Cinematography - Extension Tasks:

1st extract: Pollyanna (1960)

The camera framing of the text consists of Long shots and Medium shots; the long shots are used to connote the difference between the period in which the text is set, 1913, and the time period in which the text was produced, 1960. In the text the medium shot focuses on the way each character reacts to each of the other characters entrance; for example when the Mayor asks Nancy "Nancy what are you staring at?" the use of the medium shot shows her reaction to the other man and the Mayor's questioning. 

The text uses camera movements such as tilt and tracking; the tracking is used in the opening of the text as the children are playing and the young boy makes his way to the train station. This is foreshadowing the fact that this young boy is an important character in the text as the camera focuses purely on his actions and journey within the first 3 minutes. The tilt camera movement is used when the protagonist of the text, Pollyanna, marvels at her new home, this connotes wealth and authority as the manor house is quite grand compared to what the protagonist as been raised in. 

2nd extract: Mrs Doubtfire (1993)

The text uses many different camera framings for example the long shot of when Mrs Doubtfire is dancing whilst cleaning, the medium shot of when she swears through the window and the medium shot of when the protagonist is cooking; these shots all focus on the change that the protagonist has gone throught while he/she has been his own children's nanny. It also focuses on the alternative representation of men being able to nuture their children although the irony is in this extract the children are unaware of the real identity of Mrs Doubtfire. We as the audience still see 'Mrs Doubtfire' behave as a man as well as doing all the supposedly female jobs this is also emphasised with the non-digetic sound of the Aerosmith song "Dude Looks Like a Lady". 

The camera movements in the text are mainly tracking shot (the cycling, crossing the road, cooking); this would again connote the difference in the wild personality that the protagonist was in the beginning to being less insane. The tracking shot creates humour as Mrs Doubtfire still behaves like a man  in the cooking scene and crossing the road scene as he appears to be a weak old lady but still behaves like the crazy man that he is.  

Comparison: The difference in the time periods are shown as Mrs Doubtfire consists of more complex camera framing whereas Pollyanna uses at least two different types of shots which is due to the different technologies available during these two different eras.  The camera movements of both of the texts are less complicated in Pollyanna but there is mostly use of shot/reverse shot as the point of view in the text changes, Nancy then Pollyanna. Although the camera movements in Mrs Doubtfire extract are also hardly used there is a consistent sound bridge throughout the scenes which connotes the same behaviour of the protagonist in the different scenes; however Pollyanna does not do this as the behaviour of the character is the same throughout the opening of the text. 

Four Film Stills

Gremlins:

The meduim shot of Gizmo focuses on his face and the top lighting connotes the fact that he is misunderstood and is actually as innocent character. The camera angle in this still image is at eye-level with the character which connotes that Gizmo is considered to be equal with the target audience. 

Gone With the Wind:

The long shot of the still image draws attention to the manor house in the setting which connotes wealth and power; and the costume that young girl is wearing connotes innocence and shows her to be importance. However the fact that the camera angle is at a slight tilt there could be a change in authority through the text. 

Billy Madison:

The camera angle in this still image is from above which is from the point of view of the teacher which connotes the authority and control that the teacher has over the children and Billy. The costume of the protagonist is similar to the children around him which connotes immaturity. The medium shot of the classroom show all the children sitting and waiting for their class to start while Billy Madison focuses on the teacher being a "Jackpot", this also emphasises his immaturity. 

Wild Child:

The long shot of the protagonist shows a jutxaposition between the character, a rich and spoilt American girl, and the setting, a solitary boarding school in the middle of fields and forests in England. The costume of the protagonist connotes luxury.

Sound - Extension Task

Development of Sound in Hollywood 1920's:

During the 1920's when Hollywood first grew popular sound was introduced as the film was also recorded along with the sounds at the same time these became known as the 'talkies'. This was perhaps a major progression from the over exaggerated silent films from the early 1900's as it enabled the directors to concentrate more on things like enigma codes and dialogue rather than the acting in the text. On the set of the film there would be an orchestra behind in the background parallel to the scene itself.  It was not until the mid-1920's that a software was introduced to enable the directors to add soundtracks behind.

