Media Products and their Audiences

Promotion is a huge part in the film industry as there’s no point of having a really good film if no one knows it exists. Film producers need audiences to interact with their film either by watching it, buying the DVD or buying other merchandise.  This is how they make their profit. Because of this it’s essential that they use promotion that appeals and attracts a specific audience.

In the film trailer for Beautiful Creatures, media techniques such as a variety of camera shots and narrative strands are used to represent the fantasy/drama genre and to attract as wide of an audience as possible that enjoy watching this genre.

The audience that this genre tends to draw in are usually people aged 15 to late 20’s.  This is mainly because these people are still young enough to have an active imagination to be able to accept and enjoy the film, but they are also old enough to understand the deeper meanings that come with the film such as the relationship between the two protagonists.

The opening to the trailer starts with an enigma showing an elderly women talking about a girl named Lena Duchannes played by actress Alice Englert. She is talking how the character in the past has caused accidents and “even deaths.” This enigma keeps the audience interested and they will be more likely to watch the rest of the trailer in the hope of finding answers.

Also the use of a famous actress is used as a unique selling point by the producers. Audiences feel more comfortable watching a film if they recognise an actor/actress from other films, especially so if the actor has built up a good representation of themselves. You also get certain niche audiences who are ‘fans’ of certain actors and will just watch a film because they are in it. This is why it is important for the trailer to include famous actor’s right from the start.    

Also the actress is very pretty. This is important when attracting the ‘male gaze’. Male audiences are more likely to watch films if they have seen that there is attractive female’s in the trailer.  This theory was created by Laura Mulvey in 1975.

Enigmas also appeal to audiences who enjoy the fantasy genre, as fantasy is all about mystery. For example in the film Snow White and The Huntsmen, enigmas are used to create questions such as why is Snow White being hunted and why does the Huntsmen decide to protect Snow White.

 In this particular scene, the dialogue is diagetic. This forces the audience to pay more attention to what is being said. This represents the seriousness to what is being said and the relevance it has in junction with the rest of the film. This also represents the Drama genre in the film.

The way people think can affect the type of genre they like to watch. Therefore people are placed into different categories under VALS.  As beautiful Creatures is a drama/fantasy genre, the producers need to promote their trailer at people who fit into the top end of VALS such as Innovators and thinkers. This is because films with the genre of drama tend to hold deep themes and ideas and it requires the audience to understand these themes.

We can see the themes that come with the drama genre in Beautiful creatures. One of these themes is the idea of a difficult relationship between the two protagonists. This is also represents the romance genre in the film.  Iconography is used throughout the trailer to show this.  For example towards the end of the trailer we see the two main characters kissing in the rain. The rain is a useful piece of iconography as audiences; especially female audiences relate kissing in the rain to be romantic. Also the rain makes the scene more dramatic and adds to the atmosphere. Once again the non-diagetic sound has been taken out at this point making the scene feel more emotive as the focus is just on the two characters.  There is also another scene were the two characters kiss.  But this time, when the scene starts dramatic music starts playing and we see lightning flash outside.  This could represent how the characters love isn’t going to be easy and is full of drama. Kissing is also an anchorage to the romance genre as it’s symbolic to love.  This attracts audiences who like the romance genre as they will want to know what happens next. This is also an enigma. This will also attract female audiences as females will often feel sympathetic to the characters as they may have gone through a tough relationship themselves, and can in some way relate to what’s going on.  

The drama and confusion that is involved around the two characters relationship is also reflected in other scenes in the trailer. For example at one point we see a table spinning in one direction with Lena’s (The protagonist) family whilst Lena and the house are spinning in another direction. This represents the conflict between Lena and her family and the struggle in her life. This again reflects the drama genre and will attract audiences that may also have conflicting lives with their own family at home. This is known as Personal Identity as audiences can explore their self identity by comparing themselves to the situations in the trailer.

The theme of magic is also represented in the trailer. Magic is typically connected with fantasy and audiences come to expect magic in fantasy films. For example in the TV series, Once Upon a Time, or in the film, Oz:  The Great and Powerful.  Both of these are fantasies and both contain the theme of magic. This can be seen through the mise-en-scene which is utilised.

