How typical are your chosen texts of their genre?

Fish Tank is a social-realist film set in Tilbury, Essex, which has a reputation for its crime and anti-social behaviour. In the film there is no non-diegetic music or sounds to give a sense of realism. To add to the sense of realism all the camera work is handheld and it is all tracking shots, following Mia and showing the world from her point of view. This movie has some similarities to famous 60's social-realist films such as 'A taste of honey' and 'Saturday night and sunday morning'. These similarities include an urban setting. 'Saturday night and sunday morning' was set in Nottingham, and Tilbury is surrounded by motorways above the river Thames.

Discuss the audience appeal of your three main texts (30)

Mad Men is a long-running American TV series, made by the company AMC. Mad Men came about at the beginning of 'Retrophilia', a craze where 60's fashion and culture became popular again. Even though the programme wasn't particularly popular, it was part of the spark which got everyone interested in the 60's again. Mad Men is very highly detailed so in the programme the clothes they wore and what they did at work (i.e. drink and smoke on the job) is very accurate.
Mad Men, and the episode I looked at 'The Other Woman' received huge critical acclaim. The actual series won the Emmy for outstanding drama series 3 years in a row, and 'The Other Woman' was submitted to the 2012 Primetime Emmy awards.

Lost is a 6-season long TV series made by ABC. Its title scene is simple, yet effective. It has a misty font which is at a strange angle, and the music is very strange. Already this is different to Mad Men because of its use of non-diegetic music. This is to tell the audience how to feel. The opening scene of episode 2, 'Pilot Part 2' in Season 1 refers back to the previous episode straight away so the audience doesn't have to have watched the previous episode to know what happened. This is a linear narrative; a very passive, mainstream structure. Another passive and mainstream element is the clear representations of characters. In the opening scene, Charlie asks Jack a number of questions, hoping for clear and reassuring answers, giving Jack the representation of a hero and a leader in terms of Propp's theory. Of the three people walking through the jungle, he is also the one leading the way back to the beach. At the end of the scene, there is a close-up of Charlie's face, and the non-diegetic music tells the audience to be wary of Charlie. This cues the next scene, which shows Charlie taking illegal drugs on a plane and then going to flush them down the toilet.
Later on in the same episode, Sayid, Charlie, Sawyer, Kate, Boone and Shannon are walking through the jungle to try and get reception on the transceiver. Eventually Sawyer and Sayid argue and as their voices raise a loud noise is heard. There are fast shots, and in them they take turns in showing close-ups of the characters faces and watching a monster (later they realise it's a polar bear) hurtling towards them.
Lost is a good example of a hybrid-genre. This means it contains elements of more than genre to appeal to a wider audience. Lost is predominantly Action and Sci-fi, with elements of Romance and even Comedy. They also use a multi-national cast of different ages and appearances to appeal to an even wider, world-wide audience.

Louis Theroux's documentary named 'America's Most Hated Family in Crisis is a good example of using the BBC's 'remit', which is a template for programmes 'to inform, to entertain and to educate'. The programme got mainly positive reviews, though The Irish Times said 'The excitement of seeing Louis Theroux back on screen with a new documentary soon wore off'. This is possibly in reference to the fact is wasn't particularly as hard-hitting as the first documentary. It got 3.33 million viewers, and it was the most watched BBC2 programme that week.
It is fairly passive viewing; at the beginning Louis asks 'is it possible you've become more weird?' in reference to the last time he was there, and there is some non-diegetic music which puts certain stereotypes in to the audience's head, for example, there is some slide-guitar 'redneck' music which gives the stereotype that the church are wacky americans.

Magazine

Magazine cover (3)

Music

Large photo covering most of the cover, with text around it describing whats in the magazine

Two small side articles about one live gig and what is on the coming pages

http://www.dafont.com/jd-digital.font

Cheeta music

To what extent are your chosen texts typical of their genre? (30 marks)

For this question I have chose the movie Sin City as my text. I believe that this film's genre is a hybrid of Film Noir and Comic Book. Some conventions of these that are shown in this text are certain characters and high contrast colours. Common characters in these genres are damaged protagonists and main characters, femme fatales, villains, and thugs and henchmen. The high contrast colours are a big part of the visual effects due to the nature of them. The very dark blacks and very bright whites make a big impact on the film as a visual text. Another convention is the weather; it is nearly always raining or damp, and there is sometimes storms involving thunder and lightning. Fighting and blood is also common in these genres.

