Preliminary Project

Genre and target audience of our film clip

The genre of the opening sequence to our programme is based on comedy, which is juxtaposed with the actual serious topical issue shown in the clip. To add humour keeps the viewer's interest of the movie clip, as well as with the addition of tension to keep the viewer engaged. The target audience is teenagers, because the type of humour involved is fairly immature for adult humour, but humour more understood by people older than children. Also, the issue involved in the clip mostly affects the adolescent age group, and would be good to do from our point of view, considering we fit that group. The characters in the clip are also supposedly teenage age group, which the audience can relate to.

Narrative

 Storyboard

Characters

Here is a link to all of the character roles and analysis of each character in our preliminary video.

http://bentleynatassiamedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/preliminary-characters.html

 Shooting and Editing Schedule

Roles of Group

Rosy Armitage - Editor

Alex Haley - Director

Libery Shaw - Filming

Tash Bentley - Project Manager

These are our assigned main roles for the preliminary assignment, although we are all involved in the ideas and putting together of the clip, therefore we may take turns in certain roles. We all worked each at different things and together for the preparatory work.

Sound

In our clip we chose sound files named 'Danse Morialta' to set the scene, 'Rising' for suspense and 'Silly Fun' for comedy. We got them all off a website that issues free downloads of non-copyrighted created music.

Risk Assessment
In The Cafe:

Wet Floors - Make sure you don't step on wet flooring and if you see a wet floor, clean it up! 
Hot Drinks - Be aware of hot drinks around you and if there are any, make sure you don't knock it over. 
Tripping Hazards - Bags/chairs and tripods are tripping hazards. If anything is sticking out that could be a hazard, move it. If it can't be moved make sure everyone involved is aware of it. 


Outside:
Wet Weather - Because of all the wet weather, outside will be very slippy so be careful not to trip or slip.

First draft of our video

Here is the first draft of our video:

Feedback

Here is a link to our feedback we got from our first draft:

http://bentleynatassiamedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/preliminary-feedback.html

Final Video

Here is our final video re-edited according to our feedback

Comments and feedback about programme analysis:

"Good analysis of narrative structure, well set out, confident detail of characters. Use more terminology to improve it."

"Could use more terminology to add to points. Good links to theories. Mixed up words of antagonists and protagonists. Good mix of images and text."

"Good images and detailed analysis, however could've mentioned camera shots and sound."

"Develop points of Field Act Structure."

"Nice range of images but need to develop the information. Good clear writing, well presented. Good detailed character descriptions."

From these comments I can take that the character roles and descriptions were fairly well analysed in our work, and we had a good presentation broken up by a good range of images. We had a good analysis of narrative structure, however needs developing more, possibly with more detailed description and a lot more use of terminology, without getting the terminology mixed up. We could've made the bulk of the information less brief.

I will take this on board to help aid my future work and help me to improve it, as well as my general skills :)

The Walking Dead

Analysis of The Walking Dead episode 'Days Gone Bye'

Here is a link to the analysis of the programme:
http://eliotwadden.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-walking-dead-days-gone-bye.html

Link to the 'Days Gone Bye' episode:
http://gorillavid.in/gj45kss8ip0j

Hillsborough Disaster

The recent news of the police lying about the true events of the Hillsborough disaster, which was covered up with lies in the media in 1989, shows us that a lot of things in the media can be believable, but won't necessarily be true, or biased in favour of someone else, which can also lead to injustice and affect a lot of people due to the mass audience that the media target.

Primeval Clip Analysis (Gender)

Camera Shots/Mis-en-scene

Toward the beginning of the clip there are a lot of extreme long shots and panning of the camera. This sets the scene to make the audience familiarise themselves of where it is happening. There are some medium shots of characters so the viewer can see some of their personality physically, such as the clothes they are wearing. For example, Nick wears a blue shirt, a traditionally male colour. He is shown as a stereotypical male in this clip in some ways, such as being brave by shouting at the tiger, attempting to fight it off and being in a pit which is unclean. Making him unclean is shown by the mud on his face and clothes, a connotation of men having a lack of cleanliness.
 However a lot of close up camera shots show the expression on his face as fear and panic, suggesting incapability to cope with danger, and he is later saved by Abbie, which is an unusual seeming scenario of a man being saved by a woman, which subverts the stereotypes. 
 Generally in this clip, Abbie subverts her stereotype by wearing masculine type clothes such as leather jacket, and fighting off the danger in a digger, both male attributes. This creates a contrast with the other characters to challenge the thoughts from the audience. 
 Connor also subverts his stereotype by wearing typically feminine things such as scarves and the colour pink, as well as not being involved in a lot of the action.
 Jenny and Steven however stick to their stereotypes. Jenny has a lot of self pride with her appearance, seeming to care more about her coat than herself after just being threatened.

Comments;
Explanation: 5/5
Use of examples: 3/5
Use of terminology: 4/5
There are a few examples, but more are needed, although the examples used are well explained. 

Editing

The editing in this clip shows contrasts in masculinity and femininity. Towards the beginning there are several shots of Abbie in the digger, which already subverts the stereotype as a woman. At the time the tiger attacks, the shots of Abbie attacking the tiger are of a strong, regular, flowing rythm, to imply her strength, ability and calmness of the situation to show her control. These are juxtapostions with shorter, flickering shorts of Nick, that could mirror his heartrate or thoughts going through his head, suggesting panic or fear, not usually associated with masculinity, to subvert the stereotype and put with the clips of the woman is forced to make a contrast to make her look superior.

