How technology impacted on the audience Part 2

Unit 25/Unit 8

Understanding the television and film industries

In this report I am going to be comparing technologies which have adapted over the years, I will then describe the impact in which it has on the audience and the film and television industry, and then finally I will link it to audience theories.

Analogue & digital

Analogue televisions and radios use analogue waves in order to transmit data from the sender to the receive such as an antenna, however analogue television did have some major issues with interfearence with the the analogue waves which then caused disruption for example static noises or fuzzy vision coming from the television. On the other hand digital is a more serfisticated way of transmitting data as instead of using analogue waves it uses encoded codes such as 1 and 0 to clearly identify the information. Digital is also more improved than analogue since analogue always changes wave forms which causes disruption and interfearence well as the digital uses 1 and 0 which represents on and off and is clearly shown which makes digital more reliable and less vunerable to inference meaning digital can also travel singnals from further distances than analogue. Digital and analogue can both be copied however when copying analogue waves this can degrade the quality of the information well as the digital copy will look as the exact same as the original. For example analogue televisions use VHS well as digital television uses DVD and blueray and when both of these have been copied more than once the VHS quality will degrade each time well as the DVD / Blueray copy would look like the exact copy. Also relating to audience theories DVD/Blueray films can be an example of an active audience as DVD/Blueray films feature exclusive content which the viewer can select from.

On demand viewing/digital records & Cable television/VHS recorders

Technology has adapted over the years and has had a massive impact on the audience, before digital television there was always a time schedule where the audience would miss out on their favourite channels while being out and about, however as time progresses VHS recorders where invented to record your favourite show onto tape while you were out meaning you will not miss out. Then as time progressed even more into the future digital records were invented meaning instead of having to record the show onto a tape they could press the record button on the remote to record digitally a program the viewer wishes to watch later, a good example of a company that uses this technology is Sky as Sky remotes come with a record button. Lastly on demand viewing is where a viewer can watch their favourite program whenever and wherever they please as on demand viewing can also be featured on apps. Linking back to the U & G theory audiences can brows on demand shows and choose to record everything their needs desire, also relating back to the drip-drip effect when a viewer gets really interested in a series they will constantly record series of the program which slows changes the audiences views on society an example of this can be “Orange county housewives”, which is about how rich wives live giving the impression to girls that money is everything. Going back to VHS records they took up a lot of space and a lot of money since the viewer would need to pay for the tapes and would then need to find a place to store the tape well as DVD a smaller and thinner and can store more data than a tape, also DVD have a better HD quality than a tape. Soon digital recordings came into play meaning you wont have to worry about money as it will be stored on your television meaning you wont need to buy tapes or DVDs in order to record the program, lastly you wont need to worry about storage since your room wont be full of tapes or DVDs and will have all your recorded programs saved on your television. Finally being able to record a program can be classed as interactive sine you are choosing to view the recording at a different time meaning the audience are active, but in some cases digital recordings don’t just allow you to record one episode they can also allow you to record an entire series of episodes meaning the media can spoon feed the audience with more than one episode showing that they can be a passive audience being brainwashed into the series. As technology progressed into the future tapes have been put out of business and replaced by DVD’s well as we are currently progressing even further to the point where DVD’s can be put our of business since everything in our days are being digitally downloaded.

Internet and streaming content

Technology has advanced so far that people can use the internet in order to seek out their desires from the U&G theory, active audience can use the internet to locate and watch films they desire for example Youtube is used mainly by young people as elderly people don’t know how to work it, Youtube has over billions of home made videos created by people for people to watch for free. However streaming content has become very popular lately for example Amazon prime features over thousands of movies for people to watch when they pay a monthly fee, this means the audience can view any film they desire. However relating to two step flow model streaming content online could be good and bad from two different opinions, the first being that streaming content gives you access to thousands of films to watch for a monthly fee well as on the other hand streaming content can be illegal, for example on the internet there are pirated websites that show illegal pirated copies of films which can portentionally put cinemas out of business since people are downloading the video for free instead of paying to view it at the cinema.

