SUPER 8 CASE STUDY PRESENTATION

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhqfmnxm_1g3xssdgj

Super 8 Cross Media Study Continued...

Super 8 is likely to be targeted at an audience over the age of 10 or 11. The reason for this is the profanity that is present in the film. This may not be suitable for younger audiences. However this is not the only factor that makes this film targeted at such an audience. Another reason can include the spookiness and actions of the alien that is represented in the film. The alien seems to promote violence from its entrance on the screen until towards the ending where it soon leaves the Earth; therefore a younger audience may be startled because of these actions that are taken by the alien.

The audience may be able to form some sort of connection with the protagonist who is the young boy in the film who has lost his mother. His character is very emotional throughout the film and the audience may be able to relate to some of the emotions that are portrayed through the characters during the film.

Twitter regularly tweets itself and buzzes information within seconds which go all over fans communicate by blogging posts. Super 8 itself has its own Twitter page and has around over 16000 followers. The cast in the film also have their own social networking pages such as Facebook and Twitter where fans may be able to interact with them increasing the level of audience interaction.

http://www.facebook.com/Super8Movie - 579649 likes

http://twitter.com/super8movie

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like this

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YouTube is another way Super 8 promotes the movie as fans make their own productions and fans can edit or view the videos that are posted site and make a comment on their views.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2011/11/22/super-8/ - Blog which contains an article on the characters and the film overall

Rotten tomatoes is an useful  online website where fans can view pictures from the clip, read reviews and learn more about the cast in the film. A great advantage for this is that they can attract audiences because of star appeal. Although the person may not have seen the film, they may be able to recognise the actors in the film, and relate them to previous films that they have starred in.

Print media is used for many reasons and is cheaper than advertising on television or the internet, which costs significantly more. Furthermore, print advertisements in newspapers and magazines are usually targeted at a slightly older audience as the younger generations do not tend to read newspapers regularly.

Reviews that are also printed in newspapers can allow an audience to identify what the genre of the film is and if it looks appealing to them. An example of this could include The Guardian which contained a review on Super 8 in the actual paper print and online. However, a drawback of this can include any negative reviews may put off some people from actually watching the film and negative feedback spreads much quicker than positive.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/aug/04/super-8-review

An example of promoting Super 8 via broadcasting is when Kyle Chandler, who is Joe’s father in the film, was a guest on the David Letterman show.

A great benefit of this can be that, not only is he promoting the film, but himself as well. Also, the young female actress in the film, Elle Fanning was interviewed by a journalist from The Telegraph which may attract audiences because of star appeal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PBwMLlRmGI

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIuqWOTH9U0&feature=related

All three platforms promote the film in the same way but use a different format as they adapt their marketing to meet the needs of the audience that they are trying to target. The platform that I think has been heavily invested in is e-media because of the fact that it was originally marketed virally. They are targeting mostly teenagers and the generations that are highly literate in the use of technology.

Super 8 Cross-Media Study

How are texts in the three platforms constructed?:

Super 8 is promoted through print media by reviews of the movie in newspaper and magazine and the print media also show how the movie got its inspiration for example a spin off publication such as comic book and super 8 is also a comic book.

Furthermore, Empire magazine feautured an article on Super 8 involving J.J Abrams and Steven Spielberg himself.  

The e-media to promote Super 8 was different to any other type of film as they had viral marketing going on for the film which was a massive hype for the film, which the first trailer of the film was attached to the film Iron Man 2 and this trailer there was a hidden message, that message was revealed by the fans as they analysed the trailer which led to a website, ‘Scariest thing I ever saw’ which had a old computer that relate to the  film's story line. Another viral website, Rocket Poppeteers was also found but was indirectly related to Super 8.

The official Super 8 website contains an 'editing room' which allowed users to find various clips from around the web and piece them together. When completed, the reel makes up the film found by the kids in Dr. Woodward's trailer, showing the ship disintegrating into individual white cubes, and the alien reaching through the window of its cage and snatching Dr. Woodward.

Super 8 also had e-media merchandising such as that are available of the move for examples the many soundtracks of the movies which range from the title track to the ending track altogether there are 33 tracks in the movie which lead up to 70 minutes of the whole movie and also and blu-rays of the movie came out on the 22ND November 2011. Also there was Super 8 Twitter promotion for any of the audience which followed them also links on website. Itunes download an app that shows a camera and you can edit a video it cost about 0.69p Version 2 of Super 8™ is all about sharing! You can now share videos everywhere you can view them on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and via E-Mail. 

