Representation

The character 'Trigger' is an example of working class. He has a working class job of a street cleaner for the council. He is shown in this clip as an unintelligent person, which may be stereotypical of the class he is in. In this scene, set in a small cafe the colour scheme is fairly dull and simple. Trigger's clothing is a mix of fairly neutral and boring colours, this could reflect most people's view of his boring job. The cafe itself is shown to be particularly downmarket by the appearance of the waiter, who is shown to be very scruffy. Trigger's unintelligence is highlighted by his occupation and the events of this clip. 

How British films are produced in order to target specific audiences

British Audiences Essay

AS Media preliminary video

The Soloist Advertising

• The Soloist was to be one of the first commercials for the Academy awards. 
• A 30 second commercial on the awards cost $1.4million 
• Many wide-audienced films would target the Superbowl (young male) but the Academy Awards would be more aimed at an older possibly female audience. The Soloist would be more fitting to the older audience. 
• Ad time on the oscars was discounted due to state of TV advertising economy at the time, this meant ABC had difficulties selling the oscars. 
• Studios can only advertise a movie that is released after the awards, no sequel advertising
• Studios are only allowed to advertise one film on one spot in the broadcast.

Film Budgeting Presentation

Media movie plot presentation 1

View more presentations from harrysimmons.

The Soloist production notes

• Many producers expressed interest in Steve Lopez's story but gained the trust of Russ Krasnoff and Gary Foster and their production company.
• When Joe Wright was offered the chance to direct the film he said that after reading the story and going to Skidrow, his decision was made easy. 
• Soon after striking a deal, Dreamworks studios were brought on board as was Sussanh Grant, on oscar nominated screenwriter.
• She created the story around the news articles and created an ex wife for Lopez to add to the storyline.
• Jamie Foxx found the story of Nathaniel Ayers very moving, he was very pleased to meet him after being cast in his role. And quickly got down to the task of knowing the character and learning his voice, mannerisms etc. He also began learning how to play the cello
• Foxx was interested in the story and knew he wanted the role, Robert Downey Jr was 'taken away' after his meeting with director Joe Wright. 
• The extras used were members of LAMP 450 were signed up and there was 20 main extras out of these that are shown most in the film. 
  

The making of The Soloist.

• The producers were Gary Foster and Russ Krasnoff
• Steve Lopez questioned whether they could make a film on his story as it didn't have an ending
• The producers met Nathaniel shortly after meeting Steve Lopez at a lunch meeting, Lopez then took them to LAMP to meet him.
• The real life locations used in the film were the Disney concert hall, LAMP, a street down from skidrow and the actual car tunnel where Nathaniel played.
• Sussanah Grant wanted the film to show an honest representation of how bad the homless situation is.
• The director Joe Wright was apprehensive before making the film as he didn't know much about the USA but felt it would be better to make it from his 'outside' perspective.
• Robert Downey Jr felt that Jamie Foxx's role of Nathaniel had a high degree of difficulty, he had lots of elements to consider: playing the cello, trying to show the mental issue and to try and match the real life Nathaniel Ayers as best he could.
• Joe Wright felt the authentic locations and particularly people could benefit the making of the film as they would give a very real representation of theb homless living in the area, they could also feedback there own thoughts to add to the authentic feel.
• The set designers had 4 weeks on location, a lot of preperation was done in the workshop to save them time for building sets on location.
• The actos in the film became very close while filming and spent a lot of time together, they also spent a lot of time with the people they were trying to portray, particularly Jamie Foxx with Nathaniel Ayers. They got to know all the mannerisms etc. that they needed to make there representations as authentic as possible.
• The producers felt that with the ending they wanted to show that someting like skitzophrenia cannot just be cured, they didn't want it to be a fairytale. Sussanah Grant felt if this had happened some people may have even found it offensive.

Representation of race - Danny 'Spooks'

Danny Spooks

Let The Right One In Essay

Let the Right One In

The Soloist

The Soloist is a working title film by British Director Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride & Prejudice) It stars Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Foxx. The film was released in April 2009 (US) and September (UK).

