LO4 Task 5 - Audience effects, Representation, Legal and Ethical and Regulation issues for X-Men First Class

Active

Within this Vlog I will be talking about X-Men first class. To start off with I will be talking about an active and passive audience. An active audience is all about being the type of person that watches a film for an escapism aspect and don’t take things in the media as 100% real. And the most it would be used is as something to model their lifestyle on.

Passive

Now onto a passive audience and how it relates to X-Men first class. So the whole concept of a passive audience (Theodore Adrono 1930), is about how powerful the media is and how people believe almost anything that the media shows. This was more common in the past, but as a society has we have become more desensitised to media products. So this theory is less common within society today. As well as this X-Men first class is a Sci-Fi so it is already pretty unrealistic and not believable as a product. This is a worry though within society, as this type of audience believe everything they see this, includes violence and has been the cause of quite a few copycat crimes which is what started moral panic (1972) which is where people fear new technology and its effects on society, the main worry about this within today’s society is computer games such as GTA and how it may influence people.

Age Rating

The BBFC stand for The British Board of Film Classification this is a company that was set up to classify cinema films age ratings since it was set up in 1912 as well as DVDs and videos since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984. X-Men first class is rated a 12 in the UK and a PG13 in America. The reason as to why this film is a 12 is due to the moderate amount of violence within the film in fighting scenes like this one, named Shaw Attacks. It also fits into this category due to the brief sexual content and references which is only in the strip club scene but no nudity is shown. Also there  is some implied nudity in Mystiques natural form but this is heavily covered by thick blue textured makeup.  Also a film rated a 12 can word also have the “fuck” in it depending on the manner it is used in an aggressive manner would result in it being rated a 15 but within this it is briefly passed. The word is used in the scene where they meet Wolverine and he tells them to ‘fuck off” but there isn’t a real focus upon this so it can be passed as a 12 and fits the context of the film and Wolverines character.

Legal and ethical

X-Men first class has a soundtrack that consists of 20 songs, but all the songs were originally composed by Henry Jackman which goes on for 60:14. Henry Jackman has made music and film scores for other films including Wreck-It Ralph, Captain Phillips, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Which would avoid any legal and ethical issues as it was specifically made to be a sound track for this film and as it is the soundtrack for this film a few of the songs have been used within the film including the song Magneto. And is highly rated by all music.com. And is also available on Amazon for 10.99 which is another way 21st century fox can make money off this film.  The X-Men franchise is the intellectual property of Marvel which means the company Marvel gets all the copyrights and patents which includes characters and logos. Which means that 21st century fox was used solely to help produce this film and that the story was already laid out by Marvels vision of what this film should be.

An ethical issue is a situation that has to be changed to fit what society deems as correct to avoid offending a large portion of people.

X-Men first class didn't really have any ethical issues because the film isn't trying to push any barriers that haven't been touched before. I would say the most sketchy feature within this film is the use of Nazis within it, but this isn't untouched territory within films wither it be for entertainment aspects or historical education. Within X-Men first class they have been included to fit into the historical context within this film and helps advance the storyline as Eric was born within a concentration camp which helps add to the reason as to why he sees the main evil within humanity and also helps create a contrast with Charles Xavier who grew up in a fairly well off family and has had all his success handed to him with his genetic mutation and background which helps explain why they are friends but this also shows the audience as to why they become enemies which is due to their different outlooks on life and society.

Digital economy bill

This bill was passed so people who illegally download files and share files online will be caught out by the government. The consequences of being caught includes receiving a letter telling you to stop and includes other alternatives you could do instead of illegally downloading the files such as purchasing the film off ITunes this is relevant to X-Men first class because this like all films is protected by this act.

Another consequence of getting caught includes your internet connection being slowed down so its almost impossible to download and files share in a convenient amount of time. Which helps protect content producers even though there are ways around this. But this doesn't prevent people illegally downloading content

Censorship
Censorship is where a piece of media is blocked from publishing, this can be done by private organisations or by governments. This can be for moral, religious, or business reasons to fit into what society expects from media products. Again X-Men first class don't want  to risk any sort of censorship as this would result in the film being rated higher than a 12 and would exclude quite a large portion of the ABC1 demographic that they are catering for so they probably wouldn't risk any sort of scenes that have the potential get censored in the first place.

 

LO4 Task 5 Legal and Ethical notes

Active and Passive

Passive media - powerful and can convince people that people everything that is in the media is believable and has an impact on them. (1930 Theodore Adorno)
And has a negative impact.
as they believe everything they see and hear
such as violence and being influenced by it  such as a copy cat

Active
We are able to filter as audiences aren't stupid and can adapt and take things for escapism and model their lifestyle they

Moral panic (1972) which is worry's of new technology
Such as a copy cat crime

Within X-Men first class-
                                          violence is an important aspect within this film as there is a lot of fighting scenes within this
                                          Sexual Content could be when they are at a strip club and it could be argued women are being objectified within this scene

People in the army are represented within this film and has a negative connotation due to the fact that they are against the main protagonists

So everything has been done to get a specific reaction from the audience and has been encoded in a particular manner

INCLUDE STEREOTYPES

Professor Perkins (1979)

can have positive stereotypes

Counter types are challenging a stereotype

Alvarado (1987)
said that non white people are represented as exotic, humours, dangerous or pitied

Legal and Ethical

copyright infringement

Intellectual property

Songs from a record label to get permission to use a song

Illegal downloads

Digital Economy Bill
                                   

offensive material, sensationalism is exaggerating something. Censorship? 

research BBFC xmen is a pg 13 in America and a 12 In the UK

Ideology

Ideology

A belief system or a stereotype such as 'men are stronger than women' which is always there.

