Fantasy Movie Visual Effects Film Studies Essay

Fantasy Movie Visual Effects Film Studies Essay Film, the new form of storytelling, is one of the most entertainment sources in our daily life. It would be very hard to get a movie ticket at the weekends unless you got a reservation. Most of you have preferences to some genre, which keeps you turned on. Fantasy is one of the most fascinating genres, not only in film but in all the forms of art. It helps us to escape from the reality, from all our stress and tensions, for few hours. Most of the fantasy films are adapted from literature. Many would have waiting for your favorite fantasy novels movie release as I am waiting for the new Harry Potter film. You got many expectations for a film, might be wanted a great effects or waiting for your favorite part of the story. If your expectations are not fulfilled by the film makers you would probably disappointed. Film industry is an extremely competitive field with new technologies, creative ideas, and many more things. With the increasing number of new movies, film makers are trying very hard to impress the audience through new stories, visuals, and technologies. Two centuries ago, the famous short film, The Arrival of a Train made the audience to scream and ran out of the theater. The train was that much believable for those people, who were unfamiliar with films. But gradually people started to examine film very observantly. Film makers did everything they can do to make the film much more believable and try to give a new experience to the audience. It is very hard to trick them now, very hard to get their applause. As giant fishes always catch the attraction, some big pictures came and well received by the audience. They are not become success just because of its budget, definitely It would have all the right elements to be a film. In this 21st century, CGI and visual effects become one o f the key elements in films. Film makers are using these effects to impress the audience even the story doesnt demands it. Many films succeed while others become a big visual effects mess. Statement of the problem How much the fantasy film influence the development of visual effects Purpose Significance of the study Research questions 1: what is the influence of fantasy genre in film industry? 2: what is the significance of fantasy movies? 3: what is the role of fantasy films in the development of visual effects? CHAPTER 2: Background Fantasy: Fantasy can be defined as the boundless imagination or the liberation of mind from the reality. There is no limit, we can go anywhere, do anything, talk to animals, and if you want to fly a four headed dragon to the moon you can simply do that. Every single person in this world would have been in a fantasy world at least once in their life time, through their dreams or unbounded thoughts. Many wouldnt have recognized this as fantasy. Among those, some passionate and creative minds travelled lots of distance and found new wonderful stories. Those stories have reached in the real world, preserved for the generations through orally, and later inspired many to write fantasy literature. Fantasy Fantasy films: Fantasy films have been started since the birth of the medium itself. Watching these kind of movies in the silver screen must be a visual feast for the spectators. It would be a real challenge to make these kinds of films at the beginning stage of the film itself because of the visuals which these stories demands. It stands beyond reality so the film makers had to find some innovative cinematic techniques to create the hyper realism on the silver screen. Most of the early films were static shots that filmed an event or action with no editing or other cinematic techniques. They would have used only the ability of the camera to capture image rather than thinking about new cinematic techniques. But before the 20th century few filmmakers have found new filming techniques to create some special effects which give inspiration to others for the invention of many innovative special effects techniques in the following years. With a result of that many fantasy films had born in the silent era of film. The arrival of sound and color in film made an innovative change in the fantasy film genre, which helped the directors to take the viewers more deep inside the fantasy, through emotions and colorful visuals. Fantasy film genre: Sub genre: Sword and sorcery musical fantasy light fantasy dark fantasy History of fantasy film: Fantasy film, consists of the elements of magic, supernatural events, fantasy creatures, fantasy world, fairy tales and sorcery, have events which are unlikely to occur in real life. This film genre is considered to be different from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap. The limitations of the fantasy film genre are not well defined. Early period: In 1896, Georges Melies, a French film director, considered as the father of special effects, filmed the first fantasy film The Bewitched Inn. This film is about a man who goes through some series of dreadful experiences from an inn. The film runs two minutes, might be the longest running film of that time. Melies used the special effects technique called stop trick, which he accidentally discovered while filming street traffic in Paris. Besides stop trick, they also used some invisible wires to drift up the characters hat and clothes towards the wall. In 1898 Melies directed another fantasy film named The Astronomers dream (La Lune à   un mà ¨tre). This film is about the terrific things happening in an astronomers dream. It runs three minutes, lengthier than the previous one. They designed the set very well and it gives more strength to the three minutes narration. In terms of special effects this film mainly reliant on the stop trick but we can see the use of mechanical prop for the moon and a very short stop motion animation on the screen. His experiments were the stepping-stones to further advances in special effects. Again in the year of 1903 and 1904, Melies came up with two more great fantasy movies The Infernal Boiling Pot (Le Chaudron Infernal) and The Impossible Voyage (Voyage à   travers limpossible). In the film The Infernal Boiling Pot, Melies has shown two green goblins doing some incantation on a burning cauldron which have three girls in it. The film runs 2 minutes and they had hand colored each frame of the film to get a colored film. It helped to create more sinister atmosphere and to increase the impact on the audience. The impossible voyage is considered as one of the greatest film of Melies and the important fantasy film of the silent film era. It is an adaptation of Jules Vernes play  Voyage à   travers lHYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Voyage_à  _travers_limpossibleaction=editredlink=1HYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Voyage_à  _travers_limpossibleaction=editredlink=1impossible. The films running time is about 20 minutes, approximately five times longer than other films of that time. Most films prior to this one, mainly consist of one or two shots and they were short in running time, had not developed in a level to tell a complex story. The impossible voyage tells the story of, passengers boarding a train which takes them on an adventure to the sun and even under the ocean. This film had used the advantages of editing and we can see a dissolve effect between the scenes. Through these type lengthier films with great narration, gradually film turn out to be a medium of storytelling. After the great fantasy