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.

Re-editing Blog

After presenting the movie to my family and hearing their feedback, my group decided to plan for another re-editing day in order to make our film the best it could be. I took the rubrics from our peer review day as well as my family review of the film and made a super rubric that covered all areas of the film, from sound all the way to the angles of the camera. Due to the recent outbreak of the Corona Virus (COVID-19), our group has decided to not gather together as we don't know what each other has been exposed to. I began to edit what I could from the rubric to continue to hold my end of the work with the group. However, when it came time to share the work load, we decided the fastest and most efficient way would be to transport the film, once your end of the work is finished, to the next person via email where it would be shrunk and then enlarged once put into iMovie. We used this method for the remainder of the project since our parents did not like the idea of us gathering in an enclosed space together for a long time. This was another adaptation we had to make in order to get our film finished before the deadline, not to count are CCR's as well. I would set up the platform that we would discuss issues on. I used Group FaceTime since all of our computers are from Apple the brand. There was some difficulty when it came to moving our film around, but after a couple of tries and about an hour of work, I finally figured out how and told my group mates via FaceTime each time they were going to transport the film to someone else. This pretty much ended our re-editing day after we were done with our work.

Editing Blog: Presenting to my Family

In effort to perfect our project, I hosted a showing of our film after dinner at my house to get real feedback from people who I am close with. There was no bias or sugar coating especially since my brother has taken this course and knows what expectation I needed to meet in order to have a good grade on our film. I used a projector to show the movie that I connected to my computer where we had most of our movie done. I created a rubric similar to our peer review rubric that we did in class and asked them to fill it out after I played the movie through twice. Unfortunately, I miscounted when printing and do not have the homemade rubric anymore, however, I will use aa picture of the class rubric instead to show how it was graded. After the first showing I asked specifically what felt choppy right off the bat, most of my family members agreed that the titles needed to come in more smoothly. They also added that the transitions in the first two scenes felt like they didn't match resulting in them being a little confused. I then played the movie the second time through and waited until the end. At the end of the second showing I asked if there was anything new that they felt needed to be changed, my brother added that our sound would be slightly off from the scene which took his attention away from our film. I thanked them for watching and then immediately called my teammates to schedule an editing session to fix the errors. We plan on doing it later on this week as we are busy for the next couple of days.

Re-filming Day

After watching our film several times as well as it being critiqued several times by different audiences, we decided as a group to re-film. I noticed that in our film there were some scenes that could have been much cleaner moving through them and after both groups of critics, my family and our peers, mentioned the same scenes, we knew it had to be redone. Our original re film date was on March 23, 2020. This however changed because of the CoronaVirus (COVID-19) outbreak as a pandemic. Since the United States government recommened that we stay self-quarantined for some time until the situation has been put under control. This prevented my group mates and I from coming together to re film the scenes that we wanted to. Since we were stuck with our scenes that we already filmed, we knew we needed to focus on the editing to make it perfect to make up for the scenes in the film. I found this to be a major setback when it came to our original film because we couldn't re film what we needed to in order to make this the best it could be. I understand that all of movie production has been halted which also correlates to our dilemma right now. Our re-filming day was canceled because of the virus' outbreak.

Editing Blog: Titles and Sound

After filming at all of our locations, we decided that we needed to focus on the sounds as well as our titles in our film since these are the areas that would most likely not change as we moved forward. Also, our group had about an our to edit since we had other plans with our families that day making sound and titles the best thing to focus on as it wouldn't take too long. Once we met at our group mate Montana's house, we began to work immediately. I took the role of managing our titles, this included nearly everything related to titles; from how they come in, how long the title is there for, the fonts used in it and much more. While working, I found some difficulty at first with how to really work with the titles and change their fonts, however, after Montana and Reese showed me how it became a standard task only a little more tedious. Also, the most important part of the title is to integrate it into the film with a certain ease as the title should go along with the film smoothly. The positioning of the title is also important when it comes to inserting them. I suggested we do the bottom left corner for most of them and it juts so happened that it worked out. When it came time to insert our titles, I tried three different fonts and sizes and placed them all in the movie one at a time in the position we would want them. This way, we would know which looked best font-wise as well as the size of the title. We decided on size 20 font that would rest in the bottom left corner as the titles came in. Sounds were handled by Reese and Montana, however, I did help when it came time to finishing the project's sound as they would play it for me and I would tell them if it matched up well. Before we knew it the day was over and we had to leave which ended our editing day.

