MEST1

"Coming Soon" Films

2009-12-14T09:43:00.000-08:00

- 3 Idiots

- Alvin and the Chipmunks 2

- Avatar

- All about Steve

- Daybreakers

- Did you hear about the Morgan’s

- Happy Ever Afters

- Invictus

- Nine

- Ninja Assassin

- Nowhere Boy

- Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

- Sherlock Holmes

- St Trinian’s 2 – The Legend of Fritton’s Gold

- The Road

|| Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 ||

Director & Writer - Betty Thomas + Jon Vitti/Jonathan Aibel

Release Date - 21st December 2009

Genre - Animation/Comedy

Alvin and the Chipmunks was distributed by 20th Century Fox, and produced by Regency Enterprises & Bagdasarian Productions.

As it's a kids movie it has been distributed and promoted in different ways. The movie has obviously been promoted through their well known company 20th Century Fox whom own their own cinemas which is advantageous. They have also made a video game persuading parents to buy it for their children. Posters, clothes and toys are also being sold in shops such as "Toys R Us". McDonalds have promoted the movie through their famous "happy meal". It promotes the movie as many children are likely to eat happy meals and in purchasing one, a toy is given which makes the child want to see the movie even more.

Summer Blockbusters

2009-11-23T11:06:00.000-08:00

The Dark Knight	Action/Crime/Thriller	12	Male
Iron Man	Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi	12	Male
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	Action/Adventure	12	Male
Hancock	Action/Comedy	12	Both
Wall-E	Animation/Adventure	U (3+)	Both
Kung Fu Panda	Animation/Comedy	PG (3+)	Both
Sex and the City	Comedy/Romance	15	Female
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian	Action/Adventure/Fantasy	PG (3+)	Both
The Incredible Hulk	Action/Sci-Fi/Thriller	12	Male
Wanted	Action/Thriller	18	Both

From looking at the table you would see that the majority of preferred genre's would be Action & Adventure. However in my opinion Action & Adventure is not the main genre popular at present. In my opinion a lot of Horror, Comedy & Sci-Fi movies are being released at the moment and therefore could be anyone of them.

The Walt Disney Company

2009-11-23T11:01:00.000-08:00

The Walt Disney Company, also known as Disney, is the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world. It is simply known for its family-friendly products. It was founded on October 16th 1929 by brothers Walt & Roy Disney as an animation studio. In that time it has become one of the biggest Hollywood studios, and owner and licensor of eleven theme parks and several television networks including ABC & ESPN. Disney's corporate headquarters and primary production facilities are located at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. The company has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since May 6 1991. Mickey Mouse serves as the official mascot of The Walt Disney Company.

The Walt Disney Company owns a variety of media platforms for example Film, Broadcast Television, Cable Television, Radio, Music, Publishing, Magazines & Parks & Resorts.

Film

Walt Disney Pictures

Touchstone Pictures

Hollywood Pictures

Miramax Films

Pixar

Broadcast Television

WLS – Chicago

KTRK – Houston

KABC – LA

WABC – NY

KGO – San Francisco

Cable Television

ESPN

ABC Family

Disney Channel

Toon Disney

Jetix

Radio

ABC Radio

ESPN Radio

Music

Walt Disney Records

Hollywood Records

Lyric Street Records

Publishing

Miramax Books

ESPN Books

ABC Daytime Press

Volo

Magazine

Disney Adventures

ESPN Magazines

Family Fun

Video Business

Parks & Resorts

Walt Disney World Resort

Disneyland Resort Paris

Disney Cruise Line

Company Divisions

The Walt Disney Company has diversified into a number of entertainment mediums including radio, television, publishing and travel. Examples include

Walt Disney Studio Entertainment

Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group

Disney ABC Television Group

Radio Disney

ESPN Inc.

Disneyland Resort

Disney Cruise Line

GCap Media

2009-11-09T11:06:00.000-08:00

GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. On 31 March 2008 the company agreed a takeover by Global Radio for £375 million. This was completed on 6 June 2008, and the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Global Radio. On November 1 2008, Global Radio discontinued using the name GCap Media.

National Radio Stations
- Classic FM

XFM Stations
- Xfm London
- Xfm Manchester

The Hit Music Network
- 95.8 Capital FM
- Red Dragon FM
- Trent FM
- Mercury FM
- Leicster Sound
- RAM FM
- Ten 17

AM Local Radio Stations
- Gold (Birmingham, Coventry, Kent, Leeds, Manchester, Plymouth, Reading etc.)

