LO4 TASK 5 Legal and ethical

Audience theory

There are two schools of thought that discusses how media can have a potrayal on people. One of these is called the hypodermic syringe (Theordore Adorno 1930s), Theordore stated that the media is so powerful that the audience has no power of their own thoughts, as they believe everything that is in the media. This has a negative impact on the audience, because it can lead to 'Copycat crime'. This is where people renact the violence that are portrayed in the media, which can cause a moral panic.

Looking at the positive impacts that 'Star Wars Episode III' has on the audience I have come to understand that ever since 'Star Wars' developed and produced their own sci-fi theme of films many other people and film productiong have been inspired to incorperate the 'Star Wars' style to their own film style. Another positive a impact that 'Star Wars' has had on the audience is giving people the chance to express theirself however they want, by allowing cosplay ideas to their target audience which is commonly seen during ComicCon, this is a big thing due to the fact that quite a lot of people look to the 'Star Wars' characters air either ideal self or even their role models based on each chacaters individual morals.

'Star Wars Episode III' presents quite a lot of positive messages to its viewers within the diegesis, however their are a lot of negative impacts that the film has on its audience too. The first negative imact that is seen by the audience and portrayed in real life are the action scenes, these scenes are deemed as very dangerous and are not permitted to be copied by non perofessinals, due to people renacting these scenes a lot of people get hurt on a regular basis.

Another negative impact is the fact that 'Star Wars' has on the audience is the way in which male violence is depicted (Earps and Katz 1999 ‘ equation of masculinity with pathological control and violence’) due to the violence within the film, this could have a negative impact on members within the audience by making some members more violent and likely to take violence out on others.

From what I have gathered from my knowledge of 'Star Wars' I have come to understand that quite a lot of fans of the film saga tend to renact the fight scenes through roleplays, this is a prime example of 'Copycat crime' due to the fact that the media has had an infludence on the audience so much that some of the audience memebers have decided to take part in their own 'Star War' fights in order to express their love of the saga.

The second school of thought was stated by David Gauntlett (2002), he stated that people are able to filter and adapt to what is depicted in the media. This has a positive affect on the media, which reduces the amount of copycat crime, this is what is called an active audience.

Representations

'Star Wars Episode III' is a film which manages to capture different types of stereotypes within the diegesis of the film, these stereotypes can affect on how the audience envisions the the actors witjin the film. The greatest example of this is between the relationship of Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amadala. Their relationship shows quite a lot of romance and affection, however Padme seems to be objectified by Anakin when he is talking to others about her, it is almost as if he doesn't see her as more than just a wife within scenes. This is commonly referred to as the 'Male Gaze' (Laura Mulvey 1975), where males see the opposite sex as no more than just an object or goal.

Within 'Star Wars' minorities are looked down upon by other races of intergalactic lifeforms due to the fact that most minorities are slaves within the diegesis of the film. This could have a bad representation to the way some people portray topics such as slavery by making such things seem normal within the diegesis of the film.

Legal and Ethical

Copyright means the exclusive and assignable legal rights to a piece of work, art or music. this grants you protection against others who would be looking to take your work and claim it for their selfs. For Lucasarts this is important because they want to keep their main brand name protected so no other companies could use their brand name and sell products under their name. For example the 'Star Wars' theme song has copyright protection over it due to the fact that it is a Lucasarts original piece of music, therefore they don't want anyone else stealing it. Lucasarts is a conglomerate company that have different subsidaries beneath them that specify in different areas, they work using horizontal integration in order to communicate between different departments. The greatest example of synergy within the Lucasarts company is when the film department and the music department joined up in order to produce the Star Wars theme song.

Ethical

Looking the ethical side of 'Star Wars' I have come to understand that 'Star Wars' have quite a few offensive characters that are based around different races of people. The best two example of this are through the characters of both Jar Jar Binks and Viceroy Gunray, the depiction of these characters are made to impersonate the Jamaicans and the Chinese. Due to this a few people have made complaints to say that these characters are stereo-typically aimed at them. However due to these characters not being human they are able to get away with this and remain having the BBFC certificate rating of 12 to attract their mass target audience, therefore making a big profit in post-production.


