Simulacra/crum

Simulacra and Simulation is an idea by Jean Baudrillard that discusses the interaction between reality, symbols and society.

The defination is most known for its discussion of images, signs, and how they relate to the present day. Baudrillard claims that the modern day wrold and society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that we live in a simulation of reality rather than reality itself.

Baudrillard believes that the signs of culture and media create a perceived reality; leading to society to become so reliant on simulacra that it has lost contact with the real world on which the simulacra are based.

Television, film, print and the Internet, are said to be responsible for blurring the line between goods that are needed and goods for which a need is created by commercial images.

The Matrix makes many connections to Simulacra and Simulation. Simulacra and Simulation is the book in which Neo hides his illicit software. Morpheus also refers to the real world outside of the Matrix as the "desert of the real".

Bricolage

“Bricolage” is a French word that means putting something together out of available scraps of ideas etc to make a new piece of media art. It is related to pastiche..

' In his work, "Postmodernism and Consumer Society," Jameson writes that pastiche is "the imitation of a peculiar or unique style, the wearing of a stylistic mask, speech in a dead language" (16). He continues by describing those who work with bricolage:

"The writers and artists of the present day will no longer be able to invent new styles and worlds - they've already been invented; only a limited number of combinations are possible; the unique ones have been thought of already. ... This means that contemporary or postmodern art is going to be about art itself in a new kind of way; even more, it means that one of its essential messages will involve the necessary failure of art and the aesthetic, the failure of the new, the imprisonment in the past" (18). '

Examples of bricolage are
Music often takes the form of sound collage, as well as sampling, DJs do this alot, mixing new and old songs, from all types of genres.


Film Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill relies heavily on styles, genres and codes from a variety of sources. He uses elements from Hong Kong kung-fu films, grindhouse style fight scenes and comic book set-ups.


Another film example is The Matrix by the Wachowski brothers, it visualually incorporates lots of different influences and styles into a new film. They draw on genres, stories and visuals such as the fantasy world of Alice in Wonderland, Japanese cyberpunk manga from Ghost in the Shell, action comic books, and kung-fu movies. Much of the discourse within the film refers to ,and combines, the ideas of Jacques Lacan, Jean Baudrillard, as well as lots of religious influences too.

Meme

A meme is an idea or creative item that is passed on virally from person to person to the point where lots of people know about it and are talking about. It's a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner similar to the biological transmission of genes when going through evolution. It can be explained in evolutionary principles when explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. For example memes develop through natural selection, similar to that of biolgical evolution. They go through variation, mutation and competition, through plenty of different people or texts.

Examples of memes include melodies, catch-phrases, beliefs, clothing fashion and most of all internet memes. Internet memes are often catchphrases or concepts that spread quickly from person to person via the Internet, much like an inside joke.

The Coen Brothers

Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen, known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers, who write and direct their films jointly. The pair have written and directed numerous successful films, ranging comedies (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy) to thrillers (Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country for Old Men), to postmodern movies where the genres blur together (Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading, and A Serious Man).

Combining eccentricity, humor, irony, and often brutal violence, the films of the Coen brothers are still a style of filmmaking that pays tribute to classic American movie genres, especially film noir, while sustaining a postmodern feel. An example of one of their postmodern films is Barton Fink:



- This film is seen as postmodern because it crosses genres, fragments the characters' experiences, and doesn't have straightforward narrative.

-It's described as a "postmodern pastiche" which closely examines how past eras have represented themselves. It's an ironic reexamination of history as it is both a critique of the Hollywood system then and now, but also a reworking of the myth of the leftist artist in the 1930s.

It contains a mix of history and pure fiction. A similar methodology is adopted for 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' which offers a precise recreation of 1930s deep-south America but frames the narrative using Homer's The Odyssey. The mixture of historical detail with fiction narrative is incredibly postmodern as it's playing with conventions.

Hyperreality

Hyperreality is an inability to distinguish between what is real and what is not. I can often be described as enhanced reality. For example in the film Genova, the use of a hand held camera, increases the afeect that it is a real recording of a real family. The gritty story line and believable characters makes the film seem real enough, but the camera eccentuates this to a new level.

Some people become more engaged with the hyperreal world than with the real world. More and more people in today’s culture are thought to exist in a state of hyperreality. For example the virtual world of Second Life had become something that many poeple take incredibly seriously, many spending more time on there than living their own lifes. For example some people may believe that they can be rock stars or celebrities just by acting as if they are on second life, or a profile that they have set up. Aswell as this there are media images, the Internet and computer games that are taking people out of the real world more often and for longer periods of time than ever before.

