Homework Mon 08 Oct

There are THREE sections of the FAMILY TARGET AUDIENCE: kids who like Lego; parents of kids who used to play with Lego themselves; young cinema goers.

Explain how The Lego Movie appeals to each of them using the following areas:

Characters:

The Lego Movie uses the variety of characters to create a certain aspect for each of the three target audiences, for example, Batman is used to link to young movie goers who could perhaps watch and enjoy many of the D.C. universe movies and characters. Benny is used to link to the parents who used to play with Lego, him being from a Lego set that came out for that age group when they were young, they will remember their youth and feel nostalgic about it. The kids who like Lego will enjoy many of the lighter themed characters, especially Emmet, used as a link to the children to promote inspiration that you can be whatever you aspire to be, personifying the different stages of life.

Narrative:

The narrative mainly follows a simple, but capturing and exciting story that can be understood by the kids who like Lego, can capture and create nostalgia and understanding for the parents of the kids, and an exciting, action filled narrative that captures the interest of the young cinema goers.

Settings:

Themes:

The theme of action is prevalent throughout the whole of the movie, creating tension and interest for every single person in the audience. Another theme for the younger cinema goers is the empowerment of women, this is portrayed through the character Wyldstyle.

What methods did they use to PROMOTE the Lego Movie and how did it target the different parts of the target audience? You should talk about the following methods: 

Poster Campaign:

The poster campaign is mainly aimed to attract certain parts of the audience, for example the character posters are aimed at the social and psychological groups that are represented through the characters. The main poster with all of the characters on, attracts mainly the young movie goers due to the many external movie links made through the characters like batman, superman, green lantern and others.

TV Advertising:

The TV advertising is mainly aimed for the parents and the kids, as many kids will see it and talk to their parents about seeing it. The parents will also see it advertised on their TV channels too so they can take their kids to see it for fun. Young movie goers will mostly watch Youtube instead of the TV, so therefore they would mainly see social media advertisements instead.

Film Trailers:

Young movie goers would see these online on Youtube and other video hosting websites, as well as on TV, appealing to the kids and the parents too.

Social Media:

Merchandise:

The Lego Sets and the video game made around the movie will attract the young movie goers who could also be gamers that would be interested in the game more so than the movie, and the Lego sets will attract the kids that play with Lego.

Homework Mon 24 Sep

Name the organisations that regulate the following media forms:

Film - BBFC

TV & Radio - Ofcom

Advertising - ASA

Newspapers & Magazines - IPSO

Video Games - VSC

Explain what a POSTMODERNIST film is. What features would it include?

A postmodernist film is a film style that presents postmodernism through film. It tries to stay away and bend the character and narrative codes and conventions of mainstream film and uses this to try and make the audience believe something surreal.

The Lego Movie is a POSTMODERNIST film. Explain how the The Lego Movie fits this term.

The Lego Movie is a postmodernist film because it does not use standard character codes and conventions, it breaks away from this by having a strong female character like Wyldstyle and a very basic male character as the hero like Emmet, the same can be said for many of the other characters that are unique to The Lego Movie.

DIRT

Media Language: Camerawork, Editing, Mise-en-Scene, Narrative Style, Sound.

1.
OFCOM


2.
Sk8ter Boi: Mise-en-Scene, uses stereotypical teenager clothing and stereotypical teenage objects like skateboards and BMXs. This music video is set in an urban city, being a very modern and trendy setting.

Teenage Dirtbag: Mise-en-Scene, uses the stereotypes of USA high school to create clothing styles for each character featured, the characters follow and dress/act like their stereotypes. This music video is set in a high school in a very stereotypically normal style of the USA.


4.
Codes and Conventions as well as the musicians show how much the magazine celebrates classic rock.
The language choice also follows the stereotypes.
Monochrome photography style.
Stereotypical white male rock artists.
Anti-Stereotypical representation of older rock artists.


5.
Analysis and Judgement of the magazine, make a judgement and draw a conclusion between the similarities and differences and why. Compare target audiences for either magazines. Cluttered layout on the WE <3 POP. magazine, very clean and simple layout on the MOJO magazine. Conclude with them being very different due to the codes and conventions of the rock sub-genre. WE <3 POP. magazine has a very bright and colourful colour palette, whereas the MOJO magazine has a dark and colourless colour palette.


6.
VSC or GRA


7.
To create synergy between both of the products. Contextual awareness from the game to the movie and from the movie to the game, forcing viewers or gamers to buy / watch the other one.


8.
Entertainment - A way for people to forget about the real world for a while to release themselves.
Identification - Relating to certain situations or characters.
Personal Relationships - Lets people understand each other.
Information - Gives contextual information to the movie.

9.
Main poster implies destruction, giving genre ideas to the audience who see these posters. The poster also mixes action/adventure with superhero, giving a large target audience. Subverts genre codes by having an unknown protagonist in the centre of the poster. The tagline at the top "The story of a nobody who saved everybody" creates intrigue to a family audience and especially to children, parents will believe it is a good inspirational topic for the children.


For the music industry unit I need to give examples and revise on contextual knowledge, codes and conventions, and accurate subject terminology.


For the LEGO unit I need to revise subject terminology, and the multiple theories that can be questioned in the exams.

The Lego Movie: Put It All Together

L/O: to explore exam style questions and how to answer them effectively.


Question Format:

Likely to be asked 4 questions, two short questions, two long questions.
First two are general questions on promotion techniques.
First question is 1 mark question that asks for a fact.
Second question is 4 marks and asks to give reasons why.
Two long questions will need support from The Lego Movie as examples.
Ten mark question.

Example Question:
How have Propp's spheres of action been used to represent the characters in the Lego Movie poster campaign.

Analyse how The Lego Movie posters use stereotypes to create representations that are easily understood.

