Blog 4

Today in class, we did more planning on our new and final film. This film will be a thriller/horror film. I am doing this project will all three same group members: Trent, Owen and Jimmy. We plan on going to Jimmy's house to film most of the scenes. We will make sure to get as many shots as possible. This is so that when we are in the editing process, we will have many different shots to pick from. I plan on doing most of the filming, while the other three group members will act. We need about 3 or 4 actors for this part. We may invite one of our friends to come to film with us. It is always better to just have another person with you just in case we need another actor. We had this issue in the commercial film, where we didn't have enough actors. Hopefully, the film will go well and we are able to film in a timely fashion.

Audience and Institution Practice Essay

In relation to the media area you have studied, discuss the ways audience consumption has changed over time.

Movie watching has always been the same since it started. People would go to a movie theatre, pay for their ticket, sit down and enjoy the film. Only until the 21st century we started to see new and easier ways to watch movies due to technological advancements. In the 20th century, there were no mobile devices to watch movies on. There was only a theatre, making that the only way consumption happened. When the 21st century came, we saw iPhones, streaming devices, and drive thru movie theatres. These four case studies will show how consumption has changed throughout the years.

Released in June 2015 to all over the world, Jurassic World was expected to be one of the hottest movies of the year. This movie was distributed in a more traditional style. It was aired in  movie theatres and sold as DVD’s. Streaming services were just starting to become popular, but not as popular as they are currently. According to the case study, there were a total of 4,274 movies airing on the opening weekend. Knowing that the movie would make the most money in the movie theatres, Universal Studios started to release advertisements like LEGO and candy collaborations. These advertisements would motivate more people to watch or consume the movie. They did this knowing that this would increase revenue on top of being an advertisement for the actual movie. On top of collaborations with other companies, the original movie, Jurassic Park was aired on many popular TV networks in order to keep the fans eager to watch the new movie, Jurassic World. All of these techniques were used strategically by Universal Studios in order to increase consumption and be able to make $1 billion in revenue. However, there was little use of the upcoming streaming platforms like Netflix. 

In February, 2018 the highly anticipated Black Panther was released. Even before the movie was released, there were ways the production company,Walt Disney Pictures Motion Studios, was getting people to consume their products that related to the movie. There were mobile games, Lexus collaborations, and a website dedicated to the movie. This made the already highly anticipated movie even more anticipated, which would increase consumption when the movie released. These techniques obviously worked and helped the movie make $361 million in the first week of the release. The consumption techniques differed in this movie. It aired the film inl movie theatres and sold as DVDs as well. On top of that, they put the movie on streaming devices like Netflix. Streaming devices were starting to rise as the new way to watch movies and are the most popular currently. 

Guardians of the Galaxy was a hit and when Marvel Studios announced a sequel, people were thrilled. This movie, just like Black Panther and Jurassic Park, was already famous and anticipated because of their successful original movies. Much like the other two movies, Walt Disney Pictures Motion Studios utilized advertisements with collaborations with other popular companies. This increased consumption and allowed the company to make $863 million worldwide. This was not only done with advertisements and movie ticket sales, however. The production company used streaming services and popular websites like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Youtube to gain even more popularity and sales. This movie showed that using streaming services was a viable option over movie theatre sales and that consumption could happen in more than two ways. 

Consumption in movies has never really changed until the introduction of new technology and streaming services. These new ways of getting film into the viewers hands have really been gamechangers for production companies, which shows in the  amount of money the movies are able to make. These new consumption techniques may even fully replace the traditional way to watch a movie, going to a movie theatre.