Regulatory bodies


BBFC

The BBFC are the UK's regulator for film and video, they provide age ratings through certificates, for example U, PG and 12. The BBFC are a designated body that have the legal power to rate, cut or even reject works that they do or don't deem suitable.

Looking at 'Star Wars Episode III' I had come to an understanding that this film remained within the BBFC guidelines by, not showing too much blood or gore, not showing some scenes of decapitation and by not clearly mocking other races of people.

The only denotation of violence within the poster of 'Star Wars Episode III' is the picture of Anakin and Obi-Wan fighting, however this is not a clear connotation of violence including harm and offence. However it does depict a fight scene on the poster, however it is a suitable for the target audience which is shown by the bbfc as a certificate 12.

The bbfc state that they had given 'Star Wars Episode III' a certificate 12 due to the violence within the film. This is due to the focus of decapiation, death, murder and burning within the film, however there are never really scenes of blood and gore within the scenes of the film itself which helps lover the certificate given to 'Star Wars' by the bbfc. below I have taken a screen shot of why the bbfc have really decided to rate this film a 12 based on the violence

ASA

The ASA (Advertising Standard Authority) are an independent company that specialise in the advertisement across all media. They produce advertisement codes that are written by the Committees of advertisement practice. The ASA also try to take action against harmful, misleading or offensive advertisements in order to make advertisement a better. My chosen film's poster includes a scene of violence although it has not gone against the ASA's code in terms of showing harm or offence during the poster.




 The marketing of a poster in my film adhere to the rules set by not showing any scenes of harm or offence through the scene of violence that is shown in the centre of my poster. The way in which this poster does this is by showing violence although it does not show any sense of bodily harm, therefore it has not gone against this rule set by the ASA. Also if you look at the poster for 'Star Wars Episode III' you can see that there are no images that contain offensive material seen as unstable for viewing.

What I have to do for todays lesson

I need to reach up to Mise en scene with my new blog that I have recently made for star wars. then after I have done this I should be working on my video on the verge of completing it. I also have to edit my audio because I stutter during the recording.

Starter Task

A indie music video

• Instruments
• Band Preforming
• Secluded Place (Personal)
• Outdoors

A horror film

• Flickering lights
• Low Key Lighting
• Characters
• Blood (Danger/Death)
• Secluded Places (To Add To The Fear Of No Escape)

Peer Assessed Starter Task

1.       Diestetic sound is sound that can be used to suit the setting of the scene, for example seagulls at the beach (ambient) dialogue and sound effects; this originates from the natural environment (diegesis). This can be seen during  all the production stages of recording

2.       Non-diegetic sound is a sound that does not relate to the natural environment of where the scene is set, for example hearing a wolf howl in a car park, this is also seen during the post-production stages of producing a film. Only the audience can hear non-diegetic sound. Examples of this type of sound are: voiceovers, incidental music and soundtracks.

3.       The difference between Denotation and Connotation is that to Denote something you’re describing what you see and when it comes to Connotation you’re describing how that makes you feel or what it symbolises.

4.       ‘The male Gaze’ was suggested by Laura Mulvey in 1975. It suggests in terms of films that males look at females in a different way to males, this it because males usually see females as less than human in films. She said they are represented as sex objects. E.g. Fantastic Four.

Assessor: Kayna Baugh

Student: Keenen Smith

Life on Mars Task

• Music
• Child whispering
• running through trees
• ambulance
• Fire engine
• beeping
• difibrulators
• Heart Monitor
• Sun crackling

My chosen film follows the narrative structure of 'Circe', this is due to the fact that the protagonist has to go undercover in order to find the antagonist

Audition introduction task

During todays lesson I have learnt how to manipulate audio to suit my desired taste in terms of sound and patterns

Voice Recorder Task

Three things I learnt while recording.

What I've learnt while recording 

• The first thing I learnt while recording on the audio recorders was how to select specific recordings that I previously made.
• I have also learnt how to adjust the audio volume while recording.
• The third thing I have learnt is that its important to have a nice and quiet areas while recording or you will encounter a lot of background noises.

