synergy and CMC

 "Synergy and Cross-Media-Convergence are vital processes in the successful marketing of media products to audiences." To what extent do you agree with this statement in relation to your chosen media area?

I strongly agree that synergy and cross media convergence are vital processes in the successful marketing of media products to audiences. An example that showcases just how important these aspects can be for a company is Disney as a conglomerate, Disney has a major advantage especially after using horizontal integration to acquire Fox back in 2019. This means another connection amongst many other, Disney can use this connection to advertise as such on all the other platforms they now have control over, this means they can use this as an opportunity to collaborate to showcase whatever films Disney comes out with. An example of where Disney really excelled was where they released the film Frozen which was released in 2013, they made a worldwide gross of 1.3 billion dollars. This is due to the extensive amounts of cross media convergence that was attached to this film, with companies such as Mattel. Disney has also acquired companies such as ESPN, Marvel, Lucas Film as well as Touchstone pictures. This allows Disney to promote and advertise their films on multiple different platforms and channels. Disney also has Disney+, another means through which Disney promotes their films is through synergy with having theme parks located all over the world in countries such as Hong Kong and America, which also ties in which Disney's censorship with Asia as they try to accommodate them as they are the biggest film industry. 

A movie that was heavily promoted through synergy and cross media convergence is the remake of Lion King in 2019, they made a world wide gross of 1.7 billion dollars. This film was incredibly successful as it was a remake of a film that was already a very successful film, and on top of that it uses two very relevant singers, Donald Glover and Beyonce. These two artists also have a very large social media following on which they were able to promote this film on, the reach they could achieve is incredible with Beyonce having 200 million followers, being on the top 10 most followed Instagram accounts and Donald Glover having 4 million followers on Instagram. Especially with Beyonce being an A-list celebrity, her influence alone is plenty of promotion for the film. A few of their promotional strategies included partnering with the biggest fast food chain, McDonalds, they had partnered with them to create a toy that would be added in the happy meals. Another promotional partnership that highlighted the significance of synergy was their partnership with the very popular jewellery company, Pandora. They had worked together to create jewellery that represented the characters and such that were a part of this film. Major league baseball and major league soccer encouraged their fans to lift up their young ones out in the stadium during the game in the way that simba is lifted in the film, in order to have the chance of appearing on their "Simba-cam", appearing on the big screen. These are just a few to name, and they all get the audiences and general public thinking about the films release in the early stages and as well as actually going and watching this heavily promoted movie in the cinemas in general. Relating back to the cross media convergence they really used their ownership of a popular theme park, to their advantage by having Lion King themed scavenger hunts as well as performances of songs from the movie. 

Just to emphasise how important synergy and cross media convergence is, a film was made with a budget of only $60,000, yet they managed to gross in a worldwide amount of $250,000,000. This is entirely due to their promotional strategies using synergy and cross media convergence. Some ways this film was promoted was with "missing person" leaflets which were left around the city that were of the characters in the film. The aim of this marketing strategy was to really get the potential viewers to think about whether or not the footage in the film was real and if it was based of real life events, and this is what the marketing team suggested would get the film talked about and they were absolutely correct about that because people did infact get drawn in by this method and watched the movie just to see what all the talk was about. A website was made about the film, discussing what 'myths' were circling around about the movie, the website aims to make it so that the audiences think everything is real, really trying to draw in the people into the world of the film and extend it from the theatre into real life. This film was made in 1999 so the internet was not at its peak at this time, people were still figuring things out so having this website with footage taken from when they were filming, attaching it to witchery stories, the people were taken back by it all. 20 years later this film still haunts the internet after all its viral marketing, having being seen as one of the scariest horror movies ever made. The film-makers also manipulated the iMDB website so that when people click on the actors that played roles in the film it would come up with a notice saying that they were either dead or missing so this obviously was all a big viral marketing stunt and it worked out to promote the film to an extensive degree, with people actually believing and falling for some of their tactics. This truly highlights the importance of synergy and cross media convergence and proves that you don't have to have a massive budget and be part of the big 5 to be able to promote your movie successfully. The big 5 are conglomerates with subsidiaries, the Big 5 is made up of Disney, universal pictures, paramount pictures, warner bros and Columbia pictures. 