In conclusion technology advancement has had a massive impact on the audience and media industries as the new technologies push the old technologies out the way causing loss in business for example tapes are no longer used and are being replaced by DVDs and streaming content/ the internet are slowly driving cinemas out of business. The advancement in technology has also made the audience more active than passive as they can now brows from over hundreds of channels instead of three channels, they can also interact with the television by recording their favourite programs and pressing the red button in order to play games on the television, finally people can call into live shows where they can vote for their favourite program. However with the use of new technology it can also make the audience seem passive since they can record series without even reading the individual summary of the show and are then being spoon fed by the media.

Audience profiling

Audience profiling

Audience profiling is information about your audience which includes race, sexuality, gender, age, education, occupation, disposable income, annual income, current life style/desired life style, culture, media interests,  buying habits and loyalty to brands. All this data is collected to help create a new product that the target audience will want to buy and will receive the message for example if the target audience was directed at sports fans the company may advertise the product on Sky sports or in a football stadium where the primary audience are most likely to see it rather than placing an advert in a place where not so many people will be able to view it.

Audience profiling splits into two categories called demographics and Psychographics.

Demographics are a specific segment of a population that all share characteristics, demographics are used to split people into different letter code categories which can display the income and status and class of the people in each group.

Psychographics is when people are grouped together depending on their attitudes and tastes. Psychographics are mostly directed at an individual’s lifestyle and links them together into 6 different categories.

Reebok audience profiling

Demographics

Age: 18

Gender: Male

Race: White

Sexuality: straight

Religion: Atheist

ABC: E

Education: collage

Occupation: Works as a part time storage room operator in Tesco

Marital status: single

Income: £7.50 and hour

Nationality: British

Psychographics

A young independent learner who isn’t very confident and likes to ask questions, he likes to spend his time chilling at home playing his Xbox, he rarely goes out but likes to buy new release video games and likes to dress to impress. He also describes himself a fun loving caring person who likes to make others feel happy when they are around. He is a consumer that loves finding bargins on Amazon and dresses in casual clothes. He is over emotional and can be very creative when group working on projects. He also enjoys talking on social media catching up on the latest television shows as well as saving time for his course work and his video games as well as using the internet. He looks forward to going on holiday every year spending time with his family and likes to keep healthy but at the same times likes to eat junk food. He likes to listen to all kinds of music and likes to put a smile on peoples faces but has hard time communicating with new people.

Likes: video games, all electronic devices, social media, holidays with family and being who he is.

Dislikes: Smoking, bad attitudes, self-cautious, loud people and being alone.

The ASA

The ASA

The ASA stands for the advertising agents authorities and have control of what advertise are and aren’t appropriate, their job role involves receiving complaint letters and looking into cases to decide whether or not it’s appropriate for television, for example if the advert contains adult content they will need to make sure its shown to the public after the watershed, however if an advert gets too many complaints the ASA will ban the advert and in this situation the 50 Cent Reebok advert was banned.

The Reebok 50 Cent advert was officially banned for contravening with the rule known as ‘glamourous gun culture’, this was due to the advert highlighting 50 Cent as being shot 9 times and had distressing shots of symbolic images and sounds such as the red lighting combined with the dripping water and the distress noise of a lady screaming along with a gun shot. The 50 Cent Reebok advert had multiple complaints from viewers as the message of the advert to them seemed to encourage gun violence as the complaints seem to pick out the gun shot sound, the dripping water with red lighting indicating blood, the sound of the radio saying he was shot 9 times and the question at the end ‘tell me who will you massacre next’, which in my opinion means who is going to be the next victim which indicates violence to the viewers. On the other hand the Reebok advert explained that their advert was supposed to inspire people that no matter where you come from or how close you are to death you can achieve anything even when life hits you hard with 9 bullets you can still get up and be who you want to be which explains the message ‘I am what I am’, an Reebok was not intended to increase gun violence but to be a positive message of empowering celebration of the right and freedom and self-expression of individuality.

