Media Literacy for A2 ~Revision~ (OCR Media Studies for A2 book)

"The ability to create, use, analyse and understand media products, within the context of their audiences and institutions" (Donna Cooper Cliftlands)

"A broader version of conventional literacy, which includes all visual, aural and digital forms, seeking to enable people to become more thoughtful producers and interpreters of media." (Pete Fraser)

"Media literacy can be defined as the ability to read a media text, in understanding the process of communication through the construction of an artifact and its sets of presentations. The ability to read a media text, in its visual or audio form, is itself paramount to understanding the meaning that a text may convey, which is dependent upon the individual, psychological and sociocultural context of the reader" (Jason Mazzochi)

"Media literacy is the ability to understand how any media text constructs its meaning as much through its form as its context" (James Barker)

Media literacy is being able to engage not just with the immediate content of a media text, but also to be able to apply knowledge and understanding of the institutional factors that have an impact on within the text. Media literacy also involves knowledge and understanding of the institutional factors that have an impact on shaping the text itself and on the messages and values embedded within the text. Media literacy also involves knowledge and understanding of how different audiences in different times and places may interpret the text in different ways. Crucially, the media-literate reader of the text is able to see that his/her own reading of the text may well be at odds with that applied by some or all of the target audience." (Wayne O'Brien)

Key:
Context

Understanding

Construction

Producing (self)

Meaning

REVISION - Collective Identity

Key areas:
- Media's representation of different groups
- How media representations vary from historical representations
- Effect on society
- Use of media to form collective identity
- Any argument of identity is constructed through, by, or in responce to the media.

David Buckingham:
"A focus on identity requires us to pay close attention to the diverse ways in which media and technologies are used in every day life, and their concequences both for individuals and for social groups" - 2008
Buckingham is trying to suggest that the media effects collective identity,one reason for this being the media's every dayness. I feel that the audience and media have a symbiotic relationship and although the media may influence people's collective identity it is also influenced by collective identity just as much.
David Gauntlett:
"Identity is complicated. Everyone thinks they've got one. Magazines and talk show hosts urge us to explore our 'identity'. Religiousad national identities are at the heart of major internation conflicts. Blockbuster movie superheros have emotional conflicts about their 'true' identitiy. And athe average teenager can create three online 'identities' before breakfast... Thinking about self-identity where individuals are encouraged to value their personal uniqueness. Each of us would like to think - to some extent- that we hae special, personal qualities, which make us distinctive and valuable to other people in our lives (or potential future friends). But does this mean anything? Is individuality just an illusion? maybe we are all incredibly similar, but are programmed to value miniscule bits of differentiation." - 2007
I feel here Gauntlett is questioning human nature just as much as media representation.

Identity cards
Social networks - What do they ask you to reveal about yourself?

Activities:

Interests:

Favourite Music:

Favourite TV Programmes:

Favourite Films:

Favourite Books:

Favourite Quotations:

About me:

Is this to encourage self identity, develop your identity or simply to give yourself a "digital footprint" (how much information about yourself you leave trailing all over the internet, which you cant help but do if you do use the internet, espcially if you create accounts online). These digital footprints are often used to create directed advertisement to specific audiences, e.g. myself: student, female, teenager, British, with poltical and (non)religious views. This allows advertisers to get to their target audience with little guess work. I often get contract phone and political/religious adverts. I've not received adverts for menopaus or bladder weakness. So is it realy advertising? Or a smart capitalism ploy that's grown over time to become an integral part of society?

On the internet there are many ways to construct and develop your identity, I wont go into this in detail as there is so much I could write, as I myself have explored identities on the internet with things such as Second life (this video is pretty... ignorant, but it still gives you an idea), Anonymous (where you can escape all identity alltogether, except for a group and collective kind, with strict rules and structure, yet in complete anarchy and pluralism) and even Bebo or Habbo when I was younger. There are many ways which you can explore different identities which prehaps you could not before without physically being a part of it. For example blogs: The Modblog, where you can explore body modification culture (May have some extreme things on it but not usually, just be aware) without even having any tattoo's or piercings (basically whilst being a planeskin, as they would say). As well as personal blogs like Perez Hilton.

