Component 3 Production: Initial selection and planning

Brief 1: Television Task 1 - A cross-media production for a new television programme in a factual or fictional genre (or sub-genre/hybrid) of your choice. Create an audio-visual sequence from a new television programme and associated print or online materials to promote the same programme.

• Products - Different props, outfits and settings (two or more locations). Three different people will participate with the television programme.
• Producer - The television programme will be broadcasted on E4 or BBC3 targeted at 16-25 year olds.

PRODUCER RESEARCH:

E4

• Brief history of channel , links to other channels

E4 first launched on 18 January 2001, and it was introduced as a paid television channel companion with Channel 4. Later on 16 December 2004, Channel 4 had migrated to a free-to-air television channel instead. 

• Summary of content :genres broadcast, most popular weekly programmes

E4 mainly consists of dramas, sitcoms and comedies but they also include other genres such as reality, action and animations. 

• Channel identity, statement  or mission 

"Our mission is to Do It First, Make Trouble and Inspire Change."

• Most successful programmes ( audience figures/critical success )

The top 10 most watched programmes on E4 include the two popular series: The Inbetweeners and The Big Bang Theory. The Inbetweeners reached an all-time high on E4 with 3,721,000 viewers on 11 October 2010, and The Big Bang Theory reached their highest viewers with 2,803,000 people on 15 November 2012.

• Any examples of programmes similar in theme /genre to your initial ideas aimed at the required target audience

My genres in consideration: Drama, Comedy

I will be broadcasting on E4 because the entertainment and comedy genre has been the most popular genres on the channel, and on BBC3, there are other categories and genres that overtake the comedy and entertainment.

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PLOT + IDEAS.

Opening: Demanding money between two people for a short time - one gets murdered but screen turns black and only sounds can be heard.

Episode will consist of gang members speaking until another individual calls phone to explain a situation; everyone rushes off and ends on a cliffhanger. ////////// MC is secretly a gang member and hides it from his family.

PAPER 1 A Key Text: Beyonce "Formation" MUSIC VIDEO (2016)

 Context: Summarise the social, political and historical events and issues that are directly referenced in the video.

At the very start of the music video, there is a short scene where Beyoncé is on top of a police car, half-submerged into water with a voice from a YouTube star named Messy Mya saying "What happened at the New Orleans?". This is referencing the Hurricane Katrina which occurred during 23 August 2005 and 31 August 2005. Messy Mya was shot dead at a party at 14 November 2010 due to gang violence issues. As Beyoncé is on top of a police car, this can imply she has dominance over the police.

Later on in the video, there is a person that holds a newspaper that clearly shows Martin Luther King, and with a large caption that says "More Than A Dreamer". Martin Luther King was a very powerful man that addressed the problem with society and racism, and the reference of the newspaper simply reinforces Martin's famous speech and spreads awareness of racism that still exists.

In the lyrics, Beyoncé says ,"I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils" which is referencing the stereotypical hate that the black culture receives due to their noses. This sentence that Beyonce says is another way of saying that everybody should be proud of their own looks, and shouldn't bat an eyelid to anyone that comments about their features.

Further in the video, there is a scene where a young boy is seen dancing in front of a large line of police officers with riot gear. The boy stops dancing, and then puts his hands in the air, as if he is surrendering to the police. The police then respond by all putting their arms in the air, copying the young boy. This is powerful as the scene shows peace between the black community and the police officers. A short clip then appears which shows a wall with graffiti portraying "Stop shooting us", which is a strong reference to the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Star Persona: How does Beyoncé present herself in this video? Personality, use of sexuality and sex appeal, perspective on social events? Is she just a glamorous pop star dressing up or expressing something more profound? Is she representing something beyond herself?

In the music video, Beyoncé is much much more than just a "glamorous pop star", and she is addressing vast amounts of references of social and political issues. There are parts of the music video where she is showing wealth and class with her clothing and background, and there are parts where she is showing synchronised dances in formation with other individuals.

Although there are many scenes where the women are fully dressed, there are other scenes where women are still being sexualised in the music video. For example, when dance scenes appear with many other women dancing with Beyoncé, the women appear with crop-tops, shorts and other revealing clothing. 

When the dance scenes appear, this allows everyone to imply that the black women are united together when they dance in perfect formation and synchronisation. 

