Representation Collages

Representations Of Women:

Representations Of Teenagers:

Research & Planning 2: Institutions

E4:

History: E4 launched as a British digital television channel, it first aired as a pay tv companion to channel 4 on 18th January 2001 until May 2005 where it became FreeView. The E stands for entertainment. This channel is aimed for 13-35 year olds. Most of the programming includes a genre of teen comedy US imports but also has its fare share of UK tv shows. 

Success: Its most famous success was when an episode of the inbetweeners pulled 3.7 million viewers. Although the channel was very famous ofr the US imports such as, Friends, Ugly Betty, The Cleveland Show, The Big Bang Theory, One Tree Hill, 90210 and many more.

Target Audience: Its target audience is the cutting edge youth (15-35). As e4 is freeview it reaches a very wide and massive audience. the psychographic groups that may watch e4 are:

Strugglers

Alienated, Struggler, disorganised - with few resources apart from physical/mechanical skills (e.g. car repair). Heavy consumers of alcohol, junk food and lotteries, also trainers. Brand choice involves impact and sensation.

Succeeders

Strong goal orientation, confidence, work ethic, organisation ... support status quo, stability. Brand choice based on reward, prestige - the very best . Also attracted to 'caring' and protective brands ... stress relief. (Top management)

Mainstreamers

Domestic, conformist, conventional, sentimental, passive, habitual. Part of the mass, favouring big and well-known value for money 'family' brands. Almost invariably the largest 4Cs group.

Explorers

Energy - autonomy, experience, challenge, new frontiers. Brand choice highlights difference, sensation, adventure, indulgence and instant effect - the first to try new brands. (Younger - student)

BBC3:

History: BBC3 is a british television channel from the BBC.In February 2014, BBC Director-General Tony Hall announced that cuts of £100 million would have to be made towards the BBC and BBC3 was to be a part of these cuts by making it a online only channel by Autumn 2015.

Success: The most successful hit on BBC3 was Gavin & Stacey which first aired in May 2007, this sitcom was an instant hit. other successful shows include; Family Guy, American Dad & being Human. In 2008 it reached 26.3% of 16–34-year-olds in digital homes—the channel's highest ever such reach and above that of E4, ITV2, Dave and Sky 1. The channel programmes: Documentaries, Sitcoms, Comedy, Drama and News & Sport.

Target Audience: Its target audience consists of 16-34 year olds due to its high majority of adult comedic programmes. The psychographic groups that may watch BBC3 are:

Strugglers

Alienated, Struggler, disorganised - with few resources apart from physical/mechanical skills (e.g. car repair). Heavy consumers of alcohol, junk food and lotteries, also trainers. Brand choice involves impact and sensation.

Mainstreamers

Domestic, conformist, conventional, sentimental, passive, habitual. Part of the mass, favouring big and well-known value for money 'family' brands. Almost invariably the largest 4Cs group.

Explorers

Energy - autonomy, experience, challenge, new frontiers. Brand choice highlights difference, sensation, adventure, indulgence and instant effect - the first to try new brands. (Younger - student)

Dependancy Theory

1. What do you primarily use the media for?

I primarily use the media for Youtube and social media. I upload videos to Youtube as well as watching some of my subscriptions daily. I use social media such as Twitter/Instagram in order to keep up to date with my viewers and friends. I also use Twitter and Instagram to keep track of celebrities or people I like to follow.

2. To what extent do you feel we are dependant on the media?

i feel that people are very dependant on the media as if a rumour spreads social media or internet news is the first place to leak real information and us as consumers believe what is spreading online. We depend on the use of media for many things and a majority of us believe what we see online or on the news. Although some of us are capable to tell what is real or what isn't.

3.Has our Dependence on the media changed over the last 10 years? How?

Back in the days almost anyone would believe what is said on the radio or what was being spread around. We would believe the most abnormal things such as all computers breaking down and the world ending on 2000 which was being shown throughout the news. These days there are a lot of people who don't believe a majority of things being said in the media and are very against media.

Representation:

NO MORE PAGE 3 EXPERIMENT:
   

This media experiment focuses on how females are represented in print media. The crew took half a years worth of the Suns newspapers and cut out all of the female images in the papers and the male images. They then placed them side by side on a large wall. The outcome was astonishing. Straight away we can immediately see how females are represented to be a part of the "sex cells" icon as 99% of the images were half naked women or women showing a lot of flesh. The other 1% consisted of the Queen or Political women. On the mens side, there were images of active men that were doing things compared to them being posed.