Digital Only Stations
- Chill

Internet Television Stations
- Classic FM TV

Former Stations
- The Storm - closed 20th January 2006
- Capital Disney - closed 29th June 2007
- Core - closed 11th January 2008
- Capital Life - closed 31st March 2008
- theJazz - closed 3rd November 2009
- Xfm South Wales - sold to Town & Country Broadcasting on 31st May 2008
- Planet Rock - Sold to "Rock show"
- Fun Radio - sold to Folder Media

Company Profits & Values

2009-11-02T09:21:00.000-08:00

Viacom

Viacom also known as Video and Audio Communications is an American media conglomerate with various worldwide interests in cable and satellite television networks. The Revenue for Viacom last year was $14.625 Billion. Its Operating income was $2.496 billion, its Net income was $1.251 billion, its total assets were $22.487 billion and its total equity was $7.033 billion. Viacom are involved with Film Production & Distribution, Television Networks, Video Gaming & New Media. Examples of Film Production would be Paramount Pictures, MTV Films & Nickelodeon Movies. Television Networks would be Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, MTV, VH1 etc. A few video games would be Xfire, Harmonix, GameTrailers & Neopets.

Time Warner

Time Warner Inc. is the world's largest entertainment company as well as the world's fourth largest media conglomerate, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. It was formerly three separate companies: Warner Communications, Inc. and Time Inc. In 2008, its Revenue income was $46.98 billion, its Operating Income was $-15.95 billion, its Net income was $-13.40 billion, its total assets were $113.89 billion. Therefore their total equity and profit obtained was roughly $42.28 billion. Current assets Time Warner own are AOL, HBO, Turner Broadcasting which involves Cartoon Network, Pogo, HTV etc. They also are involved with CNN radio, Court TV radio and Headline News radio. Warner Bro’s, Time Inc. are also a well known asset.

NewsCorp

News Corporation is the world's second largest media conglomerate (after Walt Disney Company) from 2008 and the world's third largest in entertainment from 2009. The company's Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder is Rupert Murdoch. On 6^th May 2009, its Revenue was $32.996 billion and its net income was $5.38 billion in 2008. News Corp are involved with a lot of media for example, Books, Newspapers, Magazines, Music and Radio, Sport & Satellite Television. Books would be HarperCollins which are well known for creating English dictionaries. Well known newspapers are The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Daily Telegraph etc. They also are linked with Vogue magazine, Fox Film Music Group & MySpace Records.

Sony

Sony Corporation is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and is one of the world's largest media conglomerates.Its Revenue on 31st March 2009 was 7.730 trillion Yen, its Operating income was −227.8 billion Yen, its Net income was -98.9 billion Yen. In 2009, its total assets were $230.5 billion USD, and its total equity and profits are roughly $50 billion USD. Sony are known for making Batteries, Chemicals, creating Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Music and are highly known for creating the Playstation and also Blu-Ray.

Sun Front Cover Analysis

2009-10-19T12:57:00.001-07:00

The headline itself is split up with the word Goal held up on a banner. Purposely being positioned across this womens chest it suddenly attracts readers to both her chest and the front cover. The picture of a half naked women is purposely used as you would generally expect most men to enjoy seeing this kind of images and in order for the paper to sell they place her there and also combine football aswel which is another topic most men generally enjoy. By doing this both men and "The Sun" itself are satisfied.

The image of the naked woman overshadows the rest of the front cover becuase as a dominant reader you would enjoy staring at the image other than reading large amounts of text. The font is nice and simple and big and bold. The positioning of the image connotes that this women shows some importance and the text purposely positions around her. The medium shot focuses on most of her body, close enough to see her face and her arms and a bit of her legs. Top lighting is used on her face to make her look famous and glamorous

The headline is polysemic because it is a sexual pun. The headline with the image is anchored by the strap line which is talking about the World Cup: football. However as there is an image of a half-naked woman, the heading could signify the idea of “scoring” or getting a woman for sexual pleasures.

Kidulthood Trailer Analysis

2009-10-15T08:28:00.000-07:00

Kidulthood is a British drama film revolved around the life of several teenagers in Ladbroke Grove (West London). The main purpose of the movie is to make us as an audience aware of troubles teenagers face and things which influence them. Each character faces their own problems and in the movie we are made aware of the different decisions each character makes.

