve what they want.
Lots of groups are also included in this extract which shows that stereotypes aren't always from a minority or less powerful group as the white individuals are shown as being of a higher class and favoured by the actions that they show such as the white lady being a receptionist. Finally, they aren't all about a certain group as there are many different ethnicity groups and minority groups that are in this scene such as the Illegal immigrants, different generations and white and black characters.


Leon Festinger
Leon Festinger's theory was called "cognitive theory" this is when we resist changing our attitudes unless there is substantial evidence to prove against it. We stand by our own judgements and beliefs.
This is related to Hotel Babylon because everyone already has their own assumptions of each different minority group that is shown in this extract so therefore premature thoughts and beliefs are shown from the beginning of the extract. This is hard to break as there aren't many factors that would change their feelings as they work with their stereotype and follow it closely. It does challenge views on Police Officers as they should be protagonists and not antagonists as they are there to enforce law and care for people in the community. They are shown as antagonists in this clip as they discriminate against all of the Immigrant workers and want to ensure that they are all taken away from their jobs.

DNA Films Questions

1. Who were the co-founders of DNA Films?
The co-founders were Andrew Macdonald and Duncan Kenworthy
2. When was the company founded?
1983
3. Where is DNA based?
DNA Films is based in London in the United Kingdom
4. How many films have DNA Films produced?
24
5. What awards have DNA Films won?

6. How many full time staff does DNA Films employ?

7. What is DNA Film's philosophy?

8. List 5 box-office hits that DNA Films have made.
Ex Machina
Dredd
28 Days Later
Love Actually
28 Weeks Later
9. List 5 flops that DNA Films has made.
Never Let Me Go
Sunshine on Leith
The History Boys
Beautiful Creatures
Heartlands
10. What is Danny Boyle's relationship with DNA Films?
Danny Boyle's relationship is that it was rumoured that he owned the company. This turned out to be false. This rumour came around because it was thought that his film Slumdog Millionaire was made by DNA Films, but it wasn't.
11. List 3 famous directors that DNA Films have worked?
DNA Films have worked with Alex Garland, Dexter Fletcher and Richard Curtis

12. List 5 famous actors who have starred in films made by DNA Films ?

Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Michael Sheen, Keira Knightley and Emily Watson

13. What has been DNA Films highest grossing film?

DNA Films highest Grossing film was Love Actually. This is a well enjoyed and recognised Christmas Film. It was produced in 2003.

14. What Hollywood studios have DNA Films worked with?

15. List two of DNA Films big blockbuster films and find out their budgets.

2 of their Blockbusters film are: Sunshine and Love Actually. The budget for Sunshine was $40 million and the budget for Love Actually was $45 million.

16. What film is DNA Films most famous for?

Love Actually is the film that DNA Films are most famous for as the film is very popular and enjoyed by all. It is also a festive film and is still played at Christmas time on the TV.

17. What other genres do DNA Films films like to make?

DNA Films also make films with Genres such as: Sci-fi (Ex Machina) and Adventure (Sunshine).

18. Who have DNA Films entered into a partnership with for DNA TV Limited?

DNA Films have partnered with Fox Networks Group. This is so that their company is more broad and they can work together to release new ideas.

19. What information can you find out about DNA Films through their web page?

DNA Films are one of the UK'S most successful production companies.

20. Find out one other interesting fact about DNA Films that you would like to share with the class.
DNA Film's new TV Company will be owned and operated as a independent TV Production Company