Collages:

Film Noir Task

Research on Film Noir:

Film Noir was most popular during the 1930’s and 1940’s which was most famous for the low – key lighting and obviously black and white film. Many of these texts were associated with crime, mystery and coded romance; perhaps these types of movies were so popular during this era because of the Depression that had struck the USA with problems with the government, economy and the citizens. These different genres were shown through the use of the low-key lighting that highlights certain features of the frame; for example in the film Fallen Angel (1945) there is use of low- key top lighting when the character Stella enters the room, which highlights her features in the shot. 

This is a clear example of a coded sexual romance that Stella was trying to evoke with the men in the text this character fits the characteristics of a femme fatale which was common in most film noir movies. Other typical characters that are shown in Film Noir movies are the Dumb Blond character (which is also shown in the Fallen Angel as the protagonist, Stanton, marries the oblivious blond June for her wealth), the Innocent Man (which is usually mislead by the femme fatale into doing as she pleases). The Dumb Blond shown in the Fallen Angel, June, is shown with high-key lighting and filler lights to appear as the innocent character and fit the stereotype of a dumb blonde this creates empathy for the character as there is foreshadowing that the character will be going through emotional pain. 

The Lighting can also effect the setting, during the text when there is a crime scene there is use of low-key and back lighting which would create a mysterious, cynical setting; for romantic texts there is also use of low-key lighting and filler light to project exaggerated shadows and to add intensity to the emotions portrayed in the shots. 

Still Image: Fallen Angel (1945)

The low-key lighting and the key light shows the character Stella eyes in this shot as dark which connotes the fact that she is a deceptive woman in the film. The key light is used to highlight her figure as she is shown to be the most attractive woman in her town. The shadows created in the still image are all behind Stella which shows the audience that she is the main focus throughout the film. In the film Linda Darnell plays the role of a typical femme fatale and as we see in this shot the position of Darnell shows that she is self-centred as she expects men to be sympathising with her and only paying attention to her.

Short extract: Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)

This extract is from a neo-noir film based on the media during the 1950's which showed the length at which the American journalists were willing to go to in order for there to be justice in the country. The low-key lighting and top lighting in this extract draws the attention to the actor's, David Strathairn, speech and emotion as he is determined for the justice in the U.S. this creates a moving atmosphere as the innocent man tries to show mercy on the citizens that were being publicly bullied by Joseph McCarthy. The exaggerated shadows created in the extract connote tension not only between the character of Edward R. Murrow but between the people sitting down and listening to his speech. 

Mise-en-scene:

Kiss of the Dragon:

The mise-en-scene of this shot clearly shows that the movie is an action movie as all of the men are fighting with Jet Li, there is a martial arts practising mat connoting the fact that these men are training to fight others and harm others. All of the actors in the shots are holding batons and are beating one another with  a baton which connotes that there is a lot of discipline involved in the training of the men in there martial art uniform. The fact that all the men being beaten up in the martial arts uniform shows their unimportance to the scene and that Jet Li is the most important individual in the shot as he is in a black outfit.

The long shot shows the audience the violence as we see that one man is knocked out on the floor and the other men are clearly about to be knocked out. The lighting of the shot is focussed upon Jet Li mostly as he is the protagonist of the movie and to show him in the form of Propp's theory of a hero.

Three extracts:

The Wedding Planner:

There are typical codes and conventions of a Romantic Chick Flick as there dolls and a doll house in the opening of this movie; connoting the fact that the girl is very romantic character and she seems to take an interest in the theme of marriage. Here we see 'The Wedding Planner' as a little girl controlling the dolls 'marriage' which shows us that the protagonist is going to be a perfectionist.


