MEST1 Mock exam: learner reponse

1)  Feedback

• Fatal Error : you missed the key word in the question : narrative. In fact, you didn't mention it once
• Some basic errors you need to cut out : e.g. describing the Tag London campaign incorrectly
• Must answer the Question!

2) In this mock, I didn't exceed my target grade; I was 14 marks away from it. I believe that if I had made my points clearer in my section A and answered the question properly in section B, then I would've got a grade higher than my target grade.

3) Throughout the whole of this essay, I believe that I made some of these points from the mark scheme. However, the problem that I had made and for this reason, not getting a good grade is that I didn't either explain the point well enough or I didn't explain it at all and didn't make it clear for it to be marked.

4) In my opinion, I believe that I didn't have a strong question that I had answered that well but if I did have to pick a question, it would be question 2. This is because of the fact that I had made a good point and was thinking a little bit more outside of the box but still believe that I could've explained it a bit more to get more marks.

5) My weakest questions were Question 1, 3 and 4 because i either didn't write enough or I just didn't understand the question properly even though I had strong topic sentences. In my opinion, I should e referred everything to the question a bit more and link my evidence more to the topic sentences that I had wrote down.

6) Question 3

The trailer itself appeals to the male audience through attractive women. This trailer had a cameo appearance of a well-known actor, Megan Fox. The male audience find this appealing due to the fact that is a lady and this is what most males, commonly find this appealing and exciting. This is linked to Mulvey's 'male gaze' theory. The male gaze theory is about how male identify women as an object due to their physical appearance; this is why the quote "Men act and Women appear" was brought to the public. However, in this trailer, the female was almost acting like a male; the male is meant to protect a women but in this case, the female protected the male and saved his life. Therefore, this is appealing to the male audience because Megan Fox was acting like a male and made her look powerful and she is also attractive which is why I believe that this made the male audience want to watch the trailer.

Another way in which the male audience found the trailer appealing was through the use of cars and interaction with 'action'. Men are really attracted to cars and enjoy a lot of action, especially with movies and video games. This is why they would find this appealing. When men think of action, the first few things that may come to their mind are guns, fighting and cars. This is linked to Richard Dyer' theory about stereotype and power. The stereotype being that they are obsessed with action and cars and this is leading to the male having power. This is known as 'personal identity' from uses and gratifications. Since the male audience may have this obsession about guns and action games makes this trailer appealing because of the different action shown, e.g. gun fire and cars been driven fast which is what a typical male would do which is known as personal identity; the male audience would see themselves doing what has been shown in the trailer.

7) In section B, I had completed the task where we had to talk about all different media platforms and the different films. However, the question was telling me to talk about narrative but  I had never used that word in any of my paragraphs which is one of the key reason why I didn't get a higher mark. Even with some of the platforms that I talked about, still didn't answer the question as I didn't make any links to narrative.

8) In my opinion, I believe that I had used most of the key words from the question apart from the word 'narrative'. Since this was the main key word in the question and I didn't use it one, simply meant that I wasn't going to get a top grade in the Section and this is why I believe that next time, I should annotate and view every key word from the question for improvements.

9) For question 1, I think that my problem was that I talked about camera movements but didn't explain how it was exciting to play the game. Another thing was that I only wrote three paragraphs and needed to write another; if I did, then it would've been about the slow motion editing which is written in the examiner reports and therefore meant that I wouldn't have been rewarded with any extra marks.

With question 2, my problem was that with one of the paragraphs I didn't focus on the question and linking it to the examiners report, they wrote that the main problem was that people struggled the most with this question. However, I believe that I gained good marks with one of the paragraphs because I linked a scene from the trailer to something that wasn't in the mark scheme and still got awarded.

Question 3 and 4, I think that I had the same problem. I wasn't answering the qurstion and this is why I couldn't get out of band 2. I gave some incorrect theory and didn't go in depth with a lot of my paragraphs which is why I think I didn't gain a lot of marks. In the examiners report, it said that the students engaged with this question but I don't really think that this had applied to me simply because I didn't answer the question well enough.