What I found difficult

• One thing I found difficult was the process in order to actually start recording.
• I also found it difficult to Delete.
• The final thing I found difficult was making sure we didn't create too much background sound while recording, because the recorder picks up the quietest of sounds.

What I have learnt

• I have learnt how to produce a recording successfully.
• I have also learnt how to access recordings.
• And the final thing I have learnt is how to create new recordings.   

Audio Recorder

Peer Assessment

Peer Assessment

Key words not highlighted in yellow= missing

• Conglomerate
• Cross Media Ownership
• Independent
• Distribution
• Consumption
• Film Production Process
• Film Production Cycle
• Vertical Integration
• Horizontal Integration
• Subsidies 
• Synergy
• Joint Venture 

Add the missing key words to your script.

I need to make sure that I replace some of my words with the key words in order to get a better making for the quality of my script.

Introduction

Hello, my name is Keenen Jeremiah Smith and I have been asked "by" Education Wise produce a series of educational resources for level 3 media courses.

I will be looking at the ownership, operating model, products, market position and the competitors of 21st Century Fox.

Ownership

21^st Century Fox is a conglomerate company founded by Keith Rupert Murdoch, who is the founder, chairman and CEO of Newscorp, which is the second largest media conglomerate in the world. Newscorp is the world’s leading newspaper company which has other subsidiaries working under their supervision. Newscorp is also the parent company alongside 21^st Century Fox; these two companies own a large branch of subsidiaries that work under their supervision with different roles to meet their specific areas of work.

It is apparent from the information available that 21^st Century Fox’s subsidiaries operate as a cross media company, which means that they produce merchandises for multiple media organisations, an example of this would be 20^th Century Fox and Fox, the two subsidiaries specialise in two different types of media, 20^th Century Fox is in charge of the movie production whereas Fox is in charge of television/ broadcasting. 20^th Century Fox have done a few collaborations when it comes to producing media products, 20^th Century Fox have collaborated with other companies such as: HP and Lightstorm entertainment to create avatar digital experience.

The film clip I am going to be using is from the movie ‘Big Mommas House’; this is because it is quite a very successful movie produced by 20^th Century Fox.

Operating Models

While I was doing more research into 21st Century Fox I came to understand that the way 21st Century Fox uses its subsidiaries in terms of an operating model is by vertical integration, this means 21st Century Fox as a conglomerate company have full control of the production, distribution and exchange of their products. The reason 21st Century Fox are able to use vertical integration is due tot the fact that they have quite a lot of subsidiaries that can help them in terms of producing and promoting their product. I compared 21st Century Fox with Warp to get a better understanding on how similar and different these two companies are from each other, what I came to understand when it make to similarities with these two companies were that they both go through the same process in terms of promoting their product by some stages of vertical integration although the main difference is that due to the fact that Warp is an independent company it doesn't have the subsidiaries required to complete the process of vertical integration. This means Warp have to go down the pathway of horizontal integration, meaning they have to collaborate with different companies in order to achieve their target goal when it comes to either the production, distribution or the exchange of their product. Due to the fact that Warp aren't as big a conglomerate as 21st Century Fox means they have to do a lot of collaborations with companies such as channel 4 and Film 4 to help promote their media products.

Products

20th Century Fox produce a large range of media products to gain more attraction from their target audience, for example if you go onto the Fox TV website you can see all the different medias they produce like: Empire, The Simpsons, Bones, Glee, Family Guy and American Idol.  These mainstream shows are targeted at a mass audience that of people that enjoy some of these different types of genres, this is a grate example of how diverse the media products of 20th Century Fox are to the general public.

20th Century Fox also  specialise in other media types, to reach out to other people with different preferences when it comes to home entertainment, the best example of this media product is Fox News. The primary focus of Fox News is to read the news to the Fox customers, but there are different multi medias attached to Fox News that give viewers other information other than the news that benefit for entertainment purposes, the biggest examples of this on the Fox News website would be: Video, Politics, U.S., Opinion, Tech, Science and Sports. As you can see Fox News are trying to reach a wider range of topics for their target audience by selecting topics they might be interested in.

