P2: Lego Movie

Monday 14th September 2020 

The Lego Movie (Industry Research)

L/O: to research the process, companies and regulators behind the film industry.

Q1: Find out the process behind how a film is produced, distributed, marketed and exhibited. Who does what and in what order?

A: A film is marketed via ads, trailers and promotional posters. A film is distributed by one of the 6 Hollywood film studios or a smaller studio. It is exhibited in Movie Theaters.

Q2: What is a conglomerate? 

A: A conglomerate is a multi-industry company.

Q3: Who are the big six Hollywood Film Companies?

A: 20th Century Fox, Paramount Studios, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures and Walt Disney Studios

Q4: Who regulates films in the UK?

A: The British Board of Film Classification

Q5: Which two main companies produced The Lego Movie (2014)?

A: Warner Animation Group and LEGO Group.

Q6: Who was the Producer of The Lego Movie (2014)?

A: Dan Lin

Q7: Who directed The Lego Movie (2014)?

A: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

Q8: How was The Lego Movie (2014) funded?

A: Half of the film was funded by Village Roadshow Pictures and the other half was funded by Warner Bros.

Q9: Who distributed The Lego Movie (2014)?

A: Warner Bros

Monday 28th September

References

Batman

Indirect reference to Starbucks

References to other Lego products

Generalisation of the American Sitcom

Possible Matrix reference

Generalisation of the wild west genre

Emmet is a normal construction worker until he's chosen by a red lid to save the world from a Dictator named Lord Business.

Themes of Dictatorship, Family and everyone being special

Emmet played by Chris Pratt

Lord Business played by Will Ferrell

Wyldstyle played by Elizabeth Banks

Vitruvius played by Morgan Freeman

Good Cop / Bad Cop played by Liam Neeson

Monday 5th October

The Lego Movie: Intertextuality

LO: to explore the intertextuality of The Lego Movie

Postmodernism

"Postmodernism questions what is real and what is absolute." (Palmer 2014)

Postmodern films often contain the following characteristics:

It challenges genre conventions and characters; mix of genres

Pastiche: It imitates other text, often has a humourous take on social norms and cultures

Hyper-realistic: It tries to make the audience aware that they are watching a movie

The Lego Movie mixes genres and mixes characters from existing films and books. It has a female hero and a hero who is virtually useless. Characters like Batman and Wonder Woman who are often strong and powerful are portrayed as utter idiots compared to a character like Emmet. All of the characters are jokes on their convention or from their original media. Real world objects are mixed in to remind you that you are watching a movie although the characters are unaware of that. It adds to the Hyper Realism at the end of the movie as Emmet leaves the Lego world and enters the real world, he then sees the only 2 real people in the film, The Boy and his Dad. All of these characters are jammed together from a boy's imagination. 

Monday 12th October

The Lego Movie: Narrative Theory

L/O: to apply narrative theory to The Lego Movie

Equilibrium - Everything is normal in the film - People live their lives following the instructions from President Business (Boy isn't allowed to play with his Dad's Lego)

Disruption - Something happens that changes normal life. - President Business wants to keep everything in place. (Boy creates Emmet's story)

Recognition of Disruption - The protagonist realises that something is happening. - Emmet has the prophecy explained to him and realises he is the Special 

Attempt to solve Disruption - The protagonist attempts to fix the disruption. - The heroes break into the tower in an attempt to stop the Kragle (Boy explains his creations to his Dad)

New Equilibrium - There is now a new normal but the world will not be the same as before the disruption. - President Business undoes everything he's done. (Dad and the Boy are friends again)

Monday 19th October

The Lego Movie

The Hero - Leads the narrative, has a quest or something to solve, wants to succeed, any gender. 

The Villain - Has opposing goals to the hero and is seen as morally bad. Tries to stop Hero from achieving the goal.

The Donor - Gives the hero something special which enables Hero to complete the quest

The Helper - Supports the Hero but is not as powerful. Their flaws help define the Hero

The Princess - Can take two forms, the object sought by the hero or the reward.