films from the special effects wizard Georges Melies, lots of movies had born in this genre. By the year of 1910 movies were gradually growing into full length movies, an average of 80 minutes of running time, along with the special and visual effects technologies, which encouraged the film makers to produce more complex fantasy films than the previously done projects. It also helped to expand the potential of the genre by strong narration and provided the fantasy ambiance to the audience. In 1903, Alice in Wonderland, an adaptation film based on the Lewis Carrolls fantasy novel Alices Adventures in Wonderland, came out. The film was directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow and it is impressive for its use of special effects, including Alices shrinking at the entrance Doors and stuck inside of White Rabbits home with her full height. Some of the films special effects were achieved through jump cut and trick photography. The film showed only a few portion of the novel, because many scenes were technically impossible to shoot at that time. However, the film would have been impressed the audience because it was the first time they had seen a visual representation of their favorite novel. Later in 1910 the film had been recreated by the  Edison Manufacturing Company  and directed by  Edwin S. Porter in the original name of the book. In this 10 minutes film, Edwin s Porter couldnt include all the Carrolls memorable characters from the novel. Again in 1915, W.W. Young an American film director made the third adaptation of this film with fifty minutes of running time. This version goes much deeper in to the Carrolls novel than prior films, even fifty minutes is not much enough to narrate Carrolls fantasy story.   In the year of 1910, the most influenced fairy tale of all time, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. HYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Frank_BaumFrank Baum, came into silver screen. This is the first adaptation film based on a novel which had been followed by its sequels. The story happens in a fantasy land called the Land of Oz and Dorothy and her friends are the characters in the story. There is no reliable proof about who directed this thirteen minutes film but many criticizers considered that Otis Turner might have done it. In the same year three more films in this series came out which are Dorothy and the Scarecrow in Oz,  The Land of Oz, and  John Dough and the Cherub, and all are considered to be  lost films. In 1914, three more films came out in this title, all directed by J. Farrell MacDonald and produced under The Oz Film Manufacturing Company. They are The Patchwork Girl of Oz,  the Magic Cloak of Oz, and  His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz, with an average ru nning time of 60 minutes. Later in 1925, another Oz movie was released by the name Wizard of Oz, directed by  Larry Semon. This film changed radically from the novel, introducing new characters and exploits. Along with a completely different plot, the film is all set in a world that is only barely recognizable as the  Land of Oz  from the books. All these Oz films had failed to make any impacts on the audience. Creating a fantasy world is a very difficult thing, if we couldnt make the audience to believe in the story, it all would look completely ridicules. Many film makers had failed to achieve this magic, thus make the genre to wait so long to get its triumph in motion picture. Other superb fantasy films in the early period were  Raoul Walsh  Ã‚  The Thief of Bagdad  and  Fritz Langs  Die Nibelungen both released in the year 1924. The Sound era: Technicolor and sound would be another great achievement in film history. Sound effects could make fear and anticipation in fantasy films or even play with viewers emotion in happy fantasies. Technicolor gave filmmakers the capability to create stunning special effects that impressed the viewers. The most famous film which made use of the magic of color and sound was the 1939 musical fantasy film The Wizard of Oz  directed primarily by  Victor Fleming. A sudden change from black and white to color gave more fantastic effects to the fantasy world and it allowed the filmmakers to deliver the full beauty of the visuals. The Land of Oz was very spectacular, complete with flying witches, wizards, talking trees and animals and many other fantasy elements. We could find many changes in the plot though the film was far more faithful to Baums original book than the earlier film versions. The Wizard of Oz  has considered as one of the best loved fantasy film of all time because of its st unning visuals and strong narration, and it became a true classic. This 103 minutes film was produced by  MGM and the budget was three million dollars, most expensive production up to that time. The film earned six million from the box office and thirteen million from television broadcast rights. That would have inspired many filmmakers to produce fantasy films. 1power of narration à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦taking the viewers along with the story.. Make them to feel the emotions of the characters Give the feel believable of hyperrealism Disney also effectively used a combination of color and sound in many of its fantasy films, both live action and animated. The makers of  The Wizard of Oz  might have been influenced by the success of  Walt DisneyHYPERLINK http://oz.wikia.com/wiki/Walt_Disney_PicturesHYPERLINK http://oz.wikia.com/wiki/Walt_Disney_Picturess  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,  released in the year 1937, which proved that a fantasy film could attract an enthusiastic adult audience too, a trick that earlier Oz films had failed to achieve. Fantasy movies and the film industry: As a cinematic genre, fantasy has traditionally not been regarded as highly as the related genre of science fiction film. Undoubtedly, the fact that until recently fantasy films often suffered from the Sword and Sandal afflictions of inferior production values, over-the-top acting and decidedly poor special effects was a significant factor in fantasy films low regard. Even 1981s  Raiders of the Lost Ark, which did much to improve the genres reputation in public as well critical circles, was still derided in some quarters because of its comic book-like action sequences and tongue in cheek comedy. Since the late 1990s, however, the genre has gained new respectability, driven principally by the successful adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkiens  The Lord of the Rings  and J.K. Rowlings  Harry Potter  series. Jacksons  The Lord of the Rings  trilogy is notable due to its ambitious scope, serious tone and thematic complexity. These pictures achieved phenomenal commercial and critical success, and the  third installment  of the trilogy became the first fantasy film ever to win the  Academy Award for Best Picture. The Harry Potter series has been a tremendous financial success, has achieved critical acclaim, and boasts an enormous and loyal fan base. Following the success of these ventures, Hollywood studios have green lighted additional big-budget productions in the genre. These have included adaptations of the first and second books in  C. S. Lewis  The Chronicles of Narnia  series and the teen novel  Eragon, as well as adaptations of  Susan Coopers  The Dark Is RisHYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Is_Rising_(film)ing,  Cornelia FunkesInkheart,  Phillip Pullmans  The Golden Compass, and  Holly Blacks  The Spiderwick Chronicles. Fantasy movies in recent years, such as the  Lord of the Rings  films, 2005s  Narnia  adaptation, and the first second and fourth  Harry Potter  adaptations have most often been released in November and December. This is in contrast to science fiction films, which are often released during the northern hemisphere summer (June August). All 3 installments of the  Pirates of the Caribbean  fantasy films, however, were released in July 2003, July 2006 and May 2007 respectively, and the latest releases in the  Harry Potter  series were released in July, 2007 and July 2009. The huge commercial success of these pictures may indicate a change in Hollywoods approach to big-budget fantasy film releases. Adaptation Themes, imagery, and visual elements Detailed study of developments in visual effects Case study 1 The lord of the rings trilogy My same philosophy applied to digital effects as to the overall design. I wanted the monsters to feel real right down to the dirt under the fingernails of a Cave Troll or the bloodshot, bulging eyes of Gollum.   