Costume, Mise En Scene and Semiotics

Below is my Prezi demonstrating my research, planning and organisation for the costume and mise en scene (including the semiotic representations which they create) that I'll be using within my documentary and ancillary product photography.


To research in greater detail about semiotics, I used these resources;
http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/semiotics_and_ads/terminology.html



I've also created a concept board for my costumes using Polyvore, which I have based on my Prezi presentation for this area. Polyvore was very helpful for creating this concept board as it links to where the costumes can be purchased, which I'll use for organisation of costumes and to include more detail about them on their original websites. My narrator's costume is to the left of the collage, and my interviewee's is towards the right.

Media Studies Costume by roseycourtney featuring a short sleeve black dress

Next, I'll send these costumes to my cast to organise which similar clothing items they own themselves and which I'll need to arrange in their sizes.

*Update: After casting, I've sent this concept board to Rowan and Emily to arrange their costumes. The ones which they own match perfectly to my envisioned style as set out by my concept board, therefore they will wear these to each shoot, with Rowan varying between jeans and black trousers to create a slightly more interesting range and to differentiate between time during my shoots.*

Lighting

It is conventional of documentaries to use simplistic and natural lighting, as they are often shot on the move  and improvised rather than overly planned in detail, and do not present complexly stylised lighting such a chiaroscuro, silhouettes or bright, coloured lights. Therefore for each location, the lighting I plan to use includes;

• Outdoor narrations: Natural lighting shot in not overly bright/shadowed locations during daytime. According to my initial location research into daylight hours, I will need to shoot between 11:00-2:00.
• The Forum, Marzano and library interviews/narration: Shot during the same hours as the previous location (I will therefore need to spread my shooting over different days to cover everything in time.) These locations all have losts of natural lighting due to the large glass windows, walls and ceilings, as well as the bright white lighting, and white walls which won't project colour (which I found from my location plan filming).
• Starbucks informal interview: This location includes artificial studio lights at the bar seats, however due to the yellow filter formed by the wallpaper and shadows of this location, I will also require natural lighting by holding my interview near the large windows; balancing the colours of the lights.

The images for my newspaper advertisement and double-page magazine spread will be photographed within my locations in order to introuduce them and form strong links tommy documentary. Therefore my lighting for this photography will remain the same as my documentary production lighting.

Animatic

I have produced an animatic from my documentary storyboard following my plans to do so on that post, which allowed me to;

• become familiar with the Final Cut Pro editing software which I'll be using for my editing
• research Final Cut Pro editing techniques such as this one
• practise the timings I'll be using for each clip and to see whether I'll meet my 5 minute duration
• view how my editing transitions and effects will flow together

Documentary Animatic from Courtney O'Donnell on Vimeo.

I noticed from this production that I didn't meet by 5 minute duration by 1:52, therefore I'll be including more shots, particularly artistic cinematography within my documentary, which I will include when writing my shot list and script to add the extra time. As my timings weren't exactly correct, I decided not to add my non-diegetic music as I had previously planned, as my music timings would also be inaccurate.

Documentary Storyboard

I have planned the production of my documentary by creating a storyboard with detailed annotations, as a plan for my:

• locations
• shot types
• mise en scene
• characters
• order of shots
• order of sound
• and some of my editing

I have also presented this storyboard interactively using SlideShare, as embedded below:

My Documentary Production Storyboard from Courtney O'Donnell

To extend this planning, I will need to create an animatic from this storyboard in order to plan my timings and editing transitions, as well as non-diegetic music.

Location Planning

I have presented my initial location planning using Prezi:


Researching from this website has been effective for planning a range of cinematographic shots: empireonline.com/features/film-studies-101-camera-shots-styles

Musician Update

Today my musician, Maya Law, emailed me her cover of 'Hard Out Here' following my previous request of this song for my non-diegetic sound for my documentary. I've uploaded it to SoundCloud (with her permission) to embed into my blog.


