Year of China -Blog post

The year of china festival was a good experience for the Reinhardt Students. I was able to see some of the back ground work to it due to having a class with Mr Webb so he would tell us about what was going on and show us a little bit.
I wasn't able to go to a lot of the events being put on due to soccer but what i was able to go to and see was the martial arts event and some of the pictures and stories of the history of China.
From the people I spoke to about it, they really enjoyed the event and hope for it to happen again at Reinhardt. I thought it was a valuable cultural experience.

Product Placement in films essay

How the music Industry has changed in recent years

95% of music downloaded today is illegal.

In 2008, Apple became the largest Music retailer in the US.

Job losses in the UK was estimated at 30,000, due to illegal downloading of songs.

The Music industry is always changing, But is the way it's changing for the better?

It seems that nowadays with the decline of the record there is little to no support for up and coming bands who are trying to make it. Music can be bought and illegally downloaded from the internet. Talent is often questioned when new artists come out. Many people are undercooked due to the way they look. The music itself has changed and the way people feel about the lyrics written have little affect or meaning as they once did.

This is a video of the very first time we saw Susan Boyle first audition  on Britian's got talent. When she first walked out people had written her off as a hop hope and laughed a lot at her. She wowed the audience into a standing applause. She is one a very few people who have talent that get picked up for something other then their looks. She was lucky her talent was able to be seen by some top professional judges.

Watching the documentary was a real eye opener for how they can make bad people sound really good. I was watching  the part of the documentary where they got that model girl so sing. She wasn't very good but they were able to make her sound good with auto tune correction. I think many people must be using this nowadays. I think The black Eyed Peas are terrible and must use auto tune correction on every word of the song.

I Often like to sit and watch artist perform Live to see how much they really sound like their music when produced from a studio. 

Such artist who I feel sound like their CD's are : Muse, Prince, Fleetwood Mac and I know there are thousands more out there but these artist are not always the ones we hear everyday on the Radio or see on MTV.

The X factor judges people on their voices but it seems that majority of people who get through and win are good looking people. I understand that the music industry is a business and people need to make money to survive but people will often go with the quickest way to make a quick buck rather then look and search for the right talent who will inspire people for more then just one song. These pop bands out nowadays seems to only be around for one hit and are then dropped within a year and never heard of again. 

The majority of the people who around now in the main spot light never write their own songs or if they do, its usually co written with a professional song writer or a song that is bought from someone else.

Pop Idol and X factor

The music industry has always been hard to get into, millions of people try every year to make it, with only 1% being able to get to that level. In 2001, Chris Fuller, decided  that there was money to be made by hosting a competition in search of the next big talent in England.

The British Invasion

A musical movement of the mid-1960s, the British Invasion was composed of British rock-and-roll  whose popularity spread rapidly to the rest of the English-speaking world, especially the United States which, from the beginnings of rock-and-roll music in the early 1950s, had nearly a monopoly on the genre. 

 The Beatles triumphant arrival in  1964, is widely credited with truly throwing open America's doors to a wealth of British musical talent, and officially beginning what would come to be called—with historical condescension by the willingly reconquered colony—the second British Invasion. 

Dusty Springfield was one of the first British artists to have success in America with a number 1 hit.

I like listening to all different types of music from all around the world, and often try and look out for British artists making it over in America. Some British artists which i find to be quite good usually dont make it over here and its the more commercial manufactured people that do. 

Other artists to come over from Britain to make it big are:

Rolling Stones, Bee Gee's, Rod Stewart, Elton John,Eric Clapton, John Lennon, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Pink Floyd, The Police,Sting, Phil Collins, WHAM, George Michael, Seal, Spice Girls, Coldplay and James Blunt, Amy Winehouse. These are just a few of hundreds who have had songs out and don well in America.

Product Placement -

In 2006, Broadcasting and Cable reported two thirds of advertisements employ branded products. This can allow people to feel connected to the people in the film or the target of a specific group.

I have often watched films where the people wear a certain company design or drink, eat or smoke a certain product for the viewer to see. 
This product isn't just randomly grabbed from off the vending machine but purposely places in the film. By doing this it allows the film company to make a little money by advertising a certain product and it will allow the products company to get some exposure. 
Researchers have found that companies that place products in upcoming box office movies tend to have an increase in stock price starting 10 days before the movie’s release and for three weeks after the movie is released

In the James Bond film Golden eye, BMW used its new BMW Z3 as one of the cars used by james bond causing a lot of sales of this car and BMW's.

In the sex and the city series and films, they used Sky Vodka and Absolute Vodka as a promotion item.


People are more likely to research an item after seeing it in a movie.
People aged between 19-25 have the highest engagement factor so many films are geared towards that age group, as they will remember the products advertised and will try and keep up with the latest fashion/product.


I think Product Placement is helpful to all parties involved. It can help provide money or clothes , food ,  to film companies who might not have the most money but it help get products out onto the market.

Television, hows its changed.

Before 1947, only a few thousand people had television sets in America, fast forward it to the 1990's, now 98% of homes have a television set.

The Average person spends 2.5 to 5 hrs a day watching television.

President Franklin Roosevelt was the First president to appear on television in 1939.
A 30 second ad commercial running in between American Idol costs $750,000

I was speaking to one of my friends on one of my classes the other day. I was saying how when i was younger I was bought a television which was probably around 10 inches squared. I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread and that it was the perfect size to watch television and play my games on. Now, with the advances in television technology, I find televisions with screens less then 30 inches too small to watch anything and play my games. Give it a few more years and who knows how our televisions will look like or the shows will be brought to us.

The Television was brought to us by a 21 year old Philo Taylor Farnsworth in 1927. He had been living in a house with out electricity until he was 14 but began to think of an idea of capturing moving images in a form that could be coded onto radio waves and then transferred back into picture.

RCA the company that dominated the radian business with its two NBC networks invested $50 million in the development of the television. With the development of television, RCA started selling TV sets with 5 by 12 inch pictures.

When the war broke out RCA turned its attention to the war effort so the quality of production of picture took a step back and people were unable to see a good quality images of the broadcasters or hat they were trying to show.

3 Major Networks that controlled a lot of the television programmes between the 1960's and 70's were CBS, NBC and ABC. CBS doubled its profits between 61-66 by playing shows such as The Beverly Hillbillies. Day time television consisted of shows such as dramas about police, detectives, lawyers, until the 1980's when day time talk shows started to discuss to once taboo subject of sex and sexuality. 

Cable was introduced in the 1960's and was aimed at the people in the smaller rural areas but soon people in the big cities wanted it, and soon at 80,000 subscribers in New york alone.

In Great Britain Broadcasting giant BBC which started out in Radio and dominated that then went onto television and dominated that swell producing top quality shows.
In China, television exposure grew from 18 million in 1977 to 1 Billion in 1995.

New Technology (in no particular order)-

1. In the 1980's came the video cassette recorders allowing revers to record and re watch their programs. 

2.Video games also appeared and have always grown in popularity. and often require televisions to be played on. 

3. More cable channels appear showing more programes 

4. Shows and films given ratings and time slots to suit certain audience.

5. High definition
6. television programes viewed on the computers
7. 3D television