Audience and Institution Practice Essay

#3 “Nowadays, everybody consumes media texts in the same way.” Discuss with reference to the media area you have studied.

Not 100% accurate, but accurate enough to lead me to believe that this assumption is true. Although there are many ways for people to consume films they are certain ones that just stick to humankind. This allows me to form the opinion that they are consumed in the same ways. 

The way film is distributed is the way the audience will consume it. After prior steps are complete, both selling film rights and licensing agreements, they are allowed to basically start the distribution process. The first strategy is known to be releasing it through cinemas such as AMC, Regals, and Cinemark. As for where in the world it is shown, it is actually dependent upon the distribution companies. For example, Beauty and the Beast, and Spider-Man Homecoming were distributed worldwide while we were told Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 was just flat out distributed. Although they appeared in different times and different places they still appeared through the same concept, theaters. Which is how the audience consumes it. All three movies were first shown to the world with the same strategy which concludes to show that the people all consumed it the same way at first. 

When the films reach their theatrical run they now go onto the next distribution step, home exhibition. One type is physical media which includes both DVD and Blu-Ray. As we are told in our studies both Beauty and the Beast and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 were released on Blu-Ray and DVD shortly after their release in theaters. Although we were not told that Spider-Man Homecoming was transmitted through this type of home exhibition, I know for a fact that it was. Once again bringing us to the realization that the movies are shown in the same way, which allows me to believe that the audience is consuming it relatively the same. So far two consumption strategies are exemplified, but this is one more, the one I believe to be the most important. 

The second type of home exhibition is Digital Media. Now there isn’t a certain amount of ways to express it like there was for physical media. When it comes to digital you could literally stream it in a variety of places such as Amazon Video, TVs, Netflix, Xfinity Stream, and so on and so forth. Beauty and the Beast was released through Netflix although it was taken down, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 was released through Amazon Video and iTunes, while Spider-Man Homecoming was released through Xfinity stream. Now I’m pretty sure these 3 movies were shown in other places since there is a numerous amount of online services, but the important thing is that they were all online. 

In fact, we are also told how Comcast and NBCU pair up to increase the consumption made through digital media. Through many disagreements, brawls, and fights the two companies, one of the biggest TV distributions and one of the highest entertainment companies, came together for greatness. In the outcome, audiences were able to consume not only movies but talk shows, the Olympic Games, and plenty of other major projects. Not only were they able to complete synergy but they were able to increase the home exhibition within digital media. 

Although there are 3 strategies presented to consume a film, 3 is nothing compared to billions of people watching. These 3 common ways are basically the only ways we people can consume our movies and shows, and with the number being so limited it is only right for me to believe that opinion is correct. Nowadays everybody consumes films in the same way. 

Extract Essay on the movie 24

The theme I believe to be in the extract provided of the movie 24 is that anger cannot always be controlled. Through this essay I will demonstrate how media terminology was used to prove the theme. 

In the beginning of the scene, there was a zoom into certain objects, particularly the camera in the top corner. This seemed to be important because a camera signifies monitoring, by zooming into the object emphasizes the fact that the area is being watched which is a way they are being controlling. After this I noticed some props. The woman was in a chair handcuffed at her arms and legs. These props lets the audience know what type of predicament she's in, and allows us to think how the talk should go. However, this idea is contrasted by the sound motif occuring before the man spoke. Using this sound demonstrates how tense the scene is and foreshadows that the conversation will not go well even with all of the limitations.  

Moments into the conversation, a table is thrown. For a second anger got the best of him and in the next shot was the woman’s reaction. This reaction shot showed the audience where the woman was intimidated for only a quick second but went back to normal because she didn't think of it to be threatening because of the controlled environment they were in. She then expresses this through her dialogue. “Don't even bother Jack, lay a hand on me and you’ll be taken off the case.” The words are used in the sense of reassurance. Saying these words reminds both herself and him that he cannot hurt her because of the controlled factors. 

However, the anger is finally let loose and is first demonstrated in a low angle of their feet. At this angle I could see their feets being dragged across the room. Also noticing how fierceful and powerful the push was, letting his anger get the best of him. In addition, he choked her. While she was being choked I noticed her face beginning to appear pale, which I believed was makeup. The makeup helps us realize how powerful the anger was, putting herself in a life or death situation. Lastly, the over the shoulder shot used when the man looked over to the people that were monitoring showed the final concept of the theme. The faces of the people when they were looked at were in distress, this emotion was caused because no matter what they did to control the environment anger still got the best of him. 

The theme I believed to be of this extract was indeed one of the director’s visions. At the beginning you get to notice how the man is being controlled but tempted. Over time he lashes out for a quick second but is then calm because he is reminded of the controlling elements, but with a little more temptation he lashes out completely. No matter how much him or the people tried he still lashed out which shows us how anger can’t always be controlled. 

Fourth Project: Creative Critical Reflection for Final Task

And here it was, our last time to incorporate everything we've learned throughout this course. This project was a CCR, previously when we've done our CCR's we've done them in a less creative way, but this time we were told to make them interesting with a time limit of 12 to 15 minutes. We were given the options to either do a talk show, interview, or our own idea. To make things less complex and still fun I decided to go with the talk show alternative. Just like our previous projects, nothing was easy nor perfect. The issue I had this time with my project was the time length. For starters, I did not want to just go on and on about the question. This will result in my video being somewhat boring and allowing people to zone out. This effected me harshly because my recording were not hitting the time frame at all.