I am very pleased with her cover and it's professionalism, as the sound quality is high, and its original song is recognisable. I'm especially happy with 1:02-1:34, and 2:12-2:55 of the cover, as these parts capture the upbeat feel which I had planned to overlay the more positive sections of my documentary narrative - therefore I will be looping them for these sections. The beginning of the cover sounds similar to 'Timber', the other music track for my documentary, therefore allowing my non-diegetic sound to flow and sound organised. I will experiment with editing this music along with 'Timber' using iMovie, to adjust the speed and pitch of these songs, and use ducking to correspond with the diegetic sound of my documentary, and my non-diegetic voice-over.

*I will update this post with the next song I'm requesting for Maya to cover once I've finished planning it.*

Deconstruction of TV Listings Magazine

I recently deconstructed two film posters; 'Moulin Rouge', 2001, and 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street', 2007, in order to develop my deconstruction skills and to understand what to look for when analysing media texts and products:
*Insert 3 images from the booklet*

From this knowledge, I began deconstructing a relevant article from the TV listings magazine, 'TV Choice'. The article I deconstructed was appropriate, as it was the same documentary which I have deconstructed in a previous post, 'Don't Stop the Music'. This shows me that documentaries (which I had identitfied as similar to my own in my deconstruction, for example due to its matching exhibitor of Channel 4) are suitable for this magazine, despite first impressions due to the soap opera dominated front cover.

Deconstruction of article using SlideShare as a presentation method:

Deconstruction of TV Listings Magazine Article from Courtney O'Donnell

Evaluation:
By deconstructing this TV listings magazine article, I have gained knowledge of its format, strengths and weaknesses, and how text and images can link together. I've also noted the importance of a house style to create a stylistic article. By deconstructing this article, I have now began to prepare my planning and production for my own ancillary product. I am unsure whether I will use this exhibitor, its indicated target audience seems inappropriate for my own product, therefore I will need to analyse another article from an alternate exhibitor such as the 'TV Times', which presents scheduling for Channel 4.

Production Plan

Over the next 2-3 months, I will be working to produce a 5 minute extract from a television documentary within the documentary genre and with my exhibitor 'Channel 4' in mind. It will present and debate the issue of sexism within contemporary media; specifically the music, television, journalism and film industries in the Western world. I will also be creating two ancillary products; a double page spread from a TV listings magazine discussing and promoting my documentary using images and text, and a newspaper advertisement of my documentary.

To stay organised with completing all necessary areas of production within my timescale, I have produced a production plan for planning and producing my documentary and ancillary products below, along with an estimation of the time it will take to complete each task.

• Generation of ideas, 30 minutes: Mind-maps of developed ideas for all of my products, referring back to my research.
• Job specification, 40 minutes: As this is an independent task, I will be completing most of the production jobs myself; however just as I have recruited my musician, Maya Law, I will need to cast characters including a narrator and interviewee subjects.
• Characters, 30 minutes: Discussion of the influences of my characters and how mine have developed.
• Camera shot/ type/ angle plan, 1 hour 20 minutes: A detailed list of all of the camera shots, types and angles which I propose to use to film my documentary, and their effectiveness.
• First drafts of all of my products, 2-4 hours each: Early drafts for all of my products to make note of any problems which I may encounter during production (e.g. natural lighting or software), and have a basis to develop from for my next drafts.
• Time management, 20 minutes: Plans considering timescale to stay organised.
• Cinematography, 2 hours: Considering and evaluating the quality and artistic style of my ancillary product images and documentary shots.
• Lighting, 2 hours: Consider the effectiveness of a range of lighting and organise and experiment with equipment.
• Diegetic, non-diegetic and synchronous sound, 3 hours: Planning and producing sound including voice-overs and music, and experimenting with producing sound through techniques such as foleying.
• Ancillary product images, 3 hours 20 minutes: Organise, plan, produce and edit a range of images to choose the most effective within my focus group meetings.
• Health and safety, 1 hour 30 minutes: Research and evaluate the health and safety implications of my own products.
• Ethics and permissions, 1 hour 30 minutes: Research and evaluate issues such as plagiarism and copyright relating to my own products, and consider the ethical controversy of my production themes.
• Storyboards, 2 hours: Visually planning sequences of my production.
• Edits, 2 hours each: Produce developed drafts of edits for each of my products.
• Regular focus group evidence and questionnaires, 4 hours: Gathering feedback and evaluating and developing my products to suit my target audience.

