Case Study Research: The Boat that Rocked

Case Study Research on Prezi

Case Study Questions:

Case Study Questions

Kick-Ass Essay

Kick Ass Media Essay

AS Coursework Schedule 2010/11

G321 AS Course Work Schedule 2010-2011

Working Title Synthesis

Working Title Synthesis

Movie Preliminary

New Technologies Essay

What is the Impact of New Technologies on the Film Industry

Ethnicity

Stereotypes of white people in the media:

• Skinny women - size zero
• class structure
• law abiding
• blonde - big chested
• drink alcohol
• stressed, worried
• educated
• academic
• eloquent
• nerd
• up-tight
• stupid - characters, usually white
• often bad guys
• bitchy
• slags
• range of hair colour
• range of eye colours
• can't jump
• can't run fast
• formal speech - Queen's English
• sarcastic

Stereotypes of black people in the media:

• Big booty
• Gangster
• rappers
• can't swim
• smoke weed
• relaxed, chilled back
• generally die in films
• criminals
• cooler than white
• more muscular
• more musical variety e.g. rap, reggae, soal
• big lips and noses
• colour 'black' is always mentioned
• swagger
• own lingo
• 'Terrible farthers'
• pimps
• religious
• gospel
• big families

Targets - How to improve my essays

Targets:
1. Must use British examples and compare to Hollywood;
2. Examples from our case study should be used i.e. Working Title, and then compare them to Hollywood and Warp Films;
3. Refer back to the question, in this case the impact new technologies have on the industry;
4. Our main focus is Audience and Institution;
5. Use 'audience' as a substitute for 'you' and 'us' etc;
6. Terminology is key, so make use of the terms I know to get better marks;
7. Give detailed points, and explain them not describe. Use PEE to do so.

To get better marks on my next essay, I am going to revise these targets to help me inprove on my work.

Audience theories

Task 1:
1. Do you think that audience for most media texts do come from "all walks of life" or do different kinds of people watch very different kinds of programme? Are there any examples of media texts that you can think of that do seem to have audiences of all kinds of people?
   
   Different sorts of people from different backgrounds watch or read different sorts of media texts. The type of background a person is from will affect the sort of interests that someone has and therefore they will be interested in different genre's and a different variety of texts. For example, the channel 4 series 'The Inbetweeners' will appeal more to teenagers and people that are interested in innapropriate behaviour.

2. How much of your media experience occurs when you are on your own and how much when you are with others?

   When I am with others that I am often with, I tend to share my media experience with them. I also spend just as much time doing this when I am on my own. Although, if guests are invited round, then I spend no time experiencing media, as we tend to communicate with them instead.

3. Think back to your genre work, how is your media experienced?

   When watching telly, the genre's I have experienced are Reality TV; Soaps; Comedies; Drama's; Quiz Shows.
When watching films, the genre's I have experienced are Action; Comedy; Romantic comedies.
When looking at newspapers/magazines, the genre I tend to look for are Sport; Gossip; Horoscopes

4. Are there any ways in which you share your experiences of the media who weren't around when you experienced the texts?

    People share experiences of media through many forms such as Facebook; msn; talking; watching a Tv programme at the same time at someone else.

Task 2:

1. Can you think of any examples where the media have been seen to influence public behaviour or have been blamed for an individuals behaviour?

   The first ending made for Paranormal Activity that was screend in America, caused members of the public who saw the film the kill themselves. After this, the film had to use an alternate ending for further showings.
Also, size zero models seen in magazines and on the catwalk can easily influence people into wanting to be like them and therefore ending up making themselves ill, just because they want to look like someone they saw a picture of.

2. Is this influence always negative?

     No, sometimes there may be an inspirational character in a film who does something that makes or difference to people or an individual may just admire them. Therefore people may try and act like that person or character and do positive things to try and be like them.

Animoto Presentations - Audience Theory:

Film Theories

Here are 3 theories created by 3 different people on what generally happens in films:

Claude Levi-Strauss (1908-2009)

He came up with the theory of binary opposites, for example:

• Good v Evil
• Black v White
• Tall v Short
• Old v Young      etc.

Vladimir Propp (1895-1970)

He came up with the theory of character roles.

• the hero - the character who seeks something
• the villain
• the donor - who provides an object with some magic property
• the helper - aids the hero
• the princess - reward for the hero, often the object of the villains schemes
• her father - who rewards the hero
• the dispatcher - who send the hero on his way
• the false hero - seems to be heroic initially, turns out to be evil or a red herring

A red herring is a character or object that is introduced as seemingly important. it is then left behind/forgotten/not mentioned again, this character then turns out to have no real importance.

