MEST2: Research and Planning

Existing product research

• Find five programmes similar to the idea or genre you plan to work with. Remember the E4 target audience specified in the brief.
• Research the target audience for each show and write about why the show would appeal to that audience.

One of the five programmes that are similar to the idea is E4's Top Boy. A urban drama which is not pre-watershed but it has a very similar target audience. Also the way they filmed Top Boy is very similar to the way I want to film because it has allot of handheld camera shots which gives a documentary feel to the program. The show appeals to my idea and also the first 2 minutes are similar to mine. The target audience for Top Boy are similar to mine but there target audience starts from 15-35 year old but mine starts at 13 year old which gives one of the reason which shows why the idea is pre-watershed. The target audience are mostly people who are middle class and lower class people also people that fit in the  demographic group of C2, D and E in the demographic group; which appeal to my target audience.

Another program that is similar to my concept is E4's The Inbetweeners which is a British sitcom which aired for three series. The program is not pre-watershed  but the audience is similar to mine. The narrative for the Inbetweeners is very real and not full of fake ending which ends up with a happy ever after. The Inbetweeners are very unexpected which fits into the Barthes theory of the enigma code. People like the program because they are not really following a normal narrative which makes them rebel against the Todorov theory because they do not end with a new equilibrium. They are also have a disequilibrium of trying to lose the virginity. Their audience are properly male and females and depends on the uses and Gratifications theory. 

The Wrong Mens is a show that is very similar to my type of filming I am going to do because they film in a very unique way. The program is has a very similar genre and it is very similar to my narrative. The program has allot of moments where I think links to Barthes enigma code. Which I want to include in my narrative.

Youngers is a program that links to my characters allot. There characters are all urban and have street knowledge. Which links to my main protagonist. He is a person who dose not have a feature in education, but knows how to work the streets just like one of the main characters in Youngers.

Bad Education is a program which has a similar audience but the program is a sitcom, but my program is not but I like to take reality feature from it and use it to my concept. The reality feature that is in the Bad Education is a feature that I admire because it makes the narrative and storyline more real and makes the audience feel more secure and think that is not fake.  

   

Representation collage on Photoshop

Representation collage on Photoshop

Audience Theory

Hypodermic Needle Theory 

In the article the Daily Mail talk about how violent video games can encourage aggressive behaviour. They prove it with statistics and audiences like to see the truth and statistics help prove the theory. The hypodermic needle theory doesn't help the video game industry because if people actually takes this into thought and then stops buying and playing video games, it would damage the economy because as you know the video game industry is bigger the film industry.  


Two-step flow model

I think Jamal Edwards can be looked as a opinion leader because he has posted videos of people rapping or singing who actually make it big in the world.



Uses Gratifications Theory

Diversion

The movie goes into uses and gratification. It goes into diversion due to the fact that takes away attentions from everyday problems to problems that means nothing for the time being, all because of this action packed entertainment










Personal identity
People can use Big Brother to learn the behaviour and personalty of their celebrities or people who they look up to.













Surveillance

Daily politics could be used for people to take away knowledge on things that are going around them and things that are important to them and what they care about.  












Personal relations

Hollyoaks lets their audience use personal relations to take people away from their personal relationships. They will use their emotion of characters death  rather then their personal relationship.












Dependency theory

1.  I use the media for entertainment, eduction, knowledge and opportunities.

2. I think that people know depend on the media more than people did 5 years ago because of the growth of technology. People would check social media rather than actually go and find out out.

3. Our dependence on the media has changed allot over the 10 years manly because of the growth of technology and because there is allot of it, it is getting cheaper.

Evaluation

Evaluation

Our preliminary exercise started with a sequence of clips of one of our main character going up stairs. The sequence of the one of the main characters going up the stairs was 15 seconds long. In the edit we used 4 clips. When we see the character for more than 4 seconds we notice that the character represents the main protagonist. The first shot we used was a medium shot which was tracking back. That shot lasted for 2 seconds which leads us to the next shot which was a high angle long shot, which lasted for 1 second. In that shot the camera followed the main protagonist. However, after that shot went for a medium that also followed the main protagonist, which lasted for 5 seconds. The next shot was a very important shot, because if we did this shot using all still movement we would have to use 3 shots and capture all the footage that we got in this tracking shot. The shot tracked right which first focused on the railings first which focused on the main protagonist; we end up on the right hand side of the main protagonist which is a contrast from where we started. The title “The Interview appears at the end of the sequence. We used these shots because it first set the scene and it also showed the emotion of the main protagonist. And also showed what he is wearing because clothes give the audience a clue of what kind of person he is.

