How has the internet changed our notion on ‘collective identity’?
Glen Waine
As different forms of technology have been produced and laid upon the public it is a definite trend above anything else that technology especially the internet has made the public lazy. Although this is definitely true it can be argued that instead of it making people lazy the internet has justly just made life easier. As the internet has progressed many uses have also developed, people can now choose to even do their grocery shopping over the internet. This being a very simple day to day chore has been made perhaps overly simplified due to the internet. As the internet has progressed from its origins in the 1990s as ‘the web 1.0’ a large following of gadgets have been created as it has changed to what Is called ‘web 2.0’. Items which are considered to be more or less ‘miniature computers, such as iphones’ have been created with very hi-tech additions such as the touch screen, the fact that devices such as these are also available to access the internet show the technological advances that have been made to make something so advanced fit in your pocket. The age of this new media has broadened the horizons and brought forward a large scale of new communication techniques all thanks to the internet. People can now talk to each other free of chare using the internet, social networking sites such as facebook, msn and twitter allow this to happen. The public can now very easily socialise with other people online from all over the world but is this effecting the British notion of collective identity?
The internet is definitely effecting our ideology of collective identity, as our new found love of being able to talk and send information across the world seems to allow use to in some way merge with other cultures in a digital format removes certain aspects of being individual and different into one global networking audience. The media has such a large audience due to not one single culture but other cultures surrounding it working together and merging in a way to develop[ technologies. One very large influence (especially on the internet front) has been America. Britain gets a lot of its media from America, especially films as a large percentage of films are primarily American funded. It can be argued that as other cultures have slyly integrated themselves with Britain through the media and internet that certain influences have been made on unwary people without them knowing. For example certain T.V advertisements that encourage you to ‘claim money’ for accidents and injury’s at work have most certainly migrated from American culture to British as suing is seen as a very Americanised thing to be done now a days.
It has been argued that a possible watershed would have a good effect on internet users. The idea of limiting internet use to certain times could effect the country in different ways. For Young people who use the internet more than anyone else it could be seen as both a good thing and a bad thing. As people can see the internet as being very distracting it also provides a wide range of information that can be accessed fast. This makes it very hard to decide if a watershed would be beneficial or not as students can use it to work as well as use it for games and social networking.
The generation that has grown up with the internet using it regularly is known as ‘digital natives’ while the generation that just missed the internet developing or grew while it was in its very early stages are known as ‘digital immigrants’. The contrast between these two generations is very large as digital immigrants lack a very basic understanding of how the internet is used in theory making it harder for themselves to use.
Sabbah said ‘web 2.0 isn’t a thing, it’s a state of mind’ this is very true as what he is trying to say is that the world has become so reliant on the internet that is has fused itself so much in to our day to day routine that at a flick of a finger it can be accessed. This is definitely seen in the teenage use of the internet who would be referred to as ‘digital natives’, one statistic about teenage internet use is that teenagers generally spend at least 2 hours a day on the internet. This statistic clearly show how much this generation relies on the internet therefore how much It will in the future as well as the next generation, or whatever is to replace internet 2.0. This being said our notion of collective identity being in tatters already could disappear in future generations quite easily as the ideology of using the internet on such a regular basis to do things that can be done in person but in such a more easy way for the user using the internet. It can definitely be said that our idea of collective identity has had a large impact on by other cultures and ideologies from countries such as America and across Europe.
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Notes
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Notes
Today’s average graduate has spent no more than 5,000 hours reading and more than 10,000 gaming as well as 20,000 watching TV.
Due to the day in day out use of technology and the fact this generation has literally grown up around it, has effected the way today’s students fundamentally think and process information. - Possibility that brain structure has physically changed.
Students who have massively integrated technology into their lives are known as digital natives.
Those people who were not born around new technology but have developed a linking for it later in life are known as Digital Immigrants. - Older generation tends to not rely on things such as the internet as a first option rather than digital natives.
Teaching problem as teachers are speaking in out dated language and as effect are struggling to teach a group who speaks a entirely different language.
Digital Natives used to receiving information really fast.
Digital immigrants don’t see how education can be fun or in other words learn through using T.V and the internet, this is of course due to the fact that they didn’t grow up with it learning how to use it.
Today’s teachers need to learn how to communicate in the same language as the students in order to allow them to reach there full potential. ß methodology.
Games introduced to help aid learning with software such as CAD.
Example of how the idea of fun plays a acute role in learning, “There is no reason that a generation that can remember over 100 different pokemon cant learn the names, populations, capitals of all the 81 nations in the world, it just depends on how its presented”.
Today’s average graduate has spent no more than 5,000 hours reading and more than 10,000 gaming as well as 20,000 watching TV.
Due to the day in day out use of technology and the fact this generation has literally grown up around it, has effected the way today’s students fundamentally think and process information. - Possibility that brain structure has physically changed.
