PPE: LR

• Feedback

WWW: Clear points and good use of media theory

EBI: Need to aim for at least 3 paragraphs for each question and stick to the question

• Strongest question

My strongest question was number 3 and it was about representations. I did well in this question because included a lot of media theory and linked it back to the question, i also got all of the names of the theorist correct. I also think I spent the most amount of time on question 3 and it was my most well planned part of the question paper. I scored 10/12 for this question.

• Weakest question

My weakest question was the last one, question 4. This is because I didn't spend enough time on it and it wasn't well planned. I also found it hard to stick to the question as with the points I made, made it hard to link it back to what the question was asking me.

• Examiner report

Agreed with the examiners response over question 3 as i also reached level 4 and also included a lot of theory, however for question 1 i could have included a lot more of my own knowledge and left out the information given to us in the case study. This question could have been answered better for me but overall for the rest of the country it was the most successful, if i were to do this question i would focus more on the audience as i don't think i focused on the question enough. Question four was my worst question and it wasn't answered to well overall either so again i think i would need to focus on the question a lot more.

• LR Question 4

How are the Paralympic Games represented in the trailer as a much anticipated sporting event?

Firstly, i think the Games are represented as a much anticipated sporting event through the use mise-en-scene. In this case the setting being the crowd was shown in the trailer to show just how excited the fans were in hope that this could entice others into going to see/watch the Paralympic games. Also the mise-en-scene helps us identify where it was and where it was being hosted in, for example we see the new Olympic stadium which could also help persuade people to go to the Paralympic games because of the grand stadium. Another point to mention; unrelated to the mise-en-scene is the use of the crowds cheering as this shows they are enjoying themselves at the venue.

The song which is used is also a great way to get the audience involved as it is a very fast paced and exciting song which could get the audience to take interest in the trailer. It is also important to the mention that the song does work in parallel to the trailer as they work well along side together, creating an exciting atmosphere which could build up more anticipation about the Paralympic games.

It also uses some sort of narrative structure with a beginning, middle and end to help familiarize the audience with it and solely focus on persuading them to gain/find an interest in the Paralympic games. It uses various shots of the athletes training in preparation to it to show that even they are getting ready for the Paralympic games and encourages the audience to follow suit and come along to view it,

Section B Independent Case study

To complete: Broadcast + Print

The Inbetweeners

The basics

• Name of the film, director and notable stars

The Inbetweeners movie, directed by Ben Palmer (directed episodes from the Inbetweeners series) some of the more popular stars include all of the four main characters along with Greg Davies. The four main characters were Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison. Each of these characters also appeared in the highly successful TV show on E4/Channel 4.

• When was it released 

It was released in cinemas in the summer of 2011. There is also a second movie which was released in the summer of 2014. The reason why the movies were both released in the summer time is because they were both set during the summer holiday period so they could assure themselves to get maximum views as it was aimed at a lot of teenagers who would have been in School.

• What genre is the film

The genre of the film is a comedy. It was also dubbed funniest gag film of the summer by some critics. Similar conventions shared from the generic ones of comedy include having different types of characters in order to portray clear conflicts of interest. In the Inbetweenres we can see that the character Neil is the idiotic one and the rest apart from Will all have their own battles with sanity.

• What was the critical reception?

The Inbetweeners received only average reviews both on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. The critics ratings were around only 50/60% in favour of the movie but user reviews were a lot more welcoming of the film as there were more positives about it then negatives.  

Broadcast

• MIGRAIN analysis

The mise-en-scene of this clip is quite interesting as a lot is communicated through the costumes, actors positioning and props. For example, The boys facial expressions when they see the place they are staying at is horrifying and we can see that through their facial expressions, also their facial expressions show immense amounts of excitements when they're all walking down one of the main high streets filled with bars and women, their faces immediately light up showing that they're happy. The institutions that were involved in producing and distributing the Inbetweeners were Film 4 productions and Entertainment films. Entertainment films is quite a large distributor and has distributed a few big budget productions in the past so they had the finance to put the movie into cinemas and have a normal staggered release. Film 4 was already part involved in the production of the TV series so it was sensible that they were involved in the production of it. The Genre of this movie is of course comedy and similar films to this which it has been compared to in the same genre is American Pie which is an American comedy which is quite like the Inbetweeners but it has more of a British sense of humor. Also the British are represented as typical hooligans when abroad as when the boys are in a party scene and it is quite a negative representation as it gives a bad image to Brits abroad. The typical audience for this trailer would be similar to that of the loyal fans of the popular TV series. The target audience demographic would be young teenagers and young adults, this is because these are the age groups that could relate to the people in the story. The ideologies are obvious here and are different in comparison to the young people that are represented in Ill Manors. The boys in the Inbetweeners have different values and beliefs as they may not feel they have been cheated and ignored by the government as they can afford to go abroad for their holiday and their homes and lives aren't being represented in such a negative way. There is some sort of narrative shown in the trailer, however not all of the clips are in order so it doesn't give much away. There are some action codes such as Jay waking up moaning in an Ants nest which suggests he had a great and shocking night.

