Section B Promoting Media: The Lego Movie Video Game

Task: In today's lesson, read through the exam advice below. Look at how to gain the marks and read the exemplar student answers.

Self assess your Q2 and Q3, answers making sure you add www and EBI target. In green pen, make changes to these two answers or re-draft your answers before handing in your books. 

1. Identify the organisation that 'age rates' video games in the UK. (1 mark)

Games Rating Authority or The Video Standards Council

2. Explain two reasons why a film company would release a video game linked to a film. (4 marks)

Two marks for each explanation of why a film company would release a video game linked to a film. You should have focused on three main reasons:

• marketing
• profit
• diversification

Mark scheme:

4 marks  Two clearly explained reasons why a film company would release a video game linked to a film.  3 marks  One clearly explained and one stated reason why a film company would release a video game linked to a film.  2 marks  One clearly explained reason or two stated reasons why a film company would release a video game linked to a film.  1 mark  One stated reason why a film company would release a video game linked to a film.

Q2 Student exemplar:

A conglomerate film company will focus on profits and could use the cross-media platform of gaming and film to strengthen the brand image of the film and its franchise. If audiences develop greater brand awareness of the film and any sequences it follows that box office profits will be larger. Also, this kind of diversification means a media conglomerate is less dependent on one media form for its revenue and therefore more protected from fluctuations in one part of the media market.

This is a good answer because the student has clearly explained two reasons why a film company would release a video game linked to a film. It would gain 4 marks.

3. Explain at least two uses and gratifications of video games using Blumler and Katz's theory. Refer to the Lego Movie Video Game to support your answer. (10 marks)

You need to show an understanding of media audiences in this answer. You should comment on:

• the social, cultural and political significance of media products, including the themes or issues they address, the fulfilment of needs and desires, and the functions they serve in everyday life and society
• the ways in which people's media practices are connected to their identity, including the sense of actual and desired self
• Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications

Mark Scheme Level 3 (7–10 marks)  Excellent knowledge and understanding of the uses and gratifications offered by video games with reference to The Lego Movie Game.  A clear demonstration of knowledge of uses and gratifications theory  A clear demonstration of understanding of the uses and gratifications offered by video games  Excellent use of the set product to support the answer.  Excellent responses in the top mark band will typically explain two or more uses and gratifications of video games, showing clear, detailed understanding of the theory in its relevant application, and choosing relevant examples of how The Lego Movie Game offers these uses and gratifications.

Q3 Student exemplar:

Audiences who have seen the Lego Movie would enjoy identifying with the well-known established characters in a first-person video game. This identification is a key gratification, as outlined by Blumler and Katz's theory, for audiences who may identify with values, such as the comedic tone from the film, the excitement in games that take the audience into forbidden worlds, or the simple value of good defeating evil in The Lego Movie Game.

Gamers may enjoy games which offer suspense, mystery or problem-solving, action or spectacle that the game provides. They may also enjoy the self-enclosed fictional world offering escape from everyday life in which they develop a sense of expertise positioning them as powerful and successful, with rewards as they rise through the levels in the game.

Finally, players may play with a world-wide player community and an immersive and difficult game offers social interaction or the exact opposite where games isolate themselves in a self-enclosed world of established characters as in the Lego Movie Game.

This is a good answer because the student has explained two or more uses and gratifications showing detailed understanding of the theory.

Task 2: Next, copy this image of the Lego Movie film poster onto a Word document. Label it with all of the genre conventions of Action Adventure film and explain their appeal to the film's target audience.

EXT Task: Do the same for the Lego Movie Video Game cover. Label it with all the genre conventions of a video game and explain its appeal to the target audience.