Introduction to media index.

September 2014 > Media Language > Film Poster Analysis.

September 2014 > Media Language > Media Consumption.

September 2014 > Media Language > Reebok Advert Analysis.

September 2014 > Media Language > Advert Analysis.

September 2014 > Media Language > Mise-En-Scene Notes.

September 2014 > Media Language > Taken2 Film Poster Analysis.

September 2014 > Media Language > Still Image Analysis.

September 2014 > Media Language > Mise-En-Scene Comparison.

September 2014 > Media Language > Lighting.

October 2014 > Institution > Institution Presentation Feedback.

October 2014 > Institution > Institutions.

October 2014 > Media Language > Film Noir.

October 2014 > Media Language > Parallel and Contrapuntal Sounds.

October 2014 > Institution > Institutions - Brand Value.

October 2014 > Media Language > Camera Framing Shots.

October 2014 > Institutions > Cool Brands

October 2014 > Narrative > Movie Narrative.

November 2014 > Audience > Psychographics.

November 2014 > Media Language > Camerawork.

November 2014 > Audience > Audience Theory.

November 2014 > Audience > Uses and Gratifications Theory.

November 2014 > Audience > Dependency Theory.

December 2014 > Representation > Representation Blog Task.

December 2014 > Representation > Representation Theories.

December 2014 > Institution > Research and planning - Institution

December 2014 > Ideology > Ideology and Binary Opposition.

December 2014 > Representation > Female Gaze Representation.

Representation Task.

Female Gaze:

1) What is the article about? Summarise the article in 50 words.

Women as spectators and as consumers of media images of other women have often been overlooked in previous critical studies of representation. Yet, this female gaze is at the heart of the problems that A Perfect 14 is trying to address. The representation of false and unattainable images of the idealised female body is clearly linked to the idea of the gaze and to spectator-ship theory.


2) What is the name of the film that has sparked this recent debate on body image and female representation?


In Star Gazing: Hollywood Cinema and Female Spectatorship, feminist critic Jackie Stacey suggested that the female look works on different and multiple levels for ‘fascination and aspiration’. This campaign and the marketing campaign for A Perfect 14 aim to create engaging yet aspirational opportunities for the female gaze to flourish and be empowered.


3) How does the 'Female Gaze' in this article differ from the 'Male Gaze' of Laura Mulvey's theory?


In analysing female representation, you will invariably encounter theorist Laura Mulvey and her pioneering 1970s work on ‘The Male Gaze’. However her work has now been challenged, and you need to analyse how women themselves consume and decode images. Mulvey’s theory is now seen as very limited in its approach; it assumes there is only one kind of spectator (male) and one kind of masculinity (heterosexual). The apparent crisis in female body image that Dove/Unilever seized upon back in 2007 suggests that the female gaze is crucial for media and Film students. Mulvey’s original thesis, ground breaking in its day, neglected the pleasures of ‘the look’ afforded to female spectators, and the complex way that females look at, and are affected by looking at, other women. 


4) What is your own opinion of the representation of women in advertising? Should the media carry more representation of 'real' women? Why does the media not currently feature size 14 women if that is the average size of a British woman


The media currently show representation of 'real' women as the representation of women is shown for a mans pleasure. They show 'real' women because everyone wants to see real women, even though the average size of women is size 14.


5) Go to the website of A Perfect 14. Watch the trailer and read about the film. Write your own summary of the film and what it is trying to achieve

The trailer is trying to inform women to not be let down by their body, and to treat it likes it their temple. Women should not be labelled and they should learn to accept them for who they are.

Ideology and Binary Opposition

What examples of binary opposition can you suggest from watching this clip?
-Weak and powerful
-Rich and poor
-Immigrants and British-Corrupt and honesty
-Overpaid and underpaid

What ideologies are on display in the clip?
Russel Brand - Money should be distributed for everyone
Nigels against- Britain should be of British people not of other cultures, the immigrants are taking all the money. 