One scene that I know which contains all these conventions is set in a deserted farm. Marv (the damaged protagonist) comes to avenge his lover called Goldie (his femme fatale) by killing Kevin (the twisted villain). In this scene is heavy rain and when the camera points to the sky, you can see and hear the flashes and sounds of thunder and lightning.

To what extent are your chosen texts typical of their genre?

The film Fish Tank fits in to the genre of Social realism, and it is very typical of this genre. The films contains many 'kitchen sink' moments, where the scene is based in the house, more specifically the kitchen, and the characters usually are just talking there. The film characters are working class, and the genre usually portrays them as heros even though they are not of a high class in society, and do not get a lot of media coverage. The shooting of the film consists of a lot of handheld cameras, and the shots are sometimes very long, and sometimes the film feels like a documentary. The locations are usually real places, and because the characters are working class, these locations are deprived areas. The only sound heard is diegetic.

One scene which contains a lot of these elements is a scene where Mia is in the kitchen dancing and then Connor, her mums boyfriend walks in. They talk by the kitchen sink in the small kitchen in their flat for about 3 minutes, and it is filmed by a handheld camera. There is no editing, it is just one long scene. There is music on but it is diegetic, coming from the TV.

Coursework essay

How far do the music videos of Rihanna and Ludacris portray contemporary representations of women and men?

  For my media research investigation, I will be asking the question ‘How far do the music videos of Rihanna and Ludacris portray contemporary representations of women and men?’ I will be exploring how music videos objectify women and I will apply Mulvey's theory of the Male Gaze to determine how the camera is used to present a masculine view of women. The Male Gaze theory states that 'women are typically the objects, rather than the posessers, of gaze because the control of the camera' (11). I will also be looking at how the Uses and Gratifications theory is used to give the audience pleasure and entertainment. The Uses and Gratifications theory 'assumes that members of the audience are not passive, but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media in to their own lives' (12). The Male Gaze theory will focus on how women are being shown in the videos to please the males watching, and Uses and Gratifications will show how the audience reacts to what is shown in the video, and how they can gain pleasure from it and how they can be part of social integration from it.

  Rude Boy by Rihanna (1) is the first music video I will be looking at. The song and video were both released in 2009 (13). It was the third single released from her fourth album 'Rated R'. Throughout the video, she is dancing in high heels and very little clothing, and her outfits change a lot. In some parts of the video after the beginning, there are men watching her or standing next her, and sometimes dancing with her. There is one shot where she fiddles with a mans shirt and then looks down his trousers. There are lots of close ups on her face, especially her lips, and at one point there is a close up of her breasts. I can look at both theories with this video, especially the Male Gaze.

  Act A Fool by Ludacris (2) is the second music video I'm looking at. The song and video were both released in 2003 (14). It was released as a stand-alone single for the film '2 Fast 2 Furious'. In most of the video, there are expensive-looking modified cars, and the video revolves around them. They are being driven by both genders, including Ludacris, and there are a few shots of Ludacris crouching down and rapping next to a car wheel. The cars are used to cause trouble, escape the police and race in the streets. Before racing, a girl who holds the flag to start the race lets an elderly lady cross the road, at which point a woman in a car tells the old lady to hurry up across. One of the cars break down with a man and woman in it, and the man makes the car go down at an angle so the woman is all on top of him. Later on, the car is being fixed by 3 women, and a man is behind watching pulling sexual facial expressions. All of the women in the video wear little clothing. Both theories feature largely in this video.

  Rihanna's music video Rude Boy (1) is not the first Rihanna video to be infamous because of how raunchy it is; We Found Love (3) and S 'n' M (4) proved very controversial because of the video and lyrics. The video consists of her dancing around, occasionally with some men. The Male Gaze was obviously a key element in the making of this video. The camera shows her making lots of sexual facial expressions and  the way the camera zooms onto her face and body shows her in a provocative way. The video shows her in a dominant position over the men involved, because she is walking round them and standing above them in some scenes, yet she is still doing things like dancing provocatively, and it seems she is doing this for the men, and heterosexual men would usually and stereotypically enjoy this. 'The audience's voyeuristic phantasy is encouraged by the contrast between the darkness of the cinema and the changing patterns of light on the screen' (15) this theory could have been put to use in this video; it contains lots of different, bright colours, making it stand out on the website or television being used to watch this video. The music industry is still mainly run by men (5) so they know what other men want to see in music videos their sons and daughters will most likely be watching. "...every person I have come across in this business in any position of power have been men - and even more, they have been white men." This is a quote by Speech Debelle in source 5. By encorporating the Male Gaze, the children can enjoy the music and can idolise the singer in question, and the father can watch and enjoy watching the singer dance around. Uses and Gratifications comes into it now, because whatever age you are, the chances are, if you are a girl, you will idolise this singer. She is a mainstream singer with lots of talent and lots of money and good looks, which is what girls can easily aspire to. Also she can be seen in the video dancing with topless muscly men, which older girls will like because they will be getting to, or they will be at the age where they start looking at males in a sexual way.