The Reebok 50 Cent advert primary audience was directed towards 13-25 year old and are the ones who the advert intended to directly communicate with in order to try and get the companies message across to them, however the secondary audience who happen to come in contact with the advert had been really offended by the 50 Cent Reebok advert, the secondary audience received the message of the advert as a growth in gun crime to brainwash younger viewers into becoming criminals which was then reported back to the ASA. An example of primary and secondary audience is a young viewer around the age of 15 watching the Reebok advert on television and then the parents who walk in the room and see the advert who are aged 47 see the advert and have a different opinion than the primary audience. Also at the time the advert was released there was a lot of gun crime violence happening within UK at the time which caused distress for many people giving the advert a negative effect towards the audience. 

Group work on audience theories

Group work on audience theories

Narrative analysis Reebok advert

Narrative analysis Reebok advert

Narrative analysis: Narrative analysis is when one or more speaker is involved in sharing and recounting a specific event or experience that has happened. Narrative analysis can also be in a story since there are many twists and turns the character or narrator may have a conversation about common structural features.

Todorovs 5 stages

50 Cent

Equilibrium- The advert starts off with 50 Cents home town in his neighbourhood daily routine showing us his street from his childhood just like any other ordinary day.

Disruption- The disruption in the advert was when the advert shows signs of dripping water with the red lighting as we hear a gunshot and see 50 Cent bend down forward which lets us know that 50 Cent has been shot and has then caused a disruption in his daily routine.

Recognition of disruption- The recognition of the disruption was when the advert played sounds of distress such as police and ambulance sirens which indicates the recognition of 50 Cent being shot.

Attempt to repair disruption- The attempt to repair disruption was when 50 Cent looks at his reflection in the water reflecting back on his past as we then hear a rewind sound as the camera reverses backwards which tells us that 50 Cent realises he has a second chance to make something of himself.

Reinstate of equilibrium- Then the reinstate of equilibrium is when we see 50 Cent counting up to 9 as we hear all the success and fame he has obtained as it finishes with the words ‘I am what I am’ which then shows his reinstate of equilibrium. 

Reebok 'I am what I am' advert analysis

Reebok 'I am what I am' advert analysis from charliebunn25

Micro features

 Micro features

Semiotics is the study of meaning and how it is formed by signs such as words, images or music. It can be used as a tool to help analyse the symbolic codes of a media text.

Roland Barthes created the study which we now call semiotics.

Moving image language: its split into 4 elements Mise-en-scene (what is put into scene), Cinematography (camera works), Sound and editing in film studies these 4 motive languages are called microliters.

Mise-en-scene:

Mise-en-scene: it’s a French term meaning what is put into a scene or a frame, When you see everything in the frame what can you analyse from that, all the elements are setting, props, costume, hair and makeup, facial expression and body language, lighting and colour, positioning of characters/ objects in the frame.

Props in scenes:  Gun seen in action films, knives seen in horror, big ben associates with London, a taxi associates with New York, Gadgets used in spy/science fiction films.

Costume, hair and makeup: this shows the characters personality, job and status. For example a vampire wears a black cape, Spiderman wears a spider suit.

Facial expression and body language: if someone is smiling we assume they are happy and if it was accompanied with scary muse

Positioning of characters & object within the frame: thing in the frame can Signiant feelings of two different characters, positioning in the frame can draw attention to certain objects / characters.

Colour: Colour can give a particular look or effect or mood and can over all be used for a dramatic effect. Red = danger, Can be used to how a characters hidden emotions or to highlight important objects and characters within the frame, to make the character look mysterious i.e shadowing parts of body, bright = happy, dark = disturbed.

Lighting: there is low key lighting and high key lighting,

Low key lighting is created by back lights and key, which creates sharps contrasts of light and darkness areas, deep, distinct shadows/ silhouettes are formed.

High key writing: more filler lights are used lighting is natural and realistic to our eyes, produces brightly lit sets or a sunny day.

Hairlight is used to separate you from the back ground and makes you pop out more.

Key light: most important light in the scene, creates dramatic scene, half dark, most brightest light

Fill light: less dramatic, not film like, more realistic to our eyes as it feels in all the shadow spaces so it’s more lighter

To get less light push the light further away

Hair light turns it into a film- shines it down on the back of actors head, if the hair light was by itself it makes the scene dramatic or dreamy light depending on the apache.

Sound

Sound doesn’t seem important but it helps you understand how important it is to make up the scene

Diegetic: any voice, musical sound that comes from the film world that the characters can hear

Non diegetic: music originates from outside the film and adds meaning to the audience which the film characters can’t hear.

Voice over: non diegetic, the voice over is used to describe and help us understands what’s happening in the scene even though the guy talking isn’t their

Sound bridge: links two scenes together for example music plays in one scene and continues to a different scene which connects the two scenes and suggest the mood is still the same and often has a common theme.

Pleonastic sound: exaggerated sound, can be exaggerated from the use of foley sound, sounds that are quiet made louder, sound effects example handling of guns, kissing and tap dripping.

Contrapuntal sound: sound that don’t match the image and can confuse people and doesn’t link to what you see could create a mystery effect. Example Happy music playing while two people are being aggressive and angry arguing with each other. Creates a humorous effect example Shawn of the dead

Silence and dialogue: creates an impact, pitch/tone/volume creates a meaning of how character mood an atmosphere of a scene. Creates a tense scene a quit noise to a loud sound can be frightening.

Cinematography

The way the camera is angled to show the meaning.

Composition of visual elements

Cinematography is made of shots angles and movements

Need to think how to frame a shot how it’s organised on who or what is in the frame to create a meaning.

Close up: used for facial expressions, show emotions, can be used to show fear or evulsion, and makes the audience feel closer or repulsive from the character.

Extreme close up: used to identify detail that you wouldn’t really notice, can cause tension and makes you realise how important some certain objects are.

Two shot: allows you to see two characters together to show the relationship, its usually a mid-shot upwards shows two bodies to allow you to compare.

Over the shoulder shot: camera angle from over someone’s shoulder, helps you understand two characters and shows an angle from ones perspectives of what they are looking at.

Point of view shot: first person view and puts you in the characters shoes, leads sympathy to the protagonists 

High angle shot: allows you to see a characters angle from above makes the subject appear small a venerable.

Low angle: makes people look big tough and dominant, it’s a camera angle shot from below looking up. 

Pan: horizontal turns movement of the camera from left to right or right to left on the spot.

Tilt shot: like a pan shot but moves up and down on the spot.

Editing

Editing a film involves selecting and combing sequences in no particular order.

Good editing is used to get the audience to understand the films story by creating and enhancing the mood, emotion and characters.

Sequences is a bunch of clips together.

Montage: A montage is created through assemble of quick cuts, disconnected time or place that combine to form a larger idea. A montage is frequently used to show a time happening as they

Parallel editing: filming two different locations at the same time so you can see it happening at the same time and can be used to mislead the audience. It’s also when it cuts back and forward between scenes.

Split screen: runs two shots side by side in the same scene, this effect causes simultaneous actions.

Dissolves: dissolves are a form of transition, allows you to get from one scene to another

Elliptical editing: the use of editing to compress time, the use of transition such as cuts or dissolves to compress time e.g in Batman begins Bruce Wayne has an on screen time of 58 seconds in which he climbs a mountain so it shortens down the journey.