Hyperreality is thought to be a consequence of the age that we live in, which links it nicely to postmoderism as this is a new age where things are being presented differently, and are getting more and more advanced. An excuse for many media texts using intertexuality or pastiche could be due to the fact in this age some theorist's say that all our stoeries have been told. Creating a cyle of things just being told over and over again. Therefore to make these things new and exciting, postmodern elements are introduced.

An example of hyperreality can be when somebody takes someone else's version of reality on board as his or her own. Some people may watch a soap opera and develop a view of interpersonal relationships that is determined by the writers of the soap.
Relationships in soaps are a heightened form of reality that some people relate to as being real, therefore they begin judging relationships by this hightened reality.

Other examples of hyperrealities are Theme parks such as Disney Land were people can get lost in for as long as they like (or till realistic things such as work and money intefere). These fairytale lands have been made in to real locations, tunring it inot something thing that no longer exists just in out heads. This makes it harder to distinguish or understand whether it's real or not.



I think this picture is a good example of Hyperreality as it shows an illusion of a picture on a canvas that looks so similar to what is outside the window that it is difficult to distinguish what is real and what's not

Michael Winterbottom

Michael Winterbottom is a filmmaker who has directed sixteen films in the past thirteen years. Many of his films are incredibly postmodern, for example the film A Cock and Bull Story:



Just watching the trailer for this film you can see how post modern it is..
-Talking to the camera (self referntial) breaking the 4th wall and acknowledging the audience.

-Parody and pastiche of other Victorian dramas and actors.

-Playing with all the conventions of the genre 'You want realism, i'm a grown man in a womb!' This is also self referential as they are refering to the aims of their production on screen.

-You get too see the camera set ect, making it hyperreal as you are not sure what is part of the film and what is not. Along with this they talk about how they are going to edit the film, maing you believe you are really there.

-It's Nihilistic in a sense that it doesn't stick to any rule that film making should have, at times it seems a bit of a shamble.

-It draws apon many different genres and styles, for example it's a comedy as well as a victorian drama. It also has a documentary feel to it as well as they directly talk the camera as if they are having an interview. It also follows the prgress of the film, something many documentaries do. All these things make it quite an eclectic film to watch.

-There are reference to other texts, for example a shot of Steven Fry on the TV making it seem even more hyper real. This sort of intertexuality, using a very famous person is incredibly affective.

-Aesthetics include the contrast of Victorian to mordern day costumes.

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is the cultral and social conditions which have replaced earlier forms of modern 20th century life. Many media texts that are said to be postmodern in style often mix irony, parody and pastiche across conventional genres. It will often refer to itself, is transparent in its constuction and blurs the boundaries between reality and representation. It's an approach to culture which sees all texts as being intertexual and meaning is mediated, rather than representative of a state of original reality.

A way to remember the coventions of postmodernism is the anagram of PAINPIPES:
Play-plays with the genre conventions etc. Also a sense of play, makes it quite funny, they do not take themselves seriously.
Aesthetics- They way it looks. Could look different or similar to another production as if it is mimicing it.
Intertexuality-referencing other texts or media forms to enable meaning to be made.
Nihilistic- total rejection of established laws and institutions.
Parody-A text which doesn't simply imitate the style of another, but instead mocks or shifts the original texts conventions in some way.
Irony- Presenting something to mean something very different from what they appear on the surface to mean. This is used homourously.
Pastiche- Directly imitating a style of another text.
Eclectism- Drawing apon multiple style or genres. Often contrasting.
Self-referential- Refers to themself.

Along with these Postmodernism often uses Hyper-reality, this characterizes the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy.It makes things seem more than real.

How do moral panics form a fragment of cultural identity?

A moral panic is the increased concern about something by a population that appears to be a threat to social order. The concern about the negative impact this group may have on society increases the hostility towards them, thus making a clear division between ‘them’ and ‘us’, and looking at them as ‘folk devils’. This divides the collective cultural identity our country might have had, leaving fragments of different groups holding their own ideologies and opinions on the matter. These fragments may then form their own cultural identity as they may feel collectiveness in this group, through similar ideas and morals, thus forming a part of his or her personal identity too.

