The Effects of Media on the Audience

Below are some examples of the different theories that I have researched. These videos (also included on the appropriate slides of the powerpoint) explain in a little more detail the different aspects of the theories.


HYPODERMIC THEORY



TWO-STEP THEORY

The BBFC

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/about/mission-statement/

The BBFC produces detailed information about the content of every film and video game, which they call Extended Classification Information, or ECI. The ECI is designed to explain in greater detail the issues, and in many cases the plot lines, which led to the film being given the classification it is. As a result it may also contain plot spoilers, which is why you have to click on the link to open it because not everyone wants to see the spoilers if they haven't seen the film. All classification decisions are based on the BBFC’s published and regularly updated Guidelines. The Guidelines are the product of extensive public consultation, research and the accumulated experience of the BBFC over many years. They reflect current views on film, DVD and video game regulation.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/the-categories/ 

This video show's the cuts the British Film Classification have made to Die Hard With a Vengeance to allow the film to fit within the certificate 15 guidelines. I like this video as it shows the original script and then what the BBFC has changed or cut it to in order to change it from a 18 certificate to a 15 to allow the company to reach their potential audience.

Video Recordings Act 1984

The most important piece of legislation to affect BBFC classification standards is the Video Recordings Act 1984. This Act requires all ‘video works’ (films, TV programmes or video games) that are supplied on a disc, tape or any other device that stores data electronically to be classified by the BBFC. Under this Act, the BBFC have ‘special regard’ to consider the likelihood of video works causing any harm to their potential audience, due to character's behaviour in society for example criminal behaviour, illegal drugs, violent behaviour or incidents, horrific behaviour or incidents and human sexual activity. The BBFC needs to consider possible effects not only on children but also on other vulnerable people in society.

An example of BBFC classification

We Need to Talk About Kevin

When films are presented to the BBFC for classification, this is the finished product. The BBFC consider every aspect of the film according to their guidelines, in order to apply an appropriate certificate to the film. This means that the audience can judge whether or not they should watch a film in accordance to the certificate that it has been given.

Extended Classification Information

The BBFC have recently made available extra information about films. This includes information about why a film has been given that particular certificate. In this instance, We Need to Talk About Kevin was awarded its 15 certificate because the film contains strong language and sexualised nudity.

This information also explains why the film wasn't given a lower certificate, because of the difference in requirements that make up the 12/12A and 15 certificates.

The BBFC

How do the BBFC rate films?

Films are classified according to the Guidelines created by the British Board of Film Classification company (BBFC). These guidelines are drawn up according to research, the experience of the company, and the regular opinions of the public. UK Laws also have to be considered when making decisions about classification. 

The Guidelines are updated every four years. The most recent was completed in June 2009.

What aspects as films classified on?

• Discrimination
• Drugs
• Horror
• Language
• Imitable behaviour
• Nudity
• Theme
• Sex
• Violence

What are all the possible film classifications?

Suitable for all, from age four and over. 
Should be set within a positive moral framework and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat, or horror.

General viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. Unaccompanied children of any age can watch, but parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children.

This category only exists for video works, so no child under the age of 12 may rent or buy a 12 rated video work. Material is suitable for 12 years and older, content may upset children under 12. 

No one younger than 12 may see a 12A film unless accompanied by an adult. This classification is only used in the cinema. 

Suitable for 15 years and over. No one younger than 15 may see a 15 rated film, or buy or rent a 15 rated video work. 

Only suitable for adults. No one younger than 18 may buy an 18 rated film, or buy or rent an 18 rated video.

Only shown in specially-licensed cinemas, or supplied in licensed sex shops and to adults of 18 or over. Video works of this category may not be supplied by mail order.

What are the conditions of a classification?