Audience Research Plan

As sexism in the media is a controversial topic, it would be inappropriate to target my products to young audiences. Most young audiences would also have difficulty understanding my documentary content, due to the mature subject I am presenting. The readers of TV listings magazines and newspapers are also mainly within an older demographic. Therefore, it is clear that my target audience will be mature young adults - adults (17-35), as they are the most dominant media consumer demographic (making the issue I am discussing relevant to them), and will be comfortable with the theme of sexism in the media. They are also within the target audience for Channel 4 programming, TV listings magazines, and newspapers; making my products appropriate for them.

It is key for my planning and research that I identify my target audience using a balance of primary and secondary research, as this allows me to produce, market and distribute for the demographic which will be most likely to engage with my products. Primary research is the most reliable and precise, as I am researching specifically for my own target audience. Secondary is less reliable, however it will be useful for research which I could not complete in my timescale, such as wide studies and statistics into audiences similar to my own, as well as research into theorists such as Pete Buckingham. Therefore, I have organised the research which I will be carrying out below.

Primary research:
Interviews - I will be formally interviewing a person within my target audience in order to discover how I could engage them with my product, and gain a greater understanding of my target audience's generic pleasures. I will choose somebody who is interested in the documentary genre, as this will allow my interview to be more reliable. The interview will also be semi-formal, so that my information is as detailed and focused as possible; further increasing reliability. To record this research, I will film or record audio, as this will allow me to stay focused on interviewing rather than note-taking.

Focus group - I will form a focus group composed of people within my target audience in order to gather feedback of my documentary throughout my planning and production stages. This will allow me to improve and develop my product to specifically suit my target audience. To record, I will film my focus group feedback so that I can focus on presenting rather than note-taking.

Questionnaires - I will create online questionnaires to gather information from my target audience about how I will be producing, exhibiting and distributing my product to suit them. To determine that the information I am gathering if from my target audience, I will include a question asking their age and media consuming habits (e.g. interest in documentaries), and will record my research by presenting and evaluating my results on my blog.

Secondary research:
I will be researching audience theorists such as Pete Buckingham and his research into audience generic pleasures and archetypes, as well as statistical data based on my target audience such as their average viewing habits if appropriate. I will also be looking at essays and studies relating to my target audience and general audience research, to analyse and add to my blog. Finally, I will use smog testing to discover whether my script is appropriate for my target audience demographic, and will investigate the BBFC criteria for appropriate content relating to audience age. This is relevant to my documentary, as when discussing the issue of sexism within the media, some of my documentary content will be of a slight sexual nature to demonstrate this - requiring research into censorship and suitability for audiences.

Add screenomatic talking about the types of interview instruments to use and their pros/cons

Conventions of a Documentary

I have decided to research the conventions of a documentary so that I can meet these through my plans for my own production. This will allow me to make my documentary more professional and suitable for its genre and style. For this research, I am analysing the textbook 'Documentaries, Classroom Resources' by Jo Wilcock, published by Auteur. I have posted photos of my annotations of appropriate pages in the textbook where I have demonstrated how I plan to meet these conventions and details of other conventions which I need to consider.

From this research, I have learnt some conventional narrative, editing and style techniques from a reliable, modern and published source. I will use this research as a guide for my own production so that it will be a conventional documentary. I will also extend this research online to find the conventions of documentaries which Channel 4 produce, so that my product is appropriate for my exhibitor.

Deconstruction of a Documentary

I am deconstructing the beginning 5 minutes of the Channel 4 documentary 'Don't Stop the Music', as this is also the length specified for my own product.

Aired 9/9/2014: James begins with St Teresa's primary school in Basildon, Essex, testing whether his 'instrument amnesty' can work with the pupils of Year 5, and persuading teachers and parents of its benefits before he attempts to launch it across the rest of the UK.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dont-stop-the-music/4od

From this research I hope to understand the structure and style of modern documentaries on Channel 4 (my exhibitor in mind) to help me produce my own documentary effectively. I've also chosen this documentary to deconstruct in particular as I am expecting to see cinematographic shots of the instruments which may inspire my own shot list.

