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. 

The Lego Movie Game

 

 

Task 2: Look at the WB Games website above and watch the trailer for the Video Game. Consider the audience appeal of the Lego Movie game by answering the questions below:

1. How is this an example of a cross-media product?

2. Who is the target audience for this game?

3. Can you select some of the persuasive language and techniques in the website text?

4. Can you select some of the persuasive language and techniques in the trailer text?

Task:

1. Identify the organisation that 'age rates' video games in the UK. (1mark)
2. Why would a film company release a video game linked to a film? (4marks)
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. (10marks)

 

 

 

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.