 Later in the barn, there is a contrast to the scene with the tiger in the sense that the characters fit the role of their stereotypes. Jenny is lying helpless on the floor, dependent on someone to save her and fearful, whilst the man is holding the gun at her, in control of the situation, and implying power and violence. The editing is of the camera shots - the quick changing between a shot of the woman and a shot of the man, the pace implying the panic of the woman, but also creating an obvious forced contrast within the characters.

Comments;

Talk more of the editing techniques rather than the actual footage as well

Sound

Towards the beginning of the clip when Abbie is driving the digger, there is a powerful drum beat that is loud, representing power and control, masculine attributes that Abbie possesses by the implications in this clip, subverting her stereotype. In the shots that Abbie isn't featured in, there are high pitched strings, implying suspense and creating tension, and contrasting with the music associated with Abbie to show she isn't so fearful as the other characters, again showing masculinity within her.

 There is a small amount of soft music behind Jenny's speech in the barn, showing her stereotypical femininity, which contrasts with the music associated with the man in the barn, which is masculine and powerful drum beats, which is played when he points the gun at Jenny, which could also connotate the noise of a gun. These sounds near each other in the scenes create a bigger difference in the obvious masculinity and femininity in the clip that the viewers are enabled to see.

Comments;

EEA: 5

EX: 4

Term: 5

Perhaps could inco-operate more specific examples

Class/Social Standing

Stereotypical Working Class

 - Work a lot to get as much money as possible to support their living, poorer than average
 - Council houses
 - Manuel labour
 - Jeremy Kyle
 - Problems in families
 - Poor education
 - Rough
 - Community spirit
 - Don't travel much
 - Large families
 - Accents

Stereotypical Middle Class

 - Average of people in the UK
 - Office jobs
 - Family orientated
 - Nicer possessions
 - Own house with a garden and a car
 - Typical 2 adults 2 children family
 - More comfortable life
 - Not luxury but not basic

Stereotypical Upper Class

 - Wealthy
 - Well-spoken
 - Big houses, own a lot
 - Stuck-up, arrogant, spoilt
 - Materialistic
 - Well-dressed

Gender: Masculinity and Femininity

Stereotypical male attributes:
 - Builders
 - Businessmen
 - Policemen
 - Physically strong
 - Violent
 - The colour blue
 - Sport
 - Hetrosexual
 - Emotionless
 - Manuel Labour Jobs
 - Sexually Driven
 - Lack of Cleanliness

Stereotypical female attributes:
 - Housewife (cooking, cleaning, washing etc)
 - Maternal: looking after children
 - Shopping
 - Emotional/mood swings
 - The colour pink
 - Talkative
 - Argumentative
 - Bitchy
 - Self-pride/vanity
 - Rely on men
 - Multi-tasking

Questions on TV drama clip

Why represent the police in this way?
The police are represented as stereotypical villains in this clip, which contrasts with the way the police are usually represented as good protectors of society, subverting the role of the police. This is shown in their aggressive manner towards Ibrahim, the folding of their arms, the smirks among their calm facial expressions, the dark colours they wear, and the way they stride through the hotel with the camera always focusing on them. It makes the seem intimidating, to show why the immigrants are fearful, and as the police as villains, it makes the viewer side with the immigrants, as if it's a one-sided biased story from the immigrants side as victims.

Why represent the immigrant workers in this way?
The aim from the producers is to make the viewer sympathise with the immigrants, which contrasts with how society usually sees immigrants as unclean, illegal unskilled people who steal jobs. They manage to do this through empathy, they make the viewer feel the emotion in the programme of the panic, fear, injustice and loss of the workers, through their gestures and facial expressions, the rushing around of the panic, then the slow movements and sad expressions for the feeling of loss. This way they are represented as the victims, and represented this way to create interesting twists to the programme in the sense of contrast to society.

What stereotypes are being adhered to or subverted in this clip?
Firstly the police are obviously subverted, from their usual role of the good people protecting the world from villains, to the villains themselves, taking away people made out to be helpless and innocent by the programme. They seem care-free and unaffected, like they are not bothered when destroying people's lives because they are just doing their jobs, which was quoted by the main immigration officer.
The immigrants are also subverted from their stereotype of bad people who come to the country to illegally work to steal people's jobs and money, to good people escaping people that want to take them away and destroy their lives. They are treated roughly by the police without seemingly doing anything wrong in the clip, and their is an element of racism, the immigrants all being black as a stereotype, and the police officers white. Adam the immigrant plays an important part with his role as an immigrant subverted when he has unexpectedly got medical experience and is hopeful through his religious prayers.

Can you hypothesise the purpose behind the mediation of this text?
The purpose of this text initially is for the entertainment of the viewers, created from the emotion and twists in the clip. It is also very informative, it can tell people more about immigrants and the police force or even the works of hotels through entertaining fiction. This clip also challenges preconceptions, it takes usual stereotypes and society views and changes them, to make the programme interesting, or also to influence the views of the viewer, whether it's a hidden message, or to get them to think differently, or to show that stereotypes are not all true.

Media Studies First Lesson

First Media Studies lesson: Trying to find the definition of clever, but being clever is perceived in many ways. Discovering the best ways to learn, to be independent and to plan things out for yourself as a useful skill, which could be one way of making you personally clever. We discussed this through a true story of two students who got the same grades at GCSE, yet had different skills useful for their later life. The beginning of learning media  studies terminology that becomes useful for the rest of the work ahead.