Research and planning - institution reseach.

E4.

History 
E4 is a British digital television channel, launched as a pay-TV companion to Channel 4 on 18 January 2001. The "E" stands for entertainment, and the channel is mainly aimed at the lucrative 15–35 age group. E4's programmes focus of the drama genre but the more successful programmes seem to be of the comedy genre.

Notable Successes 

• The Inbetweeners
• The Big Bang
• Big Brother
• Celebrity Big Brother
• Friends

Target Audience 
Demographic:
AGE - Under 18s (63%)  18-24 (29%) 25-34 (5%) 35-44 (2%) 45-54 (1%) 55+ (0%) 

GENDER - Female (59%) • Male (41%) 

BBC3

History.

BBC Three is a television channel from the BBC broadcasting platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16–34-year-old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent and new technologies. The channel is on-air from 7 pm to around 4 am each night.

Notable Success.

• Doctor Who
• Eastenders
• Waterloo road.

Target audience
The channel's target audience is 16 to 34-year olds,  In 2008 it reached 26.3% of 16–34-year-olds in digital home. It has a  2.6% share of the 15–34-year-old audience and 1.4% of the whole population.The channel needs to be disciplined about focusing on the young - its centre of gravity will be 16-34 year-olds: people who are young in spirit and mindset

MEST2 - Status Update.

You need to post regular status updates to your blog throughout your MEST2 coursework to make sure you're keeping up with the work and documenting tutorial feedback. Your first status update needs to include the following:



1) Your finalised group.Ashmita, Dhruvina and Sarese


2) Your initial plans for your new TV programme that meets the MEST2 brief.
dhruvina has a sudden death and her best friend ashmita goes off the rails and turns out to have mental problems.


3) A link to your research blogpost - the five TV/film opening scenes you have analysed that will help inform your own ideas and production work.


4) A write-up of your tutorial.

• decide on narrative; have a clear idea.
• think about linking character to propp.
• location scouting; identify settings. 

Representation theories

The film I will be analysing is friends with benefits. The story line of this movie is When the man takes the job and makes the move, they quickly become friends. Their friendship turns into a friendship with benefits, but with Jamie's emotionally damaged past and Dylan's history of being emotionally unavailable, they have to try to not fall for each other the way Hollywood romantic comedies dictate. This movie relates to perkins theory as it is all about bad relationships in some cases the stereotype of bad relationship is true as perkins theory tells us how some stereotypes are true therefore this stereotype contains some element of truth as not all relationships are good and go well as we do see some relationships that fall abput and this trailer ‘friends with benefits’ is all about how two friends go into a bad relationship. Also this theory shows also how streotypes can change over time as bad relationship sometimes may even tend to come back together and challenge the stereotype. The second theory my chosen film applies to is mulveys theory of ‘male gaze.’ This is because Laura Mulvey suggests that the dominant view in the media is masculine and created for the benefit of men. Women are presented for men to look at, hence the ‘male gaze’. This links to the idea of ‘sex sells’ and women being represented as sex objects. From this trailer I can see how the men uses multiple girls for his own plessure and cheats them all. He says how a night for him with a girl was ‘one off’ showing how his intentions are wrong. Also shows how he takes womens for objects as every girl he sees he likes. The third stereotype that applies to friends and benefits movie is medhurts theory. Andy Medhurst suggests stereotyping is shorthand for identification. This means we use stereotypes to tell audiences a lot in a short space of time. I believe that this theory relates to friends and benefits because stereotype is a shorthand identification therefore in this movie we can see how the girls are objects and shows how they are known for looking at.

Representation blog task.

1) List the different people/groups represented in the trailer (men/women/Americans etc.)

women being aggressive 

Women getting the mans attention

men taking women for pleasure

2) For each group, decide whether the representation is a dominant or alternative portrayal.

women being aggressive-alternative

Women getting the mans attention-dominant

men taking women for pleasure-Dominant

3) What stereotypes can you identify in the trailer?