I have presented my deconstruction using SlideShare so that I can focus each shot from the documentary on an individual slide, and so it also becomes interactive.

'Don't Stop The Music' Documentary Deconstruction from Courtney O'Donnell

From this research, I have been inspired to experiment with a range of conventional cinematographic camera angles and movements and also editing styles for documentaries. I have gained a deeper understanding of the structure of a documentary as this was something I was initially unfamiliar with; for example the non-linear introductions used to create an enigma for the rest of the documentary and explain the investigation, and the positions and use of the title and hashtag within the introduction. I've also become interested in how this documentary matched their voiceover script to the actions in the shots, as this is a fluid style I hope to achieve for my own product. I may refer back to this post during my production planning.

Statistics for the Roles and Presentation of Women in the UK Media Industry

These are some screenshots of statistical data which comparatively discusses gender roles and representations within the media. The data is reliable as these are well known and highly credited UK feminist/media related websites, and due to the fact that the data is also cited with sources.

The information which I found most appropriate to discuss in my documentary is:

• '46% of global news content reinforces gender stereotypes, almost eight times higher than stories that challenge those stereotypes (6%)' - the journalistic/news TV area of the media industry therefore imparts these oppressive stereotypes onto its viewers, who as a result, may be more likely to also perceive genders in this damaging way.
• 'Just 23% of reporters on national daily newspapers in the UK are women, with only 1 female editor of a national daily.' and 'A study by Women in Journalism (WiJ) has found that 78% of all front-page articles during a four week period in 2012 were written by men compared to 22% by women.' - there is a clear gender bias in the journalistic/news TV media industry, and fewer opportunities for female writers. This may make my newspaper advertisement ancillary product relevant, as people who read those newspapers and see mostly male writers' names may become interested in my documentary which addresses this.
• 'Research on the UK media found that men typically outnumber women as 'experts' by 4:1 on major TV and radio programmes across channels.' - My next steps from this section of my research will be to look at a male dominated show such as 'Top Gear' which has been known for misogyny and controversy.
• 'Annual report from Dr Martha Lauzen and the Centre of the Study of Women in Television and Film found that in 2012 women comprised 18% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers and editors working in the top 250 domestic grossing films.' - key statistic for representing the gender bias and lack of opportunities for women within the UK film industry.
• 'In the indie sector women now make up 48% of the workforce, up from 30% in 2009.' - positive information about the development of gender equality in the UK indie film industry.

This research will help me when writing a powerful and thought invoking script, and will also support my discussions with accurate and reliable information.

Update from my Musician

My musician, Maya Law, has just emailed me her acoustic cover of 'Timber' by Pitbull ft. Ke$ha which I requested from her 2 weeks ago. I've uploaded the music to SoundCloud (with her permission) so that I can embed it to my blog.

I'm very happy with the quality and style of this piece of music, as it sounds professional, the sound quality is high, the music can be looped in the middle to make the song longer, the original song it's covering is recognisable, and the music does not change dramatically throughout the song so that it doesn't overpower my voice-over/diegetic sound. I will experiment with editing the speed and pitch of this song and ducking it during the editing process of my production so that it corresponds appropriately with my documentary video.



The next steps for my music are requesting another acoustic cover. This time I am requesting a feminist song, Hard Out Here by Lily Allen, to contrast with the problematic song 'Timber' which I have deconstructed in a previous post. The 'Hard Out Here' cover will once again be acoustic without lyrics, therefore its strong language will not be an issue for my audience. I've also asked Maya if this song could be more upbeat than 'Timber' to create an interesting contrast of sound and to have a range of song moods for the different points in my documentary e.g. upbeat for positive parts, lower for the negative criticisms.