• Assurances
• Cuts
• Warning captions

*In some circumstances, a work may be rejected*

Cutting

There could be simple or minor changes made in order for a film to be accepted in the category that it was intended for. The BBFC do not usually offer this option if the changes to be made are difficult or if there are a lot of changes to be made. Below are a list of compulsory cuts listed on the BBFC website:

• material which may promote illegal activity

• material which is obscene or otherwise illegal

• material created by means of the commission of a criminal offence

• portrayals of children in a sexualised or abusive context

• sexual violence or sexualised violence which endorses or eroticises the behaviour

• sadistic violence or torture which invites the viewer to identify with the perpetrator in a way which raises a risk of harm

• graphic images of real injury, violence or death presented in a salacious or sensationalist manner which risks harm by encouraging callous or sadistic attitudes

• sex works which contain material listed as unacceptable at ‘R18’.

Examples of films that have been cut or banned

The Human Centipede II 

This films had 2 minutes and 37 seconds removed, and following 32 cuts made across 8 separate sequences, the film was rated an 18. The BBFC originally refused to classify the film because of sexual violence, graphic gore, and the breach of the law relating to obscenity.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

This film was banned in 1975. The film was banned for its perception of terrorised women and threat to defenceless women as opposed to its portrayal of violence. However, the film was still shown locally despite the BBFC ban, which led to the company lifting the ban in 1999 and rated it an 18 with no cuts.

A list of the BBFC websites available to the public:

www.bbfc.co.uk - Main BBFC website

www.pbbfc.co.uk - Parents BBFC website (Gives specific information for parents concerning classifications.

www.sbbfc.co.uk - For teacher and students from GCSE up to Postgraduate level. Information on classifications, case studies, study guides and articles)

www.cbbfc.co.uk - For children. Offers games, puzzles, film information, and a chance to classify trailers.

Script

 This is the copy of our first draft of a script.

* Since creating this first draft of our script, we decided to change James' character to a girl in a hoody. Her name is now Sam.

First Draft of Storyboard

 

 

This is our first draft of our storyboard, we are going to create a copy of this to take when filming so that everyone involved in the production will have a copy of the script and storyboard so that everyone know's how we want to film it. This will save us alot of time as previously we didn't have anything to follow when out filming and just put our idea's together once at the scene which was very time consuming, but now we know what we are going to shoot in each individual scene and approximately how long we are wanting to be at each scene. Our next job for the storyboard is to go to the different locations and take a photo-storyboard so we have a more clear idea on how our films going to look instead of depending on drawing skills.

Viral Advertising

Viral advertising uses social networking sites, email and other approaches to gaining awareness for a new brand, or marketing through spreading viruses. There are a few ways that it can be spread: by word of mouth, via the Internet, or via mobile. It might take the form of games, e-books, video clips, web pages, email, text messages, or images.

There are 6 main reasons why people utilise viral advertising:

1. Gives away valuable products/services
2. Easy transfer to others
3. Easy scale from small to large
4. Takes advantage of common behaviour
5. Uses existing networks of communication
6. Takes advantage of others' resources

Examples of viral videos:

Promoting Evian




Promoting T-Mobile




HD Camera Trick Challenge


The first video draws on people's sense of humour, and uses an extreme to make us laugh. The second two pull on our curiosity.



Viral adverts for films:

For the Blair Witch project, instead of releasing a typical movie trailer, the producers released clips of the camera jostling and muffled sounds to attract curiosity and interest for when the film was finally released. This was a cheap way of advertising, and raised awareness and intrigued larger audiences to want to watch the film.

The singer held a contest on YouTube to encourage people to make their own music videos to her song Tik Tok. This also reached out to social networking sites, and people had to ask their friends to vote for them to win.

The Dark Knight's filmmaker Chris Nolan released images of the Joker saying 'See you in December' on the website www.whysoserious.com. It became instantly popular, and resulted in the film grossing 1 billion dollars worldwide.

Toy Story 3 released Ken-themed viral videos which were very popular. A few examples were 'Groovin with Kevin' and 'Ken's dating tips'.

Viral Marketing Campaigns

Viral marketing is a method of film or a products promotion that relies on getting 

customers/audience's to market an idea, product, or service on their own by telling their friends about it, usually by e-mail or websites. Viral Marketing encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, the advantage of getting people to pass on a marketing message is helpful as the people become their marketing team that costs the company nothing.