After that we have an over the shoulder shot which shows a character in a shirt and he tell the main protagonist that “she will be with you in a second”.  Then after that it shows the main protagonist taking his bag and responding to him with a “thank you”. We quickly move to the original over the shoulder shot as the character nods and leaves. We soon notice that he is not an important character. The shoot moves back to a shoot which was the over the shoulder shoot but we see our main protagonist waiting nervously. We move to a medium shoot of the main protagonist waiting nervously. We filmed this shoot we the camera out of focus and then it turns into focus and focuses on to the main protagonist. After that we see a close up of a person wearing high heels. The audience would assume that this person is going to be someone important and that they are going to be a good looking female. After that we go back to the pervious shot of the main protagonist waiting nervously.

We now see who this girl is as we have a close medium shot of the girl opening the door. Then we see a reaction shot of the main protagonist reacting and is now acting more manly. After that we see a medium shot of the girl coming and then an over the shoulder shoot of the girl sitting down and dropping her folders and then we have a shot which gives us one match on action. The match on action is the girl dropping her folders. After that we have a long conversation and we see a lot of over the shoulder shots and some medium shots of them talking and we also we one close up of the main protagonist looking down and he seems very nervous.

One thing I did notice was the focus during the conversation when I was editing. In one of the over the shoulder shots we see the face the person not really in focus. That made it hard for me and made me worried. At the end we used that shot a lot.

The music was something that I wanted to test out and I also had a theory. My theory was that pizzicato strings music makes senses more funny and it also gives the audience  a clue to what kind of scene it is going to be.

WWW: Great editing, music works well, good script.

EBI: Bad focus one shot. Broke the 180 rule but disguised it well.  

 

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Task 3

Resigned

Strugglers

Succeeder

Aspires

Mainstreamers

Explores

Psychographic Group Resigned

Grade C

Young & Rubicam 4C's

I thought I was going to be Status and Escape but it turned out to be Status and Control. I think overall I do agree with this.

Ten Brands For me 
1) Google- Google for me is one of my most favourite and most used brand. I use it for YouTube, work. Google fits into both of my psychographics groups (Control and Status) because I like to have control over all my work and videos and also Google makes my appearance look good and busy.

2) Samsung- Samsung is a one of the brands that helps me fit into the psychographics group of Status because it makes me customize my phone how I like it to be and I have it full of work.

3)Canon- I use Canon because they are very good but they also give me statement out because if I see someone with canon DSLR I would assume that they are good with using a camera. They also give control over the settings which I like. So then Canon fits into Control and status.

4)Penny Skateboards- Penny Skateboard are one of the most used brand in my life, as a skater. Penny gives me the option to take control of my skateboard which fits into the control group.

5)Kellogg's- Kellogg's is one of the ones that help me take control of what I'm eating, which fits into the control group. It says something about my lifestyle which also fits into my Status.

6)Superdry- The brand Superdry helps me look good and it also makes me look like i am a person that keeps up with the newest trends. So overall Superdry goes into the status group.

7)Starbucks- Starbucks is one best coffeeshops in the world. And to be honest the only reason I go to it, is because helps me look like someone thats is successful which then it fits into the Status group.

8)H&M- H&M gives me the option to look good because they have a lots of different clothes. This gives me the control to chose the clothes that i like. So therefore, H&M fits in both of my groups, control and Status.

9) XBOX- XBOX is for me one of favourite brands in the world. I think this show my Status as a person that likes entertainment more than playing games itself so this fits in my Status group.

10) Microsoft- Microsoft has been the one brand that i have been using first. This brand gives me the control that I need. Therefor this brand lifts into control group.

Brand Value

Brand Value

 The Audi brand is know around the world as one of the greatest car makers.

Audi's brand values include class, luxury and achievement. The Audi brand fits into the luxury rich life. This is because of the fact that those who already have wealth might buy this car as a statement to show their wealth.

