Year 12 cover work

Find two music videos which REPRESENT women in very different ways. 

Video 1. Trey Songz - Yo Side Of The Bed. ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPd4Qp-Pdew&feature=relmfu&safe=active

Video 2. Christina Aguilera -Dirrty ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kaej4Wjkj1Q&safe=active

Answer the following questions on each music clip: 

1. How is the representation made to seem 'true', 'commonsense' or 'natural'?  

V1) In this music video, the female is represented as the career woman and the man as a house husband. This goes against the stereotypical of the women being home-makers. It's made to seem natural and true because there are some women that go through that stage where they have to leave their family behind to pursue their career. 

V2) In this video, women are normally seen as sex objects which makes the representation of women seem natural.

2. What is foregrounded and what is backgrounded? Are there any notable absences?   

V1) Foreground, the couple are in love with their baby. The woman is seen to be involved with both her family and her career as when she gets a call from her job and she has to leave she was genuinely upset about it. 

3. Whose representation is it? Whose interests does it reflect? How do you know?   

4. At whom is this representation targeted? How do you know?   

5. What does the representation mean to you?   

6. With what alternative representations could it be compared? How does it differ?  

 7. Why is the concept of representation problematic?

Textual Analysis: Independent Study

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK68Y3oMEk8

1) Media Forms:
What techniques does this trailer have to persuade the audience to watch this film?


2) Media Representations:
How are men and women representation in this trailer?


3) Media Audiences:
What target audience would be attracted to this film?


4) Media Institutions:
How does the production company impact the views for this film?




Answers:
1) humour is used to show that this is a romantic comedy
the actors in the film such as steve carell and ryan gosling
the music changes: shows different stages in the film
its all about re-inventing yourself 'take control of your manhood'
could be relate-able for divorcees 


2) there is a contrast with the men in this trailer: one is sophisticated and the other is average
the contrast could make the audience want to be the sophisticated one as he seems cooler and gets most of the women
women are seen as the 'prize'
women are seen the dominant ones 
men are seen as weak as they constantly want to be impressing the women
they are both important showing that women cant live without men and men cant live without women


3) divorced men are the target audience because it shows how to reinvent themselves
men who want to get more attention from women or the woman they like
the fact that its a romantic comedy and the main characters are well known actors will relate more to men
A lot of women is shown which can create that male gaze 
'tips of the trade'


4) warner brother is a high production company 
popular production company - everyone has heard of warner bros
produced many famous film: harry potter, looney tunes, the hangover, batman...
people may watch this film because they will know its a trusted production company
this film will have a big budget

Technophobes

BBC Three is launching a new program called “Technophobes”, following the lives of five people who are afraid of technology.

Audience: 

Demographics is age, sex, race, class, nationality, religion. So with Technophobes the audience that it will appeal to is 15-18, British black males, class D and E and any religion. The psychographics that will appeal to 'Technophobes' will be Funseekers and Free spirits.

Institutions: 

The assumptions that are made about this program being based on BBC Three is that it will definitely be a documentary or a reality show. Normally with BBC Three the documentaries/reality show shown are split into episodes which keep the audience interested with the program. 

BBC Three is attracted by teenagers so assumptions of the program will be that it's about teenagers or teenagers will like that particular program. Eg, Confessions of a sex addict, Cherry Healey: Like a virgin and older programs like World's Strictest Parents and Undercover princesses.

Media Forms:

Codes and Conventions: informative, entertaining, voiceovers

You would be expecting to see teenagers that are afraid of technology. With BBC 3 people will expect it to be entertaining. The camera would be observational 

Representation:

'Technophobes' position or opinion will present negatively because they're teenagers who don't like technology. They wont be looked at as the 'norm' because in the year 2012 teenagers are all about technology. People would mock them a lot.

Web Blog

I just watched Technophobes on BBC three and it was so funny how those 'teenagers' didn't like or were afraid of technology. I found it so dumb how they could be teenagers and not like technology. I mean, today's society is all about technology... people cant live with out it nowadays but for these people to claim that they dont like it or afraid of it is just beyond me - how do they survive? 

There was a guy called Mark who screamed every time he saw a Blackberry or anything closely related to it! If I was there I would of laughed in his face because he's surrounded by them everyday - so he must be screaming a hell of a lot. 

And there was a girl called Rachel who locked herself in her room because she was afraid of the internet, computers and phones, I know her parents must think shes weird because the looks that they were giving the camera when she ran away because they told her they made a facebook account got me laughing SO MUCH!

The thing that makes me laugh the most is that they cant even see what im writing about them because they are afraid of technology LOL ..I can't wait for the next episode when we meet 2 more 'technophobes' - lets just see how crazy and weird they are. 

Documentary DVD Cover image analysis

4 Little Girls - Spike Lee

The use of colour on the cover is contrasting as the main body of the picture is heavily bordered with black. This makes me fully drawn to the colourful picture in the middle of the cover. The first thing that I am drawn to is the light which represents God or Jesus. Also the fact that the shape of the main picture is drawn in the shape of a window, represents church. This represents religion and preferably Christianity. The second thing I am drawn to is the 4 girls praying towards the light, sitting on clouds which mean that they could be angel-like people.

The focal images of the picture are the light, the girls and the title of the documentary.

The denotation of the film cover is four black girls praying to what appears to be God. The connotation of the documentary cover is that the whole picture is a jigsaw puzzle and there is a jigsaw piece missing from where there is normally Jesus there or God there but in this cover its missing which suggests that there might not be a God. The girls are represented as angels as it seems as they have halos around their heads. There is a scripture underneath the girls which suggests that its definitely about religion. The scripture means: You have watered its plowed fields to multiply its fruit; with gentle showers you will give increase and you will bless its growth.

The writing used 'The story of four girls who paid the price for a nation's ignorance' is written in colloquial, everyday, regional English which regions like US, UK and other countries around the world speak in. (Code) I get a sense of freedom of choice with the type of language that is used on the cover. It says 'price for the nation's ignorance' which could mean that they have been standing up for something they believe in instead of listening to what the rest of the nation has said. This can relate to cultural analysis of the cover.

The presentation codes are the camera shot or in this case the way the picture is drawn. The fact that the girls are looking up towards the light could represent that they still believe and look up to something that might not exist or be there. This could refer to the quote at the bottom of the cover.

The picture by itself is polysemic which means that it could have many meanings but the anchorage on the cover is the writing which anchors the audience in. It narrows down the meaning of the cover. The scripture and the title shows that its about 4 little girls and about religion. The words 'paid the price' could suggest that they may of died or something bad may of happened to them. So the anchorage of the cover makes it more clear to the audience about what the documentary is about. Even though the cover doesn't really give much away but we as an audience have an idea of what the documentary is about.

This refers to cropping which means that the creator of the cover doesn't give to much away, that the audience keep guessing. Also so they know that the documentary will reveal all and that the cover will make sense to the audience. If the cover gave too much away then the audience wouldn't be as interested in the documentary as they can guess what happens in the documentary. This means that the audience will be less interested in watching or buying the documentary.

The signs of the cover is what it signifies. What the cover signifies is religion and that the four girls in the documentary.

Documentaries

What is a documentary?

Documentary has a lot of different interpretations:

• Broad category of nonfictional motion pictures
• Document some sort of primary reality data
• Maintains a historical record
• "filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception"
• Grierson's principles of documentary were that cinema's potential for observing life could be exploited in a new art form
• Pare Lorentz defines a documentary film as "a factual film which is dramatic"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film

Codes and Conventions of a Documentary: 

• Voice over - The voiceover will inform the audience and help them understand a bit more, instead of constantly reading titles on the screen
• Real footage of events - This is a convention as all events shown is seen as real to the audience.
• Includes 'natural' lighting and sound - this makes the documentary seem more real
• Achive footage - Information/videos that the film maker was unable to get themselves (secondary)
• Interviews with 'experts' on the type of documentary the film maker has made - this gives more information to the audience that they might not be able to find themselves.
• Text - A quick and cheap way to give out information
• Sound - it can either be non-diegetic or diegetic 
• Set-ups - In a documentary sometimes it could be acted. They could show a stereotypical aspect of a particular type of genre to show that its 'natural'
• Mise en Scene - Whats on the screen is essential 

http://www.slideshare.net/crosswaysfederation/codes-and-conventions-of-documentary


Documentary Mode/Styles

• Poetic Mode - The formal structural organization of a film that emphasizes visual associations eg: Films about painters & dancers
• Expository Mode - (voice of God) This mode is what we most identify with the documentary often using a narrator.
• Observational Mode - (window of the world) it attempted to capture (as accurately as
  possibly) objective reality with filmmaker as neutral observer. the camera rushes about to keep up with the action resulting in rough, shaky, often amateur-looking footage.
• Reflexive Mode - (awareness of process) constructed nature of documentary. Shows people that this is not necessarily "truth" but a reconstruction of it - "a" truth, not
  "the" truth
• Performative Mode - This mode emphasizes the emotional and social impact on the audience

http://www.godnose.co.uk/downloads/alevel/documentary/Doc%20Modes%20nichols.pdf

Documentary formats 

• Mockumentary
• Docudrama
• Docufiction
• Nature documentary
• Rockumentary
• Web documentary
• Mondo film