Tzvetan Todorov

This theory was that every story has an equilibrium that is disturbed and then restored.

It has a 3 part narrative structure:

1. equilibrium
2. distruption of equilibrium
3. restoration of equilibrium or new equilibrium

Age Representations

Age representation

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Age Representations

Here is a list of obvious stereotypes for teenagers and old people:


Old People:

• dress smartly
• traditional
• mature
• grumpy
• narrow minded
• smell
• deaf
• rascist
• anti-youth
• like to knit
• lonely
• have there own communities
• strongly opinionated
• interested in puzzles and crosswords
• prefer things 'how they used to be'
• tend to have illnesses/physical problems

Teenagers:

• lazy
• immature
• gangs
• rude
• noisy
• modern
• druggies
• outgoing
• sexually interested
• violent
• rely on other people/parents
• interested in video games and shopping
• sometimes seen as disrespectful
• take care over appearance

Let the right one in

Let the Right One in - Media Essay

Hardware Spider Diagram - Prezi

Hardware on Prezi

Lesson notes: Disability

Disability:
Music played in the background - Ian Dury and the Blockheads 'Spasticus Autisticus'

Views on disabled people:

• Rely on other people a lot;
• Sometimes excell at non-physical things i.e. Stephen Hawking excelled at science;
• Depending on disability - spme more abled still put heart and soul into everything;
• Can be nice, but difficulty to communicate;
• Don't want to be patronising towards them, therefore easy to avoid;
• More confortable around someone physically disabled than mentally;
• Sympathetic towards them.

Famous Disabled people:

• Stephen Hawking (motor neurone)
• Heather Mills (1 leg)
• Gordon Brown (1 eye)
• Stevie Wonder (Blind)
• Ray Charles (Blind)
• Verne Troyer (Dwarf)
• Albert Einstein (Autistic)
• Leonardo DaVinci (Autistic)
• Ian Dury (Polio)
• Terry Pratchett (Alzheimers)
• Mozart (Deaf)

Hollywood link to disability:

• Rainman - Dustin Hoffman
• Forrest Gump - Tom Hanks
• My left foot - Daniel Day Lewis
• I am Sam - Sean Penn
• Born on the fourth of July - Tom Cruise
• Waterboy - Adam Sandler
• The Ringer - Johnny Knoxville
• The curious case of Benjamin Button - Brad Pitt
• Unbreakable - Samuel.L. Jackson
• I-Robot - Will Smith
• Million Dollar Baby - Hillary Swank
• Avatar - Sam Worthington

What makes these succesful: Allows us as an audience to relate better to these disabled people whereas we probably wouldn't if we saw them in person. Also, they are unrealistic, so they give us an idea of a different kind of life where these people become very succesful.

Disabled character Profile:

Click on image above for youtube link to trailer of 50 first dates.

Notes on Lesson: This is England 86

Channel 4 Drama series This is England 86:
 Involved: Shane Meadows - Directed episodes 3 & 4, similarly to film and wrote both film and series; Tom Harper (skins, misfits) - Directed episodes 1 & 2, different to film.
Mark Herbert - Produced episodes alongside Derrin Schlesinger. Herbert was involved in film, Schlesinger wasn't.

Warp films produced the film and tv series
EM media and Screen Yorkshire production both helped finance the project.

Many characters, more than film.

Why make it?
To show the change of culture between skinheads to other social groups. Also, to show how people delt with the recession in those times.

Funding: Big Brother was dropped from channel 4, and therefore channel 4 could afford to put £20 million pounds into new, up-coming drama series' such as This is England '86.

How is it different to film?

Part of the film is the start to the series.
Start of series starts with characters, showing their lifestyles - introducing them to us. Whereas the film starts with images of the 80's.

Some artificial lighting in the series whereas the film used more natural lighting. This is probably down to the different director, and budget.

Camera's aren't as mobile as the film. The movie was filmed with hand-held cameras at points whereas the series isn't as much of the time. Still uses some hand-held camera's at points, to get social-realism effect.

More props and larger range of sets than in the film.
More post-production editing than in the film i.e. slow motion added in.

