HOMEWORK: Questions

01. In what way does your film mimic or defy typical conventions of your chosen genre?

‘Desire’ is very typical of its genre, sticking closely to conventions of a thriller. This can be seen through our main and ancillary texts (teaser trailer, film poster and website). Starting with our main text, the teaser, we follow our genre very closely – focusing on suspense and enigma throughout our trailer. We knew that the ‘real media’, ie. The films in the true film industry, would focus on these elements and would rely heavily upon them for the audience to be satisfied with the text.  The basic storyline itself is thriller-esque and contains a strict narrative. We watch the protagonist being stalked by someone and use conventions to point the blame towards her boyfriend, such as the protagonists DVDs being ordered in a way the boyfriend would arrange them and use a flashback to emphasises this, forcing the audience to think its him. We also played with ‘Voyeurism’ and in many ways made the audience feel more involved with our story. Voyeurism was vital to our text, as the whole idea of being watched was pivotal to our storyline, and so it would emphasise our film even more so. During our editing process, we made many shots shortened to speed up the trailer as seen in the ‘Primer’ trailer, and used conventional music which, apart from speeding the trailer up, made the trailer seem much more action packed. We realised that this was of great significance, as the slower the trailer, the more the audience would loose interest as it didn’t seem to have that same impact.  We in some ways defied our genre though by having a female protagonist, as this is more common in films of the horror genre, although in today’s media, many films are more common with female protagonists such as ‘Enough’, a thriller which we used as one of our influences for the teaser and poster. The poster is also quite similar in terms of genre, mimicking the ‘Enough’ DVD cover with the protagonist turning her head, but we exaggerated this. Another convention we used was through connotation, using the mise-en-scene of the home to denote safety, although this is breached in the story. Finally our website, uses motif like many thrillers with our ‘desire’ font in cut-outs from newspapers, as are our links and this is repeated on the poster and trailer. The colour scheme is black and grey – just like the James Bond and Bourne series along with various other thriller trailers as they are the conventional colours of the genre. So overall, you can see that our texts do generally slot into the ‘thriller’ genre as we tried to make them fit our genre as much as possible, and I feel that we have managed to integrate this successfully. 

02. Coming Soon! 

HOMEWORK: Post-Modern Precis

Postmodernism, as defined by McDougall, cannot truely be defined, and therefore leaves us with no specific definition of the movement. Instead he cites of examples and conventions which fit into the Postmodern genre of media, such as Films, including 'the Matrix' and 'Bladerunner', locations such as 'Disneyworld' (and the idea of Utopia, Dystopia and the 'Hyperreal' world), along with television shows like 'The Office' or 'Extras'. Stating that 'Postmodernists claim that' we are 'in a media-saturated world', where 'we no longer have any sense of the different between real things and images of them, or real experiences and simulations of them.' This view is emphasised by Postmodern Theorist Baudrillard who states rather rationally that 'the Gulf War never happened', as well as the events of 9/11 for the simple reason that what the majority of the people see when they think of those events are the images which were shown to the audience through television not the actual events; hence the use of the term 'mediated' as that's exactly what it was.

Lyotard, another theorist states that 'the idea of truth needs to be deconstructed so that we can challenge dominant ideas that people claim as truth', this forms the basis of a 'grand narrative. Yet, the idea of a lack of distinction between reality and the media is reflected in Disneyworld, in which the magical world of Disney is almost recreated; with castles, shows, characters and houses scattered around for one to visit. This is known as 'Simulacrum'. One example of a 'Simulacrum' in a specific media text is within the film 'Bladerunner' with its 'postmodern Aesthetic, mixing textual references and images' this intertextuality makes up one of the many elements of a Postmodernist text. Displaying a Dystopian life in Los Angeles where most people have become virtualised simply shows a hyperreal and sumulacra-based society. It is also an achronisitic text which plays about with time, or the lack of time within the movie. Also the use of binary opposites defines the postmodern themes through the 'modern' - such as human vs machine, life vs death. etc.