Personally, from looking at the examiners report for section B, I believe that my response fitted the weaker side of it because it talked about how people were able to give a lot about narrative theories however, I didn't talk once about narrative and which is why I didn't get more than half in that section.

MEST1 Section B: Independent case study

The basics

1) The King's Speech, Tom Hooper (director) and the notable stars in this movie are Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter.

2) This movie was released on September 6th 2010.

3) The genres of this are : Biography, Drama and History. The reason why it's all of these genres is because of the whole theme shown in the trailer and also the plot of the movie. It tells a story about a man who was the father of Queen Elizabeth II, King George VI, which to me comes under the history and biography side of the story as it telling us about Britain more than a hundred years ago.

4) This film is certified as a 12A.

Broadcast

1) In this trailer, there was a wide range of close up and medium close up shots. The different close up shots would suggest to the audience that those specific characters are the main ones. Also, there was a great contrast with the different colours used as sometimes the scene would be set at day or at night and a bright lighting would be used at most times of the trailer. The type of audience that this movie, just by looking at the trailer, would be suitable for a 'high brow' audience. This is because they are educated and the movie itself is trying to teach the audience a little bit of the English history. This is a very strong trailer, in terms of looking at Todorov's theory of equilibrium because the movie is about King George VI giving a speech but has a stammer which means it would be very difficult . Therefore, this would be the equilibrium and then the new equilibrium and disequilibrium would be him trying to overcome that health problem and successfully doing his speech.

2) 

This is a red carpet interview and the way it helped promote the film is that, the director was talking about the 'behind the scenes' of the movie and how they tried to get the right characters that would work for the specific roles in the movie.

This interview contains the mojority of the actors in the movie and it talks about how they came to the conclusion of this movie and what was the main thinking behind all of this. They had different 'historical' items that belong to the real King George VI.

This particular interview helps prmotoe the movie as a popular actor is being interviewed which is Helen Bonham Carter who has been very successful and has a wide range of fans who would watch the movie since she is apart of it.

Print

1) "This is a powerful, hilarious and deeply moving story, told against the backdrop of a critical juncture in modern history, of the emergence of a deep friendship out of a professional relationship between two men who would otherwise never have socially interacted."

"It is now two days ago and I am still feeling overwhelmed by what I saw. It is a very touching, and quite inspiring story about a man, psychologically scarred, and trapped in a situation from which he could have no escape and facing it with immense courage."

"The King's Speech is a feel good movie, but a very adult one, and while it tells a good story, well scripted, absorbing and believable (except for an odd line or two), Tom Hooper's film is far more driven by character than by plot."

2)

 

This film poster promotes the movie because it shows that people have already watched it and have given a review for the movie which is what the quotes and the different stars represent at the top of the poster.

This is a billboard poster and it also helps promote the movie as it is in a location that people are able to see it and it has given the different names of all the main protagonists that are performing in the movie. The names are placed next to the title of the movie which will create more awareness to the audience.

On the front of the DVD cover it shows 5 stars which instantly catches the audience awareness that this will be a good movie. Also, the fact that there is a close up shot of the microphone and the person shows the audience that it the movie is about someone giving a speech and maybe trying to fight his fears/problems.

3) 

4) Some of the print work that has been done in the movie of 'The King's Speech' is very similiar to the print work done for the movie Ill Manors. The reason why I think this is because of the fact that in the majority of the print work done by The King's Speech shows the rating of the movie by specific viewers which is what had been done in the print work of Ill Manors. Also, on 'The King's Speech' film poster, it shows the protagonists in the centre of the poster which is the same with Ill Manors on how they had the actor, Riz Ahmed, holding the gun in the centre.

E-media

1)

With the King Speech movie, the only social media site that they have is only Facebook. This account doesn't really help promote the film but does, however promote the Distributors of the film. This is because of the fact that they have things linked to the distributors such as 'quizes' and other movies that have been distributed by them. The movies that have been posted are well known movies which in a way, helps promote 'The King's speech' as that other movie may be successful and therefore, the audience may believe that this is another successful film too.