The Princess' Father - Protector of the Princess and father figure, Hero often tries to get his approval.

The False Hero - Appears to act heroically and steals the Hero's credit or fame.

Extension

Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone

The Hero - Harry Potter

The Donor - Hagrid

The Helper - Ron//Hermione

The Princess - The Philosopher's Stone

The False Hero - Snape

The Princess' Father - Dumbledore

The Dispatcher - N/A

The Villain - Professor Quirrel

Character Theory in the Lego Movie

The Hero - Emmet - He's the one who is set on the quest and eventually convinces President Business to stop being the villain.

The Villain - President Business - He's the one who wants to use the Kragle to freeze the world

The Helper - Wyldstyle - She helps Emmet get to Vitruvius and is his most constant companion for the entire film

The Donor - Vitruvius - He helps Emmet go to the different areas until his death and offers advice as a ghost

The Dispatcher - Vitruvius - He tells Emmet of the prophecy and convinces him he's special

The Princess - Wyldstyle - Emmet likes her and he wants to impress her

The Princess' Father - Vitruvius - It is mentioned Wyldstyle was his student

The False Hero - Batman - He tries to outdo Emmet and act heroically for the entire film but ultimately fails

The Lego Movie: Intertextuality

L/O: to explore the similarities between The Matrix and The Lego Movie

Intertextuality - The relationship between texts

Characters

Neo

Trinity

Morpheus

Monday 2nd November

The Lego Movie: Target Audience

L/O: to identify the target audience using demographics and psychographics

Kids would want to see the movie because they like to play with LEGO and there are vibrant colours, there are also a lot of famous kids' characters including superheroes and fantasy characters.

Parents would want to see it because of the nostalgia from what they enjoyed as kids, they also identify with the villain/parent figure of Lord Business.

Young adults would want to see it because it's a comedy and it's something to do with their friends.

It appeals to both genders as there are many characters to identify with and both of the heroes are male and female respectively.

Explain HOW the movie appeals to each part of the target audience.

The Lego Movie appeals to children via understanding that they are interested in bright colours, famous characters and Lego. Characters like Batman appeal to children because they are cool and inspire imagination. The location Cloud Cuckoo Land within the film is instantly appealing to children as it imagines a place full of vibrant colours, no rules and happiness.

The Lego Movie appeals to parents because of their nostalgia for Lego, the idea of master builders may remind them of them as kids playing with Lego and being imaginative building all sorts of things. It also appeals to them because they can identify with Lord Business as they want their children to behave and not mess up things they're working on.

The Lego Movie appeals to young adults because it is a comedy, recurring jokes throughout the movie or jokes without payoff until the end of the film may engage them. They may also have a nostalgia for Lego though it would not be as strong as parents as they do not yet have children of their own.

The Lego Movie appeals to both genders because it has two heroes to identify with, a male and a female. Wyldstyle is quite a strong character compared to Emmet which may attract a female audience as at the time and even now there are not many heroines in movies. Emmet is a male character who evolves throughout the movie and eventually becomes an extremely strong character compared to his weakness at the beginning.  

Cast List

Emmet played by Chris Pratt

Lord Business played by Will Ferrell

Wyldstyle played by Elizabeth Banks

Vitruvius played by Morgan Freeman

Good Cop / Bad Cop played by Liam Neeson

Audience Profile

Age: 5 --> 11

        13 --> 20

        30 --> 40

Gender: Male and Female
Race: All

Location: Urban

Employment Status: B/C1/C2

Psychographic: Explorers/Aspirers

The Lego Movie: Marketing

L/O: To explore marketing and promotion of The Lego Movie; to link the methods to the target audience

A tent pole production is a movie that is expensive to make but is expected to do extremely well at the box office, alongside tie ins of merchandise.