Some of the conclusions the "no more page 3' team came up were:

"The men are nearly all active, doing things. Not posed... The women are passive, its all about how they look."

"When i look at the mens side, i see real life... When i look on the women side it doesn't seem real. Its all manufactured."

"This is a newspaper renowned for sport... I don't see a single picture of a women in sport... Not one."

I agree with their conclusions, its understandable having ONE page (page 3) on the paper dedicated to this although by placing very sexual, non realistic images of women throughout their papers are out of hand. I understand that the sun may want to attract a male audience but by going overboard with the sex sells method is rather disrespectful.

Females In Video Games Articles:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/banning-gta-5-uk-lazy-attempt-blame-video-games-societal-ills-1478512
Discusses why there is nothing wrong with having female characters and talks about many iconic and great current playable female characters.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/commentisfree/2014/feb/19/video-games-need-more-women-female-characters
Talks about why video game developers do not use lead female characters and gives reasons to back up their point.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27824701
Article explains why sexism is still very persistent in the games industry.

MES2 Research & Planning: TV Opening Scenes

Breaking Bad

Scene opens with medium to close up shots of the dessert which indicates that the setting will open up here. It then cuts to a slow motion scene of trousers flying from the air and then getting run over by a very fast moving caravan. We then see the inside of the van with a half naked man with a gas mask driving aggressively. We see lots of chemicals and liquid drowning the van along with dead bodies and a unconscious male in the passenger seat. Straight away this questions the audience. Why is he wearing a gas mask? Why are they in the desert? Is that man dead? Who are they/he getting away from? Once he crashes the vehicle due to his bad driving he leaves the van and throws his gas mask away in anger. He then goes back into the van to reach for a number of props: A Gun from a dead body, his wallet and a camera. He then starts to record himself apologising to his family. this tells us that this character has previously been in a battle with some foes and tried to get away. The use of sound in this scene opens with a very fast paced action score. As the van reaches its end it turns silent, but gradually we hear the sounds of police sirens building up which brings in a lot of tension and may give a few answers from what he is trying to get away from.

Top Boy

The opening starts with a urban electro song playing with close up, landscape shots of the low end flats and streets of London. it then transitions into a over the shoulder shot of a young boy dressed in school uniform, eating his breakfast in his council flat watching over two drug dealers. As the music starts kicking in we get to a more faster pace of a market with a group of black youths selling drugs. The editing gets faster and switches between the market and the first scene. We then see a car approaching the first two dealers and one of them makes a phone call to the group at the market for back up. The first two dealers get robbed by an enemy gang with a gun, they couldn't do anything. As the market group arrive they are all stressed. the music then comes to a close and ends with the school boy walking away from watching the window. Overall, this opening scene brings a lot of suspense and asks the audience a lot of questions. Why are they're very young people selling drugs? Who are these people? Why did they get robbed? Why is the boy just watching like its all calm?

Inbetweeners: (Not Available For Embedding)

The opening scene starts with the intro of the show, the intro is an animation of all the characters dancing and mucking about to rock music. it then cuts to a fast pace shot of Will walking very fast into his new school. Then a voice over of him plays with him talking about his new school. It then goes into a montage with everything he says, gives up previews and hints about who were going to meet and what type of comedy we are going to expect. In the beginning scene of will walking in we can see that he is the only person wearing a suit with a briefcase compared to everyone else wearing sweatshirts and duffle bags, this tells us that he may have been from a private school and is from a more higher class. The music consists a fast pace comedy score. Straight away we can see that this show will be based on this group of friends and how they are in awkward situations and try their best to fit in. Hence ehy its called inbetweeners.

Utopia: Season 2 Episode 3 Opening

The opening of this episode starts with a very brightly coloured dressed man messing up a computer. With lots of wide angles and high key lighting we then see another brightly coloured man walk in and notice what the  other man is doing is un usual. They then exchange dialogue and the man playing with the computer tells the worker he has a warrant to do so, the worker tries to call the police but the man slits his throat open. This opening brings a lot of questions to the audience like why did he have to kill him and who was he? This show embraces its comic book roots offering genre nods for those who watch the show deeply enough to see the signs. The shows cinematography is almost movie like but with a comical twist with the very soft lighting and highly colourful colour corrections. They also use small depth of field a lot to give it that movie look.