• The screenplay is based on the book 'The Soloist' By Steve Lopez, the film is about the true story of Nathaniel Ayers (Foxx) a cello player who is discovered by Lopez (Downey Jr) a LA times newswriter.
• The film budget was $60 million, but covered just over half and gross revenue was $31 million.
• Some say that the poor revenue was due to the film being initially delyayed and coming a week before the summer 2009 film season.
• Director Joe Wright's biggest budget before this was in Atonement ($30million approx.) which in contrast made over 4 times the budget.
• Many critics felt the film was a 'mismatch' for Wright and that it was a relatively weak film compared to his succeses in Atonement and Pride & Prejudice.
• The film recieved only 55% on Rotten Tomatoes and 61/100 from metacritic.
• It was shot in Los Angeles mainly, with some shots in Cleveland.

Reviews

''The Soloist has the required combination of honesty and emotional pull to potentially inspire audience members to do more for the homeless in their community. I often roll my eyes at “message movies” for trying to shove self-righteousness down my throat, but I responded to this one and certainly recommend it.''

Cinema verdict 8/10

''With its heightened imagery and sound design, the movie tries its darnedest to intuit the troubled, disturbed existence of street-dwellers. This offsets the ­potential cheesiness – but without ­making for a very satisfying, involving film.''

Gaurdian 2/5

''Thankfully, there's no contrived Hollywood ending but you can't help thinking this is more a three-minute wonder than a dramatic symphony.''

Tim Evans - Sky Movies

Disability representation - Joe Family Guy

Joe Swanson 

Example of typical mockery of Joe Swanson 




The character Joe in Family Guy is paralysed from the waist down, his job is as a Police officer.
In episodes of Family Guy there are different stories as to how Joe became disabled, including falling off a roof whilst trying to catch the Grinch. 
He is mocked and shown in situations that he can not cope in as a disabled person, it is normally intended to be mocked in a comic manner, there are many gags pulled by other characters in vein of Joe, in fact there is rarely a scene with Joe where his disability is not mentioned or taken the mick out of. 
Joe Swanson is shown in quite a negative manner and sometimes you feel that the jokes may have been taken too far and the show can only really get away with it because it is a cartoon and not taken very seriously, I can't give an opinion from a disabled perspective but I do imagine that sometimes a person in a wheelchair may be offended by some of the more distasteful jokes used in the show. 

Objectification - Benny Benassi

How are Women Objectified? 
- Shown in Bikinis, oiled, not much clothes
- Shown doing simple tasks, maybe showing they are being told to do so
- Camera focuses on curves 
Why are they objectified? 
- Increase views of video/record sales
- Appeals to male audience, images of women and power tools 
- Quite humourus, details of power tools - won't really be read
- May appeal to women who desire to look like women in video
Is it fair?
- Lots of music videos include similar images (particularly male artists) 
- Fits male gaze 

Categorising Facial Expressions

Women - Marjorie Ferguson (1980) 

• Chocolate Box : half or full-smile, lips together or slightly parted, teeth barely visible, full or three-quarter face to camera. Projected mood: blandly pleasing, warm bath warmth, where uniformity of features in their smooth perfection is devoid of uniqueness or of individuality.
• Invitational : emphasis on the eyes, mouth shut or with only a hint of a smile, head to one side or looking back to camera. Projected mood: suggestive of mischief or mystery, the hint of contact potential rather than sexual promise, the cover equivalent of advertising’s soft sell.
• Supersmiler : full face, wide open toothy smile, head thrust forward or chin thrown back, hair often wind-blown. Projected mood: aggressive, ‘look-at-me’ demanding, the hard sell, ‘big come-on’ approach.
• Romantic/sexual : a fourth and more general classification devised to include male and female ‘two-somes’; or the dreamy, heavy-lidded, unsmiling big-heads, or the overtly sensual or sexual. Projected moods: possible ‘available’ and definitely ‘available’.

Men - Trevor Millum (1975)

• Carefree : nymphlike, active, healthy, gay, vibrant, outdoor girl; long unrestrained outward-flowing hair, more outward-going than the above, often smiling or grinning.
• Practical : concentrating, engaged on the business in hand, mouth closed, eyes object-directed, sometimes a slight frown; hair often short or tied back.
• Seductive : the eyes are less wide, perhaps shaded, the expression is less reserved but still self-sufficient and confident; milder versions may include a slight smile.
• Comic : deliberately ridiculous, exaggerated, acting the fool, pulling faces for the benefit of a real or imaginary audience, sometimes close to a sort of archness
• Catalogue : a neutral look as of a dummy, artificial, waxlike; features may be in any position, but most likely to be with eyes open wide and a smile, but the look remains vacant and empty; personality has been removed.

