Section A: Improvement on Essay

Mise-en-scene
The costumes that the characters wear help to represent their ethnicity and where they stand in terms of hierachy within the hotel. The immigrant staff are wearing uniforms where as the white staff are wearing smart suits. This gives the audience the impression that the white staff are more important and successful than the immigrants as its clear that by their uniforms they are cleaners.

Sound
Dialogue is used to suggest power and imprtance of a character. Throughout the sequence the audience have viewed Jackie to be of a high status within the hotel, maybe some sort of manager position. However this is tested when her and a large group of the immigrant staff are hiding in the cupboard from the immigration officers. One of the staff passes out and Jackie has no idea what to do so another worker steps in and  saves her. He said 'he wasnt always a cleaner', hinting that once he was a doctor but by moving to the UK has left him to resort a much lower job. This re-inforecs status and power as now the audience sees Adam (the immigrant worker) to be in a situaion in which he has more power than Jackie, this is empahasized again through the use of a high angle shot looking down on her from his point of view.

Editing
The use of cut-away shots are used  (form of parallel editing) which shows the audience the vulnerable position Ibraham is in. This technique helps the audience understand who Jackie is talking about and we can link the two shots together and identify that he is in a dangerous situtation. The headphones are a prop used in this seqeuence to show why Ibraham cannot hear the alarm, putting him in a weak and defenseless position.

Camera angles/movements/compositions
A Pull focus is used when the immigrant officers walk out of the elevator and are directly infront of Ibraham. This again creates realsim for the audience as they know that he is danger and we link the immigrant officers to the situation. Reinforcing the fact that he is an immigrant and doesnt have any power when up against the officers.

Alexa's Web Traffic Stats

NME


Who is there core buyer?

• 18-24 year old males who do not have children, mainly college educated and main browsing location is from work. (Alexas web traffic)

Has circulation dropped?

•   Sales of IPC Media’s music title NME fell 14.3 per cent to 29,020 in the first half of 2011 (http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=47732&c=1)

Traffic on website?

Yesterday	0.03	-35%
7 day	0.045	+1%
1 month	0.0449	-12%
3 month	0.0468	+0.3%

Traffic rank for nme.com: (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/nme.com#)

	Traffic Rank	Change
Yesterday	5,258	+1,560
7 day	3,574	-211
1 month	3,697	+562
3 month	3,483	-132

Web traffic has risen by 107 per cent year-on-year according to the latest round of ABCe figures. The official measure of website traffic was published yesterday (August 5), revealing the big growth: 1.8 million more of you are now looking at NME.COM's news, listening posts, video interviews, blogs and more.  Average load time: (2.55 Seconds), 80% of sites are faster.


 Examples of convergence, synergy, prosuming opportunties?

• Just three titles in the top 10 managed to increase readers this year – Kerrang!, Metal Hammer and BBC Music managed increases of 4.5%, 0.1% and 0.1%, respectively.

Metal Hammer


Who is there core buyer?

• Very similar to NME.com. is visited more frequently by males who are in the age range 18-24, have no children, are college educated and browse this site from work.

Has circulation dropped?

Traffic on website?

• Traffic rank for metalhammer.co.uk:

  	Traffic Rank	Change
  7 day	72,159	-23,957
  1 month	82,079	+12,572
  3 month	71,604	+3,544

Examples of convergence, synergy, prosuming opportunties?

Section B: Common Errors

Feedback on Section B Mock Exam:

• Lack of terminology (up tp 10 marks)
• Using exampls that are from OLD exemplar responses- this is very lazy amd these stats are now out-dated
• Referencing examples
• Focus on both- AUDIENCE and INSTITUTION
• Hardware and CONTENT
• Own opinion
• By far the biggest error was the lack of specific case study examples; evidence to support claims/ arugements!!! These need specific examples about content, statistics, figures (audience circulation)

What is the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences within the media area in which you have studied?
Points that should have been covered:

• positive and negative
• advances in technology-can do more, smartphones, iphones, tablets, technology is more accessible/easily available (audiences can access it on the move 24/7), Web 2.0, synergies and convergence
• Software: Apps-specific examples from each institution
• Fanzines: exist now due to proliferation in hardware and software and their accessibilty- examples: Audience: more demanding; they can prosume through sites such as youtube so they expect more from institutions, impatient
• how have institutions responded to these constant changing consumer/consumption habits?
• Rise in competition due to proliferation of hardware (Twitter, fanzines etc) and how institutions have overcome this?
• Production & distribution; advancements in printing process- has the internet meant a decrease in sale of institutions print products?

Use WIRED and ADOBE as an example
Refer to Alexa's web traffic

Revision on TV DRAMA

Section A:
30 minutes to watch a clip (4 times) and make notes.
40-45 minutes to write your response.