Coca Cola is  very well known brand that is known around the world. Coca Cola's brand values are happiness and a great taste. Coca Cola fits into the Dyers childhood line of appeal. This is because that Coca Cola plays a big part in a growing child's life. This can therefore appeal to an adult's nostalgic side. Overall Coke is for hard working people who want to enjoy life and have a social and good lifestyle.

The Virgin atlantic brand is about comfort and style. The brand is clever as it comes across as a cheap and continental airline. The values are comfort and style. This fits into Gillian dyers happy family. This is because Virgin offer cheap holidays which include flights which families like.

Apple is a globally very well known brand that gives us high class technology, from computer to phones. Apple products are owned by most people which fits into our lifestyle. Dyers line of appeal would fit into lifestyles. Most people use this as a statement to show their lifestyle to other people and their for this goes back to Dyers line of appeal would fit into our lifestyle.

McDonalds is a global fast food restaurant the goes from the USA to China. McDonalds are a brand that target all ages and audiences. McDonalds is a restaurant that all kids and family associated with happiness due to the fact that it brings them together. This fits into Dyers line of Appeal of happy families and childhood.

Test Feedback

WWW:

• you start really well and use media language confidently
•  Some good detail in places.

EBI:

• You need to maintain the quality in Q1 for the whole paper.
• Don't confuse the different aspect
• You must explain all your point. You say the sound is contrapuntal but don't explain how, why... 
• You also say it matched with the camera-so isn't that parallel sound?
• More notes will help you with the later questions.

Grade: D

Mark : 25

   

Institution Sky

WWW:
Well designed slides
Good starter
Excellent attempt to present without reading words

EBI:
Planning/ Rehearsed
Include a plenary

LR:
I think that we did quite well. We gave some tough but good questions which gave some good information.  there was a problem with the powerpoint but we still managed to finish the PowerPoint.

Cinematography task (camera shots and movement)

The cinematography in the bugsy malone fight scene was mostly filmed on a tripod because most the shots were medium shots in the scene. In the clip they used some high angle long shots and some panning shots. They also used one shot where they zoomed in to a characters face which showed the facial expression. They used lots of medium shots of people getting hit in the face which was filmed from a low angle point.


The cinematography in the fight scene in Parker was filmed not on a tripod, it was filmed hand held. There was lots of medium shot and close ups which was mostly filmed from a low angle.




Overall through the years camera work has changed a lot throughout the decades. These days there are a lot of movement work using a steady cam or a dolly. In the past, films used a lot of steady shots.

Analysing Narrative

Analysing Narrative

The narrative I will be analysing is the a TV episode . TV episode is The Inbetweeners -Thorpe park. It is about 4 friends but one of the friends narrates the what happens. The 4 friends are in sixth-form in London. The story evolves around these 4 characters.  


Roland Barthes theory is played with a lot in the episode. In the episode there are many signs that gives us clues on there personalty. One major sign is that how nice or unkind they are to each other. All of them give lots of banter to each friend. This gives us a clue, feeling that they are close that they are not sacred of each other.


The enigma code is showed in this episode because there are lots of funny moments when things don't go according to plan. There is on major funny moment when they are trying to park the car and then "Jay" wants to get because he saw some girls so he opens the door while the car is reversing  and the door hits a pole and the door comes of. The audience did not expect that to happen because when you hear about something about you wouldn't expect to laugh but the way they filmed it and they brought it up unexpectedly. Enigma was brought in before because they are parking a car. The major enigma was brought after that when the audience was egger to know what happens next with the car door and at Thorpe park.   

Todorov's theory did not really go into this episode as there is a number of disequilibriums. I think that is why the inbetweeners are so successful, because you don't know what to expect.  

Sound Presentation

Feedback

WWW

• Brilliant presentation - opening superb
• wide range of parallel images- good justification of them too.
• Great debate started on music genre images

EBI

• Pixelated images
• contrapuntal images - were they massively different
• Perhaps choice of music was a difficult one for this task

Evaluation

I think there was some confusion with one of my contrapuntal with the evil and the pictures of death. I know there was some pixelated images and i could of got a similar pictures which wasn't pixelated. I think the reason i choose Dubstep was because it was different and i don't like to be the same as everyone else.            

The view on the UK

Narrative

Narrative

I and my partner Manraj decided to do our narrative based on football. The narrative is "The Game".