Students who have massively integrated technology into their lives are known as digital natives.
Those people who were not born around new technology but have developed a linking for it later in life are known as Digital Immigrants. - Older generation tends to not rely on things such as the internet as a first option rather than digital natives.
Teaching problem as teachers are speaking in out dated language and as effect are struggling to teach a group who speaks a entirely different language.
Digital Natives used to receiving information really fast.
Digital immigrants don’t see how education can be fun or in other words learn through using T.V and the internet, this is of course due to the fact that they didn’t grow up with it learning how to use it.
Today’s teachers need to learn how to communicate in the same language as the students in order to allow them to reach there full potential. ß methodology.
Games introduced to help aid learning with software such as CAD.
Example of how the idea of fun plays a acute role in learning, “There is no reason that a generation that can remember over 100 different pokemon cant learn the names, populations, capitals of all the 81 nations in the world, it just depends on how its presented”.
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Moral Panics Essay
Compare and contrast three case studies how do moral panics help form fragmentation in cultural identity? Glen Waine
Case studies used: Rave culture and ecstasy, Video Nasties and Aids
Moral panic can be described as the intensity of a negative feeling towards a particular group of people who appear to be threatening social order at a certain time. In this essay I shall be contrasting three rather different forms of moral panic these being Aids, Rave/Drug culture and Video Nasties.
Raves were originally founded in America, namely Chicago, New York and Detroit but the culture migrated to England around 1988. Raves tended to be located in rural areas, such as large barns, unused or abandoned air fields and large fields in the country. As these raves were illegal the organisers had a technique to limit the chance of police interference. Organisers would keep the rave in question secret until a matter of hours before it was due to begin, as once a rave had started police were almost powerless due to being so massively outnumbered. By the end of the 80’s raves were seen as the largest youth culture Britain had ever encountered as it was seen as a somewhat ‘breeding ground’ for the sale and intake of drugs. Raves also generated a massive revenue for the actual organisers, which could range from £50,000-£75,000. It was not the actual ideology of the raves themselves which caused such a moral panic but the drug uses which went hand in hand with them. Amphetamines were the most commonly used type of drugs, as the consumers would ingest them to be able to dance and stay awake for the entire night. It was not until the media got involved with a relation between the raves and drug culture that a panic set in. The Sun and Daily Mail both published articles about a Midsummer Night Dream party (19890 which took place at an abandoned airstrip; headlines included ‘Ecstasy Airport’ and the articles tended to emphasise the events as nothing more than a attempt to hook an entire generation on drugs under the guise of friendly party’s. Shortly after these articles were published the Media started to focus more on the drug use rather than the events, which was triggered by the death of Leah Betts. Although her death is still closely related to rave culture she actually consumed ecstasy at her own home and instead of dieing of an over dose her death was actually due to swelling of the brain from water intoxication.
Raves and drug culture caused fragmentation and panic particularly with parents. The way the media portrayed and worded their articles turned the minds of thousands of parents creating a great deal of concern with what their children were doing particularly when going out. In terms of cultural identity it would be unfair to say that any one country would be overly ashamed of their appearance due to drug taking as it happens all over the world. Although you can certainly argue that when comparing the generation in question to previous ones a massive change is clearly there, which among other things creates a large sense of worry but with a topic so wide is sadly unavoidable and to an extent uncontrollable.
The next moral panic issue I will be discussing is Aids. This issue can to some extent be linked to the influx in rave and certainly drug culture. As the epidemic was recognised in 1981 - 1986 ( closely related timeframe to rave culture) and one of the ways it was being transmitted was through the use of drugs, although it being heroin and any other drug where it was being administered intravenously. This caused a very large panic with drug users and people/family familiar with drug users. Aids caused a great deal of controversy and stigma especially towards gay men and drug users with the press having headlines such as ‘Gay Plague’. As there was such a panic arisen by the media all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories were being thrown around, such as the disease was created in order to commit genocide and even to kill off homosexuals. Naturally the gay community would have been set into a massive panic but also largely scared of in some cases reporting having the disease, due to the stigma that came with it. Sadly Aids was not only being contracted through sexual activity and sharing needles. Haemophiliacs who needed regular blood transfusions were contracting it to through being given infected blood. This sparked off a large scale panic in itself as all given blood that needed to be used in certain medical procedures could be infected. This itself made people very sceptical about not only aids but medical procedures.
Aids has caused a large collection of opinions on a variety of relating subjects that have linked from the epidemic, but it has been questioned whether moral panic is really the right word to describe it. “ It is time to recognise that the Aids scare was one of the most distorted, duplicitous and cynical public health panics of the past 30 years. Instead of being treated as a sexually transmitted disease that affected certain high-risk communities, and which should be vigorously tackled by the medical authorities, the ‘war against Aids’ was turned into a moral crusade” - Brendan O’Neill.