Identity... clothes, media consumption, the people we like? People demonstrating things against a pre-presumed identity may seem odd, but it is also a right. People often complain when they are heged into a certain identity, i.e. disabled, gay, muslim, elderly and even some proffessions.
Assumptions based on appearance, accent and personal choices go onto collective identity.

Targeted advertisement is more likely to be successfull in more targeted to collective identity magazine and this means thatmore selective magazines will survive more because of more regular income from advertising (which is infact the main way in which magazine's and many other media texts gain income) Which set of behaviours are reinforced in order to appeal to these audiences? Which set of social values are simulated and parodied by those of the postmodern audience? It is easiest to select examples from gender specific magazines which are also aimed at age and class.

Book Activity - Page 52
Men's Health in relation to 4 discourses:
Quick-fix problem solving
Male narcissism (and anxiety)
New male sensitivity
Male superiority/manipulation

I will choose 2 random articles form the front page.
The first is about "Eating Right". Even as I click on the article, I am allready bombarded with narcisism. There is a popup advert about "The New Testosterone pumping diet" with a muscly man as the image. It even uses words such as "Harder", even though refering to muscles it has subtle tones of male insecurity about penis performance. This reaks of "THIS IS WHAT YOU CAN LOOK LIKE" mentality. The testosterone part also implies male superiority, suggesting that normal, non "testosterone pumping" diets are feminin, and are therefore weaker and less good. This advert even taps into the quick fix problem solving discourse, as if this diet will suddenly get rid of the years of beer belly growth that the reader has put on. Before I have even read the article, I have whitnessed targeted advertising at the collective identity in mens health and 3 of the 4 discourses that I have been asked to study being prominantly displayed.
I don't think I even need to read this article, on to the next.
Again a slight variation of the advert pops up, but this time I'll close it. This article is more to do with the new male sensitivity; awareness of a woman's feelings and attractions. Even then this discourse is not taken seriously , for the men to care about her opinion, the editor feels that she needs to be naked in a bed. Although some kind of decency is preserved, she is half under the covers it still undermines the point of the article slightly. This article is less about a man's sensitivity, but that of a woman, and how a women likes his sensitive side. With phrases like "show your soft spot", there is a small section on encouraging a man to show his own emotion, but not for his own personal discover of self, but for a woman to be attracted to him.

Sense of belonging in readers drawn out through semiotics. Winship (1987:11) 'the gaze between cover model and women readers marks the complicity between women seeing themselves in the image which the masculine culture has defined.' resonates with Marxist idea by Althusser's (1971) 'interpellation' - the social/ideological practice of misrecognising yourself. To prepare ourselves for gratification by complicity and recognition of our ideal version of self. Feminists beleive that male magazines encourage women in this way. Challenging cultural experience is difficult. Marxist: 'False consciousness' = Instead of asking for equality and rights people comment on celebrity waistlines.

Advertising packs show who the editor and publishers think that their text is aimed to, defining things about them like where they shop and what they like.

- Will Continue Some other time- (Page54)

Postmodern texts,

TV
Scrubs - Playfull, Pastiche, Intertextual, Hyper real, Ironic.
My Name Is Earl - Hyperreal, Pastiche, Playful (Self referential to American audience)

Bronze Eye - Self referential, Deconstruction, Nihilistic, Playful, Ironic (Makes fun of news, note the overly used information graphics to dramatise)

Films
Coen Brothers
Little Nicky
Run Fatboy Run (Even title in reference to Run Lola Run)

Shallow Hal

Websites
Cracked.com - Pastiche, Playfull, Hyperreal, Can see how it's made (forgot technical word)
The Onion - Pastiche, Parody, Hyperreal, Reflective of Fox News,

EverythingisAwful - Nihilistic, Intertextual, Deconstruction

PeopleofWalmart - Referential to audience, Playful, Deconstruction of Society

Other
Banksy - Hypper real, References audience, Challenging convention, Playful

Private Eye - Satirical, References audience and Nihilistic

Old Spice adverts - Playful, Self referential (promising things it obviously can't give like car adverts, but so that the audience realises it), Nihilistic, Hyperreal

