Fishtank is a social realism film. Typical conventions of a social realism film are such as; real locations. Fishtank was filmed on the Mardyke estate in Tilbury, Essex. This area is reknown for crime and anti-social behaviour, the use of a real location like this portrays real life and gives the film even more of an authentic feel. Also, the use of non-professional actors is a convention of the social realism genre. Just like that in the 1969 film 'Kes', all characters were played by non-professional actors, and this is also a convention used in Fishtank. Katie Jarvis, who plays Mia was picked to play the character after the producer of the film saw her arguing with her boyfriend on a train platform. This keeps it low budget, and people can relate to her as she has a common accent, is working class and has that 'rough' look which could not be achieved through the use of educated, young actors as this kind of teenager would not be typical of the area and lifestyle of characters in Fishtank.
The use of profane language is another typical convention of social realism. In the opening scene, Mia says on the phone 'I was pissed off, ring me back you bitch'
Wednesday, 8 May 2013
Wednesday, 24 April 2013
Q. Discuss the audience appeal of your three main texts [30]
A. Mad Men represents a simplistic time in history. Politics and identity were very clearly separated. In the workplace, men were men and they had a certain image to portray as a male, and women all had the dame image which presented them as a woman i.e. the same style silk, hourglass figure dresses, beehive hairstyles. The audience look at this representation of the workplace in this time and see this as extremely glamourous and simplistic and even envy this lifestyle compared to the confusing world we live in today where men are confused how to look, if to look masculine or metrosexual and women to look feminine or street. The representation are shown through Mad Mens characters. Don is the dominant male, and Joan is the 1960's vision if an ideal woman; the hourglass figure, bright red hair, and the feminine role. This world of work is completely adjacent to what we work in today. No alcohol is allowed to be consumed at work, smoking is now illegal in public buildings, so the audience loose themselves in this world and this is a form of escapism and entertainment which conforms to the audience theory of Uses and Gratifications.
Mad Men uses almost no non-diagetic sound. This therefore forces the audience to be active and this then minimises the audience appeal to a niche audience. This is because mainstream programmes use a lot of non-diagetic sound and feed all information, values and messages from the text to the audience in a clear, fast-paced form. Man Men does not conform to this; The only use of non-diagetic sound used in the episode is when all the men are walking into Jaguar for the big pitch and as they are all walking with their trench coats and suits through the reception area, only then does a piece of suave style music accompany their entrance. This builds excitement and anticipation in the audience and stresses the importance of the pitch to Jaguar. It it 35 minutes into Mad Men before the audience gets any non-diagetic sound to help them read the messages as the programme forces audiences to be active and read it with very little guidance or obvious conventions helping build the correct emotions they should feel upon viewing a scene unlike mainstream programmes. Throughout the rest of the episode, even in the scene of Joan doing the deed with the Jaguar character, it is silent , with the exception of dialogue. Mainstream programmes want their audiences to be passive, to enjoy and escape into a programme and the use of non-diagetic sound and fast-paced action creates this.
Lost is produced by ABC, an American TV programme, it is a mainstream production. It has conventions of a mainstream genre such as use of a lot of non-diagetic sound, a multi-cultural ensemble cast, and the hybrid genre consisting of fantasy, sic-fi and action. The uses and gratifications model states how a text appeals to an audience if they can personally identify with a character in the text and having many different characters simply broadens the audience in which it appeals. The opening scene immediately grabs the attention of an audience. The three main characters, Charlie, Jack and Kate are all walking through a jungle, and with the use of dialogue we know exactly what has happened and what is currently happening within minutes of watching the episode. This is because it is appealing to a mainstream, global audience; unlike Mad Men in which forces its audience to be active, not passive, and therefore they read the programme themselves and are not fed any information like Lost does within the first opening scene of the episode. From the opening scene of Lost, already it is showing the use of stereotypical characters. Jack, a white, American male, typical representation of a hero which conforms to Propps character theory. Kate is submissive to Jack, representing her as the weaker character and stereo-typically the princess in Propps character theory, and Charlie is british, and therefore broadening their audience to overseas audiences as british can relate with him. The use of many nationalities, genders, race and age of characters creates a global appeal to audiences.
