THE OBSERVER POSTS

 

MOJO: MEDIA LANGUAGE

 

Main splash / image: who is it and does it celebrate the person? How is it lit? Is the singer made to look important? How many other images are there? 

The cover of mojo features Neil Young. The cover is very well lit and is very colourful which means it celebrates the person in a good way. Neil is made to look important as he is the centre of attention with a close up shot of his upper body and face. There are a few other images including one in the bottom left which I believe is a CD cover. This shows that the magazine is advertising Neil's music.

How 'busy' is the cover as a whole?

Are there cover lines (additional articles)? How organised are they? Do most music magazines have a similar number of cover lines (additional articles)?

The cover is quite busy as there is a lot of writing on the sides This writing is talking about all the articles inside the magazine. The cover lines are quite organised and easy to see, most magazines normally have a similar number of cover lines.

What are the main colours and is there an accent colour?

The main colours are blue and a sunset shade of orange. 

Is there a cover mount and is this typical of MOJO?

This is a typical MOJO front cover as it has a big picture in the middle and other articles/adverts on the side.

LEGO INDUSTRY TERMS

 

• Franchise: a film series or a collection of films that share the same fictional universe. The Lego Movie has a sequel called The Lego Movie 2 and there are other similar films such as The Lego Batman movie. 

• Synergy: Refers to the way that media works together to promote the same product e.g. Lego movie uses miniature figures that are Lego-movie related

• Tent-pole production: A big-budget movie whose earnings are expected to help and compensate for the studio for its smaller and  less profitable movie/movies. For example the Lego movie company is so huge that it can help support other less wide scale movies. 

• Ensemble cast: An ensemble cast is one which is composed of multiple actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time. In the Lego movie the ensemble cast is Wyld Style, Emmet, Vitruvius, Lord Business, Uni-kitty, Shakespeare, Batman etc

• conglomerate : A media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks, or the Internet. For example Lego land is linked to the Lego movie and is owned by the same company.

• vertical integration: When a Media Company owns different businesses in the same chain of production and distribution. For example, the Lego movie company owns the movie and the video game too which is in the same chain of production and distribution as the film.

AGE RATINGS

 The Lego Movie was rated a U because there was mild violence scenes between the characters. The violence is between the Lego robots/skeletons and the good guys, the punches thrown never seen to be blown and the violence is only every between the figures and not humans. No one in the movie is seen to get hurt and the violence only occurs with the animated toys so therefore is not harmful to children.

LEGO MOVIE

Task 1: how does Emmet come across? How effective would this trailer be in promoting the film?

 Emmett comes across as an innocent kind man who just wants to fit in with everyone else. He is presented as the opposite of the 'special one' as he is not very smart or very leader like. Emmett is aware that he does not have the qualities of a leader as he explains that during his heroic speech. Emmett also is not presented as not physically fit like a hero stereotypically should be.

This trailer would be effective as it shows the humour or the movie and the more serious side too. It also shows the side characters in the film such as Wildstyle who is has the perfect characteristics of the 'special one': smart, leader like etc..  

FILM MAKING

 Our production company logo was 'Tiger Tales Productions' and we used a tiger puzzle to create the stop motion. We placed the puzzle on top of the text so that it covered most of it, then we one piece away at a time to slowly reveal the logo underneath. This took a lot of precision and we had to make sure we did not move anything but the puzzle pieces. To make the animation, we used a HUE camera which we propped up with some books so we could get a perfect Birdseye view. We also used the HUE app on the Mac to take the pictures, this was quite easy to use but we had to make sure that nothing moved so we could get the perfect shot.

For the table top filming, we placed each item in a specific place so that when we panned the camera it all told a story. We used things like jewellery and pictures to portray a woman's dressing table as our story was based on a woman. The only issue was trying to make the camera as stable as possible so that it panned the table in a smooth way. We had to really concentrate on not shaking it and not going too quickly so that everything could be seen perfectly.

For the live action filming, we filmed on the stairs of the Mansion as we wanted our opening to show that it was set in the olden days. We then used a stuffed cloth to portray the baby being abandoned. We also had Maddi holding a Japanese sun shade to show that she was wealthy and well brought up. We wanted the film opening like this so that the audience would starting asking questions like Why is she abandoning the baby? Did she have a choice? Was she in danger in any way?

We added a tiger's roar to the production company logo as it added a nice touch to the animation. To do this we used an app called 'Hue, we took lots of photos of the jigsaw being pulled apart to reveal 'tiger tales productions'. We then transported the sequence to IMovie so we could add in the roar. We used traditional Japanese music for the rest of the film as it showed the audience that the film was set in Japan and there was cultural aspects to it. Our film title was 'A cherry blossom dream'. In the film, we added credits which showed the director, actor, lighting and sounds. 

I think our production went well, we had some challenges such as: keeping the camera stable; making sure nothing moved during the filming of the stop motion and editing the whole thing so it ran smoothly. Overall, I enjoyed the experience and I love the outcome of our film.

CHRISTMAS ADVERT

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlem-MOMZOs

In this picture, you can see the animated pig coming out of the box. The lighting is dimmed but the Christmas lights make it feel more bright than it actually is. This then creates a warm atmosphere which reminds the audience of Christmas which is the purpose of the advert.

We then move onto a scene where the lighting is brighter so therefore the audience recognises the supermarket. You can see the aisles of the supermarket with all the food freshly stocked.

In this picture, you can see the advertisement for the m&s food. You can see how the food is well lit so that it is easy to see. In the scene, you can see that the food is placed slowly that the audience have time to really study the food.