18.10.18- Published notes

Technological Convergence 
Technological convergence is the process in which different technologies are combined in one, increasing the amount of functions it can perform for the user.

16.10.18- Published notes

Distribution 
Traditional Vs Modern

8.10.18- Published Notes

Web 2.0 Bullet Points

• Second stage development of the internet, characterised by the change from static web pages to dynamic or user generated content and the growth of social media.
• Invented by Darcy DiNucci in 1999 and popularised several years later by Tim O'Reilly.
• Social media marketing  (a feature of web 2.0) Instagram, Facebook, YouTube - most visited websites.
• Networking is one of the most essential needs in todays world. 
• Efficient networking is backed by internet. Therefore, two thirds of the total number of internet users visit social media websites daily. It has became an addiction to many.
• popular communication media: Snapchat. There are daily updates on snapchat filters that people would put on their story or send to their friends. A particular example of an advertising filter is for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle film. I remember scrolling through the snapchat filters and seeing this filter with the caption of "In the cinemas today". This is a very clear and simple way of below the line advertising, and was used by many to advertise the new upcoming film. This proves how Web 2.0 has changed advertising as the youth generation use snapchat daily so to use a popular social media to advertise increases the success and popularity of the film.
• Another example includes the information search engine. Web 2.0 has this feature to help find relevant information for the keywords entered, this can advertise certain things for example just typing up the letter 'v' comes up with the option of the new upcoming film venom. This is therefore another subtle way of advertising as encourages the person using media to possibly click that option which then again is another way of advertising.
• Web 2.0 also introduced the idea of online gaming, advertising through this was used by Disney when the sequel series following the tangled film ' tangled ever after' came out on Disney channel, days before the Disney channel website released a game for the tangled ever after series, which is a method of above the line advertising. Web 2.0 contributed to the change of advertising for this new production as online gaming is a specific feature of Web 2.0 and clearly did advertise the aspects of the new series through a game relating the storyline which the target audience would play.
• Benefits Web 2.0 has for advertisers: make more profits from advertising as they do not have to pay as much money for advertising so highly beneficial. An additional benefit is that is more effective as by accepting cookies it allows advertisements to be seen making the internet more personal.
  
  
  
  

4.10.18- Published notes

Advertising
Above the line marketing: Above the line advertising is where a mass media is used to promote brands and reach out to the target consumers. These include conventional media as we know it, television and radio advertising, print as well as internet. This is communication that is targeted to a wider spread of audience , and is not specific to individual consumers. ATL advertising tries to reach out to the mass as consumer audience. 

Below the line marketing: Below the line  advertising is more one to one, and involves the distribution of pamphlets , handbills, stickers , promotions, brochures placed at point of sale, on the roads through banners and placards. It could also involves product demos and samplings at busy places like malls and market places or residential complexes.

24.9.18- Published notes

Job Categories 
Pre- production: The planning and drafting stages of a media product eg scheduling, funding, casting, designing, storyboarding, scriptwriting etc.

Production: The actual making of a media product eg filming, photographing, writing, inking graphics, recording sound etc.

Post-production: The editing and finalising of a media product eg adding special effects, digital manipulation, audio and video editing.

20.9.18- Published notes

Media Sectors

• Film
• Tv and Radio ( Broadcast Media)
• Video Games 
• Print and publishing (including digital publishing )
• Web and online technologies (including social media)
• Music

Media conglomerates are structured in a way that maximises their reach whilst minimising their costs. The largest cost to a company is when they have to use services and providers outside of themselves to create or distribute their product. The most efficient conglomerate structure is to utilise vertical and horizontal integration.

When a media conglomerate uses different subsidiaries to promote and distribute a product. this is called synergy- An efficient way for a company to use all of its assets to the best effect. This is a primary reason for conglomerates to form.   

Synergy is enabled by cross media ownership - when a conglomerate owns companies that specialise in different media, giving them an increased reach. 

10.1.19- Niche vs Mainstream

The 'Bird Watching' magazine is an example of a magazine that is aimed at a niche audience.    

 This is because it is targeted at a specific audience and therefore a selective group of people  that enjoy Bird Watching as a  hobby. I believe this to be a niche audience as not everyone enjoys Bird Watching as a hobby so this magazine is extremely popular for the particular people that do Bird Watching often. Niche audiences are often more engaged , active and responsive users. Due to their specific likes, this makes it very easy for marketers to target content to them , instead of worrying about a large crowd with varying interest. As Bird Watching is for a niche audience, it would coincidently make it a lot easier for the creators of the magazine to receive feedback as it is a specific audience that would respond to the magazine.

The magazine Heat is an example of a magazine that is aimed at a mainstream audience 

This is because its a more wider range of audience would chose to read this magazine. The age range of this magazine has a variety from 13 upwards.

16.1.19- The Dragon Flame Player

The dragon flame player

Mood Board:

15.1.19 -21st century musical films

21st Century Musical Films

Musical film as a genre: Musical film is a genre in which songs sung by the characters and is sometimes accompanied by dance. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the films characters. Musical film is usually a natural development of the stage musical with the emerge of sound film technology. The viewer becomes the diegetic audience as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it. 

Generic Conventions: For the main narrative of 21st century Musical films, songs are typically sung by characters to advance the plot and develop the films characters or themes.  Singing in a movie isn’t what makes a musical , for it to be a musical characters must be expressing emotion through song and  dance. They convey their thoughts and feelings (diegetic).

