Media Industry Essay (06/10/17)

You will create an essay which discusses the impact of technology on the way large organisations such as Disney create block buster films as a means of creating an enhanced viewing experience for consumption within the cinema.

You will also include the role of MPC through visiting their web site to show how film industries can “outsource” or contract specialist organisations to support the production of films such as the Jungle Book.

Technology and the way in which it is used has a significantly large impact on the way that organisations, such as Disney, create their blockbuster films and create an enhanced viewing experience for consumption within the cinema. One of the main aspects of technology that large organisations use is the use of pre-visualisation or performance capture. Performance capture is the process of recording movement of objects or people. As well as recording movement of objects and people, it is also able to capture the emotions on an actor's face and use these emotions and 'transfer' them into the character they are playing to make the animated character as realistic as possible. They do this with a small camera attached to a headset they wear during filming. Directors such as James Cameron used this technology when filming 'Avatar' in 2009. The use of performance capture and pre-visualisation is able to engage the audience in a much better way, and allows the audience to believe that this could be real, rather than having to use their imagination to believe what is happening. Before pre-visualisation and performance capture, many production companies were only able to produce 2D animations, which wasn't able to fully engage the audience in the most effective way.

Another aspect of technology that large companies, such as Disney, use is the digitisation of film and chroma capture. Film digitisation is most commonly used to allow the audience to see locations, scenes and landscape that may be difficult to find, difficult to shoot or too expensive to use. Chroma capture is the use of green or blue screens that can then be used to create an entirely different background or set, and has existed since 1930. The chroma is able to capture a background, and a character or object separately. Then, the production will use 3D animation, image digitalisation and CGI (computer generated imaging) to create the realistic characters within the film. Both film digitisation and chroma capture are significant in creating blockbuster films to create an enhanced viewing experience because it enhances the set and makes it more realistic for the audience to watch, making them believe in the story they are watching. Disney's 'The Jungle Book' was predominantly filmed using green screens and was filmed in a Los Angeles warehouse for the entirety of the production. By doing this, they are enhancing the set and allowing the audience to engage better with the story. Additionally to this, it enhances viewing experience within a cinema, allowing Disney and their other companies to benefit financially.

Further to the digitisation of film and chroma capture, CGI (computer generated imaging) is widely used in production and has a significant impact on the way that large organisation create their blockbuster films and create an enhanced viewing experience. CGI is mainly used to create high quality effects in live action films, or to make character in an animation more realistic. Disney production companies alone would not be able to create 3D animation, so they work with other companies that specialise in computer generated imaging to enhance their work that will benefit them in many different ways, predominantly financially. Moving Picture Company (MPC) is the main company that Disney work with to create their live action films and other CGI movies. MPC specialise in special effects and using techniques such as performance capture to create the most realistic film as they can. They employ 3D modellers, animators and compositors that all contribute to creating such high quality films. Within The Jungle Book, MPC used performance capture and animation to create the realistic animal characters, as well as the realistic Indian jungle set. Additionally to MPC, Disney also own various companies that help with other animated films. In 2006, Disney bought the company 'Pixar' for $7,000,000,000. Since they acquired the company, their animated films have improved significantly, and these animations have become some of the most successful films to date. Although they spent a significant amount of money buying out Pixar, they have then in turn generated profit from all Pixar films they have produced since 2006.

Another important aspect of technology that large companies use is the use of IMAX and IMAX film. IMAX is a 65mm motion picture film format that is widely used in some cinemas around the country. A lot of films are filmed with 35mm film, whereas IMAX film is 65mm, almost double the normal film. This enhances the viewing experience for the audience, and persuades them to watch new films in the cinema rather than pirating them from the internet. IMAX-format film frame produces approximately 18 thousand lines (18K) of horizontal resolution. IMAX in a film will enhance the film's technology all together and will benefit the large companies financially, as more people may be enticed to see the film if they are aware it will be shown in IMAX. The sound in an IMAX film is important, and IMAX theatres have a special patented speaker system, which enhances the viewing experience for audience consumption in the cinema.