  Despite this, some people believe that she is still a bad representation of modern women. As well as being a talented idol for many, 'instead of using her fame as a platform to become a role model, Rihanna would rather post revealing photos and passive-agressive messages online' (6). Even respected artists such as Will Young have quoted 'I don't think Rihanna is a massively great role model for women, her lyrics aren't empowering.' (7)

  Act A Fool by Ludacris (2) does not have constant examples of the Male Gaze but still has examples occasionally, dotted throughout the video, and it links in with Uses and Gratifications at the same time. A good example of this is at the beginning of the video when some attractive women not wearing a lot come out of some expensive modified cars. The males watching will enjoy the women and cars, and will maybe aspire to have their money and cars. Females watching could also aspire to have their money and lifestyle as well, and maybe even the women's looks. Despite this, it shows women are second to the power of the men, because the men will do what they want around the women and the women will be passive and allow it to happen. This video though portrays both genders in a bad light. Firstly, they are all breaking the law by speeding and crashing through things, and then evading the police that catch them doing them. Then before breaking the law some more by racing in the streets, a woman shouts at an elderly woman. This video overall could easily be effecting small children's minds. If they are watching this video, they may not know much better than to look to adults to see whats right. It also gives young black men and women bad representations, and this representation could be passed on to others who have not even watched the video through speech and social interaction. Ludacris has had other controversial videos; His video Pussy Poppin' (8) was banned, and Ride (9) and Jingalin' (10) are also infamous. Although many critics praise him for his 'lightning-quick phrasing and cutting wit' and 'witty wordplay, Neil Drumming of Entertainment Weekly was quoted as saying that he has 'too many cuts are simply one note jokes stretched out to 3-4 minutes' and that the sexual nature of his album(s) are 'cringe-worth misogynistic snorefests' (16).

  Through this research, my views have slightly changed. My view was that Rihanna was a good role model making good music, but I never realised that she was involved in so much controversy. This has all made me think that parents should be careful when they let their child watch music videos on the internet, because if this is a correct representation of other music videos, children are in danger of being exposed to things of an adult nature too early in their lives. Ludacris' video is similar in the way it is harmful to young children's minds, and his lyrics in other songs can be offensive as well.

1. Rihanna - Rude Boy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e82VE8UtW8A 
2. Ludacris - Act A Fool http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA7gnSyuIik
3. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2064474/Rihanna-isnt-fazed-saucy-video-banned-France-posing-sexy-new-photo-shoot.html
4. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1657144/rihanna-s-m-video-banned.jhtml
5. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/aug/02/nme-krissi-murison-louise-wener
6. http://hollywoodlife.com/2012/04/19/rihanna-bad-role-model/
7. http://www.heatworld.com/Celeb-News/2012/03/Will-Young-Rihanna-is-not-a-good-role-model/
8. http://www.contactmusic.com/news-article/ludacris.-x.rated-video-banned
9. http://www.rnbmusicblog.com/ciara-ride-music-video-official-premiere-ft-ludacris/12225/
10. http://idolator.com/6767491/ludacris-jingalin-video
11. http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2007/08/26/faq-what-is-the-“male-gaze”/
12. http://www.slideshare.net/zlorhenley/uses-and-gratifications-theory-6933502
13. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rude_Boy_(song)

14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_a_Fool_(Ludacris_song)

15. 'An introduction to cultural theory and popular culture' by John Storey (book)
16. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken-n-Beer

Women and Men in music videos

http://heathenmedia.co.uk/sledgehammer/2011/10/20/representation-–-representation-of-gender-in-music-video/

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2012/04/women-sex-object-music-video-research-study.html
http://dambour.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/sexualization-of-women-in-music-videos.html
http://raprehab.com/2012/02/images-of-black-women-in-music-videos/
http://ealert.mysistahs.org/features/hiphop.htm
http://www.confidencecoalition.org/statistics-women
http://heathenmedia.co.uk/prayer/2011/10/19/representation-of-gender-in-a-music-video/
http://vashtijoseph.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/the-effect-of-female-portrayal-in-music-videos-on-men’s-views-and-expectations-toward-women/

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/13/3544673.htm