Notes on lesson: This is England

This is England - facts
Set in 1983
Budget: £1.5 million
Funded by the National lottery
Recieved a further £90,000 from the Uk Film Council after production
Released in 2006
Director: Shane Meadows
Producer: Mark Herbert
Financed by: Warp films

Story based on Shane Meadow's experiences. Who could see a lot oof himself in the story. The main character wasn't really an actor, this film was his very first job.
For the film, Meadows bought a pre-fabricated set, uses natural lighting and bought a lot of props of eBay. He tries to change the perception of 'skinhead' culture with this film. The film has a strong education message, directed towards teenagers, however it was given a rating of 18.

Opening of film:
Intro: Famous British iconic images: Princess Diana getting married; Margeret Thatcher and the Falklands war; Council houses; Rioting; Fighting in streets. All of these things will appeal to people from or familier with that time period.

Social-realism:
Main character getting picked on for what he's wearing. Common in real life. Getting bullied because he's not like the rest of them. Authentic settings (mise en scene) e.g. graffiti, vandalism.

Appeal to British audience: Eating pick 'n' mix, boiled egg sweat, seaside, cold, wet, council houses, small and dark rooms.

Cinematography compared to Hot Fuzz:
Hot Fuzz flicks between images a lot whereas This is England doesn't.
This is England uses a lot of natural lighting whereas as Hot fuzz uses artificial lighting a lot.
Hand held camera's used in This is England, unlike Hot fuzz
No special effects used in This is England, unlike Hot fuzz

Production time line:

1. Idea created and developed;
2. Pitch made;
3. Pitch accepted;
4. Script written;
5. Script approved/edited notes;
6. Budget, storyboard and casting approved;
7. Pre-production;
8. Shooting;
9. Post-production;
10. Final cut;
11. Marketing

The use of 'Male Gaze' looks in music video

Akon - Don't matter  (click on image above to view)

At the begining of the video we get an image of the woman walking out from the house towards the camera. She's not looking at the camera, so we get the idea that she's looking at the man in the video. She produces a 'chocolate box' smile to draw the audience's attention towards her. After seeing her, the male audience have their attention focused on her, and therefore will want to see her again. The rest of the video is focused on her, and she uses many of the other classic looks that Marjorie Ferguson and Trevor Millum suggested.

When she originally walks out from the house, as we talked about before, the female character produces the 'chocolate box' smile, which is described as warmth, where their features are perfect and smooth. This is what is shown here at the begining of the video to introduce us to the character.

She then gets into a car with the male character, and they drive off towards the beach. During their drive, the female character produces the 'super-smiler' look, in which her chin is thrown back, hair wind swept, as if implying that she wants the men to look at her.

Later on in the video, around 1 minute and 45 seconds, the female character is looking back towards the camera with her head titled to one side. Her mouth is shut, almost like it's about to turn into a smile. This is the iconic 'invitational' look, as she is almost suggesting something mischievous may occur.

Throughout the video, the two character's feature in the same image. They're are looking towards each other in a way that suggests that they are in love. This look is known as the 'Romantic or Sexual' look as this shows the love between the two characters in the video. Although it may be romantic, I don't think that it is included to attract a male audience.

Skillset - business

Really good website to help me understand the production process involved in a film.

Production Process Flow Chart

Production Process Flow Chart

Representation:

Representations

View more presentations from hammonda.

Notes on Eva Mendez image

Features:

Hair: Messed up, no attempt to sort it out, wet, post-coital.

Look: looking away from camera, looks distracted, looks away (middle distance), doesn't care whose watching

Arms: authoritive, hands on hips, dominant

Stance: Sunbathing

Body: Sweating, looks more sexy, perfect - maybe too small

Lingerie: draws attention to her, attracts attention to the clothing which is being advertised.

Legs:  Good legs, open - sexual element, inviting

Shoes: alongside lingerie - 'kinky'

Feet: On tip toes, to look taller, makes legs look longer

Posture: Open stance, autoritive (hands on hips)

The Male Gaze Lesson

Marjorie Ferguson vocabulary:

1. Chocolate Box: half or full-smile, lips together or slightly parted, teeth barely visible, full or three-quarter face to camera. Projected mood: blandly pleasing, warm bath warmth, where uniformity of features in their smooth perfection is devoid of uniqueness or of individuality.
2. Invitational: emphasis on the eyes, mouth shut or with only a hint of a smile, head to one side or looking back to camera. Projected mood: suggestive of mischief or mystery, the hint of contact potential rather than sexual promise, the cover equivalent of advertising’s soft sell.
3. Super-smiler: full face, wide open toothy smile, head thrust forward or chin thrown back, hair often wind-blown. Projected mood: aggressive, ‘look-at-me’ demanding, the hard sell, ‘big come-on’ approach.
4. Romantic or Sexual: a fourth and more general classification devised to include male and female ‘two-somes’; or the dreamy, heavy-lidded, unsmiling big-heads, or the overtly sensual or sexual. Projected moods: possible ‘available’ and definitely ‘available’.