Many directors like Michael Winterbottom and the Coenn Brothers have been criticised for being too postmodern. With their 'fictionalised' versions of real life, and the 'docudrama' genre of film by Winterbottom, and the evident breaking of the fourth wall, we can see a fragmentation of reality, or the representation of a media text. Also playing with the elements of Irony and 'pure reality collates together a set of post modern texts such as 'The Hudsuker Proxy' or 'Fargo'.

Television is also exploited to create a postmodern sense of medium. Doctor Who and Torchwood, both produced by the BBC include typical traits; through their representation of the T.A.R.D.I.S and its effect of bringing a nostalgic yet futuristic appearance shows also subverts typical sci-fi fiction. Also Intertextual references are constant, as well as 'intertextual' appearances from the show-spin offs, over-arching plot arcs and references to things in today's society are some of the things we show Doctor Who as postmodern. The Mighty Boosh uses a technique known as 'Bricolage' through remixing old formulae’s such as stereotypes, misconceptions of society, and values of a television show. Its even a hybrid of genres, intertextual and eclectic. Finally shows such as 'Extra's represent a celebrity lifestyle, and in the Christmas special, Gervais announces to the world through 'Big Brother' all about celebrities and how they are different, and how television exploits them. This in itself is significant as it shows 'Decontextualisation' and more importantly self-referential.

Magazines are yet another platform which continue Postmodern themes with how they encourage the representation of the target audience -for example how it represents its and the opposite gender, and how to represent the other gender to the reader. It also introduces a 'secondary reader', as explained by Dougalll like a gay male reader reading Elle. This creates an identity which is fluid, gender and sexuality as performative. In other words active.

Even video games are post modern, as emphasised by Dougalll. Grand Theft Auto immerses us into a world where we can get away with anything and defy the laws of our governments, and do things we could never do in reality. We also learn of MMRPG's such as world of warcraft, which does similar things, taking us into a feeling of being lost in the gameworld, leading us to a enhanced state of Happy Hyper reality through Flow and Immersion - A state where the game gets more difficult as we progress, but also more achievable and pleasurable. The immersion is then the pleasurable loss of reality. Metalanguage therefore comes into play as we became to articulate ourselves as the avatar in the game. This creates an argument between 'Ludology', the difference between a novel reader and a game player, and the 'Narratology' where recognise the plots and characters from the canon.

CLASSWORK Catch up! NF!

Discuss://
Meme's, Bricolage, Simulacra/rum, Stuff on Mighty Boosh!

ESSAY: EXPLAIN HOW AND WHY POSTMODERN MEDIA PLAYS WITH VERSIMILITUDE UNFINISHED

Explain, in 750 to 1000 words, how and why postmodern media plays with the verisimilitude of a text

Postmodern Media is a form of media in which could be a variety of platforms; television shows or film. It contains various elements such as playfulness of a text, intertextuality and the use of parody (the latter maybe the most well known within a postmodern text). Postmodernism is almost the binary opposite of Verisimilitude which shows a representation of truth or reality.  Postmodern media plays with truth and reality in many ways, and this can be seen through both media platforms of the Television and Film, in which the mediums alters or parodies reality and texts in which the audience are aware. 

This notion of postmodernism shares a symbiotic relationship with the communication theory or ‘Chandlers Model’. Compromised of three different aspects of readership – The Audience, the Production and the Referent, we can see how each goes hand in hand with the other.  For example, the audience watches a production, and the production is made for the audience. 

In terms of post-modernism, the Production is what alters the truth or reality for the audience through referring to things that the audience recognises or believes in and this is then twisted . An example of this is through parody eg famous historical figures seen in ‘Futurama’ with their heads in jars. We know that these figures are either dead or alive in today’s society and that their heads in jars do not exist.  This then creates humour and is often used to mock Presidents of America. This is also very playful – and so the merging of post-modern elements is a successful way in which Post-Modernism plays with verisimilitude. In terms of television, some of the most arguable Postmodern directors include Matt Groening (The Simpsons, Futurama) or Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) are both writers within Fox (as a larger institution then the directors). It is highly regarded (and debated) that these are some of the most postmodern writers of our age and through their series we gain a flavour of Postmodernism within the television. In many respects, these are more relatable, or in postmodern terms Self-Referential, to an audience as they focus more on family life and then using parody and pastiche to exaggerate the life of those represented within the series, such as “The Simpsons” which have had parodies and guest appearances of a huge variety of cast; Mary Poppins, Mufasa, Michael Jackson and Britney Spears. This shows a varied range of

representations and these are usually over-dramatised like the characters within the series and are a lot larger then life. 