2)

This is the official website of the movie. The different synergy's and film brands that I have found across the website is that it shows the trailer of the movie and also they have made different tabs on the top of the website to sell their products. For example, at the top their is a button called DVD and this is where the audience are able to buy their copies and it helps makes money for the film as it is a source of advertisement. Also, it has a section for casts and this is a section for mainly the people who have never watched the movie before and have the option to recognise the characters and actors before they want to watch the film; if there are well known actors in the movie, then there is a higher possibility that the audience will want to watch the movie and therefore will become more successful.

3) From researching, the only thing that I have seen this movie do about campaigning is that they have given that the distributors of the movie, have been giving opportunities to the younger audience to create their movies or give them advice on how to start off a movie.

Audience

1) The target audience for this movie are males between the ages of 35+. This is a typical theatre type of movie and people who go to the theatre are normally an elder type of audience. Also, the psychographic group that I would put the audience of this movie in would be 'explorers'; Many people don't know a lot about the history of the country that we live in and therefore, this is a extremely good movie to watch if people are seeking to discover more about who once was the King of England and his lifestyle.

2) The main type of pleasure that is given in this movie just by looking at the trailer is the historical fact. This is known as a pleasure because it is teaching the audience that may not know anything about the past in England. Also, to the people that may know what had happened with King George VI, then this is a way of those audiences visualizing what may have happened so many years ago.

3) One of the main movies that would fit the target audience of 'The Kings Speech' is the movie called Suffragettes. This is because these two movies are based in the past and are near each other in terms of the time period. Due to this, this means that the target audience would be the same because they both are historical facts about Britain.

Institution

1) The studio that produced this film is Weinstein Company. This production company has also produced movies such as Scream 4, The Nutty Professor, Halloween and much more. However, despite most of the movies they have published, the only similarity between all these movies is the budget of it and nothing else since they produce a wide range of different genres; The budget isn't too high but it's also not too low.

2) The company that distributed this film in the UK is Momentum Pictures. This distributors have also distributed movies like The Colony, The Women in Black, Disaster movie etc.

3) The company that had distributed this movie normally associate with movies that are made for people between the ages of 14-32. For example, the movie disasters movie is a mockery of superheros and fairy tale characters which is all associated with low brow audiences. However, the Kings Speech is associated with high brow and a much different target audience. Therefore, the track record varies sometimes.

4) The budget of this movie is around $15 million.

5) I think that this was overall a very successful movie. This is because in the USA's opening weekend of the movie, it had made around $400,000 by just 4 screenings. Then overall, the movie had made a total gross of $140 million which is way over their budget. This had only meant that the audience really enjoyed the movie and wanted to watch it again and against. Therefore, I believe that this movie was successful.

6) In my opinion, I think that it was more successful in the USA. This is because of the fact that, there was only 4 screens in the USA compared to the 395 screens in the UK and in the UK, it had only mad 10 times more the amount than the USA. Then I believe that if there were more screens in the USA, the USA would've made more money than the UK.

7) The Kings Speech was given a rating of 12A from the BBFC. This is because of the fact that it had only used strong language and that was it. There was no brutal violence or any sexual content which would've made it a 15 or 18 rated. This is a suitable rating for the target audience mainly because of the fact that this movie is more of a history based movie and it is teaching the younger audience of how this is history and this is why violence wasn't bought to this movie.

Representation

1) In the trailer, there were many different times where we saw a working class atmosphere and people; The atmosphere was very dark and dull which only meant one thing, that is a rough area where many had to work extremely hard for their family. These were the people that didn't have the luxury lifestyles which everyone else did. Also, the King's wife was one of the main people that was fighting for the her husbands role as the King and no one else was. This almost goes against the representation of women as at that time, the women weren't the ones who had much to say, it was more of the men that would do and take actions but this was overruled in the trailer.

