Target grade for task

My target grade is: Merit Merit

LO4 Task 5 Aduience effects, Representation, Legal and Ethical and Regulation issues for Die Hard

 

Hi, I'm Ben and welcome to my final vlog, in this vlog I will be talking about the impact that Die Hard has on its audience.

Active and Passive
There are two schools of thought that show the impact on the audience, one school of thought is the passive audience that are effected by the Hypodermic Needle theory (Theodore Adorno 1930) which, then there is the active school of thought that says the audience isn't affected.

The Passive school of thought is based around the Hypodermic Needle theory( Theodore Adorno 1930) which says that the general population isn't able to filter the content provided to use through the media. The Active train of thought is that the public isn't effected by what is on the media.

Die Hard fits into the Active school of thought. I think this is because even though the film has a lot of violence, it is set in a way that can only be seen as heroic and therefore isn't very influential. However the violence in this film is excessive and scenes like where John hangs Karl could disturb the audience and therefore it could cause the audience to become desensitised.
 Die Hard doesn't have much sexual content in it but the content that is in the film is right at the beginning. Die Hard's main protagonist could be seen as a role model because of his bravery in the face of danger.

Representation
The representation of the film is how the media present something to the audience. There is many ways Die Hard is portrayed. One way in which the film is presented, is through character stereotypes. The main stereotype presented throughout the film is the typical action hero stereotype, this is the protagonist John McClane that has to save the day and is often portrayed by a top A list actor like Bruce Willis, this stereotype is an example of Erp and Katz, 1999 equation of masculinity with pathological control violence. Another stereotype is the damsel in distress, this is typically a women that needs to be rescued, in this case it is Bonnie Bedelia who plays Holly Gennaro McClane, this could be an example of Mulvey (1975) theory of women being objectified.

Legal and ethical
Legal issues are always around in the film industry and the usual two issues are copyright infringement and illegal downloading. The songs in Die Hard are copyrighted Christmas songs for example Christmas in Hollis by RUN-DMC, Let it snow by Dean Martin and Skeletons by Stevie wonder.

Ethical issues are not a main problem with die hard but they are still a problem. One ethical problem is the fact that Die Hard has an awful lot of explicit language in it. Another ethical issue could be that the film may be offensive to the Christian faiths idea of Christmas being time for peace and Die Hard presents this audience with extensive violence. Nothing in the film has been censored.

regulatory Bodies
The BBFC are the British Board of Film Classification. The BBFC rate a films age classification, this means they determine what age limitations are put on a film in Britain. Die Hard is a 15 rated film so the minimum age allowed to watch the film is 15. The original film release for Die Hard was rated 18 but then got re-classified to 15 in 2008. In the US Die hard is rated R which means that you have to been at least 17 years old to watch it. It sticks within the guidelines because it contains: Strong violence, language, nudity and hard drug use.

The ASA are the Advertising Standard Authority.  The cap code is responsible for writing and maintaining the UK advertising codes and providing advice on the codes. This means they regulate all advertising including the posters Die Hard used to advertise. There are 4 main codes for advertising poster the first is Misleading Advertising , this mean is the code that regulates any sort of misleading language that is used in advertising, the second is Harm & Offence, this is the code that regulates any use of offensive or harmful items, the third is Children, this code regulates the rules about including children in adverts and the fourth is Privacy which regulates the use of depicting members of the public and implying endorsement.  The poster sticks within these four ASA cap codes because they don't mislead the general public in anyway, they don't use guns in a threatening manner. Rule three and four don't apply because there isn't any children or members of the public included in the films poster.

LO3 Task 4 Advertising and Distribution of Die Hard

Hi its Ben, from Ballpoint Industries, today I'm going to talk about distribution.

Distribution
Distribution is how we can access the film. Die Hard is distributed to the consumer in many ways. The main way it is distributed was in the cinema and this way made £94 million, but the film would have only been able to be distributed on cinema screen when it first came out in 1988 so this isn't a likely way for the film to be distributed to the audience now. Internet is another main way of distribution for the film, it is distributed on both legal and illegal streaming sites such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, PutLocker and GorrilaVid. It is also distributed over sites that are selling the Digital online copy for example Amazon, SkyMovies. One of the smaller ways it is distributed is through a physical copy of the DVD at a local film store for example Blockbuster, HMV. Another way Die Hard is distributed is through illegal download sites, such as Piratebay or Kickass Torrentz. The final way it is distributed is on Television during certain times of the year, this is increased by Smart TV, because this way people are able to watch there favourite films whenever they please.  This film has Technical Convergence because it has been put onto many different devices for example, laptop, mobile and tablet.

Promotion
 Promotion is the advertisement or marketing used to sell a product. Die Hard is promoted in only a few different ways now because the film is so old. We are in the age of the prosumer so there are still quite a few ways to advertise. One of these ways is through social media, this is an effective way because most people tend to listen to peers when being recommended a film. Another way it is promoted is through teaser trailers this is an useful way of promoting because when the audience are searching through film trailers on youtube and they happen upon Die Hards teaser trailer they are likely to watch it and then go on to watch the film so that they can find out what happens in it. Another way Die Hard is promoted is in film critic magazine's such as Issue 215 May 2007 Empire magazine, this is done so that the audience can see a professional opinion on the film before watching it, also the film is posted in many of Empire's online webpages talking about Die Hard being the best festive film. Another way in which Die Hard is promoted is through merchandise for example when the film first came out there was a big demand for action figures of the protagonist and antagonist. The film poster for Die Hard way another main way of advertising the film.   Most of these ways are old analogue ways, this is because as the film is old and there isn't a lot of digital age advertising that can be done for it. Star Persona (Richard Dyer 1975) helps promote the film too but in a different way to the other methods I talked about previously, this method works because people who like the actor Bruce Willis will see he plays the role as main protagonist and want to watch the film.

Thank you for listening

Objectives to finish unit 1

re-record vlog 4 and record and edit vlog 5

Objectives to finish unit 1

To complete Unit 1 I need to finish re record vlog 4 and then finish task 5 script and record it

Vlog 4 feedback sheet

Objectives to finish Unit 1

 To finish Unit 1 I need to finish my vlog 5 script, then record and edit it. This has to be done for the end of January.