Filming Blog: Updated Location

After editing the latest footage from Wolf Lake Park, we decided we needed more footage to use in our film as the sequence of the film felt off.  So, I suggested a new park because one of group mates wasn't able to go to Wolf Lake again at that specific time, so the nearest park was Hugh Taylor Birch State Park in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. At this new park, we faced no difficulty getting in as it was a State Park but we were under time constraints since the park closed at 6 PM sharp. At Birch State Park we really focused on the angles of the camera. For instance, although I was acting, I was also the director. We figured that we should film most of our story board but with completely different angles to ensure we are getting all of the ones we need. I suggested that we use alternate angles that may not be traditionally used in films to make our film stand out in a positive way. While we filmed I was still the "attacker". I continued to follow the story board of what to do. However, when it came time to direct I would suggest the angles we should do as well as make up certain movements while we filmed to fit the new angles that I suggested. I found that a lot of what directors face during the filming process is the need to be on your toes and ready to change your shots based on what is being filmed. I think that is why the most successful directors such as Steven Spielberg are so successful because they know how to change what they are shooting based on the circumstances. 

Filming Blog: New Location

Today my group and I filmed our final piece of our original film. However, this time we had to go to a different location as we were not going to make it to Silver Lake on time to get enough film done. I suggested that we use a park in the area where we were and after researching, I found the perfect park to go to. In this park, the scenery matched the one in Silver lakes with Pine trees surrounding a small bay of water; this made the park perfect to film at for extra footage as well as see what lighting would be best for our original film. We used a park named Wolf Lake Park that is also out in Davie, Florida as it is close to all members of our group. Both parks have the same kind of pine trees and lake enclosed into it, so I figured the match would be identical if we needed to use other scenes from a previous filming day. I also suggested we go at the same time as we did before as the lighting would be the same. While at Wolf Lake, I kept the same role as last time as the "attacker" or antagonist in the film. This park I found to be much better as the trails were more dirt trails rather than paved in trails making the film seem more realistic to our idea of the deep woods. While we were filming I made sure that we were getting the same scene in different angles incase we needed to add different perspectives of the scenes. I ensured that we got all of the angles we needed, these being: establishing shot, close ups, medium shots, point of view, pan, low and high angles, and many more. Each angle will add sophistication to it as well as push our story along gently. While at the park I used the same outfit as last time ensuring that we could cross edit previously filmed scenes. I was tasked with doing mostly the high angles considering that my teammates are not taller than five feet and three inches and I am six feet tall.

Editing Day: Overall smoothness of the film

Following the peer review day, my group decided we either needed to reshoot or re edit our movie because of the comments that our peers gave us. We decided since we did not have much time to focus on our transitions as well as titles that are in our original movie. I suggested that we focus on a particular part of our movie so each section would have our full attention to make it perfect. After some discussion, I suggested the bedroom scene as it was on of the shortest as well as it being the end of the movie so I found it as a perfect placement in our schedule. In our bedroom scene, I asked the group that graded us to tell me some specifics of those certain scenes that could be improved, the most popular answer was the transitions were too fast for the viewer to keep up with. After hearing this, I took the task of fixing our transitions to where they would make sense as the story progressed. Instead of the jumpcuts we used in our bedroom scene, I would substitute them with others such as fade ins and outs to keep the story flowing as well as keep the viewer engaged. Also, I used different footage than what was originally in our movie as it presented new angles that would reenforce the setting to the viewer as this was another common critique of our film. I inserted new footage that would cover zoom ins and outs as well as a birds eye view by placing the camera onto her ceiling fan where it would hang. These were the most major critiques that we focused on fixing in our bedroom scene specifically, other edits we did were small trims that made the movie seem choppy at sometimes. This was a successful editing sessions as we accomplished what we needed to in order to stay on schedule for submission. 

Peer Review Day

Today in class we finally were able to watch and analyze each other’s final task during my period. During the “peer review day”, we were each given a number to select and with each group corresponding to another, the group you chose is who would be grading you. Before we began the peer reviews, the final task itself had to be discussed. Each movie should be 1:50 to 2:00 minutes long with all aspects such as: editing, filming, and other techniques to help improve the film to a different standard. Once we got into class and we’re settled, we got our peer review rubrics from the front bins of the classroom and started to fill out out name and group numbers, it then came time to switch laptops and watch the movies. To make the process easier, all students must put their film on a flash drive or jump drive in order to receive a grade. Luckily, I had a flash drive and since I did a majority of the editing, I also put our finishers movie onto the drive. The group we were  given to review was Ryan, Luca, snd Camilo. Their movie was almost finished with just a few discrepancies that made it not as smooth as it could be, however, this peer review allow them to make the re shoots and re edits to ensure that their film is the best it can be. My group was reviewed by another group, the feedback was mostly positive except for some scenes where either the camera movement becomes choppy or a transition isn’t as smooth as it could be. We will be re shooting some extra scenes just Incase we want to incorporate them.

