Cranford Essay- Representation of Class + Status

Within this extract of the TV Drama ‘Cranford’ class is presented, we see the difference between each character is the mise-en-scene, and the way the characters are dressed. The first character we see is Harry, who appears to be of the lower class, as he is wearing scruffy clothes, no shoes, along with his family who also appear to be in the same type of clothing. Another pointer is that (as it is Harry’s birthday) Harry receives a gift of an old pair of boots. In the next scene we see a low angle shot looking up at Mr Carter (which slowly pans up his body), a wealthy man who lives in the Manor. We are first introduced to this character by looking at his boots, which are much cleaner and expensive than Harry’s pair. We instantly can see the differences in the two-shot that Mr Carter is rich and higher authority out of the two characters, and is wearing expensive clothes which show he is of a higher class; he is wearing expensive boots and a cane which portrays that he has more money to spend on necessities such as canes. However, the Lady of the manor is of a higher class than the two, because of her poise and extravagant, expensive dress. This is also shown by using a low angle shot, of her standing on the steps, whilst making Harry look weak and vulnerable.  
With the low key lighting focusing on Harry in the beginning shot, it shows his emotions more clearly, with him being slightly unhappy, and miserable. However the low key lighting also reflects on the era in which the TV drama was set in showing that the family have no electricity in the run down shack, but only lit by a single candle. In addition to this the contrast between the shack and the manor house, is that the shack itself is not really focused on, whereas Mr Carter’s office is, showing a type of establishing shot of the whole room in order to emphasise the wealth of the man.

The sound used is mainly diegetic sound, such as; the birds and rustling of branches as Harry is trying to run home with the sack of potatoes to feed his family, mainly to create the ambience of the scene. Accents and dialects are usually associated with the type of class and status that you have, in this case Harry’s father says, ‘’Appy birthday, ‘Arry’, this suggests that the family have not been well educated and ‘learning isn’t for everyone’, this also portrays that he has a negative outlook on life and doesn’t appreciate the cleverness that Harry has shown. This juxtaposes with the Lady of the manor, as she has perfect diction, which shows she has been to elocution lessons. Non-diegetic sound is also used, such as heavy, depressing music to reflect mood and emotion. In this case sudden music was used when the father stood up in the shack; this indicates power and shows who is in charge. When Harry enters the greenhouse the music becomes dreamy and almost a fantasy, it is almost tropical, happy music to indicate the happy emotion of Harry, showing the other class, which is almost trying to portray that it is the better class to be in.

The type of camera angles used in this shot are cleverly used to show the higher class. Some examples of this are; the shaky footage of the Manor house covered the shot by leaves, which suggests that Harry is intruding and is not meant to be there. Various types of mid shots and long shots are used in order to show the cramped room in the shack, with frequent slow zooms on Harry’s face to show his gratefulness of the boots. When Harry and Mr Carter are in the office of the Manor house, the office is shown in a wide-angle shot; therefore all of the office is in view. Which is the opposite to the shack, as it is mainly focused on the family/characters. I also noticed that when Mr Carter was getting some bread for Harry a selective focus was used, it focuses on Harry’s face, then onto the bread behind him, then focuses back to Harry’s face. This shows the audience all of the events that are going on in the scene.

There are not many factors on editing as it is shown over a short period of time, but some of the things I did notice was the use of continuity editing, to create a sense of realism. The biggest section of editing is the jump cut from Harry sleeping in the greenhouse to the next morning when he is interrupted by Mr Carter. This shows that time has moved on in only a short period of time, this saves time and viewing time.