Peter Jackson   The lord of the rings film trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson is an epic saga of J.R.R. Tolkiens Lord of the Rings books, become a milestone in the history of motion picture. The trilogies, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and  The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, all released in the year of 2001, 2002, and 2003 respectively.   It was a revolutionary movement in the visual effects film making. Both the book and film had given a new birth to the fantasy literature and film genre. The trilogy achieved commercial, critical and phenomenal triumph. Each film of the trilogy had nominated for the Academy Award for Best picture in the three consecutive years and finally the third chapter, The Return of the King won the best picture award, and becomes the first fantasy film ever to achieve this honor. It won a total of eleven Academy Awards including for the ground breaking visual effects, ties up with the classics Benhur and Titanic. Peter Jackson and crew created an entire digital world to give life to the Tolkiens middle earth. This film is the best example of high fantasy. The story happened in the Middle earth, the three films follow the quest of Frodo Baggins and the fellowship to destroy the One Ring to defeat the Dark Lord Sauron. In the final battle at Gondor, Ring has been destroyed and Sauron and his powers are vanquished. The story is rich with many fantasy elements such as, wizards, dragons, creatures, beasts, giant talking trees and many more .The success of the film showed the scope of fantasy films and encouraged many production companies to green light new fantasy oriented projects. Thus the first decade of the twenty first century got more than fifty fantasy films on the silver screen. All major behind the scenes works had done by the New Zealand based visual effects company WETA Digital. They would have assembled potential people from all fields of animation and visual effects to dedicate years of their lives to create stunning effects that fulfill this high fantasy, middle earth epic story. All three films got more three thousand effects shots. WETA Digital had used many visual effects technologies to create the effects and creatures. They have invented new technologies and changed some existing technologies to overcome the challenges in creating some scenes. One of the most exciting creatures in  the film is Gollum, who was born like a hobbit named Smà ©agol, but transformed into something far more frightening as a result of his encounter with the ring. For creating Gollum, they have used very advance motion capturing. Gollum would be the most sophisticated digital character seen at that time. Visual effects technologies The lord of the rings trilogy had used many ground breaking visual effects to create the fantasy. WETA Digital is the major effects studio behind the films, but some shorts are also given to the studio Digital Domain. WETA had used many technologies to achieve the effects. Here we are going to look through those technologies. Massive Creating the war scenes are one o the most challenges faced by the filmmakers. All films in the trio had more than one war sequence in which thousands of soldiers are fighting. Creating this kind of mass crowd is a big problem that had not been solved in film making. A research to develop a new technology to overcome this problem had conducted in WETA Digital by the technical director of the film Stephen Regelous. It resulted in the creation of new software called MASSIVE (Multiple Agent Simulation System in Virtual Environment). It can easily generate thousands or millions of agents that all act as individuals and can respond individually to its surroundings. These reactions affect the agents behavior, changing how they act and controlling motion captured animations to create a realistic looking characters. The software used fuzzy logic to achieve this kind of properties. This technology helped WETA to create the epic war sequences. This technology is a great contribution to the vis ual effects industry and later it used in many films. Subsurface scattering Creating the creature Gollum was another big challenge for the director. This character played a main role in the films. Gollum was brought into life by the combine efforts of computer animation and sophisticated motion capture technology utilizing fluid dynamics. They studied many kinds of anatomy to create realistic joint movement based on actual organic muscle and bone. For getting more realistic look they have applied sub surface scattering shader for the first time. WETA developed vast amounts of code to create Gollum, notes Peter Jackson. They developed new modeling codes, new skin codes, new muscle codes. He is amazingly life-like and we were able to give him a range of expressions from the evil of Gollum to the sympathy of Smà ©agol. Peter Jackson  

The Metamorphasis by Franz Kafka Essay -- essays research papers

Early one morning, Gregor woke to discover he had transformed into a human-size bug. However, it was not him turning from a young man into a bug in the matter of one night that worried Gregor, but the fact that he was going to be late for work! After reading the first several pages, one might find themself bewildered as to why and how Gregor dealt with this transformation with such stride. No, Gregor had not lost his mind, nor had he expected this situation to ever occur (How could something so singular ever be anticipated for that matter?). It was instead, the mere fact that working as a slave to the relentless, capitalist society he knew as life had alienated Gregor to the point that such a change as becoming a bug was nothing more than a confirmation of his insignificant place in the world.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Attention. A simple word, yet without it, even the proudest slip into the darkest shadows of life. It is essential to human survival, and is the key concept towards understanding the ongoing transformation of Gregor throughout the story. Instead of worrying about their son and his new, awkward condition, Gregor’s parents worried about themselves, and how this tremendous change would affect their lives. What Gregor longed for, a chance to be loved and treated as a part of the family, was sadly what his own parents and sister failed to see all along. They paid no attention to his emotional or physical pain, but rather disowned the idea all together that thi...