• Television promotions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8EBzN5O8iY  This is from the Jonathan Ross show and shows all of the four main characters trying to promote the film. The Jonothan Ross show is a popular chat show that airs at 10PM on Saturday nights on ITV1 so it reaches a large audience who could be interested in a new raunchy comedy.

• Does it use stars to boost promotion 

It really only uses the four main actors to promote as they are all well recognisable from the popular TV series.

Print

• Quotes from reviews 

Rotten Tomatoes: 

'What primarily redeems the Inbetweeners movie is that it's so surprisingly tender and sweet'.

Anutshell blog:  "this film is somewhat like American Pie in its premise"

San Francisco Chronicle: "The Inbetweeners Movie" proves that raunchy comedies about horny teens aren't just an American quirk"

• Print promotion + examples

This film poster shows a few of the top reviews from critics that the film received so this helps promote it by giving it good publicity among people who are not the intended target audience, for example more middle aged people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAlGUO4el_0 : This is the official teaser trailer that was used to promote The Inbetweeners movies even before the official trailer was released. This added to the build up of the release and it didn't give anything away as no clear narrative was showed just some of the more exciting bits of the movie.

• Choose a print advert and write a textual analysis on it

The colours used in this represent similar colours to that of a night club theme and a party theme. This gives off what the movie is all about and also the text of the title is written like the luminescent lights of similar sign that could be found on bars and clubs. Without knowing what the movie is about or anything about the characters you would be able to tell where they come from and what sort of people they are, for example you could connote the person with glasses (Will) to be the more sensible and intelligent one whilst if you were to look at the one in the England jersey (Jay) you may assume this one is a typical white patriotic person who probably misbehaves and causes trouble.

• How is the films brand represented

The films brand is already well established from the well known and liked TV series. Also the director is shown on most of the promotional posters and adverts and he himself adds to the increased brand image as he directed all of the Inbetweeners TV series as well so he could be well known among the target audience.

E-media

• Films social media presence 

The Inbertweeners movie had an active twitter,facebook and Instagram and this was especially important and successful as its main target audiences being teenagers would be the ones using these sites and it would have been easier to promote them and gain more success, especially through people writing reviews (opinion leaders-on twitter).

• Film's website/synergy

An official independent website for the Inbetweeners movie was never released but there is still a part of Channel 4's official website which showcases a brief description of the film. t

The website it'self is quite basic with nothing much used to interact with The Inbetweeners target audience directly.

• E-media based campaigns?

There was never really any large e-media campaigns as The inbetweeners didn't really have to advertise much as they already had a well established fan base and audience. They did have a facebook page when the movie was due for release but the posts since then have been removed.

• Examples of how it used the two step flow model

The two step flow model is a template that can be used to determine who in media are the opinion leaders who spread a broader message down to their followers who could all be different groups of people who believe in different things.

Audience

• Target audience (Demographics/psycho graphics)

The target audience is similar or the same as the popular TV series that the movie is based on. the target audience could therefore be young teenagers approximately 13/14 up to young adults 18/21. Other ages; probably above 21 could also be suitable to watch it as they may like the humour or even some of the characters. The psychographic group that would be most likely to view this film is probably going to be a majority of a main-stream audience as comedy genres would appeal to all and it is all around a feel goo movie. 

• How does cross media promotional campaign target this audience

One example of a cross media promotional campaign is when the Inbetweeners joined up with Samsung to make phone cases available to win in prize draws. This would appeal to their younger target audiences who all probably have some sort of smartphone to have one of these special cases. The cases were released closed to the launch of the movie and through the second and third season of the popular TV show.

• What audiences pleasures does this film offer, refer to the BFI lecture

Different genres provide people with different audience pleasures. As this a comedy movie its audience pleasures could be something like exaggeration, identification with characters and situations, raunchy humour and narrative resolution. Also the use and gratifications theory can be applied here as audiences who may not be apart of the target audience. These other people may feel as though they can relate to it or may be trying out something new and comedy is not a genre that they are familiar with.