The use of technology once the film has been distributed is also important. The technology of streaming services, DVD and 4KHD is all important in enhancing the viewing experience for the audience beyond the cinema. The distribution and production companies will sell the film to the streaming services for a certain amount of money. This helps the streaming service to stream more films to their customers, but it also helps the companies profit on the films that they make. DVD sales are not as popular as they once were, but a certain amount of the entire profit from a film is still generated through DVDs and Blu-ray. DVDs, as well as including the film itself, may also contain behind the scenes footage and special features that may persuade someone who has already seen the film to buy the DVD, as otherwise they may miss out on the other aspects of the film that they haven't seen before. Additionally to this, the introduction of Blu-ray means that people are able to have an enhanced viewing experience in their own home, without having to pay for the cinema. Blu-ray is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was designed to supersede the DVD format, in that it is capable of storing hours of video in high-definition (720p and 1080p) and ultra high-definition resolution (2160p). It allows people to watch High Definition films in their own home. The introduction of Blu-ray meant that DVD sales may have boosted significantly, as this heightened everyone's interest in buying them.

Jungle Book Advertising & Representation

The Jungle Book as an allegory:

Story, play, poem, picture, or other work in which the characters and events represent particular qualities or ideas that relate to morals, religion or politics. 

Orientalism: (Edward Said) Us and They Groups

According to Said, Orientalism is a creation of the Western culture and allows the West to have domination over another culture because of the political power and force the West has cultivated.

The West:

Said defined the West as being rational, virtuous, mature, and normal. We see most of these traits in the novel.

The Orient: is represented; irrational, depraved, childlike, or different. Having this foundation for what it is to be the Orient or the Other.

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2014/05/most-racist-moments-disney-movies-cartoons/the-jungle-book

https://litreactor.com/columns/are-the-jungle-books-racist-or-not-and-why-you-should-read-them-either-way

How could the cartoon may be viewed as offensive to Specific Ethnicities?

Discuss How the Disney organisation has mis-represented other ethnicities based on the above links.

In both the 1893 'The Jungle Book' book series and the 1967 original film, Mowgli represents Britain, or the British Empire and the rest of the jungle may represent the Indian people, possibly trying to convey that the natives are animals or behave like them. Mowgli is also able to manipulate all other species within the jungle, which could suggest that he is portrayed as being better than the animals. this may be offensive to the people of India as Kipling has implied that British People (or the British Empire) is able to manipulate the Indian people. The monkeys within The Jungle Book were originally going to be voiced by Black voice actors, although they changed it last minute in order to prevent people complaining.

View the following links and Summarise the creative decisions taken in changing the narrative within the 2016 Jungle book directed by Jon Favreaus.  (In what way does it differ from the previous incarnations and why was the narrative changed).

Key Micro-elements Essay

Discuss the key micro-elements used to convey meaning in the main (first) poster. 
(300 - 400 words)

The main form of advertisement used to advertise Disney's 'The Jungle Book' is the first poster, or the main poster that they would have placed in various different places, as well as in cinemas around the world. Within this main poster for the film, there are various different key micro-elements that are able to connote different thoughts and feelings to the audience. The first key element is the font that has been used for the title 'The Jungle Book'. The font that has been used is a serif font, meaning it has the flourishes that resemble a person's handwriting. Serif font connotes that the film is a classic and is more traditional than some of the more modern Disney films that were released at the same time. Additionally to this, they have kept it relatively the same as the original 1967 release to convey that they have kept the same story of 'The Jungle Book' throughout this new release. The only thing that may be different is the fact that the 1967 release was a cartoon, and the modern 2016 release was made using CGI. 

The next key element that is used to convey meaning in the first poster is the use of direct mode of address. Within the first poster used to advertise Disney's 'The Jungle Book', all characters are facing the audience and almost making direct eye contact with them. this directly addresses the audience when they look at the poster, and this may engage them from the start and persuade them to see the movie. 

The use of Mise en Scene within this poster is also very important and makes up many of the micro-elements used to convey meaning in the main 'The Jungle Book' poster. There is a wide use of colour within the entire production of the film, particularly this first advertisement. The main colour within this poster is green and the use of green colour connotes many different things in relation to the film. Green is widely used predominantly because the film is set in a jungle and a lot of green is usually situated there. This gives the audience denotations of environment and also allows the audience to gain a better idea of what the film is about if they have not seen the original 1967 film. Additionally to this, green can connote perseverance, which is a key part of the film as the boy is perseverant throughout the film despite coming across various hard times throughout the duration of the film. Yellow is also used in the poster and this gives connotations of wisdom, idealism and imagination, which are all key themes throughout the film. Additionally to this, because a lot of the film is CGI, people may have to use their imagination to delve into the story of the film. 