To avoid this situation, I added plenty of creative element for two reasons. One, to make my film less boring and two, to allow my film to be longer. After all of this my film was under the time limit, but eventually my teacher had the exception for our video to be at least 10 minutes. Looking back and reflecting on all of our projects there was plenty of room for growth and that's exactly what occurred. Before this class I never have ever made a film, but with everything I have learned within this course I am proud to say that I am now able to present to you a 10 minute video that is both creative and critical. Within this project I've shown everything that Ive learned and combined it into one. Although, I had one major issue at the throughout the project, I finished the project off with a bang.

I do not own rights to the the song. Credits to Khalid for the song Location

Third Project: Final Task

Lastly, the project we've all been waiting for, our final task. We were told that this project needs to be 2 minutes and an intro to a movie. Our genre was horror, so before we even thought to pick up a camera we had to do plenty of research both individually, and as a group. Our research was done to help us present the best opening as possible. In my opinion, the most helpful research was when we looked at how to do a title sequence, it really educated me and help me better understand the purpose of a sequence. Although I thought of this research to be most helpful, the other research did benefit in some way. After being educated we had a better idea of what to film exactly and how to do it. Filming and editing wasn't our main problem this time. This was because we have already dealt with such issues. But once again, everything was picture perfect. One of the main issues that I feel is worth discussing is how we achieved our time limit. Our project was told to be 2 minutes long, but when all of our footage was dumped into iMovie we have surpassed it greatly. 

At first, I cut everything that was extra and unnecessary, and secondly, I made things concise as possible to also cut down some extra time. This was still not enough, but somehow I made it work. As a group, I wouldn't say this was our most difficult project because we have already got the hang of things. But I will say this, on this project we had to incorporate everything we have previously learned and previously been through. This was our last time to create a storyboard and make it come to life, and once again we've done phenomenally. This may have been our last project where we start from storyboard to finish but in the back of my head, I already knew that we had just one last project that will show our skills even more. 

Second Project: Music Video

With all of the trial and error, we have overcome in our first project we thought that this one would've been a breeze, but of course, we were completely wrong. Our second project was a music video which had to be 1 minute and 15 seconds in length along with the song Location by Khalid. This project was way more complex than what we had previously done. For starters, we could not film it on campus, which means that we would have to find a schedule that works for everyone as well as a ride. When this was complete and the day to film came, we kind of already had an idea of what to do thanks to our first project. While filming, we decided to refrain from the amount of shots with all 4 of us since we did not have a tripod. We did so by filming from POVs and two-shots. However when the time was necessary for all of us to be in the film we either set the camera up or asked someone on the beach to record us. Overall the filming process went way smoother then or process for our first project, we had plenty of time to record what was needed without being rushed. 

In fact, this was our first project that we've recorded from our phones, and comparing the quality to our first project things went way better. As for editing, we did follow up with our own advice and used iMovie. As predicted iMovie gave us less problems and allowed for the whole editing process to go smoother. However, there were some things that we did not know how to do and had to do a quick search on google, but other than that things were perfect. Our overall process was way better than on first process with our first project even though this one was more complex. As a group, we will continue to use of phones and iMovie in our future projects to ensure that the process will go as smooth.

I do not own rights to the the song. Credits to Khalid for the song Location

First Project: Commercial

In our media class we were told to complete a 30 second commercial and my group had Gatorade as a product. At first we had no idea on where to go or how to start, but once we did we continued with flying colors. Overall, this project was successful. Our storyboard was amazingly presented and our film covered all of wanted aspects. The process on the other hand was not easy. For example, the first issue presented to us was our time limit, we had about 40 minutes to film and dumb all of our recordings. This may seem like a lot of time but to us it was bare minimum because it was our first time completing such a task. While dumping the footage is where the second and third issue came to place. The camera we used to record had horrible quality and the software, Pinnacle Studios, was very slow and  gave us plenty of trouble. It’s as if our first project was made for trial and error.

As media students, we used this project to learn from our mistakes and correct them for the future. As for the time limit, we decided to never record in a short amount of time again. Doing so will allow us to get the amount of time needed to provide the best film without rushing. In addition, because of experience with both cameras and software wasn’t swell we’ve decided to no longer use it. For the remainder of the year we planned to use our phones and iMovie. This was convenient because it allowed us to record and edit on our own times. Recording off of our phones will result the issue with quality and using iMovie will allow us to edit with having as much software issue as we did with the school’s. By finding ways to overcome these obstacles and still present a well put film shows that my group and I was ready for any media project thrown our way.

Re-Edit: Finding A Way

The ability to re-film is out of our control but we shouldn’t let that hold us back from trying to approve our film. When editing the first time around, we made sure that our movie was presentable. But did we make sure it was great? Although we were not able to go and re-film our last scene we thought it would be a good idea to look over our movie and see what we could re-edit. We already had some input from our peer reviews group, but the more criticism the better. We are reached out to two of our individual friends for them to watch our film and tell us more ways on what we could improve. Within the day everyone in the group came back with the advice. We proceeded with the group FaceTime call to talk about how we are going to re-edit with our circumstances. By The end of the call we have deliberated a numerous amount of things. Ranging from sciences needed to be cut and how a transition could be more clean.

It was now time to edit. Of course, we used the iMovie editing software. Our film was already stored here so we didn’t need to re-dump all of the shots. We used the criticism that was given to guide us on what to edit. I was the first want to get my paws on this task. I improved the film to the best of my ability. When completed I sent the film to the next member of the group. They then edited in addition to what was already done. We did this transition for about 5 times twin sure that everyone had a chance to edit. Doing this allowed for no mistakes to be left and an incorporation of the whole group. When this  process was complete we watched our film for the last time as a group to make sure that it was at full potential.

Here’s a picture of our final film in the editing software iMovie: