Analyse one of your media productions in relation to representation
Stuart Hall states that representation is "how the media shows us things about society through careful mediation in which we share recognition of people and situations." When showing representations through my media production of the pop genre video "Its All About Tonight" we "selected specific footage to represent certain concepts" and show typical conventions within the pop genre.
As James Baker states we used "organized editing in order to represent key ideas and selected specific footage in order to show our representations." These included focusing on the artist and having her centrally focused within every shot to represent empowerment of women and the challenging of stereotypical gender references of a weak female. We also were able to represent youth and the fun partying atmosphere by having fast paced shots and a range of locations within the video which young people are associated with such as hot tub, convertible and fashionable clothes. There are certain props within our videos which also represent wealth such as jewellery and the sports car. All of these add together to represent certain aspects that we wanted to portray to the audience to appeal to them. As we were in control of our video and were able to send certain ideologies to the audience we followed Marxism theory by sending messages to
Tuesday 15 May 2012
Wednesday 9 May 2012
Analyse one of your media productions in relation to audience
Julian Mcdougall states in relation to media audience that "It's getting harder to conceive a media audience as a stable identifiable group" meaning they are continually changing and what may be our main target audience now may change in the future. We needed however to focus on our target audience for the meantime and once we decided that our genre was going to be Pop with a side genre of dance as we chosen the video "It's All About Tonight" by Pixie Lott we realized that our main target audience was a mainstream audience. Specifically our audience was young males and females within their late teens to late twenties as the video focuses on female empowerment to attract the female audience and is also seen within the male gaze by Laura Mulvey to attract the male audience.
As Hartley states its highly important for a producer of a music video to "know their audience so that they can target them effectively" this being said, we knew that our coursework project to produce a music video for the pop genre had to be centered around audience and what they wanted to see within the video. He follows that "institutions are obliged not only to speak about an audience but crucially talk to them aswell and enter relations with them." With this been said we began to look into our genre by looking through various websites involving Facebook and Twitter as well as the Capital website (notorious for its mainstream pop music theme) in order to identify the type of people who fit with my target audience and what they wanted to see. After I realized the mainstream theme of females and males aged late teens to late twenties fit with my genre and choice of song I created an audience profile for each gender discussing the types of things they enjoy and the characteristics they have. These included going out, parties, make up and nice clothing for the females and going out, parties and having an attractive female present in videos for the males. We then furthered our audience research by creating a video where we interviewed each gender who fit within the right age bracket to tell us the kind of things they would expect and what to see within a pop genre video. Here we were able to ask specific questions in order to gain an audience members opinion to give our audience exactly what they want within our video and found that often within the pop genre the video contents are exciting yet easy to understand, involve a central character and are fun to watch. This began our journey in order to plan our music video which we molded an appropriate storyline for after receiving this feedback.
Dick Hebdige states that "music videos should show sub cultures for the genre" in which we understood that we needed to show relevant props and locations which our mainstream audience where familiar with in order to like and enjoy it. The theme we decided to have for our video was the main artist going out to a party in which she is shown in various locations wearing going out sophisticated outfits and heels as well as make up and fashionable hairstyles. All of these subcultures are ones which target our audience as they are enjoyable things they relate to within their lives and are what young people associate with making the video appeal to them. In order to target what are audience wanted within the pop genre we knew we had to look at audience feedback and so searched for the most popular mainstream videos with the largest amount of hits on Youtube such as Beyonce, Katy Perry and Rihanna's videos. All of which we realized had these characteristics involved in which the main artist was an attractive confident female showing empowerment and going out for a night out or a party within the video. We then knew that a main stream audience are big fans of this narrative within a music video with the artist always being centrally focused and wearing nice clothing within meat shots to make female viewers feel empowered and attract the male gaze. Having these key characteristics are what attract our audience to the video and previous videos within the pop genre.
McQuail makes a point of the use of gratifications as videos can be used "for a diversion or escapism for the audience in which they can build a personal relationship with the artist and narrative." I believe the video gives a personal identification with the representations on display to the viewer in order for them to relate to the video but emphasizes certain points in order to give an escapism for the viewer. For example the bar, clothing, makeup and heels shown within the video are things the audience are familiar with in every day life but the convertible and hottub are used as an escapism for the audience to feel like they are involved within a wealthy lifestyle with things they make not be as familiar with in every day life but that are used to promote the star image. Stuart Hall states that "depending on the audience depends on what reading is found, our dominant reading was for women to feel empowered and confident, excited for a night out and forgetting about all past relationships which had ended. This is shown through the narrative of the artist always centrally focused looking happy and empowered at certain locations as if at a party/ down town. Though this is our dominant reading for our main target audience which is young females some minorities of our audience may get different readings such as males who may just pay attention to the female persona and her attraction rather than a concept.
Julian Mcdougall states in relation to media audience that "It's getting harder to conceive a media audience as a stable identifiable group" meaning they are continually changing and what may be our main target audience now may change in the future. We needed however to focus on our target audience for the meantime and once we decided that our genre was going to be Pop with a side genre of dance as we chosen the video "It's All About Tonight" by Pixie Lott we realized that our main target audience was a mainstream audience. Specifically our audience was young males and females within their late teens to late twenties as the video focuses on female empowerment to attract the female audience and is also seen within the male gaze by Laura Mulvey to attract the male audience.
As Hartley states its highly important for a producer of a music video to "know their audience so that they can target them effectively" this being said, we knew that our coursework project to produce a music video for the pop genre had to be centered around audience and what they wanted to see within the video. He follows that "institutions are obliged not only to speak about an audience but crucially talk to them aswell and enter relations with them." With this been said we began to look into our genre by looking through various websites involving Facebook and Twitter as well as the Capital website (notorious for its mainstream pop music theme) in order to identify the type of people who fit with my target audience and what they wanted to see. After I realized the mainstream theme of females and males aged late teens to late twenties fit with my genre and choice of song I created an audience profile for each gender discussing the types of things they enjoy and the characteristics they have. These included going out, parties, make up and nice clothing for the females and going out, parties and having an attractive female present in videos for the males. We then furthered our audience research by creating a video where we interviewed each gender who fit within the right age bracket to tell us the kind of things they would expect and what to see within a pop genre video. Here we were able to ask specific questions in order to gain an audience members opinion to give our audience exactly what they want within our video and found that often within the pop genre the video contents are exciting yet easy to understand, involve a central character and are fun to watch. This began our journey in order to plan our music video which we molded an appropriate storyline for after receiving this feedback.
Dick Hebdige states that "music videos should show sub cultures for the genre" in which we understood that we needed to show relevant props and locations which our mainstream audience where familiar with in order to like and enjoy it. The theme we decided to have for our video was the main artist going out to a party in which she is shown in various locations wearing going out sophisticated outfits and heels as well as make up and fashionable hairstyles. All of these subcultures are ones which target our audience as they are enjoyable things they relate to within their lives and are what young people associate with making the video appeal to them. In order to target what are audience wanted within the pop genre we knew we had to look at audience feedback and so searched for the most popular mainstream videos with the largest amount of hits on Youtube such as Beyonce, Katy Perry and Rihanna's videos. All of which we realized had these characteristics involved in which the main artist was an attractive confident female showing empowerment and going out for a night out or a party within the video. We then knew that a main stream audience are big fans of this narrative within a music video with the artist always being centrally focused and wearing nice clothing within meat shots to make female viewers feel empowered and attract the male gaze. Having these key characteristics are what attract our audience to the video and previous videos within the pop genre.
McQuail makes a point of the use of gratifications as videos can be used "for a diversion or escapism for the audience in which they can build a personal relationship with the artist and narrative." I believe the video gives a personal identification with the representations on display to the viewer in order for them to relate to the video but emphasizes certain points in order to give an escapism for the viewer. For example the bar, clothing, makeup and heels shown within the video are things the audience are familiar with in every day life but the convertible and hottub are used as an escapism for the audience to feel like they are involved within a wealthy lifestyle with things they make not be as familiar with in every day life but that are used to promote the star image. Stuart Hall states that "depending on the audience depends on what reading is found, our dominant reading was for women to feel empowered and confident, excited for a night out and forgetting about all past relationships which had ended. This is shown through the narrative of the artist always centrally focused looking happy and empowered at certain locations as if at a party/ down town. Though this is our dominant reading for our main target audience which is young females some minorities of our audience may get different readings such as males who may just pay attention to the female persona and her attraction rather than a concept.
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to narrative
A music video usually has a fragmented narrative which shows a mixture of narrative and performance in order to relate to the song and reveal something to the viewers. As Tim O Sullivan states "media texts offer a way of telling stories as it allows us to read things in a particular way." For my coursework project I have chosen to discuss my music video in relation to narrative which is Pixie Lotts "Its all about tonight" and relate to various theorists such as Propp, Michael Shore, Andrew Goodwin and Sven Carlsson which we both challenged and adhered.
Propp states that there is generally a hegemony narrative during a media text in which typical characters are shown such as the protagonist, antagonist and damsel in distress. However, during our video a key concept which we went with was empowerment of women whilst getting rid of the past and getting over an ex boyfriend and focusing solely on having a good time with a night out. As of this we decided to challenge this convention and go against the stereotypical "princess" idea showing a strong confident women for the viewers to be able to relate to the narrative by feeling positive about themselves after a breakup. The narrative is a feeling felt by most women which are our target audience meaning the narrative of the video will appeal to them making them want to watch the video. The artist is shown centrally within every shot to show her importance and stength to go against Propps idealogy as she is shown to be very femine and fashionable yet a strong confident women with her mannerisms. Steriotypically a woman is seen as weak but we wanted to go against this convention specifically for women to feel empowered.
Michael Shore states that often narratives are "surface without substance" and don't go into alot of depth which we felt fit with our genre of video which was pop/dance as it needed to have an easy to understand narrative so that the viewers could understand it easily and be able to dance or get ready for a night out while watching it (its main purpose when to be enjoyed.) The storyline of the video is easy to follow and straight forward involving a girl (the main artist) having a party night out with her friends after a breakup. The narrative is extremely upbeat and fun to fit in key with the lyrics and music which is a recycled style as its a convention within a narrative which is often used as we as a western culture associate parties and going as very positive aspects of life. Which leads to Andrew Goodwins theory that videos "are post modern and have been done before" as the audience expect certain things within a music video because of our society within the western culture. These aspects include a female artist seen within the male gaze and provocatively throughout each video which we decided to portray within our video by using an attractive female in appropriate clothing such as a swimsuit as the main singer in order to be seen as an attraction towards the viewer and be something they are familiar with.
Sven Carlsson states that each media clip involves performance or narrative. Our video "It's All About Tonight" offers a mixture of both performance and narrative together within alot of fragmented shots put together to the beat of the music. We offer a performace by having a wide range of locations were the artist is always centrally focused such as in a bar, a sports car and hot tub in which she associates with the viewer through actions such as pointing to the camera and nodding her head at the appropriate times of the video. The artist offers song performance with lip syncing and facial expressions aswell as dance performance by dancing with her backing dancers within the various locations. The actress herself shows a modern mythic emboliment of a confident, strong and empowered persona who is getting over a breakup for the viewers to be able to relate too. The narrative is easy to follow and makes the video relate to society and the artist by being a common narrative of a party setting and the events happening throughout.
A music video usually has a fragmented narrative which shows a mixture of narrative and performance in order to relate to the song and reveal something to the viewers. As Tim O Sullivan states "media texts offer a way of telling stories as it allows us to read things in a particular way." For my coursework project I have chosen to discuss my music video in relation to narrative which is Pixie Lotts "Its all about tonight" and relate to various theorists such as Propp, Michael Shore, Andrew Goodwin and Sven Carlsson which we both challenged and adhered.
Propp states that there is generally a hegemony narrative during a media text in which typical characters are shown such as the protagonist, antagonist and damsel in distress. However, during our video a key concept which we went with was empowerment of women whilst getting rid of the past and getting over an ex boyfriend and focusing solely on having a good time with a night out. As of this we decided to challenge this convention and go against the stereotypical "princess" idea showing a strong confident women for the viewers to be able to relate to the narrative by feeling positive about themselves after a breakup. The narrative is a feeling felt by most women which are our target audience meaning the narrative of the video will appeal to them making them want to watch the video. The artist is shown centrally within every shot to show her importance and stength to go against Propps idealogy as she is shown to be very femine and fashionable yet a strong confident women with her mannerisms. Steriotypically a woman is seen as weak but we wanted to go against this convention specifically for women to feel empowered.
Michael Shore states that often narratives are "surface without substance" and don't go into alot of depth which we felt fit with our genre of video which was pop/dance as it needed to have an easy to understand narrative so that the viewers could understand it easily and be able to dance or get ready for a night out while watching it (its main purpose when to be enjoyed.) The storyline of the video is easy to follow and straight forward involving a girl (the main artist) having a party night out with her friends after a breakup. The narrative is extremely upbeat and fun to fit in key with the lyrics and music which is a recycled style as its a convention within a narrative which is often used as we as a western culture associate parties and going as very positive aspects of life. Which leads to Andrew Goodwins theory that videos "are post modern and have been done before" as the audience expect certain things within a music video because of our society within the western culture. These aspects include a female artist seen within the male gaze and provocatively throughout each video which we decided to portray within our video by using an attractive female in appropriate clothing such as a swimsuit as the main singer in order to be seen as an attraction towards the viewer and be something they are familiar with.
Sven Carlsson states that each media clip involves performance or narrative. Our video "It's All About Tonight" offers a mixture of both performance and narrative together within alot of fragmented shots put together to the beat of the music. We offer a performace by having a wide range of locations were the artist is always centrally focused such as in a bar, a sports car and hot tub in which she associates with the viewer through actions such as pointing to the camera and nodding her head at the appropriate times of the video. The artist offers song performance with lip syncing and facial expressions aswell as dance performance by dancing with her backing dancers within the various locations. The actress herself shows a modern mythic emboliment of a confident, strong and empowered persona who is getting over a breakup for the viewers to be able to relate too. The narrative is easy to follow and makes the video relate to society and the artist by being a common narrative of a party setting and the events happening throughout.
Monday 7 May 2012
Describe how your understanding of the importance of good research and planning skills developed throughout the pre-production of your AS and A2 coursework
During my coursework productions my AS brief was to create a 2 minute opening sequence for a horror film including titles and my A2 brief was to create a promo package including video, digipak and advert for the pop genre. For both these projects research and planning were key concepts in order to develop into gaing my final products which were an opening horror sequence titled "Twisted" and a pop music video titled "It's All About Tonight" by Pixie Lott. Im going to discuss my progression from AS to A2 within my Research and Planning.
At AS I began my project with researching into conventions of the genre horror and what is involved in various horror films which would be a good concept for my own sequence. To do this I began to look at other horror films such as "Jeepers Creepers" and "Saw" which helped me discover various conventions I wanted to include within my video. The feeling of an antagonist after you within "Jeepers Creepers" is its key concept particularly showing shots from the antagonists perspective with the characters being unaware of his wareabouts or intentions. This was an idea we wanted to portray within our horror film as we felt it was a good way to scare the viewer to see points of view from the killer as if it was them themselves. We acheived this by using a handheld camera of the killer walking towards the couple within our video who are the main actors to show suspence and mystery as to who he is and why he's following them. Whilst looking at "Saw" we realised that an important factor was to keep key factors of the storyline hidden from the characters and viewers. This occurs within "Saws" opening sequence as a man awakes in a bath within a dark room unaware of where he is, how he got there or what is going on. The audience are also revealed a key go down the plug hole as he struggles which they are unaware of its significance. Within my video I took inspiration from this as the two main characters are unaware that the killer is behind them throughout the sequence until he attacks and the plot as to why the killer attacks is not made aparent throughout the sequence to leave mystery to the viewer. I also analysed 9 frames of existing horror films such as "Saw" and titles timelines such as "The Shining" and "A Nightmare On Elm Street" which I discovered that centrally framing is important in giving the viewers infomation yet having a hand held camera out of focus like of "The Blaire Witch Project" makes the viewers feel uneasy. The timelines shown me the order in which the titles should come in and how to show them in an effective way in order to fit with the genre for example both movies had the directors name last and dramatic music within the background, two traites which we decided to add to our film sequence to help it fit the genre and create suspence. These films both also revealed slight links of the narrative while showing the titles which we knew was an important part to our sequence, the titles being simple as the main focus would be towards the narrative so they are never centrally focused but generally to the side. Once we had researched many films within this genre we needed to plan our sequence with the various ideas we had chosen and so began writing a pitch entailing the storyline of what we planned to achieve, then we had to think of suitable locations creating a call sheet with the addresses and places such as the land behind a pond for the filming and contact numbers for our three actors and adresses. We also needed a risk assessment sheet of possible things that could go wrong such as actors becoming ill and how we would deal with the situation such as rescheduling or having stand by actors. A sketch of each shot was then drawn paying close attention to the framing and actions made and were then taken photos of with a stills camera and uploaded onto Imovie to be made into an anamatic so that we were aware of the shot order and how they would be filmed with the positioning of characters and the way in which the narrative was presented. This planning helped with our final product as it helped us work out how to involve the horror techniques we needed and make our sequence look professional.
During my coursework productions my AS brief was to create a 2 minute opening sequence for a horror film including titles and my A2 brief was to create a promo package including video, digipak and advert for the pop genre. For both these projects research and planning were key concepts in order to develop into gaing my final products which were an opening horror sequence titled "Twisted" and a pop music video titled "It's All About Tonight" by Pixie Lott. Im going to discuss my progression from AS to A2 within my Research and Planning.
At AS I began my project with researching into conventions of the genre horror and what is involved in various horror films which would be a good concept for my own sequence. To do this I began to look at other horror films such as "Jeepers Creepers" and "Saw" which helped me discover various conventions I wanted to include within my video. The feeling of an antagonist after you within "Jeepers Creepers" is its key concept particularly showing shots from the antagonists perspective with the characters being unaware of his wareabouts or intentions. This was an idea we wanted to portray within our horror film as we felt it was a good way to scare the viewer to see points of view from the killer as if it was them themselves. We acheived this by using a handheld camera of the killer walking towards the couple within our video who are the main actors to show suspence and mystery as to who he is and why he's following them. Whilst looking at "Saw" we realised that an important factor was to keep key factors of the storyline hidden from the characters and viewers. This occurs within "Saws" opening sequence as a man awakes in a bath within a dark room unaware of where he is, how he got there or what is going on. The audience are also revealed a key go down the plug hole as he struggles which they are unaware of its significance. Within my video I took inspiration from this as the two main characters are unaware that the killer is behind them throughout the sequence until he attacks and the plot as to why the killer attacks is not made aparent throughout the sequence to leave mystery to the viewer. I also analysed 9 frames of existing horror films such as "Saw" and titles timelines such as "The Shining" and "A Nightmare On Elm Street" which I discovered that centrally framing is important in giving the viewers infomation yet having a hand held camera out of focus like of "The Blaire Witch Project" makes the viewers feel uneasy. The timelines shown me the order in which the titles should come in and how to show them in an effective way in order to fit with the genre for example both movies had the directors name last and dramatic music within the background, two traites which we decided to add to our film sequence to help it fit the genre and create suspence. These films both also revealed slight links of the narrative while showing the titles which we knew was an important part to our sequence, the titles being simple as the main focus would be towards the narrative so they are never centrally focused but generally to the side. Once we had researched many films within this genre we needed to plan our sequence with the various ideas we had chosen and so began writing a pitch entailing the storyline of what we planned to achieve, then we had to think of suitable locations creating a call sheet with the addresses and places such as the land behind a pond for the filming and contact numbers for our three actors and adresses. We also needed a risk assessment sheet of possible things that could go wrong such as actors becoming ill and how we would deal with the situation such as rescheduling or having stand by actors. A sketch of each shot was then drawn paying close attention to the framing and actions made and were then taken photos of with a stills camera and uploaded onto Imovie to be made into an anamatic so that we were aware of the shot order and how they would be filmed with the positioning of characters and the way in which the narrative was presented. This planning helped with our final product as it helped us work out how to involve the horror techniques we needed and make our sequence look professional.
Wednesday 2 May 2012
Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre
Daniel Chandler states that "Genre is a distinctive type of class/text" used to identify or establish something to its audience. Barry Keith Grant continues that "genre allows audience to identify them specifically by what they are familiar with and what becomes recognizable to them." The genre I have chosen was pop with a sub-genre of dance in which I both challenged and adhere various conventions of pop during our take on Pixie Lott's video "Its all about tonight."
Firstly, we knew it was important to look at existing media texts to understand the conventions of pop and found that typically the genre gives the audience a set of pleasures and realized that we could give our audience emotional pleasure by relating to the narrative and artist by feeling happy that she's getting over her ex boyfriend and is off for a night out (a common emotion felt by most women at some point). We looked at videos within the pop genre such as Rihanna's "Take a bow" in which the videos focused on female empowerment aswell as having the "male gaze" from Laura Mulveys theory and wanted to represent this feeling during our video. We also wanted to relate our video to its audience using familiar codes and conventions that make references to the audience and their society by having familiar cloths, makeup and shoes shown throughout the video to appeal to its main target audience of young women. We also wanted to follow the genres typical conventions by having over exaggerated features to give an escapism towards the viewers by having the hottub and sports car involved in the music video which are things which are possibly not things which the audience are familiar with but are shown for entertainment purposes. The video has a star persona of the main artist who is shown centrally in every shot through thought beats to show her importance. The main purpose of a promo package within the pop genre is to "promote the star" as Richard Dyer states so it was important to use lots of meat shots of the star and make her the centre of focus within every shot at each location.
A mixture of narrative and performance is also a key convention of the pop genre which we wanted to show within our video having lots of fast paced shots and thought beats to keep in pace with the music and flip from both narrativeand performance. Fragmented shots throughout which reveal the narrative involve shots within a bar, a sports car, at work and at a house party which allow a clear party narrative for the viewers but also allows the star to show performance with dancing to the beat of the music and lip syncing. We did lack various conventions of pop however by not including a choreagraphed dance routine with the artist and backing dancers as we just had them dancing and not in a fixed designed way. We let them dance freely as a new convention in order to represent a free and fun night as part of the genre of being a happy, upbeat empowering video for women. The range of costumes and hair styles fit the genre by being popular but also are used to keep the audience entertained. Each location has a different outfit which fit with the location in order for the audience to differentiate between them. With the main star being shown alot and the storyline being easy to follow the video fits the genre of being something that can be watched by viewers while getting ready for a night out or with friends.
Daniel Chandler states that "Genre is a distinctive type of class/text" used to identify or establish something to its audience. Barry Keith Grant continues that "genre allows audience to identify them specifically by what they are familiar with and what becomes recognizable to them." The genre I have chosen was pop with a sub-genre of dance in which I both challenged and adhere various conventions of pop during our take on Pixie Lott's video "Its all about tonight."
Firstly, we knew it was important to look at existing media texts to understand the conventions of pop and found that typically the genre gives the audience a set of pleasures and realized that we could give our audience emotional pleasure by relating to the narrative and artist by feeling happy that she's getting over her ex boyfriend and is off for a night out (a common emotion felt by most women at some point). We looked at videos within the pop genre such as Rihanna's "Take a bow" in which the videos focused on female empowerment aswell as having the "male gaze" from Laura Mulveys theory and wanted to represent this feeling during our video. We also wanted to relate our video to its audience using familiar codes and conventions that make references to the audience and their society by having familiar cloths, makeup and shoes shown throughout the video to appeal to its main target audience of young women. We also wanted to follow the genres typical conventions by having over exaggerated features to give an escapism towards the viewers by having the hottub and sports car involved in the music video which are things which are possibly not things which the audience are familiar with but are shown for entertainment purposes. The video has a star persona of the main artist who is shown centrally in every shot through thought beats to show her importance. The main purpose of a promo package within the pop genre is to "promote the star" as Richard Dyer states so it was important to use lots of meat shots of the star and make her the centre of focus within every shot at each location.
A mixture of narrative and performance is also a key convention of the pop genre which we wanted to show within our video having lots of fast paced shots and thought beats to keep in pace with the music and flip from both narrativeand performance. Fragmented shots throughout which reveal the narrative involve shots within a bar, a sports car, at work and at a house party which allow a clear party narrative for the viewers but also allows the star to show performance with dancing to the beat of the music and lip syncing. We did lack various conventions of pop however by not including a choreagraphed dance routine with the artist and backing dancers as we just had them dancing and not in a fixed designed way. We let them dance freely as a new convention in order to represent a free and fun night as part of the genre of being a happy, upbeat empowering video for women. The range of costumes and hair styles fit the genre by being popular but also are used to keep the audience entertained. Each location has a different outfit which fit with the location in order for the audience to differentiate between them. With the main star being shown alot and the storyline being easy to follow the video fits the genre of being something that can be watched by viewers while getting ready for a night out or with friends.
Wednesday 25 April 2012
Describe how you developed your post production skills for media production and evaluate how these skills informed your creative media practice. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time
During my coursework my post production skills developed significantly from AS to A2 and were key elements which helped my creativity in each of my projects. The brief for AS was to create an opening sequence to a horror film lasting 2 minutes including titles and the A2 brief was to create a promo package including video, digipak and advert for the pop genre. During AS my post production helped with my creativity such as being able to use Final Cut, Garageband and Photoshop. These helped us make our product original and creative by combining the things produced from each together to produce a sequence that has never been produced before. Within Final Cut we were able to create transitions such as fading in and out at the correct times to create a horror type feel and using text to show titles of specific actors and members of the production to make the sequence as creative as possible. With sound being an important part into being creative Garageband was a key element which helped make our sequence unique. We added sound effects from Garageband at specific points in the sequence to make it more dramatic to the viewer such as when the attacker is directly behind the couple and when the title of the film began. Being able to create our own soundtrack at the correct places made our sequence creative and exactly how we wanted it to be to create atmosphere and suspense. However though we were able to choose specific music to fit the genre Garageband only has a certain amount of loops so often this restricts the creativeness available. Using Photoshop also helped with our creativity to design a unique logo specifically fitting with the horror theme and which we included in our video to creatively show our production. However at this point my Photoshop skills were fairly limited and I was only able to create a very basic logo and title page for the video. These did both fit with the genre though and helped with the creativity of the sequence.
Using Web 2.0 Blogger to show all my post production work helped me show them creatively all in one place and fitted to the theme of horror with a black background and red text to give it that professional look. My evaluation questions were completed on Prezi within post production of AS which enabled me to analyse my work in a creative and quick way. Prezi was easy to learn and use so I was able to insert photos, videos and make the text and background fit with the rest of the theme with this. The progression into A2 enabled me to be more creative with my use of technology in post production using similar programs but in a much more developed and creative way. Using Final Cut was a massive factor into the creation of my project by creating my music video. As I wanted the music video to be fast paced in order to fit the song chosen Final Cut aloud me to do non linear editing and use a wide range of effects such as text flying in to the beat of the music stating the lyrics heard at the time. I also was able to use jump cuts of the actress in various locations throughout the video fitting with the beats of the music. Final Cut enabled me in A2 to progress and do the creative things I planned to in my music paced such as adding markers to aid the lip sync and get the footage of the actress and actions made to fit with the lyrics and cut footage to create a very fast paced changing shot video.
My use of Photoshop also progressed and became more creative within A2 by me producing a digipak, advert, flyer and logo for my project on it. Photoshop in second year helped me to create layers with a professional looking logo which was shown at the end of the video and was perfectly suited to the genre stating "smoking hot records" production which was shown on the digipak and advert too to help with the creativity of my project. Though Photoshop can be quite difficult to use the practice in it helped my skills massively and I was able to design a range of products for my coursework. These fitted with the genre perfectly and showed various layers of text and professional photos of the artist take from a previous photoshoot. I was able to creatively make the digipak and advert original through Photoshop by adding backgrounds and texts to fit our song such as a night sky background on the cd to fit with the song title "It's all about tonight" and stars on the advert around the artist on a black background to continue with this theme and link the three projects together. To gain the music for my video I used the secondary source of Itunes as this gave a professional soundtrack for my video and gave me a starting point for my creativity in which I could use any footage I wanted in order to portray the lyrics and music given. I used Prezi also in A2 to display my evaluation questions but in a much more developed way. Showing videos I had filmed of myself speaking about the audience and what was good and could of been developed about my project showed a development from AS as I used my own primary footage within my evaluation which I edited on Final Cut instead of secondary videos. I also added a much wider range of information into the development of my project and the theories behind it such as Laura Mulveys theory of every video seen from the male perspective throughout my Prezi presentation. Several more photos were shown on the Prezi presentation from the photoshoots and on set as well as the background and text being bright and colourful to fit in with the genre.
During my coursework my post production skills developed significantly from AS to A2 and were key elements which helped my creativity in each of my projects. The brief for AS was to create an opening sequence to a horror film lasting 2 minutes including titles and the A2 brief was to create a promo package including video, digipak and advert for the pop genre. During AS my post production helped with my creativity such as being able to use Final Cut, Garageband and Photoshop. These helped us make our product original and creative by combining the things produced from each together to produce a sequence that has never been produced before. Within Final Cut we were able to create transitions such as fading in and out at the correct times to create a horror type feel and using text to show titles of specific actors and members of the production to make the sequence as creative as possible. With sound being an important part into being creative Garageband was a key element which helped make our sequence unique. We added sound effects from Garageband at specific points in the sequence to make it more dramatic to the viewer such as when the attacker is directly behind the couple and when the title of the film began. Being able to create our own soundtrack at the correct places made our sequence creative and exactly how we wanted it to be to create atmosphere and suspense. However though we were able to choose specific music to fit the genre Garageband only has a certain amount of loops so often this restricts the creativeness available. Using Photoshop also helped with our creativity to design a unique logo specifically fitting with the horror theme and which we included in our video to creatively show our production. However at this point my Photoshop skills were fairly limited and I was only able to create a very basic logo and title page for the video. These did both fit with the genre though and helped with the creativity of the sequence.
Using Web 2.0 Blogger to show all my post production work helped me show them creatively all in one place and fitted to the theme of horror with a black background and red text to give it that professional look. My evaluation questions were completed on Prezi within post production of AS which enabled me to analyse my work in a creative and quick way. Prezi was easy to learn and use so I was able to insert photos, videos and make the text and background fit with the rest of the theme with this. The progression into A2 enabled me to be more creative with my use of technology in post production using similar programs but in a much more developed and creative way. Using Final Cut was a massive factor into the creation of my project by creating my music video. As I wanted the music video to be fast paced in order to fit the song chosen Final Cut aloud me to do non linear editing and use a wide range of effects such as text flying in to the beat of the music stating the lyrics heard at the time. I also was able to use jump cuts of the actress in various locations throughout the video fitting with the beats of the music. Final Cut enabled me in A2 to progress and do the creative things I planned to in my music paced such as adding markers to aid the lip sync and get the footage of the actress and actions made to fit with the lyrics and cut footage to create a very fast paced changing shot video.
My use of Photoshop also progressed and became more creative within A2 by me producing a digipak, advert, flyer and logo for my project on it. Photoshop in second year helped me to create layers with a professional looking logo which was shown at the end of the video and was perfectly suited to the genre stating "smoking hot records" production which was shown on the digipak and advert too to help with the creativity of my project. Though Photoshop can be quite difficult to use the practice in it helped my skills massively and I was able to design a range of products for my coursework. These fitted with the genre perfectly and showed various layers of text and professional photos of the artist take from a previous photoshoot. I was able to creatively make the digipak and advert original through Photoshop by adding backgrounds and texts to fit our song such as a night sky background on the cd to fit with the song title "It's all about tonight" and stars on the advert around the artist on a black background to continue with this theme and link the three projects together. To gain the music for my video I used the secondary source of Itunes as this gave a professional soundtrack for my video and gave me a starting point for my creativity in which I could use any footage I wanted in order to portray the lyrics and music given. I used Prezi also in A2 to display my evaluation questions but in a much more developed way. Showing videos I had filmed of myself speaking about the audience and what was good and could of been developed about my project showed a development from AS as I used my own primary footage within my evaluation which I edited on Final Cut instead of secondary videos. I also added a much wider range of information into the development of my project and the theories behind it such as Laura Mulveys theory of every video seen from the male perspective throughout my Prezi presentation. Several more photos were shown on the Prezi presentation from the photoshoots and on set as well as the background and text being bright and colourful to fit in with the genre.
Wednesday 18 April 2012
Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.
During my coursework a close attention to real media texts for inspiration was an important concept for both AS and A2. For AS the brief was to create a 2 minute film opening sequence including titles for the genre horror. For A2 the brief was to create a music promo package including music video, digipak and advert within the genre pop. Various horror films and pop music videos were used to gain inspiration for the storyline, production and editing of both products.
In the pre production of my horror sequence at AS I began to look at how horror sequences worked and used certain ideas for effect. To do this I began to look at real media texts such as the "turning of the screw" for which I found that sound and a lack of diolog is highly effective for creating a horror sequence. I also looked at media texts and payed close attention to their titles as this was a key aspect needed such as "An nightmare on Elm Street" which was directed and written by Wes Craven in 1984 and was a sequence which helped me discover the order a title sequence should come in such as the Directors name last of all the titles. At A2 my research into the genre was of a much deeper level researching and anaylising a wide range of music videos and the editing, narrative and techniques. I had completed many 9 frame analysis's of videos such as Katy Perry's "Hot and cold" Pink's "So what" and Bruno Mars's "Lazy song" which all fit with the genre and helped me realise the typical conventions of a pop video. Doing a wide range of 9 frames at A2 unlike AS helped me identify how the artist should be positioned, the type of outfits and locations of a pop genre and the common types of shot needed. I also did in depth analysises of videos such as the Saturdays "Natorious" and Avril Lavignes "Smile" so I was familar with the type of outfits, locations and shot types used in videos and creative ways of representing.
During the production of my coursework at AS a lot of real media texts helped with the plot and storyline but also with shot types for my horror sequence. The media texts I used for inspiration into the storyline were Saw and Jeepers Creepers. These helped me discover the attributes to a horror such as within Saw the mystery of what is happening to the protagonists and why they are put into that type of situation is not revealed till the very end of the film and key aspects of the narrative are kept from the viewer. This was a key element used within my film sequence as certain information was hidden from the viewer. Within Jeepers Creepers the creepy feeling of the antagonist being made aware of by the viewers but not by other characters was another aspect which I wanted to display with shots of "the killer" in the back behind the protagonists in the majority of the shots. The Blair Witch Project is famous for its handheld camera scenes which I wanted to portray in my sequence and so had various shots from the antagonists point of view running through the trees to grip the viewers into the storyline. In A2 various music video's gave me inspiration which I developed further as to reasons why I used them through theory and representation. For example I used the shots of shoes walking to the beat of the music from The Saturdays "Natorious" video within my video as I thought it was a great way to link the video with the lyrics as often within the song I had chosen the lyrics say "tomorrow doesn't matter when you're moving your feet." Also having a dance routine was a key element used in the original video which I wanted to portray in my video.The "Natorious" video also helped me with the storyline as during their video it shows them first at a work setting then a party setting which is a theme I went with in my music video but taken a step further to add creativity by making the work scenes black and white and having various settings which the party was located. I also took inspiration when filming from the original video "Its all about tonight" by how the actress should look with similar styles of clothing and bright lipstick aswell as the storyline of not caring about anything but the night itself. The original video also helped us with the shot types ranging from longshots to extreme close ups throughout the video.
During post production various real media texts helped with my ideas of editing techniques and soundtrack. During AS I look at horror films such as "The Shining" and "Jaws" focusing mainly on the soundtrack and how they both use dramatic music as a key source to create suspence and tention among the viewers. In "The Shining" the characters have very little diolog and the majority of the film entails the characters acting normal but with terrifying music in the background indicating that something bad is about to occur. I used "The Shining" as inspiration for my soundtrack by it being dramatic and full of suspence when the characters have very little diolog. My soundtrack had some similarities to "Jaws" through it being a very low drummimg sound and a certain type of music which only occurs when the killer is present so that the viewer relates that specific sound with the killer. Though I did focus on real media texts for the soundtrack at AS I didn't really for the editing unlike A2 in which I used various media texts as inspiration. For example when the music for my video became very fast paced at a specific point flipping from all the different locations which I got the idea from Rihannas "We found love" and found it gave a feeling of that there was alot going on, something I wanted to portray in my video. The jumpcuts to the beat of the music was taken from Katy Perry's "ET" in which they changed to the beat of the music, I also used an idea from this video of the artists eyes opening to the beat of the music which I thought was a good way to relate the music to the video. "Domino" by Jessie J also showed these jump cuts flipping from each location quickly. The artist in my video was shown through the male gaze which I found was a common trait within the pop genre and so was an idea I decided to go with in my video after researching media texts.
During my coursework a close attention to real media texts for inspiration was an important concept for both AS and A2. For AS the brief was to create a 2 minute film opening sequence including titles for the genre horror. For A2 the brief was to create a music promo package including music video, digipak and advert within the genre pop. Various horror films and pop music videos were used to gain inspiration for the storyline, production and editing of both products.
In the pre production of my horror sequence at AS I began to look at how horror sequences worked and used certain ideas for effect. To do this I began to look at real media texts such as the "turning of the screw" for which I found that sound and a lack of diolog is highly effective for creating a horror sequence. I also looked at media texts and payed close attention to their titles as this was a key aspect needed such as "An nightmare on Elm Street" which was directed and written by Wes Craven in 1984 and was a sequence which helped me discover the order a title sequence should come in such as the Directors name last of all the titles. At A2 my research into the genre was of a much deeper level researching and anaylising a wide range of music videos and the editing, narrative and techniques. I had completed many 9 frame analysis's of videos such as Katy Perry's "Hot and cold" Pink's "So what" and Bruno Mars's "Lazy song" which all fit with the genre and helped me realise the typical conventions of a pop video. Doing a wide range of 9 frames at A2 unlike AS helped me identify how the artist should be positioned, the type of outfits and locations of a pop genre and the common types of shot needed. I also did in depth analysises of videos such as the Saturdays "Natorious" and Avril Lavignes "Smile" so I was familar with the type of outfits, locations and shot types used in videos and creative ways of representing.
During the production of my coursework at AS a lot of real media texts helped with the plot and storyline but also with shot types for my horror sequence. The media texts I used for inspiration into the storyline were Saw and Jeepers Creepers. These helped me discover the attributes to a horror such as within Saw the mystery of what is happening to the protagonists and why they are put into that type of situation is not revealed till the very end of the film and key aspects of the narrative are kept from the viewer. This was a key element used within my film sequence as certain information was hidden from the viewer. Within Jeepers Creepers the creepy feeling of the antagonist being made aware of by the viewers but not by other characters was another aspect which I wanted to display with shots of "the killer" in the back behind the protagonists in the majority of the shots. The Blair Witch Project is famous for its handheld camera scenes which I wanted to portray in my sequence and so had various shots from the antagonists point of view running through the trees to grip the viewers into the storyline. In A2 various music video's gave me inspiration which I developed further as to reasons why I used them through theory and representation. For example I used the shots of shoes walking to the beat of the music from The Saturdays "Natorious" video within my video as I thought it was a great way to link the video with the lyrics as often within the song I had chosen the lyrics say "tomorrow doesn't matter when you're moving your feet." Also having a dance routine was a key element used in the original video which I wanted to portray in my video.The "Natorious" video also helped me with the storyline as during their video it shows them first at a work setting then a party setting which is a theme I went with in my music video but taken a step further to add creativity by making the work scenes black and white and having various settings which the party was located. I also took inspiration when filming from the original video "Its all about tonight" by how the actress should look with similar styles of clothing and bright lipstick aswell as the storyline of not caring about anything but the night itself. The original video also helped us with the shot types ranging from longshots to extreme close ups throughout the video.
During post production various real media texts helped with my ideas of editing techniques and soundtrack. During AS I look at horror films such as "The Shining" and "Jaws" focusing mainly on the soundtrack and how they both use dramatic music as a key source to create suspence and tention among the viewers. In "The Shining" the characters have very little diolog and the majority of the film entails the characters acting normal but with terrifying music in the background indicating that something bad is about to occur. I used "The Shining" as inspiration for my soundtrack by it being dramatic and full of suspence when the characters have very little diolog. My soundtrack had some similarities to "Jaws" through it being a very low drummimg sound and a certain type of music which only occurs when the killer is present so that the viewer relates that specific sound with the killer. Though I did focus on real media texts for the soundtrack at AS I didn't really for the editing unlike A2 in which I used various media texts as inspiration. For example when the music for my video became very fast paced at a specific point flipping from all the different locations which I got the idea from Rihannas "We found love" and found it gave a feeling of that there was alot going on, something I wanted to portray in my video. The jumpcuts to the beat of the music was taken from Katy Perry's "ET" in which they changed to the beat of the music, I also used an idea from this video of the artists eyes opening to the beat of the music which I thought was a good way to relate the music to the video. "Domino" by Jessie J also showed these jump cuts flipping from each location quickly. The artist in my video was shown through the male gaze which I found was a common trait within the pop genre and so was an idea I decided to go with in my video after researching media texts.
Tuesday 17 April 2012
Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
Over the last two years of my coursework productions I used a range of digital technologies which helped with my creativity. My AS brief was to create a two minute film opening sequence including titles for which I picked the genre horror. My A2 brief was to create a promo package including music video, digipak and advert for which I chosen the genre pop. Throughout the two years my development within technology improved and I became more inventive, creative and skilful into representing my work.
The coursework was displayed on Blogger which is an example of Web 2.0 media and which was used both years in order to display my research, planning and final products. In AS my blog was fairly limited as I was new to the technology with a minimum of 22 posts and plain black background the blog could of related much more to the genre in a creative way. Within A2 my progression in the use of Blogger improved massively and I furthered the skills through creative ways such as changing themes to fit the genre, use of the different features by adding the logo and photoshoot photos and having a much larger amount of posts at 65. All of these things as well as the blog having bright colourful backgrounds to fit in with the genre gave it a professional look much more superior to my AS blog. The tasks available also improved to fit the genre by us creating extra posts such as flyers, kimtags, QR codes and promotional packs in A2 using blogger and making the promo package much more realistic. Research into the genre was also displayed in a much greater depth within A2.
All my work within my AS was completed on a low grade of Imac and as I progressed to A2 began to complete my work it was on the Imac’s of a much higher spec so that the prosess of rendering and editing was much faster and much more work in the time period giving creating a much better video in A2 compared to AS.
In AS the storyboard lay out was done using the flash mic to record the narrative of the open sequence and shown on Imovie. Photos were taken by a stills camera and installed onto Imovie which they were put into order to show the events of the movie sequence planned. Though this shows creative media skills the use of Imovie for my storyboard at A2 showed much more advanced skills through having the track of the song chosen "Its all about tonight" downloaded and installed on Itunes to be put onto Imovie and a much larger amount of photos cut to the beat of the music showing quicker editing. My skills on Imovie were fairly basic at AS it taking a while to learn how to upload the photos where as at A2 I already knew how to upload them efficiently and so could spend my time getting the shots in the exact right order with the right pace ready to film and give myself an idea of the type of footage needed.
During the production of my coursework filming at AS involved a Sony digital Handycam 60x optical zoom 80gb camera for which we filmed the footage within a day. At A2 the production involved a varied amount of technologies and a much longer process in order to receive the large amount of footage needed. A Sony digital Handycam 60x optical zoom 80gb camera was used on a schedueled 5 days, during the production the technology of a smart phone was used to play the song in order to get the lip sync just correct and give the video the maximum professional look. Photoshoots were also done at A2 which were not at AS using a Fuji S3300 camera which were in theme with the genre and were used to give professional looking final products of a digipak and advert. With a range of different technologies during the production of the A2 production used it helped give a varied amount of products helping with the creativity of my coursework.
Post production helped me use a variety of different technologies within both AS and A2. To help with the horror film sequence in AS Final Cut was used to edit the footage and garage band was used to create a horror soundtrack to fit the footage and the genre of the clip. Within Final cut I became familiar with the razor tool and transitions to move from each clip. The razor tool helped me get rid of certain bits of footage which I felt was not appopriate or right for the genre as during filming not everything went to plan as hoped. Transitions included fading in and out at the correct moments to create a horror type feel. Showing the titles was also an important part of the sequence for which Final cut gave me access to the different texts and transitions with them available. In A2 Final Cut was also used to create the pop music video. This was a much more intense task given in which the razor tool was used but much more frequently showing a much larger amount of clips within a short space of time to fit with the fast paced beat of the song. The in and out markers were also used at A2 to get the lip sync exactly correct and a much wider range of transitions were given including bright coloured texts which came in to the beat of the music, black and white clips during the work scenes, and jump cuts or transitions placed in the correct place to fit with the music. Photoshop was also a key element into digital technology for both AS and A2 in the progression of my creativity. Within AS I designed a logo and title screen for my horror sequence which both fit the genre and showed horror type text and photos. Though I did try and relate these to the genre they were fairly basic with a minimal ammount of layers, detail or a professional look. Within A2 I used Photoshop much more frequently creating a logo, digipak, advert and flyer on it developing my skills masively in how to use the software though it may seem difficult. My digipak and advert were highly detailed showing all the information needed such as logo, songs available and release date and real primary photos were used on each to make them look professional. The logo showed my unique production of smoking hot records showing creativity as it was shown on each of the tasks given.
Over the last two years of my coursework productions I used a range of digital technologies which helped with my creativity. My AS brief was to create a two minute film opening sequence including titles for which I picked the genre horror. My A2 brief was to create a promo package including music video, digipak and advert for which I chosen the genre pop. Throughout the two years my development within technology improved and I became more inventive, creative and skilful into representing my work.
The coursework was displayed on Blogger which is an example of Web 2.0 media and which was used both years in order to display my research, planning and final products. In AS my blog was fairly limited as I was new to the technology with a minimum of 22 posts and plain black background the blog could of related much more to the genre in a creative way. Within A2 my progression in the use of Blogger improved massively and I furthered the skills through creative ways such as changing themes to fit the genre, use of the different features by adding the logo and photoshoot photos and having a much larger amount of posts at 65. All of these things as well as the blog having bright colourful backgrounds to fit in with the genre gave it a professional look much more superior to my AS blog. The tasks available also improved to fit the genre by us creating extra posts such as flyers, kimtags, QR codes and promotional packs in A2 using blogger and making the promo package much more realistic. Research into the genre was also displayed in a much greater depth within A2.
All my work within my AS was completed on a low grade of Imac and as I progressed to A2 began to complete my work it was on the Imac’s of a much higher spec so that the prosess of rendering and editing was much faster and much more work in the time period giving creating a much better video in A2 compared to AS.
In AS the storyboard lay out was done using the flash mic to record the narrative of the open sequence and shown on Imovie. Photos were taken by a stills camera and installed onto Imovie which they were put into order to show the events of the movie sequence planned. Though this shows creative media skills the use of Imovie for my storyboard at A2 showed much more advanced skills through having the track of the song chosen "Its all about tonight" downloaded and installed on Itunes to be put onto Imovie and a much larger amount of photos cut to the beat of the music showing quicker editing. My skills on Imovie were fairly basic at AS it taking a while to learn how to upload the photos where as at A2 I already knew how to upload them efficiently and so could spend my time getting the shots in the exact right order with the right pace ready to film and give myself an idea of the type of footage needed.
During the production of my coursework filming at AS involved a Sony digital Handycam 60x optical zoom 80gb camera for which we filmed the footage within a day. At A2 the production involved a varied amount of technologies and a much longer process in order to receive the large amount of footage needed. A Sony digital Handycam 60x optical zoom 80gb camera was used on a schedueled 5 days, during the production the technology of a smart phone was used to play the song in order to get the lip sync just correct and give the video the maximum professional look. Photoshoots were also done at A2 which were not at AS using a Fuji S3300 camera which were in theme with the genre and were used to give professional looking final products of a digipak and advert. With a range of different technologies during the production of the A2 production used it helped give a varied amount of products helping with the creativity of my coursework.
Post production helped me use a variety of different technologies within both AS and A2. To help with the horror film sequence in AS Final Cut was used to edit the footage and garage band was used to create a horror soundtrack to fit the footage and the genre of the clip. Within Final cut I became familiar with the razor tool and transitions to move from each clip. The razor tool helped me get rid of certain bits of footage which I felt was not appopriate or right for the genre as during filming not everything went to plan as hoped. Transitions included fading in and out at the correct moments to create a horror type feel. Showing the titles was also an important part of the sequence for which Final cut gave me access to the different texts and transitions with them available. In A2 Final Cut was also used to create the pop music video. This was a much more intense task given in which the razor tool was used but much more frequently showing a much larger amount of clips within a short space of time to fit with the fast paced beat of the song. The in and out markers were also used at A2 to get the lip sync exactly correct and a much wider range of transitions were given including bright coloured texts which came in to the beat of the music, black and white clips during the work scenes, and jump cuts or transitions placed in the correct place to fit with the music. Photoshop was also a key element into digital technology for both AS and A2 in the progression of my creativity. Within AS I designed a logo and title screen for my horror sequence which both fit the genre and showed horror type text and photos. Though I did try and relate these to the genre they were fairly basic with a minimal ammount of layers, detail or a professional look. Within A2 I used Photoshop much more frequently creating a logo, digipak, advert and flyer on it developing my skills masively in how to use the software though it may seem difficult. My digipak and advert were highly detailed showing all the information needed such as logo, songs available and release date and real primary photos were used on each to make them look professional. The logo showed my unique production of smoking hot records showing creativity as it was shown on each of the tasks given.
Tuesday 3 April 2012
Sket analysis
Sket is an urban retribution thriller film set in East London which is an extreme and controversial look at the world of girl gangs. The director and writer Nirpal Bhogal states that he wanted to make a film for gang members rather than about them showing a realistic view of gang members lifestyle towards the public. Though it may seem to show a negative representation of gang members who are abbusive and violent, the film reveals backstories for each of the characters revealing a reason for their anger which the director hoped to create sympathy from the viewers. The characters are representation of real life gang members which viewers may not of been able to sympathise with in the past and may change peoples opinions of. As the story line unravels the aggressive gang members appearance is scratched away and fragile states are revealed as girls who have had noone and who have built up this posteria in order to survive within the rough areas of London.
Stereotypes of youths within the riots are highlighted throughout the film with the characters actions and mannerisms. The four girls are always seen together within a gang wearing hoodys and similar clothing throughout the film showing that similar to Jimmy and the mods within Quadraphinia youths like to feel part of a culture by dressing the same. The mannerism of speach and body language also represent typical representation of youths for example banging into passers by or beating people up and using language such as "sket" and "slut." These mannerism could be represented in order to set the scene of youths similar to those interviewed during the riots, which the audience are use to yet the backstory of the film helps indicate why youths may do these things showing their actions sympathetically and in a less sceptical positive light. The film gives a chance to show answers for behaviour given and go against the reasons behind these actions rather then what was thought that the youths are just bad people.
Throughout the film footage is rarely shown of police or authorital figures. This could be an indication that they are not really present within a gang members world and are seen to not be able to do anything. This is shown further when Kayla is asked if she has rang the police and she states "can they do anything?" which shows a negetive representation of the police as a group which youths feel do not do anything when people go against society so there is no real reason or threat why they can't go against society. This links in with the London riots as people took the opportunity to loot simply because they could and they felt no consequences would be given to them by going against society and breaking the law.
Stereotypes of youths within the riots are highlighted throughout the film with the characters actions and mannerisms. The four girls are always seen together within a gang wearing hoodys and similar clothing throughout the film showing that similar to Jimmy and the mods within Quadraphinia youths like to feel part of a culture by dressing the same. The mannerism of speach and body language also represent typical representation of youths for example banging into passers by or beating people up and using language such as "sket" and "slut." These mannerism could be represented in order to set the scene of youths similar to those interviewed during the riots, which the audience are use to yet the backstory of the film helps indicate why youths may do these things showing their actions sympathetically and in a less sceptical positive light. The film gives a chance to show answers for behaviour given and go against the reasons behind these actions rather then what was thought that the youths are just bad people.
Throughout the film footage is rarely shown of police or authorital figures. This could be an indication that they are not really present within a gang members world and are seen to not be able to do anything. This is shown further when Kayla is asked if she has rang the police and she states "can they do anything?" which shows a negetive representation of the police as a group which youths feel do not do anything when people go against society so there is no real reason or threat why they can't go against society. This links in with the London riots as people took the opportunity to loot simply because they could and they felt no consequences would be given to them by going against society and breaking the law.
Friday 23 March 2012
essay
Explain the role played by the media in the construction of collective identity
When discussing the role played by the media in the construction of collective identity youths are often represented in a negative light. In various forms of mass media youths are portrayed as almost deviants, which go against society causing a moral panic within communities. This links in with Stanley Cohen’s theory and also relates to both Antonio Gramsci who states that hegemony occurs in which the control of society is by one large group ie (the mass media) and David Gauntlett who states that 'Identities are not 'given' but are constructed and negotiated” within the media.
According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972) a moral panic occurs when "condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." People who supposedly threaten the social order have been described as "folk devils." Moral panic links in with the films "a clockwork orange" and “Quadraphinia” which both focus on the construction of youths and how this caused a stir among the public for the behaviour and content shown.
Conspiracy between the main characters "alex and his droogs" antics and how their actions effected and where mirrored by the public was a topic that the mass media grasp and shown within a very negetive light. The debate still stands today as to whether our society can be influenced by such inappropriate behaviour or if the deviants who commit the crimes will regardless of what they have viewed and the mass media played a massive part into the construction of youths and how they can be affected by social learning theory of imitating what they see. The youths related to the film in a way as similar to Alex and his droogs they wore similar clothing to each other and stuck together in gangs however when talking about the behaviour viewed youths stated that it was nothing in which they "had not seen before". This brings in the debate again as to whether the film does need a concern or whether as David Gauntlett states that the 'Identities" of the characters "are not constructed and negotiated” by the mass media and made out to be worse than they actually are as a treat to society.
In Quandrophinia the main point in the fact that Jimmy wants to be out of the ordinary is shown through dialog when stating to Kevin "I don't want to be the same as everyone else, thats why I'm a mod see" which is slightly ironic as though he is a mod they all show similar behaviour and wear similar clothing making them the same as each other rather than unique. This ideologie of wanting to be different but actually all being similar to each other could be done in order to show the impression which the young generation think they have by being different and the view of which the older generation have of them by all being the same. This is shown further by him and his dad being binary opposites and him stating Jimmy to be a "freak" asking "haven't you got a mind of your own." The mob mentality and sticking together is also an ideology in which is shown by them trashing the house and the streets of Brighton basically because they can and are in such a large crowd that they are not fearful of the consequences. Jimmy is shown to be centrally framed between the two older men at his work and is throwing up whilst they ignore him and chat amongst themselves which could be to show the intollerance the older generation has to the younger generation and the antics they get up to.
In Quadraphinia there is also various forms of mise en scene used in order to establish the youth culture such as the dark rock music, motorbikes, drugs, smoking, gambling, bars parties and riots. These are all things which show the young generation in a bad light and indicate that they are very image consious. The mise en scene is important in order to indicate the lifestyle of the mods and the outlets they use in order to supress their bordom and go against society. The mods are almost seen to take over society by their antics and are devients which rebel against the normal and try to almost destroy it. This rule breaking and conflicts between the younger and older generation may cause a moral panic within the media as its something which is generally feared by the older generation. Those who then see a mod in the street maythen be fearful that they will get into antics similar to those in the film purely because of the way they dress. The mob mentality is something of a moral panic as if big enough and wanting to rebel against society it is possible that the culture we live in could change, a fearful thought for the society at that time.
Similarly within society today the media has constructed an image for youths in which all people of that age who dress a certain way are given a certain constructed identity by the media. Moral panics towards youths are still evident today such as the London riots showing a key event in which the media portrayed a negative image about youths. On 4 August 2011, a police officer shot and killed 29-year-old Mark Duggan during an attempt to arrest him. On 6 August a protest was held, initially peacefully, beginning at Broadwater Farm and finishing at Tottenham police station in order to gain answers of his death. The protest began to escalate on a much larger scale in which a large amount of youths took part in the gathering. Rioting occurred shortly after about 120 people marched from the Broadwater Farm estate to Tottenham Police Station.The group of some 200 people demanded that a senior local police officer come out to speak to them. They stayed in front of the police station hours longer than they originally planned because they were not satisfied with the seniority of the officers available at the time. A younger and more aggressive crowd arrived at the scene around dusk, some carrying weapons. Further violence broke out based on an allegation that the police had done.
Within the mass media examples were shown in which youths are shown in a definite negative light. A specific example is of a news broadcast for BBC news in which the video is live during the riots focusing mainly on the present action of the riots in which the reporter is in the midst of it and showing actual occurrences as well as using negative language in order to show the riots in a negative light. Occurrences such as the smashing of a police car with bricks and stones at the side of the road with the reporter stating how quickly the mood of the crowd can change as they were thought to be surrounded by sight seeing’s and then the mood seemed to of erratically change to violent behaviour of youths out of control. This links in with Gramsci’s theory by the fact that the mass media are in control of society and selecting certain areas of that time which show particularly violent footage from youths constructing their identity as mindless and destructive. Being live various footage could of been shown but the media specifically selected that in order to continue their constructed representation of youths.
Some forms of media however helped show a positive representation of youths within the London riots and helped go against the mass medias typical representation. These examples include
When discussing the role played by the media in the construction of collective identity youths are often represented in a negative light. In various forms of mass media youths are portrayed as almost deviants, which go against society causing a moral panic within communities. This links in with Stanley Cohen’s theory and also relates to both Antonio Gramsci who states that hegemony occurs in which the control of society is by one large group ie (the mass media) and David Gauntlett who states that 'Identities are not 'given' but are constructed and negotiated” within the media.
According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972) a moral panic occurs when "condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." People who supposedly threaten the social order have been described as "folk devils." Moral panic links in with the films "a clockwork orange" and “Quadraphinia” which both focus on the construction of youths and how this caused a stir among the public for the behaviour and content shown.
Conspiracy between the main characters "alex and his droogs" antics and how their actions effected and where mirrored by the public was a topic that the mass media grasp and shown within a very negetive light. The debate still stands today as to whether our society can be influenced by such inappropriate behaviour or if the deviants who commit the crimes will regardless of what they have viewed and the mass media played a massive part into the construction of youths and how they can be affected by social learning theory of imitating what they see. The youths related to the film in a way as similar to Alex and his droogs they wore similar clothing to each other and stuck together in gangs however when talking about the behaviour viewed youths stated that it was nothing in which they "had not seen before". This brings in the debate again as to whether the film does need a concern or whether as David Gauntlett states that the 'Identities" of the characters "are not constructed and negotiated” by the mass media and made out to be worse than they actually are as a treat to society.
In Quandrophinia the main point in the fact that Jimmy wants to be out of the ordinary is shown through dialog when stating to Kevin "I don't want to be the same as everyone else, thats why I'm a mod see" which is slightly ironic as though he is a mod they all show similar behaviour and wear similar clothing making them the same as each other rather than unique. This ideologie of wanting to be different but actually all being similar to each other could be done in order to show the impression which the young generation think they have by being different and the view of which the older generation have of them by all being the same. This is shown further by him and his dad being binary opposites and him stating Jimmy to be a "freak" asking "haven't you got a mind of your own." The mob mentality and sticking together is also an ideology in which is shown by them trashing the house and the streets of Brighton basically because they can and are in such a large crowd that they are not fearful of the consequences. Jimmy is shown to be centrally framed between the two older men at his work and is throwing up whilst they ignore him and chat amongst themselves which could be to show the intollerance the older generation has to the younger generation and the antics they get up to.
In Quadraphinia there is also various forms of mise en scene used in order to establish the youth culture such as the dark rock music, motorbikes, drugs, smoking, gambling, bars parties and riots. These are all things which show the young generation in a bad light and indicate that they are very image consious. The mise en scene is important in order to indicate the lifestyle of the mods and the outlets they use in order to supress their bordom and go against society. The mods are almost seen to take over society by their antics and are devients which rebel against the normal and try to almost destroy it. This rule breaking and conflicts between the younger and older generation may cause a moral panic within the media as its something which is generally feared by the older generation. Those who then see a mod in the street maythen be fearful that they will get into antics similar to those in the film purely because of the way they dress. The mob mentality is something of a moral panic as if big enough and wanting to rebel against society it is possible that the culture we live in could change, a fearful thought for the society at that time.
Similarly within society today the media has constructed an image for youths in which all people of that age who dress a certain way are given a certain constructed identity by the media. Moral panics towards youths are still evident today such as the London riots showing a key event in which the media portrayed a negative image about youths. On 4 August 2011, a police officer shot and killed 29-year-old Mark Duggan during an attempt to arrest him. On 6 August a protest was held, initially peacefully, beginning at Broadwater Farm and finishing at Tottenham police station in order to gain answers of his death. The protest began to escalate on a much larger scale in which a large amount of youths took part in the gathering. Rioting occurred shortly after about 120 people marched from the Broadwater Farm estate to Tottenham Police Station.The group of some 200 people demanded that a senior local police officer come out to speak to them. They stayed in front of the police station hours longer than they originally planned because they were not satisfied with the seniority of the officers available at the time. A younger and more aggressive crowd arrived at the scene around dusk, some carrying weapons. Further violence broke out based on an allegation that the police had done.
Within the mass media examples were shown in which youths are shown in a definite negative light. A specific example is of a news broadcast for BBC news in which the video is live during the riots focusing mainly on the present action of the riots in which the reporter is in the midst of it and showing actual occurrences as well as using negative language in order to show the riots in a negative light. Occurrences such as the smashing of a police car with bricks and stones at the side of the road with the reporter stating how quickly the mood of the crowd can change as they were thought to be surrounded by sight seeing’s and then the mood seemed to of erratically change to violent behaviour of youths out of control. This links in with Gramsci’s theory by the fact that the mass media are in control of society and selecting certain areas of that time which show particularly violent footage from youths constructing their identity as mindless and destructive. Being live various footage could of been shown but the media specifically selected that in order to continue their constructed representation of youths.
Some forms of media however helped show a positive representation of youths within the London riots and helped go against the mass medias typical representation. These examples include
Wednesday 21 March 2012
Tuesday 20 March 2012
Useful Theory
Antonio Gramsci - Hegemony
Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci (1881-1937). He emphasised that the control of society by one group or one set of political ideas was not necessarily achieved by force or control of arms, but by persuasion and ‘consent’ – the basis of democracy. The rulers manage to convince the mass of the population that they are ‘better off’ accepting current government policies. Maintaining hegemonic control is thus a process of constantly reinforcing the message and developing the argument.
The concept of hegemony allows for substantial change in ideas over time, even though the
same groups remain in power. These groups constantly adjust their ideas and find new ways
to gain the consent of those they dominate.
In media terms the Mass Media both perpetuate cultural hegemony and are a cultural hegemony in themselves in that a relatively small number of big companies, e.g. News
Corp., The BBC, Time Warner, Sony etc., control most of the world’s media, and this in turn allows them to control most of what we see, hear and know. This, in turn, allows them to control what we think, selecting only ideas that serve its interests, i.e. bourgeois capitalism. This is known as a ‘Top Down’ model of dominant ideologies.
David Buckingham
“A focus on identity requires us to pay close attention to the diverse ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life, and their consequences for both individuals and for social groups”
Mikhail Bakhtin
The Russian philosopher Bakhtin believed that individual people cannot be finalized, completely understood, known or labeled. He saw identity as the unfinalised self meaning a person is never fully revealed or known.
This ties in with the idea that identity is a fluid concept, a life-long project that is never complete.
Stan Cohen
Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972)
David Gauntlett
'Identities are not 'given' but are constructed and negotiated.'
Michel Foucault (French thinker 1926-1984)
For Foucault, people do not have a 'real' identity within themselves; that's just a way of talking about the self -- a discourse. An 'identity' is communicated to others in your interactions with them, but this is not a fixed thing within a person. It is a shifting, temporary construction.
Power is something which can be used and deployed by particular people in specific situations, which itself will produce other reactions and resistances; and isn't tied to specific groups or identities.
Power outcomes are not inevitable and can be resisted.
Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci (1881-1937). He emphasised that the control of society by one group or one set of political ideas was not necessarily achieved by force or control of arms, but by persuasion and ‘consent’ – the basis of democracy. The rulers manage to convince the mass of the population that they are ‘better off’ accepting current government policies. Maintaining hegemonic control is thus a process of constantly reinforcing the message and developing the argument.
The concept of hegemony allows for substantial change in ideas over time, even though the
same groups remain in power. These groups constantly adjust their ideas and find new ways
to gain the consent of those they dominate.
In media terms the Mass Media both perpetuate cultural hegemony and are a cultural hegemony in themselves in that a relatively small number of big companies, e.g. News
Corp., The BBC, Time Warner, Sony etc., control most of the world’s media, and this in turn allows them to control most of what we see, hear and know. This, in turn, allows them to control what we think, selecting only ideas that serve its interests, i.e. bourgeois capitalism. This is known as a ‘Top Down’ model of dominant ideologies.
David Buckingham
“A focus on identity requires us to pay close attention to the diverse ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life, and their consequences for both individuals and for social groups”
Mikhail Bakhtin
The Russian philosopher Bakhtin believed that individual people cannot be finalized, completely understood, known or labeled. He saw identity as the unfinalised self meaning a person is never fully revealed or known.
This ties in with the idea that identity is a fluid concept, a life-long project that is never complete.
Stan Cohen
Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972)
David Gauntlett
'Identities are not 'given' but are constructed and negotiated.'
Michel Foucault (French thinker 1926-1984)
For Foucault, people do not have a 'real' identity within themselves; that's just a way of talking about the self -- a discourse. An 'identity' is communicated to others in your interactions with them, but this is not a fixed thing within a person. It is a shifting, temporary construction.
Power is something which can be used and deployed by particular people in specific situations, which itself will produce other reactions and resistances; and isn't tied to specific groups or identities.
Power outcomes are not inevitable and can be resisted.
Wednesday 14 March 2012
Plan B- ill Manors
Plan B uses this video as an artist in order to show the shocking view of how youths are presented. Through his lyrics he shows some key ideas that he has about youths and when discussing his reasons during the interview talks about why the riots may have occurred, once being a youth himself who understands their point of view. He admits that showing the graphic and shocking footage of the video is done to show a fine representation of the way in which youths in a lower class live to those who may not understand. His satirical lyrics against the government and people of a higher class are used to "try and get under the skin of government and youths" and change the way in which youths are perceived. He views rioting in a negative light saying that "they've just made it harder for themselves" by "fueling how people feel about them anyway" and guaranteeing the negative feedback that youths have from the media. However he does discuss a possible reason for the youths behaviour saying that if they are seen in a negative light so often that youths will think "I'm never going to change the way you think of me so I'm going to just fuel the fire" and behave how you think I do. He does however discuss how youths are perceived from middle class people saying "just because you are born into a family that can afford an education doesn't make you better it makes you lucky" which is maybe how people need to have a view on rather than judging lower classes making the distance felt by youths between them and the general public smaller and may make them feel more part of the community.
Tuesday 13 March 2012
How far were the responses of the rioters themselves given space in the media? In total, Reading the Riots researchers collated more than 1.3 million words in first-person accounts from rioters. Their stories paint a vivid picture of England's most serious bout of unrest in a generation. Particularly after the riots had occurred focus began to turn to rioters themselves as an almost explanation as to the reasons from their point of view. For example the Guardian states in December how "Rioters say anger with police fuelled summer unrest" from the youths involved point of view. However when researching interviews from the riots the mass media seems very police orientated with the majority of interviews centered around footage showing youths in a negative light with stories on how "Good Samaritans who robbed a Malaysian student"
Given the general framing of young people as the key participants in the events, how much space was given to young peoples voices- and what sorts of young people were given space to respond in the media debates?
Generally the main focus of news coverage during the riots was to do with the police or older members of the community and their opinions on the situaton. If footage was shown of youths it was generally in a negative light of them in action rioting such as the footage shown of a gang vandalising a police car with bricks and stones. Interviews were shown from youths but often with a negative point of view from reporters who often cut the youths of while speaking or interview youths who are steriotypically what would be expected. For example when interviewing innocent youths in Manchester who had just got off the train from a day out the reporter is very negative towards the youths and puts them in the bracket as the looters by saying "why don't you just go home then" when the youths are trying to explain that they are trying to but the police wont let them. This links in with both Cohens and Gauntletts theory as the reporter is making the youths appear as divients and constructing them to be what they consider to be as youths to show evidence of their theory that youths are negative. Through other interviews youths are shown who have negative reasons for looting such as "to piss the police off" which the mass media shows in order to show youths in a negative light as not all youths have this opinion yet it is generally shown by the mass media as thats what they want the audience to form an opinion of youths on.
To what extend did social media challenge or confirm representations of youth identity in the mass media during the time of the London riots? Discuss positive and negative points and discuss theory.
In various ways social media helped go against the negative representation of youths by being the tool which abled them to show their views on the events in a positive light. Social medias such as Facebook gave youths a voice in which helped people aware of their identity linking in with Foucaults theory, helped support the police with groups which people were able to join such as "help the police stop riots" and "the clean up" project sorting out the devastation of the riots aftermath. Social medias also helped go against the mass medias representation of them being perceived as negative linking in with Buckinghams theory by websites which challeged the typical representation. For example campaigns such as "not in my name" in which youths took photos of themselves holding a sign with these words as a way of going against the typical representation by the NCVYS. Websites continue to challege the mass media such as "Young and not dumb" and the "99%" website proving that unlike Gauntlett states the medias construction of youths can be contradicted. The way in which youths identity can be seen in a positive way through various technologies proves Buckinghams theory. The clean up programme braught cultures together linking in with Jenkins theory as the devastation braught others closer together as a culture.
However social medias also show youths in a negative light as they can be used as a tool in order to fuel the violence and rioting. For example BBM which 37% of British youths have was used to plot against the government by being capable of organising riots annonomously. This links in with Jenkins theory as youths were capable of forming a culture of their own by using technology as a tool to go against society. This also links in with Cohens theory showing youths as divients who go against society causing moral panic which left the option of shuting down BBM altogether in order to stop the rebelion. The use of BBM highlights the divients amplification given by the mass media showing youths in a negative light.
Given the general framing of young people as the key participants in the events, how much space was given to young peoples voices- and what sorts of young people were given space to respond in the media debates?
Generally the main focus of news coverage during the riots was to do with the police or older members of the community and their opinions on the situaton. If footage was shown of youths it was generally in a negative light of them in action rioting such as the footage shown of a gang vandalising a police car with bricks and stones. Interviews were shown from youths but often with a negative point of view from reporters who often cut the youths of while speaking or interview youths who are steriotypically what would be expected. For example when interviewing innocent youths in Manchester who had just got off the train from a day out the reporter is very negative towards the youths and puts them in the bracket as the looters by saying "why don't you just go home then" when the youths are trying to explain that they are trying to but the police wont let them. This links in with both Cohens and Gauntletts theory as the reporter is making the youths appear as divients and constructing them to be what they consider to be as youths to show evidence of their theory that youths are negative. Through other interviews youths are shown who have negative reasons for looting such as "to piss the police off" which the mass media shows in order to show youths in a negative light as not all youths have this opinion yet it is generally shown by the mass media as thats what they want the audience to form an opinion of youths on.
To what extend did social media challenge or confirm representations of youth identity in the mass media during the time of the London riots? Discuss positive and negative points and discuss theory.
In various ways social media helped go against the negative representation of youths by being the tool which abled them to show their views on the events in a positive light. Social medias such as Facebook gave youths a voice in which helped people aware of their identity linking in with Foucaults theory, helped support the police with groups which people were able to join such as "help the police stop riots" and "the clean up" project sorting out the devastation of the riots aftermath. Social medias also helped go against the mass medias representation of them being perceived as negative linking in with Buckinghams theory by websites which challeged the typical representation. For example campaigns such as "not in my name" in which youths took photos of themselves holding a sign with these words as a way of going against the typical representation by the NCVYS. Websites continue to challege the mass media such as "Young and not dumb" and the "99%" website proving that unlike Gauntlett states the medias construction of youths can be contradicted. The way in which youths identity can be seen in a positive way through various technologies proves Buckinghams theory. The clean up programme braught cultures together linking in with Jenkins theory as the devastation braught others closer together as a culture.
However social medias also show youths in a negative light as they can be used as a tool in order to fuel the violence and rioting. For example BBM which 37% of British youths have was used to plot against the government by being capable of organising riots annonomously. This links in with Jenkins theory as youths were capable of forming a culture of their own by using technology as a tool to go against society. This also links in with Cohens theory showing youths as divients who go against society causing moral panic which left the option of shuting down BBM altogether in order to stop the rebelion. The use of BBM highlights the divients amplification given by the mass media showing youths in a negative light.
Thursday 8 March 2012
1. Overview of contemporary case study
what were the context of the riots ??On 4 August 2011, a police officer shot and killed 29-year-old Mark Duggan during an attempt to arrest him, the incident occured on the Ferry Lane bridge. It is not yet known why police were attempting to arrest Duggan, but the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said that the planned arrest was part of Operation Trident, which investigates gun crime within the black community. The incident had been referred to the IPCC, which is standard practice if death or serious injury follows police contact.On 6 August a protest was held, initially peacefully, beginning at Broadwater Farm and finishing at Tottenham police station. The protest was organised by friends and relatives of Duggan to demand justice for the family and for Duggans death. The protest began to escalate on a much larger scale in which a large amount of youths took part in the gathering. Rioting occurred shortly after about 120 people marched from the Broadwater Farm estate to Tottenham Police Station.The group of some 200 people demanded that a senior local police officer come out to speak to them. They stayed in front of the police station hours longer than they originally planned because they were not satisfied with the seniority of the officers available at the time. A younger and more aggressive crowd arrived at the scene around dusk, some carrying weapons. Further violence broke out based on an allegation that the police had attacked a 16-year-old girl and on the night of the 6 August disturbances began to occur which spiraled out of control becoming the start of the riots.
what were the reasons given as to why the youths were involved in the riots?? Many different reasons were given as to why the looting occured. The riots in Tottenham after the death of Mark Duggan were initially blamed on poor relations between the police and the black community.[Some stated that it was a race issue due to the fact that Duggan was black and had been shot by the police, people began to state that the inequality of black and white youths were unfair towards the police. The initial act of the murder braught up a long lasting debate of the inequality of youths which was the last straw which a certain amount of individuals where prepared to stand for in which they . In a House of Commons debate on the riots Home Secretary Theresa May stated that the riots were symptomatic of a "wider malaise" including worklessness, illiteracy, and drug abuse but also stated that "Everybody, no matter what their background or circumstances, has the freedom to choose between right and wrong".Some thought the riots were a defence in order to retaliate towards the police and push boundries with a system they thought was unfair in order to use extreme conditions to get their point across. Some youths looted purely for selfish purposes in order to steal and gain expensive items when in a state of poverty purely because they could get away with it without getting caught at the time.
were the youths given a fair and unbiased representation in the press coverage of the riots?? The mojority of the news coverage given towards the riots were biased towards the police and showed youths in a negative light. The use of language used by reporters and footage of youths helps create this constructed image that youths are aggressive parts of the community though this view is not totally true as some had not taken part in the riots at all and others had valid reasons as to why they decided to riot. The press tend to show footage of the police doing their job correctly and holding authority, landscapes destroyed such as cars on fire and youths showing aggressive behaviour which overall shows youths in a biased negative light as offenders going against athority and shockingly destroying the community to viewers.
2.Applying theory
how can the coverage of the london riots be understood in relation to the idea of stan cohen? The riots show signs of stan cohens theory by having divients who go against society and act as folk devils causing moral panic by their actions given. The youths were able to go against the way they had been culturally constructed to be like and rebel against society by organising gangs to meet up on Facebook during the riots and contacting each other through bbm. They also were able to commit acts they knew were wrong as they were capable of doing so and knew that at the time there was no boundry to stop them.
David Gauntlett stated that "identities are not given but are constructed and negotiated"
from the research which you have conducted into the coverage of the London riots to what extent is the representation of the collective identity of youths constructed by the press? consider for and against the argument. David Gauntlett states that identity is constructed by the media which within the London riots is argueably shown. Alot of the coverage given by all types of media during the riots were seen as negative. Youths were seen as arragant and aggressive generally when given the chance to speak, though the majority of the time the footage was centred around the aftermath of the destructure or interviews from police or adults. Rarely interviews were shown from youths who spoke of the actual issues which were the problem e.g ema and being distant from the community however more from youths who are bad representations of youths. Only showing this side to youths shows a constructed view from the media of what they believe youths are which will create a bias view to the audience of the identity of youths.
what were the context of the riots ??On 4 August 2011, a police officer shot and killed 29-year-old Mark Duggan during an attempt to arrest him, the incident occured on the Ferry Lane bridge. It is not yet known why police were attempting to arrest Duggan, but the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said that the planned arrest was part of Operation Trident, which investigates gun crime within the black community. The incident had been referred to the IPCC, which is standard practice if death or serious injury follows police contact.On 6 August a protest was held, initially peacefully, beginning at Broadwater Farm and finishing at Tottenham police station. The protest was organised by friends and relatives of Duggan to demand justice for the family and for Duggans death. The protest began to escalate on a much larger scale in which a large amount of youths took part in the gathering. Rioting occurred shortly after about 120 people marched from the Broadwater Farm estate to Tottenham Police Station.The group of some 200 people demanded that a senior local police officer come out to speak to them. They stayed in front of the police station hours longer than they originally planned because they were not satisfied with the seniority of the officers available at the time. A younger and more aggressive crowd arrived at the scene around dusk, some carrying weapons. Further violence broke out based on an allegation that the police had attacked a 16-year-old girl and on the night of the 6 August disturbances began to occur which spiraled out of control becoming the start of the riots.
what were the reasons given as to why the youths were involved in the riots?? Many different reasons were given as to why the looting occured. The riots in Tottenham after the death of Mark Duggan were initially blamed on poor relations between the police and the black community.[Some stated that it was a race issue due to the fact that Duggan was black and had been shot by the police, people began to state that the inequality of black and white youths were unfair towards the police. The initial act of the murder braught up a long lasting debate of the inequality of youths which was the last straw which a certain amount of individuals where prepared to stand for in which they . In a House of Commons debate on the riots Home Secretary Theresa May stated that the riots were symptomatic of a "wider malaise" including worklessness, illiteracy, and drug abuse but also stated that "Everybody, no matter what their background or circumstances, has the freedom to choose between right and wrong".Some thought the riots were a defence in order to retaliate towards the police and push boundries with a system they thought was unfair in order to use extreme conditions to get their point across. Some youths looted purely for selfish purposes in order to steal and gain expensive items when in a state of poverty purely because they could get away with it without getting caught at the time.
were the youths given a fair and unbiased representation in the press coverage of the riots?? The mojority of the news coverage given towards the riots were biased towards the police and showed youths in a negative light. The use of language used by reporters and footage of youths helps create this constructed image that youths are aggressive parts of the community though this view is not totally true as some had not taken part in the riots at all and others had valid reasons as to why they decided to riot. The press tend to show footage of the police doing their job correctly and holding authority, landscapes destroyed such as cars on fire and youths showing aggressive behaviour which overall shows youths in a biased negative light as offenders going against athority and shockingly destroying the community to viewers.
2.Applying theory
how can the coverage of the london riots be understood in relation to the idea of stan cohen? The riots show signs of stan cohens theory by having divients who go against society and act as folk devils causing moral panic by their actions given. The youths were able to go against the way they had been culturally constructed to be like and rebel against society by organising gangs to meet up on Facebook during the riots and contacting each other through bbm. They also were able to commit acts they knew were wrong as they were capable of doing so and knew that at the time there was no boundry to stop them.
David Gauntlett stated that "identities are not given but are constructed and negotiated"
from the research which you have conducted into the coverage of the London riots to what extent is the representation of the collective identity of youths constructed by the press? consider for and against the argument. David Gauntlett states that identity is constructed by the media which within the London riots is argueably shown. Alot of the coverage given by all types of media during the riots were seen as negative. Youths were seen as arragant and aggressive generally when given the chance to speak, though the majority of the time the footage was centred around the aftermath of the destructure or interviews from police or adults. Rarely interviews were shown from youths who spoke of the actual issues which were the problem e.g ema and being distant from the community however more from youths who are bad representations of youths. Only showing this side to youths shows a constructed view from the media of what they believe youths are which will create a bias view to the audience of the identity of youths.
Monday 5 March 2012
Youtube videos covering news on the London riots
In this video youths are seen in a very negative way, the footage focusing mostly on the police and authority figures and the damage caused to them throughout the riots. Images of lots of buildings in ruins, with shops and businesses on fire and the devastation of ruble are shown to the audience in order to shock them of the disaster which has occurred. Interviews are given by the police mainly and the overall view is based against youths and the bahaviour commited. The news report is very factual and geographical with pictures of landscapes from a range of shots.
In this video youths are seen in a positive light by the interviewee who, being a member of the public talks a strong negative view against the police and the occurance with Mark Duggan. The language he uses is very sympathetic towards youths particularly his grandson who he states has been checked by the police several times. He brings in the strong arguement about race in the sense that both the victim and black people in the streets seem to have a much harder time when police are dealing with them compared to white youths in the streets. His strong views are contradicted by the interviewer who indicates that race issues are not really an excuse to riot however the interview as a whole is centrally bias towards youths and how unfair they have been tret, showing the riots to be exceptable retaliation for it.
This video shows a definite negative reading of the riots and how the youths behaviour is completely unacceptable and unnapropriate to members of the public. The video focuses mainly on the present action of the riots in which the reporter is in the midst of it and showing actual occurances as well as using negative language in order to show the riots in a negative light. Occurances such as the smashing of a police car with bricks and stones at the side of the road with the reporter stating how quickly the mood of the crowd can change as they were thought to be surrounded by sight seeings and then the mood seemed to of eratically change to violent behaviour of youths out of control
In this interview the reporter interviews a mixed view as he shows the view of both innocent youths and how they are perceived as bad and the youths who have taken part in the riots and their view. At first he interviews two youths who are completely innocent and have been out of town all day, but because of his bias which he shows through the interegation type questions asked towards them such as "why don't you just go home" he automatically thinks they are part of the looting and crime because of their young appearance. This shows the press in a bad light by prejudging in such a way as not all youths can be put in the same catagory purely down to their age and appearance. However once interviewing another youth this also shows the negative side of youths as he admits he is there to "piss the police off" and has taken part in the looting showing a fine representation of the negative side to youths.