The lighting that has been used within this advertisement for 'The Jungle Book' is a mixture of low key lighting and high key lighting. Some of the characters placed in the top half of the advertisement have been dimly lit and this could connote many different things. The first character that has been subject to low key lighting is the panther, who's name is Bagheera. It is possible that he has been submerged in low lighting to suggest that he is a mysterious and possibly dangerous character that the other characters may have some trouble with throughout the duration of the film. The other character that has been subject to some low key lighting within this advertisement is the snake lurking in the tree, who's name is Kaa. Kaa seems to be lurking in the shadows because she is possibly a dangerous character that will cause harm and conflict between a lot of the characters. In the original 1967 remake, Kaa is a troublesome character that's intent is to cause harm to various different characters throughout the film.

Glossary

Glossary

Media - The main means of max communication (broadcasting, publishing and the internet) regarded collectively.

Media text - Any media product we wish to examine. Every description or representation of the world, fictional or otherwise, is an attempt to describe or define reality, and is in some way a construct of reality

Anchorage - Fixing of meaning e.g. the copy text anchors (i.e. fixes to one spot) the meaning of an image

Banners – Typically found at the top or bottom of a print media text.

Broadsheet - Large format newspapers that report news in depth, often with a serious tone and higher level language. News is dominated by national and international events, politics, business, with less emphasis on celebrities and gossip. Examples: The Independent, The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph

Byline - A journalist's name at the beginning of a story.


Captions – Text below an image that describes the image or informs the audience who took the image.

Copy - Main text of a story.

Coverlines – Captions on a magazine front cover

Emotive Language – the use of language to generate specific emotional reactions in the target audience

Headlines – The text highlighting the main story being given priority by the producers of the print media text. Often designed to be eye-catching.

Inverted pyramid structure - Newspaper stories start with the main events. Then they give more details and eyewitness comments in short paragraphs. The paragraphs at the end of the story are less important than those at the beginning. This allows sub-editors to shorten stories by cutting paragraphs from the end.

Layout – How the print media text has been designed and formatted.

Masthead - The top section of a newspaper which gives the paper’s title, price and date

Sans Serif font – Font type which does not have lines perpendicular to the ends of letters e.g. Comic Sans – often seen as more contemporary. Think of Apple’s advertising.

Serif font – Font type which does have lines perpendicular to the ends of letters e.g. Times New Roman – generally seen as more traditional or higher class.

Splash – The front page story

Sub-headings – Smaller, typically one line headlines for other stories.

Tabloid - Smaller newspapers aimed at a large audience. News is reported in less depth and emphasises human interest stories. The language level is lower, paragraphs and stories shorter, with more use of images. Content often includes more celebrities, media news and gossip. Examples: The Sun, The Mail, The Mirror, The Express.

Text to image ratio – This involves considering how weighted the print media text is with regards to text and image – you need to ask yourself why the ratio exists.

Typography – The collective term when considering elements of print media relating to the style of the text such as the font, colour, serif, sans serif etc. 

COLOUR 

Saturated colour - refers to the intensity of a colour, it is colour in its purest form… •They are bright and stand out, expecially when set against “complimentary colours)

Muted Colours in font are less eye catching but work effectively

Analagous Colours - A group of related colours that are near each other within the colour wheel that show a graduation of colour, with one being the more dominant colour (for example: red, orange and yellow). These are more harmonious colours.

Complementary Colours - Two colours on the opposite side of the colour wheel that contrast each other.

RED – anger, passion, rage, desire, excitement, energy, speed, strength, power, heat, love, aggression, danger, fire, blood, war, violence

PINK – love, innocence, healthy, happy, content, romantic, charming, playfulness, soft, delicate, feminine

YELLOW – wisdom, knowledge, relaxation, joy, happiness, optimism, idealism, imagination, hope, sunshine, summer, dishonesty, cowardice, betrayal, jealousy, covetousness, deceit, illness, hazard

ORANGE – humor, energy, balance, warmth, enthusiasm, vibrant, expansive, flamboyant

GREEN – healing, soothing, perseverance, tenacity, self-awareness, proud, unchanging nature, environment, healthy, good luck, renewal, youth, vigour, spring, generosity, fertility, jealousy, inexperience, envy grandeur

Direct Mode of Address - where the subject of the text communicates directly with the audience.

Semiotics - images and their meanings.

Media language: how the media through their forms, codes, conventions and techniques communicate meanings

Media representations: how the media portray events, issues, individuals and social groups

‘Intertextuality’: refers to the way aspects of a particular media product relate to another and thus accrue additional significance.

Low key lighting (predominantly dull)

High key lighting (predominantly bright)

Verisimilitude - The appearance of being true or real. It is the likeliness or semblance of a narrative to reality, or to the truth. It comes from Latin: 'velum' means truth and 'similes' means similar.