Graphic match: Graphic match is when a scene links to another scene using the same shape or colour that match up

Rhythm and pace: the rhyme and pace helps set the scene by the music or mood by the paste of the edit to create a tension shot by speeding up the cut of the scenes and to create a more relax scene slow down the cut speed.

Long takes: long take without cutting

Jump cuts, match cuts and cut away: jump cuts used to travel in time or create disorientation, match cut is used to follow the movement of a person or object, cut away is cutting away from the shot then returning to it

180 degree rule – it’s used so you don’t confuse the audience, you can’t cut from one side to the other. 

Genre

Genre

Soap opera- Soap opera is a television genre that features a drama series which focuses on the lives of different characters emotional relationships and how the cope with everyday life problems acted out in the soap opera. An example of a soap opera is Coronation Street.

Crime drama- Crime drama is also a television genre except a crime drama focuses on a main hero/character that is investigating or is going to commit the crime. Crime drama usually involves some sort of criminal activity such as bank robberies, murders and assault, for example Dexter is a crime drama.

Hospital drama- Hospital drama is a genre that involves events which happen within a hospital, this can involve surgery, life and even death of family members, an example of a hospital drama is Scrubs.

Lifestyle- Life style genre is a television show about how people live weather that be a rich life style like the house wives of Orange county or a poor life style like the people who live on benefit street, or even a party life style like people from the only ways Essex. Life style genres usually cover economic level, social class, job, attitudes, habit’s and standards.

Makeover- Makeover genres are self explanatory where people get a new look, they usually start off with someone who wants to improve themselves in looks and by the end of the show they will be looking beautiful/handsome. An example of this show is 10 years younger.

Consumer- Consumer genre is a television show that try to sell you their products which they are advertising on TV, for example the shopping channel offer a wide range of shows where you can shop from and shows such as watch dogs which provides you with information on a product and helps you reconsider before purchasing the product or services, another example would be the gadget show who tell you about products which you will then go out and buy.

Sitcoms- Sitcoms are comedy shows that involves a comedian telling the live audience jokes to make them laugh. For example Russell Howard is a sitcom show where he makes jokes about society.

Chat shows- A chat show is a genre where people talk about a specific topic that may intrest the viewer, as the show goes on the people on the show will give out their own opinions and talk to one another. An example of a chat show is loose women.

Reality- reality is a show that is based on the real world and real time with live events, for example Celebrity Big brother is a reality show.

Comedy- Comedy genre is a show/film that is bound to make you laugh with jokes and funny events, for example Happy Gilmore is classic comedy film.

TV series- A TV series is a bunch of different programs that link together into a series, one after the other and usually follow a story line, an example of a TV series is the walking dead.

Serial single drama- Serial single drama is a broadcast which is only shown once and doesn’t follow the story of the drama show, it can be based on a true event. For example Ghost adventures record a live event and only show the event once and do not continue with the same location.

Narrative story types

Narrative story types

Narrative is all about how a story is presented to the audience, and when we think about narrative we must think of the plot and the story. Story is the chronological order of all event, plot is the way we put it together for the audience. So it’s the same story but the events are presented differently.

Linear- A linear narrative is a story that will go in a chronological order and will jump from one point to another without including/using any type of flashback or future events within the story.

Non-linear- A non-linear is a story type that will use flashbacks and future events within the story however the audience viewing this can be very confused and will find it difficult to understand the story. For example

Circular- Circular is when the film starts off at the end and finishes at the end of the film.

Episodic narrative- when a film shows someone’s life and puts it into chapters

Single strand- A single strand is when the story priorities one main characters story and only focuses on that character instead of sharing the other characters, this style will usually has a narrator to the story. For example “Dead Pool” only focuses on the main characters life and talks to the audience narrating the story.

Multi strand- Multi strand is when a film/television has more than two different stories within the film/television and all link to the end, for example the game “ Halo 5 guardians” as it shows a bunch of different stories of how the workers and old family and friends that all link to the ending. The audience would then seek out the different stories and will eventually pick up how they link to one another.