Analysis of a Report on the Representation of Women in the Media Industry

I have used Prezi to present my analysis of a report by Equity which uses mostly primary data to discuss and challenge the representation of women in the TV, film, radio, music and advertising industries in the UK. I analysed the report by using the Mac pdf viewing tools to highlight relevant information and annotate it using text boxes and arrows.
Original report pdf download here: http://www.equity.org.uk/documents/response-to-labour-older-womens-commission/

Non-Diegetic Music

I have decided to consider the non-diegetic music which will overlay my documentary early on in my production plans in order to secure a musician and be organised for this key element of my production. As I am presenting and discussing contemporary media, specifically including the modern music industry, I have decided that my non-diegetic music will reflect this so that my sound and content flow well together.

Therefore my music will be acoustic compositions of popular modern songs; focusing on some of the songs I will be criticising in my documentary to create a link to what I am discussing, such as Timber by Pitbull ft. Ke$ha. I will also include popular songs relevant to feminism such as Hard out here by Lily Allen for when I'm not criticising the media. I have chosen an acoustic cover style without lyrics so that the music is simple enough to not distract from my documentary and diegetic sound, or overpower my non-diegetic narrations. It also allows me to use a variety of different songs which flow together, rather than including a range of different music styles which may sound messy and unprofessional when used together or consecutively.

As I do not have the ability to play the guitar to compose my music, I have asked my talented musician best friend Maya Law to play these covers. She is confident with composing acoustic covers in a range of popular genres for her YouTube channel, therefore I feel that she would be most appropriate to compose for my documentary. She is also capable of linking popular music into acoustic 'mash up' songs so that they flow well together whilst sounding recognisable to the songs they are covering; which perfectly meets the requirements for my documentary style of music.

Here are some examples of her acoustic compositions from her YouTube channel where she has covered popular songs:

Conversation with my Musician from Courtney O'Donnell

As I continue my research into the music industry, I will make an follow up post containing the list of songs I would like her to compose a cover of which I will send to her, and also any relevant conversations we have about my music for my documentary.

Deconstruction of Timber

Researching the music industry's relationship with feminism
The representation of women within the music industry can be exploitative, degrading and even threatening; evidenced by the condoning of rape culture by current artist, Robin Thicke.

I have decided to focus my research on modern media so that what I am presenting has more relevance to my audience. This could allow my documentary to create a greater impact as my audience may reevaluate the media which they are consuming. My target audience will also be familiar with current media due to their predominant media consumption habits as a young, digitally literate demographic.

Deconstruction of Timber by Pitbull ft. Ke$ha


Deconstruction of lyrics:
"I'll have them like Miley Cyrus clothes off twerking in their bras and thongs. Face down booty up, that's the way we like to what."

From these lyrics the males are degrading women by describing them as sexual objects. 'Dig-gidy dogs' metaphorically describing the males is degrading to men as it suggests they are driven by animalistic, hedonistic behaviour such as sex rather than complex human behaviour. The artist Miley Cyrus is also slut shamed for her 'twerking' and outfit choices.

"She says she won't but I bet she will."
The scenario being presented here is that the woman has rejected Pitbull's advances, but he is certain that he will be able to convince her otherwise - suggesting harassment by Pitbull. This demonstrates the damaging feminist social theory that 'no' means 'yes' and a man can change a woman's mind by harassing her despite her showing that she isn't interested - giving the man patriarchal control over the woman's choices.

"Timber"
The song title itself which is repeated throughout the song is a metaphorical male sexual innuendo - creating male dominance.

Deconstruction of the video:

This wide shot still from the music video demonstrates the male gaze in third person, as the audience can see that women are objects for the males' viewing pleasure.

The male gaze is also presented by the producers use of close-ups and tracking shots with the focal points being the curves, bottoms and boobs of the women in the music video.

Tracking and lingering over the women's curves presents them as an erotic object for the men in the video as well as the audience - which passively gives them the role of the oppressive male gaze. As the women are the only gender to be objectified in this way, a patriarchal role is assumed in the video, as the male perspective is the dominant one whilst the females are submissive to his gaze. Second wave feminist Laura Mulvey who created the concept of the male gaze in her essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema', 1975, stated that women were objectified in film because heterosexual men were in control of the camera, and Hollywood films played to the models of voyeurism (sexual interest in spying on people engaged in intimate behaviours) and scopophilia (sexual pleasure derived from looking at erotic objects). It may be useful to research further into the statistics and ratios between male and female main production roles within the mainstream media and whether this is changing, in a separate post.

