Media Industries – Annotated Bibliography

Aziz, N.A., Yasin, N.M., PhD. & Kadir,Sharifah Latifah Syed A., PhD. 2008, “Web Advertising Beliefs and Attitude: Internet Users’ View”, The Business Review, Cambridge, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 332-338.

 

This article explores the convergence of the advertising industry into the new digital age, focusing on its shift to web advertising with an analysis of it’s potential advantages and possible drawbacks. It also looks at public reactions to certain web advertising methods such as banner ads, pop up ads, video ads. Though the article mentions that web advertising is sure to bring attention to their corresponding brands in terms of coverage, it also implies that the general public find web advertising (such as web banners, pop-ups, and video) to be dull and more of an annoyance. Furthermore, the article suggests that web advertisements may grow to be less of a nuisance as they are exposed to more entertaining ads.

 

The article makes the assumption that the general public find web advertisements annoying, making it questionable whether it may have been written from a biased perspective, though it later confirms its validity through a very well-considered study of the public through surveys questioning their views on web advertising. The underlying issue with this article is that the survey took place in Malaysia.

 

Though this article may not engage my topic directly as it is based in Malaysia, it may prove to be useful in a comparison to the Australian advertising industry.

 

 

RAATIKAINEN, O. 2012, ‘Dynamic In-game Advertising in 3D Digital Games’, NORDICOM Review, 33, 2, pp. 93-102

 

This article explores the rapid growth in the advertising industry’s investment in in-game advertising as a result of the shift in demographics of the age groups playing video games from 15 year old boys to a wider range of adult players. The article also rediscovers the factors affecting the effectivity of advertising in 3D Digital games, using the old model for measuring and analysing dynamic in-game advertising, and applying a more suited theoretical model relative to the current digital age. A range of hypotheses are presented regarding the factors affecting in-game advertising (e.g. interactivity, realism, fluidity, audio, and frequency in appearance).

 

This article proves to be a very reliable source as it is very readable, and the author explains very precisely the methodologies incorporated in in-game advertising and it’s direct effect to experience in in-game advertising. Statistics and findings are displayed through simple and straight-forward diagrams as well as a detailed explanation of the findings. The article was also created in 2012 meaning that the statements made within have a close relation with the games of our time.

 

As the article focuses on more than one hypothesis, a few propositions are given stating that in order to achieve an optimal standard of dynamic in-game advertising the ads themselves have to be subtle, repeated, interactive, realistic, and be a low-involvement product. Though this seems to be true, the report seems to favour examples such as EA (Fifa) which is a good example in relation to the subject, but may have missed games such as GT; where all cars not only look exactly like they do in real life, but also attain the same performance statistics. This article not only provides useful information related to my topic, but also allows space to branch from the mentioned games. Another subject matter that can be drawn from this is the potential for advertising agencies created from new games (skyrim merchandise).

 

 

Mathieson, R. 2010, The On-Demand Brand : 10 Rules For Digital Marketing Success In An Anytime, Everywhere World, pp. 135-150  

 

This article looks at the way in which advertising has adapted to the digital age with regards to the introduction of the internet and its cross-platform capabilities. The article suggests that the interactive element in the new forms of advertising on digital spaces (as opposed to the more traditional approach of having a one way message directed to a specific target audience) is a key factor in keeping the viewer/consumer interested in finding out more about the product it is promoting.

 

The report is very comprehensible as it explains step by step the different examples of the applications of digital media and it’s potential in advertising. The article pulls on information from existing and well-known products such as Sprite and gaming consoles like Xbox. The popular TV series Lost is referred to as it explains how a multitude of platforms were used as part of a massive “egg-hunt” for clues leading to secret episodes.

 

The in-depth explanations of the different strategies used to promote the various brands and media is vital in finding out how advertising has made a shift into the digital age. The article is useful to my research as Mathieson explains the methodologies behind the industry as it found new ways of not only reaching their audience, but getting them interested and involved with the product.

 

 

Voloaca, I.D., Bratu, S., Georgescu, M., Ghencea, F.L. & Voicu, A. 2011, “The Importance of Creativity in Advertising, Digital Technology, and Social Networking”, Economics, Management and Financial Markets, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 449-458.