Planet Organic Marketing Report

Through primary research we wish to study the marketing strategy for Planet Organic particularly in the use of interviews, questionnaires and in store visits. Having arranged an interview with the Store Manager of the Westbound Grove branch, we hope to ask questions that we feel could contribute towards our final marketing report. Through the use of the questionnaire this will give us particular help with looking into the demographics of our chosen retailer. We also expect to carry out secondary research with the help of Planet Organics newsletter, the Internet and the Planet Organic website.We will analyses newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian in which will enable us to view information on its retail competitors as well as general articles on organic farming. I nurturing ten process AT writing tons report we alma to nave regular contact Walt a spokesperson representing Planet Organic. This will help us gain both an informative insight into the marketing techniques and environment. To anchor our information on the micro/macro environment we will produce a SOOT analysis within our report, which highlights the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats ofPlanet Organic. 2. Micro Environmental 2. 1 Company â€Å"Planet Organics natural ethos also extends to our beliefs about health and how complementary therapies and remedies can prevent and cure illness. Nourishing our families with good wholesome home cooking combined with a complementary approach to well being is the foundation for a healthy, vital life now and for generations to come. † Renee Elliott 2000 Planet Organic is a unique supermarket dedicated to organic and other ethically sourced products.They have 4 stores spread across some of the most affluent areas of London and have a large target arrest of organic consumers looking for essentially chemical-free , fresh or minimally processed food. Their mission is to raise awareness of British farming and organic goods while fi ghting against genetically modified foods. Renee Elliott a former American wine Journalist opened her first Planet Organic store in 1995 in Noting Hill, with each restaurant containing a designated seating area where customers can purchase foods from the deli counter, offering a selection of fresh Organic Produce.The shelves in all four stores are aligned according to Meat, Dairy Products, Confectionery and Health and Beauty. When walking into a Planet Organic Store you have immediately stepped into what is set out to be like a market stall of fresh fruit and vegetables. The shop is very appealing to the eye with its color coordination and neatly stacked shelves. The smell of the fresh deli counter makes shopping in Planet Organic thoroughly enjoyable instead of the hustle and bustle that you may encounter when shopping in other supermarkets such as Testes and Kingsbury.This is why Planet Organic continue to have such a loyal sense of customer value, they want to make your food shop ping experience enjoyable and relaxing. More and more people are choosing to arches and look into eating organic food because they want to know what they are eating, the reassurance that the environment has not been harmed in the process of which their food has been produced This year Planet Organic are celebrating 1 5 years since they opened as the first organic and natural supermarket in the I-J.Planet Organic became the first Soil Association certified organic supermarket in the I-J when they first started in 1995, they were also the first to have an organic British meat and fish counter within a supermarket. I en company were also ten TLS London retailer to KICK start ongoing trend of replacing plastic bags with biodegradable bags, this has been picked up on with many other large retailers such as Waitress, Testes and Kingsbury. Planet Organic now have their own website (www. Planetarium. Com) in which consumers can purchase products online and have them home delivered.This is u seful to their loyal consumers, as unlike many supermarkets such as Waitress and Marks and Spencer, accessibility is limited due to such a limited amount of stores. The website entices customers with ‘gift ideas' and gives factual information in ‘Renee's blob (The company director of Planet Organic). In this blob she introduces ewe and innovative recipes such as ‘Soaked Cinnamon and Apricot Porridge' and ‘Parmesan Baked Asparagus', she also directly targets mothers with young children, for example what to put in their packed lunch or meals that both grown ups and children will enjoy.This blob is updated almost weekly and is full of informative and current news that makes an entertaining read. Planet Organic also send out a monthly newsletter with details of latest products, environmental and health issues and ‘Planet Organic News'. They do this to keep that close relationship that is needed between a retailer and its consumers thus creating brand loyalt y. Planet Organic is not Just a foods supermarket; â€Å"We believe the body can usually heal itself, not with medicines that often Just suppress or mask symptoms, but with natural remedies that support the body in the healing process† (Renee Elliott).They particularly specialize in herbal remedies, vitamins and minerals as well as providing consumers with organically produced cosmetics such as make up and body lotions. 2. 2 Suppliers The company sells over 27 different products within each category. Books, Vitamins, supplements, natural remedies, body, face care and make up are only a small part of the company's success. They sell organic free range eggs and organic meat (all animals are vegetarian). Planet Organic only sells natural, free range organic products. The business was the first to be part of the Soil Association Organic Standard in the I-J.The soil Association is a charity, which campaigns for planet friendly food and farming. They believe that the connection bet ween food, soil and health of people is very important, which is also very important within Planet Organic. Planet Organic are forever introducing new products into the market, by promoting conventional farming, home grown products and raising awareness about health. By sourcing organic food from sustainable producers this reduces the environmental impact of consumption of items brought through its stores.Planet Organic have a British policy on buying meat and British first for fruit and vegetables. Suppliers come from local areas in