My Murder:

The opening of this BBC urban documentary starts with a fade in of a young teen black boy dying in an estate garden. We then hear a phone call of a witness on the phone to the police saying "his been stabbed"... "he's a young black boy about 14/15" We then see an over the shoulder shot of the witness looking out the window and then a young teen watching the boy die. Sad slow music then plays as it cuts to a real life hot seat of the boys mother saying "he trusted her" this opening straight away tells us that there has been a murder take place and it involves the boy being betrayed by the teen girl. This opening is very effective as we see very strong acting and a series of angles of the same scene. We see how this young boy is dying and it brings a lot of questions into the viewers minds. The overall look of this documentary is quite under saturated to give it that cold, dull grimy effect.

Audience Theories:

Hypodermic Needle Theory:

The Hypodermic Needle Theory was the first originated theory that suggested mass media can effect society. Starting in the 1920s, the theory was based that all powerful media with uniform and direct can affects the viewer or audience. People accept the message they see without thinking or considering the merits. In that way,  content is injected into the viewers brain which is directly penetrating the viewers mind, hence why it is named " The Hypodermic Needle".

The Article which discussed the testing of playing violent video games for just 20 minutes a day can encourage aggressive behaviour links to the Hypodermic Needle Theory. The french university suggested that young adults that constantly played the violent video games compared to the non violent were more likely to think that the world is more hostile and they react more aggressively. This puts the Hypodermic Needle theory to the test as the powerful violent video games have injected all of its violent media into the consumers head making them accept the message of violence being okay.

Another experiment that suggests this is the Bobo doll experiment, in this study the professor showed children a video of a model attacking and beating a doll with a hammer, they then sent those children into the same room along with the same doll and hammer and they all started to do the same. Although the kids that didn't watch the video did not commit to any form of violence what so ever.

Two Step Flow Model:

The two step flow model theory was first introduced in 1944, it focused on the decision making of a presidential election campaign. the researchers were surprised to discover that all of the informal, personal contacts were mentioned more than the exposure to radio and newspapers as sources of influence for the election.

The article of video maker YouTube sensation Jamal Edwards suggests that despite him being from a council estate and poor background he believed in himself and became a multi millionaire at the age of 23. He publishes music videos and other music related content of a mass amount. He has many subscribers and viewers that listen to all this music and take on all the the new trends and latest music. Other people will want to make music videos like him and other people will want to be on his channel which means that he is very dominant in the media industry. He is able to influence his viewers in the latest music and for who to listen to.

Other YouTubers that are very influential are:

 KSIOLAJIDEBT

One of the first Fifa/football vloggers in the UK to reach a mass audience. Also very comedic and entertaining with millions of subscribers and more than a billion total viewers. Very influential with his views and ideas on what he uploads.

PEWDIEPIE

Currently the highest paid and subscribed YouTuber to date. Very funny and active on YouTube and started his career by playing games. He still continues to do so but has now also expanded into real life vlogs.

 NIGAHIGA

Was once YouTubes top subscribed uploader and has had more than 1.9billion viewers. He was also one of the very first people to upload short youtube sketches and comedies.

A ZAE PRODUCTION 

Currently the US's top independent music video directors that is based in Chicago/Atlanta, very influential as the type of music he directs can be similar but always changing which can affect and change his viewers music type. His style of videography and editing has also managed to influence many other videographers and directors too.

UNBOX THERAPY

Recently made one of the most influential tech reviewers due to the hit of his iPhone 6 Plus bend test videos, he shocked and scared the world about this problem on one of the most highly anticipated smart phones and has also reviewed many other technology.

Uses And Gratifications Theory:

In 1974 researchers Blumler and Katz stated that media audiences are active and make very conscious choices about how they consume media.

They suggested that there are four types of pleasures/gratifications that audiences consume from the media...

Diversion: Escape from everyday problems and routine - entertainment.

Eastenders is a great way for audiences to escape reality as its a soap drama. they can come home from their regular daily routine and escape into a world full of different problems and scenarios.

Personal Relationships: Using the media for emotional and other interaction (e.g. developing affection for characters in TV)

Breaking Bad is one of the top Tv shows for a reason. As you continue watching you build a much stronger relationship with the characters. You feel tense as problems build up and feel as if you are part of Walter Whites family. You get to know the characters far too much and well.

Personal Identity: Finding ourselves reflected in texts or learning behaviour and values from the media. Reality TV or documentary (Educating Yorkshire) are good examples.

Jersey shore is a great example as it documents the daily outgoing, youth lives of youngsters in america that spend their days drinking, clubbing and getting together with the wrong people.