Raving and ecstasy is a perfect example of how something seen initially as harmless can then be blown up by the media into a huge moral panic. It emerged in the late 80s/early 90s when all non-stop dancing and clubbing, in places such as Ibiza was getting increasingly popular. The younger generation were getting immersed in it, with huge secret raves were being organised on fields, miles away from towns and cities. Partying and drinking was one of the main ingredients for enjoying and rave and the third, becoming more and more popularly used, was ecstasy.

Ecstasy was being used frivolously within the younger people, as the rave craze grew larger it was known as the defining feature to rave culture. The media could be partly to blame for it’s huge popularity after commercialising the rave subculture, for example when the newspaper The Sun discovered rave, they even marketed their own smiley faced t-shirt, a logo that was becoming well known as a symbolism for rave. The fact ravers now even had their own iconic symbol increased the collective identity of this subcultures fragment. If they wore this symbol it made them feel like they belonged. Rave formed a part of these peoples personal identify too. The Sun newspaper soon became hostile when the moral panic was uncovered.

The emergence of the moral panic came to it’s highest peak when Leah Betts collapsed in her home on her eighteenth birthday after taking an ecstasy tablet, and subsequently went into a coma. Pictures of Leah on a life support machine where plastered all over the newspaper headlines. For the media her death was ‘ a potent image of innocence corrupted by a dangerous and malevolent subculture.’ From here the subculture of people involved in raves were seen as folk devils and threats to society, along with this they were seen as ‘wrong and foolish’ victims to the mythical drug dealers. This hostility grew, forming fragmentation in the British culture. Many of the younger generation were feared and seen as foolish and putting them selves at danger, whether any one knew they were attending the raves or not. Young people, or ravers were stereotyped as dangerous along with raves too, being deemed responsible for all deaths like Leah Betts’.

As a result of this moral panic, and an attempt as resolution, drug education was increased, such as the national strategy ‘Tackling Drugs Together’. Along with this the Public entertainments (drug misuse) act passed with out opposition. The police were given more power and new age travellers were attempted to be suppressed.

Although this moral panic eventually faded away, it had persisted for almost ten years, with volatile outbreaks within it. Generally the raves moved to clubs and media interest soon disappeared, but the stereotype and fear of the younger person who likes to party, still lives today, causing a separation in within our culture, particularly between ages.

Another moral panic that formed a fragment of cultural identity was the Aids epidemic. It was fist discovered by gay men in San Francisco and spread across the globe. This then caused the public perception to turn on homosexuals, prostitutes and drug users. The media made these groups, particularly homosexuals, seem like ‘folk devils’, along with their other label as a deviant minority. People began to view it as a gay plague and a majority in a poll were in favour of compulsory testing and the isolation or sterilisation of those infected.

This view of Homosexuals was incredibly wrong. Many became scared to socialise with gay people and there was an awful lot of prejudice against them. What had stemmed from a disease common in homosexuals was now completely their fault in some people’s eyes. This formed a fragment of cultural identity with Homosexuals being seen as folk devils. At this point they could have found a collective identity together, thriving on the fact only they could understand the prejudice each other were going through, as the thing that bought them together.

Aids faded as an issue and became a cultural and health related issue, people presume that if it does heighten again, the media will not be reporting it as an epidemic, as compared to when it was first discovered. It is now taught about in most schools and people now know about things like contraception that can help prevent it. Although the moral panic has faded away it has still given long-term implications for discourses about homosexuality and if still a key point of debate for those with homophobia.

The Boat that Rocked

To what extent is the film based on real events?

While the story does have some relationship to real events it neither pretends to be or is hitorically accurate. It does not represent any specific station that was broadcasting to Britain in 1966, but it is most likely representing the very well known station, Radio Caroline. The even film uses a ship that is similar to that used by Radio Caroline from 1983 to 1990.

The film presents a group of DJs in 1966 who are battling against the traditionalist idea held by the British government that only broadcasts 45 minutes worth of pop music a day. It gives the impression that the only type of music being played is that of the classical genre, when infact the BBC at the time was very big on broadcasting Jazz. Instead it compares the restricted and very limited non-recorded music output of the British Broadcasting Corporation's three radio services of 1966, with a very liberal station.

Not only this, but the musical output and style of presentation of the first station (Radio Caroline), was very similar to the BBC Light Programme. This programme is not mentioned in the film as it would take away the emphasise of the need for Radio Rock.