Streotype of men looking at girls

Streotype of women wearing revealed clothing and short clothes - sex objects.

Film language test - Learner Response.

Mark: 30/48
Grade: B-

WWW: big improvement! well done!
LR: write another paragraph on your blog about editing - pace, use of eyeline match, etc.


Learner response.
In the opening scene, the editing used has quite a slow place which is effective in building tension in the scene. This slow motion pace is used in many aspects during the scene, for instance, slow motion is used for when the killer drops his cigarette on to the petrol, which creates an action code(Barthes) as we know something violent is going to happen and also it creates an enigma code(Barthes) as we wonder what is going to happen and why. The slow pace stays and carries on until the final shot of flames shooting into sky which increases the emotional impact and adds to the eerie atmosphere. 
The use of eyeline match from Keaton towards the killer is not followed by editing which raises tension as the audience want to know who the killer is but are denied this as they are not shown a full profile of face of the killer and instead the audience only get to see the killers body which adds suspense and creates an enigma code (Barthes) as we want to know who he is. 

Research & Planning

MISFITS OPENING SCENE

Setting: The setting of this opening sequence is in a different location as at the start they show a black and white animated brick wall connoting that the the rest of the opening sequence would be animated to. The way the characters pop up on a black background jumping shows that they all have unusual powers within them as each character has there own special power which is shown in this opening sequence as at the start there are some thunder signs coming up on the brick wall therefore this highlights to the audience that each character is different with regards to what power they have.

Sound: The sound used in this sequence is parallel sound as it is linked to what the audience are watching as for instance as the start as we see thunder signs popping up on the brick wall we can also hear thunder with it which causes as electric vibe each time something comes to the screen such as the picture of each character comes in such a way. 

Lighting: The lighting used in this opening sequence is quite dull and dramatic as it has dark colours to represent the powers that each character has. As for intense the first few seconds showing the black and white brick wall shows that it is connoting the special powers. They have used both high key lighting and low key lighting. They have used high key lighting so that it makes the sequence quite homogeneous and free from dark shadows. Also they have used low key lighting because that lighting accentuates the contours of an object by throwing areas into shade while a fill light or reflector may illuminate the shadow areas to control contrast.

Character: The characters shown in misfits opening sequence is very unique as each character pops up in there own way of how they are portrayed in the programme as for example we can see how one by one the characters come up with a icon representing there character and there special power. therefore connoting that the story is based on these characters and there powers. furthermore as the characters are quite young it attracts audiences of age 18+

Target audience: The target audience for misfits is teenagers and this is because of many reasons such as the different themes that are being portrayed in the programme many which teenagers at 18 would prefer to watch. as in the scenes there are many violent parts that appeal to the target audience as they like to watch violent and dramatic programmes such as misfits itself. Also some scenes may even relate to some teenagers therefore they have made sure they have various aspects in order to get the audience attracted.

Editing: At the beginning of the opening sequence there is a fading of thunder signs coming on the screen then the black and white wall fades out to the next scene and then when the characters are shown the wipe into the screen one by one presenting themselves in a unique way. 

Overall from the teen drama opening their is no one speaking as this clip shows the whole 

of the series one which give the audienceideas of how the teen drama is going to be like before they watch it. Finally from watching this teen drama it has helped me visualizedifferent types of media angles and shot used in the cinematography. Also i have seen various different cuts used to make thisproduction which i think is really good as it would give me a clear idea of how they look like. Also i have picked this teen drama to look at because it is similar to what i want to produce and as this teen drama is very popular on the E4 channel it would help me for my production and i would gain more ideas about the mis-en-scene, cinematography

PRETTY LITTLE LIARS OPENING SEQUENCE

Setting: The setting of the opening sequence is quite different as at the start it is outside where the 4 main characters are placed at the front doing there own thing and introducing themselves in there own way in order to show the audience how they are portrayed in the programme as this is very important as it allows the audience to idenify the personality of each character of the programme and what role they will be playing. i believe the setting is the most important part as the audience would be looking at the scene and looking at where they are being filmed.

