Lego Movie Audiences

The Lego Movie: Audience

Learning Objective: To understand how the media operates as a commercial industry on a global scale and reach both large and specialised audiences.

The Lego Movie was an extremely successful production for Warner Brothers and Lin Films. The film was produced for $60,000,000 which it made back in its first weekend of release in the USA alone! Not bad for three days... Overall, it made a gross of over $311,000,000 according to BoxOfficeMojo. You will be expected to know the reasons for this success in the exam and therefore you should answer the following questions in as much detail as you can.

TASK 1: Copy down the key terms and their definitions into your book.
Keywords:
Intertextuality: the relationship between texts.

Genre: a style or category of art, music, or literature.

Convergence: The interlinking of computing and other information technologies, media content, media companies and communication networks.

Conglomerate: a thing consisting of a number of different and distinct parts or items that are grouped together.

Vertical Integration: the combination in one firm of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate firms.

TASK 2: Answer the following questions in your books.
1. Which organisation in the UK provides film with 'age-ratings'? (1 mark)

2. Explain why you think the age rating of The Lego Movie was important in terms of its success? (2 marks)

3. Explain the significance of creating a film around a product (Lego). How does this help it to gain an audience? (2 marks)

4. Watch this advert break. It was extremely successful in generating interest in the film. Six million people saw it live on ITV and a further one million saw it online. What word is used when one media text refers to another and how does this help a film to be successful? (1 mark)

5. Analyse how genre codes (action/adventure) have been used in The Lego Movie poster campaign below to appeal to a family audience. Refer to specific textual details. (5 marks)


*If the posters below are offline; find and select FIVE different promotional posters, print them out (small) and stick them in your book and then analyse the posters.

The Lego Movie Video Game: Using Convergence and Vertical Integration to Promote Media Products

Convergence is where media products appear across different platforms and countries. For example the Lego Movie film is part computer generated imagery (CGI) and part real bricks. Lego brand designers were heavily involved in the construction of the film's content. The ideas were then used by the Australian animators who made the film.

Task 1: You need to read this article where the writers/directors talk about how they made the Lego Movie to be about the value of creativity, not selling a product, and about the toy company’s involvement in the filmmaking process. Click here to find the article and then write a summary of what the article tells you about the making of The Lego Movie product.

This convergence went further with several tied in merchandise releases. This included 17 different Lego sets based on different worlds in the movie (City, Wildest, Space and one names Wildstyle Chase. There were also 16 collectable mini figures that included The Lego Movie Game from TT Games and a range of stationery, stickers and activity books by a range of global partners.

The Lego Movie twitter site and website was launched to promote the film. There was also a Lego YouTube channel offering sneak peaks of the film ahead of the first trailers.  

WB Games is the trade name for Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment. WB Games developed a video game to release alongside the film. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainments have developed games on Apple iOS and the Lego Dimensions game. WB Games is a publisher, developer and distributor of entertainment content for the interactive space across all platforms including console, handheld, mobile and PC-based gaming for both internal and third party game titles. 

Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment is part of the larger Warner Brothers conglomerate which produces the Lego Movie and distributes it to audiences. It also uses its own subsidiary companies to release the DVDs and BluRay discs. This is known as Vertical Integration and allows a business to maximise the potential of a brand, in this case Lego. It gives the existing audience new experiences and further pleasures outside of the film while reaching new non-cinema going video game players. Today there is a successful global sub-culture of Lego thanks to vertical integration of films, games, magazines and competitions. The Lego brand can reach out to a larger market through its range of products.

Digitally convergent media is when digital/online media content, networks and technologies are interconnected. Video games consoles are an excellent example of a digitally convergent device; as well as play games you can also access social media, surf the internet, stream films and Tv content and upload content into cloud-based servers.

The video game offers 15 levels and 90 playable characters, many of which can be purchased as Minifigures, so the Lego brand benefits from this as both the game and the film also act as an advertisement for their consumer products. The Lego Movie Video Game saw everything made out of bricks. This allowed a cross-over for the plastic construction bricks within a gaming world for audiences - although it was not a game where you could use the bricks for construction like Minecraft (which Lego Worlds arguably mimics).

Cross-media products (Minifigures) were also available and this cross-media content help to maximise profits and also improve reach to new customers. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainments have developed games on Apple iOS and Lego Dimensions.

The Lego Movie: Uses and Gratifications Theory

Why do audiences consume any media product? Most media theorists agree it is because they need to fulfil certain needs and have tried to explain these needs. One famous theory is the Uses and Gratifications theory which lists why people are driven to buy media products.

Task: Make notes in your book about the uses and gratification theory:

Theory:  Blumler and Katz’ Uses & Gratifications theory:

• Diversion – Where the audience can ESCAPE from their reality and immerse themselves in the text.
• Inform & Educate – Where the audience LEARN something from consuming the text
• Personal Relationship – Where the audience builds a close bond with a character or group of characters
• Personal Identification – Where the audience can relate to a character or their situation

Here are some descriptions that might help you to use this theory:

Task: Explain at least two uses and gratifications of film using Blumler and Katz's theory. Refer to The Lego Movie Video Game to support your answer. 

1960s Television: The Avengers Context

Television has evolved since the 1960s. Find out what technological and social changes have affected how the media platform has been forced to adapt to keep viewers entertained.
Answer the following questions:

1. How many channels were there in 1960?
2. What was very different about the daily television schedule in 1960? What kind of programming was broadcast at night?
3. What technological issues would you say influenced the quality of television during this era?
4. How did you change channel and how do you think this influenced audience choices over channel loyalty?
5. What did colour television first begin?
6. ITV started in 1955, designed to be competition for the BBC's monopoly over television broadcasting. But what else did the launch of ITV introduce to audiences for the first time?
7. Find out how the BBC and ITV funded?

Ownership, funding and regulation

Television in 1960s Britain was provided by a duopoly of ITV and the BBC. Neither was part of an international media conglomerate. The BBC is a public corporation governed by Royal Charter and funded by licence-fee payers. ITV was a network of regional television companies who competed with each other to provide content for their transmission area.

Look at this London region schedule of programmes from July 1965 and consider the differences to the kind of television programming you are used to watching today.

Task: Print out a copy of the schedule and answer the questions and as part of your homework look on YouTube for clips from these shows.

1. What kind of sport fills the afternoon schedule?
2. What is Crossroads and how is it similar to Coronation Street?
3. Look at the children television programmes and consider what time they are being broadcast and why that might be significant? What kind of programmes are on offer?
4. How much news is broadcast and why are the time slots significant?
5. Look at the evening entertainment shows. Which ones do you recognise and which ones have you never heard of?
6. Find out what the name of the ITV company was for our region in the East Midlands.