Elderly In MEdia

In my class I was asked to create a youtube video about the elderly and women and how they are portrayed in the media. This is what I did.

Homeland

I wanted to write about something that I've watched and loved in the media. One TV drama I've been completely hooked on since series 2 started is Homeland. It follows a CIA officer, Carrie and a US soldier, Brody, who went missing for nine years in Afghanistan, presumed dead. However his return lead to Carries assumption that while he was prisoner in Afghanistan, he was converted into a terrorist, and has returned to plot against the USA in secret. Her assumption was proven true in series 2, and once again, I am hooked.
What I love about homeland is the fact that every episode never fails to keep me on the edge of my seat the whole time. The story lines are always so raw and so unique, and what happens never fails to surprise me. In the last episode I watched on Sunday, series 2 episode 8, we see Brody becoming more and more fragile, and sick of the lies he has to keep telling to everyone. He has shifted sides so many times I am surprised he can keep up with his own life. However, we see Carrie taking a hold of him, and trying to help him get back on track to help the CIA. By the end of the episode, Brody is kidnapped and taken into a helicopter to an unknown location. The ending for me felt like a new side to the story, and has made me anticipate more what might happen next.
The show has officially announced a third series, but what worries me is if they'll be able to hold another brilliant series, or whether they'll run out of things to write. Frankly however, I cannot wait. For me, it's the best program on TV at the moment.

American Beauty Review

American Beauty Review – Media Studies

American Beauty is a unique and quirky film directed by Sam Mendes in 1999. It is a sour and twisted tale, with a dark humorous side about love, hate, passion and murder. Lester and Carolyn are married and ‘in love’, or that’s what they want people to believe. Carolyn is over-ambitious whereas Lester is lazy, and fed up with his same, boring life. However they stay together for the sake of their oddball daughter, Jane.

However, in the film we see a change in Lester, when he meets his daughter’s best friend, the blonde and beautiful Angela, who he immediately falls lustfully in love with when he sees her perform a cheerleading dance. On top of this, he also meets Ricky, who introduces him to marijuana and is also his daughter’s boyfriend. This leads to a drastic change in Lester, which sees ghastly consequences for the family.

The beginning of the film started with the father, Lester, revealing to the audience he was going to die at the end. This immediately drew me into the film and made me want to watch more. As the film continued, the scenes showed the aspects of Lester, Carolyn and Jane’s lives, which allowed the audience to empathize with each character in different ways, which I feel is a good way in portraying characters in a film. When Lester comes across Angela, Jane’s friend, in the film, the use of red rose petals is used in an abstract way to symbolise his sexual attraction and longing for her. These red petals were used throughout the film to heighten the idea of sexual attraction from Lester towards Angela in the film. This image actually became very famous in the cinematic world, proving it a successful idea from Sam Mendes, the director.

The story I felt was very unique, and I have never seen a film like it. In the end, when Lester is shot dead, bright red blood is used to emphasise the passionate death of him. It also made it scary and tense. I feel the colour red symbolised many things in the film such as love, lust, sex, and passion, through the use of red roses and blood, to very different things.

I would definitely recommend this film, and it is on one of my favourite film lists. 4 stars.

Video Script

SCRIPT

Jess: Quick, I’ve got a lesson.

Charlie: Nah man, you ain’t paid me in six weeks

Jess: (Looks around anxiously) I’ll get you the money. I promise.

Charlie: (pushes Jess against the metal fence) (Whispers in her ear) you better.

Charlie passes Jess the bag. He walks off. Jess sighs and walks off fast.

Video Plan

Dépendance

Genre: Drama

Setting: School playground.

Hair/costume:

Girl: school uniform. Hair tied up. Looks tired and uneasy. Dark eyes.

Boy: wearing hoodie or jacket. Dark colours. Angry face.

Story: Drug dealer who’s in sixth form approaches young secondary school girl in a playground to sell her cocaine.

Character Profiles:

Charlie: Eighteen year old college student. Aspiring DJ living in Hackney Downs.  Troubled home life, and makes a lot of money from dealing drugs as he doesn’t have money at home. His father supports his drug dealing so he can provide for his dad. His dad is an alcoholic and beats him up when he doesn’t get the money.

Jess: Fourteen years old. Found her mums stash when she was twelve and felt like experimenting with her friends. He friends didn’t like it, so she pretended she didn’t. However she was hooked and now has no friends or money as she spends it all on drugs. She’s failing at school and her mum is always out with men so has no time for her and barely notices her.