• Similar films the audience could enjoy

Similar films that the same audience could enjoy may not be more American such as movies like American Pie as the audience in this case may only prefer British comedy and not get the quirky American humour as much. Therefore similar films could be comedy sketches such as Jimmy Carr or other comedy TV shows such as Outnumbered.

Institution

• Film studio (production company) research 

A production company called Bwark who have dealt with the production of The Inbetweeners series before were involved in the creation of the movie. The main production company involved was Film 4 productions. They are owned by Channel 4 and was first set up back in the 1980's. Films that they have produced. co-produced include, Attack the Block, 12 years a slave and Cuban fury. Cuban fury is another comedy which could be compared to the production of The Inbetweeners movie. Film 4 have produced a lot films so would have been experienced enough to deal with the production of the Inbetweeners movie. 

• What company distributed the film in the UK

Entertainment films distributed internationally The Inbetweeners movie. They are responsible for distributing a lot of other Hollywood and big budget productions so there was definitely a guarantee of success when choosing this distribution company.

• Previous films that support this film and target audience

They have distributed comedy films like Run fat boy run which is also a British comedy film produced by Film 4.

• What was the budget for the film

The budget for the Inbetweeners movie was £3.5 million.

• How successful was the film financially 

Globally the Inbetweeners movie grosses $88 million.

• Where was it more successful UK/USA

Due to it being a British comedy with more of a British sense of humour it was more successful in the UK than the USA as they may not have been able to relate to the comedy. Also different audience pleasures were gained for different people as they are both very different in the ideologies they posses. 

• What certificate was the film given

The film was judged and given a 15 rated certificate by the BBFC. This is becuase of the sexual refrecnes and humour, along with the bad language used.

Representations

• Representations of people,places and groups can be found in this film

Representations of different socio economic groups are shown with-in the four main protagonists. For example the character Will could fit into the category of C1 whilst is friend Neil may fit into the C2 or D category because of the careers of their families. It also represents a typical high school with the clique characters. Also it represents how young Brits are abroad and is quite a true and accurate representation.

• What representations of Britishness does the film contain

Typical representations of Britishness the film includes is showing off their patriotism, for example when the character Jay is on the street filled with clubs he was wearing his England football jersey. Also the hooliganism is displayed by the other people in the movie and not so much by the four main protagonists.

• How does the representation of Britain differ from that of Ill Manors

The inbetweeners movie shows a different side of how the youth turn out in comparison to that of ill manors. It is mainly the youth that is represented here as this is the main and biggest differecne between the two films. In Ill Manors the youth have gone off the path and we see more of how the environment they grew up in shaped who they are today.

• What values and ideologies can be found in this film

The four boys in this film seem to have more morals and a better understanding & tolerance of people. They are also not at war with the government and accept they are in power. They believe in education and being responsible to an extent.

Case study comparison

• Similarities and differences between Ill Manors, A field in England and the Inbetweeners

The main differences between the three films is the budget as The difference between Ill Manors and a field in England is huge but the difference between A field in England and The Inbetweeners is even larger. There is a similarity between A field in England and The Inbetweeners as they were both supported by Film 4, however they were both very different films. Ill Manors and the Inbetweeners both had staggered release strategies unlike a Field in England that is why they could have potentially gained more revenue.

Mest 1 section B index

1. British Film industry institutional context
2. British Film industry media fact-sheet questions
3. Ill Manors: Review
4. Ill Manors: Trailer analysis
5. Ill Manors: Music video analysis +research
6. Ill Manors Tedx Broadcast 
7. Ill Manors Broadcast platform concluded: DVD Extras, Broadcast/on-line, Television, Radio 
8. Ill Manors: Print platform
9. Ill Manors: Print branding 
10. Ill Manors E-media Tag London campaign
11. Ill Manors E-media Social networking research 
12. Ill Manors E-media website analysis 
13. A field in England secondary case study + Afield in England: The appeal of art house film
14. Ill Manors & A field in England institution research 
15. BF NOTES

section b: Institution research

Ill Manors funding 

The estimated budget for this was approximately £100k.

Institutions that contributed to financing Ill Manors includes Film London's subsidiary group Microwave London which helps finance first time directors and creative lower budget British/London based films. Revolver entertainment (now insolvent) helped cover the cost distribution costs.

Ill Manors budget was significantly lower than to a film such as Skyfall which had a budget of approximately  105-200 million dollars. The Ill Manors budget was around 80-100 thousand pounds so it was significantly lower than the Hollywood production.