Charity Advert Analysis - Most shocking second a day

General Conventions

The advertisement is raising awareness for vulnerable children living in dangerous conditions and war zones, and they are targeting middle-class parents that are most likely the group of people that will donate. The charity is also attempting to guilt-trip the viewers as direct mode of address is used with the child looking straight at the camera, as if they are begging for help. The setting gradually changes throughout the video, and there are clear signs of where the mood of the video changes from a happy beginning to a moody ending.

Camera Angles

The only main camera angle used was a close-up / medium close-up, and they were used to portray the change in emotions throughout the video. This camera angle gives the strongest effect as the shot captures the child's facial expressions and the changes in the setting behind her. Each shot is only a second long which can create more of an effect due to the frequent updates on the girl's emotions and the background behind her. 

Props, Costume and Mise-en-scène

The props used in the video can show the mood in each scene, and how it slowly changes to become worse and worse by the second. For example, it is the girl's birthday and the cake at the start of the video looks very normal, and it has multiple candles inside the cake. There are many people in the background, which are most likely family and friends, and the scene looks like a normal day with nothing wrong happening. Later on at the end of the video, there is another scene where it is the girl's birthday again, and the scene is completely different to the first scene. The setting is inside a hospital, the cake looks very low-quality, there is only the mother and the girl present in the scene, and the mental and physical state of the girl looks quite severe. 

The girl's appearance changes drastically throughout the video due to the events that happened in the video. Her hair, face and clothing becomes more dirty by the day and her facial expressions becomes colder, which follows on with the background events behind her. 

Lighting & Colour

The lighting changes throughout the advert as the scenes progressively become worse by the second. At the start of the video, the lighting is very warm, and it seems as if there are many sources of light shining to the camera. This can indicate that the start of the video has nothing wrong with it, and the mood of the video is rather uplifting. Later on in the video, the video rockets from being very uplifting to very dark/moody. This causes the colour to change from including a lot of warm colours to suddenly change to much colder colours. 

One example of the colour change is the very first scene and the very last scene; the first scene has a lot of warm colours and it consists of a lot of yellow-orange colour, and the last scene completely cuts out the warm lighting, and completely includes cold colours. The walls, the lighting and even the girl's clothing transforms into a cold colour which is literally the opposite of the first scene, where even the girl's clothing was red at the time. 

Sound

The video includes scenes which last only one second, and this also follows on with the sound on each scene. This creates a large effect due to the sudden changes, and each second gives a substantial amount of information for the viewer to pick out. For example, one scene could seem quite normal, and all of a sudden, it changes to a scene where 1 second worth of an explosion is heard. 

Riptide Music Video Analysis (NF)

• Gender representation = Women - violence, sexualised, victim, dehumanised, aspects of power 
• Genre: Retro, indie, alternative guitar

GENRE & AUDIENCE .

The music video belongs in the indie/alternative genre, which just means that Vance Joy's "Riptide" was produced independently from a commercial record label. The alternative genre of music is music produced which didn't fall into the mainstream categories, but rather fall through the punk-rock areas. 

Vance Joy's "Riptide" falls into the indie-pop and indie-folk genre due to the guitar chords playing in the background. The music video fits into the alternative genre due to Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory; Goodwin's theory states that music videos promote a song by analysing the lyrics and portraying an action that the lyrics had included. 

NARRATIVE & ICONOGRAPHY .

The music video does not have a story, but rather images and scenes that match what the lyrics are saying. This falls into Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory, where the music video analyses the lyrics and shows what the lyrics say, literally or metaphorically. For example, when the lyrics say, "Oh, all my friends are turning green" the music video shows a scene of money. Although the lyrics mean that his friend are turning green with envy, the money shown represents the "green" which doesn't correlate with the right meaning.

REPRESENTATION .

Gender is represented in a way that women look much less powerful, and this can be shown at the start of the music video where a woman is being filmed without knowing, and she is undressing at the beach. Due to her absence of knowing that she is being filmed, this assumes that men could be filming her and she is being sexualised. There is another scene that appears multiple times which includes a woman singing at a microphone. This scene appears 4 times, and each scene changes which gives an effect of less power

Tide Print Advert Analysis

 

Layout and Design

The layout of the advertisement includes 3 images, and all of them include an image of a woman. This can be the first source of information that can indicate who the target audience are. The images also show what the women are doing; for example, the main image shows a woman holding a tide box, and the other images show the woman cleaning and hanging up clothes. Therefore, the advert is a stereotypical advertisement targeted at women. 