There are similarities between many of the presenters. For example Chris O'Dowd plays a DJ called Simon, the station's fictitious breakfast DJ. "The breakfast jock on Radio Caroline at the time was Tony Blackburn, so there's definitely an element of him in it," says O'Dowd of his character.

Tony Benn, the Postmaster General, responsible for the enactment of the Marine Offences Act that was responsible for the closure of the off-shore stations. Minister Dormandy is a loose parody of this, he is stereotyped as a homourless austere minister, creating binary oppostion to the DJs, getting you on the DJs sides. This character is portrayed as very conservative in the film, when infact in real life Tony Benn was part of Labour. Although the chacacter is never explicitly branded Conservative, the representation of the character in this way, fits well with the 'evil' character, typically needed in a Richard Curtis film.

By the 1960s Briton's were available to a whole host of media, yet the film depicts a collective identity of naive britons huddled around a radio to listen to Radio Rock. This gives a mythological image of 2nd world war populations, when in fact they could actually be watching TV.

We never know what really happens to the DJs in the end of the film, we just know they go off their separate ways. Yet in the real era the BBC hired most of the out of work pirate radio DJs, for example Tony Blackburn, became one of the longest serving Breakfast presenters on Radio 1 (only just over taken by Chris Moyles this year.) and Philip Birch who was Managing Director of Wonderful Radio London became the founding managing director of Piccadilly Radio.

Folk devils and Moral Panics

A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue which appears to be a threat to the social order.

According to the Attributional model, characteristics of a moral panic are generally:

>Concern - There must be awareness that the behaviour of the group or category in question is likely to have a negative impact on society.
>Hostility - Hostility towards the group in question increases, and they become "folk devils". A clear division forms between "them" and "us".
>Consensus - Though concern does not have to be nationwide, there must be widespread acceptance that the group in question poses a very real threat to society. It is important at this stage that the "moral entrepreneurs" are vocal and the "folk devils" appear weak and disorganised.
>Disproportionality - The action taken is disproportionate to the actual threat posed by the accused group.
>Volatility - Moral panics are highly volatile and tend to disappear as quickly as they appeared due to a wane in public interest or news reports changing to another topic.

Another model, the Processual Model, claims there are some other factors too:

>Emergence
>Media inventory- Where the media exaggerates and symbolizes the problem as an even bigger threat than it is. Creating dispropotionality and increasing hostility and 'Folk devil' representation of the situation.
>Moral entrepreneurs- Groups or organisations speaking out about it, to influence a concensus.
>Experts- Socially accredited experts who pronounce their diagnoses and solutions.
>Resolution and coping- Reaction. If laws are insufficiant, demands for legal reform will follow.
>Fading Away- The condition dissapears, sunmerges ot deteriorates.
>Legacy- May have little or long term lasting effect. Could also produce bg changes.

We did a presentation on Moral panics in relation to raving and ecstacy:

Raving and Ecstasy

View more presentations from Helenaiscool.

We then linked the this moral panic with the processional and attributional model...

Processual model:
Emergence: Rose in late 80’s. seen as initially harmless, but then as a threat to young people. The police were initially not bothered.
Media Inventory: Raves began to be stereotyped as dangerous and causing vulnerable deaths such as Leah Betts. The dangers were exaggerated, but the media did not go into prediction and symbolism. Ecstasy was the real focus, which the police seemed initially recipient on, as they found the raves more of a threat.(caused reform?)Drug dealers were the folk devils.
Moral entrepreneurs: These were not evident in the drug rave. There were no campaign groups.
Experts: Few of these. Most who knew a lot about the drug culture were close to the pleasures themselves, and so they relied on drug minimization. The popular press condemned this.
Resolution and coping: Legal responses in 1990,1994,1997- giving police powers, increasing drug education, suppressing new age travellers etc. Debatable as to this effectiveness, as it in fact made the drug industry more lucrative and encouraged more to be aware of drugs.
Fade away: raves moved into clubs, the media interest disappeared, ecstasy declined in its consumption.
Legacy: Laws seemed not much used, and although drugs are still well known and established as a British problem.