A film made in New Zealand is "what we do in the shadows", and this was was made in 2014 with a budget of $1.6 million, they grossed in a worldwide amount of $7.2 million. This film was heavily promoted in NZ with means that would include the involvement of the public with having a dating website with the vampire characters. This really brings in the audience into the actua.  world of the film, which also increases the films verisimilitude disregarding how unrealistic the film actually is, this adds a bit of believability regardless. Another way this film was promoted was by having the wellington sign changed to Vellington, they also had the actors from the movie, got them to dress up and had them be in the theatres that the film was playing in, surprising the people who were watching the movie. This all gets the movie both talked about and has the people who were avidly part of these experiences with the cast, to be more excited about the movie having many of them post about it as they would take pictures with the cast and put that up to show everyone which is giving free promotion for the movie anyways. 

  "Analyse how media institutions are using different platforms to engage with their audiences."

In the film industry, there are 5 big conglomerate companies that dominate and these conglomerates consist of smaller companies as such that come under one big company and these are referred to as subsidiaries. The big 5 was once known as the big 6, however, Disney acquired Fox in 2019, so Fox became one of Disney's subsidiaries. These big companies use different platforms to engage with their audiences to be able to reach their target audiences more effectively and efficiently. Something important to note is that the big 5 consist of Disney, universal pictures, paramount pictures, Warner bros pictures and sony.  These different companies connect and engage with their audiences through different means. Each company may uniquely have a specific method they use and that may be passive or active. Stuart Hall's reception theory touches on the idea that companies are actually encoding and decoding text within a film to create meaning and messages in the film. There are 3 types of readings according to this theory, the first one is the dominant reading, this reading, this is where the audiences is given a chance to decode the message for themselves, and see the reading that the producers actually want them to see. This is so that all the people who watch the film are on the same page. This type of engagement with audiences is commonly used in Disney movies as their age target audience is definitely on the younger scale so it would be appropriate for them to have their films made in a way where the meanings could be understood universally and easily. For example with movies such as Frozen, there is no intense other meaning, it is just what is shown and that is how the producer intended it to be. The second type of reading from Stuart Halls reception theory is negotiated reading and this is where the producers do have a specific message they're tying to include however you adapat that as the audience to your own beliefs and such. This is a technique commonly used with sony as they have made movies such as spectare and the davinci code. These films have a basline ideal response they ellicit however many people interpret it differently. The third type is oppositinal reading, this type of reading is where the audience rejects the message the producers are trying to pursue, because they have their own interpretation already, despite knowing what the producer wants them to think. A company that tends to move towards making films with this type of reading is universal pictures with movies such as 'old' which is a prime example of a film that can be taken as a oppositional reading. 

Shirky came to a conclusion that overall there is the overarching idea that audience behaviour has adapted and changed in a way that shows them to be more adaptive to the films that they watch. In the sense that the audience now produces media and this is called being a 'prosumer'. As times have evolved, technology has advanced and grown to the point where anyone, any amateur can create a film if they want to so we have gotten to get used to the idea of getting the idea that we want, so now when we watch films we are no longer a passive audience - according to this theory. Shirky believes that we are more active audiences nd this is because of the age in which we live, where everyone has access to a lot of media so now we are the most active audience there has ever been as our generation interacts with media more than any other generation. Now audience behaviour is not so. predictable which can make it difficult for producers to actively get their own message out to the audiences however this does mean more leeway for audiences to have a more enjoyable experience as filmmakers are adapting to the fact that audiences' thoughts and perception cannot be controlled. 

Representation - Homeland

 In this crime drama, 'Homeland', the societal groups that are being represented are ethnicity and gender. The city in the middle east where this is filmed in is shown as being very cultural, supported with the mid-shot of the men in the streets wearing religious headwear such as the caps that belong to the Muslim religion. This would also allow the audience to assume from seeing this show that in the middle east the majority of the general public goes by the Muslim faith. How the country and specifically the city is being represented is as congested and polluted with dusty clouds taking over parts of the city. An over the shoulder shot is being used when showing the prisoner looking out through his jail cell bars and into the courtyard where the tools needed for his death are being prepared. The camera slowly moved down with his head and this is representative of how this man feels as though we are able to see his internalised thoughts through just the swift downward motion of his head. A majority of the shots taken in the middle eastern county are taken on a handheld camera and we can see this as most of the shots are shaky and the footage is filmed as though it is from the point of view of the woman. An example of this is when the woman was driving and on her way to the prison cell of the locked-up man, and as the audience, we can see the camera moving in coherence with how the car is moving on the road and this is significant as it allows the audience to feel as though they are there in that place with the characters, allowing them to move into the world of the movie, this effect overall heightens the emotional involvement that the audience has with the film. A high angle shot of the streets and roads of the place was used to really showcase to the audience how the country is and how normalised behaviour such as pulling out a chair and sitting right there on the road is. You can see that the country is not as concerned with health and safety with all the exposed wires and such. This all is important as when it is compared with how it is in America, it truly shows the cultural difference. This is supported by the mid-shot of the CIA/man of higher authority, in America where he is on a phone call with the woman in the middle east when the camera is focused on America, it is still and balanced, this is trying to suggest in a way that this is how America is, balanced and calm. In the same mid-shot, we also see that everyone is wearing black and white, whereas the Middle Eastern people are wearing clothes of all colours, this ties in with black and white combinations in clothes being associated with high-class status and luxury. The contrast between the atmosphere in the middle east vs, In America, is significant, as the middle east is clearly shown as being hectic and all over the place metaphorically and America is proper, calm and peaceful. A shot reverse shot is also used in order to allow the audience to see and translate the emotions and expressions that are shown on the faces of both characters that are involved in the conversation, and how they connect and react to each other.

