Tasks 4 & 5

Task 4

Place the following genres into their correct category.

The News, EastEnders, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Friends, Horizon, Cribs, Qi, The Bill, Holyoaks, Life On Mars, I’m A Celebrity..., House, Escape To The Country, X Factor, Coronation Street,

Information	Identity	Social Interaction	Diversion
The News Qi Horizon	Cribs Escape to the country	Eastenders Coronation Street Friends Life on Mars The Bill Hollyoaks House	Who wants to be a millionaire? I’m a celebrity… X factor

Which of the above programmes might be guilty of employing the ‘Hypodermic Model’ and which therefore might also reflect Blumer’s views on audience?

Social Interaction programmes could be an example of the ‘Hypodermic Model’ as the audience get involved of the life of a soap opera character.

Task 5Look at the opening of ‘Nanny McPhee’. Think about the way the text has been constructed through the use of codes. What has been encoded for the audience to decode?

The target audience of Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang is families, this is because the exciting story and characters appeal to children, but the storyline of having a nanny appeals to parents and older audiences. It also allows the older audience to see children act in the film and experience their childhood again. The trailer shows that the main character, the nanny, has a special power which makes the children want to see it as it seems extraordinary; the adults also want to see it but to find out the outcome and see the humour within the film.
The colour green at the start of the trailer could appear a 'happy' colour to the child audience, this links to bright green generally meaning happiness rather than jealousy from a child's point of view. The actress playing the nanny is made up to look ugly and in some ways hideous as she's got witch features in the way that she has powers that normal people don't have; this can appeal to children as she looks unusual but to adults as they know the role of an ugly witch from previous films and tv programmes.

Theory

Clause Levi-Strauss (1908-2009)

Binary opposites-

Good v Evil

Black v White

Tall v Short

Old v Young

Valdimir Propp (1895-1970)

Example- James bond, Gold Finger

Character roles-

James bond- The hero, the character who seeks something

Gold Finger- The villain

Q- The donor, who produces an object with some magic property

Felix Leither- The helper, aids the hero

Pussy Galore- The princess, reward for the hero and often an object of the villains schemes

Father- Rewards the hero

M- The dispatcher, who sends the hero on his way

The false hero- seems to be heroic initially but turns out to be evil or a red herring

Red Herring- A character or object that is introduced as seemingly important, it is left behind/forgotten/never mentioned again. Turns out to been of  no importance.

Tzvetan Todrov (1939-   )

All stories begin with an equilibrium, this is disrupted then resorted. A classic beginning, middle, and end structure.  3 PART NARRATIVE STRUCTURE.

1-      Equilibrium

2-      Disruption of equilibrium

3-      Restoration of equilibrium or a new equilitrium

In films and TV the ‘hero’ can be male or female- someone who moves the story forward e.g. Bridget Jones, Home Simpson, James bond.

This is England '86

To continue from the film ‘This is England’ which was made in 2006 directed by Shane Meadows channel 4 created a series called ‘This is England 86’ which was shown in 2010.

Te reason for making a series after the film is to show what all the characters lives are like three years on from the occurrences in the film. It is also a good example to show people what life what was like in the 80’s showing about the skinhead culture and the rivalries between the different groups and to show what the lift style was like during a mass unemployment period. 

All of the original cast from the film appear in the series as well with some new additions like Lol’s mum and dad and also some characters from the film like Harvey who was not part of the group in the film is part of the group in the series. It is filmed in Sheffield again so people who have watched the film will recognise the settings and it will relate back to the film.

The budget for the series is a lot bigger than it was for the film, the film has a small budget of £1.5 million and the series had a budget of £20 million. The money difference made a huge improvement on the filming as it was not hand held so this means there could be a lot more different angles, the lighting was also different. All together the technology available was a lot better making the end quality of the filming a higher standard.

Directors: Shane Meadows and Tom Harper
Executive Producers: Mark Herbert and Shane Meadows
Producer: Derrin Schlesinger
Production Company: Warp Films
Funding: Screen Yorkshire Filming, EM Media

Representation- Disability

The song “Spasticus Autisticus” was played out to our class at the beginning of the lesson, this song is by a band called the Blockheads. The lead singer of the band had a disease called Polio, this stopped the growth and development in one of his legs. The song is about people with disabilities but because someone with a disability wrote it it was accepted by the public and other physically or mentally disabled people.

As a class we shared our own personal opinions and feelings towards people with a disability and how we felt when we were around someone with a disability. Some views were different to others, some people felt extremely uncomfortable, some people felt sympathy and some people admitted they would rather try and avoid anyone with a disability. If confronted by someone with a disability most of the class said they would rather be with someone with a physical disability than a mental disability. One thing that the majority of the class agreed on was that we all didn’t want to seem patronising when around someone with a mental or a physical disability.