The term ‘video nasties’ refers to films that are looked down upon for their massively violent content. The term was first introduced in the beginning of the 1980’s and progressed through the 80’s. The films in question were usually looked down upon by religious organisations and the press. Very much like rave culture it was not the actual ideology of the videos that people had a problem with it was more what seeing them would do to peoples perception and judgement especially young children. The most famous case of this is the James Bulger murder. The murder was apparently of a result of 2 boys carrying out a scene they had seen in a film. This type of moral panic is not seen as bad as it could be until actual acts start occurring from the interpretation of certain films being seen. Before the James Bulger happened a ‘moral crusade’ against hugely violent films was launched which involved the UK’s video recordings act. This act tightened restrictions on the codes of censorship on videos, this led onto the banning of many films. Before this act was introduced there was only the Obscene publications act which defined the term ‘Obscenity’ as something that which may corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it. This definition being quite vague was open for interpretation by everyone but it was solely reliant on the director of public prosecutions to decide whether certain films were fit for public viewing.
All 3 examples of moral panic I have mentioned all occur in relatively the same timeframe. Each one interlinks with the other in some degree especially the aids and rave culture examples. Each one causes fragmentation in different ways and to different extents but they all seem to lead the same trend, this being once the subject is raised and commented on by the media its from then that the public escalate it resulting in external opinions leading to panic. Its also easily seen that over the period of time the media or press get involved with it turns into somewhat of a bounce back scenario. What I mean by this is that the media will say something then leading to public reaction which again will return to the medias opinion.
Case studies used: Rave culture and ecstasy, Video Nasties and Aids
Moral panic can be described as the intensity of a negative feeling towards a particular group of people who appear to be threatening social order at a certain time. In this essay I shall be contrasting three rather different forms of moral panic these being Aids, Rave/Drug culture and Video Nasties.
Raves were originally founded in America, namely Chicago, New York and Detroit but the culture migrated to England around 1988. Raves tended to be located in rural areas, such as large barns, unused or abandoned air fields and large fields in the country. As these raves were illegal the organisers had a technique to limit the chance of police interference. Organisers would keep the rave in question secret until a matter of hours before it was due to begin, as once a rave had started police were almost powerless due to being so massively outnumbered. By the end of the 80’s raves were seen as the largest youth culture Britain had ever encountered as it was seen as a somewhat ‘breeding ground’ for the sale and intake of drugs. Raves also generated a massive revenue for the actual organisers, which could range from £50,000-£75,000. It was not the actual ideology of the raves themselves which caused such a moral panic but the drug uses which went hand in hand with them. Amphetamines were the most commonly used type of drugs, as the consumers would ingest them to be able to dance and stay awake for the entire night. It was not until the media got involved with a relation between the raves and drug culture that a panic set in. The Sun and Daily Mail both published articles about a Midsummer Night Dream party (19890 which took place at an abandoned airstrip; headlines included ‘Ecstasy Airport’ and the articles tended to emphasise the events as nothing more than a attempt to hook an entire generation on drugs under the guise of friendly party’s. Shortly after these articles were published the Media started to focus more on the drug use rather than the events, which was triggered by the death of Leah Betts. Although her death is still closely related to rave culture she actually consumed ecstasy at her own home and instead of dieing of an over dose her death was actually due to swelling of the brain from water intoxication.
Raves and drug culture caused fragmentation and panic particularly with parents. The way the media portrayed and worded their articles turned the minds of thousands of parents creating a great deal of concern with what their children were doing particularly when going out. In terms of cultural identity it would be unfair to say that any one country would be overly ashamed of their appearance due to drug taking as it happens all over the world. Although you can certainly argue that when comparing the generation in question to previous ones a massive change is clearly there, which among other things creates a large sense of worry but with a topic so wide is sadly unavoidable and to an extent uncontrollable.
The next moral panic issue I will be discussing is Aids. This issue can to some extent be linked to the influx in rave and certainly drug culture. As the epidemic was recognised in 1981 - 1986 ( closely related timeframe to rave culture) and one of the ways it was being transmitted was through the use of drugs, although it being heroin and any other drug where it was being administered intravenously. This caused a very large panic with drug users and people/family familiar with drug users. Aids caused a great deal of controversy and stigma especially towards gay men and drug users with the press having headlines such as ‘Gay Plague’. As there was such a panic arisen by the media all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories were being thrown around, such as the disease was created in order to commit genocide and even to kill off homosexuals. Naturally the gay community would have been set into a massive panic but also largely scared of in some cases reporting having the disease, due to the stigma that came with it. Sadly Aids was not only being contracted through sexual activity and sharing needles. Haemophiliacs who needed regular blood transfusions were contracting it to through being given infected blood. This sparked off a large scale panic in itself as all given blood that needed to be used in certain medical procedures could be infected. This itself made people very sceptical about not only aids but medical procedures.