Another aspect of Post-Modernism is the breaking of the fourth wall, in which the characters within the television series ‘reach out’ to the audience – and this creates a sense of ‘Hyper-Reality’. Hyper reality is a reality within reality; very much like the Disney Parks – MGM studies creates an atmosphere of film sets and their Design process through their rides, Epcot allows one to travel from the United States to Italy, Morocco, Canada and more, whilst Magic Kingdom allows one to go through mini-kingdoms and explore the various different realms of the Disney movies such as the house of Minnie and Mickey Mouse. This shows how difficult it can be to distinguish what is real or fiction and thus creating a sense of Hyper-Reality. In terms of media and the breaking of the forth wall, it becomes ‘difficult’ as a member of the audience to distinguish what is real or not, because they are talking directly to the audience and then creating a fragmentation within the series. This then is altering our form of reality or verisimilitude. Postmodernism plays with verisimilitude in this way for that very purpose.

Postmodern texts are usually (but not always) very comical and this is for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it sets them apart from usual texts and setting stories in average locations and situations in which we are familiar, such as the workplace (as seen in “The Office” or the “IT Crowd”) and through adding comedy to these (which give connotations of a dull working atmosphere or workaholics) spices up the typical representation in which non postmodern texts represents, and so this alienates the audience and thus creates a false sense of verisimilitude or a postmodern feeling. This notion is then affected by the playfulness of a text and enhanced through the idea of Nihilism in which contrasts to the playfulness of a text. This idea of lack of faith is also very unfamiliar to typical texts and a contemporary audience who are used to a strict narrative and the happily ever after which is present in Postmodern texts. This Nihilism also creates playfulness because of how different it is in context with the medium itself. For example, Homer Simpson in “The Simpsons” is quite Nihilistic through others have little faith in him because of his personality, and thus leads him into hilarious situations, showing as an example how Nihilism can affect the relationship between itself and the playfulness of a text.

To conclude, we can see how postmodernism affects the verisimilitude of a text and plays with it to differentiate itself from normal texts. It uses typical postmodern conventions to create this new motion and through the key ideas of self-referentialism and hyper-reality affects the idea of Verisimilitude even more so. What seems to make the playing with truth and reality even more so is the more exaggurated representation of normality through their texts and using it to exploit reality to represent it in a more fashionable and desirable light.

917 words! 

CLASSWORK: POSTMODERNISM WITHIN OUR POSTER

Why is this post-modern?

Our poster is in many ways is post-modern. Firstly, the sepia tones create a contradictory sense of time, as it is based in modern day but looks old-aged. This is partially because photos are quite important within our film. It also creates a sense of 'Achronistisity' [?] meaning no sense of time which is a post-modern trait. Secondly, it is self-referential through the 'whats your' which makes the audience think and question their own desires. Although love is a key undertone within our story, the idea of desire contradicts the connotations. For example, lust, a sexual-predatory nature or the obsessive need of something, all ideas portrayed within our film. This in many ways is playful, although not to a humourous extent as we are playing with the audiences ideas of desire. This is also shown through the contradictory nature of defying conventions. The desire makes you think of love, but the genre is thriller (shown through the first person point of view, which makes it look like she is being watched) thus creating a sense of Irony. . The idea of the no sense of time also creates a sense of hyper-reality or 'false history'.

CLASSWORK: EVOLUTION

EVOLUTION

Key Biological Terms: Evolution – Natural Selection – Survival of the Fittest – Darwin – Common Ancestor -Mutation.    On a cellular level, evolution through cells is through Mitosis / Meiosis

Two Debatable Types of Evolution  --------> Biological and/or Physical
                                                             --------> Cultural

Meme: “An idea or creative item that is passed on virally from person to person to the point where lots of people know about it and are talking about it” – OCR media for A2 Studies, Third Edition, Julian McDougall.

