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Prosumers; Tapscott & WilliamsJoe Pettit

+“Wikinomics”

Published in 2006 by Tapscott & Williams

In this book, the arguments “are about the media (distribution in particular), but also about consumption and exchange and about human behaviour. So perhaps for the first time, web 2.0 has brought cultural studies and economics together, and that is important for media studies, as explored by Tapscott & Williams (2006:46)”. – OCR Media Studies A2 textbook –Julian McDougall.

+Prosumers

Chapter 5 of Wikinomics discusses the new age of prosumers, where customers actively participate in the creation and modification of products they consume -- and where “creation” is preferred over the consumption. The chapter begins by relating a discussion between Stanford Professor Lawrence Lessig and Philip Linden, founder of the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), or virtual world, known as Second Life -- which just happens to be where the “meeting is taking place.” Second Life is created almost exclusively by the consumers, making them also the producers, hence the term ‘prosumers’.

+Prosumers in film

The distributors of films have the job of finding the right audience, and they do this through conducting research. The findings that they get from the experiment of different target groups make the public prosumers. As prosumers, the audience have an influence on how the film is made and, linking with pluralism, are active in interpreting the ideology. The article on the left focuses on how we are becoming prosumers, giving the example of a new drama called ‘Dubplate’, in which viewers can vote on whether a certain character should be killed off the show.

+Further examples of prosumers in film Another example of the public being prosumers in film is when research for

the film ‘Blade Runner’ shown that the audience would be more attracted to this title than it’s original, novel adapted title.

The film ‘Leon (1994)’ was critically acclaimed in screen testing though the audience, as consumers, allowed for there to be a removal of one negatively received scene that hinted at the idea of a relationship between a middle aged man and a young girl.

A test screening for the Harrison Ford spy thriller Clear and Present Danger, the audience started to applaud during the main villain's climactic death scene, but "it was over before they could";[12] this resulted in reshoots. According to the director, Phillip Noyce, screening a trimmed-down version of the film for test audiences resulted in "more people thinking it was longer, than when it was long", supporting the studio's insistence on a 142-minute version.

During test screenings of Wolfgang Petersen's Troy, test audiences reacted negatively to the film. The producers reported that audiences listed Gabriel Yared's unfinished score as a factor, calling it "too brassy and bold" and "too old fashioned". On the screening prints, Yared's score had lacked the intended choir parts to balance the "brassy" parts. The filmmakers sought a replacement composer before informing Yared of his firing, and asked James Horner to write a new score in two weeks. In later reviews, several film score critics describe Yared's score as superior to Horner's

+My A2 Film

For my short film I will be conducting audience research and, as prosumers, certain aspects of my film may change due to the research. This could be the ideology, the title (like with my ‘Blade Runner’ example on the previous page), or even the ending of my short film.

Once the film is drafted the audience have the opportunity to once again become prosumers when I conduct audience feedback and screen tests. They may offer recommendations to the film in terms of the style. For example, I plan on making a post-modern film, and the audience may believe it doesn’t come across enough in the editing.