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 Factsheet

Click on the image or the link below to find the factsheet for The Lego Movie: Industry. You need to read it through ahead of our next lesson.

https://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/429646-the-lego-movie-industry-factsheet.pdf

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.