Monday, 6 April 2009

Timeline

1950
  • Debut was made for deaf children, Kitchen Magic - women were being shown as housewives and performing a typical female role.
  • Men were always shown as being in the bread winning and dominant roles.
  • Korean War, government was worried about the rise of juvenile delinquents but the amount was much lower compared to today.
  • UK population was 50,290,000; in May 2005 it was estimated 60,422,986. In UK a family’s average was 2.2 children, compared to 1950 where it was 3.5 children. 1 in 3 UK families owned a car. Average UK male annual salary £190.
  • World's first colour transmission, Panorama begins, The Benny Hill, First hospital drama on BBC, Jazz was known as the "Golden Age" in Hollywood, this era of movie-making saw the release of many classics, talented stars and directors.
1960
  • The younger generation began to rebel against the norms of the time. It became acceptable for women to wear trousers in 1960s.
  • John F Kennedy was assassinated on Nov 22, 1963 in his car during a parade; Malcolm X was assassinated in February, 1965.
  • The world’s Population in 1960 grown to 3 billion, end of the fifties most American households owned their own car and washing machine.
  • Children's Television - Sesame Street. Colour TV makes its way into U.S. homes. The first Star Trek episode, “The Man Trap,” is broadcast on September 8. Coronation Street begins, Steptoe and Son.
1970
  • Contraceptive pills introduced. Increase in divorce rates, single parent households, and pre-marital sex.
  • ABC, CBS and NBC agree to create a “family hour,” an early evening time slot that is free of violence and sex. George Carlin hosts the first show, Newsround begins.
1980
  • More tolerance for people of colour, Environmental concerns.
  • Roles of women in workplaces increased greatly.
  • More women started to call themselves by "Ms.' rather than "Mrs." or "Miss.
  • Environmental concerns intensified. In the United Kingdom, environmentally-friendly domestic products surged in popularity.
  • MTV had just begun; the very first video to be aired on MTV was Buggles.
  • Rapid growth in video game technology throughout the decade.
  • Eastenders begins, John Lennon shot dead.
1990 - I WAS BORN :)
  • John Major became prime minister
  • UK television — Popular comedies include Keeping up Appearances and Absolutely Fabulous. The Internet begins to affect pop culture, beginning around 1996.
2000
  • Women and men are gaining their equality in the work places. Gay people are now allowed to get married.
  • The labour party takes over.
  • Jamie Oliver takes his healthy eating plea to parliament.
  • Gordan Brown becomes priminister in 2007.
  • Reality TV is dumbing down audiences, too many shows are similar formats, and celebrity culture is everywhere.

Sunday, 4 January 2009

Exam Notess

Shake and Vac Advert


The three concepts I will discuss that relate to the Shake and Vac advert are, media language, representation, audience, and ideology.

Media language is about the techniques used such as, mise en scene, sound and editing. The mise en scene is in a typical nuclear family house with a woman in it, she is wearing a blouse shirt and apron, and her expressions are very lively and vibrant, this could be to make the Shake and Vac product more interesting and easy to sell.

Representation is about who or what is being represented in a text. In this advert a middle aged women is advertising a product, this show that stereotypes assume that housewives are suppose to know all about household products.

The audience are, the people that consume the text, in this advert this would be a woman around the age of 20-40 years who enjoy housework and are house proud, the expectations this advert gives out to its audience is that that will have a clean house like the one that they see in the advertisement.

Ideology is seen to be what the belief system is in the text, in this advert it is seen to be the patriarchy which is where, the man has control over the woman.

Other key concepts are narrative and genre. Genre is where the type of text, this text was an advertisement. The narrative in this text was for 30seconds the storyline, is equilibrium then disequilibrium, and finally new equilibrium. The storyline show a tidy house, which then goes messy, and then with use of the product goes clean again.

Exam Question 3 - Halloween Film Trailer

Halloween



Form/Function - to entertain and entice audiences to watch the film


M - much more fast paced, uses same music (homage)
I - Dimension and MGM has more of a budget
G - slasher
R - Much more focus on the killer
A - teens, audience already established as it's a remake
I -
N - Narrative characters (Propp)


This trailer belongs to a slasher genre, as it has a clear killer, who is on the loose and is getting revenge on teenagers. The producers have identified what has been successful in slasher films in the past and have carried on that formula. As it is a remake, it is post-modern and some may argue that this is reinvigorating the slasher genre and is bringing it to a new younger generation. On the other hand, it could be argued that the film industry has no more originality and are using tried and tested formulas to create successful trailers.

The intended audience type for this trailer are mainstream teenagers. It's primary audience may consist of both male and female teens but it's secondary audience maybe appealing to those who used to be teens when the original was released but are now much older. Moreover, the uses and gratification theory can be seen as being in place, as the audiences may choose to watch the texts for several different reasons such as entertainment and escapism

Violence and graphic imagery is being shown with the murders of the victims. The editing becomes fast paced, close ups are used on gruesome weaponry, eg a large bat and butchers knife. This indicates that audiences have become desensitised to violence over the years and need outrageous murders to be satisfyingly shocked.
There is no indication of a final girl, as the women are seen as being passive, receipents of male violence and there is a bigger focus on the male killer. This shows how the comteporary society has ignored feminism and has gone back to living in a patriarchal society.

Additionally, although this trailer is a remake, it shows that economial advantages seen over the years and this could be the reason as to why it has a higher budget and also may be the reason why it has a more popular institution, MGM therefore making it more highly appealable to its intended audeince type.

Exam Question 1 - Nintendo DS - Game Advert

Nintendo DS



In this essay I will discuss the key issues in the moving image advertisement of a Nintendo DS game, this text encourages healthy eating, which is something beneficial.

The Nintendo DS advert conveys a different message about women. From the three women dressed in leisure wear this shows that women are “good girls” as there body is not being revealed. Also from the question “What shall we have tonight girls” shows that they are independent women who just need each other and are not associated with men to have a good time and enjoy thier life. This shows how women have changed since the 19th century over time and may not need men, but the voice coming for this advert, is a deep mans voice which shows even though women have become independent over time, they still have a man controlling them. Moreover even if they don’t want to have a man controlling them in society there is still the concept of the “glass ceiling” where by women are finding it difficult to rise above where they are in society.

The advert is aime at women as only having three females creates the audience to also be female. The audience for this advert is a mass audience as Nintendo has made several other game consoles, so people are familiar with this particualr name brand. The lifestyles of this particular audience of female may be that they like to cook and are responsible for themselves.

Also the key theory of Marxism is incorporated here where by the women are not only dressed to look nice but also so they belong in the middle class society. Therefore the game will be purchased by the middle class as the advert is relating to them. The concept of Marxism works here as the game is aimed at the middle class and only middle classed women are to be seen in the advert which is maintaining the social divide
The ideologies that are being conveyed are implicit as we can see that the three women in this advert are independent and lead dominant lives. But even though women are being shown as strong and leading their own lives without men, they are still stereotyped to belong in the kitchen and again having to depend on men from the male voiceover.
Nintendo is a wide institution and wants its consoles to sell at the highest ratings. To do so they have produced another physically active encouraging game console. Therefore Nintendo maybe trying to tackle the issue of childhood obesity by making physically active game consoles.

Overall this advert portrays women as“good girl”. Also this advert influendes children in a good way. Nintendo has created a new game console with a new game aswell. Nintendo has advertised thier console and game in a diffrent way to reach their intended audience and make themselves hit a higher rating with what they have produced.