The polar bear scene in lost begins with a smooth tracking, crane camera shot showing all characters walking through the jungle with diegetic sound of the jungle surroundings. The dialogue explains they need to check the radio incase of any help available when a dispute breaks out between Soya and Sayid; this builds tension in the audience as raised voices are accompanied by a high-pitched 'technical' sound which gets louder nearer the loud, thump sound stealing both the characters and audience's attention. This high-pitched sound is used to cue the audience. Hand-held camera shots are then taken on each character in shallow focus. This emphasises the fear in the characters and causes excitement, and tension as the camera shots are now shaky, quick cut whip pans. As the mysterious animal approaches, the editing is fast-paced cuts from the animal and the characters, causing excitement for the audience. The emphasised loud diegetic sound caused by the animal mirrors the sound of a heartbeat, and the whipping of grass sound builds anticipation. The cuts to and from the animal give a restricted view, again creating mystery, building an enigma that has to be explained. Dialogue is used again to feed the audience information, allowing them to view passively. Kate says 'its coming towards us' and eventually it then Kate again who explains 'This isn't just a bear, its a polar bear'; Kate is explaining what is happening in the scene to the audience. Even when the scene comes to an end, we are still fed restricted views of the animal, keeping the mystery. Low camera shots from behind Kate's legs are shown, and even when we see the face of the Polar bear, we still don't see the full size of the animal. When Soya shoots the Polar bear, again, the shot is from a low angle behind Soya, restricting our view, building us, so we want to keep watching to see the full view; This low angle shot puts Soya in a dominant position, like he is viewed as the hero (Propp). The enigma of a Polar bear being in a jungle feeds the audience an enigma, in which we want answered; this encourages the audience to return after the break to watch the follow up. This appeals to an audience as this is so unrealistic, which encourages passive viewing for uses such as escapism and entertainment.
Louis Theroux, America's Most Hated Family in Crisis was shown on 3rd April 2011 at 9pm on BBC2. BBC2 is renowned for producing programmes aimed at adult audiences which not only entertain the audience, but also inform and educate. Louis Theroux is the writer and presenter of the documentary formatted programme. His gonzo style of journalism is either loved (preferred reading) or hated (oppositional reading). Critics such as The Irish Times's Bernice Harrison take to the internet forums, blogs, and reviews to express their opinion of the text. Harrison stated 'the excitement of seeing Louis Theroux back on screen with a new documentary soon wore off'. This is a negotiated to oppositional reading taken by Harrison. Other critics such as AOL's television's Mic Wright stated 'America's most hated family in crisis proved once again why Louis Theroux is such an enduring explorer of the oddest and most awful corners of the world'. This is an example of a preferred reading. Audiences are likely to personally identify with Louis Theroux as he is portraying the opinion that most of us share (norms and values). As a documentary, the opening scene does not give you lots of information like passive programmes i.e. Lost. The opening scene creates an enigma as Louis says 'is it possible you've become more weird'. This creates enigma as audience think 'more weird?' and it is also quite rude to call someone weird therefore this shows the humorous side Louis Theroux brings to the programme which makes the viewing more appealing and allow the audience to interact with the text more as they find it funny. From the very start of the documentary, it is telling the audience what side to be on, what to think of the family as it stated in Louis Theroux dialogue 'you've become more weird' therefore we are almost 'injected' to take this view (hypodermic model). Social interaction is sparked from the viewing of this programme. The scene between Louis and Jack in the church, shows Jack has a very 'camp' way about him, and this is extremely controversial to the cult's beliefs he wishes to join; This scene sparked comments of the same sort on the Youtube version of this episode. People interact and share their views of the programme, people take to the internet to do this.
Mad Men uses almost no non-diagetic sound. This therefore forces the audience to be active and this then minimises the audience appeal to a niche audience. This is because mainstream programmes use a lot of non-diagetic sound and feed all information, values and messages from the text to the audience in a clear, fast-paced form. Man Men does not conform to this; The only use of non-diagetic sound used in the episode is when all the men are walking into Jaguar for the big pitch and as they are all walking with their trench coats and suits through the reception area, only then does a piece of suave style music accompany their entrance. This builds excitement and anticipation in the audience and stresses the importance of the pitch to Jaguar. It it 35 minutes into Mad Men before the audience gets any non-diagetic sound to help them read the messages as the programme forces audiences to be active and read it with very little guidance or obvious conventions helping build the correct emotions they should feel upon viewing a scene unlike mainstream programmes. Throughout the rest of the episode, even in the scene of Joan doing the deed with the Jaguar character, it is silent , with the exception of dialogue. Mainstream programmes want their audiences to be passive, to enjoy and escape into a programme and the use of non-diagetic sound and fast-paced action creates this.
