Audience and Institution Practice Essay

6. To what extent is digital distribution vital to the media area you have studied?

Digital distribution is to every extent a vital part of the current film industry. In past years, the digital distribution of films, like streaming, was important to the business but now it has become the life blood. The coronavirus safety restrictions were the main cause of this since (mid March) when movie theaters were closed, film festivals were rescheduled, and all current movie filming was canceled. This made the distribution of films almost entirely digital, as streaming services became the only way to view newly released movies.
The closing of movie theaters significantly impacted the amount of revenue the film industry made because there was nowhere to watch! However, the revenue made by the cinemas had already been affected by the streaming services. In 2018, U.S. Movie theaters made 10.35 billion dollars on movie ticket sales and 5.64 billion on concessions, making an estimated total of 15.99 billion dollars. Meanwhile, 50% Americans spend around 2.1 billion dollars on streaming services monthly, making that roughly 25.2 billion dollars per year, which is 9 billion dollars more than cinemas. This disparity is bound to grow in the coming years to show how streaming has become more lucrative, since it is one of the only remaining options to watch movies with. Clearly, this shows how important digital movie distribution is to the film industry’s economy.
Film festivals used to be the perfect way for indie films to gain popularity. One example of a film’s success is A Quiet Place. It premiered on March 9, 2018 at the South by Southwest Film Festival, then was re-released in theaters on April 6 by Paramount Pictures. Now, however, film festivals around the world have closed and as of March 6 this year, the South by Southwest Film Festival also closed because of the virus. Despite their small budgets and lesser popularity compared to their mainstream counterparts, indie films are still an integral part of the film industry. Indie producers don’t usually have the money or the prestige through brand recognition to start their films straight on a streaming service, which is where these services can fall short of supporting the industry in it’s time of need.
Starting in 2008, the popularity of DVD’s have decreased as the streaming service industry increased 1231% in the last 9 years. As DVD sales declined, so did it’s revenue stream that supported the industry. The streaming industry’s overwhelming success in the economy made it so the consumers didn’t feel the loss as strongly as they would have in other circumstances. Although the DVD’s popularity was already on the decline, they still brought in some revenue for the whole economy of the film industry. This limited amount of revenue was cut off abruptly once stores closed due to the outbreak. The option of streaming became more appealing and picked up the DVD sale’s slack because of the enforced social distancing measures. On the other hand, there are services like Redbox that act as a grey area. Services like that have some digital aspects where the films can be rented online, and these companies have also branched out into the streaming market like FandangoNow. Although these gray-area services are still open, despite the coronavirus, they greatly rely on digital means to get the films distributed.
Streaming services are the newest and most popular electronic film distribution method and as such there are many different services to choose from: Xfinity, Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, HBO, Amazon Prime Video and more. They have steadily grown in popularity; 50% of Americans are subscribed to at least one streaming service and similar things can be said about the rest of the world. For example, Disney+ and Netflix are set to see a 12% increase in usage because of social distancing. To accommodate these changes, the services are adapting. Specifically, the changes are a temporary convergence of the technologies used by cinemas and the services to make up for the lack of other options. For instance, movies that would have been released in theaters are now available on streaming services for an increased rental price. Trolls World Tour can be rented on Xfinity for $19.99. Additionally, it was available through Video on Demand for only about a month after it’s release date of March 11, 2020 then on April 10th the option to purchase it was introduced. This sell-through mimicked a cinema, presumably to make up for the lost revenue. These changes help the streaming services keep up with demand since they are being forced to be more relevant today than previously expected; what was a gradual convergence of streaming and cinema’s has now become instantaneous in the weeks since the closure of the cinemas. This forced  physical and mindset change was made easier by the earlier efforts of the Disney conglomerate with the creation of Disney+. They also synergized with their subsidiary, Hulu, to create an appealing package deal. The marketed subscriptions purchased by viewers unwittingly eased the switch from watching movies in theaters to streaming services because of the inherent prestige associated with the Disney brand. These subsequent changes have made these digital distribution services all the more vital to the film industry.
The solutions presented by the film industry must be stable to keep up with the changing landscape and unknown future created by the coronavirus. Already theaters around the world are planning to reopen, and some people might or might not attend; but, as life starts to resume as normal, the possibility of a resurgence looms. This means there must be permanent changes to the film industry, and they must stand prepared to defend their revenue. Currently and in the foreseeable future, digital distribution will prove vital to the film industry.

Essay Practice: Component II, Question II

The director of the extract was trying to convey the importance of staying calm and collected in a stressful situation. They make this clear by using camera movements, sound, mise en scene, and editing techniques to convey their meaning.