Cranford Essay

mise en scene

Harry
scruffy clothes
dark small house
bare feet
low key lighting

Mr Carter
expensive boots
cane
nice office


Lady of manor
white extravagent dress

ladies in carriages
curled hair, expensive dresses

man on horse top hat


The mise-en-scene in this clip reveals a contrast between rich and poor people. The poor people are seen to be living in the forest and wear dark, scruffy clothes. In contrast to this, the rich are dressed in higher class clothing. Focusing on Harry and the older man, he is shown to be a lower-class boy with little knowledge and no formal schooling. The dark, dingy lighting contrasts with the older man, who has clean and sophisticated clothes. The older man, Mr Carter, pays the boy and as the boy eats the bread in the office, he is seen to be sympathetic towards Harry.

sound
birds and rustling in the woods
poor family live out of the way
dialogue 'Appy birthday 'Arry' indicates non Rp speech

door squeaks = run down cottage
horses and well spoken Lady of the manor indicate wealth

heavy depressing music
music when dad rises indicated he hold the power
when no dialogue, indicates depressing
music when boy giddy= emotional
music upbeat when work commences on marquee


When we are first introduced to Harry, the music, non-diegetic sound is heavy and depressing, this represents the class of the boy, showing that he does not have a happy or fulfilling life at this young age. The door squeaking when he arrives home indicates that his family do not have wealth.
When the boy enters the greenhouse, the music is of a higher pitch which could indicate the higher status of the owners of the greenhouse.
The viewer is then introduced to the sound of heavy footsteps giving us the impression that someone of higher status is approaching and this creates tension.


camera
can't see the house in full view, hidden by trees shows Harry shouln't be there
camera moves with and focuses on Harry, shows he's important,
 over the shoulder shot of father telling Harry off
camera shos Harry looking up to all charcters
mid/long shot of cramped room
zooms in on boots, showing how grateful he is for them
mid shot of Harry alone in dark
house is surrounded by leaves and shot through the window shows he is an outsider
Mr Carter's boots juxtapose with Harry shoes
two shot shows the differences between the two
high angle of Mr Carter shows his status
Lady on steps = status
master shot of doctor on horse implies he is important

In this clip, the camera angles show class and status in a variety of ways. The juxtaposition of the shack and the manor is shown through the master shots; the shack covered with foliage versus the manor surrounded by  by space to show its size. The interrior of the shack is abre and the dialohgue is the focus, not the interrior. In the office, the master shot empasizes its status. A two shot of the pair shows the clear differences in class and status.  The camera follows the work of the outdoor workers to show manual labour compared to the lords and ladies in the carriages who are doing nothing to prepare,

editing
The editing in this clip is continuitiy editing to  create a sense of realism. The conversation between Harry and his father is carried out using shot reverse shots which illustrates the father's harsh reaction to his son wanting to learn.
The cutting between the shack, the greehouse and the manor activities reveals how the class of the charcters is closely connected to the locations where they live or work. Many uses of eyeline match and point of view shots are used when the focus in on Harry, indicating that he likes the boots and longs for the bunch of grapes but restrains himself; he is accustomed at the young age of ten to accept disappointment

Representation of age within ‘Monarch of the Glen’

Age is widely presented in TV dramas, as it defines each character showing authority and power of a certain character. In ‘Monarch of the glen’, the extract focuses on the character Amy, who we first see as quite young, wearing scruffy, average looking clothing. The other characters shown in this scene are wearing drab colours, which are fit for the work that they are doing, Amy is standing out as she is wearing brighter, younger clothes, which makes the characters more identifiable with age. With the non-diegetic sound of upbeat ‘hillbilly’ music, this associated with farming; hence there are workers on the farm. The camera follows Amy around, panning to her, having more screen time than any other characters within this extract.

By including the scene of the range rover, we assume she is over 17, along with the panning around the car, with a slow zoom, and her nervous facial expressions and body language shows that she is quite nervous, which questions the audience of her actual age. At this point the noise level increases with the diegetic sound of bashing and clanging of tools and the non-diegetic sound of the music slowly building in pace. As the range rover leaves the farm, the camera follows the car, which almost builds up tension; therefore the audience knows something will happen. However the crash is not filmed, the other characters who are working are being focused on which anticipates the viewers. Therefore we will see the reaction on the characters faces when the sound of the crash happens. This makes it more effective in my opinion, as the audience and the characters don’t know how serious the crash is.

At this point the representation of age becomes more vivid and clear, the middle aged characters immediately rush to the incident. Amy instantly hides away into them making her look weak and vulnerable, all of which are taller than her, making her look younger than she already is. The camera angle is disjointed and keeps reverting back to two shots and long shots.

