Yr 10: MOJO

Recently we encountered questions on representation analysing the Lego Movie poster campaign. You have a handout attached to your poster campaign print-out.

Watching The Lego Movie today, we identified different representations of masculinity:

• Batman - masculine stereotypes, such as strength, aggression, assertiveness, leadership, active
• Emmet - anti stereotypical, such as gentleness, passivity

Some exam questions on other topics call for analysis of representation, including discussion of stereotypes. 

You will definitely have to analyse representation on MOJO and other music magazines. 

We practise today on the March 2022 edition and start by listening to the Monkees singing Daydream Believer. We look at the visual codes in the Monkees' representation (clothes, hair, facial expressions, eye contact) to decide how far they are coded as 'anarchists' and 'subversives'.

Vocabulary:  

anarchy = disorder, lawlessness

subversion = undermining the power of an established system; 'troublemakers'

a heretic = someone who goes against accepted or official beliefs; someone who violates religious rules / beliefs

PREP

Title of prep: MOJO: MEDIA LANGUAGE

We also will have questions on the 'media language' of MOJO and will be asked to compare it with one other magazine cover. Copy the image of the February 2022 edition into your post along with the questions, which you will answer.

MOJO magazine pdf here

We are analysing how music magazines use media language to reflect genre conventions.

'Genre conventions' = what a music magazine usually looks like.

Identify the different elements on the MOJo front cover and say if this is a genre convention:

Title

Main splash / image: who is it and does it celebrate the person? How is it lit? Is the singer made to look important? How many other images are there?

How 'busy' is the cover as a whole?

Are there cover lines (additional articles)? How organised are they? Do most music magazines have a similar number of cover lines (additional articles)?

What are the main colours and is there an accent colour?

Is there a cover mount and is this typical of MOJO?

Yr 10: LEGO MOVIE VIDEO GAME

PREP Ensure that you all have folders on your desktop with OCR's fact sheets in the right folders. Folder names 

01 TV & PROMOTING MEDIA

02 MUSIC & NEWS

Find the green fact sheets here on the OCR J200 site

 

Yr 10: LEGO MOVIE AD BREAK & POSTER CAMPAIGN

We are first looking at the concept of representation in the LEGO MOVIE AD BREAK. In particular, an exam question on the representations in the ad break. We look at pupil exam answers.

PREP You all have a handout with the individual character posters and the ensemble poster.

Analyse how gender has been represented in The Lego Movie poster campaign. Use the written handout to help you answer this exam question (10 marks). 

Title of your post: LEGO MOVIE POSTER CAMPAIGN

Yr 10: LEGO MOVIE AD BREAK

This week we will continue with LEGO MOVIE MARKETING

We watch the Lego Movie Ad Break and the 'making of the Lego Movie Ad Break' video.

PREP Watch the ad break and the 'making of the ad break' again! That is all. 

• Who are the 4 companies involved?
• What were the financial benefits of Warner making the ad break?
• Who was its target audience?
• Is the tone warm, friendly and humorous?
• How does the ad break use famous names?
• The ad break is built entirely of Lego. How does this theme link to the Lego Movie?
• How does Warner use vertical integration in its marketing?

We will study the poster campaign and identify the different ways in which the ensemble poster and all the individual posters target specific audiences

• promise of action / adventure pleasures through the depiction of chase, thrill, danger
• bright primary colours which are upbeat and which appeal to children
• the recognisable Lego brand, a prestige brand loved the world over by adults and children alike
• the 3D effect of the Lego logo
• the humour of 'Assembling' 
• the appeal of Emmet the underdog, the unstereotypical hero to children as the 'nobody who saved everybody'
• each individual poster makes a specific appeal by identifying the famous actors voicing characters such as Elizabeth Banks as Wyldstyle, Chris Pratt as Emmet, Morgan Freeman as Vitruvius, Will Ferrell as Lord Business.

We view part of the Lego Movie Video Game walk-through and identify what pleasures it offers audiences using Blumler and Katz's theoretical framework: audiences use media to gratify their needs.

PREP Watch the ad break again and write up a post that explains how the ad break works. What is its purpose? How does it appeal to audiences? Was it successful?

Yr 10 : LEGO

Everything is awesome!

We finished last term with an enjoyable exploration of BBC 1 Radio LiveLounge, our radio topic. Time to tackle our film marketing topic (Paper 1, TV and promoting media), how Warner Bros marketed The Lego Movie (2014). Our text book covers this on pages 43-66. We study

• the Lego film trailer and poster campaign
• the Lego Movie ad break
• the Lego Movie video game

We need to know about the film industry, such as how the franchise (= collection of media products like films, video games, comics, TV programmes) operated across different areas and how they worked together to promote The Lego Movie.

We also study how film audiences are targeted by the franchise and how they respond to & interact with the products. 

We learn about:

• who produced and regulated The Lego Movie and the Lego Movie video game
• BBFC certification; PEGI certification
• why a film company releases a spread of products along with the film
• terms like franchise, synergy, tent-pole production, ensemble cast, conglomerate
• vertical integration
• Lego's brand values
• cross-platform release

We learn to apply theory:

• the uses and gratifications theory
• narrative theory

We use media concepts:

• representation - how are people and places portrayed? gender roles? feminism?stereotypes (supported / subverted)?
• media language - narrative (the story); iconography (heroes /villains, composition, action/adventure props, fonts, colours)
• genre - what action /adventure codes excite audiences? heroes & villains? superheroes?comedy? hybridity (mix of genres, like comic characters with 'heroes')
• genre conventions - typical features (in a video game, film poster, TV advert)
• audience - family audience; appeals to adults & children; how different demographics are targeted

We start with the Lego movie. Watch the official trailer here

Task 1: how does Emmet come across? How effective would this trailer be in promoting the film?

Task 2: Find out what The Lego Movie (2014) is about. As you read, think about why the film appeals to different types of audiences (both children and adult) and is family friendly.

 

Task 3: Go to the BBFC site and research age ratings. Why was The Lego Movie (2014) given a U rating? You need to click on the Ratings info

  

Go to the PEGI site and research what age ratings are about. Why is The Lego Movie video game classification 7+?