An example of a Meme is through Pamela Anderson and 'Baywatch'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuYrRebvFHc

Also a 'Postmodern' Meme: http://longroadmedia.com/advent/

Postmodern Elements:

SCREAM 2
1997, – Wes Craven (Auteur)

Playful – Music is carnival like, plays with typical conventions like Foreshadowing and Pathetic Fallacy and of Horror Movies – and so playing with the memes and conventions.

Intertextuality: We can identify memes within ‘Scream’: Black Eyed Peas, the ‘Scream’ mask comes from Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’, Psycho (through the Shower), and Horror Conventions. Both the blonde female character and the coloured female have popcorn.

Nihilistic: Grim tone

Parody: Parodying ‘Scream 2’ – with popcorn, phone call and knife. Arsenal

Self-Referential: Through the female role commenting on conventions and what we’re thinking. Simulacra is used.

Hyper-reality: through the audience ‘watching the audience’ through the camera shot. The knowing from us that one of these characters will die within the world of the movie we’re watching, not them.

SCARY MOVIE

Playful: There are too many words to describe this.

Intertextuality: Memes: Drew Barrymore, Arsenal of weapons of greande, banana etc. ‘Drew’ as a porn model, playing with conventions of a horror including foreshadowing of her death.

Nihilistic: Grim tone

Parody: Parodying ‘Scream 2’ – with popcorn, phone call and knife. Over-Dramatisation of a horror movie, yet incredibly funny. Baywatch parodied with the sprinklers.

SCARY MOVIE 3.5

Playfulness: Taking the piss out of sequels and themselves. Continuity - such as the bathroom with a dripping door knob and flooded floor you expect a flooded bathroom

Intertextuality: Lord of the Rings, Signs, The Ring

Parody: Themselves, Blonde, the chair - plastic and unreal, their not in reality in a film. Soft porn context. The horror conventions with the telephone - playing with conventions such as the phone-call, it makes us think its going to be someone horrible through the music reinforcing our expectations. Golemn voice -'High Mom'  . Representation of blondes, school girls. The parody of 'The Ring' through the death of Katie and the television. 'Ground-Hog Day' through the dude hitting his head on the lamp. Music and corn-field from 'Signs'. Cat driving tractor, chariot with the dogs, and the dogs smoking Shisha = unreal.

Self-Referential - Through its explicitness.

3-5 Sentences on scream and or scary movie on how they appeal to the audience.


REFERENCES:
http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/the-scream-edvard-munch.jpg (The Scream by Edvward Munch)
http://www.princessleia.com/images/MyImages/essays/giraffe_lamark.jpg

CLASSWORK: Postmodern Theorists UNFINISHED.

WALTER BENJAMIN.
       Discussion of Class and the High/Low Culture
       "Art in the age of mechanical"
       "Death of the Truth of the Art."

BAUDRILLIARD
     "The Gulf War Never Happened" - The mediation of the Gulf War through the video camera on missiles brings a sense of realism to this war that had never experienced before.

CLASSWORK: Introduction to Post Modernism

Postmodernism.
In class we discussed what we believed to be elements of post modernism. We came up with a varied list including:
- Death of the Author
-End of History
-Differences from the norm
-Blending and piss-taking genre
-Breaking the fourth wall
-Rejections of values or conventions

__________________________

P - Playfulness (of a text) - This is where in a television series, the text does not take itself or another text seriously.
A - Aesthetics - Cultural Condition, beauty or the way something looks.
I - Intertextuality - Where other texts are referenced to.
N - Nihilistic - Rather pessimistic, no faith
P - Parody - A direct spoof of another text.
I - Irony - a type of sarcasm, in which witty language is used to mean the opposite meaning. For example, a fat person saying to someone to cut down on the fries or something.
P - Pastiche - An imitation of multiple texts.
E - Eclecticism - A combintation of multiple genres.
S - Self-referential - Referring to ones self

__________________________

We also discussed the origins of 'post-modernism' and how it is different from the classical and ancient view of the world.
For example.
Ancient Classics
V
Dark Ages
V
Renaissance
V
Enlightenment
V                      V
Ancients            Moderns
                          V
                           Modernism
                            V
                              Post-Modernism

ESSAY : HOW DO MORAL PANICS FORM A FRAGMENT OF CULTURE?

