Audience and Institution Essay

Audience and Institution Essay

Question: “To what extent is digital distribution vital to the media area you have studied?”

With the expansion of film, the movie and film industry has evolved into an international competition to produce and distribute successful projects. Digital distribution is a new form of distribution to the film industry and is debated on whether or not it can benefit the industry more than harm it. The impact of digital distribution is extremely vital to the film industry as it benefits the producing studios through several different sectors of the digital market, however, some argue that digital distribution is negative towards the industry as it cuts out the theater’s revenue.

    Digital distribution is vital to the film industry as it provides the alternative to continue to make profit months or even years following the release of a movie. For example, the finale to Marvel Studios, Avengers, was released in 2019 to the movie theaters, it is now available on Youtube for $3.99 to rent and $24.99 to buy. This demonstrates the clear use of digital distribution as a way to continue to expand the name of the movie as well as profits even after a film has been produced. In the Fast and the Furious case study, the movie raked in a total of 384 million dollars the opening week due to digital advertisements on Youtube which further indicates the potential of making money through the use of digital distribution. Digital distribution does not classify just the actual films, it can also be the digital distribution of advertisements or commercials. In the Black Panther case study, main character King T'challa actor Chadwick Boseman attended a marvel gaming event in order to boost the publicity of the movie that would come out a few months later by using the digital distribution of trailers in between breaks of the video game. In a cross media ownership of the movie Black Panther, the car brand Lexus presented a deal in which a new car, the Lexus 2018 LS 500, would be used in the film through a press conference as well as commercial presented on live TV during the NBA Finals. I personally saw this ad and it did entice me to watch the movie more considering it was on one of the most broadcasted sporting events in the world. However, there are some negatives of using digital digital distribution as there is the possibility of downloads of the movie for no charge at all through websites with links or other forms of piracy. Either way, there is no amount of large scale piracy that would be able to outweigh the constant influx of money through digital distribution.

    The use of digital distribution in the film industry is extremely important as it continues to benefit the producing company as time goes on. Ever since the concentration of media ownership, the remaining large companies continue to use digital distribution on their own platforms or through joint platforms. For example, from the Jurassic Park case study, Jurassic Park was able to make the third largest gross movie profit of all time through its producing studio, Universal Pictures, digital distribution. The Jurassic Park movies were blockbuster hits and with the newer ones that were released, Universal used a live website that would replicate the itinerary of what a day on the island of the dinosaurs would be. However, the best usage of digital distribution would be through streaming apps and programs, especially with the recent coronavirus outbreak. Since all theaters are closed, film production has stopped and given people the chance to watch films they may have been too busy to miss, that’s at least how it was for me. Personally, I found that through streaming sites such as Netflix, Disney +, Hulu and Amazon TV; extremely popular movies were still available to be watched. For Disney, they own their own streaming site where all of their owned movies can be found, the case of netflix is different yet similar in a sense. Netflix is known for its movie and show streaming, however, during the outbreak Netflix has been releasing more and more original films on its own streaming service which replicates what Disney is doing. This is a great move as movie sales and streaming sales have risen since society has been forced to shut down and through digital distribution, the production companies are still able to make some money during the shutdown. The downside to digital distribution is the potential to eliminate the foundations of movie watching, the theaters. For example, in the article, “How Tech Has Shaped Film Making,” author Charles Matthau stated, “little is being done by some companies who are willing to distribute online films.” This statement was met with retaliation by the theater companies as theater companies threaten to not show certain films that were considered for digital distribution. If movies began going from production to digital/online distribution, theaters would go out of business as they would no longer be needed to buy the films from the production companies and sell tickets, food, and drinks in their own institution. 

    The usage of digital distribution is more beneficial to the film industry rather than harmful. Although some may argue it will affect theaters and other showrooms, digital distribution is still able to produce more profit as well as attention towards the production companies. The only way to know what will develop from digital distribution is to… well… sit back and enjoy the show.

Extract Essay: 24

Extract Essay: 24

    In the extract from the TV show, 24, there is an interrogation taking place. A woman, Nina, is being interrogated by a man about the whereabouts of a bomb that has been placed near or in a city. Through this interrogation, Nina uses dialogue to trigger the interrogator into a raged state of mind which ultimately leads to his breakout and full out assault on Nina. Throughout the interrogation, the Director is building an intense mood as there are people’s lives on the line with the added pressure of the intense interrogation. The underlying theme expressed by the director is that without patience and time, nothing can be achieved. The director successfully communicates this theme with the audience through their usage of camera angles and movements as well as their sounds and editing techniques. 

