Thursday AS retake stuff

2. Findout about the marketing campaigns for all three of your films and post the details of it on your blog:
The Hobbit/ LoTR:http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1160525/Microsoft-mobile-ads-star-Hobbit-characters/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH
This one is a little different as it isn't advertising the film per say as it is advertising the windows phone 8 using characters from the movie. Whilst it is not a direct advertisement for the film, it does promote it through displaying these characters and creating some form of recognition in the audience. it is pretty similar to the Star wars car advertisement's that have been featuring Yoda, they create a sense of recognition and association to encourage people to buy it.

300: 300 used the conventional marketing campaign of using trailers and poster to promote the film but there is and example of there being unintentional advertisement for the film. The whole "This is Sparta!" joke became popular across the internet which may have unintentionally advertised the film as it no doubt increased its notoriety through the various parodies that sprang up regarding it.

Priest: Priest didn't really do much special for its advertising, it had the usual trailers and posters etc. but it also had a small competition it ran whilst showing that it had flown 3 students from somewhere like the London college of film or something like that, so that they could work on the films 3D aspects.

"It is not the strongest that survive but those most responsive to change."
How and why do media institutions continue to change?
As with all things, media institutions need to change to be able to survive in our constantly developing world. As we create and update our technology media institutions also need to update to "Get with the times" so to speak as more often than not these technological development's can lead to a new way of making money for the institutions. 
3D technology in cinemas is perhaps one of  the more recent adoptions that film institutions have made. The popularity of 3D in recent years can likely be traced back to Avatar (2009) as it  used a stereoscopic filming style that hadn't been used widely and caused the film to have effects that have received high praise from critics. This film then went on to become the highest grossing film of all time and lead to the popularity of 3D films. Despite its popularity, many view 3D as more of a gimmick than a feature that adds to the film this may be attributed to the way that many films have actually used 3D as more of a gimmick and leading to audiences to become jaded towards it. Another more recent development in film is HFR (Or high frame rate). HFR means that the images shown on screen will be displayed at a higher frame rate than films without, this essentially means that films that use this will look as though it is being animated at a smoother an quicker pace. This allows the film to get rid of the motion blur effect that is often used on films shown at 24fps which means that the film should have higher quality picture. The audience appears to have mixed opinions on this effect as some say that they just get used to it or think it looks better whilst others think that it feels less like a film because of the higher frame rate often citing it as looking like a soap opera. Recently James Cameron announced that he felt as though HFR was the way forward and would be filming the rest of the avatar trilogy using it, this may lead to an increase in its popularity much like with 3D when it was shown in avatar.
Another recent development for media institutions is on the internet. The internet allows media institutions to interact with audience in ways that were not previously possible. Through social media they can target their audience with advertising, both direct and subtle, for their products as they can announce details or post trailers and links to interviews with members of the cast/crew. The audience can usually respond with comments or replies as well giving this form of advertisement a level of interactivity that was previously not done. This allows a form of more direct targeting as people that follow or like the film or product pages are the one that are going to be interested in the product and since the amount of people that use the internet continues to grow the amount of targeted advertising they can do will also increase. 

The future of cinema

5.  The future of cinema:  where will it be in ten years?

list of texts: The hobbit (48 fps and the future of HFR cinema), Avatar (Use of 3d and its influence),
 Star wars ep. 4 (comparison of special effects and the remastered versions),
 The increaseing use of "4D" in films particually recent years mainly 2012+11,
The different versions of how 3D films are made (two camera on set and post production)
as well as the decline in interest in 3D, Buttnumb-a-thon and the increase in cinematic events,
http://www.christiedigital.co.uk/supportdocs/anonymous/christie-high-frame-rate-technology-overview.pdf

Resurgence

Syrian internet censorship

Figured I should post this as it is pretty significant case of censorship as they have completely closed off the internet in Syria:
 http://www.renesys.com/blog/2012/11/syria-off-the-air.shtml

Do you believe that media institutions should be allowed to gain information through any means necessary to create a story?