This involves the audience and brings the film to life as this excites the audience! The viral market was marketed in London, the Middle East, Pennsylvania and India which made the film known world-wide. They included a range of institutions to help them such as bowling alleys, cake shops etc and campaigned to the public through phone and email. This is viral campaigning at it's best as they reached a world wide audience through emails and phone-calls to follow clue's and instructions involving the film, this excites the audience and makes them already aware of the film before it's release.

Viral Adverts.

The Cadbury's Gorilla Advert is a British advertising campaign launched by Cadbury Schweppes in 2007 to promote Cadbury Dairy Milk-brand chocolate. The 90-second television and cinema advertisement,appearances on billboards, print newspapers and magazines, television and cinema spots, event sponsorships.The advertisement, is known world-wide and is seen in other countries such as Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

Cadbury famously used viral advertising on another advert!
http://lurnq.com/lesson/section/352/cadbury-eyebrows-example-2009/ 

Journey Task

30 second Journey

For our 30 second film, we will start from outside, show the character starting from the ground floor of the building, and walking all the way up to the fourth floor. We will use elliptical editing to cut out parts of the sequence so that the clip isn't too long, and then show the character entering a classroom. By doing this, we will be able to practice using the 180 degree rule and breaking it. The staircase sequence we have researched will break the 180 degree rule, and so will the part where the character enters the classroom through the door.


We will compare our elliptically edited film with the original, long film which shows every section of the journey so that we can fully see just how elliptical editing is effective for making a film more visually interesting to watch. 

Elliptical Editing is a shot transitions that omit parts of an event, causing an ellipsis in plot and story duration. We decided to do this type of editing to show a person entering a building and entering their classroom because although it shows all the scenes and locations where the characters enters, it has skipped time out to make the journey time shorter. I like this type of editing as it is a good and a more natural way to skip out time where as for example Jump Cut Editing.

A Jump Cut is an elliptical cut that appears to be an interruption of a single shot. We have chosen to edit the same journey differently to show the difference between Jump Cut editing and elliptical editing when editing a scene. Jump cut completely skips out time which sometimes doesn't look natural to the audience. We used Final Cut Express to edit both of these to differently to show two different scenes. Although this wasn't my favourite type of editing, i think this was the easiest to edit as you can miss out big parts.

180 Degree Rule Research

http://www.moviemistakes.com/best_continuity.php
Even huge films and successful directors still manage to break continuity from time to time, here are examples of some successful films that have made movie mistakes:






Techniques to stop breaking continuity

Click Here to see the video on YouTube

This video from YouTube demonstrates the 180 degree rule and how you can break continuity by this rule, it shows once you have established a scene, you have also established where the characters are (the 180 degree rule) and that throughout the film you must stay at the same side of the room to not break the rule which will confuse the viewer. This video also shows you how you can break the 180 degree rule without breaking continuity- through tracking around the couple to show the audience that the camera is moving round, this must not be edited out as this would confuse the audience because they will be on opposite sides and the characters eye-lines would not match.

You can also not abide by the 180 degree rule when film someone walking up a flight of stairs because the person is only going one direction- up, filming at the back, left or right  doesn't change the vision of the scene.

Another way of not breaking continuity is filming your character going through a door way. Same idea as the stairs, they are still going one way-forward, this means it doesn't matter which side you chose to film at as it will not effect the scene.

During our Short film, we are wanting to use a variety of shots, this video shows us how to use different varieties of shots in scenes. I found this video useful as it showed a variety of different shots and how these are presented to the audience.

The 30 Degree Rule Page

The 180 degree Rule

 The 180 Degree Rule



The 180 degree rule is a part of continuity in filming. It gives the audience a perspective of where characters are in relation to the location/setting. When you have filmed a character from one side, you cannot film them from the opposite side, otherwise the audience will become very confused as to what is happening. 

However, there are a few ways in which you can break the 180 degree rule without confusing the audience too much...