Before we can fully assess moral panics in relation to culture, we must define what culture is. Culture is the preferred values favoured by a certain group. A moral panic will usually help form a fragment of a culture because they share the same values as others.

In terms of our case studies, we can see a clear borderline of Culture and Moral Panic, and this can especially be seen through the AIDS and paedophilia. We can clearly see that through these, communities react to these panics in a phenomenal way. In terms of AIDS, the fact it was known as an 'Epidemic' depicts how strong public opinion must have been over the disease. The next step of this is to analyse the culture formed within. Homosexuals and drug addicts were attacked by the public - and culture could then be formed. Extreme Christians would have a true reason to express their religious ideals (as Homosexuality is against the Catholic faith in particular) and this then became a fragment of their culture. The AIDS then intermingled with existing phobias - Homophobia, and this again shows the effect moral panic has on culture. With the media spotlight on the pandemic, portraying homosexuals and drug-users in an incredibly negative light, its no wonder to see how the moral panic spread even more so. Homosexuals and drug-users became folk devils and normal and religious propaganda attacked them even more so. This obviously worsens moral panic, especially to those uneducated to the subject, as most people were twenty years ago. But with the development of science, came the revelation that all could gain the disease and this lessened the media spotlight, and although it is incredibly well known that all can become infected, especially seen in third world countries, it still is often used as a form of abuse to homosexuals and bisexuals.

In our second case study about paedophilia , we can see how moral panics create fragmentations of culture in a different way. Whilst AIDS became moral panic through physical actions and demonisation, we could say that Child Abuse in families was created more passively, in the aspect that although the paedophiles were dehumanised and aggressively attacked, like homosexuals and drug-users, the main cause of action was through communities working (such as campaigns) together to solve the problem. This is highly contrasting to the AIDS epidemic and shows the differences in the forming of culture. A brilliant example of this forming of culture is through the abduction and unfortunate death of Sarah Payne. Here we can see the entire nation working to gain justice through the tragic events. This can be seen today - fourteen acts of legislation from 'Sarahs Law' have been pushed to date. This shows how a community when pulling together to achieve a sense of justice. This act was heavily supported by the newspaper, News of the World and shows how the medium truly is the message, as more support was gathered through the story. This shows how culture can be formed through the media and moral panics can largely affect a huge variety of people.

Through these case studies, we can gather how the audience reacts to the media; whether its through newspapers, propaganda or other platforms, positively and negatively, and the affect it has on the audience, and those being attacked. Moral Panic affects the media as well as the audience, and this creates the fragment of culture in some ways because the media broadcasts the message and either gives it its support or attacks it. The shared values of many people can then be placed into the spectrum as it is these people who listen to and are influenced by the media, showing how important the media is to forming fragments of culture. Also the very fact that people share these ideals, could arguably be another reason for creating a culture in the first place.

word count: 651 words.

PROJECT: POWERPOINT !

BRIDGET JONES POWERPOINT

View more presentations from xforeverandalways.

>Bridget Jones's Diary is a British movie, through the issues outlined in the powerpoint. Although the film contains some American elements such as the production companies and an American lead role, Renee does play a British character, accent and all. The film has a keen focus on gender values; Bridget expliots her feminitity to get the man; while the man uses this to get the sex, putting it simply. This objectification of women is in some way negative. Another sexist issue is in terms of her career; whilst the men are the bosses and successful characters, the women are stereotypically the receptionists or in Bridget's case later on, the laughting stock of the show (the fireman pole). What representation of Women are we truely getting; Weak, alcoholic and jobless - possibly a sexist, negative reading?

PROJECT: OUR STORYBOARD !

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/samj042000/storyboard.jpg

This is a link to our storyboard. It displays three images, each one representing the beginning. middle and end of our film. We originally made our own by drawing them on Paint, but my computer unfortunatly had issues later, and the file

was erased, so we made a new one with various pictures on the internet which portrayed our initial ideas anyway. we then briefly wrote about the scenes. This way we could show the audience our initial ideas. We have chosen to

do our teaser trailer on a film similar to 'Bridget Jones's Diary' but with a twist that its from a male point of view or perspective.

CLASSWORK: WORKING TITLE FILMS !

WORKING TITLE FILMS !