Aids has caused a large collection of opinions on a variety of relating subjects that have linked from the epidemic, but it has been questioned whether moral panic is really the right word to describe it. “ It is time to recognise that the Aids scare was one of the most distorted, duplicitous and cynical public health panics of the past 30 years. Instead of being treated as a sexually transmitted disease that affected certain high-risk communities, and which should be vigorously tackled by the medical authorities, the ‘war against Aids’ was turned into a moral crusade” - Brendan O’Neill.
The term ‘video nasties’ refers to films that are looked down upon for their massively violent content. The term was first introduced in the beginning of the 1980’s and progressed through the 80’s. The films in question were usually looked down upon by religious organisations and the press. Very much like rave culture it was not the actual ideology of the videos that people had a problem with it was more what seeing them would do to peoples perception and judgement especially young children. The most famous case of this is the James Bulger murder. The murder was apparently of a result of 2 boys carrying out a scene they had seen in a film. This type of moral panic is not seen as bad as it could be until actual acts start occurring from the interpretation of certain films being seen. Before the James Bulger happened a ‘moral crusade’ against hugely violent films was launched which involved the UK’s video recordings act. This act tightened restrictions on the codes of censorship on videos, this led onto the banning of many films. Before this act was introduced there was only the Obscene publications act which defined the term ‘Obscenity’ as something that which may corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it. This definition being quite vague was open for interpretation by everyone but it was solely reliant on the director of public prosecutions to decide whether certain films were fit for public viewing.
All 3 examples of moral panic I have mentioned all occur in relatively the same timeframe. Each one interlinks with the other in some degree especially the aids and rave culture examples. Each one causes fragmentation in different ways and to different extents but they all seem to lead the same trend, this being once the subject is raised and commented on by the media its from then that the public escalate it resulting in external opinions leading to panic. Its also easily seen that over the period of time the media or press get involved with it turns into somewhat of a bounce back scenario. What I mean by this is that the media will say something then leading to public reaction which again will return to the medias opinion.
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Todays Lesson
In today's lesson we firstly learnt about the basic principles of Marxism in relation to political Britain and the media. This began by discussing movements such as the 'French Revolution' and how aspects were carried on to other countries (including Britain). We also went into detail about certain political aspects and ideologies in Britain from the 19th century onwards.
The second lesson we were split into groups and assigned a specific company and told to gather research on them in preparation for a PowerPoint presentation to be presented in our next lesson. My group including myself, Chris and Ibby were assigned ITV. Aspects of the company we were told to research included funding streams values any known political affiliations global positioning and brands/products.
The second lesson we were split into groups and assigned a specific company and told to gather research on them in preparation for a PowerPoint presentation to be presented in our next lesson. My group including myself, Chris and Ibby were assigned ITV. Aspects of the company we were told to research included funding streams values any known political affiliations global positioning and brands/products.
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Four Weddings and Sense & Sensibility.
Both sense and sensibility and four weddings and a funeral are two very different styled films primarily because of the time they are set in. Four weddings and a funeral depicts a much more ‘easy going’ view of weddings and how women are shown generally given the modern view where marriage is not necessarily the norm. In sense and sensibility this is an entirely different story as women were expected to live with their parents until (if they were luck enough) they got married. In the time sense and sensibility was set unmarried cohabitation was seen as completely absurd. In sense and sensibility women are basically treated as second class citizens due to social rankings, this can be seen early on in the film as the fathers estate must be passed down to a male descendant, leaving the women of the family virtually destitute. Within in sense and sensibility there are very few references to breaking of stereotypes but one part I picked up on was when a young girl corrects a ‘gentlemen’ on his geographic knowledge. This applies both to age and gender as the man is considerably older than the girl and being female the girl lacks both power and authority.
Four weddings, being a Curtis film is about a young man who falls head over heels in love with a mysterious girl being assured that she is the one for him. The ending however depicts quite a powerful message as he doesn’t end up marrying her, the message of course being that you do not have to be married to be happy. For example in four weddings one of the characters states his theory about marriage, which is that people only get married when they have exhausted all other resources within their relationships which is a very post-modern thing to say. This again is another very conflicting difference between the two films as sense and sensibility very bluntly implies that getting married is more or less the most ‘sensible’ and ‘happy’ thing you can achieve in your lifetime, however it could also be interpreted as a form of escape from their family life that the have been tied to for so long.
Funnily enough the class that is displayed in each of the movies are at about the same level (middle bordering on upper). Although the two classes shown are the same they are perceived in different ways as in four weddings money doesn’t seem as important, where as in sense and sensibility you get the feeling that money is favoured for the wrong reasons, for example for generally keeping up appearances. Hugh Grant appears in both the films as very different characters, never the less this can be seen as a similarity in respect to British casting. Unfortunately I don’t have a large amount to write about camera shots although one that I noticed in sense and sensibility was a slow paced, sweeping tracking shot which passed a number of portraits of passed generations of people within the family in question. This was used to show the wealth of the family which again allows the audience to feel empathy for the women who have been cheated out of any money being left to them.