London and Planet Organic is always trying to promote local businesses. Planet Organic sources and sells seasonal produce, which therefore minimizes transport and thus the impact on the environment in which helps to reduce the carbon footprint. Planet Organic maintain regular contact with tenet suppliers Ana attend trace snows to Tina ten Test new products I nee are committed to British farmers, bakers, producers and manufacturers and continue to mainta in high standards.Planet Organic is also part of Fair-Trade, which is an organized social group that helps people in developing countries to earn a respectable wage and living. Fair- Trade also ensures that better prices are obtained, decent working conditions, local sustainability and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. Companies are required to pay sustainable prices, which must never fall below the market price. Fair-Trade helps to stop the injustice of trade; which in the sat has been unjust and discriminated against the poorest and weakest producers.Fair-Trade enables the workers to improve their position and have more control of their lives. 2. 3 Intermediaries The intermediaries, also know are wholesalers, the middlemen or distributors, are what fill out the gap between the point of production and the point of sale. They can help overcome the lack of compatibility between the suppliers and the end customers (being Planet Organic) by reducing t he number of contacts between the two. This would also help in reducing the costs of the distribution and selling.The organization must decide whether to involve an intermediary, this can be determined by its size or also whether they trust the resources and skills of the produces to successfully meet the needs of the consumer. Most often the intermediaries add value to an organization in different ways, firstly to the marketing side as long as they are effective to the producers goods and the distribution channel, as they most likely know their target market. Making sure that the goods are stocked appropriately so that the economic and life-style needs match the shoppers, for planet organic being natural, healthy, environmental friendly products.Planet Organic uses intermediaries for the majority of their products. Around 60% meaning 40% of their products are delivered directly from the suppliers. They use 4 major consolidators, The Health Store and The Tree of Life are cooperate w holesalers for natural and organic products. They are two of the leading health Food wholesalers in the I-J. The Health Store is based in Nottingham and has been trading over 76 years throughout the I-J, Ireland and Europe. A Dutch company called the Royal Weakens NV that is based in the Netherlands owns the company Tree of Life. They distribute food products throughout North America and Europe.Planet organic uses their Newcastle branch. Another 2 intermediaries used by Planet Organic are Marigold and Lingering Organic. Marigold health foods are only based in the UK and distribute their products within a 60-mile radius from their warehouse in Kings cross using refrigerated vehicles. 60% of their product lines are organic. Lingering Organic is based in New Covent Garden, London and specializes in the distribution of organic Truly Ana vegetables Language started In ten early Bus's supporting local UK Tarts however they have now growers throughout Europe and the rest of the world.Plane t Organic also has an online shopping and delivery service. Goods to their consumers bought from the website are distributed from their Westbound grove branch. They have their own van for fresh items delivered only to certain areas within London. All other orders such as non-fresh items or for delivery outside the UK are sent mainly through Parcel Force and are carbon neutral. All of their distributors from the store use echo-friendly packaging. The cardboard boxes used for packaging are 100% post-consumer recycled and are made within the I-J, even the printed ink is made from vegetables.They use gummed paper made from starch as tape, the bubble wrap is biodegradable, which is an organic material that will quickly brake down in landfill and be absorbed back into the soil harmlessly. For their fragile items instead of Styrofoam they use expanded corn, which are completely comfortable. Parcel Force is part of the Royal Mail Group, and for over 14 years there express delivery services have been covering 27 million addresses in the I-J. 2. 4 Customers We conducted a customer survey at planet organics Westbound grove branch.The main research objective of this study was to find out what type of customers shop at lane organic and why. To collect primary data a questionnaire asked customers about the main purposes of their visit. The questionnaire was made up of 15 closed questions with a pre-set list of possible answers and was conducted inside the store itself. The customers who participated in the survey completed the questionnaire in our presence. We used a convenient sampling approach and a total of 36 questionnaires were collected during a two hour time slot. We determined the size of the sample by the resources availability and the limited timescale.Due to the Westbound grove branch being the largest of the 4 planet organic stores, made it important to approach customers shopping in different sections and aisles of the store including customers sitting down and having lunch. This is so that we did not to concentrate on 1 particular type of customer who might only be shopping for 1 specific type of product. It goes without saying that the results shown in figure 1 and 2 are a clear majority. Many customers, when asked if they shopped online with planet organic, were surprised to find out that they had a website with home delivery.This also goes to how that in figure 3 only 5% heard about planet organic online, the 31% form word of mouth and the majority with 61% saw the store when passing by. The 19% of male customers were mostly with families; one man said ‘I'm only here because my wife gave me the shopping list, she's crazy for organic'. However there were a few men that were vegetarians or had special dietary needs. Figure 1 Figure 2 Hogue s Hogue 4 The results show in figure 4 that the majority of customers lived locally with 58% and secondly worked locally with 17%.The 8% who were Just visiting, did so, along with another custom er who lived around the area. The least amount of customers were tourists with only 6%, on the other hand the