We are introduced to another character, is the head teacher at Amy’s school, which she has not been attending. The head teacher is well dressed, and is very traditional, by wearing a tie and blazer, speaking with Standard English. Another representation that could be brought forward is the use of regional identity; Amy has a strong Scottish accent, whereas the other characters have English accents. With more analysis this could be a type of discrimination, making her an outcast to the group.

There is then a jump cut from the crash to the room with the head teacher. The head teacher asks for a Brandy, which shows, that he is stressed on Amy’s behalf, which shows that he likes to drink and is a representation of a stereotypical elderly person.
Another elderly lady presented in this extract is well dressed, and smart looking, although she never says anything and we don’t know whether or not she is related to Amy, but the worried expression on her face shows Grandma-like qualities, showing sympathy towards her.
Overall camera angles and clever techniques of editing have a huge impact of the way age is represented, such as; the use of high angle shots revealing her age and her place within society, this gives the older generation higher authority, making them seem superior to the young adult.

Working Title Facts

• Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in London. The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983
• Over the past 16 years, Working Title has made Britain’s biggest-ever movies including Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and Bean.
• The company headed by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner is responsible for 96 films grossing $4.8 billion worldwide, 60% of which came from Universal’s 46 Working Title releases.
• Its movies have won six Oscars, 26 Baftas and prizes at Cannes and Berlin.
• Working Title has fed Universal and/or Focus Features a lot of relatively inexpensive movies that have been consistently – and in some cases hugely – profitable.
• It's one of the largest British production companies and is based in London.

  Title	Release Date
  Green Zone	March 12, 2010
  Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang	August 20, 2010
  Paul	March 18, 2011
  Senna	August 12, 2011
  Johnny English Reborn	October 21, 2011
  Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy	December 9, 2011
  Contraband	January 13, 2012
  Big Miracle	February 3, 2012
  Anna Karenina	November 16, 2012
  Les Misérables	December 25, 2012

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   

Ford (AS) Media: Film 4-Facts

Ford (AS) Media: Film 4-Facts: Film4 was originally known as Film four when established in 1998 as channel 4’s second channel but was for subscription only. Channel ...

“Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices”. To what extent would you agree with this statement, within the media area you have studied?


I would agree the statement, that media depends upon marketing and distribution as it is the most important factor to consider within the filming industry. We can really see the differences between a film which has had major marketing and distribution and see how it can influence the film’s success. Although, both factors are extremely important within media, in order to create a popular film.

20^th Century fox is a huge film company which has been around since 1935, and from then has produced many famous and successful films, such as, home alone, alien and avatar. By having such popular and well made films the success of the company has overshadowed others making it one of the biggest film companies. Therefore the company can connect with other distribution networks, and television companies to ensure more money is brought forward and to create bigger and popular filming productions. For example the film ‘Prometheus’ was certainly going to be successful as it was with the company of 20^th Century Fox so already had a good reputation, so they didn’t need any media convergence as Fox is already such a big name. However I would question how the film could become anymore successful if it were to converge with another company. The film had an extremely good marketing technique, such as; TED Talks (included a video featuring Guy Pierce as fictional Weyland Industries head Peter Weyland, giving a TED talk in 2023. The piece was first screened at the real TED conference in February. According to the LA Times TED organizers helped to make the film look like what they envision a TED talk will really be like in the future), websites, TV spots, trailers, twitter (#areyouseeingthis). The Prometheus twitter account received 15 million followers. By having most of the vertical marketing used with technology and media, it appeals to a wider audience such as young adults and adults who use technology everyday as it is easy to get hold of information and trailers of the film and keep them updated on the films latest updates of trailers and gossip from the film.

