Miss Sommel Exam prep Notes

Stereotypes in the 7 areas

Age

·         Represents how you act

·         Babies are shown crying and screaming

Or cute and cuddly

·         Elderly people are shown as weak and lazy

Or mad and weird

·         Babies and Elderly people are both shown as needing to be looked after

·         Teenagers are shown as rude trouble makers and are shown steeling, drinking and doing drugs.

Or they are shown as hard working students who never get into trouble or do anything wrong.

·          Middle age people however are shown arguing, disagreeing or comical.

Regional Identity

·         The ‘North’ is shown as friendly and without a word for ‘the’ because its pronounced ‘T’

·         The ‘South’ is shown as cold, grey, monotonous and yet sophisticated.

·         The ‘Countryside’ is shown as being nice with big houses, green grass and farmers.

·         The ‘City’ is shown as really fast paced, dull and grey.

·         The ‘Village’ is shown as being slow, relaxed, bright and colourful.

Ethnicity

·         Black teenagers are shown as being unapproachable wearing dark thick clothing.

·         Indian people are shown to wear traditional clothing and be set up in arranged marriages with controlling parents.

·         White lower class are shown as skin heads with rude and obnoxious attitudes living on council estates.

Also having lots of fights, being rough and being small minded.

·         Black male is seen as being lazy and unwilling to work, or violent criminals (robbery etc.)

·         Asian Gay is shown as not being allowed or as being taboo and never seen.

Sexuality

·         Gay is generally shown wearing tight clothes and over the top leather.

They are generally shown with dark colours, implying evil.

They are also shown to be glowing or more feminine with a high pitched voice etc.

As well as that they are shown to not be interested in sport, to talk a lot, to be interested in dance and to be a drama queen.

·         Lesbian however are shown to be the complete opposite of the stereotypical gay with a lower pitch voice, more masculine features and are generally described as butch.

Ability and Disability

·         Disabled people are generally shown wearing comfy indoor house wear and living in dirty rundown unappealing bungalows. They are also always shown with their carer in shot and are always shot from a high angle as if they are to be looked down upon. Their personalities are generally quite stupid, evil or even helpless.

Female Representation - Calvin Klein (Eva Mendes)

In the above advert you see how Calvin Klein has represented the female form. The have shown them both sexually empowered and at the same time they are objectified. They have done this in many ways.

Firstly to show the woman is sexually empowered they have given her a strong and powerful stance, legs apart and hands on hips. This is viewed as quite a masculine stance due to it being easier and more comfortable for men. The legs apart show a steady stance and show that she doesn’t need any kind of support. In the image she isn’t hunched over and is in quite a dominant pose showing attitude and power. She is also wearing a plain black bra, because it is plain and slimming but at the same time stylish and sexy. The hands on hips automatically directs the audiences gaze to a specific region, they are essentially pointing to where they want you to look. The woman is also objectified by oiling up her body, showing a light shimmer of light. This makes you think that she’s just got out of the shower, instantly putting images into the viewers head.  It also gives the impression that it’s the evening and she could be going out on the town or for a date with someone from the opposite sex. Giving the impression that she is attractive to the opposite sex. She’s also shown wearing high heals to make her look taller and make her legs look thinner. 
Another thing that makes her sexually empowered is the fact that a low angle shot has been used to give the impression of looking up to her, again giving her a dominant position over the viewer. Even the placement of the ‘Kalvin Klein’ writing draws attention to the underwear by placing it near the suspenders, drawing the male’s gaze to the suspenders then up to the underwear. The suspenders are used to make her look more sexy and attractive, whilst there is no wedding ring to show that she could be single and provoke the male imagination. However this is still kept as tasteful sexiness and not slutty to show that she is still proper.

How is ethinicity represented in this clip from 'Hotel Babylon'?

Find more videos like this on Beauchamp College Media

In this clip from ‘Hotel Babylon’ ethnicity is represented in a very stereotypical fashion.

Firstly ‘Black’ people are represented by:

·         Bad Language

·         Being womanizers

·         Liking to party a lot

·         And smoking weed

Next is the ‘Japanese’, being represented as:

·         Perverse

·         Dirty

·         Rich

·         Neat

·         And Tidy

Then there is ‘French Maids’, being represented as:

·         Kinky

·         Strippers

·         ‘No Standards’

·         And doing anything for money

After that there is the ‘English’, being represented as:

·         Fat

·         Pathetic

·         Angry

·         But shown wearing white to show that he is still good

Finally there is the ‘Italian’ male, being represented as:

·         ‘Sleazy’

·         Dangerous

·         Has sex with a lot of people

·         Has sex with married people

·         Dirty Fighter

·         Good Cook

·         And wears black because he’s shown to be evil.