Protagonist - The lead character or a major character in a play, film or a novel.

Antagonist - Other characters within a play, film or novel that get in the way of the protagonist and may want to harm them.

Codes - Codes can be visual (you can see them) or aural (you can hear them). Codes have symbolic value. For example in our society wearing a pair of glasses (glasses are the code) symbolises, or connotates, that you are clever. TV drama, magazines and videogames use these symbolic codes to generate character types and character archetypes.

Decoding - understanding a media text.

Cinematography - the art of photography and camerawork in film-making.

Diegetic sound - Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film: 

• voices of characters 

• sounds made by objects in the story 

• music represented as coming from instruments in the story space ( = source music)

• Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from source within the film's world  

Non Diegetic sound -  Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action: 

• narrator's commentary

• sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect

• mood music

• Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the a source outside story space

Editing -  PART OF POST PRODUCTION PROCESS

The stage in the film-making process in which sound and images are organised to construct an overall narrative.

• It is how a film maker puts together and considers cuts/cutting and applies transitions, special effects etc. to communicate a narrative to an audience.

• Remember that an audience is a non-active participant who must understand a narrative through the editing, they can only see what you show them.

• Imagine a film or even a scene from a film without any editing, it would be very interesting!

Continuity Editing

Match on Action - 

• Is multiple cuts to show one continuous action. 

• Match on action is part of invisible editing which creates flow when watching a scene.

• The cuts MATCH together so that the audience know it is one action.

Shot Reverse Shot -

•Shot reverse shot is when a shot goes from shot A, shot B, shot A, shot B etc.

•It goes continuously back and forth between the 2 shots to show there is a connection between them

•It is often used in conversations so you see what both characters are saying

•It is a form of eye-line matching if the character is looking at someone and the next shot is what they look at 

•Imagine if a conversation was just 1 shot of character A and you didn’t see character B’s face at all?

Eye Line Match -

Shot A: character is looking off screen

Shot B: what character is looking at

Is a following shot that follows what character is looking at, makes cuts smoother the audience expects the cut to happen and is eager to see what happens next/what character sees.

Cross Cutting -

•Technique of continuously alternating 2 or more scenes that often happen simultaneously (at same time) but in different locations.

• As they cross, pace gradually gets faster and fast and tension builds

Often the parallel scenes will intersect to create a climax.

Representation

Representation - Refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures.

Stereotype - A stereotype may be defined as a popular belief about specific social/ethnic groups or types of individuals and it is broadly standardized or simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions. The stereotypes sometimes can have negative or positive impacts on individuals.

Archetype - A very typical example of a certain person or thing.

Production - The making of the film; pre-production and funding; shoot (format); post-production (SFX)

Distribution - The way the film gets to screens; distribution company.

Marketing - The process of raising awareness; targeting an audience; creating publicity through various methods. A distributor is responsible for marketing a film

Exhibition - The way we view; getting the film to a paying audience.

Media ownership - Media Ownership is dominated by the Big 6 Media Corporations. These exist as conglomerates. Cross Media Ownership is the ownership of multiple media businesses by a person or corporation. These businesses can include broadcast and cable television, film, radio, newspaper, magazine, book publishing, music, video games, and various online entities.

Conglomerate - a thing consisting of a number of different and distinct parts or items that are grouped together. The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Since its founding in 1923. The company comprises: The Walt Disney Studios, Parks and Resorts, Disney Consumer Products and Disney Media Networks.

CGI - Computer-generated Imaging.

Horizontal integration: Walt Disney owns many studio entertainment, consumer product companies, and media networks.

Vertical integration:  Walt Disney plans, produces, advertises, and distributes all of its products on its own.

Circulation - the total number of copies of a magazine, newspaper, newsletter, or catalog that are distributed via direct mail or other channels.

Synergy: Synergy works when different elements within a media conglomerate promote (e.g. film studio, record label, video game division) create linked products (e.g. film, soundtrack, video game). Each distinct element promotes the others.


Public Service Broadcasting: In the United Kingdom, the term "public service broadcasting" refers to broadcasting intended for public benefit rather than to serve purely commercial interests.

Direct mode of address:

The model looks directly at the audience, or the writing speaks to ‘you’.

 Indirect mode of address:

The model looks away, or the writing refers to ‘people’ or ‘the public’.

 Formal mode of address:

Using formal phrasing and terminology.

 Informal mode of address:

Using more conversational language and slang.