 

Another example of a successful film is Kick Ass with quite a high budget of thirty million dollars. The budget had to be quite high in order to overcome from the special effects used within the film. With an amazing use of production companies such as Plan B entertainment, Lions Gate entertainment, and Marv Films, the film was already going to be a success because of the convergence of the three companies, as well as, Brad Pitt co-producing the film. The viral marketing was another strong point, as I mentioned in Prometheus’s success, this film had; numerous trailers, TV spots, blogs and websites. Kick Ass the comic book and the film were actually written at exactly the same time 'so it was a very sort of collaborative, organic process'. There were many magazine features including the comic, with references to the video game, of the film which was released after the film’s success but proved to cause some controversy from the quality of the game. However the slight disappointment of a famous cast ruined the film slightly, as there was Aaron Johnson who was best known for playing Robbie in Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging, may have pushed viewers away, instead of attract them to towards the film. If there were to be a list of big names it would attract any audience to see the film as they are all known for their previous roles in other successful films. Although, bar all of the negative points I have made about the film, the total income was over ninety million dollars.

 

The Kings Speech however was a much smaller production with Momentum Pictures, with a budget of £8,000,000. The film mainly relied on the marketing and distribution of the film, otherwise it would not have received the critical reception that it did. It did so well with awards, by winning an Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay.
The film had received 12 Oscar nominations, more than any other film in that year. Besides the four categories it won, the film received nominations for Best Cinematography and two for the supporting actors, as well as two for its mise-en-scène: Art Direction and Costumes.

As ‘The Kings Speech’ was not able to have a huge budget, it had to be made recognizable. With the budget of £8 million it didn’t have the potential to compete with some of the other major blockbusters out at the time. By making the film recognized, viral marketing was used. ‘The film was made just in time to enter it into several film festivals in the hope that national newspaper journalists will enjoy it’. The reception of the film was good, before the film was released into cinemas people were excited for it, and whether not it will be any good. Many different posters were released along with some trailers. The posters have a simple image of characters with some positive quotes from critics. This way the audience feel implied to go and see. The posters are very cleverly made as they don’t give anything away about the film, therefore remains a mystery. The trailer is also extremely important as it is promoting the films and showing the best bits without giving away the ending. In the UK and Ireland, the film was the highest earning film on its opening weekend; it took in £3.5 million from 395 cinemas. The Guardian said that it was one of the biggest takes in recent memory, compared to Slumdog Millionaire (2008), which, for example, two years earlier earned £1.5 million less. Convergence and synergy are extremely important factor to make a successful film. Bedlam and SeeSaw converged together to create The King’s Speech. They form different platforms such as posters, soundtracks and trailers.

In conclusion to this I feel that with the research and the knowledge on these films the most important part of successful media is to depend on marketing and distribution, as viral marketing and posters and TV spots are what sell the film. If there were to be no marketing the film would not be recognised. In my opinion it doesn’t matter how good the quality a film is, it is the distribution and marketing which declares the decisions of the audience and critics. However I still believe that it is very reliant on vertical distribution if a high budget was used.

Sexuality

Is the sexuality of the characters easily identifiable?
Yes the characters are easily identifiable as there is a first shot of the two young ladies, one of which is trying on a dress. We see that they are quite close friends, but it is questionable. One of the girls is the narrator, and she says the line ‘She looked so beautiful’, immediately after this is said, the friendship barrier has been broken, and we see the admiration towards the ‘lady’. In the next scene we see the two women in bed together, the non-diegetic sound increases in pace to reflect passion and the secretive nature of one of the woman’s sexuality. The woman holds back, and seems to be rather nervous to ‘touch’ the woman, scared for the other to find out her feelings towards her friend. Whilst the homosexual woman is fully awake the other woman is fast asleep, portraying that she doesn’t know her friends feelings towards her and seems quite naïve towards the unknown situation.
 
Is the sexuality represented as being important in their life?
Yes it appears to be a big part in the homosexual’s life, although homosexuality is shunned in this era, she has to keep her sexual feeling aback, and not show them. Within the next scene the homosexual woman is painting in the garden with the other woman painting her young, naïve and vulnerable body. With slightly paced shots of the woman’s body parts shows she is trying hard to hold back but is almost impossible. Going back to my point on sexuality being shunned upon, the man we see recognises the sexual feelings the woman has and attempts to change her mind about the sexuality.
 
Are particular sexualities seen as more powerful, better, and normal? If so, how?
In my opinion the main sexuality which stands out is the heterosexuality, as within the era that was the tradition, it was the unwritten rule, and there is no other way. This was portrayed with the heterosexual man shown with more authority with high angle shots making the woman look vulnerable and an outcast to society because of her sexuality.
 