Attribution model:
Concern: The police and media express concern about raves but the political parties are slow to act. However, unknown general concern.
Hostility: Participants were seen as folk devils and threats, and also as victims to the mythical “drug dealers”. They were portrayed as wrong and foolish.
Consensus: The politicians, media and police began to try to suppress the movement and ambiguity BUT drug and health educators saw the measures as harsh and exaggerated, and the youth media and clubbers persisted. Therefore, the consensus was fragile.
Disproportioanlity: There were 42 to deaths from ecstasy in the moral panic such as Leah Briggs, which were held up as examples. BUT these were also caused by health problems of the teenagers. Really raves and ecstasy posed a health risk. Ecstasy is not physically addictive and more likely to cause psychological than physical harm, such as panic attacks. Some of the 42 deaths associated with ecstasy up to 1995 had other causes. Most were caused when inadequate intake of fluids produced excessive body temperatures. Compared with other risks to young people or other drugs, including tobacco and alcohol, ecstasy did not warrant such a reaction. (Saunders 1995)
Volatility: Length; speed of emergence and decline. Each episode expanded and contracted rapidly but the issue as a whole persisted for nearly ten years, suggesting a serial panic, with volatile outbreaks within a longer period. Claims makers: principal claims and counter clams makers; motives and strategies; degree of success. The principal claims makers were the police, some parts of the press and politicians. Counter claims came from drug educationalists and youth culture itself. The contest was uneven when it came to passing laws but the obduracy of participants forced considerable concessions.

Stereotypes

Traditionally stereotypes are meant reflect culture, but often they are exaggerated to generate a prefrered reading of a type of person. These are known as Intentional Stereotypes, this often leads to a negotiated reading of the group. This can come from a Constructed Stereotype, where a group is represented to the reader in a way that the person who is telling it has effected and contructed how we think of them.
To be expanded....?

Richard Curtis / Working Title case study for collective identity.

Who are the target audience for the film?
There are a number of target audiences for The boat that rocked, but i think a significant one would be people who actually listened to the pirate radios similar 'Radio Rock' that are depicted in the film. For example after talking to my Dad i discovered that he was interested in seeing the film too. This surprised me as it's not really the type of film he would go and see, but it interested him because he used to listen to pirate radios regulary and remembers the incidence of them being made illegal vividly. For people like him this film offers a sense of nostalgia and past times, that would draw them into watching it.

Along with this it appeals to people interested in watching well known comedians are actors, both British and American, come together. It has a sense of silliness to it and rebellious attitude towards conventional society that many teenagers and children can relate to, including them in the target audience too.


How does the film rely on stereotypes?
The film relies on stereotypical, out going rebbellious 'pirates' of the sixties. These characters are , of course, exaggerated; depicting them as daily alcohol and drug abusers, yet some able to keep a well organised radio station running. These characters are larger than life, outgoing people who hate the rules. They are oppositional to the governament MPs that are represented in the film. These characters appose the pirates in everyway, their dress sense, jobs, families and friends, all contibute to the tradional and oppressing attitudes to freedom that hey hold.

In what ways can they be said to be quintessentially British?
Sir Alistair Dormandy is incredibly stereotypically british. His suits and dress code are shown as very upperclass along with his accent, which is overly well spoken and stern.

How has the advent of Cool Britannia enabled the production of this film? Cool Britannia is a media term that was used during the mid-to-late 20th century to describe the contemporary culture of the United Kingdom.
"Cool Britannia" referred to the transient fashionable London scene, 1990s bands, fashion designers, the Young British Artists and magazines. There was a sudden influx of lively British rock and pop music from bands such as Oasis, Blur, Suede, Supergrass, Pulp and The Verve, as well as the Spice Girls. The movement saw a renewal in British pride.

Although not the same time period, there are similarities, such as the interest of new music, the kind of music that was hardly played on the radio at the time.

Dominant Discourses

-By two important theorists of communication-- Michel Foucault and Stuart Hall.
-A "discourse" is a particular way of talking about a subject by groups of people, it contains particular ideological beliefs.
-Dicourse analysis identifies the cultrally and socially produced sets of ideas and values that stucture texts and representations.

We are looking at dominant dicourses in British indentity, shown in the media. I shall update this post with some examples.

Richard Curtis- British Myth

Richard Curtis, is a BAFTA, Primetime Emmy winning and Oscar nominated English screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known mostly for his romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, The Boat That Rocked and Love Actually, as well as the hit sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley.



A Richard Curtis film is very distinctive and defined, infact, it's as if his name itself could stand for the genre we all know and love (or hate!): The Rom Com.

It has a set of prize winning, generic ingredients including, very importantly location. These locations are often London and another very contrasting homely location. With hightened atmosphere of incompatibility and antitheseis of these two places, comedy and cultral clashes emerge, adding to the story.