Print media will give a review of a new film, provide information about the cast, certificate, etc and will often include an interview with the star or director and the codes and convention in a print media is One strong key image, Words are kept to a minimum The title is always included, The slogan is also included on the print advert, The scheduling information always included, Channel logo is prominent  and on the right hand side and The print advert is usually a4 landscape size so that it is versatile and can be used at various sizes in newspapers, magazines or on billboards.

How do audiences access the text across the 3 platforms?:

We can assume that the target audience for Super 8 is most likely to be families because of the young actors that star in this film. Children within the audience can identify and relate with the protagonist who is a little child him self who has lost his mother. However, parents can also identify with this film as it bring back memories from their pasts and this creates a nostalgic effect of them.  

  

Print media usually reaches an older audience, normally they are aiming to an older audience as they will grabbed in by the name Steven Spielberg as he has made many successful films before and the review in the magazine or the newspaper will entice the reader to continue to read, to see if the film is suitable for their family to watch. This platform doesn’t interact with the audience at all unless the newspaper or the magazine is a electronic version and this way the audience are able to express their views through comments. On the contrary, print media doesn’t allow the audience to interact. The audience do not play any role in the construction of the newspaper or the magazine unless the editor of the newspaper or the magazine go to watch super 8 themselves.     

Broadcasting includes television, radio or DVD as most of the audience it is statistically, there are 26 million people who own a television and TV license and many people go to the cinema for example 31 million people so most people find out about new films through the TV from trailers to talk shows and Super 8 have done this through to ways by having many different country channels viewing the interview which was shown on BBC and Hit list.

Kyle Chandler from Friday Night Lights, King Kong and a recurring role in Greys Anatomy. Chandler also produced and starred in an old favorite TV Sci Fi series Early Edition.
Elle Fanning who got her start playing younger versions of Dakota Fanning, her older sister before she landed the part in 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'.
The movie 'Super 8' seems cloaked in mystery, after watching the promo on the official website here's what we know

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMA2138Nd5w

Super 8 Research

Super 8 DVD is was released on 22/11 as part of a 2 disc Blu-ray combo pack featuring 14 deleted scenes and 8 behind the scene featurettes.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_URTtoHpbEc – MTV Awards clip


http://www.super8news.com/


http://www.filmfreak.com/2011/06/10/super-8-movie-review/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpzUCA5i6zY – First Trailer that was released

People began spotting anomalies on February 6. Not long after a trailer for Super 8—the latest J.J. Abrams flick—showed up on the movie’s official website, viewers noted that several frames differed from a Super Bowl ad that had aired earlier in the day. By the time another version appeared the following day, Abrams fanatics were hooked, posting pics and compiling clues.

Of course, Abrams is no stranger to secrecy and surprise. Nobody even knew he was producing a movie when the first trailer for Cloverfield (directed by Matt Reeves) came out. It’s a risky strategy—the more a lothario teases, the greater the potential for disappointment. When Cloverfield was finally released in 2008, The New York Times snubbed it as “a feature-length gimmick.” Can Super 8—which has already spawned fictional websites and fake blogs—hope to meet fans’ throbbing expectations?

Abrams’ television projects—Alias, Lost, and Fringe—infatuated audiences by introducing new mysteries with each episode. Abrams compared Lost to the cliff-hanger fiction serialized by Charles Dickens, though the analogy is a stretch. For Dickens, each unexpected turn of events led to the next; Abrams lets his mysteries proliferate without definitive resolution. He’s more like James Joyce, who once informed a befuddled translator of Ulysses that “I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality.” Our lothario’s elixir of life flows from the labyrinth of Lost. And we love him for it.

Super 8 has the makings of something different. Produced by Abrams’ idol, Steven Spielberg, it shares a kinship with E.T. Spielberg originally intended to create a movie about divorce, but it worked best overlaid with an extraterrestrial plot. If Abrams is to be believed, the havoc that gives his film momentum—children making a zombie flick in 1970s middle America witness the late-night derailment of a train coming from Area 51—is all in the service of character. Super 8 will romance us with—gasp!—old-fashioned sentiment.