In relation to Britishness these films have aspects that are very British and some that are not. For example in the more modern set of the two films (Four Weddings) it only depicts middle and upper class lifestyle, where as a lot of other British films have been commended for their gritty realistic approach to life today, generally displaying working class life also. This can been linked to sense and sensibility also in a way as the women who have been denied access to the majority of the money left in their family have to make large lifestyle changes, such as moving house, firing servants and cutting down on ‘luxuries’ that they have been so accustomed to.
Four weddings, being a Curtis film is about a young man who falls head over heels in love with a mysterious girl being assured that she is the one for him. The ending however depicts quite a powerful message as he doesn’t end up marrying her, the message of course being that you do not have to be married to be happy. For example in four weddings one of the characters states his theory about marriage, which is that people only get married when they have exhausted all other resources within their relationships which is a very post-modern thing to say. This again is another very conflicting difference between the two films as sense and sensibility very bluntly implies that getting married is more or less the most ‘sensible’ and ‘happy’ thing you can achieve in your lifetime, however it could also be interpreted as a form of escape from their family life that the have been tied to for so long.
Funnily enough the class that is displayed in each of the movies are at about the same level (middle bordering on upper). Although the two classes shown are the same they are perceived in different ways as in four weddings money doesn’t seem as important, where as in sense and sensibility you get the feeling that money is favoured for the wrong reasons, for example for generally keeping up appearances. Hugh Grant appears in both the films as very different characters, never the less this can be seen as a similarity in respect to British casting. Unfortunately I don’t have a large amount to write about camera shots although one that I noticed in sense and sensibility was a slow paced, sweeping tracking shot which passed a number of portraits of passed generations of people within the family in question. This was used to show the wealth of the family which again allows the audience to feel empathy for the women who have been cheated out of any money being left to them.
In relation to Britishness these films have aspects that are very British and some that are not. For example in the more modern set of the two films (Four Weddings) it only depicts middle and upper class lifestyle, where as a lot of other British films have been commended for their gritty realistic approach to life today, generally displaying working class life also. This can been linked to sense and sensibility also in a way as the women who have been denied access to the majority of the money left in their family have to make large lifestyle changes, such as moving house, firing servants and cutting down on ‘luxuries’ that they have been so accustomed to.
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Mrs Baird - Homework Personal Respone To Media texts.
Media, Pleasure and Identity: What i gathered from reading the text, this article is about how audiences interpret different forms of media and why they appeal to them in such a way. A general theme that i seemed to understand from the article was that media (T.V and films in particular) are used as a form of escape from the real world. From this a sense a of relaxation or pleasure is assured which is what appeals to the audience in the first place.
In this text the term "Escapism" is used i had to research it to understand the meaning of the word, so i thought i should post a definition for future reference.
Escapism - Involves doing a activity you like as a form of relaxation or escape from reality. Examples can include: watching mindless T.V, Playing computer games and even eating. It has been argued that escapism can become addictive, which when you truly think about it is a very plausible theory. This can be seen through countless examples such as people comfort eating to an extreme.
Observer Film Quarterly: This article is generally about Richard Curtis. The article contains listings of some of his most famous films, such as, Four weddings and a funeral, Love Actually and of course Mr Bean. The article questions whether with the fall of New labour if Curtis was to succumb to the same fate. Throughout the article the term 'Curtisland' is used profusely this merely refers to New labours happy outlook on everything which just happens to appear in a selection of his films generally to do with the topic of love, for example Wimbledon. There are certain characters that can be seen in most of his films to do with this topic the majority being lovesick young men tripping over themselves for that one 'love at first sight' women. In my opinion this can be seen the most clearly in 4 weddings and a funeral.
Contemporary British Cinema: Within the article it goes through different eras of British film suggesting that what films may imply can have subliminal positive and negative effects on what the audience may think. For example in a film such as 'This Is England' can be seen to both raise awareness of racism but possibly make it seem as if its ok. This is a very difficult concept grasp as their are two very understandable sides to the argument, I would also imagine the film brought up a great deal of controversy between critics.
This article is about representation within British Cinema. The article covers 3 types of representation in detail, Sexuality, Class and Ethnicity.
Sexuality: It is clear to see that sexuality is not the most frequent thing represented within British film especially if you were to compare it to say American films where their seems to be a lot more generally shocking content. Even when sex is portrayed in British film there is always some form of complication in the storyline leading to it.
Class: Class within British film is displayed very stereotypically (both lower and upper). This is visible in countless films and as I said before very stereotypical, for example in films representing working class families a manual job held up by the father is generally all that is supporting the entire family. Within the films displaying working class situations there is always a very 'gritty' depiction of the context of the film where as a hugely glamorous depiction of upper classes.