Curtis' values in his films are liberal and assured. He is inclusive ,yet non-patronising, towards giving popular screen time to characters with mental or pysical disability. Some of his 'wacky' or different characters can even be seen as 'cultral diversity.

The main main virtues are modesty, or humility, which create a type self-deprecating humour that only Curtis could produce. Much of the humour in the films comes by putting the main characters into mischef and subjecting them to humiliation or simply making them look silly. It's as if coping with this mortification is nearly a duty for the protagonist.

Overall this particular genre of filmmaking is perfect for a set of values including love, compassion, kindness, charity, open-mindedness.

So,

There is a setting
A moral universe.
Faith that this universe will stand up to all challenges.
Making sure the relationship will work out.
And most of all- LOVE WILL CONQUER ALL.
A happy ending!

UGC- User Generated Content

User Generated Content is a term particulary applicable to news gathering, where the end user send in news resorces.

A typical example is Citizen Journalism where a passer by is the fist to wittness a large news event and records the footage on there mobile phone and can instantly upload it onto, social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter.

Different types of user generated content:
Discussion boards
Blogs
Wikis
Social networking sites
News Sites
Trip planners
Memories
Mobile Photos & Videos
Customer review sites
Experience or photo sharing sites
Audio
Video games

Notable websites based on user generated content:
Associated Content
Atom.com
Brickfish
CreateDebate
Dailymotion
Digg
Fark
eBay
Epinions
Facebook
Flickr
Friends Reunited
GiantBomb
Justin.tv
Helium.com
Metacafe
MySpace
Newgrounds
Orkut
OpenStreetMap
Picasa
Photobucket
PhoneZoo
Revver
Second Life
Shutterstock
Skyrock
Scribd
TripAdvisor
TypePad
Urban Dictionary
Veoh
Widgetbox
Wigix
WikiMapia
Wikinvest
Wikipedia
Wix.com
WordPress
Yelp
YouTube

Working Title- The British film institution

Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in London. It's parent companies are Universial Studios and BBC Films.

http://www.workingtitlefilms.com

A key element in the company's working methods has been its attention to marketing, for example striking deals with American and European companies, which has ensured world-wide distribution for its products. The company spends alot of time on developing scripts and extensively working on re-writes. Despite its access to high finance, Working Title is also committed to low-budget films with new writers. Such was the case with Billy Elliott.

There are many popular Working Title films, Atonement, Brigit Jones and Mr Bean name a few. To see a full list click here: http://www.imdb.com/company/co0057311/

British Film Websites

Slumdog Millionaire
http://www.slumdogmillionairemovie.co.uk
The Slumdog Millionaire website has an intro page, full of praising quotes and the iconic slumdog millionaire theme tune blaring out. The music is upbeat and the colours are bright and happy, giving feel good impression of the film. You can click on buttons to take you to the trailer along with clips, cast and crew info and a gallery. Pictures of the beautiful Freida Pinto are often the backgroud of a lot of the sites pages, it gives a good impression because she in undeniably pretty, therefore making the site a nice site to be on and making you want to watch the film.

Harry Potter
http://harrypotter.warnerbros.co.uk/site/index.html
The Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince website has an intense atmosphere created by moving graphics and the iconic Harry Potter music. On the intro page you can watch the trailer and click to entre the site. On entring site you are thrown into a midst of graphic pathetic fallacy, showing a storm and sounds as the site sets up. The menu is incredibly small, so attention is not taken away from the large picture of the three main characters, Harry, Ron and Hermione.

This is England
http://www.thisisenglandmovie.co.uk
The website for This is England, sticks with the British themes, by using a the colours of the British flag- blue, red and white. The background of the home page is a british council estate, depicting the run down area that the film is set in. The menu gives you general options of galleries and downloads but also background information on 'The skinheads of the 80s'.

Teaser Trailers

A teaser trailer, is a short trailer used to advertise an upcoming movie, game or television series.

Teasers, unlike typical theatrical trailers, are usually very short in length (between 30–60 seconds) and usually contain little,actual footage from the film. They are usually released long in advance of the film they advertise. They are shown usually a long time (one or one and a half years) before the movie comes out, so as to "tease" the audience.

Teasers are also commonly used in advertising. teaser ad/campaigns consist typically in small, cryptic, challenging, advertisements which anticipate a product launch.