Representation

The way something is presented by media such as everything. Including: gender, age, lifestyle, ethnicity, class as well as community's and groups of people, sub cultures

Ideal lifestyle such as advertising so an expectation is lived up to.

How something is presented
How something looks

LO3 Task 4 - Advertising amd Distribution of X-Men First Class

Introduction

Within this Vlog I will be talking about the Advertising, Distribution and marketing for X-Men first class. Advertising is all about how well the film is promoted. Distribution is the way a consumer would view this film and then there is the marketing itself which is all about how well the film actually did.

Advertising

X-Men first class also had several billboards for people to see when they are driving. The billboard has a massive X that overhangs the billboard to catch peoples attention as they drive by as opposed to a regular billboard that is fairly flat. The reason as to why billboards are used so much to advertise is if people are going on an extended journey to a place it gives them something to look at as opposed to the plain road  and therefor catch their attention also they are more lightly to be placed on a bus route as people have no choice but to look at them so it is already targeting a set number of people each day as opposed to the middle of nowhere.


This film made 212.17 million pounds but for a film to be this successful it needs decent advertising to expose it to an audience so they realise it is coming out. A fairly easy way of advertising and creating hype for a film is by having a premiere for it. X-Men first class had its film premiere on may 25th 2011 in New York. Where stars within the movie were on the Red Carpet to  help attract an audience and get exposure through the press. Which leads me onto another great way of advertising a film which is by reviews, if people hear about how great a film is they are more likely to hear it. One of the most well known sites for film reviews is Rotten Tomato's which has user reviews on it where people can sign up and review a film, X-Men first class got 87% via regular peoples opinions. And then there is a section on the site where they get other media outlets reviews from professionals such as film.com and New York Magazine. An easy way of advertising your film to an audience could be on the side of a bus which X-men first class did to help gain exposure, obviously because buses travel a great distance which is a fairly obvious reason but buses are also used by the key demographic for a film like X-men first class which is an ABC1 demographic as they have a disposable income which is the ideal audience for almost any product. Having a franchise like X-Men is good advertising itself, the name alone already attracts an audience that already enjoy the franchise. In other words this franchise is a trusted product by the majority of people that consume it, so this isn't a film by 21st century fox that doesn't stand alone and is unknown to an audience. Its a trusted product.

Also on youtube quite a few trailers were released to capture the attention of internet fans these trailers included a brief overview of each character within this to help create hype around this film.

Distribution

Another way of distributing a film like this is by a television broadcast X-Men first class is available on Sky movies which is another way if getting a film to the audience. This film is also available on Amazon for £2.49 which is a site that has a reviewing system and also has the film available for digital download this again is using technological convergence. The reviews for this film on Amazon average out to 4.5 stars out of a potential 5, which is really positive and shows that the viewer can trust this film is worth them spending their money on for a blu-ray version in HD, as opposed to torrenting it for no cost besides time. using sites like kickass torrents and other torrenting sites such as pirate bay which is still accessible on other browsers. Also programs such as Frostwire scans the internet for a selection of torrents in different file forms such as a ZIP file. But torrents are all about feeding off other peoples downloads to get your own copy. But this isn't the ideal way of getting a film as it can take a while (depending on seeding rate) and the fact it is illegal is something that may put a user off also most of these torrent sites are blocked on a regular internet browser. Also downloading software such as Utorrent can put people off. Also this is taking money from the people that create this product and pretty much stealing. Another illegal way of viewing this film is by online streaming but the quality of these are usually weak and the video quality can be pretty grainy. The ideal way is a HD download from a trusted distributor like amazon or Google

X-Men first class was the first film available to download on an android device. This is part of technological convergence David Gauntlett (2002). This involves the internet evolving into a two way medium for the user which means that the user can also use the internet to interact and upload products such as reviews which I will get to later get on to within this vlog it is also where a device has more than just one function that it was originally made for the best example for this would be a mobile phone. Which is something that was initially made to text message and to call people but as technology has evolved other functions have been added onto the device which consumers have  come to expect on a phone an example of this would be the mp3 player added onto a phone which allows you to play MP3 files or even a camera added onto the phone this is all part of technological convergence. As well as fact you can download films is also part of this. X-Men first class is available as a blu-ray download for android, which was the first of its kind. This film was also premiered on June the 1st 2011 in UK cinemas but in America it was premiered on the 25th of may 2011 as X-Men first class is aimed at a global audience. This film is also available for a paid download using mediasack.com for iPods and HD streams. And is also available on disk form being on DVD and Blu-ray which was a huge success for the X-Men franchise  selling 385,000 DVDs and with over 60% of the disk sales being on Blu-ray with an overall amount of 575,000 discs but didn't sell as much within the UK with 150,000 disks being sold overall.

Another way of distributing a film like this is by a television broadcast X-Men first class is available on Sky movies which is another way if getting a film to the audience. This film is also available on Amazon for £2.49 which is a site that has a reviewing system and also has the film available for digital download this again is using technological convergence. The reviews for this film on Amazon average out to 4.5 stars out of a potential 5

My Overall Target Grade

My Target grade is a Pass Plus, to secure this grade I need to finish my fourth and fifth Vlog. I need to edit my Vlog 4 and complete my fifth Vlog.  

Advertising and Distribution recap

For my Vlog 4 I need to go through the punctuation and finish off the script.