1) The film company wishes to advertise its film by releasing a video game, those who play video games would tend to play the video game first and then watch the movie after the game.
2) The video game will keep the movie advertised for longer as it keeps the movie relevant and in the public eye.
Explain at least two uses and gratifications of video games using Blumer and Katz's theory. Refer to The Lego Movie Game to support your answer.
People would play The Lego Movie Video Game because of the social gains they accumulate, for example, Blumler and Katz's theory that people undergo media consumption to socialise. As many children would have played The Lego Movie Video Game, their friends would also want to play the game, meaning more buyers and more money for the company. Another of Blulmer and Katz's theories is that people undergo media consumption as a distraction from the melancholy boredom of everyday life, this is true as people tend to play video games to distract them from their boredom, those who played The Lego Movie Video Game would have bought the game meaning more buyers and more money for the company, as well as this, those who played the game are more likely to watch the movie as they are now aware of the narrative and the characters. The third theory of Blulmer and Katz's is that people undergo media consumption for the goal of self discovery, whether it's because of the characters that they relate to teaching them about themselves or because the narrative teaches them important life lessons which apply to them and therefore teaches them something new about themselves. The last reason why someone would undergo media consumption is because of surveillance. People learn about the world and what's going on due to their media consumption. With The Lego Movie Video Game, this is still true however, there is not much to learn about the outside world and so instead the consumers learn about the narrative and characters of the game and movie, this makes them more likely to watch the movie as they know more about what it's all about.
Analyse how genre codes have been used in The Lego Movie poster campaign to appeal to a family audience.
In your answer you must refer to relevant media contexts.
The Lego Movie contains a lot intertextuality, which means a wide range of people are attracted, for example, the entire move is made made of Lego which attracts a lot of small children who enjoy playing with Lego. There are also superheroes like Batman and Superman which links to the DC universe and attracts anyone who's a fan of it. There are 6 genre conventions for an action movie poster: The main character on the poster, the title really big and bold, the credits, action occurring in the background, a tag line and sometimes a main villain. The poster contains all of these things, the tag line is quite stereotypical "The Story Of A Nobody Who Saved Everybody", which has the same story as The Matrix, meaning more intertextuality and a wider range in the audience. The action in the background is an explosion that takes most of the background which attracts the children in the audience who like action movies as well as adults and teenagers. The main villain is Lord Business who appears very large and intimidating. The medium long shot of the main poster is able to capture all of the action. The four posters of the main characters are extreme close up shots, meaning there are no distractions for the images of the main characters, these main characters attract the target audience as their designs are completely unique from one another, meaning there are many conventions met. There's the stereotypical nobody who saves everybody who looks simple and basic, he then makes everyone else stand out. The stereotypical rebellious girl, a wise old man and a powerful villain.