Wednesday 29 February 2012
Broadsheet articles
Student tells court of 'Good Samaritans' who robbed him during UK riots
A Malaysian student who was allegedly robbed by bogus Good Samaritans during the summer riots knew what was happening but was powerless to stop it, a court has heard. The language in this article is much less bias than the tabloid and use much less sensationalist language giving a much more balanced view. The broadsheet article gives a much more factual representation of the incident "He had been in Britain for a month when he was set upon as looting swept the UK."Tuesday 28 February 2012
Newspaper research
Victim wins her nine-year battle to have sex attacker deportedThe language used views the defendant in a very negative light and the victim in a very positive light. The sensationalist language used against the defendant are words such as the "torture" he has caused to his victim and how he launched a "vicious" attack towards his victim giving him an almost animal persona as if he is uncontrollable and the journalist is all for him being deported back to his country. The journalist continues with language such as "appalling" when referring to the assault and when discussing the point that he has previously affended several times in the past the journalist explains it to be "astonishing" that he had not already been deported. The images used are of both the defendant and the victim, the victim having a much larger and brighter photo showing her in a garden with her looking distraught and damaged. The defendant has a much smaller and darker photo of a head shot of himself to give the impression that he is in fact a criminal. The facial expression gives a very negative image of the defendant which teamed with the negative language used portray him in a bad light. The language and images suggest youths are out of control and almost animal like, particularly those from a different culture and race.
Daily Express- Saturday 25th February 2012
Baying 'racist' mob attacks takeaway in child sex case trail
The language is making the story sound a lot worse than it would have been because of the number of people supposed to be part of the racist mob which was a crowd of 150. This makes the situation worse because they don't have names to those who were involved also the numbers show that a lot of people think the same about the situation hence the large group demonstrating their views. The report explains the story of the crowd rampaging through the town centre of Heywood then confronting riot squad officers. Many of members of the mob were chanting racist abuse and others "EDL"- a reference to the English Defence League. The restaurant, now under new management and with no connection to any of the accused, was targeted by the crowd. The image with the article is a photograph of three police vans in the street in a line down a street with lots of shops around. The picture is black and white I think this is because it makes the picture more negative and relates to the negative story. The report and photograph next to it suggests that youth are unruly and needs a large force to control the situation such as the crowd "confronting riot squad offers" and the picture of the three police vans.
A/SGT (SCC) C.L.Armitage
Hartlepool Royal Marine Cadets
3 Troop Yankee Company
Assistant Quarter Master
The sensationalist language that they use is the words Berserk and Thug. They use words such as boozed-up maniac to show emphasis on the story. The words that they use show the youths today in a bad light, this person is shown as he causes "amok" in the pub that he has ran back in. The language that they use is completely bias meaning what he done is wrong and showing that it is horrendous just like one person quotes. The words describe the man Slicing through an arm and Chopping through a door. The male is shown in a negative light as it is not what people would normally do if getting kicked out of a pub and shows that he is malicious.
The images that accompany the article are images taken from a CCTV camera, therefore showing exactly what the thug has done. There is an image of the male with a black eye at the bottom of the article where he has claimed to be beaten up then went back for revenge. The representation of youths in media shows through this article as one male being thuggish and vicious, but does not say anything about being in a group or subculture.
Thursday 23 February 2012
Historical Case Study
According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972) and credited as creator of the term, a moral panic occurs when "condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." Those who start the panic when they fear a threat to prevailing social or cultural values are known by researchers as "moral entrepreneurs," while people who supposedly threaten the social order have been described as "folk devils."
Moral panic links in with the film "clockwork orange" which caused a stir among the public once released for its graphic and violent behavior. Originally a novel written by "Anthony Burgess" the story was natorious for its contraversial content. Involving the conspiracy between the main characters "alex and his droogs" antics and how their actions effected and where mirrored by the public, in particular the younger generation the film was eventually band. The debate still stands today as to whether our society can be influenced by such unappropriate behaviour or if the devients who commit the crimes will regardless of what they have viewed.
1.How was the film reported by the press and how did the youths of the time relate to the film? Though the film was praised many medias and critics criticised the films content and how it may be perceived by the public. A critic Pauline Kael called the film pornographic, because of how it dehumanised Alex's victims, while highlighting the sufferings of the protagonist Alex himself. Also showing Alex enjoying the running over small animals or raping underaged girls, and argued that violent scenes — the Billyboy's gang extended stripping of the very buxom woman they intend to rape — were offensive. This content which was seen to shock the viewers at the time began the medias and newspapers to begin a moral panic in which sensationalist headlines about antics similar to those of the film where seen to be influenced by it, them stating "the clockwork orange theory" has taken place. The youths related to the film in a way as similar to Alex and his droogs they wore similar clothing to each other and stuck together in gangs however when talking about the behaviour viewed youths stated that it was nothing in which they had not seen before. This brings in the debate again as to whether the film does need a concern or this type of behaviour will take place regardless if like the droogs they have no prospects within society.
2.How can Stan Cohens theory be related to this film?
This relates to Stan Cohens theory as it represents youths in a bad light and indicates to the viewers that gangs such as Alex and his droogs all act a certain way as devients against society which is not always the case. The fact the film was so contraversial did cause an almost moral panic similar to Cohens theory as to whether this was the future behaviour of the young deliquents and if they would be affected and mirror those actions similar to the characters as a way of acting out towards society.
Quandrophinia 1979
1.Discuss the representation and ideological values of Jimmy, Steph and Kevin. Use textual examples to back up your point made:
The main point in which Jimmy is represented is that he tries to be out of the ordinary and the big I am which could be due to the lack of excitement within the other aspects of his life (family, work.)The fact that Jimmy wants to be out of the ordinary is shown through dialog when stating to Kevin "I don't want to be the same as everyone else, thats why I'm a mod see" which is slightly ironic as though he is a mod they all show similar behaviour and wear similar clothing making them the same as each other rather than unique. This ideologie of wanting to be different but actually all being similar to each other could be done in order to the impression which the young generation think they have by being different and the view of which the older generation have of them by all being the same. This is shown further by him and his dad being binary opposites and him stating Jimmy to be a "freak" asking "haven't you got a mind of your own." The mob mentality and sticking together is also an ideology in which is shown by them trashing the house and the streets of Brighton basically because they can and are in such a large crowd that they are not fearful of the consequences. Jimmy is shown to be centrally framed between the two older men at his work and is throwing up whilst they ignore him and chat amongst themselves which could be to show the intollerance the older generation hasto the younger generation and the antics they get up to.
Steph is indicated to be the typical teenage girl of that period by being flirtatious and fun as at the time the contraceptive pill had just been created allowing women to be much more sexually active than they previously could be.
2.What examples of mise en scene reinforce the idea of youth culture? There is various forms of mise en scene used in order to establish the youth culture such as the dark rock music, motorbikes, drugs, smoking, parka, gambling, bars parties and riots. These are all things which show the young generation in a bad light and indicate that they are very image consious. The mise en scene is important in order to indicate the lifestyle of the mods and the outlets they use in order to supress their bordom and go against society.
4.How can Stan Cohens theory be related to this?
The mods are almost seen to take over society by their antics and are devients which rebel against the normal and try to almost destroy it. This rule breaking and conflicts between the younger and older generation may cause a moral panic within the media as its something which is generally feared by the older generation. Those who then see a mod in the street maythen be fearful that they will get into antics similar to those in the film purely because of the way they dress. The mod mentality is something of a moral panic as if big enough and wanting to rebel against society it is possible that the culture we live in could change, a fearful thought for the society at that time.
moral panic today be reinforced by these films?
moral panic and deviance amplification
Moral panic links in with the film "clockwork orange" which caused a stir among the public once released for its graphic and violent behavior. Originally a novel written by "Anthony Burgess" the story was natorious for its contraversial content. Involving the conspiracy between the main characters "alex and his droogs" antics and how their actions effected and where mirrored by the public, in particular the younger generation the film was eventually band. The debate still stands today as to whether our society can be influenced by such unappropriate behaviour or if the devients who commit the crimes will regardless of what they have viewed.
1.How was the film reported by the press and how did the youths of the time relate to the film? Though the film was praised many medias and critics criticised the films content and how it may be perceived by the public. A critic Pauline Kael called the film pornographic, because of how it dehumanised Alex's victims, while highlighting the sufferings of the protagonist Alex himself. Also showing Alex enjoying the running over small animals or raping underaged girls, and argued that violent scenes — the Billyboy's gang extended stripping of the very buxom woman they intend to rape — were offensive. This content which was seen to shock the viewers at the time began the medias and newspapers to begin a moral panic in which sensationalist headlines about antics similar to those of the film where seen to be influenced by it, them stating "the clockwork orange theory" has taken place. The youths related to the film in a way as similar to Alex and his droogs they wore similar clothing to each other and stuck together in gangs however when talking about the behaviour viewed youths stated that it was nothing in which they had not seen before. This brings in the debate again as to whether the film does need a concern or this type of behaviour will take place regardless if like the droogs they have no prospects within society.
2.How can Stan Cohens theory be related to this film?
This relates to Stan Cohens theory as it represents youths in a bad light and indicates to the viewers that gangs such as Alex and his droogs all act a certain way as devients against society which is not always the case. The fact the film was so contraversial did cause an almost moral panic similar to Cohens theory as to whether this was the future behaviour of the young deliquents and if they would be affected and mirror those actions similar to the characters as a way of acting out towards society.
Quandrophinia 1979
1.Discuss the representation and ideological values of Jimmy, Steph and Kevin. Use textual examples to back up your point made:
The main point in which Jimmy is represented is that he tries to be out of the ordinary and the big I am which could be due to the lack of excitement within the other aspects of his life (family, work.)The fact that Jimmy wants to be out of the ordinary is shown through dialog when stating to Kevin "I don't want to be the same as everyone else, thats why I'm a mod see" which is slightly ironic as though he is a mod they all show similar behaviour and wear similar clothing making them the same as each other rather than unique. This ideologie of wanting to be different but actually all being similar to each other could be done in order to the impression which the young generation think they have by being different and the view of which the older generation have of them by all being the same. This is shown further by him and his dad being binary opposites and him stating Jimmy to be a "freak" asking "haven't you got a mind of your own." The mob mentality and sticking together is also an ideology in which is shown by them trashing the house and the streets of Brighton basically because they can and are in such a large crowd that they are not fearful of the consequences. Jimmy is shown to be centrally framed between the two older men at his work and is throwing up whilst they ignore him and chat amongst themselves which could be to show the intollerance the older generation hasto the younger generation and the antics they get up to.
Steph is indicated to be the typical teenage girl of that period by being flirtatious and fun as at the time the contraceptive pill had just been created allowing women to be much more sexually active than they previously could be.
2.What examples of mise en scene reinforce the idea of youth culture? There is various forms of mise en scene used in order to establish the youth culture such as the dark rock music, motorbikes, drugs, smoking, parka, gambling, bars parties and riots. These are all things which show the young generation in a bad light and indicate that they are very image consious. The mise en scene is important in order to indicate the lifestyle of the mods and the outlets they use in order to supress their bordom and go against society.
4.How can Stan Cohens theory be related to this?
The mods are almost seen to take over society by their antics and are devients which rebel against the normal and try to almost destroy it. This rule breaking and conflicts between the younger and older generation may cause a moral panic within the media as its something which is generally feared by the older generation. Those who then see a mod in the street maythen be fearful that they will get into antics similar to those in the film purely because of the way they dress. The mod mentality is something of a moral panic as if big enough and wanting to rebel against society it is possible that the culture we live in could change, a fearful thought for the society at that time.
moral panic today be reinforced by these films?
moral panic and deviance amplification
Monday 20 February 2012
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