Filming day... again

Today, February 26, we attempted filming again... it went well however we need to make some improvement. When we filmed, I suggested that we should focus on the ending bedroom scene because we were only able to film from 4:00pm to 5:30pm because of our schedules, but, we wanted to keep getting as much raw footage we can get so re-shoots wouldn't have to happen before the peer review day on March 3. Once we got to Montana's house to film, I changed my clothes into the costume we saw fit that was the same as the one I wore to the lake filming day. While we filmed, I was mostly the director and actor, directing in the beginning and acting at the end when I was needed. While I directed, I made several adjustments to the room to make it look more like night as it was around 4:45 when we began to film. Some of the adjustments I made were: pulling a second layer of the blinds out to cover the window more and only letting in cracks of light that were more a light white, sort of like the moonlight, coming through making for a perfect set for a middle of the night dream. I also was a camera man as I was the tallest to get the high angles that we needed as well as quiet enough so footsteps wouldn't be heard. One issue we encountered was one of our actors breaking character at times making for scenes that we could not consider because of a crack of a smile during a scene. This persisted for some scenes, however, at times she would remain serious and we would get the shots we needed. Also, I was an actor throughout this film, so when needed I switched positions with one of my group mates. As an actor I needed to stand over the victim and draw the weapon before it cuts to a black scene. I completed my role and then we dumped all footage onto my laptop where it will stay until we edit our film. 

Editing day: Editing the bedroom scene

It has finally come time to edit some parts of our film that we were able to record during the week. During the course of the week, we went to a group member's house and we were able to capture the ending scenes of our original movie intro. In our storyboard, the girl jumps out of what seems to be a bad dream of being chased, however, the dream becomes reality after the same character that was seen chasing her reappears in her bedroom. To edit the movie we decided on the iMovie program in apple computers. All raw footage was dumped onto my personal laptop where I dragged and placed the scenes into the open iMovie editing area. During the editing process, I covered the transitions between the scenes that are being used as well the sounds in the film. While moving through the different scenes and angles several times, I began to find the rhythm of startling events so I decided to use jumpshots as well as some cross screens but I found that the split screens do not work as well with film as it does for video games. Also, during our editing process I was also entrusted with covering all the sounds in the film, whether they are diegetic or non-diegetic. For example, I usually had to alter the sound by lowering the volume of it so it wouldn't overpower the heavy breathing used in our film. Another example would be me using the different sound tools already in iMovie and finding their place within our film without it seeming unnatural to our film.

Filming Blog: Securing our locations

Our group has had difficulty coming together for a set film date because of personal schedules, however, I have taken the time to secure our locations as well as ensure we will be ok filming there. When it came time to plan for blogs We have decided to film February 22, 23, and the 28 as all days were available for each group member. Transportation has also played a significant factor when it comes to our group coming together. Since most of us live over 10 miles from each other, the location we meet at to film, Silver Lakes Nature Park, is in Davie, FL. Davie being closer to me since I live in West Hollywood, FL; however, our farthest group mate, Reese, lives nearly 45 minutes from the park. Reese also has no car that she can take for hours at a time to get down here so her not being able to drive is also an obstacle. With all these obstacles, our group can 100% get the job done when it comes to coming together for the filming process. Like I said, our dates to film as of now go for: February 22, 23, and finally the 28. This will give us optimal time to edit as we can meet after school at a nearby Starbucks and finish our editing. On March 2, we have our peer editing review day, a day where another student watches your nearly completed movie and grades it, so all of our work must be done by then. Although there is limited time, I strongly believe that my group will be able to get it done as we are pretty clutch. During this time I did take the liberty of checking out the park itself and deciding where it would be best to film for lighting and least interruptions from the surrounding areas. I chose towards the back end of the lake to the left as sun is able to penetrate through the trees, but just enough so a glare wouldn't be produced as a result of it being reflected off the water. Below is a picture of the lake side we are using for a scene during our movie intros to give a better understanding of what the park looks like.

Title Power Point

Planning Power Point

For this week of planning, we discussed certain elements that will be important when we film. Specifically, we went over health and safety, location, participants, our schedule, and title design.  When discussing Health and Safety, we thought it was important to discuss how we will navigate through a wooded area since it will most likely be at sundown when we film. Additionally, as I just mentioned we will be filming in an area that resembles the woods, most likely a large park nearby one of our houses. Then, for our participants, it will only be my group mates and I acting and producing the film. Since there are 4 people in our group, we decided it was best to have a loose schedule since there might be days where something unexpected comes up, but we are also hoping to only film twice at most (2 separate days).