Billy Madison:



The scene is set in a typical elementary classroom as there are tables, chairs and students; but Adam Sandler does not fit into the stereotypical setting of a classroom as he is too old to be an elementary student and he questions what they learn showing the protagonist's immaturity but when he says 'Jackpot!' as soon as the teacher walks in there is a change in the innocence of the setting to being sexual, through the use the teacher entering the room. This follows the typical codes and conventions of a comedy as the representation of the classroom is altered.

Good Burger:



The opening of this extract is futuristic

Movie Poster Analysis

Juice:

The fact that the title of the movie is written in the colour red and the name is juice connotes that there will be a lot of violence throughout the text. The words 'power' and 'respect' are highlighted above the film name in the colour white as it contrasts with the mysterious background, these words reflect the key themes of the film. Below the title is a rhetorical question asking 'How far will you go to get it?', this connotes the journey of the protagonist wanting to gain 'power' and 'respect'. The primary target audience would be young male adults between the ages of 14-25 as the characters in the film are of that age and the secondary target audience would be fans of Tupac Shakur as he was at the time (and still today) a popular artist. 

The poster's mise-en-scene shows the protagonist, Tupac Shakur, holding a gun to the side of himself also connotes the fact that the movie is about violence, death and power. The lighting in the background of the poster is dimly lit but from the back there is some sort of glowing light coming from behind the men. All the characters on the poster are wearing street clothing which is clearly associated with thug life; Tupac seems to be wearing an expensive watch which connotes wealth, suggesting that he gets wealth but not honestly. 

The main actor in this movie is the artist Tupac Shakur who is shown at the front of the poster and whose image takes up half of the poster showing that he is the protagonist of the film and the most famous. The protagonist is in an awkward position as he seems to be looking directly at the people standing behind (which connotes the fact that they cannot be trusted) and is holding his gun towards the side of his face as if ready to shoot the men behind; this would show audiences that the men behind are False Hero's according to Propp's theory. 

There are uses of the dominant representation of young black males being rough, thugs and dangerous as all the men in the poster seem to show this representation in one way or another. There are two very young teenage boys in the corner shows that Tupac's actions in the movie not only effect him but effects the younger people too. 

The Beverly Hillbillies:

The title of the film is in gold which shows that there is wealth and money involved in the movie and the tagline at the top shows that there is a contrast between the characters and the setting. The poster's mise-en-scene shows the characters all sitting on an old car, with their dog (who has shades on) and the trees behind, the contrast between the old car and modern background connotes the change that takes place with these 'hillbillies' as we can see that they become rich. Below the title of the film it says "From the Director of Wayne's World." which adds credibility to the film; if people enjoyed the movie Wayne's World then they would be the secondary target audience for the text, the primary target audience obviously being those who have watched the series of The Beverly Hillbillies.

Another way of there being some kind of change in the film in the costumes of the characters in the poster, the Hillbillies are all in casual clothing compared to the 'up-scale' people on either side who are dressed as businesspeople. The Hillbillies expressions all seem eager and happy (which is mirrored in the background as it is bright and sunny) whereas the snobby Californians seem to be annoyed by the Hillbillies. The mise-en-scene of the guns, held carelessly by Granny and Jed, connotes the fact that the movie clearly consists of the dominant representation of Hillbillies being stupid and unintelligent. The lighting of the poster is natural and all the characters faces are shown, which connotes that they are good characters. Again in this posters the two Californians appear to be according to Propp's theory the False Hero's as they seem to have an evil smirk which usually suggests that the characters are bad.

From the name of the film it is clear that the film is a comedy as there is a juxtaposition of 'Beverly', being the posh, rich 'up-scale' part of California that is stereotypically associated with people of a higher class and 'Hillbillies' being the poor, stupid and are stereotypically associated with people of a lower class. Just in the title itself there is a clash between the higher and lower class. 

