auidence

• Hyperdermic needle theory: believing that the mass audience were passive and could simply be  'injected' with messages created by media producers.

• UK age rating; 

British film makers do not always pitch at the most profitable group, often art-cinema films get rated 18 (e.g. Trainspotting, Snatch etc) which means a large proportion of the most profitable group cannot see them and other viewers are put off as they assume the content will be too violent/graphic for them.

• USA age rating: 

Hollywood always take this into account, this is why the majority of their films are rated 15. However, it is also possible to make more of a profit if the film will also appeal to a family audience this is why recent trends show Hollywood producing films that are rated 12 or PG (e.g. films like Avatar, Harry Potter etc). 

• Blumer & katz (1973) suggested that there are 4 possible reasons why an audience might consume a media text:

-Entertainment: 

-Information/surveillance(information gathering e.g. news, wether reports, holiday programs etc.) 

-Socialisation 

-Personal relationships (using the media for emotional and other interactions e.g. substitution soap opera for family life OR using the cinema as a social event) 

MASS AUDIENCE: mass audiences are basically large mainstream audiences who consume mainstream or popular culture (Marxist would claim that this audience is largely made up of the ‘working class’), such as Hollywood films, Eastenders, reality TV, Premiership football, simple Hollywood, tabloids etc. High culture, by contrast, is usually associated with broadsheets, opera, ballet and BBC Four.

NICHE AUDIENCE: A niche audience is smaller than a mass audience but usually very influential e.g. those Marxist would define as upper class/middle class who controlled the media may wish to see ‘high culture’ programs hence the launch of BBC Four for those who wish to hear/see artistic high culture programs. Niche audiences don’t have to be this group though, they can be any small dedicated group who advertisers feel are worth targeting/marking products for. Examples could include, certain films (e.g. 'adult' movies - which can not really be called ‘high art’), fishing magazines, farming programs.

history of American film industry

Mise-en-scene 

Where is the action set?

Who are the stars?

What  is the lighting like? 

What are the costumes like? 

What is the genre?

What is the script like? 


What is the camera work (image quality/image of shots etc.) Like? 

what is the editing (special effects etc) Like? 

what do you think the budget was was for the film? 

who do you think the primary target audience is?

do you think the film made a profit?

what films genres do you think Britain and America are stereotypically famous for based on these trailers and your own prior knowledge of films? 

history of the bristish film industry

Avatar 

Mise-en-scene 

Where is the action set? 

Pandora 

Who are the stars?  

Sam Worthington - Jake sully 
Zoe Saldana - Neytiri 
Sigourney Weaver - Dr. Grace Augustine 
Stephen Lang - Colonel Miles Quaritch 
Michelle Rodriguez - Trudy Chancon 
Giovanni Ribisi - Parker Selfridge 
Joel David Moore - Norm Spellman 

What  is the lighting like? 

What are the costumes like? 

What is the genre? Action, Adventure, Fantasy 

What is the script like? 


What is the camera work (image quality/image of shots etc.) Like? 

Close up 
medium close up 
zoom in 
tracking shot 

In the film, even though it doesn't show it in the trailer, it has a main characters point of view when they are in the body of an avatar themselves. 

what is the editing (special effects etc) Like? 

what do you think the budget was for the film? 

$237,000,000

who do you think the primary target audience is?

I think the primary target audience is 16+ because of the amount of sexual contact and war fighting. 

do you think the film made a profit?

what films genres do you think Britain and America are stereotypically famous for based on these trailers and your own prior knowledge of films? 

Production: 
* Which company produced the film (where the funding came from): Touchstone pictures, Mad chance, Jaret
entertainment 

* What the production budget was.: $30,000,000

* What year it was filmed.: 1999

* How long filming took/where it was filmed: 8th June 1998 - 6th August 1998 /  2715 North Junett Street, Tacoma, Washington. 

* What equipment was used for filming? Panavision Cameras and Lenses 
Anton Bauer Cameras 
Cooke and Angenieux lenses 
Moviecam Compact Cameras

* Nationality.  United States 


* Who owns the source material.

* Who the main producer, director, cinematographer,
     editor, screen writer and music providers were. 
Director: Gil Junger 
Producer: Andrew lazar 
Writers: Karen McCallah Lutz and Kirsten smith 
Editor: O. Nicholas Brown
Cinematographer: Mark Irwin
Music: Richard Gibbs

* Who the principle cast members are (star vehicles).

Heath Ledger
Julia Stiles
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Larisa Oleynik
David Krumholtz
Larry Miller
Andrew Keegan
Susan May Pratt

  * Any other production information e.g. any problems? 

                  Distribution: 

 * Distribution company US/UK: Buena Vista Pictures 

* Marketing budget:  US$30 million

* Test screening information

* Release pattern

* Examples of marketing and promotion

* What other media is it available on?