Editing: This scene shows a establishing shot where it shows all the main characters in one shot letting the audience to analyse and see them all at once. From the characters point of the view and from their eye it takes the scene into the future where something has occurred and this is all filmed in a fast motion which gives the affect of the audience getting to see many different things at once and their is also a freeze frame shot of all the characters being frozen. The drama then ends with a fighting scene which shows all the characters slowly and the audience is able to visualize that all of them look terrified and scared which creates enigma

 Characters: The director is introducing the characters. Also to presents the characters/protagonists the director uses many different lighting to present them to the audiences. At the start their is low-key lighting used and this is created by using only the key and back-lights. this effect produces strong contrasts of light and dark creating dramatic shadows which is known as chiaroscuro. Their is also high-key lighting used to present the characters which makes the scene and characters look more realistic by using the filter lights however by using this type of lighting, light and dark is much less pronounced. Also as their are close-ups of the different types of characters the director uses top-key lighting to present them as this lighting comes from above and can be used to accentuate the features of the characters making it looks for realistic and glamorous which makes the audience more engaged into watching it. 

media shots: The director uses many different types of media angles and shots to represent the character and from this the audience can get to see the characters in a more and better way. This clip is a short clip of pretty little liers that i will be analyzing. Firstly the director has used a establishing shot also known as a wide shot to introduce the 4 characters which will be part in the series and in this shot we are able to see all four characters together letting the audience be able to visualize each character and see what they are wearing. The camerathen focus upon one character trying to introduce her Separately with a close-up and from this the audience is able to see her facial expressions and from her facial expressions and the way she is talking the audience can connote she might be a mean character. 

Target audience:  its audience is primarily composed of young women (or perhaps because of this), Pretty Little Liars does not shy away from taboo, shock value, or melodrama.  Pretty Little Liars does not condescend to its teen audience: bad guys evade the good guys, parents behave unethically, and the main characters’ reckless and sometimes illegal behavior is often condoned.  One could certainly make the case that the show is dangerous influence on its target demographic, and this paper will explore this possibility.

Overall from the teen drama opening their is no one speaking as this clip shows the whole of the series one which give the audience ideas of how the teen drama is going to be like before they watch it. Finally from watching this teen drama it has helped me visualize different types of media angles and shot used in the cinematography. Also i have seen various different cuts used to make this production which i think is really good as it would give me a clear idea of how they look like. Also i have picked this teen drama to look at because it is similar to what i want to produce and as this teen drama is very popular on the E4 channel it would help me for my production and i would gain more ideas about the mis-en-scene, cinematography

90210

Camera work: The director of the drama uses many different media angles and shots to present the characters to the audience. Firstly the show starts of with the typography of the program with a fade using dramatic shadows to make it look interesting. It then takes a straight cut to the show and in fast motion it shows clips of different scenes to let the audience know what has been happening over the past seasons. Their is then a jump cut which jumps to the episode and the director introduces the first character by using as establishing shot of her running on the seaside and this shot is significant when introducing a character as the audience is able to see the background of the scene which means it shows where the scene is set and from the background view the audience can see it is set on a seaside with a good view and this straight away connotes a good feeling for the audience that keeps them engaged into watching it. Also from this shot we can see what the girl is wearing and from what she is wearing we can see that her dress contrasts with the setting and this makes it look outstanding on the scene. 

Lighting: Their is also different type of lighting used in the teen drama. for example to introduce the characters the director has used high-key lighting which means more filter lights are used and from this the affect of the scene and characters appear more realistic and might depict either a sunny day or a more dimly lit scene, which means the contrast between light and dark is less pronounced as it makes it look more real for the audience to see. Furthermore their is also a bit of chiaroscuro used where it creates dramatic shadows also known as the low-key lighting. Furthermore the director has also used top-key lighting to introduce the characters as this lighting comes from above and can be used to accentuate the features of a character and is often used to make the characters stand out and lookrealistic.