Working Title Films are a small company based in London, which produces a variety of television shows and film. A lot of their films have a keen focus on the life of British citizens and usually portray some sense of realisim with very moral themes, such as Billy Elliot (which is about a boy who longs to dance and perform ballet) common themes within the film could be individuality or achieving your goals and working your way for them. Working Title Films also remake novels such as Pride and Prejudice. The company itself is manned by Eric Fellener and Tim Bevan, and the company have won various awards and participated in many festivals icluding Cannes and Berlin and the BAFTAs. They have frequently worked with American film-makers such as Universal Studios.

http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/film.php?filmID=14 Billy Elliott

http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/film.php?filmID=33 The Calcium Kid

http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/film.php?filmID=76 Drop Dead Fred

http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/film.php?filmID=30 Love Actually

http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/film.php?filmID=38 Pride and Prejudice

CLASSWORK: 'FILM PITCH' (HIGH CONCEPT)

For my film pitch, I will be using 'The Narnia Chronicles, Voyage of the Dawn Treader'. Although this is owned by an American company, it was written by a British Author (CS Lewis) , giving it historical / cultural interest to Britain, as well as having a predominantly British Cast (William Moseley, Anna Popplewell and Georgia Henly, as well as Ben Barnes and various others), but also has a British Director (Michael Apted).

Narnia is yet again in need of help, and the youngest of the Pevensie siblings (along with their cousin Eustace) have been entrusted with the task to embark on a journey onboard 'The Dawn Treader' and help find the seven lost islands, but they must survive a terrible storm and sail uncharted waters to do so, and even reach the end of the world. A magical film full of mystery that is perfect for the family.

CLASSWORK: MYTH !

What is myth? And how does myth(ology) link to and relate with media texts?
The term "mythology" sometimes refers to the study of myths and sometimes refers to a body of myths...The term "myth" is often used colloquially to refer to a false story; however, the academic use of the term generally does not refer to truth or falsity. (Wikipedia)

Mythology is used in a plethora of media texts, we see it in film (take Disney's Hercules), in literature (such as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings), TV (Charmed, Supernatural etc.), computer (as seen through games such as 'Age of Mythology' and even in music (example coming soon). What I find special about mythology is how broad the spectrum of it is; You have ancient stories, gods, goddesses, locations and creatures, and all of these can be placed into many narratives/mediums. The Underworld for example is well known in many films and known by many as the place of the dead, and although in different societies such as the Aztec culture who knew the Underworld as 'Mictlan'. But this convention, of a place for the dead, usually ruled by some powerful god becomes a 'Mythological Archetype' because of its use in the different mediums and conventions shared.

EXAMPLES OF MYTH:
Deities: Greeks (Ie. Athena, Zeus, Hera, Posiedon, Ares etc.) , Roman (Venus, Jupiter, Pluto etc.), Egyptian (Ra, Osiris, Isis, Bast, Horus etc.), Celtic (Rudianos, Vindonnis, Damona, Abnoba etc.) , Norse (Thor, Odin, Freyr, Loki etc.) ETC.

Figures: Hercules, Romulus, Remulus, Jason, Ajax ETC.

Tales: The Odyssey, Lliad, 'Myths of Origin', Jason and the Argonauts, Ragnarok ETC

Locations: Underworld, Atlantis, El Dorado, Hyperborea, Camelot, Avalon, Valhala ETC.

Creatures: Phoenix, Yeti, Unicorn, Dragon, Elves, Faeries, Hippocampus ETC.

The idea of Myth is a clever idea in film, because it gives you limitless possibilities with storylines and character; plot twists and even narrative. Although myth is commonly used in film with a 'fairytale' template, these ideas can be played upon, twisted even and completely altered from common tradition. This doesn't just apply to film; literature and theatre share the ideologies of Myth.

CLASSWORK: iWEBEXPERIENCE !