Construct representations:

• camera shots, angles, movements and compositions
• sound
• mise-en-scene
• editing

Possible Approach to exam response:

• strucuture your notes around the micro concepts (camera,editing, mise-en-scene,sound) to ensure you cover lots of detailed examples
• pick 3/4 key points in the clip and structure detailed analysis around how the micro features are used in those sections of dramas

Note taking technique:

micro	technique	example	Meaning/impact
camera
mise-en-scene
editing
sound

Todorov Narrative theory
Disequilibrium- the period of instability and insecurity in a films narrative.
Equilibrium- a state of peace and calm, which often exists at the beginning of a films narrative.
Enigma- the question or mystery that is posed within a films narrative.
Iconography- the objects within a film that are used to evoke particular meanings.


Keywords:
Realism- do the different techniques used work to make the piece realistic?
Verisimiltude- the construction of a believable world
stereotypes- how we expect people and places to be
Protagonist- is the main character (central/primary personal figure), around whome the events of the narratives plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to identify most with. Alos know as the hero.
Antagonist- opponent, competitor, enemy, rival; is a character/ group of characters, that represents the opposition against which the protagonsit must contend. In other words, ' A person, or a group of people who oppose the main character, or the main characters. Also know as the villain.

'The iconography of the set design such as the space-ships helps to create verisimilitude within the diegesis, this also reflects the genre'



Connotations fit well with mise-en-scene!

Audience Targetting for NME

1)      Core buyer of NME; mainly 25 year old men (73%)

2)      Are they targeting niche/small or mass market?  Mass market

3)      How do they target different audiences?

·         NME classified: 26% full time students

·         72% have broadband

·         59% want to keep up with the latest technologies

·         79% want to listen to new bands

·         52% are interested in a musical course/ qualification

·         NME live: 77% have been to at least 1 rock concert in 2007

·         67% will be attending a festival this year

·         70% of gig goers went for the atmosphere as well as the music

·         NME.com: 93% own a computer

·         56% visit NME.com everyday

·         96% can easily access the internet

4)      What do they offer them in terms of the products they offer/produce? Magazines, NME TV, radio station, award ceremony, night club, merchandise, festivals.

5)      What opportunities do the audience have and how might this satisfy mainstreamers/succeeders etc? Can buy merchandise straight from the store, to follow the popular/ in music.

6)      What is the mode of address? (‘The way a media text speaks to the audience to identify with it?’- the manner, tone and attitude of the magazine) and how does this appeal to the target audience? Straight to the point, informal so feels like they are trying to be our friend, informative, plain and simply put.

7)      How is the brand being positioned?  Quite high up and main stream within their genre of magazine. The leaders of music magazines.

8)      What are their brand values? (If it were a person describe its character) mainstream in the crowd, friendly, keeps up with market trends, informative.

ABCDE statuses

What products / brands would each category buy?

A. Chanel / Dior

B.  Hugo Boss / Waitrose / M&S

C1. French Connection / High Street stores

C2. Benefit / Topshop

D. Topshop / New Look / Asda

E. Primark / Pound Land / Iceland

What magazines do you think they would consume?

A. Vogue / Forbes / Collector’s magazines

B. Grazia / Cosmopolitan / Guardian

C1. Marie Claire / Sun / Sunday Times

C2. Hello / Heat / Sun

D. OK / Closer

E. TV Guides

exam questions

'What significance does the continuing development of digital media technology have for the media institutions and audiences?'

• What impact are technological developments having on music magazines and their audiences?
• How are these developments changing the way music magazines are produced/printed/exhibited and how does this change the way audiences consume them?

Responses:

• convergence has lowered the consuming rate of printed magazines
• audiences are getting younger as new market trends are more online products/information
• costs for printing have risen so they feel they need to move the the changes
• the new market trends have forced the industries to develop new media technolgy
• sales and producing magazines may decline as by the time the consumer has brought the magazine, the information will already be online in half the time and half the price -WEB 2.0(massive impact)
• some small/niche magazines may go corrupt as they only target a specific audience-not a wide maret segment-less consumers
• accessibility: wherever and whenever we like and portability: phones, tablets etc - Convergence
• convergence: NME- radio & website (form of synergy if they were seperate) - MULTI-PLATFORM
• SYNERGY- award shows, NME tour,
• UGC (user generated content)- podcasts, forums, upload your own pictures (nme), upload videos of your band (metal hammer)- PROSUMERS
• prosumers- far more likely to be loyal if you give them the oppotunity to be a prosumer
• NME and Metal Hammer have both won awards
• FANZINES-websites made by consumers/fans becuase they have bias views on how others proudce theirs/ content so they have in effect became competition
• nme and metal hammer HAVE to produce both online website and print magazine: financial burden is greater but online may give them more advertising
• social networks- facebook- can converge with nme and metal hammer- like pages, fan groups
• Twitter can be a threat, as you can directly follow the celebs and get the information staright from their page rather than wait for it to be distributed (loyalty if they have perks that twitter dont give)
• PROLIFERATION- so much choice
• future of magazines- my opinion, statistics etc....
• rupert murdoch quote
• music creates a community, can interact with other consumers with similar likes