The Lego Movie posters show some of the movie's characters as very standard stereotypes, for example the main character, Emmet, is shown as a normal builder and citizen, him being the main character gives an idea of hope for the normal, working class builders like he is due to him becoming extraordinary. Wyldstyle is represented as a normal superhero, showing the female audience that they too are superheroes and do not have to look or act normal to be good in life due to her wearing colourful clothing and having dyed hair and not looking like everyone else. Vitruvius is shown as an old withered man, representing the older audience, but changing in the movie to be a very strong character, the trailers also show this and shows the older audience what they can achieve. Lord business gives the idea of an angry upper class white male that hates everything lower than him and is trying to create a perfect world, this shows the audience that he is evil.

The Lego Movie: Poster Campaign

L/O: to explain the effectiveness of the campaign; to analyse using Uses and Gratification theory.



The Lego Movie poster appeals to its target audience by showing characters that the target audience will recognise from following the production of the movie for a while, the characters are very colourful and will appeal to a happy, curious audience. The tagline would suggest about the main character, being the one that is at the front, closest to the viewer, and show many elements of this character and what he might do or be like in the movie or to other people.

There are many superhero looking characters on the poster, showing that this movie is a movie that features superheroes and that they play a big part in this movie. There are also many parts that show fire, and teams of heroes, with characters being chased that could suggest action and adventure.

The recognisable superhero characters like batman, green lantern, wonder woman, will appeal to the older audience that has watch these characters rise up in the movie and comic scene, they can also be linked to many of the older characters as parents of kids who play with Lego. The Lego classic characters will appeal to the children and get them excited towards ones that they can relate themselves or their Lego toys with. The normal, young adult that enjoys movies will enjoy this because of the themes of action and the mystery behind the story of this.

Explain the poster campaign and the representations created within it.
The posters show off the main characters and the themes of the characters to the buyer, explaining to them what kind of movie it would be and the importance and role of the characters in the movie.

The Lego Movie: Videogame

L/O: To explain how vertical integration benefits companies; to analyse using uses and gratification theory.

The Simpsons Game
Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix
Resident Evil
Spinder man 2
Shrek
Mortal Kombat

Reason is to make maximum profit from movie and game, familiarity, extends the pleasure of the film or game, the game promotes the film and the film promotes the game.

Uses & Gratifications (U&G)
Blumer and Katz came up with 4 reasons for certain media to be popular over other media:
1. Entertainment, offers a distraction from the world.
2. Personal Identity, helps us consider who we are; what ideas and values we identify with.
3. Relationships, we find things that we can share and discuss with others.
4. Information, new information we want to know or take pleasure in knowing.

Analysis of the game cover:
The main image is the same style as the movie cover, the title shows the Lego logo and then a custom design for the video game itself that is big, bold, and made out of Lego to appeal to the fans.

The layout has a very simple design, it has a title and logos that are out of the way from the main image, making the main image very recognisable and people will start to remember it. The colours are very saturated and show that it is a very upbeat and happy game. The font is made out of Lego for the title, giving it a very unique look.

The main cover of the game shows many characters from the movie that can represent each part of the target audience for the game, for example there is Emmet for the male children, there is Wyldstyle for the female children that can relate to the strong female character of the movie, and then there is Benny for the adults that will be nostalgic towards that character.

The main characters are very well placed on the poster to make them stand out from the rest of the crowd, this shows their importance to the person viewing, even if they have never seen the movie, especially by changing the colours of the main characters so that they don't look like the others.

The wrench in Emmet's hand shows that he is a builder and is just a normal, working member of society.

It will pleasure the player by letting them experience a different part of the story from their own perspective with their own choices.

The cover represents the film by having a same style poster, with the same characters an d the same story.

The Lego Movie: TV Advertising

L/O: To evaluate the methods used to market the lego movie; to link the methods to the target audience.

Wanted to reach everyone quickly so put adverts on ITV from 18:00 to 21:00. Created the first All-Lego advert break. In Dancing on Ice at 19:27 on Sunday 9th February 2014 - five days before the movie launched - ITV broadcast a world first, an ad break made entirely out of Lego.

'Stings' feature characters from a movie in an advert.
At the same time as it was shown, they released it on youtube for other excited people to see.
Huge reaction on social media.
Reached 6 million people live.
1.1 million people saw it on youtube.
Dominated by adaptations and sequels.
Number 1 Movie in 2014.

Explain how The Lego Movie broke boundaries with branded marketing; how it targeted the different sections of their target audience; and whether it was successful:

The Lego Movie managed to break boundaries when it stepped out of what most companies can do and made a whole themed advert break in the style of Lego, this accessed many people who probably did not know of the Lego movie beforehand and now could also be excited for it, it could also make the people who already know about it even more excited for it. This could've also reached families due to the show on being Dancing On Ice, especially because of the timing of 19:27, most of the family would be watching it and could see it as a good movie to watch with their kids, or their kids could have seen it as well.

The Lego Movie managed to target the sections of their target audience by adding jokes that any style of person could find funny, kids would find it hilarious and nag their parents to learn about the Lego movie. It managed to target nostalgic parents by just having the theme of lego in a movie, the trailers show snippets of what they might remember from being kids or other themes that they might know from being adults. The young adults would have seen the promotion on social media and youtube, for example, they managed to reach 6 million viewers on a livestream, this most likely have consisted of young adults and teenagers, reaching this many people is an impressive achievement and has definitely affected the success of the lego movie.

The Lego Movie was an extremely successful movie, both in advertising and in release, even though it was made as a child's movie, it attracted an audience far wider than just children. The amount of people that have seen it is an extreme achievement for the first movie of this style. It made a huge profit overall, in just the opening weekend it made $69,050,279. This movie grew increasingly successful over time, making a total of $470 million.