Exploring Media Ownership

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Some parent companies who own most of the media in Canada are Rogers Media, Rogers Television, Quebecor Media, SRC, RNC, CBS, Radio Canada, Corus Entertainment, NHL Network Canada, Torstar and A Stations. These parent companies are all connected through the map through smaller corporations associated with them.

Main Theme in Sound City

           Due to improved technology, improved knowledge, and improved experience and training, I believe that music has gotten better over the years in many ways. However, this does not apply to all genre's of music. With improved technology, comes artists who "overuse" what they have access too. Hip hop is a prime example of a genre of which has done so.  Updated technology has allowed us artists to hire a producer, who spends nearly every waking moment in the studio laying down tracks, beats and remixes to make songs more appealing to their listener. With the use of auto tune, it is nearly possible to make anyone's voice sound appealing to the listener. This is a downfall in the music industry because now the industry not only consists of artists with talent, but rather  of artists with either pure talent or with enough money to hire a producer to make their song sound good.

The Source

          Generally, I get my information about the world from Google. This source is appealing to me because of it's wide range of information. Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford University in 1995. By 1996, they had built a search engine (initially called BackRub) that used links to determine the importance of individual webpages. On average, Google makes over $100 million dollars per day. The amount of money Google makes in a day is staggering, but these figures are just gross sales and or gross income. The question and probably the most difficult formula to figure out is true profits. With ten’s of thousands of employees, huge data centers with lots of servers storing terabytes upon terabytes of data doesn’t come cheap. Google makes the vast majority of their income through advertising.

Think About the Themes

          The constant creation of war films affects American society socially and politically. The way war and violence is portrayed in most war films is very different from the way violence is carried out in war in real life. Most war films focus mainly on explosions, shootings, or men dressed in uniform maintaining a "tough guise" image. Although these are things are very much present in war, film deceits these concepts and makes it seem that is all that war is. Not too often do you see a bunch of American soldiers breaking in to a poor family's home, committing treacherousness murders and robbing them for everything that they have. In film, war is portrayed in a way that won't turn the viewer against it, therefore narrowing what the film exposes to the viewer. 

Value and Ideological Control

     My Best Friend's Girl is about Tank, who faces the ultimate test of friendship when his best friend hires him to take his ex-girlfriend out on a lousy date in order to make her realize how great her former boyfriend is. The movie is rated "R" for restricted. Personally, I think a more suitable rating for this film is 18A. There is very intense and aggressive coarse language, many sexual references, limited instances of simulated sexual activity, and substance abuse. There is very little violence present in the film as well. On the "Quick Reference Guide to the Elements" chart, the films falls under a variety of categories. But overall, I think 18A is a fair rating for this film. 

How we Negotiate the Meaning of Music in Film

"Coming Home" by Bob DiPiero demonstrates a strong meaning about coming to the realization that you are not where you want to be. This could be used in a film where someone is in the middle of fulfilling a dream and coming to the realization that in reality, maybe it wasn't what the person actually was destined to to. This song could also be used in a film where someone is completely satisfied with the events that have occurred in their life, and they are ready to back to where they were born (home). An example of this could possibly be an gymnastic, who has spent all day, every day working towards her dream of winning a gold metal throughout her entire life. When the time finally came for this to happen, this song would  be suitable to be playing when the athlete is happily returning home.

Film Constructs Reality

        
           Paranormal Activity is an example of a film that I believe did a particularly good job constructing a believable reality. By using a poor quality camera, as well as poor quality angles, we are to believe that what they are using are just  general every day cameras. The actors talked directly to the cameras, and used informal language. You physically see the actors set up a number of video cameras around the house, and as the viewer, you watch the film through these set cameras. Basically, the film is shot almost as if it is a home video, which ultimately gives you the impression that it constructs reality.

All Film is a Construction

• special effects and a top-notch cast can easily cost upwards of 30 million dollars or more to make, but also lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket sales, overseas marketing, video rentals, soundtrack rights and other ancillary sources of income
• The first hurtle to overcome is obtaining the rights to the source material and permission from estates or survivors to use their story
• even getting the rights to a particular book involves serious negotiations and counter-offers
• If all works out well, the film maker ends up with the right to create a movie from the book, and the author ends up with financial incentive to continue writing
• Now that the rights to the original source have been secured, the film maker might need to commission a professional screenwriter to convert the book into a working script (he or she will be paid at least scale wages for the task of condensing a 1000 page non-fiction book into a two-hour movie script)
• Occasionally, a first script will be rejected and other writers will be hired to rewrite the entire screenplay or 'doctor' the existing one
• Once a script has been approved by the backers of the film, essential personnel must be hired, including a director, casting director, cinematographer, assistant producers, editor and musical director
• Casting directors must also create a short list of actors appropriate for the characters
• Location is another factor to think about: film may either be shot in controlled environments such as sound studios, or they may be filmed on location
• If the film is shot in a studio, many craftsmen will need to be hired in order to create a convincing atmosphere for the film
• trips out of the studio are never cheap, and transportation expenses must be handled by the producers
• If a film is being shot on location, then the cast and crew must be transported to the site and housed between takes
• The movie must be promoted to an influential reviewers and media outlets 
• After the film is shot, the actors are to appear on numerous talk shows and press conferences 

Midterm Summative Blog

          Magic Mike is a 2012 film that deceits reality. Mike Lane, is a thirty- year old living in Tampa, Florida. By day he works as a roofer, while at night, as Magic Mike: the star attraction of a group of male strippers known as Kings of Tampa. Success goes behind the foolish actions of the Kings of Tampa. Everything they do, they do for money. The foolish actions done by the Kings of Tampa get more and more unrealistic as the film goes on, until it builds up to the point of drugging people unknowingly, in attempt to do none other than get more money.
        