Some stuff.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Use:
- Sci fi; alien, makeup, astronaught, foreign planet
- Film noir; lighting, shaddows
- Length of film based on other teaser trailers (most between 1-2 mins)
- Use of enigma
- Epic music, overdramatic
- Love, there is usually a romantic interest in sci fi (e.g. Avatar)
- Name of film left unsaid, like Cloverfields.
Challenge:
- Instead of having the alien as an enemy, the government is the enemy
- A story told from the past, usually in present time.
- Mainly taking place on earth without any kind of war
- Actor interviews on website; shows the production of the ancillary product. Actors are actors and the characters are not real.
- Little information given about the story on the poster

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Good:
- Similar colour scheme + theme of eyes
- Each refers to another (i.e. video=website=twitter=video=website=poster)
- Tried to keep it all enigmatic, eyes again.
- Same actors in reviews on website, in poster etc..
What we would change to make it better:
- More emphasis on music
- website name on poster

What have you learned from your audience feedback?
- Sound levels are very important
- If you have a shot that is too long, the audience concentrates on it (there was a shot rachel going up a ladder, they thought she was struggling)
- Older men with white hair and glasses are usually interpreted as proffessors.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,
-Youtube to see trailers and length of trailers - TV for average advert lengths
- Film noir and Sci fi conventions - Watching Sci Fi films - Moon,
- Look at other film websites
- Find a free website server
- View posters online

Postmodern Media Precis. [Pages 136-167]

Media texts representing reality in this media saturated world are blurring the line between reality and media reality. The modern period has gone. This modern period is where artists experiemented with reality and brought forward ideas of pastiche, parody and intertextuality. It has even become reasonable to make it obvious how something was produced, as if you can see the bones and structure of its creation. It has also been claimed "post modernism" is just a new way of interpreting the media.

Basic Values:
- All media texts are of equal value and only personal preference can change this.
- Media is just reproducing itself, mixing things up in a new order rather than creating something from scratch. (such as "fasion" today, 60's style household items are back in "fasion")
- Reality is defined by images and representations - Simulacrum
- "Truth" is just the accepted discourse

Post modernist texts set out to purposefully play with reality in the PAINPIPESH way. As well as representing media-reality's representations.

Grand narratives need to be de-constructed. No reconstruction can ever be an accurate representation. It is expected that richer nations with time to dwell on cultural matters would have a naturally playful viewpoint on these grand narratives.

Hyperreality
There is no longer any origional thing. Pure reality is replaced by imagination. The boundary between imaginary and reality is blurred creating hyperreality.
To be continued.

Events such as the Gulf war and 9/11 where only exprerienced by many, through the media, and is not a real event for them even though it may seem so. They could be purely media events. "The Gulf war never happened".

Style, with Bladerunner in mind:
- Mixing textual and image references.
- Juxtaposition of times, film noir voice over, futuristic setting (re-use)

Reception:
- Post modern city
- Robot and Human distinction unclear
- Virtual equivalent more attractive
- Can humanity be manufactured?

Subject matter:
- Time/lack of
- World is constructed through a set of binary oppositions

Postmodern Auters: Michael Winterbottom, the Coens and Wong Kar-wai.
Directors and films are often labeled as postmodern.
Winterbottom can also be studied for "media and collective identity". His films often represent changing Britain. His films share an interest in blurring boundaries between reality and media reality. Or fictional events and real events. Winterbottom has characters face the camera and break the 4th wall. They also say things that mock postmodernism itself. Such as in 24 hour party people where the protagnist directly reffers to post modernism saying something loosely like "see you know I'm flirting with you, and I know you know it, and I know I'm flirting with you so I'm being postmodern". Even thought Winterbottom is mocking post-modernism he is still keeping firmly within post-modernism's playfull/mocking nature. There is also a large disregard for realist conventions. "The making of.." style of A Cock and Bull Story also brings in postmodernism since you can actually see the construction of the media reality, again blurring the boundaries.

Auter suggests we think of the films as the products of the individual creators. The Coen Brothers have created a body of work that consistently displays postmodern characteristics. "The Coens are clever directors who know too much about movies and too little about real life" (Levy 1999, in Coughlin 2003: 3)
Intertextuality is often used by the Coens. Intertextuality is often used because an audience cannot help but to refer to other texts that they have allready experienced when experiencing a new one. Reaction against classic genres. Turnning over and examination of genre stereotypes and conventions. The things that people celebrate in the Coen brothers may also be critisized.