What message is the clip aiming to portray about sexuality?

The clip is trying to show how the history of sexuality has changed throughout the years and what torture homosexuals went through. One thing I have noticed is that there were no stereotypical views on sexuality within this clip. Nowadays lesbians would be stereotypically seen as dressed in a more ‘manish’ matter, and in a modern day society would have spotted the fact that this woman was a lesbian due to what she was wearing. Whereas in this era it is hard to identify the feelings and the look of a ‘homosexual’ person. It is presented with emotion rather than the aesthetic features. The woman is seen as emotional and never happy with herself because of the major secret which rules her life.

Sexuality in EastEnders

In this scene we see Syed reveal his secret to his wife. Syed's wife does not take the news very well and attempts to try and change his mind, but with Christian in the room this makes it difficult for her to accept that he is gay, which portrays that she is still in love with Syed as Christian makes sly comments such as 'we share the same bed', he is almost casting revenge towards Syed's wife, because of the strong jealousy towards her. This clip is extremely emotional and traumatising.

In this scene we see the families reaction towards the 'coming out' of Syed. As we can see the family do not take it well. As the family are so religious, they also find it hard to accept the concept of the sexuality of Syed. Syed and Christian are now seen as outsiders and do not belong in the community they were originally in.

 

The Kings Speech on Prezi

Regional Identity- Doc Martin

Within this extract of Doc Martin, regional identity is presented by the four main areas of filming; Mis-en-scene, camera angles, editing, and the use of sound.

In the first shot we see a low angle sink shot; it’s dark, and dull, with old run down furniture. The camera then pans up the characters, revealing themselves; the plumber, the son, and Doc Martin. Instantly we see that the composition is a '3 shot', and the doctor is towering over the other characters showing higher authority and has a shallow focus on the doctor. Although the Doctor is higher in authority anyway, it really accentuates this, and makes it more prominent. The big plumber is also slightly higher in position to his son.

 With the lighting Doc martin is slightly lit with the natural lighting peeping through the curtains. The diegetic sound reveals that the characters are not equal by their accents. The plumbers are strong Somerset accents, whereas the doctor has Standard English, and is spoken with diction. The scene is extremely long, and doesn’t cut until 21 seconds. This portrays that the conversation is dragging, and droning on, and is boring.

In the next shot, the plumbers son says ‘unless it came from the old asylum in town or it could be a literary reference’  this changes the way we perceived this character, he is well educated but then his father brings him down by saying ‘what are you on about boy?’ It’s condescending and patronising, therefore brings the education barrier down, and makes him look a fool.

When the plumber tweaks the wrong part on the sink the water starts to gush out. After this incident happened, the cuts are faster and the pace becomes quicker because of the straight cuts.
The scene becomes complicated and there are many distractions, with the digetic sounds of water, the Doctor swearing, the phone ringing and shouting. A strike of panic waves across the scene.  

Prometheus Prezi

Prometheus on Prezi

Hustle-Gender Essay

In an extract of the TV drama Hustle, gender is presented in different ways with stereotypes. In TV dramas stereotypically we expect females to be hardworking, likes shopping, perfect, make-up, clean and classy. The males tend to act like the alpha male, strong, have high paid jobs, and into football and rugby. There are six characters that I am going to analyse and feed back on their behaviour and appearance and whether I think it will fit in with the stereotypical type of male and female.

The shop we first see is obviously designer, as we can tell that there are not many items and looks really well made dresses. Therefore we expect the type of customer to be a rich, classy female who knows what they want in life. Whereas in the men’s club we expect to see the men laughing, drinking, smoking and joking.

 

The first scene is in the designer clothing store, with back lighting, cream shades and chic dresses, then the camera pans onto an older lady who seems to look out of place with grey hair, piled up messily. She pulls out a dress which is out of her price range. The shop assistant is extremely condescending towards her, and only gets on with rich people, therefore wants this lady out of his shop as soon as possible.

 Once the older lady scurries out, the camera immediately goes to the other lady in shop, called Sarah, who is part of the scandal which is about to take place. The camera starts on her ring, a huge diamond wedding ring. This portrays wealth, and the shop assistant skips over to her almost as if he is excited.

