Audience and Institutions Practice Essay

In relation to the media area you've studied, discuss the ways audience 

consumption has changed over time. [50]

Ever since the art of film was invented, the main way for audiences to view it was for them to go out to a movie theater and watch it on the big (or, in the old days, small) screen. However, audience consumption has changed vastly compared to how things used to be. At the turn of the century, streaming services and movie rental services grew to be extremely relevant amongst society. There are many people who say they prefer not to go to the movie theater-- either because the price of tickets are too expensive, they don't have the time to go because of work, they don't like having their experience interrupted by people making noise in a theater, and so on. With things like Blockbuster (1985) and Netflix (1997) being founded, consumers seem to feel less compelled to watch a film at a movie theater. 

Audience consumption is, of course, integral to a films' success. No matter how long a film crew has spent writing, shooting, and editing a film, the true success of the film rests in the hands of the general public. Creating a professional film has the potential to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, the largest film budget of all time for a single film is held by 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Strange Tides', costing a total of approximately $378.5 million. Obviously most films don't cost nearly as much, many indie filmmakers are able to create projects through only a few thousand; however when a film costs such a large amount to make, the money that was lost in production must eventually be earned back plus extra as profit in order for it to be deemed successful. Putting a large amount of funds into a project is a risk, and the outcome ultimately is found by the reaction of the audience it reaches. Audience consumption has always been an important factor once a production is completed, and with the growth of streaming services, audience consumption has risen greatly after the introduction of streaming services.

In 2018, box offices and movie theaters made about $11.95 billion in profit, while a streaming service, Netflix, earned $16 billion in revenue. Evidently, box offices are still making an extreme amount of money, but things like Netflix are also beginning to rake in profit at the same time. This may be because of the convenience that comes alongside streaming services. Rather than spending money and going out to the theater, it's more convenient to pay a flat amount of money once per month and have access to as many films and TV shows that the service could possibly offer, all available in the comfort of ones' home. Sources such as CNBC even go so far as to report that in 2018 over half of US homes are subscribed to some form of a streaming service, collectively spending around $2.1 billion per month; however streaming services are also being combatted by rewards programs at movie theaters, for example AMC Stubs, which can offer free refills on food, discounts on ticket prices, and higher quality/better placed seats in the theater.

Unfortunately, streaming services can also be harmful when terms come down to illegal download websites. The public having access to the internet is bound to have ups and downs, for one thing films, music, and television can be streamed online, yet at the same time many pirating websites and software have arisen. Online piracy is a genuine concern for the film industry, due to the fact that extremely intelligent beings may have the ability to hack into major databases and leak footage or entire films, rendering the need to go spend money to see a film rather useless. Things like Napster, which can tap into films that have yet to reach to the cinemas, are very harmful. The statement 'audience consumption increases' remains true, however the use of audience consumption holds no true purpose because those who watch films illegally aren't spending a penny, therefore taking away money from the film industry.

The change in audience consumption, despite the dangers of piracy and leaks, is a rather positive change in the public eye. Having such a convenient way to watch whatever one pleases is, naturally, something that grew popular very quickly, and has earned such services billions upon billions of dollars over the years. This may eventually pose danger for cinemas, some companies and new outlets have expressed worry for cinemas' futures around the world due to less and less people coming in and out. Actual ticket sales fluctuate each year-- generally hovering around 1.2 to 1.3 billion sales, but the number drops each year and rises the next. But all in all from the audiences perspective, consumption has never been easier and better. From a business perspective, streaming services are thriving, while cinemas may be slowly suffering the consequences from growing old or irrelevant in the public eye.