Todorov Theory

Todorov theory did help use sort out the narrative because we do have a equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium.

Narrative

  

 The protagonist within the story is someone called Conrad Garcia. Who is half English and half Spanish. Conrad Garcia is a footballer who plays for Barnsley in the championship. This is when the equilibrium is put in place. It is the Championship playoff final and the winner of the match will get promoted into the Premiership. Unfortunately Barnsley lost on penalties, however Conrad who is a striker did score a goal during the match and converted his penalty and was also named man of the match. Due to his performance in the final and throughout the whole season a host of premier league clubs were tracking him when eventually Tottenham signed him for 7 million pounds. It was middle of the season and Conrad hadn’t played many games due to the quality of players within the Tottenham squad. Tottenham were playing a home match against Manchester United they were losing 1-0. Andre Vilas Boas the Tottenham manager needed to make a substitution quickly. He decided to take their star striker Soldado off and bring on Conrad, the Tottenham fans were booing and getting very abusive.. Until the 90^th minute where Conrad was fed in one on one he shoots he scores!

That one goal changed his life completely, now Conrad would get noticed everywhere he goes, sponsorship deals you name it. But more importantly he was starting instead of Soldado the best player at the club. Due to the fame and his big step up Conrad wanted a new contract worth a lot of money, however his agent who had been his agent since he first started playing football professionally told him he should wait. Conrad didn't like what his agent had to say and this resulted in conflict between the pair and eventually he sacked him and hired a new well known agent, who was also the agent of Soldados. The disequilibrium is now being introduced. Has Conrad has with many premier league footballers personal life was beginning to take a toll on his image has he was always partying and cheated on his girlfriend who he had been with from a young age. He got the lucrative contract he wanted but at a cost has he had lost all his friends and lost respect from the people closest to him. You could see this wasn’t affecting him on the pitch has he was still scoring goals. However Soldado didn’t like Conrad due to him taking his place in the team and had a word with his agent, has Soldado was the agents’ favourite client he decided to help Soldado. It was the penultimate weekend of the premier league and Tottenham were going for 4^th place, they were up against Sunderland. Lee Cattermole another one of this mysterious agents clients was playing. During the match you could see Cattermole was man marking Conrad and towards the end he had fouled and injured Conrad this caused a fight between the two payers causing Conrad to get sent off and also injured for a large amount of time. Cattermole then looked to the stands where the agent was and winked and just Conrads luck his replacement Soldado scored the winner.

After long rehab, Conrad decided to try fix things up with the people closest to him, this worked and he eventually re hired his ex agent and forced a move away from Tottenham and joined Arsenal their rivals.. His career was back on track but for how long...

Vladimir Propp Seven Spheres of action.

Villain: New agent

Donor: Mum

Helper: Close friends/ girlfriend/ old agent

Princess: Girlfriend

Dispatcher: Mum

Hero: Conrad Garcia

False Hero: New team mates and agent

Levi Strauss Binary Opposition

 The binary oppositions is played alot in this narrative because it comes good vs bad and hope vs fate.

Film Noir Research

Film Noir Research

Film noir is a stylish Hollywood crime drama. Film Noir is not really made any more but there has been some great films made in the past. Hollywood's film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir is known named as a genre now. The hasn't really been any film noir films made know. Film noir is mostly known for their low-key lighting and for the crimes. The term film noir is french for 2black film", which was first introduced to Hollywood films by a french critic Nino Frank in 1946.


Film noir is not really mentioned in the world of cinema right now but some companies have brought back film noir back into the 21st century. The video game industry has taken film noir into a hole different level bringing in a whole different perspective of the genre. Two games that took advantage of film noir is Rockstar Game's L.A.Noire and 2K Czech's MAFIA II. Which was set in the same time period, 1940-1950. Both the games had different plots for the game they were a Third-person shooter, action-adventure.

Most recently Warn Bros released a film noir film called Gangster Squad which was based " Tales from the gangster squad by Paul Lieberman". The film was released in January 2013 and was successful but still film noir is not one of the major genres in the film industry. 