Trevor Millum vocabulary:

1. Seductive: similar to the cool/level look in many respects - the eyes are less wide, perhaps shaded, the expression is less reserved but still self-sufficient and confident; milder versions may include a slight smile.
2. Carefree: nymphlike, active, healthy, gay, vibrant, outdoor girl; long unrestrained outward-flowing hair, more outward-going than the above, often smiling or grinning.
3. Practical: concentrating, engaged on the business in hand, mouth closed, eyes object-directed, sometimes a slight frown; hair often short or tied back
4. Comic: deliberately ridiculous, exaggerated, acting the fool, pulling faces for the benefit of a real or imaginary audience, sometimes close to a sort of archness.
5. Catalogue: a neutral look as of a dummy, artificial, waxlike; features may be in any position, but most likely to be with eyes open wide and a smile, but the look remains vacant and empty; personality has been removed. (Millum 1975, 97-8)

Notes on Freddie Ljumberg image:

We were asked to write notes about several points on the following image, about several points:


Hair: Short, 1 all over, more masculine
Look: Interdigective, inviting, determined, engaging
Face: Not much emotion, strong jaw line, 'chiselled', high cheek bones
Lips: Pouting slightly, shining
Stubble: Masculine, rugged
Body: Sweating, more sexual, attractive skin tone, possibly just worked
Abs: Toned, draws attention away from face towards rest of image
Pubic area: Almost shown off, almost 'teasing' female audience - shaved
Hand: suggestive, cheeky, fist - aggresive
Underwear: Tight, 'Calvin Klein' - advertising
Tatoo: sexual, ferocious, animal
Necklace: Relates to females, sensitive, religious
Background colour: Red! sexual, romantic, passionate
Bicep: Large bicep, attractive look
Bar: suggests he's just worked out

Who is the image aimed at? Men, to get sales
Who does it appeal to? Women, due to the context of the image. Also metrosexual and homosexual men, as they would have looked at the image and aspire to change themselves to look like the model on the advert.

Notes on lesson:

The Gaze: Used in film theory in the 1970's to refer to the ways viewers look at images of people in any visual medium.

'The Male Gaze': Can be described as a feminist reference to the voyeuristic way in which men look at women.

Forms of Gaze:

• The spectator's gaze
• The intra-diegetic gaze
• The direct address to the viewer
• The look of the camera (usually in the place of where a man stands)

The fourth wall: Used to involve the audience. Where the character looks at the audience (camera) and in some cases starts to interact with the audience.

Laura Mulvey- The Male Gaze:

• "Visual pleasure and narrative cinema" (1975)
• Active male/passive female
• Women as image/man as bearer of the look
• Voyeuristic
• Fetishistic

Critism to Mulveys theory:
Only directed towards heterosexual males and not towards women.

Shameless Link

Clicking on the image above will send you to the YouTube link which shows Shameless episode 1, which is what I have written about in my last post. (see below)

How are regional identity and sexuality represented in the opening sequence of Shameless episode 1?

How Are Regional Identity and Sexuality Represented in the Opening Sequence of Shameless Episode 1

Fact Sheet for Warp Films

Media Essay Question

Overview of how cuts in budget affect production process

When our original budget of £10,000,000 was cut by a third, we fist realised that we had to change our actors from probable B list actors to Z list actors. Although they were Z list actors, we still managed to work out that we had enough money to give each of our 4 main actors £1,000,000 each. We then had change our director from an A list director to a B list director. With all this in mind, we thought originally that we would have to change alot more, but these factors were what cost us the most, and so we then realised that we had originally given appropriate amounts of money to the rest of our team, meaning that we didn't have to change any other factor due to the cuts.

Magazine cover and contents page Designs

Here are my two original designs for my front cover and contents page. I have made several changes with my final piece but it was originally these designs that inspired the final piece for the prelim.