 During one point in the trailer, the mise-en-scene is of a dark forest. This setting represents the theme of dark magic and fantasy. The idea behind the forest is that anything could be lurking inside without us or the characters seeing it. This creates a sense of fear but it also fits nicely with the theme of dark magic which is linked with the genre of horror. This will draw in audiences that are intrigued by the idea of not knowing what’s about to happen and like to feel a bit on edge. These audiences are usually people aged 15 to 21 and normally fit into a niche audience. They fit into the niche audience category as fantasy/drama films aren’t usually watched by the masses. This can be seen by using primary research and looking at what films are currently being shown at cinemas. By doing this you will see that current film genres that are being shown are action and comedy, with films like 007: Skyfall.

As the producers are targeting this film at a niche audience they don’t have to worry about including things in the trailer that would attract a mainstream audience. For example images and pieces of iconography are used throughout the trailer that connotes certain genres that attract this specific audience.  An example of this would be the number 13 written on the protagonist’s hand. This reflects the horror genre as the number 13 is stereotypically connected with the horror genre. This is also anchorage to the genre.

A piece of iconography that relates to fantasy in the trailer is the mysterious creature on the lock. Audiences relate this to the fantasy as other fantasy films also contain mysterious creatures. For example dragons are used a lot in fantasy films. Another piece of iconography used is the full moon. This again anchors the genre of fantasy as the moon is symbolic with werewolves which like dragons are a creature known to be in fantasy films.  Also a full moon can be used as a piece of iconography for the romance genre. This is because full moons are seen to be romantic

Clues to narrative structure can also help us get an insight into what audiences the trailer may attract to the film. The trailer suggests that the movie is going to be multi-strand. This means that the film follows the story of the two protagonists. This is narrative strand is conventional to the romance genre. Audiences who enjoy the romance genre will notice that the film follows the multi-stand narrative in the trailer and will be more drawn to the film as they will recognise the narrative type from other romance films.   

The film uses in-direct  mode of address to the audience. This creates a separation between us and the world in which the film takes part in. This has been used as they want to show how the film isn’t set in the word the audience is familiar with rather a world full of dark magic. This intrigues the audience as they want to find out more about this place. It also intertwines with the fantasy genre, therefore attracting audiences who like the fantasy genre.  

History of Editing

Historical Development in Editing

Editing has advanced a lot since the start of the Film and television era due to certain editing techniques and people. The first two people who 'invented' the film industry were the Lumière brothers although they only created the camera not the actual editing. 

The brothers were well known for creating a camera that could capture and play moving images and project them on to a wall for people to view. This was titled the Cinematographer and was patented in 1895. This was a big revelation in the industry as the only other camera before this that could capture moving images was Edison's kinetoscope. The problem with this was that only one person could view it at a time and the actually camera was huge. This made it impractical to use. 

During one of the Lumière brother’s viewings a man came to watch called Georges Melies, fascinated by the Cinematographer he decided to peruse a career in the moving image business. Whilst using a camera built by Robert Pau, Melies stumbled across the idea of being able to manipulate and distort time and space due to a jamming in his camera. He then experimented with creating special effects for his footage. He was the first man to be able to place special effects onto footage and he started to create other editing techniques as well such as the split screen.

At time the only way to put all the footage together was by Linear editing techniques. This meant that all of the footage has to be put together in a predetermined order. The footage would be on a video tape that travelled at about 15 inches per second. This was a long and hard process. This was also known as analogue editing. The process involved people (usually women) to sit down and cut the film tape and stick it to another piece of tape. Women normally did the job as it was seen to be a female job as it was a bit like sewing but with film tape. The job was mad more difficult by the fact that the audio clips had to also be cut at the same angle and with the same accuracy before being laid over top. This style of editing came with many disadvantages such as the fact that many producers didn’t allow cut footage to be reused because the edits could loose sync. Although when cut footage could be reused they did as it saved money. 

