Mapping Film Media

BCM241 Blog Post 2

Moving forwards with my ethnographic research of the film media niche, I’ve created a physical map of its broad ‘field site’ to explore the activity and function of this particular niche in its entirety. As pictured above, I focused the branches of this niche into; persona, social media, access, sponsors, production, locations, website, creators and platforms. Due to my interest in all things film and a desire to work in the film industry, I included the production branch as a way to incorporate what I wish to understand for my own experience informed by my “explicit concept” (Geertz 1973). To thus further my knowledge of the production side of the film industry and the production of videos such as these. I also made field sites for the two specific creators I discussed in last week’s blog post to better conceptualise the path of my ethnographic research and discover what I could form a Digital Artefact (DA) around. 

The field site of this media niche expands in several directions, the use of social media as an advertising tool and branch into other mediums like podcasts (LFTS ventured out into a podcast, to discuss screenplay’s even more in-depth in a conversational environment). The two content creators I delved deeper into both functioned primarily through YouTube while having their content, merchandise and other information within their respective websites. Having these websites lead to a further understanding of the background of the creators and their perspectives on film-based content. They both incorporate several social media sites as a means to promote and discuss their content with an audience. Both also had large comment sections filled with various discussions and debates centred around one or multiple aspects of the video they’re under. By observing the issues discussed in the comment sections, I learned of the opinionated nature of this media niche, as well as the openness to debate. 

From a geographical perspective, I found that the films discussed by these two specific creators to be predominately American/Hollywood made films or popular western cinema, both YouTube channels are produced in America and are made up of American presenters so this makes sense however the lack of diversity leads to me to questions around less known films or even Australian made films. 

Problematising my media niche: The (rough) questions I’ve come to ask from creating these field sites are:

• What elements of the film resonate the most with film buffs? 
• What issues need to be addressed further in films? 
• Is there room for Australian and feminist content? If so, will the community enjoy this type of content?  

I want to work in the film industry, so exploring this media niche I think is very relevant for my future career. Seeing how films work and how videos like this are produced is definitely of interest to me. I enjoy editing videos specifically, so some analysation into that aspect could be of use to me going forward in my media career. I propose people similar to myself will be interested in my research of this niche. Although I don’t specifically want to analyse films for my DA, I think making content regarding the elements discussed in film analysis videos could be of use to me creatively, when I decide what to do for my DA. (Ideas for my DA are further discussed in the audio content below). 

NOTE: My media niche for my research has changed slightly since I wrote this blog post as discussed in my pitch, It still works within the larger media niche of film media, however i’ve narrowed it to better suit my interests. (Note made 27/8/2021)