Famous disabled people-

Stephan Hawking- Wheel chair

Heather Mills- One leg

Gordon Brown- One eye

Steve Wonder- Blind

Verne Troyer- Dwarf

Muhammad Ali- Parkinson’s disease

Gary Coleman- Dwarf

Albert Einstein- Autistic

Leonardo Divinci- Autistic

Ian Dury- Polio

Terry Pratchett- Alzheimer’s

Rya Charles- Blind

Mozart- Deaf

Blaine Harrison- Spina bifida

Famous films with characters with disabilities-

Rainman- Dustin Hoffman

Forrest Gump- Tom Hanks

My left foot- Daniel Day

I am Sam- Sean Penn

Born on the 4^th of July- Tom Cruise

Water boy- Adam Sandler

The ringer- Johnny Knoxville

The curious case of Benjamin Button- Brad Pitt

Unbreakable- Samuel L Jackson

IRobot- Will Smith

Million dollar baby- Hilary Swank

Avatar- Sam Worthington

Some of these films show the character with the disability being a hero, this could be shown to other people with any kind of disability that they can make a different. A few of these films were nominated and won amazing awards.

The Gaze

The Gaze is the technical term that was used in film theory in the 1970’s to refer to the ways viewers look at images of people in every visual medium. The way that females think men look at women is called ‘The male gaze’ this is seen as women are just there to admire and not do anything or contribute to society.

Forms of the gaze-

-The spectators gaze

-The intra diegetic gaze

-The direct address (extra- diegetic) to the viewers

-The look of the camera

-The gaze of the bystander

-The gaze of an audience within a text

Trevor Millum distinguishes between these forms of attention in his studies.

Laura Mulvey- The male gaze

-Visual pleasure

-Active male

-Passive female

-Women seen as an image

-Men seen as a bearer of the look

-Voyeuristic- looker

-Fetishistic- being looked at

-Some different criticism comes with the theory

-Failure to account for the female spectator

-Looks only at the spectator as being a heterosexual male.

But research shows that since the 1980’s there has been an increasing display of the male body as well as the female body. In the lesson we were give two images of celebrities doing an underwear advert for Calvin Klein, we were asked to analyse the two images. 

The first one we did was of the footballer Freddie Ljungberg. The first thing we thought about was his hair is it a short hair cut, can come across rather masculine and clean cut, also it is not a very eye catching hair cut. The look on Freddie’s face looks very stern and intradiegetic. His face looks ‘chizzled’ he has rather high cheek bones which gives him quite a feminine look  to his face. He is also frowning, this could show what kind of emotion he is feeling. Freddie’s lips are also showing quite a feminine side he seems to be doing a slight pout as his lips look quite plump. It looks like Freddie has on some sort of lip balm adding a colour and glow to his lips. He has slight stubble on this face, this is seen as rugged looking and really quite masculine. His body looks sweaty like he has maybe just been working out been in the shower or maybe post coital. This pubic area from what we can see is shaven, this could show that he is a very clean cut person. It also shows a tan line when he is pulling down one side of his boxers, this is very sexually suggestive. The way his hand is held on the top of the boxers looks very aggressive because it is in a fist grip making it look very firm and masculine. The underwear Freddie has on is very tight, also when he is pulling down the boxers you notice his tattoo. The tattoo could come across as rebellious to some people it is also in a sexual place which could be suggesting a message to particular people as it is a animal, the fact that his tattoo is of some kind of animal could make people think about Freddie himself. Having his tattoo on display could maybe show that he can take pain which shows his masculinity. In the image Freddie has a necklace on, this could be for one of many reasons it could be showing that he is religious, or it could maybe just be a fashion statement, the necklace adds a certain feminine side to the image. The background colour that Freddie is against could be seen as a rather romantic or sexual image as it is a deep red. Someone also suggested that it could be that colour because of the football team he plays for.