British and American Film

Film Questionnaire

1. What is your favourite genre of film?
2. Do you prefer British or American films?
3. How often do you watch movies?
4. Do you prefer DVD or Blue Ray?
5. Do you download videos Online?
6. Do you prefer to watch movies online or on tv?
7. How often do you go to the cinema?
8. Would you choose 3D or 2D films?
9. Would you prefer a 3D TV to a regular one?
10. How do you find out about up and coming films?
11. Do you follow information on sequels?
12. How often do you watch Trailers?
13. Do you follow news about the film industry?
14. Do you prefer animated films or actor films?
15. Do you buy films on pirate copy before their release date?

Lesson: Roland Barthes - Narrative Codes

Narrative Types:

• Open: (Lots of different meanings)
• Closed: (Only one obvious meaning)

Codes:

• Action Code
• any action that implies a further narrative acion. (when a gun is drawn you know there is going to be a gun fight).
• Enigma Code
• Any element in a story that is not explained and therefore, exists as an enigma for the audience, raising questions that demand explication.
• Semantic Code
• any element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation (signs/signifiers)
• Cultural Code
• any element in a narrative that refers 'to a science or a body of knowledge'. In other words, the cultural codes tend to point to our shared knowledge about the way the world works.
• Symbolic Code
• Claude Levi-Strauss - binary opposites, the contrast between two opposites, the grey are between two complete opposites.

Lesson: Re-Presentation

Definition

mine: Presenting something or someone in an idealistic way appropriate to the chosen audience.

Main: The way the media presents 'something' as though it were real, it is not, merely a copy of something.

Signs and Signifiers

• Sign: Something which communicates a piece of information.
• Signifier: Multiple 'ideas' or 'feelings' behind a sign.
• All signs belong to cultures

Gatekeepers

• The people in charge of what we see.

Ideology

• A belief system.

Rushmore

• Camera angle: Panning Mid Shot.
• Props: Maths work, Blazer, Reading paper, tea.
• Setting: Cold rainy day.
• Acting: Very confident.

1. The film is set in a private American catholic all boys school.
2. The main character is very smart, but isn't liked by other students.
3. He studying Maths
4. First impressions: Stuck up, Geek
5. Dressed smartly with a blazer when everyone else is wearing just t-shirts.

Production - Preliminary Magazine

I first had to take a few pictures to use for my magazine. I ended up taking about 10 pictures all together and choosing the best ones. I then imported them into my work and started editing. I began by using the magnetic lasso to cut nicely around the edges before moving the main image to a new layer. Once on a new layer i removed the old layer and started fine tuning my images with the eraser to remove any unusual edges. Next i had to start creating a background. I picked my colours because they were the school colours and i thought that it was appropriate for a school magazine. I placed this on a new layer to make it easier to edit and alter. Once i had done my background colour i needed to create my title. I chose 'The School Interlectual' because i thought it was a clever and appropriate name for a school student magazine. My 'Mast Head Font' was chosen because i believed it was simple, yet striking and was relaxed, yet sophisticated. I then chose another font for the rest of my article titles.
Once i had finished my front cover i selected another picture for my contents page and began the editing process again just like my magazine cover. Once again i used the same 'Mast Head Font' as my front cover and the same colour scheme to ensure i had consistency.

My main problem with the whole photoshop task was that i had never created a magazine cover or contents page before and i had never used photoshop before, so this was all quite new to me. However i do feel like i have managed to overcome this quite well. Next time i use the software i will definitely spend more time looking at all of the other features because I feel  like i have just stuck to the basic ones this time.

Pre Production - Preliminary Magazine

For this task we were told we had to work on our own. We were given a set of guidlines (rules) to follow. We had to have a mid shot photo on our front cover, we had to use the thirds technique, all the photos we used had to be taken ourselves and we had to have titles on the front cover explaining what articles were inside.

To begin with we had to create a mock-up of both our front cover and contents page. I found this incredibly difficult becuase i'm not used to having to create a plan of what photos i want and how i want them to look. I would usually have a rough idea of what sorts of photos i would like then take them and see which ones i prefer and create my magazine around them. So designing my magazine in my head was quite hard. I also found that i didn't put enough detail into my designs to follow. Next time i will spend alot more time over my mock-ups to ensure that my photoshop work is as good as it can be.