Costume and Props:

·         Mossbourne school blazer

·         Bag of flour (drugs)

Script:

Panorama shot of the school playground with Jess sitting on the bench.

Charlie walks down sixth form corridor – Long shot of him walking through corridor towards camera. We see him passing the office, looking around suspiciously.  Opens green door.

Shot from outside of Charlie walking out of the door.

Shot of Charlie from behind walking towards Jess.

Shot of Jess from behind with Charlie walking towards her.

Shot of Charlie talking to Jess.

Shot of Jess talking to Charlie.

Video Shots

Low Angle

Pan Shot

                                         

Tilt Shot

                                         

Travel Shot

 

James Bond Editing

Here we see James Bond and his villains in action. The high angle shot of the setting and then close up of both mens faces tell the audience where they are and what is going on. We see an over the shoulder the shot, where we see the back of the villains head, but the whole of Bond's body, which could inidcate Bond is in some sort of trouble, as he is coming towards the villain, however the villain stands there, fearless. We see a huge explosion behind James Bond, making the audeince jump. Cables flicker and parts of the building fall down, but Bond seems quite safe. You think everything is okay until you see a train driving through the hole in the building made by the explosion. The train looks like it is coming towards the audience creating tention. We then see a high angle shot of the large train filling the whole setting of the scene, almost killing James Bond. The editing in this scene, and the way the train is filmed to drive quickly towards the audience and fill the whole chamber looks really realistic and scary.

Match On Action 19/10/12

Match on action refers to film editing and video editing where the editor cuts from one shot to another view thaty matches the first shot's action.

This clip, along with many other clips, has example of Match On Action. It breaks up the action and helps us understand whats going on better and helps us see other people reactions in it. For example, the first part shows the whole waiting room of the baby hospital, then, it goes on to show the two main characters and their reactions to being in a waiting room to find out if she is pregnant.

It is an efficient way to create a good film.

My Own Mis En Scene 19/10/12

Here is my own creation of mise en scene.

It shows a grave yard on a beach, which is a quite unique, humurous place to set a grave yard. Further more I have a dark, crooked gate to indicate danger, along with grave stones.

I have made it very fantasy like, with a giant spider in the scene also. This creates a very unique type of scene that I do not believe has been created in the cinematic world.

The Skin I Live In - Mis En Scene 19/10/12

The genre of The Skin I Live In is a spanish drama and thriller.

The camera angle clearly shows the womans face staring the other way from the man, suggesting her fear for what is going on around her, and the man who seems to be inspecting and operating on her. In addition to this, her costume is very clinical. She has a mask on her face and is wearing a skin coloured costume, which could again suggest her living in fear.

It is high light which could also show normality. What I mean by this is that if it was low light then things would seem more frightening, and suspicious, however the high light could express the fact that they are in a safe and secure environment.

The man is very close to her, in fact he is touching her face. However he does not look like a predator as he is being very delicate and careful with what he is doing, also suggested by the gloves. However it still looks very strange by his and her positioning of what he is doing. It questions the audience and makes them want to watch more.

Camera Shots - 5th October 2012

Extreme Wide Shot -

Very Wide Shot -

Wide Shot -

Medium close up -

Close up -

Extreme close up -

Over the shoulder shot -

Point of view shot -

Anaylisis Of A Trailer

Horror Films- Analysis of a trailer

The House At The End Of The Street

A trailer is a very important part in the release of a film. How do you expect people to see it unless they are captivated by the advertisment, and a big part of the advertisment is the trailer.

I went to see The House At The End Of The Street last weekend and I thought it was excellent. It had a mix of horror and humour and had a brilliant twist at the end. However, I would not have gone to see this film if I hadn't watched the trailer first, and been captured by the film already.

This trailer is good because it gives an eary and mysterious feel to the film. The trailer starts out with main character, played by Jennifer Laurence, in danger, looking roughed up and scared. This is backed up by mysterious and scary music immediatley captivating the person watching it.
It then goes on to show clips which tell you more about the film, and how her and her mother moved to this house, next door to another house where a young girl murdered both of her parents giving a bit of background to the film, allowing the audience to understand a bit more about the film.
Overall the trailer gives enough information for it to still be a mystery as to what happens in the film, and yet also includes snippets of exciting part of scenes making you want to see it.
Music was also a big part, giving an eerie atmosphere to the trailer and making it succesful.

Sub-Genres
A Sub-Genre is a subcategory within a partciular genre. For example if you have an action comedy it'd be an action film with a large amount of comedy in it too, for example, Kill Bill.