Realist- A realistic narrative is a story which contains a real feeling to it, and is known for giving a realistic effect on the audience and makes the story seem believable, this story style would be based in the real world. For example the film “Marley and Me” has a realist effect to the film. Realist films seem to be about real social problems.

Anti-realist- Anti realist can be an advert that has fictional characters that don’t appear in reality to advertise a product, For example the M&M advert shows humans interacting with the M&M sweet that has come to life.

Open ended- An open ending is a story that doesn’t have a forsaken ending and will leave the ending open, an open ending would normally be in chronological order and would normally be multi stranded, an example of this would be “Coronation Street”, it could also be presented in real time, however these shows don’t usually back up the story with music.

Closed- Closed narrative has a story that usually have a very tight reading, the film would normally last about 2 hours but would have a compressed story fitting many years into just two hours, the film would also contain music which will bonds with the scene, and would end the film with “The End”. An example of this would be “Forest Gump” that compresses a guy’s whole life into about 2 hours.

Single episode- a single episode is one film with no continuation to that episode, and just creates a new story line every time. For example “The polar express” presents only one episode and doesn’t really continue from when the last episode finished off as no more films were created.

Series- An advert can have a series of ads to promote a product or brand or service and continues to create more, for example the Specsavers advert features different people who need glasses in the new adverts.

Serial- A serial is a continuing plot that follows the story from one episode to another and link’s them all together, For example  “EastEnders”, This story continues season after season, episode after episode and stick’s to the plot of the television show.

Circular- Circular is when the film starts off at the end and finishes at the end of the film.

Episodic narrative- when a film shows someone’s life and puts it into chapters

Flashback narrative- Flashbacks are used in films to give an in depth story of a characters past and helps recreate an event which happened previously, flashbacks can also be confusing to the audience.

Television and Video forms

Television and Video forms

Fiction- Fiction is described as an unrealistic television show that’s full of creative ideas which can be impossible to create in the real world and is full of creatures that don’t exist, fiction is also defined as imaginary for example cartoon characters such as Gumball and Darwin from the cartoon show “Amazing world of Gumball” are not realistic and are just cartoon. This could also relate to the Uses and Gratification theory for self-accusation and esteem to try and relate yourself to the audience.

Documentary- A documentary is best described as an education program that has a purpose to educate the viewers about a specific event. Documentaries are mostly about the planet earth and about fascinating event that can provide the viewer with knowledge. For example the discovery channel features documentaries about wild life. Documentaries could also be related to the Uses and Gratification theory

News- The news is best described as a way in which people can gain knowledge about society as the purpose of the news is to educate the viewer about what’s happening in the world around us, the news is a television show that provides the public with in depth facts that could affect their lives. For example the news provides the public with the weather forecast which could affect any events planned. The news also brings in Uses and Gratification theory as the theory states we choose what we want to watch to fill in one of our needs and by watching the news this will fill in your surveillance.

Advertising- Advertising is best described as a promotion and display of a product as adverts are created to tempt the viewer into wanting the product. Advertising are also usually short films which are paid for by the company product manufacturer to try and sell their product during a television show break. For example the Cadburys chocolate bar advert, advertises during the break and temps the hungry audience into wanting it.

Promotional- A promotional video is a type of advertising that promotes a film or an event on their television channel to encourage the audience to watch it. Promotional is also described as a way of self-promoting what you have to offer on your channel and can keep viewers tuned in for further programs and new releases. For Sky movies promoted itself at Christmas by advertising a bunch of different films that are going to be shown.

Hybrid- Hybrid is a mixture of different genres within the film or video, Hybrid is a mixture of 3 or more genres within a film for example if a film/video display romance, horror and comedy all together in the same film this would be classed as hybrid. An example of a hybrid film would be Avatar as it has action, romance and comedy within the film.