few tourists had specifically sort after organic products, whether planet organic had been suggested to them or searching themselves on the internet. Moving on to figure 5 and 6 below, we can point out that most customers walk (with 69%) to the store taking them generally 5 minuets or less (with 47%), where as only 3% use their private vehicles or motorbikes.This result proves to us that they are highly likely too live locally as seen once again in figure 4. Customs traveling the longest accounted for 19% though no customers travel time kook longer than 30 minuets. Figure 5 Figure 6 Results in figure 7 below show that planet organic attracts a large range of their customers between the ages of 25 and 44, Just over 60%, with 28% aged between 25 and 34 and 33% aged between 35 and 44. The minority of customers are aged between 18-24, various reasons for this were due to student life and funds, not being aware of the benefits with organic food, visiting or happen to pass by.The customers aged 65 or over stated mainly that their reason for shopping there simply because planet organic was the closest supermarket to them. Notice in figure number 8 the majority of shoppers with 36% are in pm or later mainly due to finishing work. Before 1 lam with 11%, again before work, 17% of customers shop at different times, 14% between 1 lam and pm and 22% that shop between pm and pm. Figure 7 Figure 8 Planet organic clearly appears to have loyal customers acting on the information given figure 9, customers shopping one a week with 36% and those who shop more than once a week with 25%.Very few were there as a one off with only 3%. It is obvious in figure 10 that when asked whether they visited other planet organic stores round London and if so where, the question was no with 67%, they keep to their local Westbound grove branch in Backwater. However 25% had been to the bra nch in by Darlington place Camden, 5% to planet organic in Isolation and least with 3% Mussels Hill. Looking at figure 11 the majority with 33% of planet organics customers shop at Marks and Spence's, they more or less have similar price ranges, quality food and Marks and Spence's hold a variety of free range and organic foods.Minority of customers with 6% said they shopped at Tests. Customer's second and third main supermarket choices were Kingsbury with 19% and Waitress with 22% , e believe this is mainly due to the fact that Kingsbury and Tests are conveniently close to planet organic, within the same area. Hogue Y Hogue Figure 11 Seeing as Planet Organic hold a wide range of organic, gluten free, dairy free, wheat free, vegan and vegetarian products, the question was asked whether they were vegetarian or vegan. 28% stated vegetarian, 8% vegan and 58% said neither.The remaining 6%, who stated other, had special dietary needs such as lactose or wheat intolerant. This lead to a que stion concentrating on what type of products they regularly bought from planet organic. The most popular products bought, shown in Geiger 13, with 47% were general groceries including beverages, home and household products. The least poplar products with only 6% of customers mainly bought bakery, 8% came for the fruit and vegetables, 11% for health and body care products, 22% for lunch/dinner or food on the go.Also with 6% were customers who came and bought a selection of everything. Figure 12 Figure 13 One of the most interesting questions in our opinion is the main reason why people purchase organic food. Precisely 50% of planet organics customer's motives for purchasing organic food are that they understood it is much healthier for them. They leveled that organic produce will not be full of man-made chemicals and that organic meat for example did not contain antibiotics or hormones.They also believed that organic fruit and vegetables had not been harmed by fungicides or pesticide s. Organic foods are mostly kept the same from the time they are grown until the time they are displayed in the store. Nothing is added and foods are not processed, as a result of this, for 22% of the customers this was the reason they thought organic food tasted better and believed that buying organic meant buying quality. Other customers at 9% shopped at planet organic because buying organic reduce meant being environmentally friendly.They knew that organic animals were treated better than conventional animals. There were 8% of customers who mainly needed dietary product such as gluten free, dairy free or wheat free products. The remaining 11% of customer didn't specify a reason for shopping at planet organic other than the store being the closest to them and for convenience. As seen earlier in figure 45 this category co in sides with customers that were age 60 or over. Figure 14 Overall planet organics customers were very sociable and welcoming. They liked to express their views. We also asked a 1 5th question, which entailed occupation, however instead of formulating the question into a closed question we collected each individual answer through a box question. Out of all 36 customers that participated in out questionnaire neither of them had the same occupation as another. They ranged Trot sculpture artists, Dustless consultants, pr collocates, grapnel gleaner, lecturers, site managers and antique dealers to unemployed, retired and entertainment or fashion industry workers. The male customers seemed to have creative occupations such as architects.Where as the women who shopped in the diddle of the day said they were unemployed or charity workers, this could mean they were house wives or had no necessitate making money. 2. 