Paul Blogs

These blogs are made to document production, the main actors (Simon Pegg, Nick Frost) are featured. The blogs are used to show the audience what the film is about and to give them a 'behind the scenes' view into the movie but will be conscious of ruining the plot or giving away spoilers, it's treated as a teaser. They contain the same humour as would be used in the movie, this would give an incentive to the audience to watch the film. These blogs, along with being on the internet will be used as DVD extras to help sell more copies. 

Freddie Ljungberg Calvin Klein

- pouting

- defined cheek bones

- staring into camera, quite intensely 

Face seems quite feminine 

- muscular body, maybe tensing, bar could show he's been working out although probably just a prop

- oiled/ sweaty like advert with Eva Mendes

- stance seems very posed, left hand pulling boxers down adds to a sexual element again like the Mendes advert. 

This would be aimed at men, women would find it seductive and men will want to look like Freddie. 

Calvin Klein Eva Mendes

- eyes are closed

- gritted teeth 

- parted lips

Face could indicate pleasure maybe 'orgasm face', her look could be this or maybe even pain, looking away?

- hair is wet, messy maybe sweaty? 

- oiled/sweaty skin 

Links to sex again

- legs open, on tiptoes in high heels, makes her legs look longer 

- stance makes her look 'ready' - again links to sex

This advert is aimed at women, men who will find the images appealing and find them seductive and this could cause women to feel that they want to look like the woman in the advert. 

Shameless Series 1 - Representation of Sexuality and Regional Identity

In the opening sequence of episode 1 we see different sexualities represented and the obvious regional identity is 'northerners' specifically from Manchester. We first hear an introduction from the character Frank in his typical northern accent, he is slightly slurring his words and sounds quite rough, which can be stereotypically 'Northern'. The rough stereotype of northerners is continued when we see the scene outside the nightclub where Steve punches the bouncer and the two girls verbally abuse him as they run off. Another stereotype is that generally the North of England is poorer than the south and it could be said that the quality and size of the Gallagher's home matches this, Frank himself says it is not the nicest area. 

As for sexuality, we see the brothers Ian and Lip contrast; Lip is 'straight' and almost shoes off his sexual experiences with girls, Lip discovers that his brother may be Gay when he finds his folder and maybe stereotypical of some homosexuals is upset that his family have found out. 

Max Fischer, Rushmore - Is he a typical teenager?

From the montage sequence we see that Max is attached to a lot of extra curricular clubs, many of which he is founder or president of, it seems that most of his social life is involved in his groups, maybe he has little if any friends his age and appears to be hanging around with younger boys a lot of the time. He is always wearing his school uniform even in some of the clubs that require other kits, this could mean he is poor. Other evidence for this would be how much he enjoys the speech about targeting ‘rich kids’. Other elements that could indicate he is not a stereotypical teenager include the way he acts older than he is, it could be said that he leads the groups in a certain mature way, also some aspects about his appearance - particularly his formal haircut. When he is at the lacrosse game he is not watching the game but organising the equipment, this along with his stamp collecting and organising could suggest he has OCD. From the montage sequence you can generally conclude that Max Fischer does not appear to be a stereotypical teenager. 

Hot Fuzz and This is England comparison essay.

Hot Fuzz This is England Essay

Magazine Evaluation

Magazine Front cover Draft/Final piece



When drafting the front cover, with the colour scheme I thought I would match the colour of the subject's top to that of the masthead and use black as another colour that goes well with the red and white used on the front cover. For the masthead i wanted to use a fairly simple font so it is bold and stands out well, I also used a relatively simple font for my cover lines. 

As for the layout i decided to put the image slightly to the left to allow more room for cover lines to be clearly read without the image interfering, although I could have maybe put more cover lines on the left side of my final piece. I put the phrase 'Official magazine of Lutterworth College' at the bottom in a white font to match the white letters on the shirt. I could have also, on the final piece, put another image like on my draft to show other features in the magazine. 