 

The next scene is presented with a ‘wipe’ editing technique, and the sound effects to go with it. This links to the idea that she is in a changing room. The shot is over the shoulder and mirrored so that the audience can see the back of the dress with the crystals and the reaction that the dress provides. I noticed that there was a slight drum roll after the shop assistant reveals the price, as to whether she was going to buy the dress or not.

On the other hand we are introduced to some more characters, which are in a different setting, of a men’s club with no females. The surroundings are darker in colours, there is smoking and drinking occurring and it isn’t very well lit. We see an older American man who would be stereotypically be classed as ‘posh’ as he was dressed well, with a silk handkerchief in his pocket. We later on realise that the well dressed man is trying to con the other man, who is dressed in all black, and looks too scruffy to be in the men’s club. The American man is getting the scruffy man drunk in order for the con to take place smoothly.

 

The scene is swiftly changed by another ‘wipe’ edit, this time with a non-diegetic sound of a zip, which goes back to the designer store. The camera then focusing on the woman’s bag. The camera quality seems to have changed to a hand held camera, as it seems shifty and jerky, which portrays panic, and moves around with Sarah round the shop. The lady is screaming and is hysterical which represents a ‘typical female’. ‘My husband will kill me’, this implies that the ring is extremely expensive and is the end of the world to this woman. She is playing the role as a typical ditzy, female blonde. Within this scene Sarah breaks the 4^th wall, by quickly giving eye contact to the audience (camera). This then engages and involves the audience to be part of the chaos that is occurring.

Yet again another wipe edit is used, to swiftly move on to the next scene. This time we see the shop assistant on his hands and knees attempting to look for the expensive ring. The con man then enters the room, like with Sarah and her ring, focusing on one feature on the person, the conman is first seen with a zoomed in close up of his shoes, which look like they are designer and strikes him as being wealthy. There is then a slow pan up his body, with a low angle shot making him look higher in authority and the shop assistant looking vulnerable whilst scrambling to find the ring. Although the conman is dressed well, his accent is cockney which brings his status down, he is not a typical ‘business man’, as he is chewing gum, scratches his nose, and uses the term ‘bird’, for his wife. Although he is extremely streetwise and knows what he is doing and wants. He too breaks the 4^th wall, by giving eye contact to the audience.

 

Prometheus Marketing

Ford (AS) Media: Prometheus Marketing: Click on the image above to go to the Forbes article on the marketing of Prometheus.

Ford (AS) Media: Prometheus Marketing 2

Ford (AS) Media: Prometheus Marketing 2: Click the image above for another site on the marketing of Prometheus.

How is DISABILITY represented in the clip from 'A Touch of Frost'?

Whenever there is a disabled actor on television, us as an audience reacts in different ways. Some could feel uncomfortable watching them, some may not be fazed by the disability and some may feel sorrow for them. The audience are affected in different ways, usually based on the severity of the disability. Using a disabled actor can create a really powerful atmosphere within the TV Drama.

I am analysing the TV drama, ‘A touch Of Frost’, the character in this extract is Billy, who has Down syndrome. As we can see in the clip, police are looking for a girl named Trisha, and they believe that Billy may have something, or knows something about what has happened to the girl.

We first see Billy in the woods, he is quite muddy and has a few grazes and cuts which look fresh. In the background we see dark forests, but the main focus is on Billy as he is very well lit. We hear contrapuntal sound, as we see that Billy is disabled, so our first instinct is that he is innocent and wouldn’t cause any problems, and because of the lighting he seems innocent and maybe having a casual stroll through the woods, but we hear non-diegetic sound of creepy, and quite scary, ominous music. This makes the audience query on what has just happened to Billy and why he is so lit up.

The next scene is the inspector and Billy’s father talking in the hallway they are speaking in hush toned voices, and with a high angle shot, the camera looks shifty, as if the audience are eaves dropping into the conversation. The inspector says that Billy is ‘Mentally Subnormal’ which nowadays would be a derogatory term, but his father corrects the inspector and says that he is ‘handicapped’ which in my opinion is still offensive. Billy is treated as abnormal and therefore he is treated like a five year old. The inspector wants Billy’s father to come into the room with him, in case Frost does anything wrong or as he said ‘break any rules’. This scene is quite intense as it portrays innocence on Billy but also shows that he has no authority or power to have a say in this case.