5 Competitors Planet Organic believes in ethical and sustainable farming, therefore the natural and wholesome food company has a highly competitive and volatile business field. We mainly believe that the key competitors for Planet Organic are actually the larger leading supermarkets who have recently expanded their companies and opened their market field to consumers who appreciate organic products.Recent statistics have confirmed that large Supermarkets are responding to their customer requests ND are making efforts to both stock organic and locally-grown produce which allows consumers to be ‘green' shoppers, choosing from locally grown, ethically sourced goods. [The Telegraph, 15th October 2007. ] The organic food market is rapidly increasing therefore the competition between supermarkets is rising dramatically. The increase of product availability and the expansion of purchaser interest in premium foods have fuelled sales.Figures illustrate that fruit and vegetables comprise to be the largest sector of organic foods and the main entry point to the market. From 2002 to 2008 organic dairy products have more than doubled in retail ales and Minute predicts that the market is set to grow by over 54%, from 2007-2 012. (Minute Report, 1st February 2008. ) Three of the major UK retail chains; Waitress, Kingsbury and Marks and Spencer are all examples of supermarkets that are direct competitors for Planet Organic.All three supermarket chains have been awarded ratings of grade B by the National Consumer Council (NC) for their stocking of environmentally friendly foods and goods. Waitress has made enormous efforts over the past years to increase their organic range and their business sales are dramatically increasing due to their quality of fresh produce. Moreover, Waitress's main target audience is middle-class consumers, which conflicts with Planet Organic as they both aim to appeal to a similar target market.Waitress offers fair trade products to consumers in order to ensure that workers in less developed countries get a fair wage and are treated in a fair manner. Likewise, Planet Organic proposes the idea of selling fair trade products, which increases the competitiveness between the two busi nesses. In addition, Waitress is known as the best chain retailer when it comes to trading practices, sourcing from I-J farmers and committing to smaller appliers allowing them to stock the largest range of organic fresh produce.Yet, sources confirm that consumers find that the fresh produce at Waitress is exceedingly cheaper than Planet Organic, which means that many customers would resort to Waitress over Planet Organic itself. However, sources did corroborate that Planet Organic do stock a high percentage of products that are not viable to find elsewhere, but the question is can we do without most of those if needs be? [Urban Path- Planet Organic Reviews, 2nd January 2008. ] Furthermore, Kingsbury is another K retail canal Tanat Is a Key competitor Tort Planet organic, as It offers ten most suitable range of organic products for their target market.Kingsbury organic range primarily focuses on goods such as fruit, vegetables, dairy products and meat. It has been shown that food sa fety scares have promoted consumers to seek greater guarantee about the value and quality of the meat they buy. Therefore, with Kingsbury stocking organic meats, profits and loyalty with customers will increase as the consumers know they are receiving produce that is fresh, making organic stores such as Planet Organic observe them as being great competitors.Kingsbury has been voted the number one organic food retailer in the UK by a panel of consumers therefore this highlights the success that the organic products have had upon the other retail stores. Kingsbury sales have significantly been increasing due to the growing popularity of its organic and premium food ranges, and Mr. King (Chief executive) implies that â€Å"Kingsbury strong quality food offer has helped it take customers away from rivals such as Tests and Sad. † [The telegraph, 20th June 2007. Moreover, this entails that Planet Organic has suffered a loss of profit due to key permeated chains increasing their pro duce of organic foods. A further example is Marks and Spencer and how they have improved there value of organic food with sales rising 48% this year, with their organic range doubling in size to almost 500 products. M&S, like Planet Organic focus on targeting the middle class audience, by producing organic food that meets the higher food standards.M&S believe strongly in sustainable farming and free range products therefore, since 2009 their entire fresh whole ducks, geese and majority of turkeys came from free range products because of response to customer requests. Similarly, Planet Organic offers the same free range assistance which again can cause rivalry between the companies. However, especially since the recession consumers have believed Planet Organic is too pricey for a regular food shop and therefore alternate to M&S as there organic produce is cheaper and still satisfies the consumers.Overall, the rising sales of organic products in larger supermarkets puts smaller food s tores I. E. Planet Organic in danger, as the smaller suppliers have to think of new ways in which they can attract there target audience to come to there shops instead of committing to the argue supermarkets. Due to the fact that all of the above UK retail chains offer a similar supplies as Planet Organic they are all seen as a psychical threat to the company. 2. 6 Publics Publics are groups that have an interest or could potentially have an impact on Planet Organics abilities to achieve their goals and objectives.The general publics are one of the groups that can have a great impact on a Planet Organic. Whether the change is positive or negative, a change in the general publics attitude can cause change within Planet Organics reputation and profitability. Another group of people ho can have an impact on Planet Organic are their employees; these are people who are employed within the company, this can range from its sales associates to the farmers. Companies that could affect Planet Organic are Fair trade, Ere sign and Organic Standards.We also found six main groups, which have a great impact on Planet organics adjectives Ana products * Soil Association * Green Providers Directory * I-J Organic Directory * Organic Food * Cycle Lifestyle * Fair Trade I nose SIX companies Include: Planet Organic support all of these companies by stocking and promoting their goods thin their store. Planet Organic also provides leaflets and details about these organizations for its consumers to find more information on, they work closely together in order to create public interest.The above companies main concerns of health implications are similar to Renee Elitist's, which is great publicity for Planet Organic being linked with them and vice versa. Organizations such as Soil Association is not funded by the government as it is a charity based company relying on donations and support from members as the public in order to continue to carry out their work. The Food Ethic Council al so retirees over 80% of organic food sold within the I-J, aiming to inform the public about the many benefits of organic food and farming, they also have a similar mission statement to that of Planet Organic.