The Lego Movie was a tent pole production as it took an already popular brand and made a movie out of it. It also had a videogame commissioned which was based on the movie before the movie released which shows they were confident with it's financial success. It cost 60 million to make which is a lot of money to make a movie forgetting about marketing and the production of merchandise.

The benefits of this for Warner Bros is that they invested in this movie that they knew would be a smash hit on the financial front whether it was good or not as it was based on one of the most popular brands in the world.

Marketing 

• Posters
• Trailers
• Restaurant tie ins
• TV adverts
• Billboards
• Buses
• Drinks
• Food

Synergy is the simultaneous release of different products to boost both

Bigger companies (often a conglomerate) will use Synergy to promote linked products across different media areas.

Tie in merchandise for The Lego Movie

• 16 Lego Minifigures
• 14 Lego Sets 
• The Lego Movie Videogame
• School supplies
• Sticker and activity books

Marketing Part 2

Horizontal and Vertical integration

Horizontal integration is when the parent company owns multiple companies at the same stage of the film industry. The advantages of Horizontal integration are more movies are produced or distributed or exhibited as there are more resources to focus on one stage of the film industry.

Vertical integration is when the parent company owns multiple companies across different stages of the film industry. The advantages of Vertical integration is that a company can produce, distribute and exhibit a film without needing different companies, thus keeping the profit.

Exam style questions

1. What's the name of a company that owns lots of small companies? 

Conglomerate

2. What's the benefit of being one of these? 

A lot of smaller companies means more resources and bringing in more money.

3. Why is synergy a good thing? 

It allows companies to sell multiple products at once, thus making more money.

4. What is it called when a single company controls both the production and distribution stage of a media product? 

Vertical integration

5. What's the advantages of doing this?

It doesn't need to use different companies, which means they    keep more of the profit

6. What is a tent-pole production? 

It is a production that has a lot of money put into it which is made to make a high return. Usually has tie-in merchandise

7. What is the advantage of this for the production company? 

It is almost guaranteed to make a profit.

The Lego Movie: TV Advertising

L/O: to evaluate the methods used to market The Lego Movie; to link the methods to the target audience

What do TV adverts normally show?

The best and most appealing parts of a product

How are they different to the theatrical trailers?

They are shorter than theatrical trailers because it is more expensive to purchase TV ad space

When would you show the Lego Movie adverts?

Kids channels in the afternoon at weekend. ITV at 6 or 7 as that is when most families would sit down to watch TV

Explain how the Lego Movie marketing campaign broke boundaries with the TV ad and linked social media campaign. Explain how successful it was and support with evidence.

The Lego Movie marketing campaign broke boundaries as the TV ad break during Dancing on Ice five days before the film released was a world's first, no film had ever taken over an entire TV ad break before while still advertising other companies. This created a lot of buzz on social media which spread awareness of the advertising campaign. All of the companies involved paid for their own advertisements which indicates they knew it would be a success with the intended audiences. Over 6 million people saw the advertisement at the time it was aired, leading to a further 1 million seeking out the simultaneously released ad break on YouTube to see what everyone was talking about. All companies involved appealed to the target audience, The British Heart Foundation appealed to both kids and adults as it is a charitable cause, BT appealed to both kids and adults as everyone wants faster internet if they can have it, Confused.com appealed to adults as they need insurance, Premier Inn appeals to families as it's travel accommodation and LEGO appeals to both kids and adults due to a like and possible nostalgia factor respectively. Over 60 news publications had written about the ad break meaning more people knew about it, creating a domino effect. The ads recreated were well known advertising campaigns at the time, meaning both kids and adults knew about the campaigns creating more interest in the movie. They used 'stigs' in between advertisements featuring characters from the movie, this was most likely used to remind viewers that there is an entire movie using this style keeping them engaged, then they showed a trailer showing clips from the movie and giving viewers the release date.

The Lego Movie: Trailer

L/O: to evaluate the methods used to market The Lego Movie; to link the methods to the target audience

Why did Warner Bros choose to have their logos made from Lego?