When Frost enters the room he is shadowed, and Billy is still well lit, like the woods scene. This could suggest that Frost is a bad and evil character who is quite mysterious. Whereas Billy looks angelic and quite yellow lit, with strikes of innocence again, with the prominent cuts and grazes to his face.
Billy’s father is sat behind him, like he is protecting Billy, But Billy is still sat lower than the others. This gives the impression that he is vulnerable, and that he is in the wrong.

In addition to the high angle shot, Frost looks down on Billy. He starts talking to Billy in a condescending and patronising way implying that Billy is an outsider and almost seems pitied by him. Billy pleads his innocence, but Frost becomes frustrated that Billy isn’t listening to him and not participating with any of the questions and shows all the signs of his mood, such as raised eyebrows and deep sighs.

The editing is different to some other TV dramas, as this one isn’t fast pace, and made out of jump shots, but of quite a slow pace, which creates even more tension, and is more effective than jump shots. It leaves the audience longer to think about what has happened and to really sink in Billy’s character.

Overall the audience feels a slight confusion towards the situation as some may think Billy is innocent because of his disability but some could feel that he is guilty because of the mysteriousness that is occurring and the secretiveness.

Class and Status-Skins Prezi

http://prezi.com/7rs-ctm03zbj/skins/

Prometheus Ad Campaign

Prometheus ad campaign reaches 15m Twitter users, but was it worth it?

Posted 02 May 2012 12:08pm by David Moth

20th Century Fox tried to tap into the viral power of Twitter on Sunday night to promote the impending release of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi movie Prometheus.
In what was heralded as a world first, a new three-minute trailer for the film was screened simultaneously online, on Channel 4 and on social TV app Zeebox.
Viewers were then encouraged to tweet about the film using the hashtag #areyouseeingthis.
During the next ad break, Channel 4 screened a 40 second spot which included viewer’s tweets.
Channel 4 said it fitted with its strategy to pioneer innovative and impactful marketing solutions, but it did it actually meet either of these criteria?
Word-of-mouth agency 1000 Heads monitored activity on Twitter around the hashtag during the past week.
The results show that there was a spike in activity on Sunday night, peaking at more than 4,000 tweets, and the hashtag was trending for a brief period.
The tweets shown on screen were all positive, but this wasn't the case on Twitter.

Credit to David Moth for this blog post

Prometheus Viral Marketing

Prometheus Research Task

Prometheus is about a hovering space craft departs an Earth-like world, a humanoid alien drinks a drank bubbling liquid, and then starts to disintegrate. The alien’s remains cascade into a waterfall, his DNA triggers a biogenetic reaction.

The film is directed by Ridley Scott who had directed and produced films like, Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Gladiator, Hannibal, Black Hawk Down, Kingdom of Heaven, American Gangster, and Prometheus.
  It is produced by David Giler and Walter Hill. David Giler is an American filmmaker who has been active in the motion picture industry since the early 1960s. Walter Hill is an American film director, screenwriter and producer.

Jon Spaihts was one of the writers, also the writer in ‘Alien Saga’. He was known as the ‘go to guy for space thrillers’, he produced high-value screenplays.   ‘Lindelof is the writer of the comic book miniseries Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk for Marvel Comics, which takes place in the Ultimate Marvel universe and began publication in January 2006. Despite being a six-issue miniseries, production was suspended after the second issue in February 2006 due to Lindelof's heavy workload elsewhere; however, the last of the scripts were submitted to Marvel in 2008 and the series resumed publication in March 2009.

The film has some known stars but not extremely well known;
-Noomi Rapace
-Michael Fassbender
-Guy Pearce
-Idris Elba
-Logan Marshall-Green

The running time of the film was 124 minutes, which has a language of English. The original budget for the film was $130 million, and had a total box office total of $402.48 million, which made the film a huge success from the audience.