Music: The music used in this teen drama goes along with the scene which is romantic when their is a close-up of the couple kissing whichconnotes that they are in love. Their is then a straight cut of the girl character in class where it shows she was 'imagining'. Secondly their is then a over the shoulder shot of the teacher showing all the students of the class all at once coming towards him of his point of view. Their is then a medium close-up of a character showing her facial expressions and her costume. Moreover the director represents her as a smart girl from the clothes she is wearing however this is called a polysemic where images have multiple meanings. Their is then a wide shot where they show all the students at once and then their is a tilt shot going up showing the second floor of the school and everyone is misbehaving and this shows the ideology of this generation showing the society how the the teenagers are and how they have behaving in this generation and it also shows the teenagers (viewers) their behavior.

Target Audience: 90210 is a very successful American teen drama which airs on The CW Channel in the US and on E4 in the UK, which is a channel that is well known for its youth cultured television programmes. 90210 is one of many teen dramas thatconstruct ideologies that I have mentioned earlier such as anti-racism and superficiality. 90210’s ideology of anti-racism is presented through the character of Dixon, an Afro-American teenager. Dixon is adopted by a wealthy nuclear family and attends West Beverly Hills High. He is accepted by everyone and has many friends, who are all well aware of his adoption. The fact that a rich ideal white family - that seem to represent the dominant ideology of a family, has adopted a black child is a perfect way to promote the ideology of anti-racism into society. So in terms of the Hypodermic Needle theory, 90210 is injecting the ideology of anti-racism into the target audienceand therefore society through the character of Dixon and his family.

Eastenders

Camera shots: The director uses many different camera shots to introduce the show and introduce the characters showing them in many different ways. Firstly at the start of the program it starts of with an establishing shot of a building in a low angle shot and from this shot it allows the audience to see the setting where the drama is going to be set and lets the audience connote what society it is in. Their is then aclose-up of the train going by connoting that the show is set near a station. Their is good iconography used in this as they have the train and the buildings to represent things. The director then takes a fade cut after introducing the setting to introducing on of the charactersin the show with a medium-shot where it allows the audience to see its facial expressions and their costume. From looking at the firstcharacter we can foretell that he is a the villain from the clothes he is wearing and this represents him as a hood-rat in now dayssociety. It then takes a straight cut introducing the second character  showing a medium close up of her where the audience could see how she is dressed and this shows her personality. However from the two characters i have seen their is a binary opposition as the first character is a different race and the next is white which shows the opposite representation.

The sound is digetic and parallel in the beginning as the characters are running, building tension and nerves. Their is rocky-type sound also could be depicting the characters personality as she is wearing a bandanna, highlights, a lot of make-up a Goth look. Also it's a strong older man chasing her which goes in line with the sound too as he has a higher-authority over the teenager. When the title-sequence is shown it's a remix version of the original Eastenders making it more appealing to the teen audience making it more fast, upbeat and loud.  When the couple scene starts their is too an upbeat sound as it's representing excitement and fun between the young couple. When the last scene begins their is a lot of tension and suspense involved so the music is in-line with it as it wants the audience to feel nervous too. As their is no rocky-type or upbeat but it's slow and some music involved which allows the audience to engage too.  The lighting used is low-key lightingcreating more shadows which makes it look more effectual and brings the sense of mystery and suspense to both the audience and the characters. 

EastEnders is another teen drama that i have picked to focus on which is similar to what i will be doing. EastEnders is an TV teen drama soap opera and this show is specifically targeted at the audience teenagers and young adults aged 16+ as all the characters are over 16 and it contains language suitable for people over the age of 16. This TV teen drama casts different types of characters which all play different roles in the drama however their are not any protagonists in the teen drama as all of the characters have similar roles in the drama. The characters are aged between 17 and 22 which means the target audience for this programme will be teenagers and young adults. 