http://www.super8comiccontest.com/


http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/super-8/5561


Like Cloverfield, an earlier J. J. Abrams film, Super 8 was promoted through an extensive viral marketing campaign. The first trailer for the movie was attached to Iron Man 2, released in May 2010. The trailer gave the premise of a section of Area 51 being closed down in 1979 and its contents being transported by freight train to Ohio. A pickup truck drives into the oncoming train, derailing it, and one of the carriages is smashed open while a Super 8 camera films. Fans analyzing the trailer found a hidden message, "Scariest Thing I Ever Saw", contained in the final frames of the trailer. This led to a website, Scariest Thing I Ever Saw, which simulated an old computer and contained various clues to the film's storyline (the computer was eventually revealed to belong to Josh Woodward, the son of Dr. Woodward, who is trying to find out what happened to his father). Another viral website, Rocket Poppeteers was also found, which like Slusho from Cloverfield plays no direct part in the film but is indirectly related. The official Super 8 website also contained an "editing room" section, which asked users to find various clips from around the web and piece them together. When completed, the reel makes up the film found by the kids in Dr. Woodward's trailer, showing the ship disintegrating into individual white cubes, and the alien reaching through the window of its cage and snatching Dr. Woodward. The video game Portal 2 contained an interactive trailer placing the player on board the train before it derails, and showing the carriage being smashed open and the roar of the alien within. The viral campaign generated massive hype for the film long before its release


Super was produced by Amblin Entertainment, Bad Robot Productions and Paramount Pictures which is currently owned by Viacom


Dedicated film website - www.super8-movie.com/


Blog- http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/Movie-Blog--Not-So-Super-8-Popcorn-Diaries-021243066866484


http://www.super8-movie.com/editingroom.html - interaction with audience


Now this is how you do a movie tie-in.

Super 8, a new app named for the eponymous j.j. Abrams flick that opens june 10, isn't some lame collection of teaser clips or a slapped-together game. Rather, it's a full-featured video recorder designed to emulate super 8 film cameras.

In other words, it's like a wayback machine for your iphone and ipad 2, allowing you to record home movies with a decidedly '60s flair. The only thing it's not is new: apps like 8mm vintage camera and silent film director have offered this capability for a while.

Ah, but super 8 is free--and it's mighty slick. The entire interfaced is modeled after a super 8 case, complete with vintage instruction manual, super 8 "cassettes" (i.e. Your library of recordings), and the camera itself.

The camera comes with your choice of seven photorealistic "lenses," including color, sepia, negative, and even infrared. For any of them you can toggle a scratch-and-dirt overlay and a frame-shake effect; the latter literally makes the frame jump based on movement of the iphone. (this effect is probably incomprehensible to anyone who's never watched old home movies--but it's seriously cool for those of us who have.)

After you've shot some "film," you can organize (but not edit) your clips, then add titles and credits, insert an authentic-looking super 8 film leader, and "develop" the movie for viewing with super 8's "projector." (the attention to detail here is terrific: you have to pull down the "screen," and there are reverse and forward buttons you can hold to shuttle the playback in real-time.)

When you're done, you can e-mail your movies to friends or copy them back to your pc via itunes. Alas, there's no way to share via facebook or youtube.

Film Extract Analysis - Lighting

The short extract that I will be analysing will be from 5:22 until 8:13.

This is the point in the film where everything turns around and the problem is first recognised as the main storyline. They have two contrasting scenes where one is set in Paris and the other in America. The lighting shown to present Paris is high-key and natural lighting techniques have been used to brighten the whole scene so that the audience is able to see all of the surroundings. Also there has been top lighting used on the actress to accentuate her expressions of fright and to show that she is alarmed. There is a point where slight shadows are created on the woman’s face (5:59) and this may relate to the fact that something terrible is happening at that moment in time.

However the other scene has more of a darker tone than that of the Paris scene. You are able to see at 6:20 the lamps that are on inside the room that he is in and this light combined with some natural light makes the character seem more mysterious and fearful. Aspects of the mise-en-scene such as when the man starts pulling out various equipment from a briefcase shows that he is an expert in whatever he does and he seems to know what he is doing. Also back in the Paris scene the men that are looking for the woman have not been identified by the audience because their faces have not yet been shown to the camera. This is important because it makes the audience uneasy about these characters and can also catch the attention of them and makes them speculate as to who these men are.

As the scenes keep switching between each other, the woman in the scene in Paris is told to climb under a bed and then this is when the lighting suddenly goes much gloomier than before. This to create an atmosphere of murkiness and to allow the people that are searching for her to seem more powerful and frightening.

