Waterloo Road – Kyle Stack sets his dog on Bex Fisher

The clip begins with a long shot of Kyle Stack and his mother and his dog, the camera is behind to what seems to look like some bars. The audience can clearly see that this is a school playground as Kyle is in school uniform and the audience can hear the sound of teenagers talking in the background as they make their way to lessons. The director uses a tilt to highlight the dog; this is significant as it portrays what’s to happen later on in the clip. The audience have a little glance to what type of dog it is and that it is quite dangerous. This also emphasises the time of people they are – trouble. “Oh yeah”, this diegetic sound that Kyle says highlights his toughness and that he doesn’t want to be messed around with. A close up of his dark barking highlights that his dog is important to him. This also foreshadows the next scene as the dog barks away at the other boys.  There is a few shot reverse shots that highlight the facial expressions of sacredness on the boys face and the annoyed face on Kyle. Close ups of the boys faces are used, this builds up tension to what the boy is telling Kyle as the audience know that something bad is going to happen. The non diegetic sound in the background gradually gets louder and a zoom is used to highlight that Kyle is going to explode. An over the shoulder shot of Kyle’s mum talking to him as Kyle walks away a long shot is used to highlight that he is now in his own world. The diegetic sound of all the screaming girls’ builds up even more tension as the dog barks at Bex, a close up of the dark barking is shown once more. A lot of shot reverse shot is used towards the end of the clip to highlight how everyone is scared of the dog and what might happen. The bars on the windows highlight that Bex is trapped inside and can’t escape.

Waterloo Road - Connor Tells Imogen He Started The Fire

The clip begins with a panning shot set in the middle of the woods with Connor walking through. The non diegetic sound in the background highlights that he is upset and sets the mood of the conversation he is about to have with his girlfriend Imogen. A tilt is then used to highlight his movement in being quite quick, this suggests that he has something important he wants to tell her and wants to get it off his chest in order to start fresh – with no lies. A long shot is then used to emphasis his arrival when he reaches Imogen, who is already waiting for him. “Sorry for what?”,  a close up is used to highlight Connors facial expressions in being sad as he is really sorry for what he has done. Throughout this conversation, they follow the 180 degree rule where the camera is cutting from one side to another as they speak. Another close up is used to highlight Connors sad emotions, this again highlights that he is sorry and wants to be honest with her. The non diegetic sound then fades back in again as she runs away, this highlights Connors feelings that he is sorry for what he has done. Throughout this clip, the audience can hear the non diegetic sound of birds in the background; this also tells the audience that they are out in the open air.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBFJGf38Fys

“Discuss the ways in which media products are produced and distributed to audiences, within a media area you have studied (film)”

In this essay I will be discussing the ways in which ‘The Dark Knight’ was produced and distributed to the audience. The film industry is a very successful industry within media, whether you make a film in Britain or Hollywood, they both have the same process. The process consists of; pre-production, production, distribution, marketing and exhibition.

In 2008, director Christopher Nolan released his sequel to ‘Batman Begins’ titled ‘The Dark Knight”. It is the first live action Batman film without the word ‘Batman’ in its titles. Christopher Nolan wasn’t willing to jump into a second ‘Batman’ movie without first being convinced there was a compelling reason to a sequel. After tossing around ideas as to where the story would go, David S Goyer and Christopher Nolan and his screenwriting partner Jonathan came up with the basic ideas of ground to cover in ‘The Dark Knight’. The screen writer David S Goyer created two sequels which introduced the Joker and Harvey Dent before the release of Batman Begins. The cast stayed the same from the previous film and as the first film was very successful, the actor’s wages would have increased. The film was shot within the budget, £185,000,000 and made gross revenue of £1,001,413,744. This indicated to the audience the success of the film, as it was shot in budget and made a lot of profit. Filming took place in Hong Kong from November 6 to 11 2007, at various locations. This included the International Finance Centre; this is Hong Kong’s tallest building. This scene is for where Batman captures Lau.

The studio which produced the film was Legendary Picture, a subsidiary company to Warner Bros Picture. The studio is very well known due to the many classic and most successful movies of all time, Warner Bros Pictures is a leading motion picture studio. Also Warner Bros Pictures distributes New Line Cinema and DC Entertainment releases. ‘The Dark Knight’ is based on the DC Comics character Batman from May 1939 by ‘Detective Comic’. ‘Batman’ also had an animated television programme which was quite successful. They have become one of the world’s biggest franchises due to all the toys and books and movies. Warner Bros Pictures, decided to produce the next sequel due to the success of the pervious film.