Friends

The clip starts of with characters conversing but we can't see one of them as their in the other room so the audience is allowed to only hear the voice. But then the character comes into the scene and their is a long-shot, which is useful as we can see her body-language and facial-expressions as before we weren't able to obviously see her. Their is an area of shot/reverse shot as thecharacters are constantly moving showing a medium-shot to long-shot continuously. Their is anover-the-shoulder shot too which is effective when one of the characters are speaking as thecamera focuses on her using a medium-shot.

Their is no music used in this, but their is a an audience laughing in the scenes when its meant to be funny. This is advantageous as the audience watching when laughing laughs at the right time too. Or according to their personality they may not find it funny so having an audience laugh in their can bring the positive funny outlook towards things. And therefore enlighten the audience. The lighting is key-lighting as it is most brightest influential and brings out the character out more as the audience are able to identify it.

The editing used is very fast and there are fast cuts which work well with the sequence, as we are able to see whom is talking, the cuts are able to cut out unnecessary parts within the sequence of the programme, and it gets to the point which will keep the audience engaged into watching the programme. There is not much sound used within this programme, but there is a non-digetic sound track of audience laughing, we are able to tell it has been recorded and put in, however that is parallel as it is put into parts which are meant to be funny. 

The lighting is key-lighting as it is very bright and this allows to bring out the characters facial expressions more clearly, this allows us to see their movements more clearly as well due to it being bright. Moreover, it fits in with the genre as it is an comedy show, low-key lighting wouldn't work for this as comedy is seen to be bright, and shadows are created within horror films or intense moments.

This appeals to teens- young-adults as it's a comedy serial and consists of young-adults acting in the programme. But this could too influence the teens by the way in which they deal with problems and solutions. Also as it's a comedy they wouldn't care with life as much, and wouldn't take into heart what people say. This is beneficial for people like who are shy, as they take in what people say but this shows to keep strong and take it as a joke and move on in a sense. 

preliminary production evaluation

Evaluation:

Our preliminary exercise involved filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. In terms of planning we came up with an idea of an interrogation. In order to start recording we had to plan the following:
- story board
- script
- camera shots
The following helped us as a group to help us create a trailer as it organised us, and we knew what to do as soon as we received the camera. The story board allowed us to plot the story in our head, and we were able to visualise it. The script helped in terms of knowing what to say and when to say it, we had to change our lines continuously as we had to make sure it was similar to our theme. The camera shots was mainly useful as we know exactly what camera angle to use for the different scenes by using the story board. If I was to do this again, I would make sure as a group we have more time to prepare to plan, and to work on the camera work. The strengths of this trailer was that the use of close ups was used effectively and shot precisely. the close ups in the film stood out the most, as it focused on one object, and was shot with stability and accurately. The weaknesses of this trailer was that apart from the close up shots, the other camera angles were not shot to its full standards, as it wasn't shot with a steady hand which made the film lose the tension and made it lose its focus. Another weakness was some of the shots were not focused well, which went wrong by not setting the camera to the right focus before shooting, and made the film again very messy and confusing. Overall the main weakness was the camera work for the longshots, and tracking shots. 

Dependecy Theory

With Dependency theory, they suggest that people rely on the media for information determining their decisions. This means the media can create many different feelings such as fear, anxiety, and happiness. 


1) I tend to use the media mainly for entertainment and socialising with people. i do at times use it for information to find out what is going on and also research. sometimes i use the media for a distraction or when i have nothing else to do. when i am doing work i tend to have the tv on for background noise.

2) i feel that most of the population is really dependent on the media to find things out or just for entertainment. as technology has developed the use of the media has increased and therefore the dependency has increased too as everything and anything is available on the media. The media is able to control how we feel by what we watch or listen to.