- Basicly explain the background of this ieda of media invasion of privacy, referencing the leverson inquiry as it is a recent inssue, and show how there are both benfits and drawbacks to this.. (Such as being able to gather information that may shed some light on the issue or how it invades sombodies private information to foind out about this case.
-Show the negative aspects of this issue, starting with the Millie Dowler case as an example of how the leveson inquiry began and expand on different cases that have emerged because of this.
-Then follow up with  what exactly the negative aspects of these cases is (Specifically invasion of privacy due to it being a media debate).
-After, write about the instituion that control many of the perpertrators of the phone hacking (Rupert Murdoch) and say something about his large influence.
-Write about the benefits of phone hacking and other invasiive methods of gaining information.
- Write about an example of where this may have been useful or use a specific example.
-Evaluate the pro's and cons of each.
-Throw in my own opinion for good measure.
-fin.

1. Many film institutions are using social media sites such as facebook and twitter in order ot reach out to their audiences nowadays. This is largely because a large portion of the population have access to such sites and therefor can be easily targeted by advertisment there is also a level of interaction that this audience can acheive through social media sites scuha as facebook and twitter as they can directly ask members of teh crew for a film questions regarding teh film they may be working on. as people like directors and actors often hae a large number of followers any information they post can then be diegested by anyone that follows them resulting in an alternative form of advertisment that we have only been able to acheive through interveiws and magazine articles in the past.There is also the ability to access this information from anywhere that many people, particually younger generations, use in order to stay "In the loop" with what is happening on these sites, this means that people advertising through these platforms would have to take into account the fact that there is generally a specific generation that will have access to anything they advertise at any time.
2. Whilst there are examples of fan made twitter accounts for fictional characters there also example of "official" characteraccounts that are made by the institution. A good example of accounts like these is the video game company, Gearbox. Gearbox has a history of using twitter accounts based off of characters to promote their video game series, Borderlands. after they released the original game they made a mock up twitter profile for the antagonsit of one of the expansions to be released for the game, using this tiwtter account they posted hints at information regarding the expansion through the characters twitter account in which they mimiced the characters comedicly pessimistic view on life. This advertising campaign created hype for the expansion amongst fans and essentially became an effective advertising method.
3. the majority of film websites post information on them rather than creating augmented reality methods of advertisment such as other website like District 9. this allows the audience to laern more about the film and essentailly serves as an advertisisng platform. some also contain forums in which users can interact with each other after cerating an account on the website. this other method of user interaction means that fans of the product cna interact with each other and discuss the procut or other topics on the forum. this manages to creaet some form of brand loyalty as the user can feel as though they are interacting with the product and its community in a way that without internet would be impossible.
4. Websites can help with the branding of films as more often than not they will use  a similar theme and colour scheme to the other forms of promoting the film such as poster advertisment and the banner that is shown on the title of the film that is often shown in advertisments. this constant design theme allows the institution to create a better branding.
5. One type of video that can be used to promote is develouper diaries. these are videos that follow members of the crew working on a product and record there thoughts esssentially acting as a diary, hence the name. A good example of this arethe hobbit director diaries as they contain infromation about the productiong process for parts of the film and the directors thoughts on some sections of the film or finding the background information for it. this allows another form of user interaction as tehy can follow parts of the production of the film and allows them to get an insight onto how members of the crew and cast.
6. Fansitesfor films can be useful in beinga mthod of advertisment without the institutions interaction. A good example of this is wikis. These are small wikis that focus on a specific product or series.

More articles

Here is an article regarding the media war in Gaza: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/11/20121119135929987120.html
Quite interesting as it shows the media's role in the Gaza situation.
Another article here which is kind of relevent as we have been doing work relating to internet trolls:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/internet-troll-who-exploited-att-security-flaw-faces-5-years-in-jail/