 

This article explores the importance of the persuasive impact of visual style in the advertising industry with regards to social identity and commonalities amongst groups of online community members. It also investigates constructivist claims focusing on the way we, as humans think about, represent, and model the world. A statement is made highlighting the importance of visual elements in a many advertisements and how it affects the way we perceive them.

 

The article is very detailed and it is hard to grasp the different ideas that the authors are proposing. There is a section that talks about subliminal manipulation in advertising and how it has become more commonly known to us as techniques of persuasion, advertising, and such.

 

Though much of the content seems irrelevant to my area of study, finding out that messages or ads that maximizes self-generated responses will have more long-term effectiveness upon its audiences.

 

 

Pergelova, A., Prior, D. & Rialp, J. 2010, “ASSESSING ADVERTISING EFFICIENCY: Does the Internet Play a Role?”, Journal of Advertising, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 39-54.

 

The article explores the question whether the internet can help increase the overall efficiency of the advertising industry. It also compares some of the advantages of advertising on the online space, as opposed to more traditional forms of advertising in relation to the original cost being incurred, as well as the overall response and ability to adapt to the consumers’ preferences through interactive advertisements. The article also explains how the advertising industry has made its shift from getting maximum exposure to many unknown audience groups, to receiving maximum responses from carefully targeted groups.

 

The article is highly readable and even provides a short history of Internet Advertising. The following two claims are made (out of three) that relate to the topic; Investing in internet advertising increases overall advertising efficiency, and that companies that employ an advertising mix in which conventional media are complemented by Internet advertising will have greater advertising efficiency. Though this article proves to be useful in my subject are, the case study is in Spain, hence that part cannot be used.

 

Knowing that there are so many different advantages to online advertising, it gives a clearer idea of how different methods of advertising are being used online, as well as the ways in which the advertisements keeps the consumers captivated. This can be useful for measuring the affectivity of internet advertising.

 

 

Klaassen, A. 2010, “Consider this a Guide to the Post-Digital World”, Advertising Age, vol. 81, no. 8, pp. 4-4.

 

This article not so much explores as to question the way in which society has shifted from using analogue to digital over the years. It also mentions some of the ways in which site such as twitter and Google have come to be one of the top digital companies leading the way to success. The article also questions the rate in which we are moving into the digital as Klaassen asks “Can analogue companies become digital faster than digital companies can become analogue?”.

 

This article is somewhat readable as the writer has the tendency to replace the letters “th” with “di”, but the theory behind their question is very much related to the subject of interest. Though the article may seem to be missing a in depth analysis of the actual topic in question, it helps in promoting the idea of the rate of progression in the digital age and we seem to integrate it into our everyday lives.

 

Though the article doesn’t delve deep into the functions of advertising in the digital age, it promotes the idea of the kind of changes the digital age has imposed upon not only the advertising industry but also us as the consumers, and this can be handy in my area of interest as it opens us a new perspective of the changes experienced in the digital age.

 

 

Hollis, N. 2005, ‘Ten Years of Learning on How Online Advertising Builds Brands’, Journal Of Advertising Research, 45, 2, pp. 255-268

 

This article investigates the role of online advertising in the form of banner ads from its introduction on “Hotwired” in 1994, along with the way the industry has coped with the changes and challenges faced whilst trying to promote a brand. The article also questions the intention of the internet as a communication medium or a shopping environment, looking into the human qualities and its effects on the effectives of online advertising.

 

The article is very readable and provides a systematic explanation of the ways in which the industry has evolved/coped with the digital and social changes since the early 90’s. Clear sets of diagrams and statistics are used to help in verifying the claims made by Hollis. The validity of some of the claims made though, could differ as the article was released in 2005 and as it also draws on information from the kind of society that existed at the time. Also some of the model countries used as examples in the article are overseas and may not hold the same value in terms of information here in Australia.

 

Knowing that internet advertising can be judged through its “click through rate” and the fact that the overall mood/experience(s) of the audience can effect the affectivity of advertising, is important and relates to my subject of interest closely. As society keeps changing a good area to focus on may be the way advertising agencies cope with the different attitudes given towards online/digital advertising.

 

 

Burton, S. & Soboleva, A. 2011, “Interactive or reactive? Marketing with Twitter”, The Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 28, no. 7, pp. 491-499.

 

This article focuses mainly on the social networking platform “Twitter” and the ways in which it has coped across the world in the recent digital age, and how different organisations make use of its online advantages. The article also explores some of the negative traits of twitter focusing on it’s late introduction and the fact that companies were not quite ready to keep a well updated twitter account.

 

Although it is questionable whether the article covers some themes that are irrelevant to my topic, it also seems to be one of the first of its kind to attempt understanding the demographics behind how twitter is used, and who it’s used by. It draws on example from a few areas including America and Australia.

 

Through their research, Burton and Soboleva find different ways in which firms and individuals make use of twitter to promote their products, but also conclude that their evaluation may be too generalized (as they only tested their theory through the creation and use of 12 twitter accounts as opposed to the actual number of people using twitter). This can be used in my essay to demonstrated the role of social networking sites such as twitter in the current digital age.

 

 

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The trail up an ANTHILL

Like any other uni student, a lot of my time is spent procrastinating. I spend most of this time looking for new video productions focused on my main interests; MountainBiking, Motocross, Wakeboarding etc., but my biggest passion as I’ve mentioned countless times, to countless people, is  MTB. I’ve been a loyal spectator of a few disciplines and a rider myself. As a 2nd year Media student in RMIT, this is the plan I’ve recently come up with for the next few years.

  1. Finish Degree
  2. Get a job and save for a couple of years
  3. Move to Whistler, BC
  4. Start job/filming associated with MTB

That would be ideal.

The reason for my sudden decision is that quite recently, the last segment to the MTB film “Strength In Numbers” was released. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time and for those for you who are fans of either MTB or just EPIC AESTHETICS in general, the whole movie is available to watch on their blog online, the catch is that it’s released in segments. How raw can it get?

Here’s the link to their blog: http://anthillfilms.com/blog/

Go to their older posts to see the “Strength In Numbers” segments!

Here’s one of my favourite segments by them; The Aptos Segment

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If I Could Time Travel…

So, there are many things that I would do if I could time travel… Obviously. But here are some things I would do related to our film if I could time travel:

  • Use more cameras and angles whilst interviewing the Psychologist
  • Prepared a aesthetically pleasing location for the Psychology interview (though arguably, it’s an appropriate setting)
  • (Though this may take a while) When performing a sound check, quickly import a sample into a laptop to calibrate appropriately
  • Keep better track of group member’s whereabouts
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Eternal.Darkness.In.Turmoil

So as every Media student knows, after all the long hours of shoots are done and out of the way, comes the intense hours of subtle arguing in the Editing Suites.

Just incase you haven’t caught onto it yet, the title of this blog post itself sort of describes my view of the editing process to any film. See the thing is that the process of editing a film is certainly not eternal in the literal sense, but in the sense that a film can never reach perfection, meaning that the rest of the filmmakers’ s schedule, between the start of the editing process up till the due date, should be spent further improving the film from any state it is in, with proper consideration of the time it would take to export it.

Another common occurrence within media film groups are obstacles that result from issues in attendance, and differences in individual opinions. This also happened in our group. There were a few occasions in which group members didn’t show up to meetings without notifying any other group member. There were also moments where the group had split opinions with regards to what to do with a clip, but this was later resolved.

Amongst our long hours spent in the suites, were times where we would come across technical problems with the computer itself. Some of the computers experience minor problems and it could occur on any computer at any given day. There was a problem we encountered early in the editing process where we would try to save the project but it would say that the server was full. Though I can’t really remember specifically what causes the problem, but we solved it by saving in a Storage folder and restarting the application.

After feeling like we’ve gone to hell and back trying to constantly improve our documentary, we finally saved the finalised project and all there was left to do was to export it in two formats; .mp4 & .mov. As two group members that showed up that day had to leave I was fine with staying back and exporting as I thought it would be quick. The .mp4 file exported fine and playback was good. When it came to the .mov file the export took 10 minutes but finished fine but, when I tried playing it back on FCP it skipped like a mad rabbit, and there was 3 minute interval where the video just froze with sound playing fine. Frustrated as I was, the tech came to my help and long story short we ended up having to click the option saying something like “recompress all” which meant that it would compress every individual frame, therefore taking an extra hour.

After all that waiting. WE HAVE COME TO AN END!!! SUBMITTED!!!!!!!!

I am in holiday mode.

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Footage – Video

As discussed before, the group started off shooting with the Z7 but, the group seemed keen on shooting on DSLR’s instead. Again, though this may have had some advantages in certain processes of making our documentary it also came with its disadvantages.

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  • By deciding to use our own equipment, we were also albe to use certain extensions to take better advantage of the camera (extra flexible tripod, fisheye lens, etc.)
  • Using personal equipment allowed me to work with full knowledge of my camera’s capabilities and functions
  • By using a DSLR on a certain setting, an extra DSLR with the same setting can be used as a secondary camera
  • Much lighter, faster, and easier to setup
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  • Harder to perform a smooth zoom without the ai servo
  • Harder to perform a subtle change in focus without moving the camera
  • Less Video options available (though the important ones are)
Whilst looking through all of the footage in the editing process we discovered that there were a couple of problems with some of the clips. Though framed nicely, one of our cutaway clips, i’m suspecting was shot with the wrong video settings. Luckily this was only a cutaway and could re-filmed easily. Another problem we came across was that the secondary camera footage, during the experiment was not only unacceptably shaky, but also very out of focus. We mainly worked around this problem by avoiding the footage from that camera and including only brief snippets of it.
Apart from that, the only semi-problem we faced was when we noticed the large contrast in setting was between the Psychologist and Comedian segment. As re-recording one of those segments to better fit the other was not an option so we used both, being careful of how the interview back each other up.
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Footage – Audio

Initially our group started off by using the Z7 cameras equipped with a shotgun mic to record video and sound in the Psychologist shoot. The group then seemed to be more keen on shooting on my Canon 7D DSLR instead, though this meant that sound would have to be recorded separately, therefore being a bit more of a hassle in the editing process. Regardless of this we went on with the idea of shooting with this method and as we found out when it came to editing the footage, there were some advantages and disadvantages to shooting in that way.

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  • The 7D recorded wide and atmospheric sounds therefore it’s audio track was very useful when playing recordings from the comedy gigs (crowd atmosphere stands out more)
  • The ability to choose between, or combine the separate audio tracks
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  • Recording audio separately disables the crew from being able to monitor sound levels on screen
  • Sound levels going into the device from the mic, and going into the headphones from the device can be adjusted, meaning that the there’s a chance that what the operator is hearing, and what the device is recording is not the same
In our editing sessions we discovered that some of the above problems were encountered. The audio was a bit too low, but without a chance of being able to redo the relevant shoots, we worked around this problem by amping up the volume in a separate editing software before using it in FinalCut Pro, though this meant that the quality of the overall recording would be lessened, and graininess increased.
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Shoot V/VI – The Experiment Segment / Rythmic Profanity

In one of our group meetings Denise came up with the idea of having an experiment in our documentary. The point of using this experiment segment would be to back up a possible theory that could be constructed with the footage we’ve gained from our previous shoots. I idea started off pretty brief; The voluntary subject would be exposed to a brief moment of pain twice, the first time would be used as a control where the subject is not allowed to swear, and in the next attempt they are allowed to swear when felt necessary. After each experiment the subject would tell us if they experienced a difference between the two experiments.

After much consideration about the safety of the subject, the group decided that we would use a bucket of ice, in which the subject would submerge their arm for as long as possible in each attempt. In addition we would also take make a record of the time to see if there was a significant change between the attempts.

Everything looked good to go, but as we neared our shoot date we found out that our subject had backed out on us and that left us with no one to take part. After asking some friends and getting no positive response, we worked around the problem by using our own crew in the film. This also gave us the idea of having two people perform in the experiment as well (Rebecca and myself), as there were no female subjects in the film at that time, and we thought it would give our experiment more validity.

Upon arrival at Rebecca’s garage, we started setting up the equipment with safety in mind. One problem we encountered here was the lack of power-sources in the garage, which meant that we would have to resort to using extension cables, which also meant that we would have to be careful whilst moving around the set.

With everything in place, we commenced our experiment shoot and took a break in between each attempt. Though it was a silent location on a weekday, there were disturbances in sound (lawn mowers and airplanes) but we managed to work around it.

Whilst exploring the area on our breaks we decided that we would take advantage of the location of the set by shooting our Rhythmic Profanity segment in the backyard where the sun was shining with no clouds to make sudden changes in exposure. Though this shoot was not planned until then in terms of location, we were at an advantage as we already had all the equipment we needed. This meant that all of our main segments would be done! And all that would be left was the cutaways and editing.