When and how can you break continuity by breaking the 180 degree rule? 

• By moving the camera while the camera is running without cutting.

• Track around a conversation of two people talking. (Without cutting, the audience can still see where the two characters are in relation to one another, so it does not matter that both of their sides are being filmed, because there is no cutting.)

• On a flight of stairs because they are still going up. (The 180 degree rule does not matter as much when filming characters climbing or descending stairs, because either way they are still moving up or down.)

• In a doorway because it can only open one way.(Here the 180 degree line does not matter as much because the door only opens one way, so the audience do not get confused if the shot changes position.) 

• By filming on the middle of the 180 degree line and then on the other side of the line.

These are the ways in which we can utilise the breaking of the 180 degree rule, without complicating a scene or confusing the audience.

Filmmaking Techniques Video

We found this video very interesting because it recaps all the different filming techniques that can be used, including shots, lighting, camera movements...etc. By watching this video, we were able to consider our own film and decide if we could utilise any of the techniques we had seen.

After watching this video, we decided that in our film, when the teenager is looking at her phone to show the audience that her parents are always texting them asking where they are, we will use a 'depth of focus' shot. This will work in the way that the teenagers sits down on the bed, then the focus shifts from the teenager to the mobile phone sitting on her bedside table. At this point, she reaches out to take it and there is a close up of the text messages.

Final Draft Photo Storyboard

Below is our final draft of our storyboard without the title sequences as we will decide where to place the text when editing our film. We have had to change a few things, for example walking with the dog in the park, changing our male character to female and also we did not plan the weather conditions, however we adapted to these situations and made the best we could with what we had to work with.

Location photos

Below are all the photos of the location we are going to use. With this, we can now put together a photo storyboard that will help us to visualize what our film will look like.

Living Room

The living room is where the film will start. Our props will include a notepad and pen which will go on the coffee table to spell out the production name. The main character will be sitting on the sofa, and he mum will be standing by the door. These photos were shot from the same angle the film will be shot in.


Hallway

The hallway will be the second place the two characters move to as the main character prepares to go upstairs. The parent will follow, leading them both out of the living room. These photos were shot from the angle that the film will be shot in.

Stairs

From the hallway, the characters will next be seen by the stairs. The main character will go up the stairs, but the parent will remain at the bottom, still talking. These photos were shot from the angles we will be using during our shoot. One from the top of the stairs, and one from the bottoms of the stairs.


Landing

Again, these photos were shot from the angle we will be shooting the shots from. The main character will reach the top of the stairs, turn left, cross the landing and follow the hallway to her bedroom.


Bedroom

Some of these shots like the one above of the window and bookshelf will not be used in our film, although they do show the layout of the room we will be shooting in. There is plenty of room for the camera, the actor and the crew to gather inside at one time, and this also gives us an idea of where the light will be coming in. The shot of the door handle and the desk close-up are particularly important because they are the exact shot we will be using in the film. The desk shot will highlight the position of the main prop which is the phone, but as well as a CU we will be using an over-the-shoulder shot of the main character to allow us to use a change of focus from the character to the prop. 
The photos of the bed are an estimate of where the camera will be in relation to the furniture. This distance may alter on the day as we may choose to move the camera closer, and even lower it a little.




Kitchen

These shots of the kitchen will be used as the main character sneaks back downstairs and out of the back door. Again, there is enough space to fit the camera, any lighting equipment, the cast and the crew all at one time, even though it is a narrow room.

Street

These shots of the street outside the house are just to show the route we will be using to film on Day 2 of Production. Millie will come out of her house, down the driveway, and along the street in the direction of the park. These are high-angle shots taken from an upstairs window, and will not be the actual shots we will use when shooting.


Park

The 1st, 3rd, and 4th photo of the park will definitely be the shots that we will use during filming. The first shot will be when the character looks over and sees James and Jodie arguing by the park's entrance. The 3rd shot will be when the main character isn't looking where she is going and bumps into Jodie, and the third shot of the swings will be as Jodie sits on them and takes some time to think.