Media Conference Summaries

Chewing Gum for the brain?:

According to a man called Mr Reynolds watching the Simpsons supposedly 'dumbing down' children in English lessons when they should be studying real literature like Shakespeare; this complaint sparked a lot of controversy as he felt that his children's education is at stake. This shows a clear example of the negativity of Media Studies on people who may have never studied the subject or understand it.

"Tories tackle Media Studies menace" - The Independent, or in other words they believe Media Studies is a 'soft subject'; meaning students can easily pass the subject and it does not require much effort on the students side. Appearently Media Studies helps schools grades to be boosted in the league table suggesting that the schools teaching Media Studies are giving other people a false hope of their grades.

According to many broadsheet newspapers Media Studies is an 'End of Civilisation'; e.g " 'Worthless' qualifications give false hope to state pupils says Harrow Head" - The Guardian, basically deprived students will not get far in life because Media Studies is not a serious subject. This is false because most Maths, Law and even Cooking graduates from university do not a get jobs immediately compared to Media Studies students as they have a higher demand is our media-driven society.

Media Studies is a serious subject as it teaches students about history, roles, different aspects of culture.

Online Media: Cleggmore and The Cowell Factor.

Online Media, Reality TV, Talent TV all link to politics as the consumers now have the power to express their views on each of these and the presenters/judges have more influence than politicians do now.

People like Simon Cowell is thought to have as much power as politicians.

We have converged media all around us, older people will notice the change between the popularity of the different platforms over the years. For example Web 2.0 allows us to share and collabrate more than ever!

Does this not make us democratic? In my own opinion we have become more democratic, which allows consumers to think more.



Ms Wigelys cover work

Media Ownership Research Task for 1/11/10 and 2/11/10 and HW:

LO: To investigate the ownership of media institutions and consider the role of public service broadcasting in an increasingly commercial & globalised media environment.

Read this sheet and answer the questions (in italics) on your blog by Thursday 4 November. Look up any words you don’t know in a dictionary or online. Then complete the research task below.

Media texts are profit motivated. Consider this in the light of TV news. What issues does this raise?

‘Conspiracy theory’ in Media Studies suggests that a small group of multimedia tycoons are busy trying to take over or amalgamate with every other media company available, so that in the end this group will end up with more power to control what we know about the world, with all that this implies politically & socially.

The media texts are profit motivated as they would try to converge as much of the media texts as possible ( e.g. through the internet, television channels, newspapers and magazines.) so that they are the dominant producers in the market therefore becoming more powerful and influential over what we, as the audience, would consume. For example Rupert Murdoch, the owner of News Corporation  who then own 132 newspapers, 20th Century Fox, Fox News and British Sky Broadcasting etc. these different media texts show how much influence Rupert Murdoch alone has in the media market. 

In my opinion this 'conspiracy theory' of multimedia tycoons using convergence of media texts to gain more power could perhaps be true, as each of these small groups control the large media texts that we see in our everyday lives; we could potentially be continuously watching, reading or hearing what these media tycoons choose for us to know therefore getting a lot of power and influence without consumers possibly realising.  

The possible issues that this could raise is that people will become narrow minded to different opinions from other media producers or views based on the consumers; people won’t bother to become active consumers of the media but will be imposed to become passive consumers of media as they are simply being ‘spoon fed’ the information without considering another aspect. This could also make people think negatively about what the media texts present; for example the countless stories of children being enslaved into prostitution from around the world particularly in India and Thailand, which would persuade people not to visit these countries but it is intriguing that companies like BSkyB (owned by Rupert Murdoch) would then advertise their sponsors, the Emirates airline, and travel companies after showing these disturbing events happening abroad. 

Which media companies do you think could be accused of having too much power and control in our society?

There are no hard and fast rules that can be applied to the media anywhere in the world, although it is the case that in many countries the government owns or controls the mass media. In situations like this the media are often used purely for propaganda and informational purposes. (Think about the furore surrounding the Beijing Olympics and freedom of information. Research this if you did not hear about it). When public uprisings or military coups occur in such countries one of the first targets for protesters is radio and television stations – which demonstrates how important control of the media can be. One of the issues that must be addressed in Media Studies is that much of the media is largely in the hands of a small number of multinational companies.