Contents page draft/final piece 

For the contents page I wanted to continue with the colour scheme of red and black, also from the front page I used the phrase at the bottom and maybe if i was making a whole magazine could be used on other pages. On my final draft there is a lot of empty space, i should have put information about each title to fill the page like I did on the draft or i could have made the images larger. I kept the same font from the front page as well. 

American Beauty - What do we learn about the family?

The family are creatures of habit

• Carolyn puts the same music on every day, this is clear because the Daughter asks why they play the same music every day at dinner. 
• In the first seen, we get the idea that Lester has this same routine in the morning; put slippers on, have shower.

They used to be a close family

• Lester says that his wife 'wasn't always like this' and that he wishes he was close to his daughter again.
• Family pictures are shown of them looking happy and they are shown in the stereotypically correct way with Lester above Carolyn 

They have a dull home and family-life 

• There dining room has very plain and dull colours in it, blue cloths stand out and blue bowl in kitchen. 
• Lester has poor posture, slumped, could again reflect boredom and dullness. 

Hot Fuzz, This is England comparison

This is England, Hot Fuzz Comparison

Warp Films

Warp films is a sister company of Warp Records (known for artists such as Maximo Park & Aphex Twin). 
They were set up in 1999, it is based in Sheffield with offices in London, they have 14 full time staff. 
Warp Film releases:

• My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 117 (Dir: Chris Morris - 2003)
• Dead Man's Shoes (Dir: Shane Meadows - 2004)
• Rubber Johnny (Dir: Chris Cunningham - 2005)
• Scummy Man (Arctic Monkeys short film/music video)
• This Is England (Dir: Shane Meadows - 2006)
• Grow Your Own (Dir: Richard Laxton - 2007)
• Dog Altogether (Dir: Paddy Considine - 2007)
• At the Apollo (Arctic Monkeys Dir: Richard Ayoade - 2008)
• Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee (Dir: Shane Meadows- 2009)
• Four Lions (Dir: Chris Morris- 2009)

Shane Meadows

Shane Meadows is a British film director and screenwriter. He was born in 1972 in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. His Father was a lorry driver, his mum a worker in a fish and chip shop. At school he was bullied due to his Father being a suspect for murdering a young girl, when he discovered her body. When he was young he worked on a fruit and veg stall and enjoyed many trips to the local cinema. He left school with no GSCE's, he moved to Nottingham at the age of 20 and made around 30 short films with his friends there, these films became popular within the town he was living in. 


Most of his films are set in the Midlands area, and are based around his own childhood. He usually encourages actors to ad lib to add realism. 
His feature length films:-
Small time (1996)
Twenty Four Seven (1997)
A Room For Romeo Bass (1999)
Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002)
Dead Man's Shoes (2004)
This is England (2006)
Somers Town (2008)
Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee (2009)


Twenty Four Seven and This is England won several awards, including 'best independent british film' (This is England). Dead Man's Shoes was nominated for BAFTA's best British film. 

Preliminary Magazine Cover

Cover

Contents

Skins Series 1

Tony 

Impressions from opening sequence - 

• Eccentric, his bed sheets
• Neat, his clothes are folded up perfectly, no creases in bed sheet could have OCD
• Crafty, winds up his Dad, leaves through the window
• Confident, sexually ambitious with woman across street
• Knows how to work his dad, with his routine to let his sister in
• Cares about his appearance, with his work out and nice, neat clothes
• Arrogant, ignores his Dad, maybe over-ambitious
• Quirky, unusual - plain room, reading 'Nausea' book 

American Beauty

Opening Scene 

In the beginning of the film, it shows the character Lester Burnham, played by Kevin Spacey he is shown as a man dominated by his wife and not looked up by his daughter. His life seems boring and he is fed up of it.

From the opening few minutes you can identify a few themes:-

He is trapped - There are many images where Lester is behind bars or trapped behind something but he is also trapped by his wife, in the opening scene he is is bed on his own and puts on some slippers which his wife seems to make him put on. He is then shown in the shower behind the glass door and then shown looking at his wife talking to the neighbours from behind the window. Shortly after he is shown in the back seat of a car, again behind glass. The most clear indication that this film tries to set a theme of imprisonment is when his reflection is shown in the screen behind bars on the screen. 