In the first scene, there is a zoom towards the woman’s face that sets the extract’s tone as suspenseful and anxious. The camera work sets this tone by keeping the rest of the shot’s throughout the extract a little close to the actor’s faces. Likewise, the hand held over-the-shoulder shot of the man and woman’s conversation parallels the emotions he feels. He is cornered and starts to panic; therefore, his surroundings during the shot are obscured by the back of the woman’s head. Moreover, the editing technique used to put the man and woman’s conversation together supports the director’s message as well. The shot-reverse shot of the conversation contrasts the man and woman, shedding light on how much he is struggling to control his frustration.

While the first scene lays the groundwork of tension for the extract, the second half makes meaning of it. Scene two is focused on driving home the importance of staying level headed under stress. The diegetic sound of the table being flipped over is proof of the consequences of almost losing one’s temper. The man’s composure is shown to be further testing by the shot-reverse shot when the actress smiles at him. This open display of her calm facade is in direct contrast to his growing frustration as she shows him what he knows he needs to be: clear headed. The fallout of him losing his temper is captured by a split screen between the cell and a tracking shot of the guards sent to calm him down. This agitation created by this technique drives home exactly how important it is to keep calm by highlighting the consequences of the man’s actions.

Throughout the extract, several techniques were also used intermittently. The purposeful lack of sound used after a flurry of noise puts the importance of keeping calm into perspective. For example, after the man flips the table, there is an ever so brief moment of silence that throws the loud clang into harsh relief. Furthermore, dark lighting is also used throughout the whole extract to represent building tensions. The most obvious use of light is right before the table is flipped. The man steps out from the shadows and is lit from above, right before he loses his thinly veiled control and the tension is released.

All of the shots that build tension are clearly emphasizing the importance of staying calm in extreme situations. The techniques of camera movements, sound, mise en scene, and editing used in the two scenes build on one another to portray this theme clearly.

Final Project: CCR

My previous practice doing a CCR barely helped me with this version, to be quite honest. The way I answered the questions before was shallow in comparison with how deeply I tried to explain myself in the practice version. Also, since the format was a video this time, almost none of the creative aspects in the practice version transferred over. I inserted clips of Eden as examples, and gave real time examples of how I changed the saturation and worked with the titles. Another thing the practice didn't prepare me for, was the time limit.5

 My teacher told our class that the video needed to be 12-15 minute long, and once I had done my first editing pass, I was only down to 17 minutes. This was a huge problem, because I hadn't even added the clips from Eden yet! So, I had work for another hour to cut down the time, adding the clips as I went. I came up with a way to add the clips with out increasing the time of the video. I made each clip have a voice over, and I inserted the new video clip into the space of the video clip that was originally attached to the voice over. I used this method a couple of times when it was most applicable, and it made things a lot easier.  Another trick I used was to show examples of my editing techniques in the actual CCR video, instead of inserting a clip. I did this with the titles and with changing the saturation. I thought that these would also engage my audience more than a clip as well!

Using all of my tricks, I got the time down to a reasonable 14 minutes and 52 seconds. That only left the problem of getting the file onto this blog, which proved to be another monster entirely.

The files for Eden and this CCR were huge, so I couldn't directly upload them to this blog. I then tried a couple different things. I tried to get the files onto a google slide that I could insert into this blog, but the files were too big again! After looking for a way to compress the files, but having no luck, I decided to put them into YouTube, as I saw that uploading a YouTube video was an option when I was trying to upload earlier. This actually worked! I succeeded in getting both files onto this blog directly, and by using a google slide. I chose to stick with uploading directly though, as it looks cleaner.

Final Project: Eden

Me and my group have been working on this project for around three months and it has certainly been an experience. We faced many challenges, the first of which was not being able to decide which pitch to choose, and the last was having trouble communicating after schools shut down.

I'll be glad when this project is finally done. Because of social distancing, I don't feel like my group got to finish working on the project until we really felt it was the best it could be. We could have made more tweaks to the audio and sound effects used, but we couldn't effectively work together from afar. Even though there could have been improvements, I do feel like this version is better than the first or second cut. My only fear concerning this project is if it is easily understandable plot wise. I hope that the audience can understand that the girl walking her dog earlier in the film had disappeared with the only trace of where she used to be highlighted in green. All in all, I'm proud of how my work turned out with the amount of work put into it, and I hope that my audience will enjoy it!

In these last couple of weeks, I've had to balance completing this project with the rest of my school work because of the new online school system. While this has been very difficult, I'm finding a way to do it. However, I'm not very good at it just yet. I've found that my time management and prioritization skills need to improve drastically. Thankfully, I already find my self getting better at managing by the day.