    As the extract begins, it opens to the accused female sitting down at the interrogation table seeming rather relaxed when the interrogator enters the room. As he enters, a zoom in begins onto the camera inside the interrogation room to indicate there is a recording in progress of the interrogation; this further develops the story as to who is watching. The male interrogator is serious in this situation before a jump cut to the outside of the interrogation room with more characters monitoring the screen of the interrogation room which further develops the question as to who is watching them. The characters outside of the interrogation room seem rather stressed or anxious implying the interrogation is serious before a single word is spoken between the two individuals in the interrogation room. After jumping back to the interrogation room, the two continue to build suspense and intensity towards each other after a series of stares were exchanged. The eye line match towards the non-diegetic sound of a tik tok from the clock continues the common trend of intensity and pressure which is a strain to the ability of the interrogator’s mind as there is not much time to wait since she has just confirmed she knows about a bomb. 

    The following of the bomb confirmation was met by the dialogue between the two about the whereabouts of the bomb which continues to precious waste time away from the bomb which happens to be what the interrogator needs most. As the dialogue continues between the two, over the shoulder shots become the key to understanding the mood in the room as the faces of the individuals give that there is pressing tension and frustration. The situation intensifies as Nina, the interrogatee, says that she knows the location of the bomb but would not disclose any information regarding it. This seems to trigger the interrogator after a close up of his face shows a distraught, angry look; this is a result of him needing the location of the bomb which runs his time and patience was running thin. As a result, a series of rapid jump cuts led to him flipping the table which displays a loud bang of it hitting the floor and intensifies the situation as he has gotten aggressive. After a close up of the male interrogator getting in Nina’s face, there is a jump cut to the monitors outside of the interrogation room of a two shot of the two peers of the interrogator watching the monitors with stressed faces. There is a jump cut back to the interrogation room where small dialogue between the two continues to intensify. Time has been running out as the peers of the interrogator show it as well as the climbing anger and lack of patience in the interrogator.

    The Dialogue continues to be small digs at the interrogator as well as a lack of seriousness from the interrogatee.  The increase in tension is shown by the two beginning to raise their voices at each other which results in the extreme close ups of their faces; also, the score displays an increase in severity as the tempo begins to rise through the conversation. The increase continued until Nina said, “I guess you’ll have to follow my lead.”, this ends the dialogue and jump cuts to the interrogator lunging at Nina and beginning to choke her. This immediately triggers a split screen of the peers of the interrogator which were outside of the interrogation room sprinting in towards the interrogation room along with the interrogator choking Nina. The choking ends with the peers stopping the interrogator which is followed by a somber tone signifying defeat due to his outrage. The final outrage and choking of Nina were the climax of the extract as it was a result of the lack of patience and time reaching a final point. 

    The overall theme expressed by the director was that without patience and time, nothing can be accomplished. This is displayed through the extract as the situation of a bomb being present already sets up the story for intensity; the director also accomplished this through the use of camera angles and movement along with the sounds and editing of the film. The timeline of a developing loss of patience was depicted through the film. 

Creative Critical Reflection (CCR)

Final Project

This is our Final Project from the entire year and I feel like how much I grew throughout this project was crazy. This project was our most complex yet as we had to come up with the story line, the shots, and the editing; this was a simulation as to how real movie production is. In this project, the years' culmination of skills that I learned came together in this project making it feel like the best one yet. With a lot of time and patience we got it done, there were some major setbacks when it came to refilling as the CoronaVirus pandemic broke out during the end of our filming process where re-filming was to take place.

Music Video Project

This is our second project during our media studies course. In this project, we were tasked with creating a music video on a school appropriate song of our choice. My group decided to do "balling". This was the most fun yet I had doing a project as we had to sing along to a popular song for some time and I got to do it with my friends. During the editing phase of this project I really grew in my navigation of iMovie as I used iMovie for most of my films.

Our Commercial

This our first project of the year which is our commercial. My group and I decided to do a vaping commercial as a part of Broward County against vaping campaign for our school. In this commercial we wanted there to be some thriller in it to really bring attention to the issue at hand: vaping. I suggested that we use angles that are more intimidating to the person who had just vaped in our film to really draw fear to how scary and awful vaping is. That is where our score of high intensity music came in to really support the angles in a way to make the viewer see the effects of vaping and how terrifying it truly is.

Filming Blog: Movie Production during COVID-19

Since the outbreak of the CoronaVirus or COVID-19, the world has been on a standstill as social distancing is being encouraged through methods such as self isolation as well as mandatory isolation by state and federal governments. During this time, the film production is often overlooked and since this is AICE Media Studies, I figured I would look how COVID-19 is effecting it. After reading a couple of articles from different sources such as AP News and local news stations, it has been announced that all movie production has been halted. This closely relates to how COVID-19 is effecting us as well since we are also in the production process of our original movies. We have basically also stopped production since we cannot be in gathering places with multiple people as it raises the chance of catching the virus. Major companies such as Universal Pictures had to lay off people as a result of the virus canceling most if not all movies and shows resulting in a shortage of necessary jobs. I wonder how the movie industry will recover after being off of work for so long. I expect a surplus of advertisements as a result of the break to get the public eye back onto movies and off of the virus that would be over by then. If the movie cancellation continues, I wonder how it will effect our economy as well as the stocks of those major companies, only time will tell.