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

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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.