Many props are used in the movie to connote the genre such as guns, baseball bats, drugs, alcohol, money etc. These are such things which symbolise fashion items and stereotypically in the eyes of teenagers, “cool”. These certain props are used in order to illustrate things which influence teenagers in a sense that kids grow up in these kinds of atmospheres.

Stereotypically if you were to imagine a teenager’s appearance you would seem to think tracksuits, sports jackets, jeans, trainers, baseball caps, earrings etc. These kinds of clothing purposely connote the characters personality and what to expect in the film.

The use of lighting isn’t really over the top as they want the movie to have a realistic feel. Low key lighting is mainly used and dark lighting effects are introduced in order to emphasize the scene and the mood. Things such as parties, brawls, arguments are all involved and used in dark lighting to create tension. The dark lighting could also symbolize evil, death etc. And by putting these kinds of ideas in the audience’s heads it begins to hook them in.

The movie is set in West London, Ladbroke Grove. I think it was set there a lot of violence arises in that area and this movie is made in order to re-enforce the kinds of things that happen there.

The Dark Knight Analysis

2009-10-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

From the moment you look at the poster you notice the dark gloomy back-ground which over-shadows the poster. The tone of the poster connotes death and evil therefore creates a nervy feeling. You can sense the mood of the poster as you look all around and just seem to find darkness all around, for example the sky.

It is covered with dark clouds which also connote a cold side to the movie.

In the middle you see the joker facing his back towards us. You can see in his hands he holds a blade and a joker card. By his back being turned towards us it connotes a sense of mystery as we want to know what he looks like and his facial expression. At the top of the poster we see the symbol for batman which anyone would instantly recognized if noticed. The symbol is filled with pitch black but on the outside a tonal outlining of white light blends in. This is a contrast of dark and light lighting effects and could connote a binary opposition such as Life VS Death or Good VS Evil.

Another example of this type of tonal change is illustrated from the top of the poster where it is pitch black and slowly lightens downwards to the city lights which also refers to a binary opposition. On the Joker himself light and dark lighting blend together which could hint his personality as a two faced being. At the same time the darkness which shadows him could connote his role to the movie as the villain.

The title is written in white capitals spaced out so its easy to see. The text is not very big but because Batman's symbol is there we can easily recognize who it is. The shots taken of the poster itself is mysterious in a sense that a slight medium shot is used on the joker but at the same time a long shot is used on the city. By including a picture of tall landscapes, cars and lights that clearly connotes the setting of the movie which would be in the city. We aren't really able to see the facial expression of the joker as his back is turned creating a sense of mystery, however at the same time by realizing he has a knife in his hand we stereotypically assume his characteristics as a bad, dangerous individual.

In my opinion the main give-away of the genre to the audience would be the highly darkened tint and the jokers identity being hidden.

Media Definitions

2009-10-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

Anchorage: ANY CAPTION OR DESCRIPTION USED TO DEFINE AN IMAGE

Cropping: CUTTING OR TRIMMING AN IMAGE IN ORDER TO HIGHLIGHT KEY FEATURES OF THAT CERTAIN IMAGE

Semiotics: ANALYZING SIGNS AND VISUAL IMAGES TO GENERATE A CULTURAL MEANING

Juxtaposition: BRINGING TWO ELEMENTS TOGETHER FOR COMPOSITION

Mise-en-scene: THE ARRANGEMENTS OF ALL THE ELEMENTS IN A SCENE, SUCH AS PROPS, FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND SETTINGS

Homage: WHEN A DIRECTOR USES IDEAS, TECHNIQUES OF ANOTHER TO PAY TRIBUTE TO THEM FOR THEIR BRILLIANT IDEAS

Demographics: INFORMATION CONCERNING THE SOCIAL STATUS, CLASS, GENDER & AGE

Psychographics: USING DEMOGRAPHICS TO OBTAIN MARKETING DATA FROM PEOPLE'S ATTITUDES, LIFESTYLES ETC.

Binary opposition: CLASSING TWO OPPOSITES IN MEDIA FOR EXAMPLE, GOOD VS EVIL OR LIFE VS DEATH

Iconography: USING ELEMENTS OF A SCENE TO DISTINGUISH IT'S GENRE