Stock Characters- Propp’s Theory

Villain– Brother/ Dad

Victim– Richard

Father Figure– Polly

Donor– The Chicken

False Hero– Polly

Theme- Levi Strauss

Rich and Poor

Educated and Uneducated

Country and Town

Family Relationship and No Family Relationship

Sexual Relationship and Incest

What is it

It is a paradigm of dramatic structure outlining the seven key steps in successful storytelling: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, and denouement.

1. Exposition= The setting is fixed in a particular place and time, the mood is set, and characters are introduced. A backstory may be alluded to. Exposition can be conveyed through dialogues, flashbacks, characters’ asides, background details, in-universe media, or the narrator telling a back-story

2. Rising Action= An exciting force or inciting event begins immediately after the exposition (introduction), building the rising action in one or several stages toward the point of greatest interest. These events are generally the most important parts of the story since the entire plot depends on them to set up the climax and ultimately the satisfactory resolution of the story itself.

3. Climax= The climax is the turning point, which changes the protagonist’s fate. If things were going well for the protagonist, the plot will turn against them, often revealing the protagonist’s hidden weaknesses. If the story is a comedy, the opposite state of affairs will ensue, with things going from bad to good for the protagonist, often requiring the protagonist to draw on hidden inner strengths.

4.Falling Action= During the falling action, the hostility of the counter-party beats upon the soul of the hero. Freytag lays out two rules for this stage: the number of characters be limited as much as possible, and the number of scenes through which the hero falls should be fewer than in the rising movement. The falling action may contain a moment of final suspense: Although the catastrophe must be foreshadowed so as not to appear as a non sequitur, there could be for the doomed hero a prospect of relief, where the final outcome is in doubt

Question on Media Industries in the film Chicken (20 Marks)

Start your essay with a short introductory paragraph that outlines your intention for this essay. So think – what is it you want to argue / discuss / present in this essay?

The intention is to highlight the key points on the media industry in this film which includes the distribution, funding and production. This also will include within key theorists that support these ideas.

Show knowledge of the film industry, specifically the key stages of: production, distribution, consumption

Production; the making of a motion picture, television show, video, commercial, Internet video, or other viewable programming provided to viewers via a movie theatre or transmitted through broadcast radio wave, cable, satellite, wireless, or Internet. It is how the film is made to make the product successful

Distribution; it is  is the process through which a movie is made available to watch for an audience by a film distributor. This could include directly to the public either through a movie theatre or television, or personal home viewing (including DVD, video-on-demand, download, television programs through broadcast syndication).

Consumption;  is the sum of information and entertainment media taken in by an individual or group. It includes activities such as interacting with new media, reading books and magazines, watching television and film, and listening to radio.

Position contemporary film production within a couple of key theoretical positions for example:

1. Hesmondhalgh’s ideas that mitigate the ‘risky business’ of cultural production.

Hesmondhalgh acknowledges that media companies are operating a risky business. There is no guarantee a creative product will be a success. They offset this risk both creatively and through business structure. In terms of media products, they use stars, sequels and well-known genres. In terms of business, they use vertical integration and diversification to spread their risk and maximise profit.

2. Curran and Seaton’s arguments for a more diverse media landscape.

Curran and Seaton highlight the damage that free market free market ideologies which is where there is no government control have on the media landscape. Whereas the public service broadcasting where it is funded by the government it provides impartial news, serves minority audiences and champions national unity by offering inclusive rather than exclusive content.

3. Livingstone and Lunt’s suggestion that cultural production exists in a loosely regulated framework, biased towards a consumers rather than citizen model.

Livingstone and Lunt suggest that citizen oriented regulation is concerned with content based issues. It is a positive form of regulation that directs the media content so it can be improve the lives of citizens and contribute to the well- being of the wider society.

Consumer based regulation seeks to ensure that the media landscape contains a variety of different producers so that audiences have a choice. It creates an environment in which audiences themselves make judgements about the kinds of media that are appropriate for their consumption.

The impact of new media technologies for cultural production.

Producers can produce want think audiences would like and create an atmosphere such as some of them might be disturbing scenes. People has become more conservative about each other’s point of view.