Wong Kar-wai. His films mostly take place in Hong-Kong which some people argue is in itself a post modern space due to its status of being perpetually caught between traditional and modern. His characters are often lonlely even in this over-populated area of the world. He manipulates time and space in unusual ways around the characters so they interlink without necesarily knowing. One of the characters is associated with a song, sometimes it is diagetic and she is interacting with it and sometimes it is non-diagetic and it can often be unclear which it is.

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing.
An album made up completely of pre-recorded songs mixed together. The music genres are so mixed and diverse that the album or songs themselves do not have a specific genre so often just become "postmodern".

Postmodern TV
As TV ages the distinction between real personalities and TV personalities blurs. TV and the internet have also largely converged with catchup sights and characters using internet during programes. The Mighty Boosh is definately postmodern. Even the introduction is physically intertextual. Even one of the main characters is highly intertextual with references to punk culture with his jacket and belt and a mullet/big hair style refering to the 80s. There is a bricolage (remixing of existing formulas).
The Wire has had five series each of which explores a different theme usually based on the corruption and exploitation across organisations. The first series represents a family of drug dealers, the next about a group of sex workers who are murdered.

Potmodern soap operas.
Postmodernism is no longer an obscure theory but it has become the mainstream. Or even how postmodern the mainstream has become. Soap has been post modern for a long time. The Tabloids treat characters as if they're real, some of the public send them birthday cards and you can research extra details on the characters that aren't necesary to the plot.

The Cadbury Gorrilla shows an apparent massive departure from advertising the product itself. Whereas actually it offers a direct connection to the appeal of the product. A guilty pleasure, a secret enjoyment. A "primal instict" despite the popular culture of healthy food. It alloud people to make a subcontious connection to the gorrila and the product.

Readers can pick and mix what they excperience espescially when it comes to magazines.

A personal favorite of mine, GTA IV. Within the game there is much intertextuality as well as the graphics being as close to reality as possible. Also it takes place within New York and is therefore a virtual representation of a physical space. There is a lot of playfullness too with characters walking the streets of GTA having individual come-backs and apperances, humerous posters and (famous in the GTA series) hidden easter eggs. One easter egg being a sign that says "no easter eggs here" the ultimate post-modernist statement.

Second life, a virtual world in which you can become your ideal avatar, and talk to people from all over the world. It is not a game as such. There are no "objectives". Both GTAIV and SL offer the player the option just to be, rather than do.

How and why postmodern media plays with the verisimilitude of a text.

Postmodern media is a fairly newly named style of media in which the media plays with the audience's interpretation of reality and over-arching morals. It has an anti-foundationalist attitude which feel the need to deconstruct every myth and accepted modern standard. Every kind of media text can be explained as post modern if you are to look deeply enough into them but I feel that the Internet, some kind of Art and Film are the most experimental platforms with this style of media.

Verisimilitude is how close to reality the representation is to the real self. For example in art, a realist painting, such as Manet's Olympia would have more verisimilitude than an abstract peice of art such as Picasso's Weeping Woman because it is a closer representation of reality. Media text often try to get so close to reality that they make things over-real. This i called Hyper-reality. This is excelently demonstrated in the Hudsucker Proxxy by the Coen Brothers in which the film is set more in a film-reality than in verisimilitude. For example the imagary within The Hudsucker Proxxy is very much ideolised to be like the 1950's posters. Not like the 1950's reality. This supports Baudrillard's theory that reality can no longer be seperated from media reality.

Chandlers model suggets that the audience only sees the reality through the production. The representation of reality can be called simulacrum. The simulacrum mutually relies on the audience to understand what it is simulating. So allready reality is interpreted through a pre-existing interpretation. Post modernism is just playing whith this pre-interpreted past and media reality by replacing it with it's own, ironic and playfull reality. I feel that post modern texts ask for the audience to make their mind up on what they feel is reality themselves, interprate things in a new light, with their own eyes and mind.

little confused at the plan, not comfortable with doing esssays in this style. Not all of the essay due to this being a draft on my blog, sorry.

The way the production uses them, referring to things the audience believes in - what happens to the referent in a Postmodern text - through the understanding of the referent in the media text of the past (in which the audience is aware of) Examples, such as Directors, Platforms (not just British!) etc. Possibility to mention it as Global.