Surveillance: Information useful for living (e.g. Weather, traffic news, holiday bargains etc.)

BBC news is the prime example for surveillance, it informs us the most up to date breaking news and also tells us about the weather, traffic and other news.

Media Exam: Learner Response Feedback

Question 1: Mise-En-Scene

Bryan Singer uses mise-en-scene to tell us a lot about the characters and the events they take place in. Firstly, he uses costume and make up on Keaton (man sitting on floor) to look defeated and beaten up. This may suggest that he has been through a fight and has lost before hand. Also in the opening scene we see him lighting and smoking a cigarette which may indicate that he his depressed or a bad person. The lighting is also very low key which is typical in this film noire genre. this low key lighting also suggests criminality of characters/events.

Moving on, the same beaten up character throws his lighter into a planned out oil trail which has leaked from the oil barrels around him. the barrels have been shot open which suggests that there has been a gun fight take place. the action of him burning up the location would also kill him which may mean he has given up and has reached his end

As we follow the flame ignition of the oil trail we see a dead body which also means there was a gun fight, as we reach the end of the trail we see a dark tall man from above urinating on the flame trail. This immediately tells us that this man has more power as he's from above and that by urinating on Keaton's trail he has the power to end his ambitions. When the two finally meet we do not see the killers face and he wears a classic film noire costume such as the long black coat and hat. He also holds a gun and smokes which tells us he's a bad person and is going to kill Keaton. When the two are exchanging dialogue the killer deliberately uses slow movements which emphasises the power of the killer. Keaton doesn't move which may mean that he is trapped and death is inevitable.     .                                                                               .

Conflict (Preliminary Task) By: Kunal, Ahmed, Mansour, Abdi & Mikaeil

WWW:

Overall, we worked well together as a group. We were motivated and determined to create a excellent short clip. Everyone played a part and contributed towards this piece. Mansour and Ahmed acted very well in order to make this preliminary task more interesting. In terms of shooting, our main what went well was the framing of the shots and the chosen angles we used. The framing was very close up and tight which made it a lot more effective as we feel a lot closer to the characters. Our shots were also very sharp and in focus. Also, the shot of both characters in the mirror was excellent as it truly made the viewers feel like they were in this position. In terms of editing, we got the match on action cuts on point. They were timed very well and flowed brilliantly. Our most effective shot was the clip of both actors looking at each other through the same mirror, we managed to make great use of all the bathroom windows as we played around with the angles and framing in there. By keeping lots of angles going it kept the audience watching and not get bored which managed to work very well. We also kept a de-saturated look to the final video in order to give it that conflict, meaningful and serious effect.

EBI:

Our only EBI was the use of the 180 degree rule, it did work well although it did have some problems. The turning of the actors heads caused a problem as at one point it looked as if they were turning to the same side. We also could've started the clip with a wide shot of the entire bathroom to show the audience what the environment was like, this could've helped towards out 180 degree rule as well. Also the opening scene of Ahmed walking in was rather shaky, we could've used a stabiliser or steadicam in order to get a very effective shot. The match on action shot of him opening and walking into the door wasn't also very effective. It wasn't timed as perfectly than the others as there was a very rapid switch from him opening the door, to him walking in. Furthermore, we did come across some grain being shown in our video, this could argue with it being useful as our concept was based on conflict and it did fit in but it was un intended. We could've used a much lower ISO setting in order to cancel out all the grain being shown in some clips.

In conclusion, i think we managed to create a good preliminary task in order to show off the skills used, we applied all of them in and added a great concept to allow these skills to work together. We all worked well as a team with contributions being shown in written work and in camera work. We finalised all our idea together in pre production as well as post production. We managed to produce a task that everyone would keep watching be interested in carrying on.

Conflict (PreliminaryTask) Shot List:

Shot List – Conflict

by Kunal, Ahmed, Mansour, Abdi, Mikaeil

Shot No.	Shot	Filmed?
1	Tracking shot of Mansour leaving the cubical	YES
2	Match cut into close up of the toilet tap	YES
3	OTS tracking shot of Ahmed walking towards toilet door	YES
4	Match cut of Ahmed getting closer to the door	YES
5	Mansour washing his hands	YES
6	Mansour looking in the mirror	YES
7	Ahmed opening the door	YES
8	Ahmed entering the toilet	YES
9	Close up shot of Ahmed looking in the mirror	YES
10	Close up of Mansour mirror with both actors making eye contact	YES
11	Close up of Mansour saying “you cool yeah?”	YES
12	Close up of Ahmed replying saying “Yeah”	YES
13	OTS  shot of Mansour focusing on Ahmed saying “don’t ask me questions”	YES
14	OTS of Ahmed focusing on Mansour with his reaction	YES
15	OTS of Mansour focusing on Ahmed walking out	YES
16	Mansours reaction with fade out	YES

Conflict (Preliminary Task) Script:

Conflict

By Kunal, Abdi, Ahmed & Mikaeil.