* Any other information e.g, difficulties getting a
distributor? 
                                                                        Exhibition

                  * Types of cinema shown in (Imax, 3D, MM, I, AH)
                  * How long was it was on for
                  * Box office figures
                  * Age classification (UK/USA)
                  * Who the primary target audience was
                  * Success (compare to DVD/Blue-ray/download)
                  * Any other information e.g. did it get kept in cinemas
                     longer than planned due to how successful it proved?







angus thongs and perfect snogging 

what is a British Film?

As critic McDougall (2008) states there are various 'official' ways of categorising British films. The most common is through using the following categories defined by the BFI (British Film Institute):

Category A: Films made with British money, personnel and resources.

Category B: Films co-funded with money from British and from foreign investment, but for which the majority of finance, cultural content and personnel are British.

Category C: Films with mostly foreign money (but non USA) investment and a small British input either financially or creatively.

Category D: Films made in the UK with (usually) British cultural content, but financed fully or partly by US companies.

Category E: US films with some British involvement. 

british:

• harry potter and the deathly hallows part2 
• bad education 
• The chronicles of narnia: The voyage of the dawn treader 
• nanny Mcphee 

American : 

• the last song 
• 10 things i hate about you 
• high school musical 

ethnicity

As Pieterse forcefully put it in 1992; “The legacy of several hundred years of western expansion and hegemony, manifested in racism and exoticism, continues to be recycled in western culture in the stereotypical images of non-western cultures.”

Theorist Sarita Malik points out the obvious in her essay ‘The Construction of Black and Asian Ethnicities in British media (1998); “The word ‘race’ in the cultural and political terrain has almost universally been aligned with Black and Asian people, as though they are the only racial groups that ‘own’ an ethnicity… Whiteness has been naturalized, as though it is an invisible ‘norm.’ When it is of course an ethnic group like any other. 

Malik argues: “Many feel that Black and Asian audiences are still not sufficiently catered for and that insensitivity towards issues of race and ethnicity still exist. The reality of a lived multiculturalism is not represented in the British media." Any cover that just has white artists on it supports this, but this screenshot I took of an internet search I did on google images for 'Top of the Pops covers' is really telling because you can see only one cover has anyone on it who isn't white. 

Malik suggests the key reason for this bias is that not enough people from different races create the media texts;‘Although it is now more common place to see Black and Asian people... who do not necessarily carry the race theme, the repertoire of imagery still remains limited. There are still too few Black people actually controlling the... images in terms of directors, screenwriters and producers." (Malik, 1998). 

It is relatively easy to argue that the music magazine industry does not cater fairly for all races in the UK for two reasons. Firstly, the majority of music artists on covers of magazines like; Top of the Pops, Kerrang, NME, Q and Total Rock are white therefore people of different races are not represented and discriminated against because of there absence from mainstream magazines (this supports Malik's ideas that, "Whiteness has been naturalised" & "Multiculturalism is not represented in the British Media" and Pieterse's idea of discrimination through; "Exoticism"). 

And, secondly because the majority of artists from different races that feature on Hip-Hop magazines are portrayed as criminals. The strange thing about this is, magazines from this genre are produced by and for the same ethnic groups as the stereotypes portray. In other words, Hip-hop artists and fans seem to be embracing the negative stereotype Stuart Hall highlighted in 1981 when he argued; "There is a grammar of race based on a traditional diet for the British Media that is based on the standard image of blackness being the social problem." A reason for embracing this negative stereotype relates to the same reason why negative portrayals of youth culture sell, it makes the magazine/artists/genre appear edgy and exciting to younger working class fans. 

Another reason for it could link to an interesting point raised by media theorist Sivanandan in 1983, Sivanandan said in terms of representation; "We don't want a balanced view. The whole society is unbalanced against us," and making it look balanced implies there is not a problem through using negative stereotypes it keeps racism debates open. 

As Pieterse forcefully put it in 1992; “The legacy of several hundred years of western expansion and hegemony, manifested in racism and exoticism, continues to be recycled in western culture in the stereotypical images of non-western cultures.”

Theorist Sarita Malik points out the obvious in her essay ‘The Construction of Black and Asian Ethnicities in British media (1998); “The word ‘race’ in the cultural and political terrain has almost universally been aligned with Black and Asian people, as though they are the only racial groups that ‘own’ an ethnicity… Whiteness has been naturalized, as though it is an invisible ‘norm.’ When it is of course an ethnic group like any other. 

Some of the more common stereotypes of American citizens include:

• Boastful and arrogant.
• Disrespectful of authority.
• Drunkard.
• Extravagant and wasteful.
• Generous.
• Ignorant of other countries and cultures.
• Informal.
• Insensitive.

Stereotypes in mexico: 

Hispanic Americans, like many other minority groups in the US, have long suffered from the effects of racial stereotyping. Typical stereotypes include: 

• The Greaser, 
• The Lazy Mexican, 
• The Latin Lover, the Mamacita, 
• Maids, slum dwellers, 
• Drug addicts, 
• Gang bangers,
•  Feisty Latinas, 
• The Mexican Spitfire,
•  And the Exotica.

Uk:

• They love the royal family 
• They have terrible food 
• All British people are English
• British people are rude 
• They are permanently wet 
• Everyone has a charming accent like the English folk on the tv