The reader must be aware of the way Hyper-reality works, such as analysis of Coenn Brothers, Michael Winterbottom, Camera Shots. Representation of the film world.


Why are Postmodern texts playful and not serious? Lack of values and morals lead to the playfulness (Nihilism). Examples! Go through PAINPIPES - No need to mention them all! Sharing the fact they are a construction. The Simpsons for example relate to self-referential.

Coen-Brother Films.

All three films are very American as well as being very much to do with the American Dream. (Not so much the Big Lebowski)

O, Brother where art thou?
A 1950's setting film about three escaped prisoners and their jorney through life and back to reality and comfort.



The Big Lebowski.
A film about "The Dude" a washed up bum, his relationships with his friends and the scenario he gets into for having the same name as a rich pensioner with a gold-digging floozy for a wife.


The Hudsucker Proxy.
A 1950's style film about the rise of an individual to the very top of a company, through luck, and his overcomming of the evil company manager, with luck.

Hyper Reality lesson

Baudrillard.

- Hard to disgunguish reality from Media reality.
e.g. 9/11 when you think of it, you think of the media images.

Image consumed event
- Absorbs the event and offers it for the consumption of the audience.

Technocracy - Technology ruling instead of humans (Democracy)

Jameson - "Postmodernism is the inevitable state of late capitalism" (all about the individual)

Dystopian (Oposite of Utopian)

Utopia

Dystopia

Random Key words.

Ideology - The idea of perfection within a group or persons mind
Connote - A link that the audience interprates themselves, more general than...
Denote - A direct link from the object/image.
Semiotics - Signs and meanings within society
Stereotype - Expected characteristics and type-casting
Hegemony - "A concept from Gramsci suggesting that power is achieved by dominant groups through successful struggles to persuade the subordinate that arrangements are in their interest. Using cultural power to maintain the status quo." (from http://www.heanorgate.org.uk/visualarts.asp?pageID=MediaKeywords)
Pluralistic - General and equal ownership, no particular leaders. e.g. Youtube
User Generated Content - Content added by users e.g. youtube
Iconic - Someone or something that has become an icon e.g. Martin Luther King.
Diagetic - Natural sound e.g. someones boots clicking as they walk along.
Non-Diagetic - Non-natural sound, e.g. music over the top of a scene
Moral Panic - Where a certain group or movement is over-covered and exadurated by the media, causing irrational fear.
Folk-Devils - Scapegoats
Verisimilitude - The closeness to reality of a text (remember by VerySimilarTo)
Overarching Morals - The main beleifs and social rules of a group or society
Meta/Grand narrative - A generally accepted way of life working, for example in England, education and healthcare.

Michael Winterbottom Films.

I studied two very different pieces; 24 Hour Party People and Genova.
24 Hour Party People is about the development of the music culture in Manchester with narration from a music manager. A very post modern piece, due to several factors which I will go on to explain.

Genova is a film about greiving and the loss of someone important in your life. There is no narrator or particular main character as it follows two daughters and their father through a new life in Italy after their mothers death. The story dosen't have a plot realy but is more about the greivence prosess and the meta-narrative of family values.

Work in progress, need to find my notes, which are currently downstairs.
24 Hour Party People.
- Breaks fourth wall
- Talks about being post modern within the film
- Intertextual, has TV, Music
- Refers to other texts
- Nihilistic plot - does not just stick to it e.g. pigeons dieing scene (random)


Genova.
- Stedicam style camera work
- No real plot
- Hyper reality

Stedicam style and Postmodernism.

Here for usefull source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steadicam

The stedi-cam style of filming can be considered post modern due to the fact it is self referencial, refering back to the audience, who can easily relate to the hand-held camera style. As well as video texts using the Stedi-cam becoming hyper real, allowing the audience to gain a more personal viewpoint of the scene, for example in Genova where the camera is often folowing action, rather than the action fitting into the frame, much more like reality. Your eye follows action rather than visa versa.

Media Essay. How do Moral Panics form a Fragment of Cultural Identity?

How do Moral Panics form a Fragment of Cultural Identity?

I feel that cultural identity is basically just the same as a collective identity within boundaries of generation and location. I also feel that moral panics are situations that the media blow out of proportion.

