Star War: Rouge One Questions

Rouge one:

• Who produced the film? 

Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur, Simon Emanuel

• Who directed the film?

Gareth Edwards 

• What other films have they directed? 
Godzilla, Monsters, Star Wars: episode VIII: The Last Jedi

• What was the budget? 

$200 Million

• Who stars in it? 
Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed

• What other films have they been in?
Felicity Jones - The Theory of Everything, Tempest, The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Diego Luna - Narcos: Mexico, Flatliners, Elysium
Riz Ahmed - Venom, Nightcrawler, The Night Of

• What technology has been used to make the film? (What cameras did they use? How was the film edited? What CGI was involved?) 
They used computer-generated imagery (CGI) to bring back characters from the previous episodes of the Star Wars Trilogy, which was about 40 years ago, and to make them look the same. 

• How was the film marketed? Which different marketing tools were used?

A teaser trailer, for Rogue One, was released by Lucasfilm on April 7, 2016, and it was praised by reviewers and the media for its portrayal of strong female characters. Later on that year, Rogue One was fully promoted at the Star Wars Celebration Europe III event in London. This was a perfect place to market the film as it had a lot of their target audience all in one place. During the event, a new official poster was unveiled, which depicts a battle taking place on the tropical planet Scarif, with the Death Star looming large in a blue sky, above which is printed the tagline "A Rebellion Built on Hope". This reveal caused more and more people to see the trailer and wait to watch the film. when the trailer was released,the trailer was viewed close to 30 million times in its first 29 hours, at a rate of 800,000 views per hour 

 • What examples of synergy with other products/merchandise can you find? 
When Disney and Lucasfilms released the film, they marketed their merchandise in stores all across the globe. They sold merchandise such as; toys/ action figures, t-shirts, bags, lunch boxes, posters, games/ video games. this increased their profit made by the film, and helped with extended budget pay.
• What examples of cross media convergence can you find? 
Disney and Lucasfilms used many places to mraket and distribute their film. For example; agreeing with big stores, like Harods in london, if they can sell their merchendise there. Also they madd agreements with different cinemas such as the IMAX to get them to put the trailer before other films and to screen the film too. Furthermore, they put posters outside cinemas, on buildings and on the sides of public transport. 

• What examples of technological convergence can you find?
They worked with app creators to create and official app for Star wars and on this app you can play games and take selfies with a Jedi filter. they also asked snapchat if they would add the filter in their app, because they knew how big their app has become. thsi use of cross media promotion is and exaple of viral marketing, as they hope that the filter will start a trend across the world. this trend woule help promote the film more.

• Where and when was this film released (nationwide, worldwide) and in what cinemas?
The film premiered in Los Angeles, California on December 10th 2016, which was also the release date in all states across the US. It was released in Europe, at the premiere in London, on the 13th December 2016. This was a good time to release the film, as people will pay to go to see it with family and friends at Christmas time, and they can make more sells of the products due to it being Christmas.

• What formats was it available in (digital / 3D etc…)? 

It was released on Digital HD on March 24, 2017, and on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and DVD on April 4, 2017. It was also made available on different apps, for instance: AppleTV and Disney Plus.
• Who is the target audience?The Star War Trilogy has a very widespread target audience accross the world, and is a very respected film by everyone. it does aim more to the ages 15-35, however, it is still acclaimed to be a film for all ages, genders, ethnicities and socail classes.

RESEARCH: UNDERSTANDING HEGEMONY

What is Hegemony?

Media hegemony is referred to the moral, philosophical, and political leadership of a social group in a film or TV series, which encourages people not to be gained by force but by an active consent of the power status structure in media, by other social groups. Media hegemony tools are words, images, rituals, and practices rather than weapons, courts, and prisons. The media is consistently dominated by middle class white males and they are seen as superior in the media industry. These are often white, male, Western people like Leonardo DiCaprio. For example, I looked at how Western journalists report on the film industry and found out that almost every actor that is taking the media industry by storm are middle class white men. Other groups are less often represented as powerful / significant: such as the working class, women, the LGBT community and disabled people. for instance, In Ken Loach's films " I' Daniel Black" and "Sorry we missed you", the messages are subtle yet effective, however they involve people of working class, disabled people and women. This breaks the hegemony of Hollywood films but these types of films present what is normal in life and how the Hollywood films highlight white male superiority. This shows the media 'manufacturing consent'. The images below shows how in the Oscars, in 2019, there was a male dominated cast of 'Green Book' that one best best picture. 

As shown in the image a very famous female actress from the film is not holding an Oscar but the men are.

The behaviourist models analyse the effects of the media by how audiences interpret/understand a media text. The 'Magic Bullet' theory is and idea that the media fires information and messages to our brains, this therefore making us passive consumers to the media and that we believe hat we are told by them. in some cases this is true but not for everyone. Similar to the 'Magic Bullet' theory, the 'Hypodermic needle' theory is when the media inject the messages into our bloodstream. Both these theories are behaviourist theories, that show most audiences as passive and that media has a direct impact on everyone's behaviour.

The 'Hypodermic needle' model 

The 'uses and gratification' model shows the newer theories about active consumers. An active audiences means that this type of audiences prefers to interact with the media text to create a deeper meaning, rather than passive audiences who accept the messages shown in the media text. The articles discusses how audiences have control over the media they consume.
According to Blumber and Katz audiences use media to gratify their needs, which means they uses media give them selves a purpose or an understand on different aspects (mainly in life). These needs are diversion (escaping from everyday life problems), personal relationships (uses media for emotional or other interactions), personality identity (reflecting yourselves in media and to create a sense on purpose) and Surveillance (observing and then using media to help with lifestyle/ choices). 

RESEARCH: AUDIENCE QUESTIONAIRE

This is my Audience Questionnaire and I have created it to help me to produce a product that appeals to my target audience.

I used Google Forms to collect data on my target audience, that will be able to help me when I am planning my product. the Audience Questionnaire would allow me to establish what my target audience enjoy watch and do not enjoy watching. Alongside this, It will help me establish the right genre, age group, gender and social classes to target at. 

These are the questions I intended to ask:

•  What gender are they?
•  What is their age?
•  What genres they like?
•  Where do you prefer to watch films?
•  Where do you find out the most about new films?
•  Would you watch the film by the look of this poster?
•  Do these trailers appeal to you/ would you watch them? (add links to 2/3 trailers for them to watch)
•  Do you use any streaming platforms? If yes, what streaming platforms?

From this questionnaire i have had 15 responses and i am now alble to establish from these results how i should approach the produxtion of my film.

Shown below are some of the results from the audience questionnaire which helped with reaching our target audience: