In 1994 James Cameron wrote an 80 page script for Avatar. Cameron has a partnership with visual effects house Digital Domain, who joined the project which was supposed to begin production in the summer of 1997 for a 1999 release, however, Cameron felt that the technology had not caught up with the story and vision that he intended to tell. As a result Cameron decided to concentrate on making documentaries and refining the technology for the next few years.
Newspaper Article
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19960812&id=8rsMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Al8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6553,2562816

The first photo of the film was released on August 14, 2009 and Empire magazine released exclusive omages from the film in it’s October issue. James Cameron, producer Jon Landau, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver appeared at a panel moderated by Tom Rothman at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con on July 23, where 25 minutes of footage was screened in Dolby 3D. Cameron announced that August 21 will be ‘Avatar Day’. On this day the trailer for the film was released in all theatrical formats. The offical game trailer and toy line of the film were also unveiled on this day.
The film was promoted in as episode of the Fox Network series Bones in the episode ‘The Gamer In the The Grease’. Avatar star Joel David Moore has a recurring role on the program and is seen in the episode anxiously awaiting the release of the film.

The Coca-Cola Company teamed up with 20th Century Fox to launch a worldwide marketing campaign to promote the film. The website AVTR.com was was created to help with this promotion. When held in front of a webcam, specially marked bottles and cans of Coca-Cola Zero enabled users to interact with the website’s 3D features using augmented reality (AR) technology.

Avatar: The Game
James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game was released December 1, 2009 for most video game consoles, including PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo Ds, iPhone and Microsoft Indows and December 8 for PSP. Cameron chose Ubisoft Montreal to create an Avatar game for the film in 2007. Cameron decided to include some of Ubisoft’s vehicle and creature designs into the film.

Other Merchandise
In December2009 Mattel Toys announced that it would be introducing a line of Avatar action figures. Each action figure will be made with a 3D web tag, called an i-TAG that consumers can scane using a web cam revealing unique on screen content that is special to each specific action figure.

McDonald’s Happy Meals distributed a series of toys representing characters from the film in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Columbia, the US and Venezuela.

On November 24, 2009 Harper Entertainment released Avatar:A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora, is a 224 page book in the form of a field guide to the film’s fictional setting of the planet Pandora. It is presented as a compilation of data collected by the humans about Pandora.

In December 2009 France Post released a special limited edition stamp based on Avatar coinciding with its worldwide release.

DVD

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released Avatar on DVD and Bu-ray in the US on April 22, 2010 and in the UK on April 26. The US release was done to coincide with Earth Day.

Avatar set a first day launch record in the US for Blu-Ray sales at 1.5 million units sold, breaking the record previously held by The Dark Knight (6 million units sold).

• DVD’s
• Soundtracks
• Music Videos
• Advertisements (TV, billboards, posters)
• Newspapers
• Magazines (there are even magazines which focus on film)
• Internet
• Merchandise
• Games

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Big-Six—Top-6-Major-Film-Studios-in-the-Movie-Business&id=1750590

The Big 6 Major film Studios:

• Warner Bros. Pictures. Comprising a 19.7% of the US/Canadian market share (2007 figures), Warner Bros. Pictures is the biggest studio in the film industry. Securing the rights to major films like Harry Potter, Superman, Batman, The Matrix and Star Wars .
• Paramount Pictures. With 15.5% of the US/Canadian market share (2007 figures), Paramount Pictures continues to be one of the most successful film production companies in the world. Star Trek, War of the Worlds, the Mission Impossible series, Transformers and Tropic Thunder are a few of the popular films produced by Paramount Pictures.
• Walt Disney. One of the most renowned film production companies, Walt Disney now holds 15.3% of the US/Canadian market share (2007 figures). With highly successful movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure, Meet the Robinsons and Enchanted. Disney is mainly aimed at a younger audience, primarily children.
• Columbia Pictures. Comprising 12.9% of the US/Canadian market share (2007 figures), Columbia Pictures remains a big player in the business. Some of this company’s recent successes include Casino Royale, The Da Vinci Code, the Spider-Man series and Step Brothers.
• Universal Studios. 12.2% of the US/Canadian market share (2007 figures) belongs to Universal Studios, which continues to make millions for the film industry. With major hits like the Bourne series (Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum), The American Pie series, Knocked Up, American Gangster and The Incredible Hulk.
• 20th Century Fox. (Also known as “Twentieth Century Fox,) A highly successful movie production company makes up 11.9% of the US/Canadian market share (2007 figures). Some of the biggest and most successful movies from this empire include the X-Men series, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Star Wars Episodes II and III, and the Fantastic Four.

Different techniques are used to target specific audiences some of which are; soundtracks, music videos, advertisements, newspapers, magazines, internet, merchandise and games. Techniques such as film studios working with McDonald’s to give away free film related toys with happy meals are ways of targeting a specific audience. This will attract the attention of a younger audience and will most probably make them want to see the film their free toy is related to.

Iron Man 2

Distributed by Paramount Pictures

Director: Jon Favreau

This sequel to Iron Man has been successful as in its opening weekend in the UK it made at the box office $11 million, when Iron Man made $8 million, this shows that enough people liked Iron Man to see the sequel.

Iron Man 2 is an album by AC/DC, released April 19, 2010 as the soundtrack to Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2. Co-Chairman of Columbia Records, Steve Barnett said “Jon Favreau’s vision and passion for AC/DC’s music blend seamlessly into this incredible film; the music really underscores the high energy and excitement of the film.” The album features an almost half-and-half mix of songs from both the Bon Scott and Brian Johnson eras of AC/DC. The album features fifteen tracks from ten different albums, ranging from 1975 to 2008. Only two songs ‘Shoot to Thrill’ and ‘Highway to Hell’ were used completely in the film. As of May 6, 2010, the album has sold 370,000 copies worldwide.

This may be one of the ways that was used to gain interest in Iron Man 2 as fans of AC/DC will probably see this album in the shop or know that the album is being released prior and so may want to see Iron Man 2 for this reason as it may provoke an interest in the film.

At the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, a five-minute teaser trailer for Iron Man 2 was shown. Actors portraying Stark Industries recruiters handed out business cards with an invitation to apply for a job at Stark Industries. A website for Stark Industries also went online, with an attached graphic of a “napkin memo” from Tony Stark to Pepper Potts announcing that Stark Industries no longer made weapons. Another section featured an online application. It was confirmed that the first Iron Man 2 theatrical trailer would premiere in front of Sherlock Holmes, a film which star Robert Downey, Jr. is also stars in. A new trailer was shown by Robert Downey, Jr. on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on March 7 after the Academy Awards. The international release date of the film was moved forward to increase interest ahead of the FIFA World Cup football tournament.

Promotional partners include Symantec, Dr Pepper, Burger King, 7 Eleven, Audi, and LG Mobile.

Alice In Wonder Land

Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures

Director: Tim Burton

Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland made $15 Million in its opening weekend in the UK.

Fans of Burton’s work will probably have seen Alice in Wonderland as Burton creates films using his trademark style and so it would be different to the other versions of Alice in Wonderland. Actor Johnny Depp may also have been another key feature to attract attention in the film as Depp has worked with Burton on several films and is also one of the most well known actors of his time.

On June 22, 2009, the first pictures of the film were released, showing Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Hathaway as the White Queen, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Matt Lucas as Tweedledee and Tweedledum and Mia Wasikowska as Alice. In July, new photos emerged of Alice holding a white rabbit, the Mad Hatter with a hare, the Red Queen holding a pig, and the White Queen with a mouse.

At ComicCon, props from the film were displayed in an “Alice in Wonderland” exhibit. Costumes featured in the exhibit included the Red Queen’s dress, chair, wig, spectacles and scepter; the White Queen’s dress, wig and a small model of her castle; the Mad Hatter’s suit, hat, wig, chair and table; Alice’s dress and battle armor (to slay the Jabberwocky). Other props included the “DRINK ME” bottles, the keys, an “EAT ME” pastry and Stand-In models of the White Rabbit and March Hare.

On July 22, 2009, a teaser trailer from the Mad Hatter’s point of view was released on IGN but was shortly taken down because Disney claimed that the trailer was not supposed to be out yet. The leaked version was originally to be shown to one of the three Facebook groups used to promote the film that had the most members. The groups used to promote the film are “The Loyal Subjects of the Red Queen”, “The Loyal Subjects of the White Queen” and “The Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter.”

• Soundtracks
• Merchandise (e.g. action figures, clothing, etc.)
• Walk through Guides
• Films (games based on films, films based on games)
• Accessories (e.g. gun shaped controllers for shooting games, tennis rackets for the Wii)
• Advertisements
• Comic books

Consoles

http://www.thegameconsole.com/

The Magnavox Odyssey released in 1972 is the first home video game console, predating the Atari PONG home consoles by 3 years. Unlike most video game consoles, the Odyssey is analog rather than digital. Unlike any conventional console today, this system was powered by batteries. The Odyssey and its variants also lack sound capability (hence a silent console), which was not uncommon in early PONG systems of that era.

Xbox

The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft’s first attempt into the gaming console market, and competed with Sony’s PlayStation 2, Sega’s Dreamcast, and the Nintendo GameCube. The integrated Xbox Live service allowed players to compete online. The Xbox was discontinued in late 2006, although the final Xbox game, Madden NFL 09 was released in August 2008. Support for out-of-warranty Xbox consoles was discontinued on March 2, 2009; any in-warranty repair now needed will not be undertaken and faulty consoles will replaced with an Xbox 360 instead. Xbox Live support was discontinued on April 15, 2010.

Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. Some major features of the Xbox 360 are its integrated Xbox Live service that allows players to compete online, download arcade games, game demos, trailers, TV shows, music and movies and its Windows Media Center multimedia capabilities. The Xbox 360 also offers region specific access to third-party media streaming services such as Netflix in the USA or Sky TV in the UK. The Xbox 360 was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005. The console sold out completely upon release in all regions except in Japan and as of April 2010, there are over 40 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide.

Playstation

The PlayStation, abbreviated to PS is a fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, 1994. The PlayStation was the first of PlayStation series of console and handheld game devices. Successor consoles and upgrades include the Net Yaroze, PS one, PSX, PocketStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation 3. The PlayStation was the first “computer entertainment platform” to ship 100 million units, which it had reached 9 years and 6 months after its initial launch.
Playstation 2
The PlayStation 2, officially abbreviated PS2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony. The successor to the PlayStation, and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was released a year later in Japan. Its primary competitors were Sega’s Dreamcast, Microsoft’s Xbox, and Nintendo’s GameCube. The PS2 is the best-selling console to date, having reached over 140 million units sold as of September 30, 2009. In late 2009 Sony stated that the life cycle of the PlayStation 2 will continue until demand ceases.

Playstation 3

The PlayStation 3, officially abbreviated as PS3 is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment, and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. A major feature that distinguishes the PlayStation 3 from its predecessors is its unified online gaming service, the PlayStation Network, which contrasts with Sony’s former policy of relying on video game developers for online play. Other major features of the console include its multimedia capabilities, connectivity with the PlayStation Portable and its use of a high-definition optical disc format, Blu-ray Disc, as its primary storage medium. The PS3 was also the first Blu-ray 2.0-compliant Blu-ray player on the market. The PlayStation 3 was first released on November 11, 2006 in Japan, November 17, 2006 in North America and South America and March 23, 2007 in Europe and Oceania.

Nintendo Wii

The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others. As of May 2010, the Wii leads the generation over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales and in December 2009 broke the record for best-selling console in a single month in the United States. A distinctive feature of the console is its wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and detects movement in three dimensions. Another distinctive feature of the console is WiiConnect24, which enables it to receive messages and updates over the Internet while in standby mode. The Wii is Nintendo’s fifth home console, the direct successor to the Nintendo GameCube and able to play all official GameCube games.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 video game consoles and the Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is the sixth installment of the Call of Duty series and the direct sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, continuing along the same storyline. It was released in conjunction with two other Call of Duty games: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized for the Nintendo DS, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex, a port of Call of Duty 4 adapted by Treyarch for the Wii console. In addition, a comic book series based on one of the game’s characters was also produced, entitled Modern Warfare 2: Ghost.

Recently it was announced that there are two downloadable map packs for the game. They would be fist made avaliable to Xbox 360 via Xbox live before other platforms. Within 24 hours of its release, it was downloaded over 1 million times. Within the first week it had been downloaded 2.5 million times, breaking Xbox Live DLC records.

Man Hunt

Manhunt is a stealth game developed by Rockstar Games, it was released November 18, 2003 for the PlayStation 2 video game console, and April 20, 2004 for Xbox and Windows. Although it was generally well-received by critics, Manhunt created a controversy due to the graphic violence the player is encouraged to engage in. This resulted in the game being banned in several countries and implicated by media in a murder, although this implication was later rejected by the police. In October 2007, its sequel, Manhunt 2 was released and spawned controversy as well.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28391/Analysis_What_the_Video_Game_Industry_Can_Learn_From_the_Death_of_Glam_Metal.php

An interesting link about the gaming industry

Primarily the gaming industry has been aimed at males, particularly teenage males with games such as the Call of Duty series being extremely popular. Some of the most popular games are war and fighting games (and other similar themes). These games can be quite difficult so young children find it hard to play and many of these games are 18 and 15′s so are not suitable for young children anyway. Many females do not like these games either as they are seen as too violent and many just find the game play boring. The Nintendo Wii has helped to cater for the market that is left, females and young children.  The Wii has a variety of games that are family friendly and orientated so families can play together no matter their age.

The internet can be seen as a positive to the video game industry as many of the latest gaming consoles are able to connect to the internet and now it has even become a built in feature. This is primarily for gamers to be able to play online with their friends and people around the world. For most people this is a big part of gaming as many find it more fun to play with other people than just by themselves as it gives them a chance to interact with other people and they do not have to be using the same console unlike in the past. Gamers with consoles such as the Xbox 360 are able to download arcade games, game demos, trailers, TV shows, music and movies. This can make the overall gaming experience more enjoyable as not only are gamers able to play online but consoles can do other things such as download and watch their favorite TV shows and films.

Prior to the ‘Video Recordings Act of 1984′ (VRA) the responsibility was on the courts to prosecute a film if it was likely to “deprave or corrupt” the viewer. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) drew up a list of videos that were liable for prosecution. Below are 39 films that were cleared from the nations shops and successfully prosecuted. Some were later released in butchered versions, others were never seen again, some managed to make a meagre living at especially dodgy boot fairs.

http://www.horrorseek.com/home/horror/realm/nasties.htm
In the early 1980′s when affordable video recorders became commercially available in the UK, a small group of enterprising distribution companies opened up intending to cash-in on the video boom by releasing pre-recorded films onto tape.
This idea proved hugely successful, and the first dedicated video libraries started opening up soon after. But there was one major problem, in those days  there was still a sizeable chunk of cash to be made in re-releasing films at the cinema, and so the larger studios were initially reluctant to release their mainstream blockbusters onto tape. Meaning the smaller video distributors were constantly struggling to find new material to put out.
Unlike cinema films, there was no legal  requirement for them to be classified, or vetted by any statutory body prior to release. So they could pretty much release whatever they liked.
Distributors began snapping up the rights to a lot of foreign low budget exploitation films, many of which would have never otherwise stood a chance of ever being screened in the UK.
This meant that cult classics like “I Spit on your Grave”, “The Driller Killer”, and “Last House on the Left” could be found on UK video shelves, despite the fact that many of them had been effectively banned from the cinema.
Unfortunately though, the down side of these video works being unregulated meant that they fell under the remit of “The Obscene Publications Act” (OPA). An archaic piece of legislation that dates back to the 1800′s, which prohibits the distribution of materials liable to “Deprave & Corrupt”. So it was only a matter of time before the authorities decided to sit up and take notice.
The problems first started in early 1982 when distributors Vipco (Video Instant Picture Company) took out several full page adverts in various video magazines for “The Driller Killer”. GO video, advertising full page spreads for their films “SS Experiment Camp” and “Cannibal Holocaust” lead to numerous complaints being made to the Advertising Standards Authority.
This attracted a lot of attention, most notably the Sunday Times and Daily Mail, started to speak out against the availability of some of the titles, making a big issue about how easy it was for children to access them. Even calling on comments from morality groups, church leaders, and self appointed media watchdogs like the obnoxious National Viewers and Listeners Association (now called Mediawatch UK) to back up their outrageous articles about the “evils” of home video.
Soon police started raiding distributors and video shops up and down the country looking for material that they could prosecute under the OPA.
The Government’s Department of Public Prosecutions drew up a list of films that they felt where likely to be judged obscene by the courts for the police to concentrate their efforts on when carrying out raids. The press referred to these films as “Video Nasties”.
Even though there where many horror films at the time being branded as nasties by the media, not all of these made the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) official list. Altogether there where 74 different titles that appeared on the list at one time or another. The original list contained 52 titles, but many more where added soon after and others dropped, leaving a final total of just 39 which were successfully prosecuted.
This “Purge” by the DPP went on until the Government finally introduced the “Video recordings Act” in 1984, which outlawed the trade in unclassified tapes and required that all video films be submitted to the “British Board of Film Classifications” for vetting prior to release. This stopped the availability of the more infamous titles, and the nasties furore by the media, and of course the need for any further prosecutions by the DPP.
There was a 12 month period given to clear all uncertified tapes out of the system, and so some titles were still around for a while, but it was the end of a much too short lived era.
The information on the following pages has been gathered from various sources, mostly from “Dark Side Magazine” , Dave Taylor’s “Melon Farmers Video Hits” website, the “BBFC” website and the “Internet Movie Database”, With additional info on the more recent sections taken from the book “See No Evil” by David Kerekes and David Slater.

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/591919/index.html

When video was introduced in the late 1970s, there was no specific legislation governing its content. This, coupled with the reluctance of major distributors to get involved with a medium they considered vulnerable to piracy, caused small independent companies to flood the market with low-budget horror films and lurid advertising campaigns.
Many of these videos were identical to the cinema versions approved (often after cuts) by the British Board of Film Censors, but some contained uncut versions and indeed films originally rejected outright
The original “video nasties”, as itemised on a list issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions, were a motley collection of mostly low-budget horror films that relied on graphic violence, the overwhelming majority being American or Italian. The few British or British-set films on the list were Exposé (1975, d. James Kenelm Clarke), Xtro (1982, d. Harry Bromley Davenport) and The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (Italy/Spain, 1974, d. Jorge Grau).
Most had little or no artistic merit, though the inclusion of work by respected genre practitioners Dario Argento, Wes Craven, Lucio Fulci and Tobe Hooper, arthouse auteurs Andrzej Zulawski and Paul Morrissey, and the then unknown Abel Ferrara led to a number of eloquent defences as the campaign against the nasties built up steam.
The first salvo in this campaign was fired by a May 1982 article in the Sunday Times headed “How high street horror is invading the home”. This theme was enthusiastically taken up by the tabloid press, particularly the Daily Mail, and led to Conservative MP Graham Bright introducing a Private Member’s Bill to bring about government regulation of video content. This led to the 1984 Video Recordings Act and the BBFC (renamed British Board of Film Classification) being given a statutory role for the first time as the official state video classifier.

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/591879/index.html

Following the “video nasties” scare of 1982-83, Margaret Thatcher’s newly re-elected Conservative government introduced the 1984 Video Recordings Act, which was phased in over the next three years. This was the first legislation aimed specifically at regulating the video industry, and it dramatically changed the British video landscape.
The key aim of the VRA was to ensure that all video recordings available in the UK were approved by a recognised authority. The British Board of Film Censors was designated the official video classifier, a decision that gave it statutory powers for the first time in its history. It was renamed the British Board of Film Classification later that year.
From 1 September 1985, all video recordings had to possess a BBFC classification (at the time these were U, PG, 15, 18 and R18), which had to appear four times at a specified minimum size: on the cassette label, on each side of the video box and on the spine.
Videos were classified separately from theatrical releases, as different criteria came into play, such as the increased possibility of a video falling into the hands of children. As a result, films passed uncut for cinema release were often cut for video.
Not all videos had to be scrutinised by the BBFC. A video was exempt from classification if it was considered educational or if it promoted sport, religion or music. However, this exemption was only granted if the video in question did not contain images of human sexual activity, urinary or excretory functions, extreme violence and torture, or the depiction of techniques likely to be useful in committing crimes.
The supply of unclassified (and non-exempt) videos was made a criminal offence, as was supplying 15 and 18-certificate videos to people under age. R18 videos could only be sold in licensed sex shops.

http://www.eatmybrains.com/showfeature.php?id=6
Video Nasties List

Absurd
(1981) Italy
Anthropophagus The Beast
(1980) Italy
Axe
(1974) USA
The Beast in Heat
(1977) Italy
Blood Bath
(1971) Italy
Blood Feast
(1963) USA
Blood Rites
(1967) USA
Bloody Moon
(1981) W Germany
The Burning
(1980) USA
Cannibal Apocalypse
(1980) Italy
Cannibal Ferox
(1981) Italy
Cannibal Holocaust
(1979) Italy
The Cannibal Man
(1972) Spain Devil Hunter
(1980) Sp/It/W Germany
Don’t Go in the Woods… Alone!
(1980) USA
The Driller Killer
(1979) USA
Evilspeak
(1981) USA
Expose
(1975) UK
Faces of Death
(1979) USA
Fight For Your Life
(1977) USA
Forest of Fear
(1979) USA
Frankenstein (Andy Warhol’s)
(1973) Italy / France
Gestapo’s Last Orgy
(1977) Italy
The House by the Cemetery
(1981) Italy
House on the Edge of the Park
(1980) Italy
Island of Death
(1972) Greece
I Spit on Your Grave
(1978) USAThe Last House on the Left
(1972) USA
Love Camp 7
(1978) USA
Madhouse
(1981) USA
Mardi Gras Massacre
(1978) USA
Night of the Bloody Apes
(1968) Mexico
Night of the Demon
(1980) USA
Nightmares in a Damaged Brain
(1981) USA
Snuff
(1971/6) Arg / USA
SS Experiment Camp
(1976) Italy
Tenebrae
(1982) Italy
The Werewolf And The Yeti
(1975) Spain
Zombie Flesh Eaters
Italy

1970’s
Cassette tapes also continued to surge in popularity after their introduction in the 1960s. JVC’s VHS and Sony’s Betamax waged a war as the primary recording and video devices beginning in 1976, but by the end of the decade VHS had become the dominant format.

The oil crisis in 1973 was caused when Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), during the Yom Kippur War, announced that they would no longer ship petroleum to nations that had supported Israel in its conflict with Syria and Egypt , to the United States and its allies in Western Europe. It was also announced that the price for Oil would increase drastically. The west was by now dependent on oil and together with prices quadrupling and measures for rationing the western world went into recession and suffered massive inflationary pressure. At that time the United States did have their own oil reserves and although they were affected the biggest impact was on European Economies .

After nearly 10 years of war in Vietnam 1973 was also the year that allied forces pulled out of Vietnam

Another significant factor in the 70′s was the growth in womens rights and womens role in society including the ability to decide when where and if they wished to have children ( partly through the availably of the contraceptive pill )

President Richard Nixon was forced to resign on 8th August as president of the United States due to imminent impeachment related to the Watergate scandal.

With the continuing Cold War between the East and West the arms race continued with each side trying to find the ultimate weapon

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1970s.htm
Music 70′s
Progressive rock created a new generation of bands including Genesis, Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Pink Floyd. Many other singers and bands also started or strengthened their fan base including The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Queen, Black Sabbath .
In Europe, the music was not as progressive from bands like T Rex, Gary Glitter and David Bowie, and bands like Slade and the Sweet. and possibly the most successful in the 70′s being ABBA
Some of the Most Well Known Movie Stars of the Seventies
Paul Newman
Robert Redford
Clint Eastwood
John Wayne
Burt Reynolds
Al Pacino
Woody Allen
Barbra Streisand

Technology 1970′s
The 70′s were the start in many ways of the Electronics and digital revolution, with the invention of transistors and Integrated Circuits in the late 60′s, companies now found ways to use the technology which caused the phenomenal growth in smaller more powerful and cheaper products ranging from Calculators to Televisions.

The 70′s also saw the beginning of the Home Computer due to Intel creating the first cheap microprocessor – the Intel 4004, and other integrated circuits. In the beginning the computers were mainly for the hobbyists and included the Apple II, the TRS-80, the Commodore PET, and Atari 400/800 and with the growth of these home computers Bulletin Boards became a popular way for people to find others with similar interests

The first use of card access Electronic Locks appear

As people realized the power of these new home computers a new use was found and that was the beginning of the video game . When we look at those games now we see how basic they were but the technology available and the understanding of what could be done limited those early games.

With the invention earlier of the microwave oven and now the capability to manufacturer and sell cheaply many homes adopted the technology in their kitchens.

Due in part to the increased use of the 747 a Jumbo Jet able to carry large numbers of passengers across continents air travel booms and causes new problems with pollution, delays and air traffic control

1980’s
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1980s.html
Events 1980′s
During the 80′s we also saw the collapse of the traditional communism and the end of the cold war .The fragmentation of communism included the collapse of the Berlin wall and the breakup up of what was the USSR towards the end of the 80′s. and leading to German reunification.

The 80′s also signaled a period of the rise of conservatism as the in political and cultural life, caused by Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the USA .

Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland islands in 1982 but is subsequently defeated by the United Kingdom.

China continued it’s growth and liberalization but suffered unrest towards the end of the 80′s after student’s protested in Tiananmen Square on June 4th 1989 and the authorities used force to quell the protests

Famine in Ethiopia was shown to the world on our television screens in 1984 – 1985 and the pain and suffering caused the western world to find new ways to help including the Live Aid concert and many of the most popular stars contributed their time and performed for free in cities throughout the world , This has to be one of the most successful campaigns ever to create awareness and raise much needed funds by those who have the power to draw TV audiences around the globe.

Many South American Countries return to democracy after a period of dictatorships

The mixing of politics and sport in both 1980 and 1984 Olympics Boycotts by the worlds major powers

Technology 1980′s
The 80′s signaled the start of the computer age, following on from the creation of Microsoft and Apple towards the end of the 70′s , the technology and the speed of innovation both in Hardware and Software together with the cheapness provided a speed of growth and take up . The birth of the IBM PC signaled the start of Personal Computers first in the Offices and then into peoples homes becoming an integral part of our lives. following on from Micrsofts MSDOS on PC’s to the first versions of Windows a GUI Graphical User Interface

As well as the Hardware and Software changes a new technology was evolving starting as Bulletin boards later to become what we now know as the Internet invented by English physicist Tim Berners and the beginnings of the World Wide Web
This was also the Decade that the Post-It was introduced which came from a glue invented in 1968 accidentally while trying to discover a stronger glue at 3M by Spencer Silver

The 80′s also signaled the age of the video game in arcades, Games Machines and PC’s the most popular games being Space Invaders and Pac Man

Another technology that was also just starting was that of cellular mobile phones , in the beginning the phones were big and heavy and hit and miss for signal strength , but as with the Internet would change our lives .

After many years of ignoring the impact on our environment ,the world also took more notice of the impact that we were having on our planet and more research was done on the effects on global warming through population growth, land clearing of rain forests for agriculture and logging, increased use of fossil fuels for power generation together with our love affair with the car for transport .
Popular Culture 1980′s
•    John Lennon is shot outside his New York apartment
•    MTV (Music Television) is launched
•    Floppy shirts, Backcombed hair, Padded shoulders, big hairdoes and white stilettoes
•    The Simpsons Is First Seen On Tracey Ullman Show April 5th 1987
•    Michael Jackson releases his second adult solo album, Thriller.

Some of the Most Well Known Movie Stars of the Eighties
Clint Eastwood
Burt Reynolds
Harrison Ford
Michael J Fox
Eddie Murphy
Tom Cruise
Dudley Moore
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Popular Musicians
•    Bucks Fizz
•    The Jam
•    Olivia Newton-John
•    Chicago
•    Lionel Richie
•    ABBA
•    Black Sabbath
•    Queen
•    The Police
•    Tina Turner
•    David Bowie
•    Whitney Houston
•    Culture Club
•    Bruce Springsteen
•    U2

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/mtw9403.html

Moral panics can occur both as novel events, or events which have been in existence within society for a long time and have suddenly become an issue of importance and concern. Many panics result in official change and have serious and long-lasting repercussions, as was the case following the panic concerning so called ‘video nasties’, which led to the Video Recording Act of 1984 introducing the regulation of videos via the British Board of Film Classification. The debates concerning the issue centred upon the lack of parental control in monitoring children’s viewing and the dangers posed by certain programmes and films to young people (Lusted, 1991, p.14). The concern of ‘video nasties’ reappeared in the 1990′s following the murder of the toddler James Bulger by two juveniles. The case was related to the violent film ‘Child’s Play 3′, which the offenders had previously watched. The case and the implications made against the film resulted in further regulations being enacted in 1994.

Availability of Video Nasties – Today
http://www.play.com/HOME/HOME/6-/Campaign.html?campaign=8524&cid=6223665
Simple to buy online from popular sites such as play.com and in stores such as HMV. In the past these distributers could be jailed and heavily fined.

Video Recordings Act 1984
The act was a legislative reaction to a moral panic concerning “video nasties” that was sparked by tabloid newspapers in Britain during 1982 and 1983.
Sport, music, religious, and educational works are exempt from classification under the Act. Exemption may be forfeited if the work depicts excessive human sexual activity or acts of force or restraint associated with such activity, mutilation or torture of humans or animals, human genital organs or urinary or excretory functions, or techniques likely to be useful in the perpetration of criminal acts or illicit activity.

http://www.fact-uk.org.uk/site/criminal_justice/vidact.htm
Offences: Video Recordings Act 1984 
The 1984 act creates a number of criminal offences:
(a) section 9, supplying or offering to supply an unclassified video work. 
(b) section 10, possession of an unclassified video work for the purposes of supply. 
(c) section 11, supplying or offering to supply recordings of classified works in breach of the classification. 
(d) section 12, supplying or offering to supply a work otherwise than in a licensed sex shop. 
(e) section 13, supplying or offering to supply a video recording not complying with the video recordings (labelling) regulations 1985. 
(f) section 14, supplying or offering to supply a video recording containing a false indication as to classification.
Penalties: Video Recordings Act 1984 
From 3rd february 1995 section 88 the criminal justice and public order act 1994 makes sections 9 and 10 “either-way” offences with maximum penalties as follows:
A) on indictment – imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 year or an unlimited fine or both.
B) summarily – imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding £20,000 or both.
Sections 11,12 and 14 remain summary with either a maximum penalty of imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding level 5 (£5,000) or both.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_nasty
Effects of the Video Recordings Act 1984
Under the 1984 Act, the British Board of Film Censors was renamed the British Board of Film Classification and became responsible for the certification of both cinema and video releases. All video releases after 1 September 1985 had to comply with the Act and be submitted for classification by the BBFC. Films released on video before that date had to be re-submitted for classification within the following three years. The increased possibility of videos falling into the hands of children required that film classification for video be a separate process from cinema classification. Films that had passed uncut for cinema release were often cut for video. The supply of unclassified videos became a criminal offense, as did supplying 15 and 18 certificate videos to under-aged people. As well as the low-budget horror films the Act was originally intended to curb, a number of high profile films which had passed cinema certification fell foul of the Act. In particular, The Exorcist, which was made available by Warner Home Video in December 1981, was not granted a video certification by the BBFC and was withdrawn from shelves in 1986. Similarly Straw Dogs was also denied video certification and removed from video stores.
Popular culture backlash against the Video Recordings Act included the May 1984 release of “Nasty” by the punk-goth outfit, The Damned, who celebrated the condemned genre with the lyrics, “I fell in love with a video nasty.” The TV show The Young Ones included an entire episode entitled “Nasty”, in which the characters rent a VCR specifically to watch a “video nasty” (with the fictitious name “Sex With the Headless Corpse of the Virgin Astronaut”), and which featured a lip synched performance of “Nasty” by The Damned.
The television programme Spitting Image parodied the Video Nasties with their sketch of a sickeningly nice, low budget film, entitled a video “nicie”.
Neil Innes’ song “My New School” (1984) contains a video nasty reference “its got all the charm of a video nasty, I’ve never been anywhere so ghastly, my new school”.
The 1985 Doctor Who serial Vengeance on Varos was set within the confines of a ‘Punishment Dome’ where the repellant alien delegate Sil was delighted to learn that recordings of real life executions, dismemberments, drownings, acid baths and other ‘delights’ were being peddled to the apathetic population at large to keep them both docile and entertained. After the transmission in January 1985 there were quite a few official complaints about the content of the serial to both the BBC itself and the Radio Times.
BBC Video advertised their offerings (such as Doctor Who) as “Video Tasties.”
Films banned by the BBFC but not classed as Video Nasties
•    The Exorcist (commonly said to have banned around the same period as video nasties, this is actually untrue as the studio decided not to push for UK release following the 1984 act.)
•    The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (passed uncut with an 18 certificate in 1999)
•    Silent Night, Deadly Night (Originally never submitted for a certificate. It was submitted and passed uncut with an 18 certificate in 2009.)
•    Straw Dogs (Banned around the video nasty period but not actually included on the list. It was re-released in 1995 partially cut with it finally being released uncut in 2002.)
•    The New York Ripper (Banned outright in 1982 until it was released with cuts in 1997)
•    Mikey (Still banned)
•    Maniac (Passed with cuts in 2003)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Natural_Born_Killers_copycat_crimes
List of Natural Born Killers copycat crimes
This is a list of crimes committed by individuals allegedly influenced by the 1994 film Natural Born Killers.

Major incidents
[edit] Murder of William Savage
On March 5, 1995, Sarah Edmondson and her boyfriend Benjamin James Darrus (both 18) spent a night alone together at her family’s cabin in Muskogee, Oklahoma, taking LSD and watching Natural Born Killers. Two days later, they left the cabin and packed Edmondson’s Nissan Maxima with blankets and a .38-caliber revolver. They originally left Muskogee to attend a Grateful Dead concert in Memphis, Tennessee. On March 7, they arrived in Hernando, Mississippi, when Darras killed cotton-mill manager William Savage by shooting him twice in the head at point blank range. They then travelled to Ponchatoula, Louisiana, where Edmondson shot Patsy Byers, a convenience store cashier. Byers survived the attack, being rendered quadriplegic. It subsequently transpired that Savage had been a friend of best-selling author John Grisham; Grisham publicly accused Stone of being irresponsible in making the film, claiming that filmmakers should be held accountable for their work when it incites viewers to commit violent acts. In July 1995, Byers took legal actions against Edmondson and Darras, however in March 1996, she amended her lawsuit to include to Oliver Stone and the Time Warner company. With the advice of Grisham, Byers used a “product liability” claim, stating that the filmmakers “knew, or should have known that the film would cause and inspire people […] to commit crimes such as the shooting of Patsy Ann Byers.” Grisham himself stated in an article called “Unnatural Killers” in the April 1996 edition of the Oxford American magazine, “The last hope of imposing some sense on Hollywood will come through another great American tradition, the lawsuit. A case can be made that there exists a direct causal link between Natural Born Killers and the death of Bill Savage. It will take only one large verdict against the likes of Oliver Stone, and then the party will be over.” On January 23, 1997, on the grounds that filmmakers and production companies are protected by the First Amendment, the case was dismissed, but Byers immediately appealed the decision, and on May 15, 1998, the Intermediate Louisiana Court of Appeals overturned that decision, claiming that Byers did indeed have a valid case against the filmmakers (However, Byers herself died of cancer in late 1997). However, on March 12, 2001, judge Robert Morrison dismissed the case on the grounds that there was no evidence that either Time Warner or Oliver Stone intended to incite violence.
In June 2002, the Louisiana Court of Appeal turned down an appeal from Byers’ attorneys, and the suit was officially closed.[1][2][3]
In 1996 the parents of Patsy Ann Byers sued Oliver Stone, claiming his movie Natural Born Killers resulted in the shooting of their daughter.
Byers was left paralysed after two thugs went on a crime spree after watching the movie.
Their case was eventually shot to pieces by Stone’s lawyers and dismissed in 2001.

[edit] Heath High School shooting
Main article: Heath High School shooting
On December 1, 1997, in Paducah, Kentucky, 14-year-old Michael Carneal went to school carrying four .22 rifles, 2 .30-30 Winchester rifles and a Ruger .22 handgun. Upon arriving at the school, he inserted a pair of earplugs and opened fire with the handgun at a prayer meeting, killing three of his classmates and wounding five others. After he was finished shooting, Carneal calmly dropped the gun and surrendered to the school principal. Carneal was charged with murder and attempted murder and initially sentenced to three life sentences for murder plus 150 years for five counts of attempted murder. Following appeal, this was altered to life in prison with no possibility of parole. In April 1999, Jack Thompson, attorney for the parents of the murdered children filed a $33 million lawsuit against Time Warner, Polygram Film, Palm Pictures, Island Pictures, New Line Cinema, Atari, Nintendo and Sony Computer Entertainment. Specifically mentioned were Natural Born Killers and the 1995 film The Basketball Diaries, as well as the video games Doom and Mortal Kombat. Thompson argued that the films and games had encouraged Carneal to act the way he did, and that Doom had provided him with excellent target practice. The case was dismissed in July 2001 by the US Court of Appeals.[4]
Columbine High School massacre
Main article: Columbine High School massacre
On April 20, 1999, students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered twelve students and one teacher at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colorado. The massacre ended with both perpetrators committing suicide. It has been confirmed that both Harris and Klebold were fans of Natural Born Killers. Prior to the massacre, they had used the initials ‘NBK’ as their code. In a journal entry dated, April 10, 1998, Harris wrote “When I go NBK and people say things like “Oh, it was so tragic,” or “oh he is crazy!” or “It was so bloody”, just because your mommy and daddy told you blood and violence is bad, you think it’s a fucking law of nature? Wrong, only science and math are true, everything, and I mean every fucking thing else is Man made. Before I leave this worthless place, I will kill whoever I deem unfit for anything at all, especially life.” Harris also referred to April 20 as “the holy April morning of NBK”, and in an undated journal entry, Klebold (who was severely depressed) wrote “I’m stuck in humanity. Maybe going NBK w. Eric is the way to break free”.[5] During one of the “Basement Tapes” found in Harris and Klebold’s homes, the perpetrators mention how Hollywood will want to adapt their life story, and they debate on whether or not Steven Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino (who conceived the story for Natural Born Killers) are appropriate choices to direct the proposed film.
Richardson family murders
Main article: Richardson family murders
On April 23, 2006, Jeremy Allan Steinke (23) and his 12-year-old girlfriend murdered her parents, Marc and Debra Richardson, as well as her 8-year-old brother, Jacob in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Steinke and Richardson were arrested on April 24 in Leader, Saskatchewan, and were charged with three counts of first-degree murder. According to friends of the daughter, her parents had punished her for dating Steinke,[6] due to the age disparity,[7] and forbade her from visiting him.[7] Shortly after her arrest, Steinke proposed marriage to her, which she accepted.[8]
On July 9, 2007, Richardson was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to ten years in prison, which is the maximum penalty for an individual under 14 years of age. On December 5, 2008, Steinke was also found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, and on December 15, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole for 25 years. The Natural Born Killers connection is to be found in the fact that Steinke had allegedly watched the film the night before the incident. He also spoke to friends of “going Natural Born Killer on her [Richardson daughter] family”,[9][10] however that they would not spare her brother’s life.

• Consumer magazines (general and specialist)
• Business / trade / B2B magazines
• Customer publishing / contract publishing / custom  publishing
• Newspaper supplements.

There are different genres of magazines to attract different audiences to buy magazines, for example:

• Film magazines
• Music Magazines
• Health Magazines
• Sports Magazines

Then there are are various different magazines within the different genres to attract even more people. For example there are magazines which are distributed at different times weekly, fortnightly and monthly, as well as different price ranges so different audiences can purchase magazines, for example younger people are less likely to buy expensive magazines than an older audience as they do not have as much money as an older audience would.

Some magazines give away free gifts, such as make up, CD’s, jewelry, etc. This is to attract potential customers to buy a magazine as consumers feel that thye are getting more for their money if they are also receiving a free gift.

http://www.magforum.com/

This is one of the web’s prime sources of facts, analysis and opinion about magazines, their publishers and histories, and the people and technologies behind them.

http://www.natmags.co.uk/

NatMags  (short for National Magazine Company ) is a British magazine publisher based in London. It was established in 1910 by William Randolph Hearst and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation.

The National Magazine Company is one of the most popular magazine publishers in the UK, reaching 14.9 million adults every year. NatMag  currently publish 20 magazines and 63% of all ABC1 magazine reading woman aged 15-55 engage with a NatMag Brand.

Nat Mag publishes 19 magazines in total in the UK, which are:

• Cosmopolitan
• Cosmopolitan Bride
• Esquire
• Good Housekeeping
• Country Living
• Harper’s Bazaar
• Men’s Health (UK only)
• Coast
• Company
• She
• Zest
• House Beautiful
• Prima
• Prima Baby
• You & Your Wedding
• Real People
• Reveal
• Best
• Runner’s World (UK only)

The ‘Big 4′ music labels are Sony Music Entertainment (Britney Spears, Shakira, Alicia Keys), Universal Music Group (Black Eyed Peas, Mariah Carey, 50 Cent), EMI (The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams), Warner Music Group (Green Day, My Chemical Romance, Madonna). Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group seem to have mainly hip-hop and RnB musicians which will attract fans of these music genres to these labels, whereas EMI and Warner Music Group appear to have more rock type musicians and mainstream successful artists (Madonna, Robbie Williams) which will attract fans of these genres to the labels. Music labels try to promote their artists as best they can and sometimes use other artists on their label to help do this, such as giving away free sample CD’s with bigger artist CD’s and artists on the same label touring together. Normally bands and musicians of similar genres tour together as they generally attract specific fans. Such as My Chemical Romance supporting Green Day on their 2005 American Idiot tour. Festivals are a way to promote musicians as many different acts and genres can gather in one place to attract many different fans and hopefully introduce some people to new and different genres of music.

Music videos such as Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which lasted 13 and half minutes attracted great amounts of attention, was the first of it’s kind and is still referred to as one of the greatest music videos of all time and was even nominated for awards. This helped to hype up the song and Michael Jackson’s music career even more. After this, music videos became seen as a valuable way to help distribute music and now millions can be spent on just one music video.

Soundtracks are a good way of distributing music to audiences as television shows such as Scrubs and films such as the Shrek series have popular soundtracks. This type of distribution allows the music industry to promote music which the audience may not have heard otherwise. Perhaps the one of the most famous and popular songs from a television series is Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing which has been used in the television series Glee because of its popularity it was even rereleased. This also works in a similar way to advertisements and games.

The internet uses social networking sites such as facebook and myspace to promote bands using fans pages or official band pages which increases the popularity of musicians, especially those first starting out and unsigned bands. Lily Allen and Kate Nash are examples of musicians which myspace helped lead to their success. An example of social networking sites distributing music was in 2009 when a facebook group was made to get Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Killing In The Name’ to Christmas number 1 to prevent the X-Factor winner reaching number one, which it did. The song became the first single to reach Christmas number one on downloads alone. This shows the sheer power and influence the internet has on music today.

The internet has a huge impact on the music industry today as not only can it be used to promote music but it it can be used to buy music from as well, either downloads from the itunes store or other websites such as amazon, which CD’s can be both bough and downloaded from. This makes it easier for people to access and become aware of music and so helps the music industry greatly, however the internet does have some negative effects on the music industry, such as people who illegally download music as this means the musicians and labels lose money and therefore cannot continue to produce more music.

Magazines and newspapers are a way of distributing music to audiences within the music industry as they often have reviews and interviews with musicians as well as important news, such as tour dates and album release dates. There are even magazines which are solely about music and there are different magazines for different music genres. This promotes music and helps to make readers aware of new musicians. Radio is aimed at a wide audience as nearly everyone listens to the radio, whether it is traveling, while at home or at work many people enjoy listening to the radio as it is a way of hearing new music. There is also a variety of radio stations so listeners have a choice depending on their own taste. Merchandise is another part of distributing music as fans will buy band clothing or other items and then other people will see them with their band merchandise and may look up these bands and become fans themselves.

To conclude media products are produced and distributed in many different ways within the music industry, through CD’s, soundtracks, music videos, advertisements, newspapers, magazines, the internet, radio, concerts and merchandise. Perhaps the best way is the internet as it has become a valuable tool in producing and distributing these media products very successfully however, it does have it’s downfalls, such as illegal downloading which affects the music industry negatively.

• CD’s
• Soundtracks ( films, games, television)
• Music Videos
• Advertisements (on TV)
• Newspapers
• Magazines (there are even magazines which focus on music)
• Internet, mainly social networking sites (facebook and myspace)
• Radio
• Concerts
• Merchandise

The ‘Big 4′ music labels are:

• Sony Music Entertainment – Britney Spears, Shakira, Alicia Keys
• Universal Music Group – Black Eyed Peas, Mariah Carey, 50 Cent
• EMI – The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams
• Warner Music Group – Green Day, My Chemical Romance, Madonna

http://www.sonymusic.co.uk/about/

http://www.emimusic.com/about/

http://www.wmg.com/

http://new.umusic.com/overview.aspx

The internet uses social networking sites such as facebook and myspace to promote bands using fans pages or official band pages which increases the popularity of musicians, especially those first starting out and unsigned bands.

An example of social networking sites distributing music was in 2009 when a facebook group was made to get Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Killing In The Name’ to Christmas number 1 to prevent the X-Factor winner reaching number one, which it did. The song became the first single to reach Christmas number one on downloads alone. This shows the sheer the internet has on music today.

Lily Allen and Kate Nash are examples of musicians which myspace helped lead to their success.

Festivals are a way to promote musicians as many different acts and genres of music can gather in one place to attract many different fans and hopefully introduce some people to new and different genres of music.

Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group seem to have mainly hip-hop and RnB musicians which will attract fans of these music genres to these labels.

EMI and Warner Music Group appear to have more rock type musicians and mainstream successful artists (Madonna, Robbie Williams) which will attract fans of these genres to the labels.

Music labels try to promote their artists as best they can and sometimes use other artists on their label to help do this, such as giving away free sample CD’s with bigger artist albums and artists on the same label touring together. Normally bands and musicians of similar genres tour together as they attract specific fans.

Some musicians create their own record labels.

Music videos such as Michael Jackson’s Thriller which lasted 13 and half minutes was a short film which attracted great amounts of attention and was the first of it’s kind and is still referred to as one of the greatest music videos of all time and was even nominated for awards.

Before I started construction on my final magazine pages I carried out research into the genre of music I had chose to be the content of my magazine pages and researched music magazines. As my magazine was going to be about music in the classic rock genre I researched magazines in this genre and some that were not to compare and try to find differences between them. I carried out six analysis of music magazine covers, six analysis of music contents pages and six analysis of music double page spreads. This helped me to recognise forms and conventions of music magazines and understand them well. I found that typically music magazines all follow a similar structure. The front cover has a main image and various cover lines, the contents page can sometimes be one or two pages but typically weekly magazines have one page and monthly magazines tend to have two pages but sometime still have one and double page spreads typically have one side that is an article or interview and and the other side is an image. I found that classic rock magazines tend to have more black and white images but contain fewer images overall when compared to other music magazines and contain more text which is more formally written than other music magazines. I found that classic rock magazines all tend to have the same colour scheme of red, black, white and yellow to highlight certain areas. I researched music in the classic rock genre as this helped me to deeper understand the content my magazine pages would contain, I looked at several key classic rock acts and researched their history and image. This helped me when I needed to take my original images as I had to try and recreate these looks as best I could. I posted all my research on my blog so that I could access it easily when I needed to.

After I had completed my research I constructed mock magazine pages of the layout my magazine was going to follow. As I had not yet taken my own original images I used some from google that were similar to the images I was going to take to help me decide upon a layout and I manipulated them using photoshop. I decided that my masthead would be ‘CHROME’ in the font Mesquite Std. I felt that this was a good name for my magazine as the word sounds ‘classic’ itself. I used the colour scheme red, black, white and some yellow to highlight certain areas as I had found that most classic rock magazines tend to follow this colour scheme so it made sense for me to use it in my own magazine pages. After I had created my mock magazine pages I started construction on my final magazine pages using my original images.

First I started construction of my cover page, I started a new A4 page in photoshop and chose the image that I wanted to use as my main image, this was in a similar layout to the image that I had used for my mock front cover. I used the transformation tool and scaled the image so that it filled the whole page. I changed the image to black and white then using adjustments made the contrast of the image higher to make it stand out more and look bolder. I did this as I thought that the image looked better and had more of a classic rock look as my research showed me that a convention of classic rock magazines is the frequent use of black and white images. i inserted my masthead ‘CHROME’ in the top center of the page; a convention all magazines follow in the font Mesquite Std. I made my masthead white and added a black shadow to it as I thought that it would stand out more from the main image however, later I removed the shadow as I felt that it did not make much difference on the dark background.

Next I cut out the part of the main image that was covered by the masthead, the guitarists hand and guitar and overlapped them on the masthead as this is a convention that many magazines follow. I then inserted a selling line, date and issue number just under the masthead in white so that they stood out on the dark background in the font Times New Roman. I inserted a pug in the top left hand corner of the cover in bright yellow so that it would grab the readers attention. I found from my research that many classic rock magazines and other magazines use yellow to highlight key areas as it stands out more than other colours. This pug informs the reader of the free CD that accompanies the magazine. I was going to make a bar code myself using the shapes tool however, I found this quite hard and later decided to look online for a website where I could create a barcode. After I had found a suitable website I made the barcode and saved it then inserted in the bottom right hand corner of the page.

After that I started to create the free CD cover for my magazine. I used the shape tool and created a white rectangle and a slightly smaller brown rectangle which I placed inside the white rectangle to create a white border. I then inserted some text on the CD cover in white so that it would stand out on the dark background colour in the font Times New Roman and added shadows to the text to highlight it more and make it look more interesting and 3D. I rasterized the brown layer of the CD cover and used a texture called stained glass to make it look more interesting than just solid brown as I wanted it so stand out against the front cover so I did not want it to fit in with the colour scheme.

I inserted a small colour image near the top right hand corner of the magazine cover and gave it a shadow to make it stand out more. I left the image in colour as I found this was sometimes a convention used on covers of classic rock music magazines; to have the main image in black and white and a smaller colour image in a corner. I added three cover lines in the font Impact (BM) in red to stand out on the cover because this is a conventional colour to use on classic rock magazines and changed the exposure of the image to make it look stronger and stand out more. Next I rearranged and added more cover lines including the main cover line and smaller white cover lines which accompany the red ones. I gave the main cover line a white outer glow to show it’s importance and make it stand out more. I decided to give all the other red cover lines white outer glows but not as noticeable as the outer glow on the main cover line to show that they are not as important. Later I decided that the outer glow on the red cover lines looked more like a white outline so I adjusted it to make it look more like a glow.

Next i started construction on my contents page, I started a new A4 page in photoshop and inserted my masthead in the top right hand corner of the page on a black background using the shapes tool to create it. I did this so my masthead would stand out from the other text on the page; the contrasting colours (black and white) make it easy to read. This also helped me to mark out a column where I would place the article names and page numbers. Below that I inserted the date and  issue number in the font Times New Roman and the heading contents in the font Academy Engraved LET. Then I inserted three headings in the font Capitals in the column I had marked out using the same red as I had used for my front cover. To get the same red I used the eyedropper tool, I did this as I wanted to stick to the same colour scheme as much as I could to show that the pages are related.

I inserted my first original image on the contents page and used the transform tool to scale the image so that it reached the black rectangle and created the column that I wanted. I changed the image to black and white as many classic rock magazines have a lot of black and white images, at least more than other music magazines which I found from my research. I changed the contrast and exposure of the image as I felt that this helped to give it more of a classic rock look. I inserted two more of my original images; one of a person and the other of a box of records. I scaled the image of the person until it reached the column as this was going to be another one of the main images. I felt the image of the records fits in with the theme of the magazine as my target audience is people in their late 30’s and older, so they would have owned records when they were younger and some people still collect records today so the audience would be able to relate to this image. I cut out the image of the records and removed the background as I felt this looked better on a plain white background as I did not like it’s original background. To do this I started a new A4 page and dragged the image onto it then using the magic wand tool to highlight the background easily I cut and removed the areas that I did not want. Any little areas of the background that were left I removed using the lasso and eraser tool. After I had finished removing the background I dragged the image onto my contents page and positioned it where I wanted it. As I had scaled both the main images as big as I could without taking up any space in my column I decided to place a black rectangle in the space left under the second image and put some text on it so that I did not have any black areas left on the page.

Next I started adding text on my contents page. I inserted the article names in the font Nueva Std in black to show that they are different from the headings and less important as they are in a smaller font size. I added the page numbers in the same red as the headings using the eyedropper tool to do so as this helps to show they are different from the articles and make it easier for the reader to understand as it helps to break down the text. I then added another original image of various classic rock CD’s. I cut out the image of the CD’s from the background as I only wanted the image of the CD’s themselves. I did this the same way as I cut out the image of the records from the background. I placed this image on the black rectangle and added some text on it in white which was related to the image. This helped to make this part of the page look more interesting as opposed to leaving it blank.

I added page numbers on the main images as this helps to make the contents page look more efficient. I used red so that it matched the other page numbers and changed the contrast of the bottom image to make it look more striking. I thought about adding an image of a guitar on the page. I did not like the background so I cut out the image the same way as I cut out the records and the CD’s. After this I decided that there was no space for the guitar on this page and that it was not important enough to make space for however, I decided to save that image so that I could use it later if i wanted to on another page. At this point I was happy with my contents page and ready to start my double page spread.

I started a new A4 page and chose the image that I wanted to use as my main image on my double page spread. I used the transformation tool and scaled the image so that it filled the whole page and cropped the parts that did not fit. I did this so that when I started the A3 piece the image would be the right size when I moved it from the A4 page to the A3 page and I would not have to work out or judge the right size for the image. I changed the image to black and white and adjusted the contrast and exposure of the image to make it look bolder and give it a classic rock look.

Then I opened a new A3 page and dragged the main image that I had been working on onto it. I scaled the image so that it fit an A4 page and put it on the right side of the page. I inserted the heading ‘Going Solo’ in the font Blackmoor LET on the left page which I felt fitted in with the classic rock theme I am trying to create. Below that I put a smaller heading in black outlined with gold. I underlined this using the shapes tool and inserted the page number in the bottom center of the page in black. Next I created a template for the article I was going to write by using the shapes tool to create three equal boxes.

At the end of the interview I inserted some text announcing the release date of an album related to the article. I made this text bold and italic so that it stood out from the interview. I created a reddish/pink box using the shape tool which I placed under this text, this was going to be the album cover for the CD. Using the image of the guitar which I had cut out earlier I dragger it to my double page spread and scaled it using the transformation tool to make it smaller so that it fitted inside the box I had made. I then duplicated the image of the guitar and then used the transformation tool to flip the second image horizontally and overlapped the guitars to create the album cover image. I inserted the album cover title in the font SchoolHouse Cursive B and placed it above the image of the guitars.

When I had finished my double page spread but I still felt that something was missing and that i could improve it more so I inserted two shapes using the shape tool, first I made one and then duplicated it so that the images were the same size. I used the eyedropper tool to colour the shapes and make them the same gold colour as I had used on the heading. I was still not happy with the layout so I removed the black underline and changed the font of the heading ‘Peter Smith’ to Ecentric Std. Then I duplicated the layer of the shapes and scaled them to make them larger and move them to opposite corner of the page with part of it cut off. I hid the layers containing the original shapes incase I decided I like them better and wanted to use them later. I then changed the main heading from gold to black so that it was visible against the shape which it overlapped. I asked several people which layout they preferred on my double page spread and the majority said the second layout with the larger shapes so I decided to use this as my final double page spread.

As I kept moving the layers on my page around I thought that it would be easier to flatten the CD cover so that I did not have to move all the individual layers. To do this I opened a new A4 page in photoshop and dragged the layers across and positioned them in the right place, then I cropped the image so that it was in the shape of a CD case and flattened it to make one layer. Once I did that I dragged it onto my double page spread and deleted all the individual layers.

I looked at my magazine pages to see if any improvements could be made and all I thought I needed to change was some of the cover lines on the cover page. I removed the white outer glow from all the red cover lines apart from the main cover line and added a drop shadow and using the stroke effect a very faint outline in black. I did this as i felt that before it looked childish and cartoon like, but this made the cover lines stand out but still look like a serious magazine. I also spread out the cover lines to break up the empty space.

My finished cover page shares a very similar layout to my mock cover page. The masthead is the same and located in the same place, the images are very similar, they both use the same fonts, have a free CD located in the same place and the same colour scheme is used. My finished contents page shares a very similar layout to my mock contents page. The masthead is located in the same place, the same fonts are used, two main images are used the layout is the same and the same colour scheme is used. My finished double page spread shares the same layout to my mock double page spread. The whole right page of the spread is filled with an image and the other side is an article related to the image, a similar layout, some of the same fonts are used and they follow the same colour scheme.

I created a questionnaire which I gave out to 10 media students in my class which consisted of 14 questions about my magazine pages.  As I asked 10 people I am able to convert their answers into percentages easily. From the questionnaire I found that 90% of people thought that my magazine cover looked similar to other magazine covers and 10% said that it’s original but they could still tell it was a front cover, so overall 100% of people I asked said that they could tell t was a front cover so I was successful in making my front cover look realistic and following forms and conventions of magazines. All the people I asked (100%) said that the contents page looked similar to other contents pages and that they were able to tell it was a contents page. I found the same answers when I asked if my double page was similar to other double page spreads. These results show that I was successful in creating believable magazine pages that follow the conventions of existing magazine pages.

I found that all (100%) said that the magazine pages looked as though they belonged to the same magazine and this was because I used the same colour scheme and fonts on all my pages. For the question what type of magazine does this look like 60% said like a rock magazine because of the images of the guitars, 10% said it looked like Rolling Stone magazine which is a magazine that covers classic rock music and 10% said it looked like a music magazine because of the images of instruments. From this feedback I feel that I was successful in creating a classic rock music magazine as 10% of people even said it looked like an existing magazine in the genre I was creating my magazine for. Half (50%) said that the magazine seemed a fair price because of the content and it is a monthly magazine 40% however, said that it seemed a bit to high. I was expecting quite a few people to say it was expensive, almost half did but I feel that I priced the magazine accurately as I researched other monthly classic rock magazines and found that the average price was between £3 to £4.50, so I priced mine at about average. People also have to take into consideration that I am making a monthly magazine which contains at least double the content of a weekly magazine and a free CD. I found that the magazine Classic Rock costs £4.50 and the magazine Record Collector costs £3.50 so I took this into consideration when I chose the price for my magazine.

My magazine cover shares some forms and conventions of existing classic rock music magazines; such as the red, white and black colour scheme, black and white main image, a smaller image in the top right hand corner of the magazine and a free CD. My contents page is set out in a similar way to other classic rock magazines such as having images taking up most of one side of the page and a column on the other side containing the list of contents set out in a traditional list form, divided by different sections. My double page spread follows the forms and conventions of existing music magazines such as an image taking up one whole page of the spread and the interview on the other. As I was trying to follow conventions of classic rock magazines my image was black and white as classic rock magazines tend to use a lot of black and white images. I thought that it was best to try and stick to the conventions of classic rock magazines as this is the best way to convey that my magazine is a classic rock magazine as people only have to look at it to be able to tell what type of music it features and when people are browsing in a shop they want to be able to quickly and easily tell the content of a magazine.

From my questionnaire I found that people would expect to find my magazine sold in multiple places; 80% of people would expect my magazine to be sold in newsagents, 30% music shops, 30% supermarkets, 10% WH Smith and 10% at a petrol station. These are places which I would expect my magazine to be distributed as most other music magazines are distributed in the same shops. Many (70%) people said that the magazine looks like it is aimed at older people and 10% said people in their 30/40’s, this was the age range I was aiming for so I was quite successful is portraying this in my magazine pages.

To attract my target audience I used the forms and conventions of classic rock magazines so that if people in my target audience were browsing through magazines and happen to see mine they would instantly be able to tell that it is a classic rock magazine without even needing to open the magazine. Another feature which I used to attract my target audience is to have a free CD which accompanies my magazine as people are more likely to buy a magazine which has a free gift with it than a magazine that does not as people feel that they are getting more for their money.

The skills I have developed since the construction of my preliminary task are a more sound understanding of photoshop and how it can be used to create magazine pages. I have also learnt how to manipulate images better and easier and how to achieve certain looks or effects that I was not able to before.

Cover Page

Contents Page

Double Page Spread

Images I didn’t use:

These are images I didn’t use as I felt that they did not look realistic enough or good enough to use in a magazine

Final Magazine Cover

Final Contents Page

Final Double Page Spread

Today I made and carried out a questionnaire about my magazine pages to gain feedback for my evaluation. I made a questionnaire consisting of 14 questions and asked 10 people in my class to fill it out. This is a good number of people to ask as it means that I can convert the answers in percentages in my evaluation easily.

This is my questionnaire:

Questionnarie

1.Does the magazine cover look similar to other magazine covers? (Can you tell it’s a front cover) How?
2.Does the contents page look similar to other contents pages? (Can you tell it’s a contents page) How?
3.Does the double page spread look similar to other double page spreads? (Can you tell it’s a double page spread) How?
4.Do the magazine pages look like they belong to the same magazine? Why?
5.What type of magazine does this look like? Why?
6.What audience does the magazine look like it is aimed at? Why?
7.Is the contents page easy to understand? Would you expect the articles listed in the contents page to be in this type of magazine?
8.Is the front cover easy to understand and read?
9.What is good and bad about the magazine cover?
10.What is good and bad about the contents page?
11.What is good and bad about the double page spread?
12.Does the price seem reasonable? Why?
13.Where would you expect to find the magazine being sold?
14.Additional comments about the magazine pages?

What I found:

1.Does the magazine cover look similar to other magazine covers? (Can you tell it’s a front cover) How?

90% of people thought that the magazine cover looked similar to other magazine covers.

10% said that it’s original but that you can tell it’s a front cover.

So overall 100% could tell that it was a front cover so I achieved my goal.

2.Does the contents page look similar to other contents pages? (Can you tell it’s a contents page) How?

100% said yes

The reasons were because there was page numbers, in a list format, different section and the images.

3.Does the double page spread look similar to other double page spreads? (Can you tell it’s a double page spread) How?

100% said yes

The main reason given was because of the layout (text on one side, image on the other.

4.Do the magazine pages look like they belong to the same magazine? Why?

100% said that the pages looked like they belong to the same magazine.

This was due to the similar colour scheme and fonts I used

5.What type of magazine does this look like? Why?

60% said it looked like a rock magazine because of the images of guitars.

10% said it looked like Rolling Stone magazine which is a magazine that covers classic rock

10% said it looked like a music magazine because of the images of instruments.

6.What audience does the magazine look like it is aimed at? Why?

70% said older (could be 80%)

10% 30/40

10% audience that is interested in that genre of music

10% teenagers and young adults

12.Does the price seem reasonable? Why?

50% said that it seemed a fair price because of the content and its a monthly magazine

40% said it seemed a bit too high

13.Where would you expect to find the magazine being sold?

Newsagents – 80%

Music shops – 30%

Supermarkets -30%

WH Smith – 10%

Petrol station – 10%