Common

Lonnie Lynn Jr. (born March 13, 1972), better known by his stage name Common (formerly Common Sense), is an American rapper, actor, writer, philanthropist, and activist.

Making his album debut with “Can I Borrow a Dollar?” An artist known for often thoughtful, verbose lyricism and exploring varied sounds, his later albums included Like Water for Chocolate, Electric Circus, and Be, among others.A Grammy winner, Common has also turned to acting, as seen with roles in projects like” Just Wright”, “The Odd Life of Timothy Green” and “Selma”. For the latter film, he and vocalist/musician John Legend have won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for the song “Glory.” he’s also worth 47million.

Bilal

Bilal Sayeed Oliver (born August 23, 1979), better known as Bilal, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is currently an independent artist residing in New York City. Bilal is noted for his wide vocal range, his work across multiple genres, and his live performances.

letter to the free music video

Common has always been one to incorporate activism into his music, but perhaps one of his most moving works is the haunting “Letter to the Free” from his 2016 album Black America Again. He turned that song into an affecting visual, which he debuted a longer version of at Tribeca Film Festival Sunday night (April 23).

The black-and-white piece which was filmed in a jail just outside of Queens, New York features Common’s song presented by the rapper himself, along with singer Andra Day, their collaborator Bilal and other musicians playing everything from flute to xylophone to bongos. The clip also features a symbolic black box, which Common explained in a conversation with filmmaker Nelson George after the premiere: “It represents the infinite thing about blackness and blackness can’t be defined in time or space.”

1. both black
2. They dont have english names
3. They have both produced 15 songs together
4. common is worth 45 m

• black people

• Common is an American rapper, actor, writer, philanthropist, and activist.

• Common is a christian

• sings about the concept of freedom

• Bilal is an american singer, singsong writer and producer

• collaboration with Bilal and common, they have produced 15 songs

• commons net worth 45 million

Common:

Full name: Lonnie Corant Jaman Shuka Rashid Lynn

Age: 47 years old

Occupation: Rapper, actor, writer, activist and philanthropist

Bilal:

Full name: Bilal Sayeed Oliver

Age: 40 years old

Occupation: Singer, songwriter and record producer

Explain the appeal of low to medium budget films to Hollywood conglomerates

Hidden figures was a underbudge movie created with a budget of $25 million, and was sent out for a test run to the public in December 25, 2016 and then was released worldwide in january 2017 where it tripled its starting profit. Hidden figures was also co-produced between to companies of a major hollywood conglomerates through their film subdivision known as “Fox 2000”. The movie used traditional methods of distribution and exhibition for targeting audiences. The leading company, Fox 2000 gave the hidden figures movie a low budget from its contemporary subject matter and its targeted audience, since hollywood usually ignores that kind of targeting due to the age, gender, race aspects of the movie but an advantage for producing this movie can be a good test run for audiences constant changing preferences. Finally if the movie didn’t sell well the company wouldn’t be at a big loss since the budget for the movie wasn’t big to begin with. The movie after its world wide release racked up $236 million with lots of positive reviews on its contemporary subject matter bringing up topics of women of colours empowerment, and was a perfect example of positive risk taking for the conglomerates Fox 2000. This gave the business company FOX 2000, research knowledge and feedback to be able to produce even more big hit movies with similar topics and higher budgets. 

• the movie is a medium to low budget film produced by Hollywood (25$M)
• The appeal of this film to Fox studios is that it provides insight and commentates on the social situation of today. Also the film is a medium budget production which means it has a higher profit potential than a large budget film. 
  
• The appeal of this film to audiences is education about history and because it comments on social issues like racism that people in today’s society can also relate to. 
  
• The film was successful on a profit level, with it earning $236 million against a budget of $25 million, making the total revenue figure around $211 million. 

Hidden Figures is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder. It is loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly about black female mathematicians who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration during the Space Race.

Hidden Figures had a limited release on December 25, 2016, by 20th Century Fox, before going wide in the United States on January 6, 2017. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $236 million worldwide. It was chosen by National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2016 and was nominated for numerous awards, including three Oscar nominations (Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Spencer), and two Golden Globes (Best Supporting Actress for Spencer and Best Original Score). It also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

summery bullet points about hidden figure

• Initial Release: January 6, 2017 (Canada)
• Director: Theodore Melfi
• Awards: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture (MORE)
• Nominations: Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (MORE)
• Running Time: 2 hours 7 mins
• Budget Size: 25 million USD
• Box Office: 236 million USD 

• RATING: 
• IMDb- 7.8/10
• Meta-critic: 74%
• Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
• Google User: 94%

1.) What do you think was the appeal of this film to Fox studios?

I understand that the appeal for this movie was to use the theory known as Uses and Gratifications to educate and shine a light to viewers about the past discrimination at such big event in history, the space race.

2.) What was the appeal of this film to audiences? 

I think the appeal was to make viewers more aware of events that would have transpired when the space race was happening and that was overlooked. This can link to the uses and gratification theory by Katz, Gurevitch and Haas by tending to the social needs and educating about the worlds history, or it can tend to the needs in the category of personal needs by helping viewers understand them selves more and there place in society, and how different life was back then.

3.) Do you think this film was a success?

the films budget started at $25 million and almost tripled in profit after being released so on the more corporate side of things I would say the movie was successful. however I would say that the movie in itself could have been more truthfully deciding on how accurate the film was going to be instead of adding in inaccurate scenes for the should purpose of drama.

Media Concentrations / conglomerates: when various small productions are owned by larger corporations.

Globalisation (in terms of media ownership): distant countries are interrelated and connected together by trade communications and cultural experiences

Vertical Integration: company expands into other areas of the industry

Horizontal Integration: production company expands into other areas of one industry

Gate Keepers: craft and construct what’s published

Regulation / deregulation:reduction or elimination of power by goverment

Free Market: somewhere government has no control in

Monopolies: a place of no competition

Mergers: combination of firms

Neo-liberalism: everything against liberation = no equality

Surveillance / privacy / security / GDPR: general data protection regulation

Explain the appeal of low to medium budget films to Hollywood conglomerates. Use Hidden Figures to support your answer. [15 marks]

5	13-15	· Excellent understanding of the theoretical framework, demonstrated by consistently effective explanation of the appeal of low to medium budget films to Hollywood conglomerates. · Excellent knowledge and understanding of contexts of the media and their influence on media products that is consistently supported by highly appropriate and effective reference to Hidden Figures. · Consistently appropriate and effective use of subject specific terminology throughout.
4	10-12	· Good understanding of the theoretical framework, demonstrated by frequent effective explanation of the appeal of low to medium budget films to Hollywood conglomerates. · Good knowledge and understanding of contexts of the media and their influence on media products that is usually supported by mostly appropriate and effective reference to Hidden Figures. · Mostly appropriate and effective use of subject specific terminology.

Conglomerates: a company that owns lots of companies.

Media concentration / Conglomerates: a pattern of ownership whereby fewer and fewer hands own more and more of the assets of that industry. Patterns of ownership across a multitude of media industries.

Globalisation (in terms of media ownership): the worldwide integration of media through the cross-cultural exchange or ideas.

Horizontal integration: a company takes over another that operates at the same level of the value chain in an industry.

Vertical integration: the combination in one firm of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate firms.

Gatekeepers: a person who controls access to something or someone. They craft and conduct what is being published to the masses.

Regulation: laws, rules or procedures.

Deregulation: the process of removing or loosening government restrictions on the ownership of media outlets.