When an audience views women in the media with an objectifying male gaze, this can transfer into how they view women in reality - leading to more female objectification, evident by everyday sexism such as cat calling, staring and groping/other forms of sexual assualt.

Looking at the mise en scene costume within the video, the women are wearing significantly less than the fully covered men. The women's costumes are sexualised due to their revealing design which often resembles lingerie, presenting them fundamentally as 'eyecandy' for the males in the video and the audience, however the suited, shirted and trousered men are not objectified in this way due to their styling.

The differences between the male costume and female sexualisation can be seen clearly by these two similar wide shots above and below.

Male costume: hats, long sleeved shirts, jeans, boots. Female costume: hat, cropped vest, unbuttoned knicker shorts, visible thong, heels.

Mid shot of fully suited male costume at the beach.

Wide shot in right third of fully clothed male costume with a long sleeved shirt and trousers apart from shoes.

Wide tracking shot of full clothed male costume with a long sleeved shirt and trousers whist diving.

Mid shot of lingerie style costume with cut outs on the pants and translucent lace draped at the back.

Finally, the shots of the women dancing on the tables for the male crowd's entertainment suggest arguably degrading stripping/table dancing imagery, met by a man grabbing one of the women without her permission, which further degrades the women in the video and demonstrates a male dominance.

Holiday Research Planning

I will begin my research for my product during the summer holidays to stay on track with my progress. I have used the mind map software by Exam Time to present my plan for all of the areas of research I hope to cover this summer.

by courtneyodonnell

Presenting and Pitching my Chosen Brief: A Documentary

Here is a presentation I have created using Emaze to pitch my idea for my final production to the class. I have also created speaker notes with a more in-depth description of each slide, which you can find below the presentation.



The likely target audience:
I am planning on focusing my documentary on a feminist issue or an issue relating to sexism in the media, therefore my most appropriate audience would be slightly young adults to adults due to the complexity and maturity of my topic. My topic is relevant to this audience, especially sexism in the media as young people who are digitally literate and predominant media consumers may be familiar with this issue. My target audience is also appropriate for my ancillary products, as the older demographic will be most likely to see the advertisement for the documentary when they read the newspaper, and the slightly younger adult demographic will most likely see the double page spread about the documentary if they read listings magazines. From my initial research and knowledge of the exhibitors of documentaries, I know that BBC and Channel 4 documentaries are targeted at a similar audience age range, which would make my documentary appropriate for these television documentary exhibition audiences.

How the products will relate and support each other:
-The documentary and newspaper will relate and support each other as they are both informative, mature and serious (varying with some informal newspapers, but this is generally true for newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent, which discuss similar political content such as feminism.). Therefore advertising my political documentary in a newspaper is appropriate in relation to the other content in the newspaper, as it will be seen by my target audience.
-Similarly to the newspaper advertisement, the double-page spread in a listings magazine is advertising my product mainly by writing, however the listings magazine is a much more in-depth description of it, with more exploratory content such as interviews, images and quotes. The listings magazine is suitable for my adult target audience who are most likely to read them, and also relates to my televised method of exhibition, as listings magazines fundamentally inform their readers about what will be shown on television.

Potential routes for exhibition and distribution:
My brief specifies that my documentary will be exhibited on television, however I could consider extending this to online streaming and on-demand television services such as 4OD and BBCiPlayer to target more closely at my younger demographic of my target audience who are more digitally literate, to convenience my audience who may have missed when the documentary was scheduled on television, and to encourage word-of-mouth distribution and virility for new audiences who heard about the documentary after it was aired. If I decided to include this method of online distribution, I may also want to consider online distribution methods such as reviews and debates using social media platforms like Twitter.