The use of iWeb in class has mixed feelings from me. The layouts of the webpage and some of the things you can produce with the program are nice, but I just feel that a lot of the tools are just to basic, and that you are limited to what you can produce with it. Also, compared to other programs or hosts online (such as Blogspot, Livejournal etc.) it takes a lot longer to produce something you are happy with, whilst on the latter its very simple. Although I have a lot of HTML and web-making experience, I generally dislike the program because of how easy it is and the limitations within it. I mean you can download files such as images and videos (which is something that iWeb lacks; premade matieral for if you wish to mess around with the program) onto your page. Some of the pro's of the program though, are that you can create a webpage or a blog with it. It would take a lot of work, but having that freedom is quite nice, compared to Blogspot in which you can only create a blog. Its also possible to upload Podcasts, videos, images, flash products and even more, which is quite good as you have some range of freedom on the items physically used on your webpage. Although I have not had much time on the iWeb program, I think I will practise with the program some more to see if I can change my opinion of it.

CLASSWORK: USER GENERATED CONTENT !

As defined on Wikipedia:
User-generated content (UGC), also known as consumer-generated media (CGM) or user-created content (UCC), refers to various kinds of media content, publicly available, that are produced by end-users. (End User is the audience.)

EXAMPLES OF UGC.
http://thelionandthelambrp.proboards.com/index.cgi (ROLEPLAYS IN GENERAL)
Forum roleplaying could be seen as UGC. This is because members will sign up to roleplay with other members. I see this as User Generated Content simply because the site is based on a film (which just one type of medium) and members are replying with their own version of plot events based after the series.

http://www.youtube.com
Youtube is a UGC simply because people upload the videos (this being the medium) and rating and commenting on them.

http://www.amazon.com
Amazon is another example because the audience review the items being put up on sale. They can also rate certain items.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/ (Itunes)
Itunes is a brilliant exaple of UGC because it allows users to purchase a convergence of mediums (music, film, tv and games) but then rate and review the items they purchase in a fashion similar to Amazon.

CASE STUDY : MICHAEL CAINE !

"Your only sup-possed to blow the bloody doors off!"

Biography !

Sir Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Jr. was born in 1933. He is a English actor and has stared in over one hundred movies. Such titles include Zulu (1964), Alfie (1966), The Italian Job (1969), Educating Rita (1983) and Batman Begins / The Dark Knight. Because of his huge contribution to directing and acting, he was knighted in 2000 by the Queen. He has also been nominated for six academy awards and has won one award each decade, whether for a lead or supporting role. He choose Michael Caine as he stage name after seeing a cinema poster advertising 'The Caine Mutiny'. He was born to Ellen and Maurice Micklewhite. His father had romany gypsy heritage but a strong catholic, whilsth is mother was a protestant, and that was how he was raised. He's also served the British Army. He was married to actress Patricia Haines whom bore a daughter named Dominque, and later re-married actress/model Shakira Baksh and she had a daughter called Natasha.

For a brief biography of Michael Caine, check out

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000323/bio

and for his filmography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Caine_filmography

Portrayal of Characters !

CLASSWORK: WHAT IS 'BRITISHNESS'?

In class, we have been studying 'Media and Collective Identity' and as one of the homeworks set, we were asked what films are British Classics, and through that what we do learn of different interpretations of 'Britishness'.

CLASSICS

According to The Daily Mail, arguably the most Labour supportive newspaper.

-The Man in the White Suit
-Passport to Pimlico
-The Lavender Hill Mob
-The Lady Killers
-The Titfield Thunderbolt
-Billy Liar
-Far from the Madding Crowd
-The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery
-The Colditz Story
-The Cruel Sea
-School for Scoundrels

NEWSPAPERS:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/jun/10/immigration.terrorism

'Britishness means completly different things to different people, depending on their age and background' - The Observer / The Guardian

POLITICIANS AND MONARCHS:

http://www.webritish.co.uk/ - 'Blood Alone does not define national identity and that modern Britain was shaped by a ''Rich mix of all the different ethnics and religious origins" ' -Tony Blair, Former Prime Minister.

"Our richly multi-cultural and multi-faith society" - Queen Elizabeth II, Residing monarch of Britain.

THE PUBLIC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6723325.stm - 'There is no single definition, and every person has a different idea to what it means' - Shayk Hamza Yusuf Hanson.

