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

View more presentations from JessMedland.

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.