The second image that we had to analyse was Eva Mendes in the Calvin Klein underwear advert the same way we did with the Freddie Ljungberg image. Her hair in the image looks wet like she has just got out of the shower, maybe been swimming or on the beach. As well as her hair being wet it also look rather messy; this could suggest that it is post coital. Her body is very slim, some would see it as perfect as she has fantastic legs a flat stomach and it just looks extremely toned all over. Some views on Eva’s body is that they thought it was a sporty figure as she does not have very large breasts. Her stance says a lot about her, it is a very strong stance showing huge confidence in herself, she looks like she is standing her ground this is say to people that she doesn’t like to be messed around. They way her arms are held look very strong and show authority. I think her stance also shows to women across the world to be confident in themselves and to be dominant. Her facial expression could be seen in a sexual manner, some would see it as an ‘orgasm’ face supporting the post coital look that she is giving off. There is a certain look to the whole image where you can tell that Eva knows she looks good and doesn’t care who is watching her or what anyone is saying about her. Her face looks distracted and disinterested in what is going on around her, like people are not worthy of her attention. Eva’s legs are one of the best features on her body, they are not extremely skinny they look very toned and strong. The way she is on her tip toes adds to the toned look of her legs and make them look longer. The way that Eva has shoes on when she is in her underwear shows a pornographic side to the image, because it is said that in pornographic films and images the women have shoes on.

Forrest Gump – played by Tom Hanks

Created by – Winston Groom

Disability – little brain activity, bow legs

D.O.B – 06/06/1944

Hometown – Alabama

I.Q – 75

Occupation – soldier, businessman, shrimp boat captain, football player, professional ping pong player, lawn mower

Forrest Gump’s disability is portrayed well in the film as the audience see that he is simple-minded and doesn’t think through his actions. The film is set in 1981 but there are flashbacks to different events in his life, this means Forrest Gump is 37 years old throughout most of the story, this character is played by Tom Hanks; however the scenes involving him as a child are played by Joseph Urso.

The stereotypes of a mental disability are that the person is typically ‘not right in the head’; they’re often described as crazy or a ‘freak’. The audience can’t tell visually if a character or person has a mental disability, it’s usually shown through body language or speech.

The start of the film shows Forrest Gump sitting on the famous bench waiting for a bus, talking to a woman. He begins telling her his life story, this could show abnormality within the character; this is shown as the average person wouldn’t tell a stranger their life story on a normal day. He shows a personal level to the woman, the woman doesn’t react very much and just sits and listens, this could show that she knows he’s ‘not right in the head’.

The physical disability with his ‘bowed legs’ is shown twice vividly in the film, at first when he’s younger being chased by a group of boys, the famous quote ‘Run Forrest run!’ is shouted by Jenny, Forrest’s friend. This scene is repeated later in the film, during his adult life, the same group of boys are chasing him but in a truck as they’re all older; Jenny shouts ‘Run Forrest run!’ again. His physical disability is visually stronger when he’s a child as he wears leg braces to fix it, when the character grows up and becomes an adult his physical disability disappears.

The film, ‘Tropic Thunder’ shows a clip of two characters talking about going ‘Full Retard’, they say how no one can go full retard, however as Forrest Gump has both a mental and physical disability he is verging on ‘full retard’. One of the characters in the scene mentions Forrest Gump being ‘slow’ and having braces on his legs, but he’s a professional ping pong player therefore he can’t be ‘full retard’.

Jess Pardoe and Grace Keogh

Beyoncé If I Were A Boy- The Gaze

For our video, we chose Beyoncé’s ‘If I Were A Boy’. This shows women acting in a seductive manner, and how they are seen as an object. The perfect example being when she bends over the car arresting the criminal and we see the man checking her out.  Another case of the ‘invitational’ look Marjorie Ferguson describes is the moment where they begin dancing outside the club and she keeps glancing over her shoulder to him, she kept fluttering her eyelids to emphasise her eyes. At the beginning we see Beyoncé leaning against a white wash wall, this scene is repeated and she look incredibly beautiful. The way she is leant against a white wall can be seen in Eva Mendes’s Calvin Klein pictures. Which are very seductive.  Although she is not using any emotive or seductive facial expressions it is clear watching this that it is extremely pleasing to ‘the male gaze’. Also in this shot Beyoncé shows an example of the ‘chocolate box’ after she says ‘me’ this shows that she is complying with Fergusons theorem as she looks in-unique and uninterested. Whilst she is helping the policemen aim his gun she shows the ‘super smiler’ look, although this could also be seen as Millum’s “comic” look as she is laughing and acting the fool. When dancing with another man Beyonce does a thing called ‘Invitational’ this concentrates on eyes and mouth with only a hint of a smile, head to one side looking at the camera. This is a rather suggestive look, quite mysterious and sexual. During this scene also there is something called a ‘romantic or sexual’ this shows a male and a female acting very sexual in front of each other, showing that they are possible, available, or defiantly available. During the moment where she is the policewoman she clearly expresses Millum’s ‘practical’ look. Concentrating on how she wears here hat. A sort of frowning extremely focused expression. Hair tied back indicating she means business, male viewers are looking directly at her and are naturally turned on by the fact of such an attractive woman having such authority, focus and determination.