Lost is produced by ABC, an American TV programme, it is a mainstream production. It has conventions of a mainstream genre such as use of a lot of non-diagetic sound, a multi-cultural ensemble cast, and the hybrid genre consisting of fantasy, sic-fi and action. The uses and gratifications model states how a text appeals to an audience if they can personally identify with a character in the text and having many different characters simply broadens the audience in which it appeals. The opening scene immediately grabs the attention of an audience. The three main characters, Charlie, Jack and Kate are all walking through a jungle, and with the use of dialogue we know exactly what has happened and what is currently happening within minutes of watching the episode. This is because it is appealing to a mainstream, global audience; unlike Mad Men in which forces its audience to be active, not passive, and therefore they read the programme themselves and are not fed any information like Lost does within the first opening scene of the episode. From the opening scene of Lost, already it is showing the use of stereotypical characters. Jack, a white, American male, typical representation of a hero which conforms to Propps character theory. Kate is submissive to Jack, representing her as the weaker character and stereo-typically the princess in Propps character theory, and Charlie is british, and therefore broadening their audience to overseas audiences as british can relate with him. The use of many nationalities, genders, race and age of characters creates a global appeal to audiences.
The polar bear scene in lost begins with a smooth tracking, crane camera shot showing all characters walking through the jungle with diegetic sound of the jungle surroundings. The dialogue explains they need to check the radio incase of any help available when a dispute breaks out between Soya and Sayid; this builds tension in the audience as raised voices are accompanied by a high-pitched 'technical' sound which gets louder nearer the loud, thump sound stealing both the characters and audience's attention. This high-pitched sound is used to cue the audience. Hand-held camera shots are then taken on each character in shallow focus. This emphasises the fear in the characters and causes excitement, and tension as the camera shots are now shaky, quick cut whip pans. As the mysterious animal approaches, the editing is fast-paced cuts from the animal and the characters, causing excitement for the audience. The emphasised loud diegetic sound caused by the animal mirrors the sound of a heartbeat, and the whipping of grass sound builds anticipation. The cuts to and from the animal give a restricted view, again creating mystery, building an enigma that has to be explained. Dialogue is used again to feed the audience information, allowing them to view passively. Kate says 'its coming towards us' and eventually it then Kate again who explains 'This isn't just a bear, its a polar bear'; Kate is explaining what is happening in the scene to the audience. Even when the scene comes to an end, we are still fed restricted views of the animal, keeping the mystery. Low camera shots from behind Kate's legs are shown, and even when we see the face of the Polar bear, we still don't see the full size of the animal. When Soya shoots the Polar bear, again, the shot is from a low angle behind Soya, restricting our view, building us, so we want to keep watching to see the full view; This low angle shot puts Soya in a dominant position, like he is viewed as the hero (Propp). The enigma of a Polar bear being in a jungle feeds the audience an enigma, in which we want answered; this encourages the audience to return after the break to watch the follow up. This appeals to an audience as this is so unrealistic, which encourages passive viewing for uses such as escapism and entertainment.
Louis Theroux, America's Most Hated Family in Crisis was shown on 3rd April 2011 at 9pm on BBC2. BBC2 is renowned for producing programmes aimed at adult audiences which not only entertain the audience, but also inform and educate. Louis Theroux is the writer and presenter of the documentary formatted programme. His gonzo style of journalism is either loved (preferred reading) or hated (oppositional reading). Critics such as The Irish Times's Bernice Harrison take to the internet forums, blogs, and reviews to express their opinion of the text. Harrison stated 'the excitement of seeing Louis Theroux back on screen with a new documentary soon wore off'. This is a negotiated to oppositional reading taken by Harrison. Other critics such as AOL's television's Mic Wright stated 'America's most hated family in crisis proved once again why Louis Theroux is such an enduring explorer of the oddest and most awful corners of the world'. This is an example of a preferred reading. Audiences are likely to personally identify with Louis Theroux as he is portraying the opinion that most of us share (norms and values). As a documentary, the opening scene does not give you lots of information like passive programmes i.e. Lost. The opening scene creates an enigma as Louis says 'is it possible you've become more weird'. This creates enigma as audience think 'more weird?' and it is also quite rude to call someone weird therefore this shows the humorous side Louis Theroux brings to the programme which makes the viewing more appealing and allow the audience to interact with the text more as they find it funny. From the very start of the documentary, it is telling the audience what side to be on, what to think of the family as it stated in Louis Theroux dialogue 'you've become more weird' therefore we are almost 'injected' to take this view (hypodermic model). Social interaction is sparked from the viewing of this programme. The scene between Louis and Jack in the church, shows Jack has a very 'camp' way about him, and this is extremely controversial to the cult's beliefs he wishes to join; This scene sparked comments of the same sort on the Youtube version of this episode. People interact and share their views of the programme, people take to the internet to do this.
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
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Friday, 1 February 2013
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