Fragments of cultural identities are small parts of a collective identity that have fragmented off from the rest of society usually because of more extremist viewpoints. For example the Nazis started off as a fragment group of socialism because of their extreme views which where too extreme for most allthough over time people grew to support it due to their frustration at the state of government at the time, this shows that even fragment groups can grow to become generally accepted. Fragment groups in the sense of the media are most likely people who are within different classes, genders, ethnicities and ages than the target audiences of specific texts. For example someone who is not middle classed and educated reading the 'Guardian'. They could then be a fragment group of their typical sect in society if they where to be untypical the would simply become fragments of a larger, or parent group. These are usually called "splinter groups". These groups consist of the same overarching moral agenda as the parent group but have a different, usually contrasting, veiwpoint on one or several of the parent group's beleifs. These can be created in the context of moral panics.

For a moral panic to happen you need an emergance of some behaviour and then an irrational fear of the certain behaviour catalysed by the media. This can happen with statistics. For example, "75 women raped by plumbers". This phrase does not mention over what time period this has happened, it could be over 400 years for all we know but never the less, some of the audience will take this as the hypodermic needle model suggests, without any real thought or external input. These members of the audience will form a collective identity who dislike and judge the moral agenda of a general group of people, the plumbers.

In terms of a real scenario; the rave culture hype. A relatively harmless movement of youth, where they had an anarchic, unlawfull and pluralistic style of rule, with no real heads and secret meeting places. It provided the three main missgivings for it to become a moral panic; "drugs, sex and pleasure". People became so worried about it several acts where passed so that the raves had to be stopped. For these conclusions to occur there needs to be

In conclusion, moral panics form a fragment of cultural identity by making the problem seem much worse than it actually is and then different people from the same cultural identity disagree on certain factors of the 'panic'.

Post Modernism.

x Self referential (such as breaking the fourth wall, talking about the sponsors negitively as a joke)
x Rejection of conventions. No central values
x Death of the author.

Parody - A direct piss take with a few people and 1-2 texts
Irony - Humurous juxtapositions (e.g. a lazy person saying someone else is lazy)
Pastiche - A montage of genres mimiced (e.g. Scary Movie)
Eclectic - Blend of things that usually do not go. (Genres etc.)
Playfull - Do not take themselves, or the audience seriously. (e.g. Team America)
Aesthetic - The way things look
Intertextual - Referencing other texts (e.g. Spaced)
Nihilism - No faith, pesimistic.
Self Referential - Refer to themselves in texts (e.g. The Simpsons)
Hyper Reality - More than real, exadurated reality (e.g. Malcolm in the Middle)

The Boat that Rocked Homework.

To what extent is the film based on real events?
There where real Pirate Radios on ships.
There was not a real ship called "Radio Rock" - I feel they made up this name because it goes with the title - "The Boat that Rocked" which has the double meaning of rocking in the musical, 'cool' terms and rocking, as a boat does in the sea.
The Government at the time was labour, not conservative - They most likely made this up so as to make it much easier for them to get the audience to react negatively towards the "evil" character. They made him very stereotyped so him being conservative came naturally.
The boat that rocked station is most likely based on the legendary Radio Caroline. A real, and most successful pirate radio station which is still on air today.
The fact that it is still on air suggests that the boat did not sink. I feel that the sinking boat was added so that the characters could each go their own ways, onto the different boats without making that decision themselves. It means that the audience gets an insight into the futures of the characters simultaneously and without a feeling of them leaving the "rocking" lifestyle.
The 45 minutes a day on BBC I am not sure is true or false. But there was a foreign radio station that was very popular, Radio Luxembourg. The founder of Radio Caroline, who helpped the Rolling Stones, wanted to get them aired. But Radio Luxembourg was filled with major record label music. So the founder of Radio Caroline (Ronan O'Rahilly) wanted to found a radio station whereby indipendant and smaller groups could gain air time.
The class of the people onboard the ship is accurate however. Ronan O'Rahilly was a well off man and lived in relative luxury. This was kept accurate due to the easyness on the eye and brain for the ship to be relatively well looked after and luxurious. This keeps the audience's attention on the goings on of the characters rather than their living conditions. This goes along with the positive, upbeat and 'feel-good' nature of the plot. It also helps create nice, cosy mis-en-scenes.
It is also true that there was American influenced radio stations. This was kept the same since it helps the verisimilitude as well as satisfying American audiences.
Again it is true that there was a massive audience listening to these pirate radios, over a third of the British population.
The Broadcasting Offences act was true and it did become law at a midnight. This allowed for the rather symbolic ending of broadcasting