The film is dedicated to two star actors Conway Wickliffe and Heath Ledger. In September 2007 whilst planning a stunt with the Batmobile in a special effects facility in England, Conway Wickliffe was killed when his car crashed. A month after in London, there was a 200-foot fireball filmed for an opening sequence; they received calls from local residents who feared a terrorist attack on the station. Heath Ledger dyed from a toxic combination of prescription drugs which lead to intense attention from the press which made newspaper headlines.

‘The Dark Knight’ was produced, distributed and marketed by Warner Bros Pictures, they are one of the top five studios, this highlights that they are a very successful company. There were a few trailers made for the movie. There was one main trailer and a few short trailers, this highlighted different clips that were in the movie, this created suspense for the audience. However the short trailers only include basic features such as the name of the film ‘The Dark Knight’ and the stars involved and the release date with short clips. These trailers are used in Cinema’s when viewing another movie and on TV shown as adverts to distribute the movie.

Another way in which they got ‘The Dark Knight’ well known to the audience was the posters that they created. These posters came out before the release of the film, this is because it then grabs the audience’s attention straight away and encourages them into wanting to watch the film when it’s released, and this is also because many people know that the previous Batman was a successful movie and raised a lot of money.   Also there were various print advertisements, they were found in newspapers and magazines to give further publicity to the film. Word of mouth is an excellent way to get the film well known; this is the use of technology as we have social networking sites which help to get the film well known. Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are a great way as you can RT certain tweets about ‘The Dark Knight’. This could include Synergy, which is interconnected marketing and distribution of media products across a range of platforms and sectors.

Moreover, the online marketing campaign included a website for ‘The Dark Knight’, they website allowed the audience to see updates, email newsletter and special chats with Batman, the director which DVD owners could get involved with. They could also order the film on demand through the official website and download on the go. Not only could they download on the website but they could download the free iPhone app which they could also watch and download the movie. The app consists of many video clips and scenes from the movie. ‘The Dark Knight’ has many freebies such, wallpapers, phone wallpapers, ringtones, sound clips, buddy icons for MSN, Skype, Facebook Twitter icons. All these freebies highlight that they believed that the film was going to be successful. This is another way of getting the film known to the audience.

‘The Dark Knight’ had a guaranteed audience due to previous movie therefore they knew they were going to make a lot of money. Therefore the ways in which media products are produced and distributed to audience is through the same process of pre production, production, distribution, marketing and exhibition. All of these stages are important for a movie to be successful. If you don’t have a good marketing campaign then you are likely to have poor reviews as you haven’t aimed your product to your target audience. This is by showing different ways of marketing. For example social networking sites in order for word of mouth to be spread. 

The Dark Knight - Group Case Study

Video - The Dark Knight

Case Studies - Section B

- No less than 2 years old 
- Chose 1 large, 1 small 
- Good Casts, New technology
- Not as successful 

Production:
-invest money on idea

Distribution - The role of the distributor: 
- Brings movies into market
- Warner bros, Disney, Sony
- Find USP of a firm 
- Finds a line to explain the whole movie
- Target audience - 15 - 24 years
                      - teens
                               - students 
                               - family groups
- When to release the firm (kids movies - during holidays - big audiences) 
- Christmas blockbusters
- Competition on when movies are released on the same day 

Reseach:
- Show the movies to particular groups
- In advance for posters etc and to spot mistakes
- Is it meeting the peoples expectations 
- Listen to the comments
- Questionnaires 

Budget: 
- Make a high but suitable budget 

Advertising: 
- Advertising - TV, media, billboards, buses etc
- Promotions - Radios, award shows etc 

Distribution - The campaign: 
- Create a marketing campaign to make their movie stand out
- Trailer: Most important
               Graphics/sound revealed to the audience
               Teaser trailer - before production
               Short trailer - in cinema watching another movie
               Main trailer - on TV - Cast - Release Date
               Thriller - Caption
               Comedy - Sound 
- Posters
- Magazines
- Bus shelters 

Tracking film
Word of mouth - I.e. not having a good time watching the film - the word is out and business has                      
                   bad reviews

Opening weekend - more money so it's successful 

Exhibition:
- Multiplex cinema 
- Cinema Location: If people like movies they don't mind travelling to them 
- 3D Digital Cinema 

Out of home entertainment experience  

Exam Notes

Formal Paper
Don't use first person until last paragraph 
Write in the third person – ‘the audience’ not ‘we’ or ‘you’
Don't use contractions - Brackets
Don't use abbreviations
Don't use sub headings
Use media language - Binary oppositions - Good vs. Evil
Connotations & Denotations 
Use wardrobe, props etc
Don't say 'the camera is doing' say 'the next shot' or 'the director set up' 
Mention 'For instant' or 'For example' 

Layout
First paragraph: introduction – representational issue and the clip 
Second paragraph: camera
Third paragraph: sound
Forth paragraph: mise-en-scene
Fifth paragraph: editing
Sixth paragraph: conclusion