          Arguably, this does not reflect external reality. Rather, carefully crafted constructions are unfolded. If a viewer of Magic Mike were to build up their personal understandings of the world and how it works through what they are being presented to them by this particular film, they would ultimately conclude that there are no limits when it comes to making money. The film explicitly shows the Kings of Tampa making a living off of stripping. This very well could go against many individuals’ personal beliefs and values. Patriotism is present through the decor of the strip club and some of the uniforms worn by the strippers. The overall language used in the film is informal, and fairly inappropriate. In my opinion, this does not reflect reality. Reality in the film is demonstrated through actions that are frowned upon in most places (drugs, sex, and alcohol). The film focuses strictly on stripping as an occupation, rather than more proper jobs. For all of these reasons, I can conclude that although Magic Mike is an entertaining, easy- to- watch comedy, it does not reflect my perception of reality.


 

Tough Guise

                           

        
            In the movie Never Back Down, Jake Tyler has recently moved from Iowa to Orlando, Florida with his mother, Margret , and younger brother, Charlie, to support Charlie's shot at a professional tennis career. Here, Jake is exposed to an entirely different environment than what he grew up in, in Iowa. Jake was a star athlete on the football team at home, but in this new city, he is an outsider with a reputation for being a quick tempered brawler after an internet video of him starting a fight circulates around his new school. Coming into Orlando, Jake was unaware of the immense role that being tough meant to the people in Orlando, and since he already had the "tough guise" image from his video, he continued to go along with it. Jake Tyler does reflect the tough guise image that we learned about in class: the film looks at the violent "nature of the ideas, images and values some boys and men associate with being a man. And ultimately, relates violence with masculinity.

 

Concept #4

          Product placement is an effective way of advertising. American Idol on FOX is popular for advertising one of its sponcers, Coca- Cola, whose proudct placements are limited to the infamous Coca- Cola cups sitting on the table in front of the judges. The show, American Idol, is targetted towards a broad range of ages: typically families. Product placement is an effective way of advertising because as an audience, we are exposed to what we are veiwing: show that we are watching and the commercials throughout. Many viewers are much more drawn to the show than the commercials, and a significant number of veiwers don't even pay much attention to any commercials being displayed. When companies use product placement as their form of advertisement, the veiwer is constantly being exposed to what the company is trying to sell.

"10 Minutes" Short Film

As an audience, we build our picture of reality upon what media presents to us. We negotiate meaning according to person needs and anxieties, pleasures and troubles, racial and sexual attitudes, family and culture backgrounds, and so fourth.

There was a significant meaning negotiated in the film, “10 Minutes.” I think that the message being presented is being focused towards people living in developing countries. Because we live in a society where our resources are so easily accessible, it can be simple to take advantage of what we have. In the same time that a tourist gets his pictures developed, a young child lost both of his parents in war. It shows that although 10 minutes does not mean a lot to us in our society, in another, it can mean a lifetime.    

Media is a Construction

          In comparison to the actual Subway sandwich, the advertised sandwich is much more organized, all of the condiments are visible, there is a difference in height, and the colour is contrasted and brightened. I am not surprised with the differences I see. In order to sell a product, the product must be attractive to the eye of the customer. Companies must come up with strategies, and to that make their product look appetizing is going benefit the company in selling their product. However, some costumers could have higher expectations going into the store than what they receive, from the images presented in Subway's advertisements.

          There is an obvious difference in hair in makeup demonstrated between the unedited photo of Lindsay Lohan and the edited photo. On top of the makeover, I can almost guarantee that photo shop was used to make alternative touch ups. The product being sold (Jill Stuart, which is a clothing store) is actually not being sold in the advertisement at all, considering that there is no clothing present in the ad. All that this ad is presenting to us is a manicured, photo- shopped Lindsay Lohan. Images such as these have similar emotional reactions from their viewers: most feel insecure about their own appearance because they don't look like the person they see in the image. When in reality, without the help of makeup and photo- shop, neither do the people we see in the media.

Media Literacy

Media Literacy is the ability to sift through and analyse the messages that inform, entertain, and sell to us every day. It involves bringing critical thinking skills to bear on all media from music videos to Web environments to product placement in films and music videos and virtual displays (sports boards). Through media literacy, we can learn to It is ask questions about what is there, and notice what's not there, rather than only noticing what is being presented to us. Because we are exposed to so much media in our daily lives, it is beneficial for us to be able to analyse what we are veiwing.