Ethnicity: Within the article it states that British film fails to represent ethnic minorities justly purely by lack of content. I have never really thought about this but upon consideration I generally agree.
In this text the term "Escapism" is used i had to research it to understand the meaning of the word, so i thought i should post a definition for future reference.
Escapism - Involves doing a activity you like as a form of relaxation or escape from reality. Examples can include: watching mindless T.V, Playing computer games and even eating. It has been argued that escapism can become addictive, which when you truly think about it is a very plausible theory. This can be seen through countless examples such as people comfort eating to an extreme.
Observer Film Quarterly: This article is generally about Richard Curtis. The article contains listings of some of his most famous films, such as, Four weddings and a funeral, Love Actually and of course Mr Bean. The article questions whether with the fall of New labour if Curtis was to succumb to the same fate. Throughout the article the term 'Curtisland' is used profusely this merely refers to New labours happy outlook on everything which just happens to appear in a selection of his films generally to do with the topic of love, for example Wimbledon. There are certain characters that can be seen in most of his films to do with this topic the majority being lovesick young men tripping over themselves for that one 'love at first sight' women. In my opinion this can be seen the most clearly in 4 weddings and a funeral.
Contemporary British Cinema: Within the article it goes through different eras of British film suggesting that what films may imply can have subliminal positive and negative effects on what the audience may think. For example in a film such as 'This Is England' can be seen to both raise awareness of racism but possibly make it seem as if its ok. This is a very difficult concept grasp as their are two very understandable sides to the argument, I would also imagine the film brought up a great deal of controversy between critics.
This article is about representation within British Cinema. The article covers 3 types of representation in detail, Sexuality, Class and Ethnicity.
Sexuality: It is clear to see that sexuality is not the most frequent thing represented within British film especially if you were to compare it to say American films where their seems to be a lot more generally shocking content. Even when sex is portrayed in British film there is always some form of complication in the storyline leading to it.
Class: Class within British film is displayed very stereotypically (both lower and upper). This is visible in countless films and as I said before very stereotypical, for example in films representing working class families a manual job held up by the father is generally all that is supporting the entire family. Within the films displaying working class situations there is always a very 'gritty' depiction of the context of the film where as a hugely glamorous depiction of upper classes.
Ethnicity: Within the article it states that British film fails to represent ethnic minorities justly purely by lack of content. I have never really thought about this but upon consideration I generally agree.
Monday, 14 September 2009
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine was born on the 14 march 1933. He has appeared in more than 100 films and is seen as one of the most influential and iconic British film actors ever. Amazingly Michael Caine has been nominated for a Academy award in every decade since the 60's making him one of the two only actors to have achieved such an incredible track record. Caine has appeared in numerous films which allow him to portray gritty realistic characters and exploit his reasonably strong cockney accent, such as Get Carter (1971). Caines more recent appearnences include the butler in Batman begins and The Dark Knight starring as the butler in both which shows his flexability within the characters he can play. In an interview Caine (76) stated that "I don't have to work, and just sit there - if a movie comes in that I want to do, I will do it, if one never comes in that I want to do, then I'm retired,". This implies a great passion for his acting career not letting age stop him from doing what he loves. He also stated "I'll retire quietly when I stop finding roles that interest me". Caines influences biggest influences include: Frank Sinatra, Stanislavsky, The Beatles and John Wayne.
Monday, 29 June 2009
British Film
Teaser Trailers.
A "teaser trailer" is a film trailer which teases the audience with methods to get them more intrested in the film itself, for example the trailer may show small parts of important scenes flashed consecutively and very quickly (generally used in thrillers/action films). Some trailers may also end on a somewhat cliff hanger to appeal to the audiences sense of intrest.
British film Websites.
British film websites offer in depth information and analyses of British film examples include: http://www.bfi.org.uk/
http://www.britfilms.com/
http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/
Some examples of modern British film are Adulthood and Rock n Rolla. Both these films exercise a certain degree of gritty realism about crime and other important issues but what really makes a film British?.
A "teaser trailer" is a film trailer which teases the audience with methods to get them more intrested in the film itself, for example the trailer may show small parts of important scenes flashed consecutively and very quickly (generally used in thrillers/action films). Some trailers may also end on a somewhat cliff hanger to appeal to the audiences sense of intrest.
British film Websites.
British film websites offer in depth information and analyses of British film examples include: http://www.bfi.org.uk/
http://www.britfilms.com/
http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/
Some examples of modern British film are Adulthood and Rock n Rolla. Both these films exercise a certain degree of gritty realism about crime and other important issues but what really makes a film British?.
The film industry aswell as most others is now globalised meaning firstly that a large amount of different ideas and styles of film are intwined although this can be seen as a negative event as it has become incresingly difficult to define a film as being 'British'. To me a British film should include the following:
- Should be set in Britain
- Contain a mainly British cast
- Being produced by a British company
- Perhaps even contain issues that are or have effected Britain in the past
Some films such as Harry Potter are regarded as partly British. Although the majority of the cast is British and the film itself was filmed in Britain the producer of the film was American. With all of this in mind I would still regard Harry Potter as a British film due the author being British.
