Lecture Week 6 - Production & Consumption

This weeks lecture was on the production & consumption of the big & small screen.

Consumption

Traditionally, and for the most part nowadays as well, we are consume professionally created media including television shows, movies, music videos, documentaries etc. We do this through a variety of different media including:

Big Screen -

• Cinema (this is a shared experience)
• TV (shared within a private setting)
• Computer (traditionally private but now becoming increasingly shared)

Small Screen -

• Personal media players (iPods)
• Smart phones (iPhone)

Through the creation of these portable media devices, consumption is becoming increasingly personal as we move away from the shared experience of the cinema to the private experience of our laptop, iPod or iPhone.

Because of the small screen size & often slow download times the most frequently viewed information on these smaller media devices is news. However at this stage, there is a lack of quality entertainment media available for these smaller platforms.


Production

Since the invention and wide use of the internet, the production of media has now become possible for all of us. We can now all shoot footage on our mobile phones and them upload it onto a global platform like Youtube. Some examples of 'consumers' now producing media include;

Fan Films - Short films produced by fans of a particular film that parody, make fun of, take off, or rip off the film itself. For example see the below fan film "Troops" which is based on Star Wars but turns it into a cop show.



Re-Genres - this is where fans of a particular film take clips from the film, add in music and a voice over and create a trailer so that it appears that the movie is in an entirely different genre. For example making The Shining look like a romantic comedy.



ireport.com - This is a website that allows people to upload their own news story. This is an interesting way for people to actively participate in the news, however the stories do not need to be checked before they make it online, so this can end up with alot of fake stories being posted online. For example, check out the story below.



Mobile Film Festivals - since just about everyone now has access to video recording via their mobile phone, just about anyone can now make a movie! As a result of this new medium, there have been a number of mobile film festivals. However there are a few problems with making films on mobile phones. For one, the sound quality is usually horrendous once you get a few feet away from the sound. Picture quality is also bad, and then there is the 'wobbles' you get with it being a hand held device. You can see one of the better mobile phone short films below. Its successful because it keeps these limitations of shooting on a mobile phone in mind.