His wife is dominant over him - his wife seems to like things a certain way, like the way her things match with colour, again the way Lester is made to put the slippers on indicates his Wife's dominance. The stereotype of families is that the father is first up and first to work and has the only or most important job, however it seems his wife does this instead of him. When he leaves the house he is being rushed by his wife, she and his daughter look on at him with a look of disapproval, and more disappointment from his daughter. 

Colour themes - The colours in the opening sequence are very dull and boring, this could represent how Lester Burnham sees his life, in his bedroom, lots of beige and off-white is used. Even his suit is grey, as is the family car. The colours that shine out are red, white and blue (the colours of the American flag) you see red in the roses, white in the fences and blue in the shutter of the house. 

Music - The music used at the start is quite upbeat but repetitive and arguably boring, which again could link to Lester Burnham's boring and repetitive life. The music is a motif, like the roses and is used throughout the film. 

Hot Fuzz

Cast
Nick Frost and Simon Pegg play police officers Danny Butterworth and Nicholas Angel, these two actors have previously worked with each other in previous productions; including 'Spaced' and 'Shaun of the Dead'. Nicholas Angel is an over committed Metropolitan police officer who is seen as 'too good' for the city and is transferred to the countryside to work with the laid-back PC Danny Butterworth, who is obsessed by the idea of being an action-cop. Jim Broadbent plays Danny's father Inspector Frank Butterworth and Timothy Dalton plays a sinister supermarket manager. There are also cameos from Steve Coogan,Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman and Stephen Merchant


Location 

The film begins in London at the Metropolitan Police Station but swiftly moves to the picturesque village of Sandford in Gloucestershire.












Directors 

The film is directed by Edgar Wright, He also directed Shaun of the Dead and Spaced with Nick Frost and Simon Pegg. He is the Writer, along with Simon Pegg of Hot fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. He also plays a cameo in the film as a shelf stacker in Somerfield. 














Sterotypes

In the film there are two main stereotypes shown, that of a Metropolitan police officer who is obsessed and overly committed and lets the job take over his life and of Police officers in the countryside who are stereotypically lazy and very casual about their jobs. 








Humour 

Hot Fuzz is a comedy film, it follows along the same lines as Shaun of the Dead, it mocks conventional cop-action films similar to the way Shaun of the Dead mocks a horror film. The film uses many typical British puns and mocking jokes throughout the film, the over-seriousness of Sergeant Angel makes some of the situations he is put in seem very funny. 




Camera work

The camera work and angles are used to make situations in the film seem more exciting and typical of action films than it is. It uses quick angles changes and close ups regularly to do so. 












How the film targets British audiences
This film targets British audience with the typical British humour and jokes throughout the film, It uses British stereotypes which british audiences will understand and find funny, It is sort of a British comedic version of a typical American Cop-action film. 

Representation - The Man

At first glance this man can be described as a tramp or homeless person, maybe his scarf seems a bit scruffy but in particular his trousers draw attention because they have patches on, that arguably look scrappy because they do not match his trousers. After a further look at the picture though, you an see that none of his clothes are dirty or oversized which you would think typical of a tramp, his shoes are of decent quality as well. When you look at his trousers, as well as the patches they are neatly rolled up at the bottom in a way that looks like it is out of his own fashion and not out of necessity with the trousers being too long. He is also wearing a check shirt, which is quite fashionable and a cardigan to go with it, tramps are stereotypically long-haired  and have a lot of facial hair, this man has a neatly trimmed beard, you can't really see his hair because of his beanie hat. 

About Me

Academic

• GCSE Results - 2 A's 5 B's 1 C - B in English Language.
• AS Courses - Media, Geography, English Language, Economics (A2)  

Media Interests 

• Films - Toy Story, A Bug's Life (Pixar), Shaun Of The Dead, Men In Black, Iron Man, Bad Boys II, Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels.
• TV - The Office, The Inbetweeners, Ashes To Ashes, The IT Crowd, Soccer AM, Gavin And Stacey, Scrubs, Men Behaving Badly. 
• Music - The Maccabees, The XX, Two Door Cinema Club, Foals, Klaxons, Bloc Party, Coldplay, Delphic, Daft Punk

Why I'm Studying Media

• I have a keen interest in Music, Tv and Film, I enjoy things like Magazines as well, so with my outside interests i thought it would be a subject i would enjoy doing at AS level.