The way in which gender is being represented is that females are weak physically but strong mentally, whereas men are strong physically but not so much mentally. This is shown through the scene where the woman is getting pushed out by the guards by force, as shown through a close-up shot of the chaos with three men's hands being on the woman at once. A way we can see that women are represented as being mentally headstrong is where the woman is being persistent as the guard that she bribed to let her be in there said "the Guards, they're coming" which was diegetic sound. Even after knowing that the guards are coming, knowing how dangerous they seem to be in this country, the woman regardless stayed and tried to listen to what the man had to say so that she could get the information from him, she persisted and was determined to stay there until she was physically forced off the premises. According to the Stuart Halls theory, this could result in a dominant reading from the audience, this is because the director may be trying to get across that women are headstrong and determined whereas the audience may accept that on one hand and on the other, think that perhaps the lady is overstepping her boundaries and shouldn't even be doing something illegal in the first place as if she had to bribe someone to be able to do something then perhaps the action isn't morally correct either. When showing the middle eastern country there was the diegetic sound of the people talking in the streets and being just the average 

representation essay homework

Breaking Bad is a show that includes ideas based around drugs gangs and drug dealing. In the first scene, we see a panorama shot of the paint buckets, this is shown in the scene to establish the environment and setting location the following events are about to take place in. The panning shot showed that this scene was based in a hardware store, the paint tubs were mostly by the brand 'Kilz' which could be foreshadowing what events might take place in the rest of the show, it is subliminally telling the audience something is about to go down as out of an entire hardware store the directors decided to open with a shot of 'kilz' paint. The camera then swiftly moves to the bald man with a mustache, what the bald head may be associated with is jail, generally inmates must go bald to show they're not hiding anything as one of the many reasons yet it's contradicting as this man seems like he is actually hiding quite a bit as we are only just getting introduced to the character. The facial expressions on his face also seem to be very serious and he comes off as knowing what he is there for, he walks with purpose and it is shown in the downwards point of his eyebrows, which narrow his eyes more and gives off the look that he is focussed and in the zone. There is a close up shot of the man picking up a tub of 'kilz' paint, and this was done intentionally by the filmmakers to show that he has a gold wedding ring on his ring finger, suggesting he is a married man and most likely has a wife and kids. The man is also wearing fully black, this colour is associated with darkness, evil, ill intention having people and over all antagonists are the ones who mainly base themselves around this colour in films. The choice of clothing also instantly tells us there's something that could be dark and twisted with this man. The next shot is a tracking shot where the camera is going alongside the character to follow him and take the audience along, making them feel as though they are there with the character watching him in real time. The camera technique that is used next is a close up of the paint can the man is holding, being focussed in on the brand name, as well as the fact that it is red which ties in with what that colour represents which is blood, pain and danger which in association with the colours connected to the man, would suggest to the audience that something will go wrong wether that is during this scene or during the show in general. The camera then follows the man and moves into an over the shoulder shot which moves along with the idea of the audience feeling like they are there with him, possibly looking over his shoulder in shock aswell. What is shown from this angle is a trolley filled with what would seem to be the most random items, and they're bought in abundance which has clearly peaked the mans interest. A zoom shot is used to gravitate closer to the mans face, allowing us the audience to see what facial expressions he is making, allowing us to see his reaction to what was shown at the beginning of the shot, as the camera slowly narrows in on his face, it emphasises that the man can see something off with what is in that trolley. The camera during the scene is not still and the shaky effect is what makes the audience feel like they are watching him in real life and aren't just watching a recording or film, it adds a sense of realism.