• Having their logos made from Lego improves brand recognition for both Lego and Warner Bros

Why would they want their logos shown before the trailer plays?

• So that the audience knows that the film is big budget as they are a well known company

Trailer: Todorov's Narrative Theory

Equilibrium - Emmet is in his home, everything is normal, the camera is not shaky and perfectly still

Disruption - President Business alludes to death if you don't follow the instructions before shouting release the Kragle in the next shot. This is shot from a low angle which makes him appear menacing

Recognition - Emmet acknowledges President Business' behaviour 

Attempt to solve - Vitruvius tells everyone that the solution is Emmet

New Equilibrium - This is not shown as nobody wants to know the ending otherwise there would be no point in seeing the film

The Equilibrium and Disruption happen so fast so that the plot can be established within the short timeframe they have for the trailer.

Given the target audience, the Disruption happens so fast because children have short attention spans and they want to capture their attention with action immediately.

Camerawork

Several close up shots of key characters have been used, why?

To show and introduce key characters in a way that makes them recognisable, showing their face.

Sound

What impact do diegetic sounds such as explosions and gunshots have?

They create a sense of suspense and action

Editing

The intertitles, such as a 'The top treat for the half term' appeal to a certain audience. What?

This appeals to parents because they are looking for things to do when their children are off school and they are spending time with them.

Mise-en-scene

How do the various locations shown help to convey a sense of genre?

This helps to show us that this is an action adventure movie by capitalising on the adventure part, various locations show progress within the adventure. These locations also contain a lot of action, as it is at it's heart an action movie.

Monday 14th December

The Lego Movie: Video Game

L/O: to explain how vertical integration benefits companies; to analyse using Uses & Gratification theory

Who is the game developer? TT Fusion

Who is the game publisher? Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment

When was it released? It was released in North America on 7th February 2014, and a week later in Europe on 14th February 2014

What genre is it? Action-adventure

What platforms was it released for? iOS, PC, PS4, PS3, PS Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, 3DS

What game modes does it have? Singleplayer, multiplayer

Uses & Gratifications: Blumer & Katz

• Blumer & Katz researched how and why people select certain media products over others
• They came up with four main uses:

PIES

Personal Identity in the Lego Movie - A wide range of representative characters helps the Lego Movie to relate to a wide audience

Information in the Lego Movie - Pop culture references, moral values for kids

Entertainment in the Lego Movie - It's a comedy

Social Interaction in the Lego Movie - The film is discussable and the videogame has a social aspect

Explain what TWO uses and gratifications audiences might get from the videogame according to the trailer

There are several uses and gratifications audiences might get from the videogame according to the trailer. One use and gratification audiences may get from the trailer is social identity, as the trailer tells us there are over 90 characters for audiences to choose from, the audience may believe that there is bound to be a relatable character for a wide variety of personality types and ages, there are also famous superheroes shown which may relate to people's own moral values. Another use and gratification of the videogame according to the trailer is social interaction, in the trailer it shows kids hanging out with multiple friends, portraying the videogame as an event, this would appeal to a younger audience's social interaction needs, as they enjoy spending time with their friends.

Monday 11th January 2021

Analysis

The Lego Movie Videogame cover is constructed to appeal to it's target audience of families. It's colour palette is bright and cheerful. All sorts of characters from the movie are represented which allows the maximum appeal to all who might view the game on the shelf. The heroes are portrayed towards the front which indicates good moral principles to put parents minds at ease. It was released a week before the movie to provide attention and hype to the movie.

Monday 18th January 2021

L/O: DIRT

Analysis using the PEEL method

Emmet is obviously the centre of the poster, he is not dressed like a protagonist however which contradicts his centre of the cover status, this could suggest to those who wish to buy the game that Emmet is an ordinary person like them which would allow them to relate to the poster.

Lord Business is the giant in the background, his colour palette is dark with colours like black and red, these colours often have a connotation towards evil and shows the target audience that Lord Business is the villian.

