History of the Internet & Marketing Techniques for Film

This lesson in FTVNM, we discussed many ways that film companies can market their films to target audiences today, as well as in previous years (when the internet and social media weren't an existing marketing platform).

History of The Internet

We started off by briefly learning about the history of the internet. This was because, my class and I are at such a young age that we weren't old enough to understand what the internet was and how it developed. This type of advanced technology was already existing and we grew up with it our whole lives.

• The internet began as Interconnected node networks.
• It was developed by DARPA as a way for America to communicate with other parts of the country in cases of a nuclear war striking. (defence communication)
• The terminator is a system of networks that is indestructible. 
• The first message sent through the internet was “Hello :)”
• It was like morse code but faster
• The internet is all 1’s and 0’s
• All data is stored online. 
• The very first search engines were called meta-tags.
• Google was developed in 2003
• Data of everything in the internet are stored in internet centrals that are based in many different countries around the world
• Marketing on the internet, they can see what you’ve been searching and recommends films and things that you would be interested in
• Many people, without knowing it are being manipulated and influenced

Marketing Techniques for Film

With the information we had learned about from hearing a brief overview of the history and development of the internet, we were able to answer these 2 questions.

"What are some recent marketing techniques that have evolved…

... in the last 10 year with Wed 2.0?"

• Flash Player Animation
• Improvement of visual quality in trailers and videos
• Flexibility, accessibility and easy upload to the internet data base
• Moving gifs

... in the last 5 years with Social Media?"

• Instagram
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Snapchat
• Blogging and Vlogging

Hero’s Journey Research Activity

Using the Monomyth link on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth our task was to find 3 examples of films which use the Monomyth Structure. Then we were to describe the call to adventure in each film as well as the Mentor and  Goddess characters. Then we describe the reward/ultimate boon in each film.

	Harry Potter	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Wizard of Oz
Call to Adventure	Harry is a normal boy acting a slave to his “family” when he received a letter from Hogwarts school telling him that he is a Wizard. Because he doesn’t go, Hagrid appears and talks to Harry about	Charlie is a poor boy living in a small house with his grandparents with the minimal amount of money to survive. He then wins a golden ticket from a chocolate bar to meet Willy Wonka.	Dorothy is a normal young lady who’s house got ruined by a tornado when she has to go to the Wizard of Oz to ask him for help. When the witch dies and Dorothy gets the red shoes.
Mentor Characters	Dumbledore, Professor McGonnagel, Professor … These mentors help and guide Harry throughout the series. They are wise and know what is best for Harry.	Charlie’s grandfather. He is a very close figure to Charlie and cares for him very much. The grandfather gives him knowledge and protects him as much as he can.	Galinda. She helps Dorothy, Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man through their journey to find the Wizard of Oz.
Goddess Character (or metaphor)	His parents, Hermoine, Ginny. In this series there are a few Goddess Characters. Hermoine and Ginny at certain points are considered ‘love intrests’, yet throughout the entire series Harry is confronting his fears in love, pride and memory of his parents.	The Golden Ticket/Willy Wonka. Charlie’s dream at the beginning of the movie was to find a golden ticket. This was a way to reach his goal to meet Willy Wonka and experience his Chocolate Factory.	Her family who, throughout the movie, are really the tinman, scarecrow and lion. She does everything she can to help them, not knowing that they are actually her family members that she also cares for very much.
Reward/Ultimate Boon	He kills Voldemort at the end of the entire series, and along the way, defeats many of the different obstacles that had approached him	He is taken on a tour of the chocolate factory and at the end, has the whole factory given to him.	Dorothy clicks her heels and immediately returns home to her beloved family.

Hero's Journey Introduction

This term, our main focus in FTVNM is the Hero's Journey (AKA "Monomyth").

The Monomyth is Joseph Campbell's concept that there is a similar recurring pattern in many narratives. This being also "The Hero's Journey".

Today we watched an interview with Joseph Campbell, who was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, where he explains his theory of the Hero's Journey in full depth and discusses his non-fiction book "Hero with a Thousand Faces".

The following image is a basic yet perfect example of the story of the Hero's Journey and includes cartoons of many films and stories that follow the structure of the Monomyth. I found this very helpful in understanding the concept.