Things that where kept out:
Major Oliver Smedley hijacked Calvert's fort. In a fit of fury Calvert, who was known to be a violent and irrational person, burst into Smedley's home and hurled a heavy stone ornament at him. He also claimed to be armed with a tear gas pistol. Smedley took up his shot gun and killed Calvert. The image of the offshore stations as jolly buccaneers using spare radio channels to provide popular free entertainment was irrevocably shattered. Now the government could portray them as battling, murdering gangsters.
This was kept out because it was far too brutal and down to earth for this film. Also as it says in this extract the fun loving, jolly buccaneer attitude of the DJ's would have been ruined.

Source:
http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/#history_part_1.html

The Boat That Rocked

1. Who are the target audience for the film? and 2. How do you know?
I think that the target audience for this film is probably middle class Americans and Britons. This is because the stereotype of British people is rather overplayed, towards an Americanised point of view. Also the people involved are all middle to upper class. They have rather a lot of money and time to spare, very english accents and live in relative Luxury. This is a feel good film for the masses.

3. How does this film rely on stereotypes?

I feel that this film, and indeed all Richard Curtis films have a large reliance on stereotypes, or breaking of. For example, the "uncle" figure. He's old, and mostly upper class. There would be many domninant discourses about him being grumpy, wise, frail, unfasionable etc... but infact he breaks these and is "cool", he even offers a spliff to the younger character. Also it makes the audience feel more comfortable with conventional characters, people that they can predict what they are going to do. This film is for a more conservative audience, who just wants their mind to be comforted rather than challenged.

4. Cite two principal stereotypes and make a list of at least 10 dominant discourse assumptions about them.
- The lesbian.
She's a woman, therefore she cooks.
She can't realy cook well though, you see burnt toast and odd food.
She's timid about her sexuality. [British - Not overconfident and very self deprocating]
She's maternal of the other members of the ship because she's a woman.
She beleives in Love. [I feel this is rather British]
She's loyal as timid ladies are (The I LOVE YOU sign as her new girlfriend leaves)
She is also not very feminin - she wares unflattering clothes and looks rather stuffy
Dosen't care largely about her appearance - Ties her hair up in an odd way

- The Sex God guy with the leather Jacket
Realy cool without even trying
Leather jacket and trousers
Dosen't realy have to do much
Dosen't realy have a peronality or any interests
Gets lots of women with ease - Doesn't even speak

It is hard to say why these things are quintisentially British. I feel that the characters themselves aren't overly British due to the Americanisation of the film. They do however have some British tendancies such as drinking tea and being friendly. Also another thing I find very British is picking out the faults of others and laughing about it, which is a way of us accepting and appreciating what makes that person individual.

6)In what ways can Curtis and the team be said to be appealing to the mythological tendencies of the audience?
This movie is directed more at nostalgia. It is overdramatising the history of the Pirate radios into something mythylogical and fairy-tale like. It is also picking out the good sides of the overall story just as someone would when reminising about something, this would appeal to the audiences mythological tendancies. Curtis also managed to appeal to the audiences mythological tendancies by using the mass images of people listening to Radio Rock. This probably gives people of that generation a feeling of collective identity due to their connection to that period.
Also he over stereotypes the government into an almost archetypal conservative political system with the greased back hair and black suits which will muster a stereotypical feeling of dislike from the British and American audiences in relation to so much past history against people such as Hitler.

7)Explain the film making process from concept to culmination in 150 words or less

Sorry what? -REMINDER FOR ME ASK WHAT ON EARTH THIS MEANS-

Red Sheet Questions.

1. What is the USA like in comparison to france?
Compared with France, USA is very different for many reasons:

• The age, France is a much older institution than America
• America was built very quickly and by the government therefore has "blocks" - Square like map, set out in a grid. France has winding streets, built over time by people living in the town.
• America's diet is much more artificial than France. France has natural produce and a nice ballanced diet whereas American typically has much a much more fatty diet and therefore, fatter people.
• France has different hygine priorities.
• France is also more fasionable and trendsetting
• America drinks cheap beer - France drinks wine

2. Why, according to Barthes, might USA have its own sports, little played anywhere else? What is the function of these sports?