Sector Of South Africa Essay Example Pdf - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 1045 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Economics Essay Type Compare and contrast essay Tags: Africa Essay Banking Essay Did you like this example? In this section, we will be looking at the Banking sector structure of South Africa compare it with the economy of Brazil. We will discuss topics like number of banks, concentration ratios, banking sector credit-to-GDP, liquid liabilities-to-GDP, foreign bank penetration, leading competitors, profitability, and risk and asset quality. South Africa has the largest and most sophisticated financial market in Africa. The financial services sector, in particular the banking sector, has well-established credit and management information systems. The South African banking system is well developed and effectively regulated by the central bank the South African Reserve Bank- as well as a few large, financially strong banks and investment institutions, and a number of smaller banks. Many foreign banks and investment institutions have operations in South Africa. The SA banking industry is made up of 17 registered banks, 2 mutual banks, 12 local branches of foreign banks , and 43 foreign banks with approved local representative offices. Brazil on the other hand has a large no of banks which are operating in different parts of the country. With these numbers of banks in SA the banking sector in South Africa is highly concentrated. In South Africa, the top four banks have approximately 89% of retail deposits. This is high by international standards. The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (H-index) is a widely respected barometer for measuring market concentration in a banking system. The level of concentration in the South African banking sector measured using the H-index is presented is given below. The index measured 0.187 at the end of December 2011 which means very high level concentration. The high concentration prevalent in the South African banking sector is attributable to the high concentration of banking-sector assets among the four largest banks, which accounted for 84.1 % of total banking-sector assets at the end of December 2011. While for Bra zil as there are so many banks present the concentration ratio should be very less and it will have a great competition (though the H-index for Brazil was not available anywhere). Investment and merchant banking remains the most competitive front in the industry, while the countrys big five banks Absa, FNB, Standard Bank, Nedbank and newcomer Capitec dominate the retail market. The oligopoly structure and the perception that there are high costs in delivery of retail banking services in South Africa have militated against entry into the retail banking sector. However, a number of foreign entrants have taken advantage of the relatively lower costs of entry into the corporate banking sector, which has increased the level of choice and countervailing power in this sector. It has attracted a lot of interest from abroad with a number of foreign banks establishing presence in the country and others acquiring stakes in major banks, for example, the Barclays ABSA and Industrial and Co mmercial Bank of China Standard Bank deals. As mentioned above the banking sector has 43 international banks with authorised representative offices in South Africa. There are more than 15 countries who have their banks in Brazil with over 130 branches spread across Brazil all performing different functions. (Source Central Bank of Brazil). Liquid Liability Liquid liabilities are also known as M3. They are the sum of currency and deposits in the central bank (M0), plus transferable deposits and electronic currency (M1), plus time and savings deposits, foreign currency transferable deposits, certificates of deposit, and securities repurchase agreements (M2), plus travellers checks, foreign currency time deposits, commercial paper, and shares of mutual funds or market funds held by residents. So compared to South Africa, Brazil has always had more of liquid liability and it also has been increasing year after year. But for South Africa there seems to be slight dip from 2009 to 20 11. Profitability- The most common measure of bank performance is profitability. Profitability is measured using the following criteria: Return on Assets (ROA) = net profit/total assets shows the ability of management to acquire deposits at a reasonable cost and invest them in profitable investments (Ahmed, 2009). This ratio indicates how much net income is generated per  £ of assets. It is usually said that higher the ROA, the more the profitable the bank. As seen from the graph below that ROA of South Africa took a dip in 2010 due to the crisis but has been improving significantly in the last two years. ROA ratios for Brazil were not available. Return on Equity (ROE) = net profit/ total equity. ROE is the most important indicator of a banks profitability and growth potential. It is the rate of return to shareholders or the %age return on each  £ of equity invested in the bank. As seen below in the chart the ROE too has been improving from 2010 after it saw a dip becau se of the crisis. ROE ratios were not available for Brazil. Now we compare these two countries and see the pros and cons based on the points discussed above. The numbers of banks in South Africa are less and they have an oligopoly  form of markets and so the cost to enter the markets may be high. And opposite to that the Brazil has very large no of banks so the competition  faced will be very high. The concentration ratio is directly proportional to the no of banks present. SO the concentration ratio is very high in South Africa as compared to Brazil. Participants in the oligopoly market  frequently maintain their position of dominance because it is too costly or difficult for potential rivals to enter the market or due to the high cost of entering the market the oligopoly market exists. The foreign penetration in both the country seems to be quite good but with Brazil having more of the foreign banks. In this case investing in South Africa seems a better opt ion just for the reason of facing less competition in South Africa. The M3 ratio for Brazil is on an increase but for South Africa these has been a slight dip showing that there is a lot of scope of improvement in that area. The profitability ratios have been on an increase for South Africa which is a good sign. But looking at their peaks in 2008, this area also seems to have a lot of scope of improving. So, in conclusion, investing in South Africa is a good option but not in retail area but in the commercial area. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Sector Of South Africa Essay Example Pdf" essay for you Create order