Creative Lighting Options

Today in FTVNM we watched a video about how we can successfully use only 1 light in a film.

Some techniques included using everyday household items to reflect the light. Such as:

• Alfoil
• Coloured T-shirts
• Coloured Sheets
• A table

Different colours of material used to reflect light changes the colour of the light and can assist in setting a certain mood and idea.

Avengers: Age of Ultron & Target Audiences

Today in class we watched different trailers for Avengers: Age of Ultron. We discovered that we liked one particular trailer over the others and this is because that particular trailer was targeted at an audience of our age and possible gender. Then, we answered questions about how a film can be advertised and promoted to reach target audiences.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

How had the Avengers: Age Of Ultron been advertised and promoted?

• Youtube
• Facebook
• iMdb
• Television ads and shows
• Radio
• Awards shows
• interviews
• Twitter
• Buzzfeed
• Posters
• Billboards

How many Official Trailers were released?

3-5. If you don’t include the SuperBowl or extra 

Name some other forms of online, tv, cinema promotion used.

• Youtube; advertisements and trailers, recommended list of videos 
• Facebook; advertisements and sponsored videos, and friends sharing, celebrity promotion
• iMbd; shows up on movie lists depending on what kind of movies the person searches for
• Television shows; talk shows like Jimmy Kimmel, Ellen, Jimmy Fallon, The View
• Radio; word of mouth and interviews. 
• Award shows; interviews on the red carpet
• Interviews; on the radio, talk shows, youtube
• Twitter; celebrities promote their movies and interact with their followers getting them interested
• BuzzFeed; through articles and quizzes, obtains the attention of different types of people
• Posters; in shopping centres and general public places, bus stops, on buses and trams
• Billboards; on the road, people in cars past eye-catching film advertisements

No social media; imagine you are marketing to the same audiences.

• Posters outside shops targeted to the type of people who shop there. e.g. 
• Advertising trailers in the cinema with a movie that relates to the one the audience is watching
• Talking on the radio on channels that the target audience listens to by talking to celebrities or . e.g. 60’s channel would be something that 
• Merchandise in shops, makes people think that they have to watch the movie to be in fashion. They create dolls and action figures and advertising them on television.
• Newspapers/Magazines articles and adverts
• Television ads and trailers
• Public areas like the library 

No internet at all; how can you target audiences.

• Arcade games, game boy games and prizes.
• McDonalds toys target younger generations and bug there parents to get them.
• Merchandise in shops, makes people think that they have to watch the movie to be in fashion. They create dolls and action figures and advertising them on television.
• Newspapers/Magazines articles and adverts
• Video stores promoting films on posters in order to sell them.
• Prizes in food boxes
• General songs or specific theme songs that associate with the films.

Star Wars Trailers

In class today we looked at two different Star Wars trailers. We compared and contrasted the two and identified how they have portrayed the hero's journey differently. Here are the links to the trailers.

“1977 Star Wars”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP_1T4ilm8M

“Star Wars; Revenge of the Sith”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Cdj3GpobM

How have they used the hero’s journey?

• Both trailers included snippets of an action-packed scene of the Ordeal.
• They showed different archetypical characters within the hero’s journey. Like:

1. The Hero
2. The Mentor
3. The Shadow/Antagonist
4. Ally/Sidekick
5. The Goddess

How were the trailers different?

• The 1977 trailer has a non-character voice over as a narrator as well as included dialogue from the film, whereas the Revenge of the Sith only has dialogue from the actual movie and no third-person narrator.
• “Star Wars; Revenge of the Sith” has more complex and detailed computer generated imagery and has a higher image quality compared to the 1977 Star Wars trailer.
• The 1977 Star Wars trailer focused more on the whole storyline whereas the Revenge of the Sith concentrated more towards the main character (hero) and his journey.

Monomyth Trailer Brainstorming

Last week my class started on a new assessment of ours which is based off the Hero's Journey. We are to create a 2-3 minute trailer that clearly shows aspects of the Hero's Journey and specific archetypical characters within it. I am very excited to start this trailer as it is just like our last trailer assessment but we get to extend the length of the trailer, leaving space for more depth into characters and the storyline.

Below are some brainstorming points that I had made to help the development of my trailer. I have chosen to go with my second idea as I feel I have a close connection with it, and the basis of the story was easier to build upon.

Idea #1

• Girl who loves fairytales and books, opens one in the school library and gets taken into the book and has to go through the novel to get back home, must go through different obstacles.
• Normal girl, turns into the Hero
• Witch is the mentor, helping her to get back home
• The fairy is the bad guy, not wanting to let the main character out of the book

Idea #2

• Georgia Mae Hudson is shy, outcast, doesn’t know what she wants to be, has social anxiety
• Has one best friend that she’s had since her toddler years, she knows she wants to be a lawyer though.
• Her mother wants her to be a lawyer like Jenny (who is smart and has good grades)
• Doctor announces to Georgia and to mother that Georgia has social anxiety. Doctor asks what kind of things Georgia does to release of her stress and anxiety. 
• Georgia like to play piano. Only in her spare time and at home, though.
• School talent show is coming up and Georgia’s piano teacher thinks she should enter because she knows how much talent she has.
• Georgia had tried to perform a piece in front of her music class and gets too frightened and runs out of the room. “I can’t even play in front of my own music class, how am I supposed to play in front of the whole school?”
• Her piano teacher keeps encouraging her and telling her she can do it, she is very supportive and helps her in every way she can
• The night of the talent show, Georgia slowly walks onto the stage, her mother and piano teacher sitting side by side, smiling at her supportively. Georgia successfully plays. “You don’t know, until you try.”

Type	Name	Association with Hero	Info
Hero	Georgia Mae Hudson	-	16 years old. Doesn’t really know who she is, shy, an outcast, soon becomes diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, plays piano to release stress but only ever at home.
Mentor	Miss Belle	Piano Teacher	Has a lot of faith in Georgia and her piano playing and thinks it is time she should show the world. Miss Belle suggests Georgia enters the school talent show.
Shadow/Antagonist	Social Anxiety	Georgia is diagnosed with the disorder	Georgia spends the whole movie trying to overcome it.
Ally/Sidekick	Ally Deyes	Best friend	Has known Georgia basically her whole life, they have stuck together for so many years.
Shapeshifter	Mrs Hudson	Georgia’s Mother	At the beginning she has doubt in Georgia, not understanding why she doesn’t know what to do with her life. Once she realises Georgia has social anxiety, she tried her best to support her and in the end she is proud of her performance at the school talent show.
Goddess	metaphor		Georgia’s future and what she wants to do.
Goddess	Phil	A boy that goes to her school	He is a cellist and may have a little bit of interest in Georgia after seeing her play beautifully on the piano.

I then talked to Mr Andrews about my storyline and gained some feedback on my storyline. His tips will most definitely help me develop my storyline into a greater and more powerful depth.

TIPS FROM MR ANDREWS:

• Go further; next step.
• The school talent show isn’t enough of a big reward
• The hero is supposed to be more selfless so the big reward at the end should also help others rather than themselves.

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.