JOUR3745 FINAL STUDY GUIDE LECTURE 11 movie industry story telling Genre Analysis Production Major Studios Independents o Mini majors o Distribution Find Movies to Produce Distribute Movies produced created by distributor s studio Movies from independent producers Cost sharing with other distributors Q What are some of the considerations studios take into account when deciding on which films to produce distribute Q Is there a difference in the considerations majors mini majors and independents take into account when making decisions Exhibition Marketing Movies o Research o Publicity to buzz special events tie ins stars junkets stars on talk shows social media o Advertising promotion Major Chains o Regal o AMC o Cinemark Theaters Emergence of blockbuster movies The Blockbuster Mentality Late 1960s 1970s o o Film School Brats o Counterculture films replaced with genre formulas violence and or sex o Cecil B DeMillie blockbuster films The Ten Commandments Jaws o Characteristics of Hollywood blockbuster movies What are some of the characteristics of today s Hollywood Blockbusters Review Incarnation of novel comic book TV show etc Sequels prequels remakes Market Research Global Action more than drama culture Messages themes Synergy Saturation advertising and promotion Culture and storytelling Culture The shared understandings beliefs values practices customs rituals traditions and symbols cultural artifacts of a group of people Culture s values and beliefs reside in the stories it tells Our stories help define our realities shaping the way we think feel and act Ideology Ideology a system of beliefs that groups of people share and believe are inherently true and acceptable their worldview how things ought to be Characteristics of ideology Socially constructed Dominant ideologies Perpetuated through socializing agents Culture is deeply connected to ideology American cinema themes messages Auteur theory Became popular during the 1960s mass produced vs art Focus director Analyzing a number of films common stylistic choices camera angles lighting editing etc Q Which directors past or present do you consider to be true auteurs Problems with Auteur Theory Encoding 2 stages of making meaning within any given text 1 Encoding a Auteur Theory b Manifest vs Latent Message Decoding 1 Decoding interpretation a Schemas expectations Interpreting texts whose perspective Isn t it just entertainment Creator author only Audience interpretation Techniques of Interpretation Different Methods Narrative Analysis Genre Analysis Semiotic Analysis Content Analysis Texts Movies TV Shows Songs Books Commercials Etc ROSE READING NOTES What explains such apparent madness As big as the losses from Hollywood s blockbuster strategy can be the wins have proved even bigger 39 Blockbusters will become more not less relevant to popular culture and blockbuster strategies will thrive 39 Not fewer hits but more and many of them not undifferentiated world beaters but smaller data driven hits tailored to the tastes of specific audiences Not mega hits but smart hits 40 His model of demand like that employed by Elberse and others who study this phenomenon was a power law curve with a small number of hits clustered at one end of a graph and a large number of far less popular items the long trail trailing off at the other 40 This Anderson argued would spell the end of the water cooler era with its emphasis on a common culture of hits and the advent of the micro culture era when we re all into different things 40 The vast majority of revenue remains in the head 40 The winner take all society the value of what gets produced often depends on the efforts of only a small number of top performers who get paid accordingly 41 Globalization encourages the development of winner take all markets because it broadens the talent pool enormously 41 After Jaws the Hollywood studios and their corporate parents started going for fast payback which meant wide releases backed by pricey television advertising 41 Foreign sales accounted for nearly 70 of the industry s box office receipts by 2012 42 Compared with music and print media the movie business is still at a relatively early stage of disruption 42 Cheaper digital files but more expensive tickets including 3d 43 Alan Horn Walt Disney Studios chairman very few entities in this world can afford to spend 200 million on a movie That is our competitive advantage All formulas will only work for a while How many times can you see the same cities destroyed How many ways are there to destroy them 43 Adele s was the only one to come out after 2004 and it didn t begin to compare in sales with the albums released in earlier decades by Michael Jackson The Eagles Led Zeppelin or AC DC even though the U S population has grown by a quarter since 1991 44 Unbundling one of the signature effects of digital 44 It is staggering to see how few titles at the top contribute to a significant portion of sales Elberse declares and how many titles at the bottom fail to do the same 44 a growing supply of songs produced a growing number of hits even as the average size of those hits declined 44 As Internet usage takes hold hit even the super hits appear to be shrinking in size and growing in number If neither the blockbuster hypothesis nor the long tail theory holds then what 45 Neither long tail nor blockbuster House of Cards is in fact the media property that most plausibly suggests a blueprint for the digital future 45 Formulas sequels and pre awareness 46 Netflix has a direct relationship with its customers so they get more feedback about what people want 46 Opening weekend 597 362 Worldwide Gross 370 million Lifetime Domestic Gross 241 million Formula Formula Formulaic Approach refers to the patterns in premise structure characters plot and trappings Formulaic analysis Formulaic Analysis defines formulaic elements that are characteristics of a genre and examines the messages conveyed by the formula Releasing an entire season at once bc binge viewing House of Cards 47 Formulaic Elements Premise Structure Plot Subplot Plot conventions ritualistic Humiliation Setting Trappings Stock Characters Premise Premise the initial circumstances situation or assumption that serves as the point of origin for a narrative a characteristic situation in which characters find themselves Formulaic structure Formulaic Structure refers to the structure of the scenes in a movie TV show Identify the structure using descriptors Order and chaos