CLASSWORK: LINKS TO BRITISH FILMS

http://harrypotter.warnerbros.co.uk/site/index.html
This links to the official harry potter website, and in this we have links on the top bar that lead to internal pages such as gallery and posters, but we also have a link to a Warnerbrother's hosted page of the previous Harry Potter films. This could be external as it is not related to the main focus of the site, HBP. As the next film (Deathly Hallows) is released, that will become the priority of the website, whilst HBP would be moved to the 'Previous Years'. The website fits very nicely to the dark and sinister tone of the book/film, and the colour scheme makes the page easier for the eyes. The page is easily accesible and contains a variety of material for the audience to navigate and explore for themselves. This site also includes UGC, in which members of the public can submit 'potions', pictures and videos, along with a plethora of other external materials.

http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/film.php?filmID=104

Atonement does not have its own private site like Harry Potter, but shares its site with a huge number of 'working title' films. This means there is only a page on the film, showing key information such as the trailer and cast - but with few pictures. The page is full of advertisments of other films and merchandise, and so this detracts from the film 'Atonement' being as central and pivitol such as the 'Becoming Jane' website.

http://www.bvimovies.com/uk/becoming_jane/

This site is beautiful - it's animated and feels very nostalgic, which reflects the era of the film. Because of the flash and animation, the site gives an ispiring feeling to the audience. The site itself is very easy to navigate, although quite slow because of the animation. All the pages share smiliar layouts and colour scheme, and the site is littered with images which all suit there purpose of advertising the film 'Becoming Jane' and persuading the audience to look into the film more.

CLASSWORK: BRITISH TEASTER TRAILERS

What is a (British) Teaser Trailer?

1) How do teaser trailers vary from other trailers?
Teaser trailers vary from theatrical trailers by the way that they are usually shorter then a usual trailer (30-60 seconds), contain less footage from the film and usually more text. The footage that is may not even be in the final editing of the film, it may have been removed entirely or re shot with new lines, lighting or location, so a lot of what we see in a teaser trailer could vary greatly from the final trailer and film. They are released long in advance before the release of the film that they are advertising.

2) What is the purpose of teaser trailers? and 3) How do teaser trailer satisfy there purpose?
The purpose of a teaser trailer is to do just as the name suggests, to tease the audience of the upcoming film. This is to give the audience a flavour of what may happen in the film, but usually the primary focus is to advertise the film, rather then give away then say the storyline. Sometimes they'll say the release date or of any extras coming from this film, such as the book or video game. They also give the audience a taste of the casting choice, the genre of the film (set up through some basic conventions of that genre, so for example in the Harry Potter we see a lot of magic, so we presume its a fantasy).

4) How and why might they aim to suit social networking sites such as facebook? And video sharing sites such as youtube?

Facebook and youtube are some of the most popular websites on the internet. Advertisements on facebook are very frequent, you get them on almost every single webpage you vist and on youtube it could very easily become the featured video. By placing an advertisment, it is possible to get a lot of attention from those using the websites (as in us, the audience). Social Networking websites suit teaser trailers as they are a lot cheaper to advertise due to their shorter running time, but also as said earlier, it will gain attention from the audience.

5) In what ways do teaser trailers particularly suit the "high concept" movie - the myth?

-To come.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OLYhrs6XCw 2007.
This video, taken from Youtube, shows the teaser trailer of the 2007 film Antonement, featuring James McAvoy and Keira Knigetly.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXNQigB9__4 2008. This video, again from youtube, shows the teaser trailer of Angus, Thong and Full Frontal Snogging.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zf9IW-R5eI 2009
This video, from youtube, shows the first of many teaser trailers of the upcoming Harry Potter movie featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.

CLASSWORK: MEDIA AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/samj042000/mediacollective.jpg

This link shows the table which we completed during our first lesson. It shows a variety of things surrounding British Film and its identity.

Iconic British Images

http://www.caminandosinrumbo.com/england/stonehenge/stonehenge.jpg

http://www.softpicks.net/screenshots/Old-Big-Ben-3D.jpg

http://www.history.org.uk/library/0807/0000/0109/Elizabeth_I_450.jpg

http://www.headington.org.uk/oxon/stgiles/pics/east/eagle_and_child_49_53.jpg

http://www.geraldscarfe.com/clipsimages/bbc.jpg

http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~emackenzie/english%20countryside.jpg