4.Present details of the CSP (Chicken) but make sure you focus on production, distribution and consumption and NOT on a textual analysis of the film

Funding;

In order to make Chicken, director Joe Stephenson raised £110,000. Key points:

1. Raised entirely through investment by individuals (e.g. rich friends/contacts)
2. No funding body (e.g. BFI Film Fund) was willing to fund Chicken
3. Raises questions about whether film industry is accessible to lower-income filmmakers

Production;

1. Adapted from a play by Freddie Machin that originally ran at Southwark Playhouse.
2. Filmed in 19 days, almost all external locations so victim to rain, issues with lighting etc.
3. Film produced and distributed by a new company set up by director Stephenson: B Good Picture Company.

Distribution;

1. No distribution deal secured in 2014
2. Two-year festival circuit won awards and generated interest and critical acclaim for film
3. UK cinema release followed in May 2016. Selected for film subscription service MUBI and acquired by Film4 for TV premiere in April 2017.
4. UK DVD release distributed by Network Releasing. Digital distribution in USA/Canada – January 2018.

5. Feel free to add in some audience theory.

Stuart Hall- how people make sense of media texts and claimed audiences were active not passive. An active audience engages, interprets and responds to a media text in different ways and is capable of challenging the ideas encoded in it. This could be challenged through trailers and through promotion adverts.

Funding

In order to make Chicken, director Joe Stephenson raised £110,000. Key points:

1. Raised entirely through investment by individuals (e.g. rich friends/contacts)
2. No funding body (e.g. BFI Film Fund) was willing to fund Chicken
3. Raises questions about whether film industry is accessible to lower-income filmmakers

Production

1. Adapted from a play by Freddie Machin that originally ran at Southwark Playhouse.
2. Filmed in 19 days, almost all external locations so victim to rain, issues with lighting etc.
3. Film produced and distributed by a new company set up by director Stephenson: B Good Picture Company.

Distribution

1. No distribution deal secured in 2014
2. Two-year festival circuit won awards and generated interest and critical acclaim for film
3. UK cinema release followed in May 2016. Selected for film subscription service MUBI and acquired by Film4 for TV premiere in April 2017.
4. UK DVD release distributed by Network Releasing. Digital distribution in USA/Canada – January 2018.

Witnesses

Guest Diversity- it presents a range of different backgrounds and cultures to promote the wide range of feminist viewpoints. This links to witnesses because of the female detective, who is trying to solve the case and find out who is committing the crimes. It has diversity as there are many languages but it is mainly in french.

Commercial Media

it is an organisation that makes or distributes products for economic gain. Commercial media usually makes products for entertainment purpose

Public Service Broadcasting

a media producer who is not reliant on advertising to fund production made by different or does not make products for commercial gain. Public service broadcasting products usually seek to inform and educate their audiences as well as entertain

Horizontal Integration

ownership of subsidiaries that produce similar types of products

e.g The Missing because it is filmed in places such as Germany, Belgium, France etc

Vertical Intergration

ownership of subsidiaries that enable a media producer to produce, promote and distribute products.

e.g Witnesses because it goes through Acorn Production to Amazon Prime, so viewers are able to view who have this subscription.

Star Formatting

Star Formatting is when an organisation who is producing a product, includes well known stars in that industry to gain attention from viewers. This is seen in The Missing because the main detective is named “Baptiste” who is a french well known actor.

Internationalization

Internationalization is the process by which the ownership, structure, production, distribution, or content of a country’s media is influenced by foreign media interests, culture and markets.”This is seen in The Missing because there are many languages and cultural involved such as Morocco, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and a bit in London. This is also seen in Witnesses because it is a french series which then viewed in the US and later in the UK

Genre Formatting

Genre formatting is promoting products using the genre which helps audiences to understand the narrative satisfactions that a product can offer prior to consumption. This is seen by the advertisement in The Missing where a lot of advertisement was done prior to the release of the program such as in articles and blog posts of the story line and genre of the show

What is the difference between a consumer based media regulation system and a citizen based regulation system?