With the novelty of the film industry dying, directors and filmmakers such as Georges Melies abandoned the industry. This was until a man named D W Griffith came along. He started off as a scriptwriter but when his script got turned down he was offered the job of an actor and became fascinated with the motion picture business. Griffith was very imaginative and with a lot of fresh ideas he started directing films with his biggest successes being the 1915, The Birth of a Nation. The film became popular due to new, never seen before editing techniques such as the iris shot, cross cutting and flash backs. After this film he struggled to get the same success but is well known as an important figure in the film industry due to the invention of the editing techniques.       

One of the most successful films to be created in the early age of the film industry, when including more than one scene in a film became recognised was The Great Train Robbery (1903). This was the first narrative film and was very successful amongst audiences and people realized that film could become commercially viable.

The film contained editing techniques that hadn’t been seen before such as parallel editing. This is as well as using some of the most popular and innovative techniques of the time. It included minor camera movement and cross cutting.

Cross cutting was a big step in editing history and was also famously used in the film Life of an American Fireman (1903). The editor, Porter was celebrated for his unusual but exciting style of editing. He used cross cutting to build up tension in his audience. He wanted them to feel worried for the people stuck in the burning house unsure whether the fire men would get there in time. Porter also used editing to build an emotional response.

Porter’s techniques were very different from any other editors. A man named Cecil Hepworth wanted to bring all of the different styles together and bridge the gap between the two different styles. He created a film called Rescued by Rover (1905). This was a British silent film created in 1905. The film was the most advanced film seen due to its fantastic storytelling, production and editing.

Sergei Eisenstein is famous for his creation of the Rhythmic Montage editing; this is particular well seen in the film Battleship Potemkin (1925) which was created for the purpose of propaganda:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jebW5-G2HTs

He enjoyed experimenting with editing techniques such as the montage because Eisenstein was trying to get the biggest emotional response from his audience. He wanted his audience to feel remorseful for the sailors. Eisenstein was one of the first directors/ editors who started using editing techniques to make an audience feel a certain way instead of just relying on the plot and the actors. This was an important mark in the history of editing.

After a while most directors and editors were making films in the same style of editing, which was continuity editing. This was heavily criticised by a man called Jean Luc Goddard. He wanted to challenge traditional editing techniques by breaking traditional rules and inventing some of his own editing styles. Goddard created a film showing off his ideas. It was called A Bout de Souffle (1960). He created and evolved techniques such as Jump cuts and character asides whilst breaking the continuity rule by doing things like breaking eye line matching. Goddard concentrated more on the structure of editing rather than the story being understood by the audience. The story lines were often simple but more chaotic and unfocused due to his style of editing.

As the editing world progressed so did the ways of putting the footage together. A new method was invented originally called Non Linear editing. This meant that the editing could take place on a computer and the film would be digital. This gave editors more flexibility and the editing process became a lot faster. The footage didn’t have to go in a determined order. This process was also known as digital editing. Examples of digital editing software used today are programs such as Final cut or Adobe Premiere. These programs allow footage to be edited virtually to see how it would look like so no permanent cut is ever made. The speed of editing progression has decreased significantly over the past few years and instead companies are focusing more on how to make the process quicker and user friendly. 

The first digital editing software that was electronic was the VTR created by Ampex corp. This enabled the editor to watch the original  tape whilst the VTR recorded the desired shots. The advantage to this is that less damage is caused to the tape from manual handling and the original tape is preserved for future use. In 1963 Ampex went on to develop the system so it was able to mark the tape electronically. This enabled video animation by using editing to frame by frame shift-editing points. The main break through came in 1970 when the CMX600 was created. It was the first digital disk based editing system. The system worked by using magnetic computer disks that were designed to store analogue video. The down sides to this software were that only 5 minutes could be stored on one disk, it didn't cope well with dissolves and was extremely expensive. 

With modern technology now editing has advanced to a level where directing can be done in the editing process. George Lucas is well known for being able to place and take actors out of a scene and even change their eyes so they are looking a certain way. The demand for films now is very high and there is a lot of pressure on editors to meet strict deadlines. Software such as Final cut pro allow people to edit films with speed an precision, this is the main reason why the industry changed from analogue to digital editing.