Certain Iconic images can be related to nations as a whole. Iconic images that can be related to Britain are some of those that follow:
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Media Evaluation Disruption
Evaluation - Disruption Glen Waine
http://cherwellmediaglenw.blogspot.com/ Word count: 1027
Me and my group created the opening 2 minutes of a film we named Disruption. In the making of this film we managed to capture quite a modern view of youth today. We used stereotypes which appealed to both sex’s, as the boys can to some extent relate to the characters and the girls find the comedic aspect that is created through the over exaggeration of the characters appealing, for example at the beginning the 4 main characters great each other in a manner that is widely used through youth groups today. I believe that Disruption to some extent challenges conventions of real media products as the films that use this topic are generally not as accurate as might be thought, where as I feel that we have managed to capture a more gritty realistic concept of youth. The Social group that is depicted within our film represents lower class people having to make money the only way they see that they can. We choose to show our social group mainly through the type of clothing worn and body language of the characters, we also use juxtaposition to establish the link between the characters and drugs which created a great sense of realism. We managed to add this realism by choosing a specific area to film very carefully. The props used were all very stereotypical of the group we were trying to represent, I think the serious music contrasts with the ‘over the top’ props to create comedy in a serious context. Although the house we used to film (especially for the last scene) had items on the wall which did not go hugely well with the background we were trying to set, unfortunately we did not gain permission to remove the items.
We were influenced a lot by the film “Layer cake” which gave us the idea of creating the film about gang activities, but wanted to focus more on the social group being shown as anything but the business elite. This can also be linked to how youth can be manipulated by unofficial authority figures. The audience we were aiming this film at was young people but also at the slightly older generation to give a slight insight into the certain things that happen on the streets today. We managed to attract our audience by showing material that some people can relate to as well as including comedy through the over exaggeration of characters and representation of certain stereotypes. The comedic reference in our film is not there to stand out, as nothing changes to bring the fact that something is funny to the audience’s attention, we thought it would go better if we kept the seriousness of the film and only added subtle comedic references.
I feel I have learned a great deal from the technical side of creating the film. Its not only editing skills I have developed but organisation skills as well. The aspect of the editing process which most interests me now and that I feel more comfortable with is think about shot transitions. One shot transition I particularly like in when the buyers are seen knocking on the door of the house, the shot transition then is of the inside of the house and the door-mans reaction to the knock. Its not the most unusual of shots, I just think it goes quite well with the context of the film and helps build up suspense. We have had a lot of comments about our film, but the most frequent ones have been about our music. It took us quite a long time to find the right piece to put in. We finally decided to use “Cold City” by David O Brian and to our surprise not only was it very good at building suspense it also was timed almost perfectly with the vast majority of our shot transitions, which added much more of a professional touch to our film. If our film was being distributed professionally I would think the best way for it to advertised would be in magazines that have the same target audience as our film, for example hip hop or music magazines in general which would generally be read by 15-25 year olds. The topic shown in our film is popular but not usually as real, as it would be on a much larger more important scale.
In looking back to our preliminary task I can see a great deal has changed both with my media knowledge and with they way that we constructed each project. Now re-watching out preliminary I can see that it is very rough with most of the shots and you can tell that there was limited thought into what we were trying to create. Where as in our final task I feel a great deal more confident in everyway of what it achieves. As well as the editing process I also feel I’ve enhanced skills in the setting up process e.g. storyboard, synopses etc. The things we did for the preliminary task for example the storyboard was to no way near the level of work we produced for the beginning of our final task simply because we did not have the knowledge we do now. There is also the fact that our preliminary task was a lot shorter than our main task, so it gave much more of a chance to include semeiotics and part of a story. While we were doing our preliminary task we were not considering a lot of the factors we had to think about for our main film such as, target audience or institutions, which really shows how much more detail is needed to make something work with a story. I was quite surprised at the increased amount of work, planning and attention to detail that was needed for the main task. One factor which is wrong with our film is the amount of money that is passed in exchange for the drugs, the seller asks for “40 grand” and receives a fist full of cash. Unfortunately by the time we noticed this we couldn’t really change anything.
http://cherwellmediaglenw.blogspot.com/ Word count: 1027
Me and my group created the opening 2 minutes of a film we named Disruption. In the making of this film we managed to capture quite a modern view of youth today. We used stereotypes which appealed to both sex’s, as the boys can to some extent relate to the characters and the girls find the comedic aspect that is created through the over exaggeration of the characters appealing, for example at the beginning the 4 main characters great each other in a manner that is widely used through youth groups today. I believe that Disruption to some extent challenges conventions of real media products as the films that use this topic are generally not as accurate as might be thought, where as I feel that we have managed to capture a more gritty realistic concept of youth. The Social group that is depicted within our film represents lower class people having to make money the only way they see that they can. We choose to show our social group mainly through the type of clothing worn and body language of the characters, we also use juxtaposition to establish the link between the characters and drugs which created a great sense of realism. We managed to add this realism by choosing a specific area to film very carefully. The props used were all very stereotypical of the group we were trying to represent, I think the serious music contrasts with the ‘over the top’ props to create comedy in a serious context. Although the house we used to film (especially for the last scene) had items on the wall which did not go hugely well with the background we were trying to set, unfortunately we did not gain permission to remove the items.