Teaser trailers are usually only made for big-budget and popularly themed movies.
Their purpose is more to let people know the film is coming up in the near future, rather than tell them about its content, adding to the hype of the release. Teaser trailers are often made while the film is still in production or being edited and as a result they may feature scenes or alternate versions of scenes that are not in the finished film. Other ones (notable Pixar films) have scenes made for use in the trailer only.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince's teaser trailer was released surprisingly late, but when it was pushed back from November 21, 2008 to July 17, 2009, the trailer was surprisingly early.



A teaser for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was attached to the film The Siege, and it was reported that many people had paid for admission to the film just to watch the trailer, and had walked out after the trailer had screened.

Michael Caine

Sir Michael Caine English film actor. Caine has appeared in more than 100 films, and is one of only two actors to have been nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade since the 1960s.

He became known for several performances in films such as Zulu (1964), The Ipcress File (1965), Billion Dollar Brain (1967) and others as Harry Palmer, the woman-chasing title character in Alfie (1966), The Italian Job (1969), Get Carter (1971), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), Educating Rita (1983), Academy Award-winning performances for supporting actor in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and The Cider House Rules (1999), as Nigel Powers in the spoof Austin Powers in Goldmember (2003), and more recently as Alfred Pennyworth, the butler from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

We are using Caine as a case study of british cinema. He was knighted in 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his contribution to cinema and is noted for retaining his strong cockney accent, these things add to his britishness. He is stated to be a british icon.

British Film

We are looking at the collective identity of British Film. In class our teacher defined British Film as having -A British director
-A British producer
-A British production company
-A British subject matter
-A British cast (mostly)

It is said that a british film should have at least 3 of these to really be grounded as a British film. We could list 'This is England' 'London to Brighton' 'Slumdog Millionaire' 'Harry Potter' and many others as British films but...What is defined to be the classics of British Film?

At the 1993 British Academy Awards (BAFTA) Since 1993 the winners have been:

1993 - The Crying Game
1994 - Shadowlands
1995 - Shallow Grave
1996 - The Madness of King George
1997 - Secrets and Lies
1998 - Nil by Mouth
1999 - Elizabeth
2000 - East is East
2001 - Billy Elliot
2002 - Gosford Park
2003 - The Warrior
2004 - Touching the Void
2005 - My Summer of Love
2006 - Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
2007 - The Last King of Scotland
2008 - This Is England
2009 - Man On Wire

Could these be British classics? Afterall they have popularity and award status.

On the list is the film 'This is England'. This film is said to be 'A blistering vision of England' which defines British and in particular teen> life in the 80s. This is the trailer:


This differs from the British film 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging' which also sets out to present teen life, but this time in the 21st century.
This film is not thought of as a classic though and it can be argued that it is innacurrate.

The start of A2 Media Studies: Media and Collective Identity...

Yes, it's time to start A2 Media Studies already! We are learning about Media and Collective indentity, including the identity of British film.

Some people may find the word British easy to define ,whereas others will come up with all sorts of things. Here are some peoples ideas of 'british icons':


It is clear when people are asked about British icons, red post boxes and buses come to mind, but as we move on society is changing, which is also moving one the idea of what it is to be british too.

Evaluation of Max Kill

Critically evaluating video production

Together Lizzy Morey and I filmed the first two minutes of a thriller film. The film involves a young woman and man getting ready to go out. It teases the audience into thinking that the pair of the them are going out on a date, but as the film goes on the audience comes to realise that the plot is in fact very different. The man stalks the woman down the street and at the end we see the glint of the knife he is holding behind her.

Initially we had influences from films such as Legally blonde, this seems unusual, (because our genre was a thriller) but it really helped with ideas for the clips where the character Claudia was getting ready, such as pulling up the dress and putting lip stick on. We also had influences from plenty of actual thrillers. For example we have used a stereotypical following scene, to create tension and suspense in the audience. By using this type of scene it lets the audience know what genre we were conforming to. We also used this technique again when we added a small shower scene, although this scene is only to show Claudia’s process of getting ready, it also denotes a sense of danger. This is because in the thriller Psycho, a shower scene the film's pivotal scene, and one of the most famous scenes in cinema history, because it shows a woman being brutally stabbed and murdered. By adding a small association to this film within ours, it foreshadows what is going to happen to the character Claudia in the film.