Still Image Analaysis - Lighting

This image is of a Batman film that is set to be released in 2012 and is a sequel to Batman: The Dark Knight. The lighting in this shot is mostly focused on the batman symbol on the building tall building right behind Batman himself. This is to highlight his superiority and show his domination across the city. The protagonist who is clearly shown and centred in the shot has top lighting used on him to increase the fascination of the audience about the character’s intentions. They are glamorising him even though he may not look like a hero although his posture may contradict this.

Other aspects of the mise-en-scene such as the costume which is an overall suit which shows the tone of his muscles and again has the Batman emblem imprinted on the top of his torso. Also his fists are clenched which shows his anger towards something in particular. Another aspect is his mask which could show that he must hide his identity for whatever reason and this may intrigue audiences to go and watch the film and find out what the storyline is about and what will happen.

Super 8 Film Review

‘Super 8’ is a science-fiction based fantasy film that has been written and directed by J.J Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. J.J Abrams has produced many films such as Cloverfield and Morning Glory and has directed films such as Mission Impossible: III and Star-Trek. Spielberg has been recognised as someone related to the science fiction genre as he has produced/directed films similar to ‘Super 8’ earlier in his successful career. People may recognise his films as some of the greatest and sometimes relates them to the 'Golden Age of Hollywood'.

The film stars many young children as Spielberg has been known for casting children into his films. The protagonist is called Joe Lamb and he is play by Joel Courtney, where this is a breakthrough role for him as this is his first major role. Some of the supporting roles include Elle Fanning (the younger sister of Dakota Fanning) and Kyle Chandler who plays Joe’s father. He may be recognised by some of the audience watching the film as he has appeared in many television series such as Grey’s Anatomy and Friday Night Lights. He has also been nominated for awards such as Best Actor and received some as well.

Spielberg has been known to set most of his movies in the recent past to show some of his own childhood experiences. When he was a child, his first film that he shot was on with a 8mm camera which links in with the film's title and may have been the inspiration for the film.

Plot:

In the summer of 1979, six friends spend their time making a zombie movie with an 8mm camera. Joe Lamb does the make-up and he romances a liking to Alice Dainard who has only recently joined the group. While filming at the local railway depot, they see one of their teachers, Dr. Woodward, turn his truck onto the track and drive into an oncoming train which derails. As they continue trying to make their film, they realize that an extra-terrestrial was being carried on that train and is now loose in the community.

The actors have portrayed the characters quite intelligently and quite uniquely. They have tried to portray the characters similar to that of the genre. The film has elements of different genres within it including science-fiction, mystery and thriller genres. The reason why I think that it had parts of all of these genres is because of the fact that there is some sort of extre-terrestrial being on Earth and this makes the film science fiction where the suspense that the film kept us in about the identity of the alien, related to the mystery and the thriller elements. We did not get to see the appearance of it until the last half an hour and before that only silhouettes and slight outlines were shown which added to the mystery. The expectations, I must admit, were quite high for this film considering that it was produced by Steven Spielberg. I feel that it did live up to my expectations because of the fast-paced continuity of action throughout the film.

I noticed the soundtrack to the film as it had very eerie music whenever the alien seemed to be near apart from the ending and silence also preceded events before the alien was introduced to each scene. I enjoyed the music and sound effects that were used because it fitted the genre perfectly and kept me interested and captivated by the story of the film.

I would say that this film is targeted for people of all ages to enjoy. It has something in it for everyone. It is quite fast-paced, humorous, attention-grabbing and appealing. Although there is some language that would not be suitable for a young audience, however, the people that will not be offended will surely have no problem with it and will enjoy it. I would recommend this film as a film to watch as I particularly liked it and felt that it was very cleverly written and directed and the storyline actually intrigued me and think that it will do so to others.

Year 12 and Year 13 Media Award Prodcution Reviews

The first video that I think was the most well produced as a year 12 production was 'Outsider'. The reason for this was because it used all the conventions needed to fit the genre of horror and the editing was neatly done. The trailer had great sound effects and its audio quality was pretty good. The reason why I think this is because they used many different camera shots to emphasise emotions and the most fundamental parts of the trailer. This is what went well about this. They could improve on this by changing the font of the film title as it looks as if the stereotypical font for the horror genre has been used and this was in my opinion too distinctive for the trailer.

The next film that I thought stood out for me as a year 13 production was The Silent Film. The reason why I thought this was so great was because of the fact that there was no voices heard throughout the whole piece and emotions and expressions were focused upon more allowing more intimacy with the audience. They also chose to make the production using black and white colour to show it’s either one way or not. They could have improved by making the story a little shorter as this was getting quite long.