Skill-sets necessary for production including your own strengths and need for training:
Some of the skills which may be required for production that I am confident in include;

• Writing and communication skills, as the documentary and ancillary products are fundamentally written content. I am confident with this as I am currently taking English literature at Alevel.
• Directing skills as this is an independent task which I need to organise and produce myself.
• Organisation, time-keeping and planning skills, which need to be thorough.
• Some knowledge of the topic I am focusing on for my documentary, a knowledge of the style and structure of documentaries, and the ability to research relevant information for these.
• Camera and editing skills, which I am confident with and have developed from the AS task.
• Debating skills which I may need to use for the content of my documentary, and have developed from taking philosophy and ethics at Alevel.
• Analytic skills allowing me to locate and market to my appropriate target audience.

Some skills which I may need to train and develop for production include:

• My persuasive and advertising skills to create a successful newspaper advertisement, which I will need to research.
• A knowledge of the structure and style of television listing magazines, as I have not investigated these much before starting the project.

Time management:

To manage my time I will need to make allowances for each stage of production and create deadlines for when I need to complete these in order to meet my final deadline for the project. I will use the checklist within the A2 media booklet to regularly monitor my progress and see what I need to complete. Some possible problems which may effect my production time could include pressures from my other Alevel subjects, future personal pressures, and issues with accessing the necessary technology for production; therefore I plan to complete my work in time for all of my deadlines so that I can make time allowances for these possible problems.

Choosing a Brief

My task is to choose a brief for my final A2 project which I will present and pitch to my class. I will be pitching my plans for my project and how I aim to create and research for it to ensure that my idea sounds successful and appropriate for my deadlines, facilities and capabilities.

First I began considering and evaluating the possible briefs I could choose for my project by ranking them with a colour coding system on my worksheet. Then I mentally brainstormed some of the possible outcomes for the briefs I was interested in, and finalised my decision between;

Brief 3: An advertisement package for a new product or service, to include two TV advertisements, together with two of the following three options:
-a radio advertisement
-a TV programme sponsorship sequence
-a web pop-up

Brief 7: An extract from a new documentary TV programme, lasting approximately five minutes, together with two of the following three options:
-a radio trailer for the documentary
-a double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary
-a newspaper advertisement for the documentary

After focussing my consideration to the 3 extra options, and my interests in political matters such as feminism and equal rights and also English literature and writing in general, I decided that the documentary was the most suitable brief for me.

Hannibal Presentation

I have created a Prezi presentation to present to the class using my research on this blog post, where I researched the links between different media products, using the case study of the NBC television show, 'Hannibal'. This will help to prepare me for the main task for A2, which also involves linking between different media products to promote one main product.

Presentation About Media Text Links

Main product: My main product is the American psychological crime-thriller-horror television series 'Hannibal' developed by Bryan Fuller for NBC, first airing in 2013.

Campaigning products and promotion: The Hannibal Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and Facebook accounts, as well as the official NBC website distribute above the line, online posters which include a still image from one of the episodes, accompanied by a quote.

They also use these sites to distribute the teaser trailers which they create, which preview the upcoming episodes, creating audience excitement which encourages them to watch the episode when it is aired. These are effective campaigning products as they can be shared by fans to reach wider audiences, and are easily accessible online.

There have also been online and offline articles written about the series, such as http://www.vulture.com/2014/06/vulture-tv-awards-best-episode-hannibal-finale.html which promotes Hannibal as the best television episode of the year.

Conventions met/challenged: It is conventional for media conglomerates such as NBC to use teaser trailers, posters and websites to market films, as they have the funds to create these professionally, and also distribute the shorter teaser trailers to terrestrial television for commercials during and between programming. It is unconventional for such large companies to rely on online promotion through social media; as this is generally a marketing method used by smaller companies as it is cheaper. However due to the increasing popularity of social media, and prominent digital literacy for young audiences, online promotion successfully allows media products to reach larger audiences.

Target audience: The series is targeted at mature, adult audiences due to the complex and often shocking themes and content, which is identified by their 'viewer discretion advised' warning at the beginning of each episode, and also due to the fact that the Hannibal Lecter film franchise and novels which the series has been adapted from have a reputation of shocking content.