We wanted to represent Claudia as a classy ‘uptown’ girl; therefore to show this we had her dressed in a black dress and heels with a smart black coat. She wore red lipstick, which symbolised a lot of things in the film. For example not only did it show that she had sex appeal and was desirable to the opposite sex, but the red colour also denoted danger. The characters represented in the film are middle class and living in Oxford. The character Max is a publicist and wears a standard suit to show he is a smart, hard working person; nothing about his outfit is special as he is ‘living the simple life’.

We tried to construct realism as well as we could by filming everything in real settings, therefore our mise en scene was as believable as possible. We filmed real houses and real streets to give an authentic effect. As well as this, everything was filmed in Oxford, which is where the film is set, thus increasing the realism even more. The clothes and props were made to fit the characters social class and personality; this backed up the plot and all in all gave the film verisimilitude.

We used music to portray two very contrasting types of ambience to our audience. The first piece of music we used was a slow jazz piece to relax them. It showed the two characters getting ready; the parallel editing we used linked the two of them together, tricking the audience into thinking that the two of them are getting ready for a date with each other. It went well with the laid back atmosphere we were trying to create and the realism of it was backed up by the shots of the record player turning. But once the Claudia stepped out the door the music drastically changed to an eyrie piece of music, with build up in suspense and tension as it went on. This fitted perfectly because as the music built up more and more apprehension it showed how Claudia was in more and more danger because Max was actually following her. The contrasting pieces of music helped symbolise that inside the houses it was a safe and relaxing environment but the streets were a place of risk.

The use of music demonstrated our theme of binary oppositions, such as male and female, safety and danger and, in particular, handbag and knife. The shots of Claudia putting her possessions into her handbag and Max putting a knife into his pocket were parallel to each other, thus creating juxtaposition. It is also quite a pivotal part of the opening because it when the audience get an enigma that something is not right.

We chose to use still camera shots most of the time; we think this gave a profession and clean-cut look. We worried that a POV and unsteady shots might be unclear to the audience, so we chose keep the camera relatively still most of the time. We did film a couple of tracking shots, but the dolly we used rocked too much, making the camerawork look messy and unprofessional.

The camera we used was quite basic and did cause a couple of problems during filming, for example it was very dark when we were filming out side, and although this was partly our fault for filming so late, it didn’t pick up things very well in the dark. The filming we did also came out quite grainy in the camera, this may have been a lighting issue too, but it was hard to get around at the time of filming, due to deadlines etc. Therefore, to get past both of these problems we took the saturation down to make it black and white. This made the lighting like equal and took some of the graininess away. It also made our film look more authentic.

We stuck to our storyboard quite well throughout the process but there were times when we had to move away from it because of problems with lighting or continuity. For example we had to cut a shot of just Claudia’s feet walking down the path because there was so little light in that you couldn’t see her feet at all. But it was ok because we shot a full body shot of her walking down the path, in which she showed up fine and over all, looks better in the film, keeping the continuity.

We also had to cut out the shot of Max saying ‘wait’ to Claudia, because when we put it onto the Mac computers the sound for this shot had gone, therefore we had to import an audio clip of some one saying the dialogue. But this didn’t solve the problem as it just seemed out of place in the film and didn’t sound right to our audience when we trialled the film with them. Cutting this out didn’t hinder the continuity in any way, and the audience were still able to understand what was going on.

After trialling an unfinished version of our film to an audience, the response was good. We were complimented for our range of shots and techniques but were told to pay a little more attention to some of our transitions. After receiving this feedback we then went and altered some of the transitions slightly and found that the continuity increased dramatically.

I think we attract our audience well because leave them with the feeling that they want to know what happens next. For a start, the loud bang at the beginning instantly captures the audience’s attention, creating antithesis with the relaxed music that follows. The faces of the characters are never shown properly till the end, and even then it is very dark so there is little detail. This was to create a sense of curiosity about who the characters were and make the audience want to carry on watching to find out. We also decided to complete the opening by leaving it on a cliffhanger; where Claudia is turning round to face Max who is holding a glinting knife. After watching this hopefully it hooks the audience into watching the rest of the film.

Looking back at my preliminary task I feel that I have learnt a lot in the progression from it to the main task. I have learnt about shot types and how they portray things to the audience. I have also learnt how to create tension and suspense; compared to the preliminary where we just went straight into it, with out any establishing shots or creating a suitable atmosphere for the audience to feed off. We have improved in our filming techniques and all in all produced a better quality film than we had before.

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The final film!

The story board