The following character is introduced through a mid-shot, he looks to be significantly younger than the rather middle aged man we were shown earlier, this character looks dishevelled and as though he is a highschool dropout, he is wearing an all brown outfit that looks like it has not been washed in months, he looks to not be a home owner, the bags under his eyes would suggest he takes intense drugs of some kind, which is ironic as all that is in the trolley seemingly is connected with the production of a drug. The young man has a skull embroidered onto his beanie and this would be a symbol of death which is important to note with all the other ideas that are connected to the same overall atmosphere with the use of dark colours as such. A two shot is used to show both the characters locking eyes, we also see the man with his pants dropped to his upper thighs, suggesting he is indeed a junkie. The two shot was used to show the relation between the characters, the young man visibly seems uncomfortable so this would suggest he does not know this man standing in his way and staring him down. A wide shot is used to show the older man walking out of the store and as he moves closer to the camera, he is getting moved into a low angle shot which would show him dominating and proving himself to be of power and influence.

There is only diegetic sound used during filming in the hardware store location, this would make the audience feel like there is nothing too off about what is going on, the man seems average and seems to just be running his daily duties as such. This also adds in a sense of realism again, making it feel as though we are there with him. The middle aged man says to the junkie as he sees his cart full of materials to make illegal substances, "you're buying the wrong matches" this would suggest he knows exactly what the young man is up to and even though he is aware that what he's doing is not good, he proceeds to give him advice on how to continue these activities, telling him how to do it without getting caught, suggesting he is looking out for him in a condescending manner. The man looks around thinking something along the lines of "does anyone see this?" the man throughout their entire interaction only said one word "what" which really emphasises his confusion with what just happened. The man proceeds to be overwhelmed by the situation and in running away we hear a skid sound which would suggest he is running away scaredily and is stumbling, really showing how taken back he is to the point where he cant even think straight enough to walk properly. The middle aged man laughs which shows he's almost mocking the young man who just ran away, laughing at how pathetic his attempt is at getting involved in illegal substance making, and this would also put the idea in the audiences minds that perhaps this character is also involved in the same thing as he seems extremely knowledgeable in the topic. As he walks out of the store, non diegetic sound is begins to play, the beginning to a grungy song starts, under the song we hear the diegetic sound of the young man arguing in the car parking lot with a bigger tougher looking man. The music used makes the character the whole scene is directed towards, as a dissident intimidating person. To the bigger man, the middle aged man says "stay out of my territory" which suggests that whatever business they were up to, needs to stop as this is his zone, no response is given which suggests he made his point clear and they were fearful and surrendered in a way. This whole ordeal taking place in the parking lot is intentional as the mise en scene would tie in with the connation that is suggesting that parking lots are generally where rough things go down, its more secluded and seems casual to the eyes of others, however it can be a place of dealing as such and as shown here, setting boundaries. The way this scene is edited is in a way that feels as though the audience is simply just following along with what events take place. This increases the audiences emotional involvement as well as it making the show seem more intimate. The cuts from shot to shot and setting to setting, are quick yet smooth, this really emphasises that although the scene may not seem as serious, it is and the director wants to show that by not dwelling in shots too long. There is a match on action used in the last portion of the clip that shows the middle aged man walking from the store through the perspective that he is in the store then cuts to him outside the store from the perspective of the parking lot.

NZFC

Article 1

The New Zealand  Film Commission is responsible for providing loans and equating financing to New Zealand filmmakers to make it possible for them to effectively create and produce feature and short films. It is also heavily responsible for being in charge of holding any international film events or festivals and such. 

Article 2 

History 

Begins with the 1890s to the 1920s with early film, then moving onto the classical era in 1920 to 1960. The New Zealand Film Commission began during the 1970s to 1980s with international breakthroughs happening from the 1970s to 2005. Currently, we are at the peak of the film,  with increased amounts of resources as such to make films, giving opportunity for companies to really show what they are capable of. 

Article 3

Distribution and Marketing

There is a lot of research that goes into creating these films especially with New Zealand being so small, the companies only have a small shot at appealing to everyone so they want to try to at least appeal to as many people as possible. A means through testing feedback is through playing films publicly.  New Zealand tries to showcase New Zealand culture as much as possible so that is especially gets the attention of the people of New Zealand. International festivals and such which are supported by the New Zealand Film Commission, is a way of showing what we are capable of.