21st Century fox also have a subsidiary called  ‘Fox Business’, This media product allows users to manage the ‘Fox’ stock market. The ‘Fox Business’ website allows users to select a range of different media  tabs when searching the website such as: Markets, Industries, Economy & Policy, Investing, Personal Finance and  Business Leaders. The target audience for this website are preferably people with businesses that that are interested in purchasing stock  or to sort out their personal finance. By the look of the ‘Fox Business’ website I believe that  this  catered for a very specific group of people compared to the ‘Fox News’ website with is designed for a mass audience.


Market Position

We know 20th Century Fox is a successful company by looking at their market shares. If you look at the market shares from January 1st to September 6th you can see that 20th Century Fox rank 4th in terms of box office, the market share for 20th Century Fox are currently at 10.0%  with a total gross of $772.1 after making 10 movies, this shows us that 20th Century Fox is a very successful company.

20th Century Fox is also a successful company due to the fact that they have they right amount of recognition to hire A list actors such as  Leonardo De Caprio, Cara Delevingne, Terrence Howard and Taraji Henson. this shows the success of the company because these actors are classed as very expensive to hire for movies, by showing the general public that they're able to afford these actors therefore broadcasting the success of the company.

Also we understand that 20th Century Fox is a successful company due to the fact that they contain several subsidiaries that are part of their company, this shows the success of the company because it helps branch out their products to a wider target audience therefore getting more attention and increasing the publicity of the company. By increasing the publicity of the company you're increasing the publicity of the products the company sells, therefore you're creating more sales which generate more income which helps increase the success rate of the company.


 20th Century Fox as a company in relation to other companies that produce the same media products are considered a much better company, for example if you look at Warp Films compared to 20th Century Fox you can see that 20th Century Fox has had a lot more box office hits in comparison to Warp Films, this is due to the fact that 20th Century Fox have a lot of the required equipment needed in order to produce an extremely successful box office film. Also as a company 20th Century Fox have a lot of subsidiaries that specialise in different areas of media compared to Warp who usually collaborate with different Networks and companies that help promote their products to the general public.

As the biggest conglomerate company in the world 21st Century is quite an international successful company. This would also mean that the subsidiaries linked to this conglomerate would have gained some recognition on an international scale. If you look at 20th Century Fox you see that this subsidiary has international success due to it being one of the worlds most popular movie developing companies going, due to 20th Century Fox being such a popular movie development  company indicates to us that they're a extremely successful company.


Competitors

When I comes to having a huge conglomerate company like 20th Century Fox you will encounter some competitors along the way that specialise in the same type of media. Looking at the competitors of 20th Century Fox I can see that Disney are the main rivals of 20th Century Fox, this is due to the fact that they both produce film products for a wide range audience which makes them one of the biggest competitors in the world for film next to 20th Century Fox. Although Disney are considered 20th Century Fox's biggest competitor you can see that recently the marketing position of Disney has dropped quite a lot this year.

Disney mainly specialise in the film media industry, which they share in common with 20th Century Fox

Structure

The structure of Sumo Digital


Sumo Digital is a gaming company co-founded by Carl Cavers, Paul Porter and Darren Mills  in 2003. Carl Carvers was also originally the UK development director for Gremlin before he became the CEO of Sumo Digital. Sumo Digital are a small independent company that partner up with big conglomerate companies such as: Sony, Sega, BBC,Ubisoft and EA, this is because these companies have the resources they will require to produce the games  as a company have a very specific target audience they're trying to attract, by looking at the website you can see they are mainly interested in producing platforming games along with driving games

Audience Profile For Star Wars Episode III

Jeremy Lin, 26, worships the sci-fi genre of film along with all his friends. His hobbies consist of gaming, cosplay and basketball. He works a full time job for the IT department at the university of Newcastle but is interested in pursing a career that gain him more in terms of financial income. He regularly searches up on sic-fi facts and interests as his hobby to do when he's not working.