My CCR

My Finished CCR

This is my completed CCR video that I made for my final task. I'll admit, it's not the best. I hate to say that it's not even really that good. That could just be my trashy self esteem talking, but I know that at least somewhat it isn't better than anything else I could've done. Unfortunately a lot of my time has been consumed by editing this together, about 6-7 hours of just editing. The first half mainly took my time, because there were so many inserts and sound effects. I had to literally scour the internet all over so I could find stock sound effects. Plus I had to put in a few content warnings just for the gore-y photos of the props used in my final. For such a simple video, I really didn't expect for it to take me such a long time to edit. Much to my dismay, I found out once I started editing that I literally never shut up. By that, I mean I talked way too much in each of the individual takes for each question. I also talk really fast, by nature, so whenever I would try to merge clips things came out kind of choppy. I talked too fast without considering how much that would hinder the editing process and the outcome of the video as a whole. I cut out probably 6 or 7 minutes in total of me just blabbering since I went off on a lot of tangents, but it still came out to be almost 12 minutes long. Embedding this into my blog also took me way too long to figure out. The file size of this video obviously was quite large, so Blogger literally couldn't handle the uploading process. I was going to just individually upload each part/question, but even then it was just too much. Each file was around 20-30 MB too large for the website to support. Thankfully my classmates on our teams app are really helpful, everyone's working together really well so I tried a lot of different methods. It's a little upsetting that it's mainly just a video of me talking to the camera, but I tried my best, considering I can't leave my house and I had no one to help me but myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuooKw1gnag

The Movie

A Bit of Love

This movie took a lot longer than we all meant for it to take. COVID-19 restricted our ability to meet up a lot, so me and my group weren't able to see each other for a while. But despite that, I think that I alongside the rest of my group are still pretty proud of what we've done. We could've done a better job, but the most important part is that we finished. We also managed to follow the storyboard well. I'm especially proud of my group mates for being able to finish all the preparations, given the time frame we had and our difficulties that came whenever we tried to meet up. I'd also like to say a big 'thank you' to my teachers that I had this year. They managed to keep such a large class of students informed, so I never fell flat on what I needed to do. They gave us constant reminders and broke down every piece of work he had to do so everything could be optimized. On another note, COVID-19 is already causing a lot of changes to come to the surface in the media world. A lot of movies are now being released online on websites, theaters are closing down, and film productions are being postponed hastily. Sure, it's definitely scary, it's alarming to see so many forms of entertainment suddenly being held back. We've grown so used to having things come out at their specified deadlines, that now the film making world is pretty shaken up over it. The virus is also starting to affect literally everyone around the world. Even more so, targetting pregnant women, senior citizens, and people who have immuno-deficiencies and all that. I think everybody is a little bit afraid of what the future might hold. That includes schools and school districts, obviously since school has been cancelled for quite a bit of time. We're having to transfer everything to online school, and many states have already declared that they will not return to school in person for the remainder of the year. Thankfully, we filmed this movie and edited it safely, so it's still finished on time.

This film shows the two sides to how people perceive celebrities. We see the first side, which is the one broadcasted to the people. Smiling, waving, happy people who are shiny and new, they're talented and perfect. On the other side there's the more grim version-- the secrecy of being unhappy. Of course, this film we've created should be taken with a grain of salt. Obviously we aren't saying all celebrities are cannibals behind the scenes, we're not even saying that all celebrities have a dark side. However it still felt important for us to show that humans have more than just one side. People are more than what is presented on the surface. Our props and costumes were made by my group mate Emily. All of the food was made out of marshmallow fondant and food coloring, so it was actually quite sweet when I had to eat a bite of it in the film. Fondant is basically just pure sugar in a malleable form, but it's still pretty good if you ask me. The wine was just a mix of grape and cherry juice, since obviously none of us are legally allowed to drink. I'm proud of our props, everything came out really beautiful and our location ended up being perfect. This is definitely the best thing we made all year. 

My Music Video (because, Corona.)

Fly Me To The Moon

Because of Coronavirus, my teachers have instructed me to upload my old projects from earlier in the year so my progress can be tracked better. Unfortunately, my commercial is lost somewhere, i'm really not sure where it went, but I at least have my music video that I made with my final project group. The song we chose for it is Fly Me To The Moon by Frank Sinatra, it's a relatively romantic and old fashioned song. I categorize it kind of like 'old jazz', with artists like Ella Fitzgerald. Watching it back now is honestly not my favorite thing to do, I don't like how my body came out looking in the video, but it definitely isn't the worst. Also to be honest... filming it was pretty fun.

Finalizing my CCR

Almost Finished!

