LO4 - task 5 Legal and Ethical + Regulatory Bodies

Impact on the Audience
The Hypodermic syringe theory is Theodore Adorno's idea that Media has a negative impact on the masses and that people believe everything that they hear/see in the media.
An Active audience  is an audience that digests what they're given and are able to filter and adapt to what is put on screen forming their own opinions about it and will not just take what they see as gospel
The opposite to an active audience. Media is able to completely influence an audience and can control them in any way it wants.
Dead man's shoes features a story line filled with the idea that revenge will bring justice, this idea could inspire the idea that violence solves problems to the audience. This would be promoting violence which would be a negative thing for the audience to have paraded in front of them.
There is also a scene nearer the end of the film in which one of the characters refers to character with disabilities in an offensive way, this could encourage audiences to view people with mental disabilities in a negative way and not treat them in an appropriate manner.
In Dead man's shoes one of the strongest themes of the film is the bond between family and brotherhood. this would help remind the audience of the importance of their family and remember to appreciate them a lot more.

Representation
Representation is the how a certain character trope or feature of personality, gender, sexuality (ect.) is presented to the audience.
Tessa Perkins theory of stereotypes states that not all stereotypes are negative and whilst most of them are they can sometimes be based around fact and not just completely made up
One positive stereotype in my film is the way in which the drug dealers are Portrayed as having lives that come off as almost pathetic, we see from the very beginning how they aren't role models either and shouldn't be sympathised with fully. A negative stereotype is how the character with disabilities is constantly being bullied and used for other character's amusement. This representation could have a negative affect on a passive audience as it could be seen as offensive or discriminatory to people with special needs.


Legal and Ethical
Copyright infringement is when a piece of content (e.g. music) is used as part of a product with the owners permission.
In my film there is a licensed soundtrack throughout the film, this would have cost the filmmakers a lot of money as there are 24 different songs used, this would have taken up the majority of the film's budget, as the rest of the film could be made quite cheaply. Another thing warp will have had to pay to use are the locations, even though some of them are in public there are certain locations in the film that were part of private property so will have required permissions to film on.
The BBFC rated my film an 18 age rating (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/dead-mans-shoes-2004) this is because in my film there is frequent use of violence, drugs and offensive language throughout. There is also use of sexual references but not as much as the other material that could be seen as offensive. The violence in the film comes from the several murders that happen throughout and because of the sensationalism of the film it makes them even more shocking and inappropriate for younger audiences; because of how Richard uses violence to get his revenge he could be seen as more of a vigilante character by audiences: encouraging them to break the law.  We also see drugs used to evoke humour and lighten the mood at various points throughout the film, this could be seen as glorifying their use and encouraging more passive audiences to start taking them.


BBFC & ASA

The BBFC are the British board of film classification. It's their job to watch the films before they're released and figure out an age what age rating is most appropriate for the film, along with all of the reasons why they have to this conclusion.
My film was rated an 18 by the BBFC. The reasons that were listened as the BBFC's insight for this are strong language, strong violence and hard drug use.
Dead man's shoes maintained its age rating of an 18 from as soon as it was first released in 2004. This might be because films with more mature age ratings often don't change them that much and if they do it it usually to increase it, since Dead Man's Shoes is already rated an 18 its age rating can't be increased.
In the USA the age rating for dead man's shoes is very familiar, it was deemed a NC-17rating by the Motion Picture Association of America. This means that people who are under 17 shouldn't be allowed to watch this film, even with a guardian to accompany them.
Dead man's shoes was given an 18 age rating, this means that it doesn't have to any guidelines and rules that it needs to adhere to. There're no themes that are prohibited at this rating, and adults as free to choose their own entertainment as long as it is legal and doesn't pose any potential harm, this means that are still some themes that the audience will find offensive, but aren't prohibited to watch.

LO3 - Task 4 Distribution and Advertising

Distribution


Distribution is when a product is given to a certain group of people in this case the audience. Distribution also includes the marketing campaign for whatever the product is. 

Seeing as how modern technology allows audiences to view products, it is now easier to access on different platforms, so audiences are able to view the product in more than one place as opposed to just being able to experience it in the cinema or on home DVDs. This is technological convergence. More simply put there are two different types of media analogue and digital (old and new) technological convergence is when they come together to maximum availability for audiences. Dead man's shoes is owned by film 4 and warp so they can show the film on their channel whenever they want to without having to pay for its use. It is (or was at least) also available on Netflix so anyone who pays the monthly subscription fee would be able to view the film for free as much as they want.

Dead Man's shoes is available to viewers on many different services: Cinemas, DVDs, Streaming services, network premiers (viewed on TV) and  Blu-ray. All of these are available to most people, especially the target audience that the film is aiming at, which means that it should be easy for audiences to watch the film when they want. Also, due to smart phones and tablets being able to stream things on the move, people can watch the film whilst they're traveling or whenever it’s convenient.

Dead man's shoes is an example of converged technology. It was made on lower budget, which meant that the production couldn't be completed using only analogue or only digital because it would be too expensive. This meant that the crew would need to find out which parts of each different types of technology would need to be used to create the best film possible with the limited budget that they had. For example most the advertising would be done using new technology (e.g. internet adverts) as it can be done for cheaper and reach a wider audience more easily, but there was also uses of analogue technology when they advertised the film in cinemas using a trailer. There were also some posters put up, which is an example of analogue technology, but not a large amount which would mean that it wouldn't be as seen by people in streets who weren't looking for a film to watch.

On IMDB there are 204 different reviews for dead man's shoes by users and critics alike, one user gives the film a 9/10 and talks about the appeal in it's dark and violent narrative coupled with Consadine's performance.

Dead man's shoes was produced on a budget of £723,000 but the revenue for the film was only $198,000. This shows me that the marketing didn't work that well and that the film probably wasn't distributed as much as the filmmakers would have liked. This may have been due to the marketing techniques used wouldn't have been as easy to access by the film's main target audience, decreasing awareness among those who would be most likely to go out and watch the film. The filmmakers would have likely noticed this effect with the small revenue for cinemas so may have invested more money into advertising campaign for the DVDs.
  
Advertising

The film was advertised using Posters, trailers, since the film was co-created by film4 they would have been able to advertise it on their channel and all other channels owned by the same company as film4, reviews (EMPIRE) and social media.

Most of the advertising done for dead man's shoes was NEW advertising, this is because of how it would be easier and cheaper for them to do, so more could be accomplished with their budget.


Dead Man's Shoes was made on a budget of £723,000 but had a box office of only $198,081, this shows how advertising didn't work that well as the film made a very low amount of money not even achieving half the budget. However, Dead man's shoes wasn't intended for a mass audience and was marketed towards a smaller niche audience., so this can partly account for the film making so little money.

Because Film 4 were a part of the making of the film, they could advertise it across all channel 4's channels for free. Because Warp films is an independent company they don't have many ways in which they can advertise the film however since they're funded by the BFI, that company could also provide an advertising budget and help to promote the film.