Wyldstyle is just behind Emmet which suggests she is just as important as him, she however looks more like a hero with colours like black, blue and pink suggesting she is a vigilante to the target audience, which would appeal to those who like characters like Batman.

Vitruvius is shown to be the wise old man from his poster alone, with props like a staff and a colour palette consisting mainly of white, these are things that are associated with wisdom and knowledge.

Batman is portrayed towards the background on top of a building, his position suggests that he will be a secondary character to people like Wyldstyle or Emmet but he's still there, Batman is a character that attracts a target audience of all ages as he is a famous character.

Other characters like Good Cop/Bad Cop and Benny are shown in the background, suggesting to the audience that they are not as important as those at the front of the poster.

The title is built out of Lego bricks, this shows the audience that everything about the game is entirely made of Lego, this tells the target audience that it'll be fun via brand association with the actual Lego toys, this also tells parents its ok for their kids to play the game as they would've played with Lego when they were younger.

This game came out a week before the movie, even if they don't intend on buying the game, seeing a high quality videogame has been made as a tie-in to the movie may attract audiences to the movie because they'll believe it was high budget.

This was all I could come up with answers for.

The Lego Movie Poster Campaign

Analyse the Dark Knight poster

Denotations

It is dark, he is wearing a dark costume in front of a burning bat symbol.

Connotations

It suggests this is a dark movie and things aren't all happy and cheerful but the vigilante will set things right

Context

He's batman, there was a film before this called batman begins.

Analyse the game cover

Denotations

There is a construction worker, a lot of police and a lot of robots, and a big man in the background

Connotations

The construction worker is smiling with the connotation that he is the good guy as he is at the forefront of the game cover

Context

Audiences would know that Lego is a worldwide brand and they would also know about batman

Genre codes & conventions

The typical features that symbolize a genre. For example, genre convention of sci-fi films is that they are often set in outer space

Hybrid

When a film mixes elements of different genres.

Iconography

The visual elements, like props, that help to symbolize a particular genre. For example, iconography of a Western film may include cowboy hats, guns and horses.

Intertextuality

When one text references another 

Analysis

The Lego Movie Theatrical poster is constructed to appeal to it's target audience via the connotations of things like running within the poster. A simple action such as running indicates that this is a movie with lots of action to a younger audience, Genre conventions such like superheroes and weapons appeal to the audience this movie is trying to target, children. 

Stereotypes

A wildly held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing

Gender within the Lego Movie poster campaign

The Lego Movie poster campaign portrays mainly males but the only main female character Wyldstyle is portrayed as the most capable in the posters, for example, she is shown piloting a vehicle while Emmet is screaming within one of the posters.

The Lego Movie: Representation

L/O:to analyse the representations throughout the Lego Movie promotional campaign

Portrayal of the male gender

Emmet is portrayed as the hero who is weak at the beginning and develops into a stronger person. This is a typical male stereotype but Emmet is often portrayed as an idiot within the film. This portrayal that he is not strong and smart subverts the stereotype of men within media

Analysis of Age

Age within the lego movie poster campaign is portrayed within stereotypes. For example, Wyldstyle looks like the stereotype of a young adult who acts somewhat rebellious with her dyed hair and black clothing, Emmet is portrayed as a worker, as he is always seen in a construction worker outfit. Vitruvius is portrayed as the wise old man with his white eyes and hair, white is a colour often associated with knowledge. Lord Business looks like a middle aged man, he wears red, a colour often associated with evil and his name associated him with being a serious and possibly unlikeable character.

Explain how an effective marketing campaign would exploit a range of platforms

An effective marketing campaign would exploit a range of platforms by targeting a specific audience on that platform, for example, the LEGO Movie campaign targeted young adults on social media platforms as that was the primary audience of those platforms. Warner Bros also exploited the marketing tactic of an entire tie in videogame, this appeals to kids as the LEGO Movie Videogame was part of a long established part of LEGO, which is the videogames. They also exploited fast food restaurants like McDonalds to promote the movie to it's target audience, young children. 