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Shoot IV – STAAHP! /\/\0+!0/\/

So as our documentary is very ‘word orientated’, someone (methinks Denise) came up with the great idea of working on a scrabble board based intro for the title segment of our film. With this in mind I threw out the idea of having a stop motion kind of thing going at the start where the letters could be jumbled together and they could eventually come together to form a our doco title “Un-Profane Profanity”.

As I had experimented with stop motion before, I knew how tedious this small segment could be, for there a are a bunch of rules your have to follow to create a good stop motion piece. Here are the fundamentals.

  1. You have to have a manually controllable Camera* (with lots of memory space depending on how long your piece may be)
  2. You have to have a brief idea of how you want the piece to move at least (if not in great detail)
  3. You have to be well aware of the fact that the frame rate at which the human mind perceives a series of images as a continuous video is 25 frames per second.
  4. A tripod would suffice in making the camera stable, so that there will be no unintended shift in the background of the setting between frames.
  5. Having a shutter remote is most useful as even pressing the button on the camera can cause a noticeable shift in the frame.
  6. Lighting should be taken in to consideration - Having control over lighting conditions is most ideal as daylight can slowly/rapidly change without one being aware.
After setting up my 7D onto the tripod and framing, we realised that the lighting condition was poor (luminescent lighting) and it could be seen reflecting off the scrabble board. The problem was that there was no perfect angle from which we could shoot the scrabble board as it needed to stay on the ground. Another problem we faced at the very end came from our realisation that we had no second “F” and our title “Un-Profane Profanity” requires 2 “F”s. That issue was taken care off thanks to Rebecca, who superimposed the “F”s into the image files.
Though our stop motion segment for the documentary came out semi crooked (interms of tight framing and colour) the group seemed to be happy with the end product.
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Shoot III – Karl

After reorganising the the interview with Karl, we met up that day to collect the equipment and arrived at his pub about half an hour early so that we could set up our equipment and start recording as soon as he arrived. After setting up our frame and checking sound levels in the pub, we focused on tackling the most outstanding problem we were facing that day.

Though technically there weren’t many issues, the fact that we had chosen that one super sunny day to shoot (though we were expecting an overcast) meant that there was plenty of harsh light reflecting off cars, buildings, and trams coming in through the window. In order to try and resolve this issue, we resorted to setting up a bounce board where the reflection (almost as strong as the source of the light) was used as a fill light to counter the strong contrast between the brightly lit side of Karl’s face and the shaded. Though this was an effective solution, it meant that one of our crew members would have to hold the bounce-board at all times, meaning that there would be an unmanned camera. We solved this further issue by setting up both cameras on tripods and start recording in advance, meaning that the outcome of our footage would be static.

Another obstacle that was encountered (luckily) less than halfway through the interview was the levels of sound going in to the audio equipment. This was due to the fact that the sound level of the output of the device (where the earphones are connected) was set higher than the level coming in through the input, therefore the sound coming in through the headphones sounded a lot louder than the sound that was actually being recorded. This problem was quickly fixed after it was discovered and very little recording was lost overall.

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Shoot II – The Joker

After scouting out the Eurotrash bar/club for potential subjects to be in out documentary, we came to the decision that we would like to feature Karl Woodbury (the Host that night) as he swore most and hist jokes were funny, as well as the fact that he looked the part to be in our documentary. Rebecca was able to retrieve his phone number off him so that we could contact him to schedule for our interview on a later date.

Though everything seemed like it was going well, as we had already decided who we wanted to feature in our documentary, we came across a problem that was not completely unexpected. Though Rebecca had sent Karl a confirmation message regarding our shoot dates, it took a long time for him to reply, and though we didn’t want to waste time waiting around for him to reply, we had no other subject to focus on at the time and work from other subjects were piling up. As we finally got a response for him about a week later, all things seemed set to go and we organised equipment pickup.

The night that we showed up at Karl’s pub our intention was to be albe to film footage from his bit in the Stand Up show, and on the same night record out interview with him whilst the sun was down and the lights were still on (this would have been best as the lights on location were perfect, as they were spotlights). As the night progressed and we filmed Karl’s bit near the end of the show, the crowd started getting loud and we quickly realised that recording Karl’s interview that night was not an option. Therefore we organised another meeting on a different day where there wouldn’t be a crowd to disrupt the audio recording.

 

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