Lighting & Colour

The main colours used in this advert are white and red, with a few hints of blue. Their outfits look very old-fashioned but the overall colour scheme of the advertisement seems warm and bright. This can indicate that the washing-up product brings joy, and the target audience would love the product. 

Images

There are three images on the advert, and each of the images consists of a woman. The main image portrays a woman holding the box of the washing-up product, in a way that makes it look as if she adores the box with hearts above the image. The other two are stereotypical images that portray a woman cleaning clothes and hanging up clothes. 

Language

The language used on this advert can clearly show who the target audience is supposed to be. On the masthead of the advert, it says, "Tide's got what women want!" which strengthens the point. On top of the masthead, there is a slogan which says, "No wonder you women buy more TIDE than any other washday product!" which further provides evidence for who the target audience is. The word "you" used in the slogan can also indicate that the advert is overpowering women due to having no reason to include that word.

In all text included on the magazine, the word "Tide" is made larger than the rest of the text, and it is in red which makes the word stand out. This is done to further advertise the product, and to let the reader know that the advert is about their product, and about how much better it is than any other product. The bragging effect of the advert appears in multiple areas of the advert, and this is almost just to fill in the white spaces to show their superiority over all the other wash products that exist.

Rule of Third

The advertisement consists of the Rule of Third, which sets out the advertisement into different "sections" to make the viewer read the advertisement in a manner where all the significant points and images are read first. An imaginary 3x3 grid can be placed on the advertisement, and the most important aspects of the advert would be placed on cross-sections and inside the large spaces.

Gender Representation in Media Products

Introduction 

In different media products, gender is mainly represented to create a specific thought within the viewer. Gender stereotypes are also used in most media products to base males and females to roles that they "belong in", almost creating a relation between the media product and the real world.

Stuart Hall's Representation Theory is the idea that media products are being used to create representations for the different gender roles, and stereotypes created from representations are often negative. 

Music Videos

One example of gender representation is the music video for Katy Perry's "Roar". Gender stereotypes within the music video seem to be almost reversed, as the start of the music video shows Katy Perry bravely exploring a jungle, and her boyfriend is seen to be taking selfies and photos at the start. Katy Perry then begins to show her powerful personality near the end of the music video, but her character is sexualised later on, which fits in with Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory. 

Advertisements.

Another example of gender representation belongs in an advertisement made in 1953 about ketchup. The advert has the caption of "You mean a woman can open it...?", which is considered sexist. Through stereotypes, this can give the message that women were not able to open ketchup bottles without aid from a stronger individual - a male. This advertisement was frowned upon by society as the sexism was very clear.

Magazines

A further example of gender representation appears in magazines. They are usually stereotypical as magazine companies attempt to create a connection within the reader to make the magazine relatable with them. Gender roles in magazines clearly show differences between the male and female, but some magazines bypass this. Majority of fitness magazines usually portray a man at the front cover, and fashion magazines usually portray a woman at the front cover. 

If a person is "metrosexual", they are more focused about taking care of their appearance and fashion, and these type of people are portrayed on Fashion magazines. 

If a person is "spornosexual", they are more focused on taking care of their body, and usually pose on Fitness magazines.

Video Games

The gender representation in video games can clearly show the differences in roles for each gender. For example, the game New Super Mario Bros. includes two playable characters: Mario and Luigi. The two protagonists are male and their goal is to retrieve the princess back to their castle as she had been kidnapped by a male antagonist. One clear example of sexism is that the only playable characters in the game are male and the only person that needs saving is a female. 

However, one game that didn't include a male protagonist is a game called Metroid, and the protagonist is called Samus. Her goal is to stop threats from an evil group called the Space Pirates, and to harness the use of biological weapons used by the Space Pirates. At the end of the game, Samus' gender is revealed, and it surprised many people due to Metroid becoming (one of the) first games to include a female as the protagonist.

Another game that didn't include a male protagonist is a game called Tomb Raider, and the protagonist is called Lara Croft. In the game, her goal is to discover ancient artefacts, solve puzzles and to fight off enemies to banish a soul called the Sun Queen. The character of Lara Croft, however, was sexualised; her clothing reveals a lot of skin, and her body proportions were sized to further sexualise the character.