Media can be accused of having too much power and control in our society as they can change the views of how people would approach an event or change in society e.g. 

Task: First answer the 2 questions above in as much detail as possible on your blog. Then research the following 5 media institutions and post all your findings to your blog. Use pictures to illustrate your findings. Then create a 10 minute powerpoint presentation summarising your findings for all 5 institutions (2 minutes on each institution). Be ready to present to the class. All work is due on your blog by 4/11/10.

• Time Warner

• News Corporation

• Viacom

• Sony

• Vivendi

Find out:

• Which brands/products are owned by these 5 media institutions?

TIME-WARNER TBS - AOL (donated 1.6 million to GW's 2000 campaign)

America Online (AOL) acquired Time Warner–the largest merger in corporate history.

Television Holdings:

* CNN, HBO, Cinemax, TBS Superstation, Turner Network Television, Turner Classic Movies, Warner Brothers Television, Cartoon Network, Sega Channel, TNT, Comedy Central (50%), E! (49%), Court TV (50%).

* Largest owner of cable systems in the US with an estimated 13 million subscribers.

Media Holdings:

* HBO Independent Productions, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock, Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera.

* Music: Atlantic, Elektra, Rhino, Sire, Warner Bros. Records, EMI, WEA, Sub Pop (distribution) = the world’s largest music company.

* 33 magazines including Time, Sports Illustrated, People, In Style, Fortune, Book of the Month Club, Entertainment Weekly, Life, DC Comics (50%), and MAD Magazine.

Other Holdings:

* Sports: The Atlanta Braves, The Atlanta Hawks, World Championship Wrestling.

NEWS CORPORATION LTD. / FOX NETWORKS (Rupert Murdoch) (donations see bottom note)

Television Holdings:

* Fox Television: includes 22 stations, 50% of US households.

* Fox International: extensive worldwide cable and satellite networks include British Sky Broadcasting (40%); VOX, Germany (49.9%); Canal Fox, Latin America; FOXTEL, Australia (50%); STAR TV, Asia; IskyB, India; Bahasa Programming Ltd., Indonesia (50%); and News Broadcasting, Japan (80%).

* The Golf Channel (33%).

MEDIA HOLDINGS:

* Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Searchlight.

* 132 newspapers (113 in Australia alone) including the New York Post, the London Times and The Australian.

* 25 magazines including TV Guide and The Weekly Standard.

* HarperCollins books.

OTHER HOLDINGS:

* Sports: LA Dodgers, LA Kings, LA Lakers, National Rugby League.

* Ansett Australia airlines, Ansett New Zealand airlines.

* Rupert Murdoch: Board of Directors, Philip Morris (USA).

*(Phillip Morris donated 2.9 million to George W Bush in 2000)*

VIACOM INTERNATIONAL INC.

Television Holdings:

* Paramount Television, Spelling Television, MTV, VH-1, Showtime, The Movie Channel, UPN (joint owner), Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Sundance Channel (joint owner), Flix.

* 20 major market US stations.

Media Holdings:

* Paramount Pictures, Paramount Home Video, Blockbuster Video, Famous Players Theatres, Paramount Parks.

* Simon & Schuster Publishing.

• Which media platforms (print, broadcasting, e-media) do the brands/products operate on?

• Which products is the media institution currently developing/promoting?

• Which alliances/mergers is the institution currently involved in? Why?

• What profits did the institution make in 2009? What this more or less than usual? Why?

• Who owns Fox News, Sky News and CNN News?

• As a result of your research, do you think it is important to have a public service broadcaster like the BBC to provide news? Why/Why not?

• Write a paragraph answering the following question: ‘Do you think media ownership should be regulated? Why/why not?’