EXAM PREP: REVISION

Question Format

Four questions: Two short answer and two longer answer are question

Longer questions will be a discussion of the Lego Movie

Mark a minute

Question One

1 mark knowledge question 

1 minute

Question Two

4 marks

Give two reasons why question

Understanding of film promotion or video games

2 marks for explanation

2 marks for example

Example: Explain two reasons why a film company would release a video game linked to a film.

Question Three

10 marks

Short essay based question. Support ideas using Lego Movie as an example. It is most likely to be on Media Audiences, but could be on any area. 

Three parts of the theory

Three examples for each aspect

Example: Explain at least two uses and gratifications of the Lego Movie Video Game. Use Blumler and Katz's theory to support your answer. 

Question Four

Lego Movie Trailer in Relation to Media Language

10 marks

Contexts (Possibly)

Example: Analyse how the Media Language in the Lego Movie trailer appeals to the audience.

Lego Movie Trailer: Media Language

Narrative: 
Equilibrium - Everyone is happy watching TV, Emmet sat on sofa by himself

Disruption - President Business says "Then you'll be put to sleep", suggests something is wrong

Recognition of Disruption - Emmet acknowledges his quote

Attempt to Solve - Characters such as Vitruvius and Wyldstyle suggesting that Emmet is the chosen one, Emmet reluctant

New Equilibrium - Unknown

Camerawork:

Establishing shot of Emmet and his house (Connotes his average and normal life)
Mid/close up on Emmet (Recognition of Disruption through facial expressions: MES and Dialogue: Sound)

Low angle shot on Wyldstyle (Suggests female power)

Low angle shot on Lord Business (Suggests his power as the villain)

Low angle shot of the company logo, places people at the bottom. (Suggests godlike company)

Aerial shot of machine (Shows President Business' power over the innocent people)

Mise-en-scene:

Confused/scared facial expressions (Reflects Emmet's "average Joe" archetype, makes him relatable to the audience)

President Business placed on TV (Suggests that he is famous, important. Reinforces godlike ideas.)

Coliseum style setting focusing on Vitruvius, colours and 'wise wizard' juxtapose the coliseum idea

Explosions and fight scenes reflect action genre conventions (Audience appeal) 

Western set appeals to a wide audience and reflects genre conventions (Standoff between heroes and police) Humour as police are in western setting (Intertextuality in reference to Agent Smith: Someone who is always in places they shouldn't be, also duplicates of each other)

World with dragons (Audience appeal) 

Various colour palettes reflect themes and genres of worlds, also appeal to different audiences

Sound: 

Diegetic Voiceover (Godlike voice)
Wise voiceover to confused dialogue to angry dialogue ("We have yet one hope",  "Me?", "Are you kidding me?") Creates comedy and establishes the narrative. Intertextuality to the Matrix. Emmet represents Neo as someone who has been chosen to save the world but is unconventional as a hero.

Sound effects of weapons (Creates excitement for the audience)

Juxtaposition of diegetic dialogue ("Put to sleep", "Taco Tuesday's coming next week")

Non-diegetic sounds quicken the pace alongside fast paced editing.

Humorous dialogue ("I wanna go home", *house appears*, "that's not what I meant".)

Editing: 

Fast cuts between action scenes and dialogue scene (Appeals due to constant new scenes, suggests a lot of variety within the film) Builds tension, drama and entertainent value

Cuts from Emmet to low angle of President Business, colour palette is dark and brooding. Juxtaposition. (Shows his power and his alignment.)

Intertitles ("Fate of the World" creates excitement for the audience.)

Juxtaposition of Wyldstyle and Emmet (Cuts from martial arts with Wyldstyle to Emmet clambering and going woah seeing her fighting) 

Emmet shown to be falling, edit moves from facial expressions to action setpieces which reflect his character.