Mise en scene: Typically in musical films, emotions are expressed through lighting for example in the greatest showman in the first song “the greatest show” the lighting starts to become darker as it’s realisation to the audience that it is just A dream , this conveys the feelings in that moment. How at the time that  the character is thinking or feeling. The costumes within musical films are usually well thought out and sometimes exaggerated for example the phantom of the opera the protagonist wears a. Mysterious mask along with a black cloak , costume is something that pleasures the audience. Musicals based on real stories (biographical )such as bohemian rhapsody the costume choices were really well thought out and exaggerated costumes was necessary. Sound is typically background music of the musical soundtrack which would then usually follow with a song where the characters would then sing and dance .

Camera: Close up shots are mainly utilised in musical films , for example to emphasise feelings again in high school musical 3, when Troy and his team aren’t winning it does a close up with a beating heart sound to increase the tension . Close ups are very helpful in musical films during songs so that is why they are commonly used. Shots to set the scene are also used quite frequently in musical films as most films start with a song. The shots within musical films follow a similar structure to any other genre of film however the shots are more emphasised when it comes to a song or dance.

Audience Pleasures: A finale song is a typical convention of musical films that please the audiences. This is because it is usually the song to clarify that everything is happy again and it is where the audience have anticipation from wanting a happy ending. Another convention audiences would expect from a musical film is a villain or villains , this is seen in mostly every recent musical film for enchanted it being the evil witch, high school musical - sharpay and finally hairspray it being Amber. These conventions keep the audience happy and encourage a successful production aimed at the target audience.In complete contrast , you wouldn’t typically see very realistic storylines as it isn’t realistic to break out to song and dance to express different emotions. 

6.1.19- Memento essay

Analyse the narrative structure of memento using the ideas of prop, Todorov, Levi Strauss and any other theories you believe are relevant. Give clear examples from the media.

Memento is a very long and complex story where the protagonist Leonard is seeking revenge for the murder of his wife while suffering from a short term memory loss condition. The media production is told through short pieces of the story in an inconsecutive series of events. Propp theories can be seen within the film production as Leonard is presented as the hero, John G is presented as the villain, Teddy can be seen as the helper/donor as to Leonard he is sourcing useful information therefore helping him to solve the murder. Finally, Leonards wife is presented as the princess and Natalie is the false hero of the narrative. The overall film doesn't strictly stick to Propp's ideas as at different times certain characters have different roles in the film. For example, at the beginning of the film, as someone who is watching, Teddy is presented as a villain as Leonard has written down not to trust him and we see that it says Teddy is John G. However through the short clips of story that we are shown, Teddy is only shown helping Leonard and he seems to be really interested in Leonards life so he is presented more as a helper/donor. Another way in which Memento opposes Propp's ideas is the character of Natalie. We see various moments of Natalie crying and trying to help Leonard which makes us as an audience sympathise with her and make her a likeable character, although as the film progresses we see more of the parts of memories for Leonard start to come together and it shows a completely contrasted character to Natalie where she is being abusive to him and saying she will use Leonard knowing that he will not remember any of those events. This immediately makes the audience dislike her, and her role within the film has aspects to being a villain as well as a false hero. Overall Propp's ideas are slightly in place in this film but it definitely opposes some of his ideas as most of the characters purposes either change or they have more than one.

Despite Propp having his ideas quite limited in Memento, I believe Todorov's theories are highly presented in the film. For example with the first stage of his theory being : 1. A state  of equilibrium at the outset- so at the beginning of memento not everything is happy but it is calm, not much action has happened and there's lack of information for the audience to see, as all we see is a polaroid photo being shaken so a small amount of equilibrium is achieved . The second stage, 2: A disruption of the equilibrium by some action - there are many parts when the equilibrium would have been disrupted but a significant example would be when Leonard wakes up with a man in his wardrobe not knowing what had happened the day before which obviously made the equilibrium unstable as there was a tense atmosphere in this moment. The next additional stage in Todorov's theories is that there is an attempt to repair the distribution- So when Leonard called Teddy and then turned up to Natalie's house to find out who the man was this was an attempt at making the situation achieve equilibrium again. Finally, the last stage being that there is a reinstatement of equilibrium. The last few scenes don't necessarily answer a lot of questions and the there isn't really a proper ending as it is just implying that Leonard is going to keep trying to solve what happened as he stops at a tattoo shop to get a new tattoo. But this ending does still follow Todorov's theories as it ends with equilibrium.

Some aspects of Levi Strauss binary opposition can be seen in the film for example: good vs evil, Leonard is just trying to get revenge for the rape and murder of his wife whereas evil keeps getting in his way in small ways such as Natalie taking advantage of his condition then in big ways such as him not writing down important things that he needs to remember. Another use of binary opposition is Strong vs weak. Mostly everyone is stronger than Leonard due to his condition he is mentally weak so a lot of the other characters like Natalie and Teddy are automatically stronger than him. A final example is peace vs war, Teddy tells Leonard at the end that there is nothing more that he can do to make it any better whereas Leonard is still wanting war and revenge for the rape and murder of his wife. There isn't a lot of binary opposites in the film but some aspects of Levi Strauss Binary Opposition theory can be presented.

In conclusion, Todorov's Narrative is the most accurate and mostly presented in the film memento as the narrative is constantly falling in and out of equilibrium. The characters have some of the aspects of Propp's ideas as there is a clear hero of the story but the villain defiantly does alter and there could possibly be more than one villain in this case such as John G, Teddy, Natalie. Binary opposition is also quite a common theme and can be seen throughout as I said previously about good vs evil. Overall all if the media narratives above are commonly utilised in films in the past and future and they're important in storylines. As Memento is known for being a confusing and long film, the narrative structures help contribute to more understanding of the film.