I’ve spent the last week or so living a rather comfortable life. Sleeping at really unreasonable times (that I will not specify) and waking up around 1-2 PM has become my passion. It’s actually quite similar to my sleep schedule during the summer, but not as bad, believe it or not. Regardless of my sleep schedule though, i’ve been getting quite a surprising amount of work done. Online classes are really kicking off, so i’ve been focusing a lot on getting my assignments done in time as the days go by. I’ll say it honestly, I completely prefer going to school online over going in person, but i’m sure i’ve said that before in other blogs. I’ve been more motivated to get things done recently since I can kind of do it whenever I want as long as it’s by midnight on a certain day. Which, I will add, is a really long time if you’re given an assignment due a week from the day you were assigned it. The new system really gives you time to think. I’ve also been taking the extra time given by my AICE Media teachers to edit my CCR at a slower pace. My procrastination habit is pretty bad, so I was originally going to have to edit the whole thing together really quickly. Probably in the span of about two to three days. Then again, I know pretty well that it’s my fault for not getting started sooner. 

I edited the first half of it in one sitting, probably taking around 6 hours of just me sitting in my chair staring at my face for an uncomfortably long time. But i’ve been given a longer window to finish up since then. I’ve spent the extras on my other classes, mainly my math class just because it’s the only thing i’m really struggling with it. It turns out, learning pre-calculus at home through vague videos and websites is not the best. It’s definitely not as efficient as learning with a teacher who can answer your questions quickly. It’s even more difficult for me because i’m someone who really struggles with doing well in math. Which, admittedly, although I am trying my best— i’m not doing well at all. I’m like on the tip of passing. Just a little on top of the line to keep myself comfortable so I can get my credit. Luckily I don’t struggle with my other classes since they’re a lot of other core things. I’m also proficient in learning about my electives since I do my research on them from time to time. After all, sociology is kind of an interesting subject, so I like to look into it just briefly. Thanks to the extra time, I was able to deal with the massive amount of work I had due today. I don’t know what happened, I guess it was just bad timing, but it looked like all of a sudden all of my teachers decided to give an assignment due specifically today. Or a quiz, or both, just for the fun of it. I’ve been working for a few hours today. I just barely managed to turn in an English quiz, I mean I literally finished by the skin of my teeth. But I suppose it’s my fault again for not managing my time better and doing things ahead. I know fully well that I could’ve done a thing or two earlier, or at least started on them earlier. On the bright side, i’ve finished my CCR video! I’m going to put it up probably in the afternoon or at night, considering the fact that i’m literally never awake before 1:30 PM. I also have to post my video, considering the fact that I never actually got around to that. I have a few, or a lot of blogs that I need to make up for missing. After all of this film work is said and done, my class is just going to focus on writing for the extract portion. I know we did a bit of it in the start of the year, but it’s been a long time since then. I’ve had too much crammed into my head from other classes for months on end. I guess that’s why we made our midterm the way we were told to, it’s a nice refresher of what to do for those who’ve totally forgotten. I can’t wait until I see all of the submission screens once I turn my project in.

Filming my CCR (in quarantine)

Filming my CCR (in quarantine)