“Prometheus entered production in April 2010, with extensive design phases during which the technology and creatures which the film required were developed. Principal photography began in March 2011, with an estimated US$120–130 million budget. The project was shot using 3D cameras throughout, almost entirely on practical sets, and on location in England, Iceland, Spain, and Scotland. It was promoted with a marketing campaign that included viral activities on the web. Three videos featuring the film's leading actors in character, which expanded on elements of the fictional universe, were released and met with a generally positive reception and awards.”

Prometheus Trailers

How is Media Convergence important for audiences and Institutions?

 

Without media convergence in some cases it is impossible for a film to succeed within the box office and towards the audience. The most important thing about media convergence is to engage the audience, and keep them up to date with the films; marketing, distribution and the exhibitions of the film. A good example of this is the production of the film Kick-Ass.

Kick Ass was extremely publicised before the film even began; there were numerous posters, which were splat around various cities which were ‘certainly an incentive for collectors excited about the movie’.

 ‘Teaser Trailers’, were released with different batches, the first batch was of the main characters such as ‘Kick Ass’, ‘Hit Girl’ and ‘Big Daddy’. By creating media convergence immediately it created a steady stream of publicity on movie blogs, that kept the movie being talked about by the audience in the time of filming and the release dates.

There was an official website of Kick-Ass which contained all of the trailers, allowing be embedding and sharing onto many social networking sites. It also suggested that you could ‘BUY TICKETS NOW’, along with many other options, such as, the list of theatres shown at, sneak peeks of filming, and to finish off a link to all reviews that have been made about the film. This makes the audience feel like they have ‘backstage’ seats, and can track and follow the films every move.

All of the characters had their own FaceBook page summing up the characters personality and some background information, which also had links to competitions and marketing websites. On some of the websites it has a ‘store’ section so you could buy some of the merchandise sold, such a t-shirts and other gimmicks.

Kick Ass only cost £30 million to make and Matthew Vaughn contributed £10 million towards the making of the film. If the budget were to be bigger, for example £150 million, bigger Hollywood actors like Leonardo Di Caprio, (instead of Aaron-Taylor Johnson) could star in the film. Possible problems that may take away the originality of the film is that the certificate rating will have to be lowered and the amount of violence and use of language will have to be cut or completely stripped out of the script, leaving the film with a plot and celebrities, not a good storyline and the main features of a film within Kick Ass being taken away. Brad Pitt also helped co produce the film, which also brings up the rating for the film making people wanting to desperately see the film as such well known celebrities and directors have been influenced with this film.

Kick-Ass the comic book and the film were written at exactly the same time 'so it was very sort of collaborative, organic process'. With the comic being a huge success, the producers chose to make and release a video game of the film kick ass. 'Unlike the comic book and movie, the video game story line introduces all three characters from the start. When Kick-Ass first tries to be a superhero, the thugs beat him. Hit Girl and Big Daddy appear and attack the thugs. The game begins after Kick-Ass is freed from the thugs. The circumstances of the storyline differ depending on which character the player selects. For instance in the film Frank D'Amico's men kidnap Kick-Ass and Big Daddy. In the game's storyline, this would not be possible if the player selects Big Daddy as his or her character, so in that event the game would instead have Hit Girl be kidnapped'

The game was released on iphone/ipod/ipad at a cost of $2.99. Although this could be be classed as expensive for a low quality game. The game was believed to be not very successful, but it still raised the Kick-Ass success level up, as most people had seen this film being advertised. On posters, trailers, comic book, and then the game.

By having all of this marketing, it gets the audience talking about the film, causing more and more people to be curious about the film, and how it will turn out once its released. The media production company have cleverly done this by already have a fan base before the release of the film.

On the other hand Attack the Block wasn’t a well known film and wasn’t a huge success with the box office, as it was extremely high in people’s expectations after the last success of ‘Hot Fuzz’ and ‘Shaun of the dead’. The film was created on a low budget, with the low key props and special effects, it almost made the film seem realistic. The production company had hardly done any marketing leaving the film to be unknown, it didn’t really help that the characters involved weren’t celebrities. By having celebrities in a film can be more successful due to the audience’s affection for a certain actor.