(front cover)

(contents)

Post Production - Preliminary Film

Finally to finish of our film we had to upload and edit all of the raw footage. We had a few problems with this to begin with becasuse at first we didn't have enough room on our network to save the files so we had to use an external hard drive. The next problem we had was that the footage wouldn't upload to the computer, so this wasted a considerable amount of time and cause us to fall behind slightly with our work. Once this was done things became a bit easier. I found that it was alot harder to edit the footage into the originally planned way because there were limitations with the footage. Then editing an audio track to it caused a bit of problem because it was alot harder to edit the audio track perfectly than i had previously hoped.

All in all i believe the task went quite well. We had a couple of problems, but managed to sort them all out eventually. There were a couple of continuity erros however, like as he opens the door there is alot of noise and then when he walks through the dorr it's silent. There is also an error with the editing where the video jumps as he walks round the corner. This was due to having a slow computer that wasn't very accurate with editing.

Next time i will make sure that we use a faster computer to edit so we don't have errors and i will use a voice over so that we don't have the continuity error with sound. I will also use my own camera because this will reduce the risk of uploading videos not working.

Final Product

Production - Preliminary Film

We began the production process of our video by deciding what we thought the storyboard was saying for us to do. We then decided where we thought the best place to film each part would be whilst deciding what angles to use. I already had experience using a video camera and another person in our group had experience with angles and tripod placement from photography so that made things a bit easier.

To ensure we had continuity we had to make sure that our actors were wearing the same things the next day when we had to film over two days. This wasn't very hard how ever made all of the difference.

We used a simple 'tape' video camera to record our film. This wasn't very good because it meant that we had to wait 2 seconds before filming and 2 seconds after before stopping, causing us to make more unnecessary editing and therefore required more time to complete.
We also used a tri-pod which meant that filming a steady shot was easy. Thanks to having someone in our group that had some experience with a tri pod it meant that we had very few problems using it. This made it a lot easier, however we did have a couple of shots that weren't quite flat and therefore made it look a bit more unprofessional.

Pre Production - Preliminary Film

For our preliminary video task we were told we had to film a short video including:

• walking down a corridor
• opening a door 
• and exchanging a few short lines of conversation

Whilst also using the following shots:

• over the shoulder shot
• close up 
• extreme close up

We began with creating a storyboard to show what angles we were going to use and what scene's we had to film. When doing this we had to make sure we were using continuity and character placement.
I learnt from creating my storyboard that you have to put alot of detail into them so that it's easier for others to interprate. Next time i will ensure that i take alot more time on it and include alot more detail.

(storyboard)

Because we didn't spend much time adding detail and making our storyboard clear the other group having to use our storyboard struggled in understanding what we intended there film to look like and therefore had to ask us alot of questions about it.

All about me :)

My name is Ryan and my birthday is on the 9th of september.

I love skating ( Blading ) and would do it 24/7 if I could. It really is my passion. I have only ever entered two competitions in my life however and have come 3rd in both. At the moment I have a motorbike, but I can't wait to get my car.

I like a lot of music. The only music I don't like is screamo. My only preference is fast paced or rap type music because it's very good to skate to.

If I'm not out skating I tend to be on the website roller news watching videos or round my girlfriends house.

I'm really looking forward to a new skate video called 'Game Theory' to come out because it has been predicted to be the best one yet.

This is a link to the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At9KT-7-9Iw

I am also very interested in filming and editing skate videos. The only problem is that it takes alot of time to get all of the footage because each trick might take you ten minutes to land the the trick, but then it will only last for, at the most, 5 seconds. But here are my two latest videos :)

2009 edit from Ryan McLoughlin on Vimeo.

Media Studies Basics

Language

The way in which you tell a story.

The 5C's:

Camera angles

Continuity

Cutting (aka editing)
Close-ups
Composition

Angles

When 'telling' the audience where the film is set use a Long Shot. This lets you show all the important info.

A Medium Shot is the most commonly used shot in cinema. It is used to show any character interaction.

Something/someone important to show the audience then use a Close Up.

Continuity

Generally refers to visual errors. For example one minute a man is wearing a blue top and then a red the top the next.

Cutting/Editing

Essential otherwise films would be in real time and never end.

It allows a director to change locations.

The main use is to either add pace to a scene to make it exciting or to slow it down for dramatic emphasis.

The main thing considered when making a short film.

• Gender
• Age
• Ethnicity
• Sexuality
• Class and Status
• Physical ability/disability
• Regional identity.