We were influenced a lot by the film “Layer cake” which gave us the idea of creating the film about gang activities, but wanted to focus more on the social group being shown as anything but the business elite. This can also be linked to how youth can be manipulated by unofficial authority figures. The audience we were aiming this film at was young people but also at the slightly older generation to give a slight insight into the certain things that happen on the streets today. We managed to attract our audience by showing material that some people can relate to as well as including comedy through the over exaggeration of characters and representation of certain stereotypes. The comedic reference in our film is not there to stand out, as nothing changes to bring the fact that something is funny to the audience’s attention, we thought it would go better if we kept the seriousness of the film and only added subtle comedic references.
I feel I have learned a great deal from the technical side of creating the film. Its not only editing skills I have developed but organisation skills as well. The aspect of the editing process which most interests me now and that I feel more comfortable with is think about shot transitions. One shot transition I particularly like in when the buyers are seen knocking on the door of the house, the shot transition then is of the inside of the house and the door-mans reaction to the knock. Its not the most unusual of shots, I just think it goes quite well with the context of the film and helps build up suspense. We have had a lot of comments about our film, but the most frequent ones have been about our music. It took us quite a long time to find the right piece to put in. We finally decided to use “Cold City” by David O Brian and to our surprise not only was it very good at building suspense it also was timed almost perfectly with the vast majority of our shot transitions, which added much more of a professional touch to our film. If our film was being distributed professionally I would think the best way for it to advertised would be in magazines that have the same target audience as our film, for example hip hop or music magazines in general which would generally be read by 15-25 year olds. The topic shown in our film is popular but not usually as real, as it would be on a much larger more important scale.
In looking back to our preliminary task I can see a great deal has changed both with my media knowledge and with they way that we constructed each project. Now re-watching out preliminary I can see that it is very rough with most of the shots and you can tell that there was limited thought into what we were trying to create. Where as in our final task I feel a great deal more confident in everyway of what it achieves. As well as the editing process I also feel I’ve enhanced skills in the setting up process e.g. storyboard, synopses etc. The things we did for the preliminary task for example the storyboard was to no way near the level of work we produced for the beginning of our final task simply because we did not have the knowledge we do now. There is also the fact that our preliminary task was a lot shorter than our main task, so it gave much more of a chance to include semeiotics and part of a story. While we were doing our preliminary task we were not considering a lot of the factors we had to think about for our main film such as, target audience or institutions, which really shows how much more detail is needed to make something work with a story. I was quite surprised at the increased amount of work, planning and attention to detail that was needed for the main task. One factor which is wrong with our film is the amount of money that is passed in exchange for the drugs, the seller asks for “40 grand” and receives a fist full of cash. Unfortunately by the time we noticed this we couldn’t really change anything.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Monday, 2 February 2009
Project Log.
Having finished editing our film, me and the other members of my group have decided to make a new storyboard using screenshots from the actual film itself.
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Project Log.
15/1/09
This week me and my group have mainly been adding the final touches in the editing of our film. We have spent this lesson finding some suitable music for it, which proved to be more of a problem than it should of been, due to copyright restrictions. We have decided on a piece of music but are not happy with a part of the song as it does not relate that well to the genre of the film. We have come to the conclusion of editing the song itself slightly to make it fit.
02/2/09
Having finished editing our film, me and the other members of my group have decided to make a new storyboard using screenshots from the actual film itself. We thought that by doing this it adds a bit more of a professional touch and also looks a lot neater. This lesson we are going to watch and evaluate all of the films that have been made by our peers, I hope this will help give us more of an insight into any extra editing we may have to do.
This week me and my group have mainly been adding the final touches in the editing of our film. We have spent this lesson finding some suitable music for it, which proved to be more of a problem than it should of been, due to copyright restrictions. We have decided on a piece of music but are not happy with a part of the song as it does not relate that well to the genre of the film. We have come to the conclusion of editing the song itself slightly to make it fit.
02/2/09
Having finished editing our film, me and the other members of my group have decided to make a new storyboard using screenshots from the actual film itself. We thought that by doing this it adds a bit more of a professional touch and also looks a lot neater. This lesson we are going to watch and evaluate all of the films that have been made by our peers, I hope this will help give us more of an insight into any extra editing we may have to do.
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