News source

News Source

Dominant reading:

The dominant reading is that these two people who look like they are soldier are about to go into a operation to help save people and beat the bad guys. People like to think that these guys are the goo guys the superheroes and people liked to think they are going to beat the bad guys. The picture by the photographer is clearly trying to show these men are fully concentrated on the operation. 

Negotiated reading:

The negotiated meaning could be that these soldiers might have went into the operation trying to not injure any hostages but then injure or maybe even kill them. This would show that we should not trust the army more than we should.

Opposite reading: 

The opposite reading could be that these soldiers might go and actually help the bad guys and start a civil war to create much more danger to the people of the place. 

Mise-en-scene of an Image

Mise-en-scene of an image

This picture you see below this, will be broken down by me using mise-en-scene.

Costume & makeup: The costume that the actor is wearing is just a t-shirt jeans, trainers and a snapback worn backwards. The denotation is that the actors costume is what teenagers wear. The connotation of the costume is that this guy is normal, he is wearing normal clothes that every normal tennager wears, so therefor when the audience see that they will see the actor wearing normal clothes and then no that this guy looks good and he is normal. The makeup that actor has is just facial hair which suggest his age which is mid teen. 

Lighting & colour: The lighting of the image has been done naturally and artificially by using back filler lights and editing softwares. The naturally light is coming from the sun which sets the time of the day. The colour sets the emotion and atmosphere of the image. The colour filter that they have used makes the actor look like he has a mission or a obstacle that he has too overcome.      
Actor, placement & movement:

Setting & Props: The sitting of the image is set near a harbor with lost of stairs, rails and blocks which is lots of obstacles of bmx riders. The prop that they have used a BMX, a normal BMX that most people can afford. The setting and prop gives us lots of ideas of what the actor is doing here.

Placement and Movement: In the image there is no movement but there is placement. The most obvious placement is where the actor and his BMX is and how he is with his BMX. The actor is on his BMX standing while the BMX is between his legs. His hands are on the handles like he is about to start, but most importantly his his face and his eyes is looking towards the sunset, which is the icon of the image.

Analysing Nike print advert

Analysing Nike print advert

The print advert I will be analysing is the Nike “JUST DO IT” brand print advert. The print advert shows a defined black male aged around 17-23 years old in the air with one arm on his skateboard. Next to the male there is a copy and it says “MY ASSAULT . Overall print is very power to promote their brand and I will be braking it down below.

Colour has been used so well, that it has help this print to become very powerful. In the picture we see a black background and white in the text, clothes of the male and the outline and wheels of the skateboard. The reason why they used black and white is because, white and black are exactly opposites of each other and that’s why it would stand out. The background is black which sets an enigma and makes the audience try to connote the where the setting is. The clothes of the male is set out to stand out – white. White stands out more than any other colour and it sets a theme. The reason why they chose white is because the male is black and looks ghetto and people see ghetto people cool and the white makes him stand out. Even the skateboard refers to the black male. Black deck but the wheels and outline are white.  Just like the male he has a dark body and then white shoes which represents the wheels and the shorts as the outline. The text below the male is the strapline of the brand saying “JUST DO IT”. The strapline is flowed by the Nike logo which is white just like the strapline and all the writing in the print except a big text that is on the left of the black male. This big copy stands out the most because it has white background and black text. The copy says "MY ASSAULT". The reason why they have made the text black and the background of the text white is because they want the copy stand out the most and it does it is the most different thing on the print.

Setting is a major thing in this print. It sets the atmosphere in the print and it sets the audience. The setting is unclear but we can connote that it is supposed to be like that so that the male well be the only attraction and it looks like he might be somewhere but it doesn't matter where he is because the male looks so focused that nothing else matters its all about him and the skateboard.

The lighting takes a major part in the print and in the pose of the male. All the lighting is on the male and the skateboard. The lighting on the males arm and top of his body has been done exceptionally well, so well that you can see every little detail on his arm and on the top of his body. The lighting well show the audience that this guy is black and he is most probably from a ghetto area and he looks really good wearing this brand, also he is really good at skateboard.

The type of shot that they used really help the framing and composition of this print. These 3 combined into one aspect, making it easier to make this print advert successful. The type of shot is a portrait long shot. This shot was probably taken landscape and then cropped into this portrait. When this was taken and cropped this was then framed with just adding the black background and when was they composed the print advert it was easy to identify where to put the logo, copy, website and strapline.