The difference is that a consumer based media regulation system is giving people what they want and a citizen based regulation system is thinking about what would be better for culture and society. Example the BBC- license fee. Consumers might not what to pay if they are not interested in what is playing.

What impact did the 2003 Communications Act have on media regulation?

It promoted independent television production by requiring the BBC and Channel 4 to commission more content from smaller production companies. It was to help UK television industry which they did not achieve. It introduced Off com and they made more commercial programs such as detective and crime programs. The 2003 communications act did not have a positive effect on the media regulation

What is the drawback of a Self-Regulated System?

The drawbacks are it is not a successful factor, it lacks sufficient strict and dissuasive measures. Accordingly, the many problems and challenges in the practice of media self-regulation, in general, and press councils. It is often have to face severe criticism is obviously not new.

Lazarsfield- 2 Step Flow

It was developed by Lazarsfield together with Eihu Katz in the book Personal Influence (1955). It is a model hypothesis that ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders (certain individuals) and from them to the wider population. It recognizes that most people watch media as part of a social network. The disadvantage is communications may involve many steps, not just two. Communication moves both ways, not just one.  Their opinion is not influenced by other factors, the message they receive from the mass media is not filtered by the OL. There is only one source. The audience is passive.

When looking at Paul Lazarfeld for my TV programmes it is possible to see Amazon Prime and other on-line entertainment delivery services as mass targeted, transnational algorithms that work as opinion leaders for individual consumers, beyond linguistic, geographic and cultural boundaries to suggest new programmes for consumption, usually based on a ‘match-rating’ from previous purchases.

Advert 1

The Game

The game will be of a group of female cartoon characters trying to complete courses of worlds. The game play is trying to get the characters to the end of the courses. There are many worlds and obstacles which could make them loose. There are many features of the game such as single mode, team mode and also puzzles to complete.

Layout

This advert is an idea of what one of my adverts to look like. I really like the look of the game play in the 4 boxes, which I think will look good for my magazine when advertising one of my games. I think i will also include the date of the release so readers know when the game will be released.

Colour Scheme

The colors of this advert will be white with pink features such as the borders round the 4 boxes with photos of the game play of the game. The advert will be bright and bold, so it will stand out

Features

This advert will be advertising a new game which will be releasing soon. I will create some characters to be the main images and will create scenes of game play, to include in the 4 boxes. The advert will include the price of the game and a quote of what experts have said about the game. There will also be a rating feature of what age this game is for. I will also include the main symbol of my magazine which is point up arrows which will be around the game play boxes

Advert 2

The Game

The game will be a sliding tiled game where you need to match up the two colors to win points. More tiles will show up when u match more colors and if you can match anymore then the game is over. With these points you win coins and with these coins you can buy boosters and buy new colors tiles.

Layout

For this advert, the background will be a checkered pattern of two different colors. It will have a retro kind of looking title and will include quotes from gaming professionals showing their opinions on the game play, which will be in bold and understand the title.

Colour Scheme

The color scheme will include white and pink which are the two main colors of the magazine. The title will be bold and in black so it stands out from the checkered background. Other features of text will also be in black, so it doesn’t sink in with the background.

Features

I will create a checkered background to symbolize the game play of the game and I will create “coins” which players can will when they gain a certain amount of points, these coins will be dotted around the advert page. I might also create an tablet with the screen of the game play.

Advert 3

The Game

The game will be consist of females characters trying to fight and go through obstacles to try and find the prize of money. The characters will use guns and have weapons to use when trying to get past an obstacle. The game play will go through different scenes and worlds to try complete and find the prize.

Layout

The layout will consist of having about 4 main female characters on the front of the advert doing different positions together. The title is be big and bold and behind the characters. The background will be of a sky and grass and will have a fade of the pink in the background like the image above

Colour Scheme

The color scheme will be all different colors but will interpret the main color of the magazine of pink. The characters will wear dark colors so the background stands out even more of blue, green and pink.

Features

Features will include some weapons, the female characters some obstacles and maybe even some game play at the bottom of the magazine. There will be the price and the rank of the game this year and quotes which a girl gamer have described the game as.