Now that I have some real filming experience under my belt, I can't wait to start another project with a new group sometime. I'm full of idea's and ready to role! I've listed AICE Media Studies A level on my course selection card for next year! I will hopefully get into the class and start filming as soon as possible! I feel like a new world of film was opened up to me this year. Now that I know about all these different shots and angles I see them everywhere in movies! I can't imagine how much I will learn next year!

Music Video: CCR

To prepare for the final project's creative critical reflection, I did a practice CCR of sorts for my music video. The main purpose of this was to give my self practice on the practical side of this reflection. I say, "the practical side," because the reflection is not only critical, it is also creative! Being a very creative person, I feel confident that I have the creative side down pat, but the critical side not so much. So, like I would do with an essay, I wanted to practice and see where I needed to improve.

The first thing I found my self struggling with was the style of the reflection. I was so used to writing in essay style, I found it hard to personalize it. But that changed once I got half way through. By then, I was writing freely and thinking more creatively. When I had to research the conventions of the music video, I took screen shots of the music video's I used and I inserted them into this presentation to make them more lively. While, this is not how I'm going to do my actual CCR, I felt that this was good practice.

Some things I knew I knew I needed to improve on even while writing this CCR. When it came to the question about representing social groups, felt unsure about my answer. I didn't know how controversial my response could be, and I did my best to keep my answer from broaching any charged topics. Now that I'm looking back on this project I think that I shouldn't have worried as much. Because I purposefully chose responses that I wasn't as invested in, I think my answers suffered. I resolved to speak directly in my next CCR, no mater how controversial they may be.

After rereading this presentation, I realized how difficult creating a video CCR would be. I would of course have to come up with adequate answers before filming, but I didn't want to read off a script. This meant there would be a lot of memorization involved, which was a necessary evil to have my CCR be decent in quality.

Music Video

When going into this project, the thing I didn't expect to have to improve was the accuracy and detail of the storyboard. In the commercial, the story board was very accurate and easy to follow. This was because the setting was already determined since we had to film at school. Since the setting was already determined, coupled with the fact that I was familiar with the setting, it was easy to keep the story board easy to follow.

This was not the case with the music video story board. Since the filming would be done in Wynwood, a place I had never been before, it was hard to create a storyboard that I knew we could realistically adhere too. Despite my efforts, when it came time to film, the storyboard was impossible to follow. So instead there was a lot of improvising.

 Now, improvising isn't necessarily a bad thing. If something goes wrong, you have to come up with a plan to work around it and knowing how to improvise would be especially helpful in that instance. But with this project, where nearly all of the shots taken that day were being improvised, improvisation could bring more harm than good. We needed our shots to flow, to be cohesive and improvising could get in the way of that.

Luckily, we had an experienced film producer in our group. He was my teammate's dad, so he accompanied us to Wynwood to film. From there, we could ask him questions about the correct ways to do things. He suggested taking variations of the same shot in different places. That way, if one of the shots looks bad then we can use another. This was amazingly helpful because these shots seemed to flow together during the editing process. I definitely intend on using his advice in my next project. I've learned that, no mater how much planning you do, something could always go wrong.

Looking back, I think that my improvisational skills greatly increased, so if such a thing were to happen with future projects I would be able to work with it better than I would have with out this experience.

Commercial

The main thing I felt I needed to improve on after this project was to make better use of the technology I had at my disposal. When making this project, my group didn't use a tripod for any of the shots at first. Then, as a fail safe measure, we re-shot with a tripod. This was a stupid decision to not use the tripod at the start because it compromised the quality of the film. Also, since it made us have to re-shoot everything, it wasted time that we didn't have to waste. I didn't want this casual wastage of time to become a habit, even though it only really happened once.

Now, because this was our first project, it wasn't complicated enough to really need that extra time we wasted. But, in the music video or the final project re-shoots, this wouldn't have been possible. For the music video, I had one day to shoot most of the shots and we couldn't afford to do take the time to re-shoot. This meant that every second counted, and we often didn't have time to do to many takes of each shot.

 For the Final project, my filming time fluctuated because of the weather some days, although there were days planned to re-shoot on. Moreover, we had an actress who wasn't in the group with her own schedule. We could only film with her on specific days, and I needed to make sure I got good enough shots with the time I had.  I needed to use the best equipment we had to maximize the efficiency of the project. In general, I feel like I have improved on this, but only recently. In the music video, my group filmed with a mono-pod instead of a tripod which made some of our footage shaky. Thankfully, the editing software I used had a stabilizer, so the shakier shots could be fixed.

In the Final project, I used a tripod with various tools built in to allow for the best pans and tilts, so I didn't have to go back and re-shoot for quality. Despite this, I still had to re-shoot because of timing, although this is a better reason to re-shoot, as it meant that I was making use of the time I had. Generally, I'd say that I improved on fully using every tool I had to my advantage.