Harry Potter 6 Presentation.

Here is the trailer. Yay.

Working Title Films...

...A British film production company founded in 1982. Produced feature films and sometimes television productions.

Has a HUGE ammount of films to it's name. For a British film production company anyway.
Such as:
Working Title films

About a Boy (film)

Ali G Indahouse

Atonement (film)

Barton Fink

Bean (film)

The Big Lebowski

Billy Elliot

The Boat That Rocked

Bob Roberts

The Borrowers (1997 film)

Bridget Jones's Diary (film)

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (film)

Burn After Reading

The Calcium Kid

Captain Corelli's Mandolin (film)

Catch a Fire (film)

Chicago Joe and the Showgirl

Dead Man Walking (film)

Definitely, Maybe

Drop Dead Fred

Edward II (film)

Elizabeth (film)

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Fargo (film)

For Queen and Country

40 Days and 40 Nights

Four Weddings and a Funeral

French Kiss (film)

Frost/Nixon (film)

Green Zone (film)

The Guru (2002 film)

The Hi-Lo Country

Hippie Hippie Shake

Hot Fuzz

The Hudsucker Proxy

Inside I'm Dancing

The Interpreter

Johnny English

Land and Freedom

Loch Ness (film)

London Kills Me

Long Time Dead

Love Actually

The Man Who Cried

The Man Who Wasn't There

Map of the Human Heart

Mickybo and Me

Moonlight and Valentino

Mr. Bean's Holiday

My Beautiful Laundrette

My Little Eye

Nanny McPhee

Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang

Ned Kelly (2003 film)

Notting Hill (film)

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Panther (film)

Paperhouse (film)

Paul (film)

Plunkett & Macleane

Posse (1993 film)

Pride & Prejudice (2005 film)

The Return of the Borrowers

Robin Hood (1991 film)

Romeo Is Bleeding

Rubin and Ed

Sammy and Rosie Get Laid

Shaun of the Dead

Smokin' Aces

The Soloist

State of Play (film)

Tales of the City (TV miniseries)

The Tall Guy

The Comic Strip

Thunderbirds (film)

United 93 (film)

Wild Child (2008 film)

Wimbledon (film)

Wish You Were Here (1987 film)

A World Apart (film)

The Young Americans (film)
Wikipedia Links.

I feel that Working Title FIlms help smaller films becoome more open to a wider audience and therefore more successfull without taking away its individuality and Britishness.

Teaser Trailers? What are they?

Three British Film (teaser)trailers:








Teaser trailers are like normal trailers except they are much shorter (30-60 Seconds long). They also contain little actual footage of the film/game/television series.
They usually earn the name "Teaser" from being brought out quite a long time in advance of the actual release date of the film/game/television series so as to pep the audience and to make them excited about it.

Teaser trailers are usually only made for big-budget and popularly themed movies. Their purpose is less to tell the audience about a movie's content than simply to let them know that the movie is coming up in the near future, and to add to the hype of the upcoming 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. (Source - Wikipedia)

Teaser trailers are made just to make the audience excited of the approach of the product. They manage to do so by showing small, obscure and cryptic parts of the film in order to get the audience guessing and contemplating what may actually happen in the film and consequently get over excited and thrilled.

[Okay now I'm not sure if Mr Wroe actually meant the movie The Myth with Jackie Chan... or myth in general.. I'm going to do the film though.]
Why do Teaser Trailers suit "High concept" films like "The Myth"?
I'm not sure but I'm guessing it's because it focuses on plot/scenery and characters rather than detailed story line and or individual characters roles. It just says about how he will take a journey and discover some stuff that is interesting realy.

Myth?

I feel a propper Myth allways needs a certain ammount of enigma. A certain unawnsered ending such as bigfoot or the Yeti. What is it? Where are they? Do they realy exist?
Usually they origionate from rumor and are local to a few areas or certain places. And are rarely seen even in the Myth itself.

They are also a generally accepted truth that is prehaps put into history. The lack of evidence of it's existance helps the enigma of the object/situation continue and thrive as it is mainly the individuals imagination fillin gin the blanks.