Below the line processes: Below the line marketing processes include fan twitter accounts and hashtags such as @Hannibal_Quotes, encouraging twitter discussions which promote the television series through word-of-mouth advertising. This type of advertisement is often successful for Hannibal, as their shocking and controversial content often raises discussions.

Fan art is also posted on Tumblr and RedBubble (which makes the art into t-shirts), and the official Hannibal Facebook page regularly posts submitted fan art.

Above the line processes: Above the line marketing processes include terrestrial television broadcasts of the teaser trailers and trailers for upcoming episodes between programming on NBC, Sky Living and other similar channels which will reach their target audience, as well as during 'on-demand' television menus. They also use posters online and offline which advertise the series such as on buses, billboards, and also social media.

Intertextuality and borrowed interest: The series is adapted from the Hannibal Lecter film franchise which includes the popular film 'Silence of the Lambs' 1991, and also the Thomas Harris novels which began with 'Red Dragon' 1981. The 32 year gap between the first Hannibal novel and the Hannibal television series has allowed the Hannibal Lecter franchise to gain lots of borrowed interest through the success of these texts, which could encourage audiences to engage with the series, as it is adapted from texts which they enjoy.

The success of the Hannibal Lecter franchise most notably includes 'Silence of the Lambs', which was critically acclaimed and financially successful, becoming the third film in the history of the Academy Awards to win the 'big five' categories (Best; actor, actress, director, writing, picture), and also winning 1 Golden Globe and 2 BAFTAs in 1992. This promoted the Hannibal Lecter franchise to a wide audience, increasing the borrowed interest for the television series. The cast of NBC's Hannibal could also generate borrowed interest, due to the popular Burberry model Hugh Dancy for the role of 'Will Graham', and also Mads Mikkelsen for the role of 'Hannibal Lecter', who has gained popularity for his roles in 'Casino Royale' 2006 and 'The Hunt' 2012. Fans of these actors could become interested in the media texts which they feature in.

Intertexuality within the television series is very common, as it is an adaption of previous texts, presented in a postmodern way which is suitable for modern audiences. An example of this is the similar masks worn by Hannibal Lecter in 'Silence of the Lambs' and Will Graham in Hannibal.

Another example of is the parallel between the scenes in the television series and 'Hannibal' 2001 film where Mason Verger is sitting in darkness and cutting off his face and feeding it to dogs; however such parallels are very frequent due to the similar narrative which both media texts present in a different way.

Brand identity promotion: The brand identity of the Hannibal Lecter franchise is clearly promoted by the television series as it is a postmodern adaptation of the franchise with recognisable narrative and mise en scene links throughout (e.g. the masks).

Audience theory: The two-step flow concept is used for the marketing of Hannibal, as the television series attracts audiences using below the line marketing processes such as word-of-mouth and social media discussions, which allows audiences to promote the media product to other potential audiences.

Exhibition and distribution: Exhibition and distribution processes include online streaming to Netflix or the NBC Hannibal official website legally, or illegal streaming sites such as VodLocker. Hannibal is also exhibited and distributed to on demand television and terrestrial television on channels such as NBC and Sky.

Conventions of the genres met/challenged: Hannibal breaks the conventions of a crime procedural (individual crimes resolved within each episode) due to the focus of the emotional damage and deterioration which each crime imposes onto the characters, creating a link between the episodes in the series. It is also conventional to the thriller-horror genres due to the violent and shocking content and graphic killings, and the psychological genre due to the manipulative plot events and twists.

Innovations: The postmodern adaptation of a 1981 text has been innovated by the produce to appeal to a modern audience with the use of attractive cinematography and editing which often juxtaposes the chilling scenes, for example the editing for the opening title sequence to beautifully form the shocking skull of Hannibal Lecter using blood:

and also the cinematographic close-up scenes where Hannibal is preparing dinner alongside classical music, which can be stylistically appreciated by modern audiences, whilst also making them uneasy, as his cannibalism is focused on through the prolonged close-ups.


HANNIBAL S2 DINNER 30s from Sony Africa Networks on Vimeo.

This is innovative when contrasted with the previous media productions for the franchise which use much simpler shots and editing due to the fewer technological developments during the times they were produced.