2) On of the things that represent 'Britishness' is the fact that it is to do with royalty. This is a movie about the King of England and this is a typical stereotype that foreigners think of when they think about England. Also, another thing that is quite a typical British thing was the historical chair in the trailer; every King or Queen has their own chair that nobody should sit on apart from them and the fact that they showed this instantly shows that this is a British thing because every leader of England has had one.

3) In the movie Ill Manors, Britain had been shown as a dangerous city since it shows the reality of what life is really like on some parts of England which therefore involves drugs etc. However, in 'The Kings Speech', Britain has been represented in a completely different way. The way Britain is shown in this movie is from the olden times which means that it was more peaceful but also dangerous because of the war that was taking place.

Mr Halsey ill - cover work Monday 14 March

The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)

• A movie about four protagonists that have finished high school and have taken a trip to Spain mainly to have 'fun'.
• Budget - £3,500,000
• Release date - 17 August 2011
• Genre - Comedy
• Production company - Film4, Young Films...
• Filmed  in England, Spain and also Greece.

MEST1 Section B: index

1) The British film industry: Media Factsheet questions
2) Institutional context of the British film industry: Factsheet questions
3) Ill Manors: film review
4) Ill Manors: trailer analysis
5) Ill Manors: music video
6) Ill Manors: TEDx lecture
7) Ill Manors: broadcast platform concluded
8) Ill Manors: print platform (newspaper interviews)
9) Ill Manors: print branding
10) Ill Manors: e-media Tag London campaign
11) Ill Manors: e-media social networking research
12) Ill Manors: official website analysis
13) A Field In England: reading, research and questions
14) Ill Manors & A Field In England: institution research

A Field In England: the appeal of arthouse film

1. What are some of the suggested audience pleasures for arthouse film?

Most of the people that watch arthouse movies normally watch it because they enjoy the artistic side to the movies rather than the commercial side in characters; They tend to find it more original and unique and is why some of the audience enjoy arthouse movies more than normal 'Blockbuster' movies.
2. Why do some audiences struggle with arthouse film? Refer to some media theory here (there are some important media theories discussed in the article itself).

One of the main reasons why some people may not be able to understand the arthouse movies is mainly because of the language; A lot of the arthouse movies are foreign and therefore would need subtitles to understand it and still, some people would say that it is still difficult to comprehend. 
3. To what extent is arthouse film only for the middle classes and older audiences? Why might this be the case?

The older audience enjoy watching movies that are 'educating' and 'intelligent' because this is related to the artistic side of arthouse movies. (complete...)
4. What type of audience would A Field In England appeal to?

The Target audience for A Field In England would be for an elder group of people and in the demographic groups of A, B, and C1 because this film is based on the civil war which had took place many years ago and it would be more appealing to the elder generation.

Ill Manors: e-media off-site research

Ill Manors Facebook page

1. The Facebook page of Ill Manors has 29,879 likes.
2. At the top of the Facebook page, it is promoting the different ways that fans/customers can get access to watching Ill Manors (Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand).
3. On of the ways that I have found out that the institution helps promote the movie on the Facebook page is by giving these little hints of using the different actors in the movie of how the actors may appear  in the movie etc. Also, the Facebook pages allows the audience to go onto exclusive links which makes it more interesting for the audience as they get to know a little bit more about the inside of the movie (behind the scenes).
4. 
   

This post is related to the movie Ill Manors as it has the same sort of target audience which are roughly teenagers. Ill Manors, in this post, are trying to gather younger audiences that are interested in making a movie and are inviting them to a BFI Film Academy which will give them the opportunity to do things related to making a movie.