A field in England funding 

The estimated budget for a field in England was £300k

A field in England already had an established director Ben Wheatley. Plan B was a first time director so it seemed for fitting that he reside in an institution that supports and would be more likely to support first time directors, unlike film 4's subsidiary Film 4.0 who invest in creative and innovative sort of low risk films.

A field in England raised finance from Film 4's sub business, Film 4.0, which tends to invest heavily in more innovative and creative films that they can offer on their channel.

Film London and Microwave film

Film London's function is to provide assistance in production and distribution of films set up in and around London.

Microwave films is owned by Film London and its main aim is to help finance films in London that are usually from first time directors or innovative and creative film ideas.

Shifty is a film that Microwave London  helped to produce. It is also similar to Ill Manors as they were both set in deprived parts of London and both show a reality there that most people don't get to see, for example with all of the drug deals and violent crime. The two are quite similar in another aspect as the main characters in both (portrayed by Riz Ahmed). Plan B also helped with the soundtrack in both films and produced and directed the other.

Vertigo films and Warp films

Films that Vertigo are most well known for are Football Factory, The Sweeney and Street dance 3D.

Football factory was very successful because at the time the group of people it was targeted at was the majority of people in the country so it appealed to a lot more people. The Sweeney was popular because it was a re-make of a classic film/TV series that a older and younger generation would be able to appreciate. Street Dance 3D was successful as it was aimed at the right audience, specifically families as it included a lot of familiar family names featuring people from Britain got talent which is also aimed at a similar audience.  

More recently vertigo have gotten into genres Such as horror with Its recent movie moments".

Warp films was first set up by Warp records and was founded by two people in Sheffield. They first started getting involved in the production of short films and then with the introduction of a new partner they got involved in producing full length films which still goes on today. They also created a sub division of the company called Warpx which is involved in the assistance of new film makers and artistic ventures.

I think there are two very successful films produced by warp and these include This is England and 71'.

Warp films subdivision, Warpx have had a major impact in shaping certain aspects of the film industry, a lot of their short films and experimental ones have gained various nominations within the film industry including BAFTA nominations.

This is England and the Football factory are probably two of the most similar as the type of genre being urban and location are quite similar, they also portray the same group of people just of different ages and time periods.

BBFC

People within the BBFC are given films to watch in a comfortable, generic environment they are then asked to make notes on the film and judge whether it fits in the applied age bracket or differs, depending on the criteria.

There are some similarities between 15 and an 18 certificate as a lot of the content in an 18 certificate is just the extremes and in higher quantity of that which is in a 15 certificate. However, a 15 certificate usually doesn't include gratuitous violence.

Ill Manors was given an 18 certificate because it showed the harsh reality of living in and around that area and didn't hold back in how graphical it was.

A field in England was given a 15 rating due to the use of strong language and one very strong use of it, incldued violence and gory images.

Advantages: May be to innapropriate for youngsters to watch as it may influence them in the wrong way.

Disadvantages: May not reach in the targeted audience, therefore the film may not make enough money or spread its message..

A Field in England: the appeal of Art house film

Audience pleasures?

The article talks about different audience being able to view art house films. Elitism plays a big factor in deciding the different pleasures audiences get, for example middle class people pay see it as entertainment compared to viewing mainstream Hollywood movies and maybe lower class people who view art house films may see them for narrative and its art.

Why do some audiences struggle with art house films?, refer to media theories 

Some audiences are so use to the Hollywood blockbusters and their typical, generic film structures including equilibrium-dis equilibrium and new equilibrium. Art house films tend not to have no narrative closure and therefore make audiences feel estranged to the film genre. This links to
Todorov's theory of equilibrium. 

To what extent is art house film only available for the middle classes and older pages?

Art house films have always been directed at a certain age group, even the décor and location of the cinemas helps differentiate it from that of those from larger chain cinemas, for example; art house cinemas tend to be in cities and blend in with the surroundings. They are also a lot more expensive then regular cinema tickets because they feel as though they are supplying to a more wealthy audience. Maybe in the past art house cinemas were more exclusive but typically anyone could go and view a film in their, there is no specific people it wants to let though its door but does operate in quite a niche market to a certain extent. 

What type of audience would a field in England appeal to?

A field in England fits the bill perfectly for being an art house production. From the start you can tell that it is an art house production and that it was made for being art and not for the money. I think this would suit a typical art house audience being middle class/middle age people. Although, as it was release on a simultaneous release strategy a lot more of different types of audiences would be able to watch it such as a film 4 audience which amounted to most of the views for a field in England.