So originally, me and my group members planned on filming our CCR's together on the same day. We wanted to be able to sit together and bounce ideas off of each other to make it more interesting, plus it would just be easier since we can only check out one camera. But obviously... that isn't what happened. I've been in 'quarantine' for about 3 weeks, almost a month really soon, which means I haven't gone to school in person in almost a month. This obviously means I haven't seen my group members since our last day. Meeting up is always really difficult for us since we live really far apart and only two of us can drive, so normally we have to play meet-ups for filming and all that about a week prior. But with COVID-19 going around we can't even really leave our houses much to begin with. With the exception of leaving to buy groceries and basic necessities, obviously, we're ordered to stay at home, just like basically the whole world. To put it simply: this means that we didn't get to do what we first wanted. Instead of meeting up, we've had to film our CCR videos on our own. We've been keeping in touch through our group chat just to make sure we still have our final project and our blogs all together, but that's all we can do. Being in quarantine doesn't exactly make finishing our CCR's in possible, it's definitely doable and i'm already actually finished with mine. The problem is that we don't have any of the equipment that we used for our video projects, since all of that was borrowed from our school's inventory. We're just lucky we live in an age where technology can do basically everything. I filmed the entirety of my CCR on my phone, sitting outside on the stairs to my apartment complex so I could get some nice lighting, and I edited it all on my PC. I was lucky enough to actually have a tripod, because I borrowed one that my sister has, so at least my phone was balanced and the camera didn't move much besides when strong wings blew past. Editing... was not as smooth. If anything, it was the most difficult part of the entire CCR ordeal. Obviously at school on the laptops we had a decent editing program that we could use to put together our films, but being stuck at home, we don't have that anymore. Finding a good editing software that you can use without having to pay for it is actually so, so frustrating. Most free software that you can find are free trials of existing software, normally they last for around 30 days and then your time is up. Which is fine, if only they didn't have a huge watermark or multiple tiny watermarks all over the screen. I managed to find one that doesn't have a watermark and I can use it as long as I want, but it isn't really that good? Minitool Movie Maker gets the job done, but there isn't a lot I can really do with it. If I want to show pictures or insert videos I can't do it normally and just put it on the take i'm editing next to my face, I have to insert it by itself. It's just not the best, especially since i'm used to what I was using to edit in the past. But after about 7 hours of editing my CCR, which I know might be a ridiculous amount of time for just a 10-15 minute video, I did manage to finish it. It's not everything I wanted it to be by any means, but it's the best I could really do with the current circumstances. My CCR is ready for the deadline, which i've been informed has been extended from today, the 9th, to the 17th. 

Coronavirus is dominating the media, and apparently my entire life.

A kind of awkward screencap of me from my CCR.

Complications with School

Complications with School

I'll be honest. I haven't done anything in a few days, basically everyday since quarantine started. On Friday school for my whole district/county was cancelled, and it's recently been extended until April 15th. Coronavirus has basically taken the world by storm. The internet is exploding with COVID-19 memes, CEO's of conglomerates are stepping down, countries are in shambles, politics in general is just totally done for. Honestly though, i'm having the time of my life. School is obviously something that i'm very blessed to be enrolled in, but it's so stressful these days that i'm really not sure if I can do it anymore. It's taking a big toll on me, basically my mental health since around December has just been really bad. I know that this whole ordeal isn't something I should be happy about, but i'm overjoyed that I actually have some time to myself. Spring break was already on the way, yeah, but having more time is like icing on the cake. I've just been watching anime and having online movie nights with friends. But in all seriousness, school is gonna be out of commission until probably March 30th. By that time I think online assignments and videos will probably be dished out, at least I know for sure it will be by one teacher of mine. Me and my group are still carrying on with reshooting and editing, this just kind of makes things more difficult than they really needed to be. Especially in terms of filming the CCR, which we were planning to film together taking turns so that it could just be easy. But I think i'm going to have to film it on my phone and edit it together, which is kind of annoying, but I guess there's nothing to do about it. I know it's supposed to be something similar to like an interview or talk show type style. I had the idea to maybe have my cat sit next to me and meow into a microphone and then put subtitles over it so it looks like she's asking me questions. It sounds funny, obviously, but I might scrap it. It might end up just looking pretty stupid. Re-editing is going to be a hassle for my group members that are more in charge of it, which I feel bad about, but again. We can't do anything else about it. After all, we can barely leave the house. Quarantine has really set the world on fire. People are afraid to leave their homes these days, all the shopping centers are closed or have very limited hours so malls are just completely barren. It's almost like living in a ghost town. The beach is closed off, grocery stores are going empty. Especially in terms of paper products-- I went to Target to try and find toilet paper and the entire section was literally clean gone. It's like a mini apocalypse that I think people are freaking out over way too much. But I could just be being naive since i'm young and have an okay immune system, so the virus wouldn't really affect me if I were to get it. Work hours are being limited for a lot of people also. My parents are coming home earlier since they're getting practically no business. A lot of places are turning into appointment only schedules temporarily. It's all pretty wild. But i'm taking this break one step at a time. Starting with catching up on the sleep i've lost over the last decade.