Fade in

Tracking shot of the toilet with high key lighting. The bathroom contains two cubicles, four sinks and three urinals.

Shot of toilet as we see Mansour leaving bathroom cubicle.

*D Block Men Toilets*

Mansour washes his hands

Ahmed walks through the corridor

Shot jumps to scene of Mansour washing his hands focusing on the mirror

Ahmed enters and gives Mansour a rude look through his mirror

Ahmed starts to wash his hands

Mansour also gives him a bad look through the mirror

Mansour:

“You cool yeah?”

*Camera cuts to Ahmed*

Ahmed:

“Yeah”

*Ahmed then turns to the sink and realises what just happens

He turns around quickly and an over shoulder shot of Mansour to show Ahmed*

Ahmed:

“Don’t ask me questions”

*Pauses for a few seconds*

Ahmed:

“Wasteman”

*He turns and walks out the toilet leaving Mansour surprised*

Fade Out

Psycographic Groups: The Strugglers

Preliminary Exercise: Planning

4CS Survey Results

Narrative

Breaking Bad:

Enigma and Action Codes - Roland Barthes:

Enigma Code: Middle class, 50 year old man, has a family and is a teacher, good person, recently diagnosed with cancer. Why does he decide to cook and sell drugs? Why are people after him? Who is the young person he's working with?
 

Action Code: He is diagnosed with cancer. He utilises his education and skill to cook drugs. He faces bad people and commits crimes. He gets involved in violence. his family may be endangered. His brother in law works for the DEA.
 

Todorov: Equilibrium

Equilibrium: He is a good, family man.

Disequilibrium: He is diagnosed with cancer and needs lots of money for treatment. He sees that selling drugs makes as told by his DEA brother in law. He then meets Jesse who has experience in the drug game. He aims to make $62,000. He gets so addicted he makes millions. He meets a lot of evil people and commits many murders.

New Equilibrium: He kills all of the bad people he has ever met and the cop that was after him has died. In the process of saving his family and friends the main villain of it all, himself.
 

Character Theory: Propp

The Villain: Walter White (Himself)

The Donor: Skyler White

The Helper: Saul Goodman 

The Princess: Walter White Jr & Holly White

The Dispatcher: Jesse Pinkman

The Hero: Hank Schrader

The False Hero: Walter White (Himself)

Taken 2:

Enigma and Action Codes - Roland Barthes:

Enigma Code: Brian goes abroad for business and decides to invite his wife and daughter. They are all happy and loving.

Action Code: A group of people that have revenge for Brian kidnap him and his wife and leave the daughter alone, this suggests a violent and action packed plot.

Todorov: Equilibrium

Equilibrium: He is a family man and they're all together in piece.

Disequilibrium: His dangerous past of bad business catches up to him and the people he killed's family wants revenge. They kidnap him and his wife and leave the daughter alone in a abroad country

New Equilibrium: He kills all of the bad people and reunites with his family.

Character Theory: Propp

The Villain: The Albanians

The Donor: His Daughter

The Helper: His Daughter

The Princess: His Wife

The Dispatcher: Himself

The Hero: Himself

The False Hero: N/A

500 Days Of Summer:

Enigma and Action Codes - Roland Barthes:

Enigma Code: Who is this girl? Why is he unhappy? Why did she leave him?
Action Code: He tries to get her back, he doesn't succeed. She hurts him and leaves which suggests that this movie is filled with romance and heartbreak.

Todorov: Equilibrium

Equilibrium: He is a young hard working man in New York that falls in love.

Disequilibrium: The girl he falls in love with breaks his heart and plays with him terribly. He is heart broken.
New Disequilibrium: He tries to get her back and settle things. It doesn't work out so they decide to fully split. He then finds a new girl.

Character Theory: Propp

The Villain: Summer

The Donor: Rachel (Sister)

The Helper: His Daughter& McKenzie (Best Friend)

The Princess: Summer

The Dispatcher: Himself

The Hero: Autumn