Ill Manors Twitter feed

1. One of the main ways that the Ill Manors Twitter feed uses the Ill Manors brand, is putting setting up the Twitter display picture as the same picture that was used in every single poster and DVD cover; The Ill Manors print which has been written in a way that looks like a block of flats. This is a sort of promotion to the other sorts of advertisement out for Ill Manors.
2. The different hashtags that I had noticed were '#megamondays' which was a way of promoting the release date for the DVD and blu-ray release of the film and also, the Twitter feed started to retweet their fans posts, e.g, '#ravearama' which is what a typical teenager would be normally doing (raving or partying).
3. Three celebrities that I have seen on the Ill Manors twitter page are: Ed Sheeran, Riz Ahmed and Ed Skrein - Two of them being actual actors in the movie but yet, very popular celebrities. They all help appeal to the target audience of the movie Ill Manors as the fans of all these celebrities are extremely young people, which is who the movie is linked to. Ed Sheeran is a popular and successful song-writer just like Plan B and both have similar types of fans and the link between these two song-writers are the same. 
4. Ill Manors twitter feed has used pictures of the Blu-ray and DVD covers and also told their followers when the movie will be released and where they can buy it from. Also, they have used other pictures for example fans holding the DVD covers and this can be shown to the fans friends and therefore can lead to them buying a copy of this movie too.
5. The three tweets that I had fans are the following:

• Simple Word ... LIFE!!! #TAGLONDON
• They've fixed the shop windows... #TAGLONDON
• I know that they can't knock me down ... #TAGLONDON

Ill Manors on Instagram

1. The main way in which Ill Manors was promoted on Instagram was through the different hashtags that were used related to Ill Manors. This then created a huge trend which got around to many other people who also used the hashtags and caught awareness from many different people.

These two Instagram posts help promote Ill Manors through awareness from other people. Every time someone posts something onto Instagram, whoever follows that particular person will be able to see that post, this therefore brings awareness as more people will see the post and depending on if the person, who uploaded it, said something good about the movie, their friends would want to watch it and buy a DVD copy for themselves. This means the Ill Manors franchise will have more audience and fans via their friends.

YouTube - planbuk channel

1. On Plan B's YouTube channel, he would promote the film by having a separate folder in the 'playlists' section with the name Ill Manors. These different songs on the Ill Manors playlist have been used in the actual movie. Some of the songs, e.g, Playing With Fire, has another famous artist by the name of 'Labrinth'. Labrinth has an extremely large target audience and this will make more people aware because he may have uploaded this song onto his YouTube channel and then could've given hints to how this song will in the movie 'Ill Manors'. 
2. The banner of his YouTube channel has very similar concepts compared to the DVD cover and billboards of the actual movie. One of them being the ratings. On both the advertisements and the banner, they both have either a movie rating or album rating and these ratings have been given by the same company (Independent and Metro).
3. The other links that I have found on the YouTube channel is Soundcloud, Facebook, Twitter and also his website. These are all different social media sites that are showing who the actual presenter is and what he does and what he may be currently doing at the moment.

MEST1 Section B: A Field In England

1. A Field In England is different to typical film releases as this particular movie wasn't just released in cinema. Along with it being released in cinema, on the same night, it was also released on DVD, Channel 4, VoD and other sorts of platforms. This is different because with an ordinary movie, the movie will be released in cinema and then onto other platforms in a couple of months but this movie did it straight away.
2. Despite this technique being very original and abnormal, there were a few different advantages towards it. One of them being that more audience will be able to have access to it as the movie will be advertised on multiple different platforms and therefore, this leads to more of a wider audience being aware of noticing this movie and this will then lead to more people watching it. The advantage of more people watching it would mean that the movie itself will be making it's budget profits back very quickly due to this type of advertisement. 
3. Despite there being quite a lot of advantages, the main advantage to this could be the lack of people that will go to watch it to the cinema. With movies, most of the money the movie makes comes from the audience that go to watch in the cinema. However, since they had released it onto Channel 4, which is free, means that less audience will go to watch it at the cinema as they would prefer to watch it at home since the movie is free.
4. The target audience that I have set for this particular movie would be aimed at more students than anyone else as this may give an inside to some history as this movie is linked to the civil war. Also, the demographic group that this target audience would be in would be either A or B and maybe C1, as some of them may be skilled and like to know a little bit more about the history in England.
5. In my opinion, I believe that some directors and producers will try this out this idea but may not be very successful for the directors as there could be a high possibility that they may not make as money back as if they were to release the movie on different days.