Rushmore - youtube link

Is Max a stereotypical teenager? - Rushmore (1998)

Is Max a Stereotypical Teenager

Notes on a Video

Media Notes on Video

Analysing American Beauty opening sequence

Analysing opening sequence of American Beauty:

The task given to us was to analyse the opening scene of the film American Beauty (click on picture above for opening sequence). We were told to analyse certain aspects from the opening sequence including body language, voice, clothes, mise en scene and the colour scheme, and how all of these connect to Lester Burnham (main character, played by Kevin Spacey).

Immediately, as soon as we first see Lester, we get an immediate look at his body language. Straight away he takes a deep sigh. Now this could be interpreted as the fact that he’s just awoke, but I think that the director included this action as this sort of attitude – almost given up on life, is the same attitude that Lester will have throughout the story. We then see him leaving the house as he sets off to work, and his suitcase then opens, causing all of his work to fall out on to the floor. As he kneels on the floor, we can see that he doesn’t really care about anything anymore, his body language suggest that he doesn’t really care about life anymore.

                As the film starts, we see the neighbourhood that Lester lives in. He then starts to talk over the top as a narrator, to set the scene. Again, we can get an immediate opinion on Lester, as his voice is very plain, boring and monotonous. It doesn’t really vary much in pitch so we as an audience get the idea that he’s really not very exciting, and therefore probably isn’t a great father figure or husband.

                We don’t see much of the clothing that Lester wear’s. Although, what we do see suggests the same general idea that has come across before. Suggesting that he has no personality, and is quite boring. He doesn’t really wear much colour in his clothing, so we can see that he doesn’t really care about what other people think, and he doesn’t really want to express himself as he doesn’t feel the need to do so.

                The mise en scene is a lot more general and is not as specific towards Lester as it’s everything in the picture not just Lester Burnham. The general colour scheme that is included in most screenshots are the colours red, white and blue, as these are the three colours of the American national flag. These colours are repeated throughout the opening sequence, and throughout the rest of the film. Even when we see Lester’s wife for the first time, we can see that the handles of her gardening sheers are blue, the roses she’s cutting up are red, and house behind her is built up of all three colours. Lester even says over the top that the colour of the sheers which match her gardening clogs are not an accident, but this could suggest it’s not an accident that these colours match because of the character but it could be suggesting that they match because of the director’s choice.

                The opening sequence of this film leads us as an audience to assume that during the following film we will expect it to be about Lester, and how he deals with a non-ambitious life. From the opening sequence I have gathered that Lester has accomplished all that he wants to accomplish from life and therefore has no ambitions left. He is defeated, given up on life, almost depressed. Nothing is going right for him, and so the rest of the film will most likely be about something unusual happening to him, and so it will be about how he deals with it.

Analysing Preliminary Work

Analysing Prelim work

View more presentations from Joe Pearce.

Binary Opposites Presentation

Binary opposites

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Preliminary magazine cover & contents

Here are both my preliminary magazine cover, and my preliminary magazine contents. I have used Adobe Photoshop to create both parts of the magazine, and images that I have taken myself. The magazine is a school based magazine, whilst covering stories about both school work and music in school.

Film Financing

Film Financing

Hot Fuzz Story Board

Working Title and Warp Films Research

Warp Films and Working Title Research

Interests

Favourite Films: Gladiator, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Avatar, Hot Fuzz

Favourite Music: Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin; Sultans of Swing, Dire Straits; Sweet Child o' Mine, Guns N' roses; Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Guns N' Roses & Bob Dylan; All Along the Watchtower, Bob Dylan.

Favourite Tv Programmes: Match of the Day; Family Guy; The Inbetweeners.

Initial impression of man

My initial impression of the man was that he looked scruffy and unpleasant. This originally made me think that the man doesn’t have great living conditions, and that he probably doesn’t really care about what other people think. But then when I look more closely at the detail of the image I can see other aspects that make me think otherwise. He is smoking, so he obviously makes enough money to buy the cigarettes, but this also suggests to me that he’s not too concerned about his health. The fact that his trousers are patched up, suggests to me that either he can’t afford a new pair, or that he wears whatever, as long as it fits, for example he’s not concerned about what he looks like, just as long he can wear it. He doesn’t look grumpy, he looks quite positive, especially with his pose as well, it makes him look quite hopeful, but his overall look opposes that and puts a negative on his appearance.  When I found out who he was, I was shocked about how well Doug Bilmaier has done in his career. But looking at the image after finding out who he is, I can see many more features which all of a sudden appear which suit his actual appearance more than the 1st idea of him that I originally had in mind.