Analyse the marketing campaign for ‘Halo 4’ to understand how different media platforms are used to promote computer games

The computer games industry is at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of media forms of mass communication.  Marketing campaigns employ innovative tactics to promote new games or consoles.

By studying games such as ‘Halo 4’ you can gain an understanding of why audiences are moving toward games as a medium of choice.  Some games are so sophisticated that they place the user in a pivotal role in deciding the narrative.  Rather than being a passive consumer the user can actively make choices that influence the narrative. This transforms the viewing experience into one of active participation. One could suggest that this may be the future of entertainment.

Watch this extended trailer for ‘Halo 4’ and note how it marries the mediums of film and games design to create an innovative marketing campaign.

http://www.halowaypoint.com/halo4/en-US/#trailer

Use the links in the resources section to gain a full understanding of the marketing techniques employed in the campaign

Discuss the following in your response;

v  How the marketing campaign employs the mediums of television, film and gaming on an internet platform

v  The marketing devices used

v  How this approach to marketing is innovative

v  The appeal of the science fiction genre

v  The appeal of a ‘first person shooter’ game

v  Intertextuality; similarities to other films, television shows or games

v  The narrative of discovery of new worlds

v  How these marketing device appeals to a range of audiences

You will consider the texts in light of this examination question and offer your written response;

o Explore the marketing strategies used by your selected industry. Use the examples you have studied to illustrate your answer.

This article include a detailed analysis of the marketing campaign and explains how the global sales of the Halo franchise prove that it is bigger than film franchises.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/10/david-fincher-and-conan-o-brien-halo-4-s-secret-weapons.html

This video offers a preview of the Halo feature

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/video/2012/sep/27/halo-4-forward-unto-dawn?INTCMP=SRCH

This article discusses the trailer and how the film and games industry combine.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/sep/30/halo-4-feature-film-online-web-game?INTCMP=SRCH

De-construct the trailer for the ‘Lara Croft’ contemporary computer game and discuss the representation of gender

Lara Croft is, arguably, the most recognisable hero from a computer game.  However, the way that she is represented is problematic and has provoked a lot of debate.  Initially the game ‘Tomb Raider’ presented Lara Croft as a strong, resourceful and brave adventurer who explores tombs and archaeological sites and was intended to counter stereotypical female characters found in games before 1996. Debate surrounds her subsequent representations in a range of mediums, including a film starring Angelina Jolie in 2001, and as to whether Croft is a positive or negative role model.

As Zoe Flowers says, ‘Lara Croft continues to personify an ongoing culture clash over gender, sexuality, empowerment, and objectification.’

You will analyse this trailer to explore how Lara Croft has been represented in this 2013 re-boot of the franchise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkLAVSA_Wgc

Consider the previous representations of Lara Croft in computer games by exploring the links in the resources section.

Your task is to de-construct the representation of Lara Croft to offer a response to the following examination question;

Explore the different ways in which people are represented in your three main texts. 

What should be done:

The exam board advises that you go from ‘the specific to the general’. This means that your exam response needs to focus on the text and then broaden your discussion to cover the issues and debates that arise.

De-construct the trailer by creating a table such as the one below to order your writing.

Denotation –Signifier –What can be seen or heard?	Connotation-Signified-What does it mean?
Costume
Dialogue

This text would allow you to respond to this examination question;

Explore the different ways in which people are represented in your three main texts. 

You could begin like this;

‘In the trailer for the Lara Croft computer game, which is to be released in 2013, the character is presented as a 21 year old explorer on her formative adventure.  Croft is edgier and more vulnerable than the character we are familiar with….’

In his own, inimitable, style Charlie Brooker discusses the representation of gender in computer games

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/17/sometimes-hard-woman-made-pixels

In this article Mary Hamilton argues that the representation of Croft in her new incarnation is lazy in using a controversial back story to make her seem vulnerable

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/13/tomb-raider-lara-croft-rape-attempt

This video compiles computer game representations of Lara Croft 1996-2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8xze-Ngd0Q

This video compiles representation of Lara Croft 1996-2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3x1qS0C3Gw&feature=related

This article in the journal of ‘game studies’ wrestles with the very question that you are considering about the ambiguous representation of Lara Croft, ‘whether she is a positive role model for young girls or just that perfect combination of eye and thumb candy for the boys.’

 http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/kennedy/

Engaging Projects

What makes an effective teacher?

'Organised - Structure - Supportive - Interest - Pace'

Engaging learners

Environment

Inspiring projects

Celebrating Achievement

Clear Progression Routes

Advice and Guidance

Working with industry professionals

Softer skills

High rates of success and achievement

Pastoral Support

Tracking and Monitoring

Self-reflection and analysis

Passion

Vocation

The Impossible

Sound is used in the film to create meaning and to represent the horror of the tsunami. The aural experience is evidently a real focus for the film-makers  from the start when the darkened auditorium is filled with the sound of water reminding the audience that the sound of the tsunami must have been terrifying. The volume is uncomfortably loud and this is matched moments later by the sound of an areoplane landing.  Both scenes forebode danger and suggets that sound is an integral part of recreating the horror of the experience.  This element could have been overlooked but the director foregrounds the sound and suggests it is important in representing the tsunami and how people remember the event.  In being faithful to the sounds of the event the director is trying to link us with the senses of the survivors and to represent their experience. It helps to offer a point of view as it is often the auditory perspective of the person in the narrative.  When the Naomi Watts character is knocked out underwater she loses her hearing and this is reflected in the audio. The family film their Christmas and the tinny sound of the home video is re-created to re-inforce the homely feel. 

The mise-en-scene in this film is suggestive of a horror film and the real life events of the tsunami become more horrific than fiction. The make-up used is reminiscent of body horrors from the leg wound the boy sees on his mother's leg to the zombie like make-up used on Naomi Watts as her character gradually degenerates.  THe director unflinchingly represents the horror of the weaknes of the human body to withstand such physical punishment and its aftermath as the body struggles to recover from the trauma. THe link with the emotional and psychological fallout of such an event is also viscerally represented.  The filmmakers could easily have got this wrong or opened themselves up to mis-representing the event. However, they do not flinch and it is brave film-making to attempt to represent such a traumatic event.

A criticism voiced in comments and reviews of the film is that it shows a Western experience of the tsunami. The original idea comes from an account written by a Spanish Family. However, the family are wealthy Scots- English who live in Japan.   One comment suggested, 'Why are there no Thai people in the film apart from small parts? At least the farangs (westerners) who survived got to go home. Who is telling the Thai stories?' 

The answer would be that in order to appeal to a wide audience the choice  would have been made to film in English with recognisable stars in MacGregor and Watts.  The challenge was to raise the capital to use non-CGI effects which would require ambitious special effects and camera techniques. The stunning and anbitious re-presentation of the tsunami hitting is the selling point of the film and to provide a justified representation of this event the financial outlay in making the film needed to be about £30 million.  The only way to raise this capital would be to assure backers and studios that audiences would apy to see this film. The stars would attract an audience as woudl the buzz around marketing the incredible special effects and the ambitious film-making project of recreating the effect of a tsunami.