Romantic Comedy Films- Analysis of a trailer

Knocked Up

Knocked Up is one of those films you will laugh and you will cry at: a typical Rom-Com. Someone like me doesn't just randomly watch a film, I have to watch the trailer first, and like I said before, the trailer of a film is very important for the release.
The Ugly Truths trailer, if you watch it now, is already hilariously funny. It puts very humorous clips of the scene in it, which makes the audience want to watch more.
The trailer also shows a good ammount of the trailer which is always good, as giving too much away will make the audience not want to see it.
From the trailer, this film is a clear obvious romantic comedy, with a brilliant story line, and the trailer really shows this.

Conventions of Genres

Horror Films - the dialogue in horror films is always very mysterious and scary. People in it often say things that will make your heart jump and scare you.
The camera work is also very interesting, using close ups to really capture the reaction to scary things. Characters are normally either a boy or a girl, or a group of friends who are out to solve a mystery or are trapped in a situation they cannot get out of. The plot is also very cliche. There is usually a house or a scary forest or a possible exorcism in the stories, and a lot of characters usually die.
Comedy films - the dialogue in comedy films is usually very funny and not too serious. They are never too naturalistic in things like comedies, as it adds to the humour of it. Camera work is very standard depending on how neccasary everything is. They'll do a close up when needed and a long shot when needed etc. Characters are also very typical in films like comedies. There always is a main character who has a funny friend and a sensible friend. They always have a funny things to do and are very memorable characters too. The plot is also some sort of problem they have to resolve however it is also a very humorous and not too serious.

21st September 2012 - Narrative Conventions

Vladimir Propp’s Theory of Narrative

Vladimir Propp suggested that characters took on the role of narrative 'spheres of action' or functions. From a comprehensive study of folktales Propp came up with seven different character types:

Here is my 'Mean Girls' example:

Hero: Miss Norberry - A mathematics teacher and the high school, who goes through struggles with her students, however in the end she manages to put everything right and forgive those who done wrong to her,

Villain: Regina George – The ‘popular’ girl at high school, who although is pretty much famous at her school, she is also a devious backstabber, who stirred a lot, and hurt a lot of people.

Donor: Mr Duvall – The head teacher of the school, who helps Miss Norberry sort everything out.

Helper: Aaron Samuels – A popular football player at the school, who in the film, explains the problems to the head teacher and is on the good side.

The Victim: Janice Ian, Damian, other students – All these people had been victimised by Regina George at some point during their high school life, which caused a big down fall on their lives.

Dispatcher: Mr Duvall – He sends Miss Norberry on the task to help the high school girls.

False Hero: Cady - who at the beginning is appeared to be an innocent young girl, however turns into something completely different.

21st September 2012 - Tzvetan Todorov

Tzvetan Todorov

Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages:

1. a state of equilibrium at the outset
2. a disruption of the equilibrium by some action
3. a recognition that there has been a disruption
4. an attempt to repair the disruption
5. a reinstatement of the equilibrium

This type of narrative structure is very familiar to us and can be applied to many ‘mainstream’ film narratives.

My Example of Tzvetan Todorov

Stand By MeA state of equilibrium at the outset:The scene starts of mysterious, with a field and then a man, looking like he’s thinking. This would make the audience interested, and make them feel as though this man has a story to tell. He goes on to tell a story, and with this story comes a flash back of him and his friends, and their adventure that is yet to come. They decide to go and find a dead body, and that is what they do.

A disruption of the equilibrium by some action: The distribution is when the older bully’s decide to also find the body. This allows the audience to come to a realization that the boys are going to be in trouble.

A recognition that there has been a disruption:The older boys approach the younger boys just as they find the body. The younger boys get scared.

An attempt to repair the disruption:One of the boys mocks the older boys, disempowering them in the film

Films.

Films.

Films are a big part of media and as part of my protfolio I will have to make a 5 minute snippet of a film and an opening sequence to a film I have written.
To help me do this I need to think about some of my favourite films that could influence me.

Action -

Kill Bill

Adventure-
Stand By Me

Comedy-

The Hangover

I like these films because they have the right ammount of action adventure and emotion in them, which is what I believe makes a truley good film.



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Hello.

My name is Ella and I study Media Studies at Sir Clive Bourne Sixth Form. I'm an enthusiastic girl who has a strong interest in social networking, film, TV, radio, and advertising in general. I believe taking media studies could be a great oppurtunity for me to pursue it in the future.
This blog has been made to post updates on my projects, thoughts and feelings about studying media and will end up being part of my portfolio.