Potential Sources

Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' Theory.

Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' Theory which explains how women are sexualised in the media, especially film, music videos and magazines. "The male gaze occurs when the camera puts the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual man. It may linger over the curves of a woman's body, for instance. The woman is usually displayed on two different levels: as an erotic object for both the characters within the film, as well as the spectator who is watching the film". Jonathan Schroeder who is another theorist in 1998 also talked about his view on this 'male gaze' theory, "to gaze implies more than to look at - it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which gazer is superior to the object of the gaze".

Angela McRobbies's Feminist Theory.

Angela McRobbies's feminist theory is about the stereotypical gender roles in the media. Men being shown as masculine, powerful and aggressive. Women being stereotyped as weak, subservient to men and playing traditional roles in society such as mums, nurses etc. This theory will help me to identify if music videos represent men as the stereotypical masculine role. 

Doctor Who Analysis

For this Doctor Who analysis I watched Crimson horror on BBC iplayer which was original first broadcasted on the 4th of May 2013. Crimson Horror is episode 2 in the 7th series of Doctor Who and was written by Mark Gatiss. In this episode of Doctor who the narrative is about a mysterious apocalypse called the crimson horror set in victorian Yorkshire in 1893. I felt that this episode was a very conventional sci-fi episode however did also include some elements of romance and comedy throughout. In the beginning of this episode we are introduced to some of the main characters in this episode that find, help and save the doctor. Jenny Flint (a young woman),  Madame Vastra (Lizard) and Strax (goblin alien creature) also known as the paternoster gang are three main characters in this episode and are characters that have featured in other doctor who episodes as well. Recurring characters are used a lot in doctor who and is very conventional for this sci-fi series. Two of the characters are also alien creatures which is very conventional in all sci-fi Tv shows/films.

Straight away at the beginning we are shown a pan up shot of a setting and also text on screen to tell us in which era of time the episode will be set in, this is something that does happen sometimes in doctor who to show us were it is set so that it can cut straight into the narrative and not have a long introduction showing the doctor arrive at the place in the tardis. This makes it so that we don't see the doctor straight away in the narrative, which is a conventional factor that happens a lot in the doctor who series. In this episode the doctor is shown before the intro, however only in a photograph which the camera fades into and then the theme song intro is shown. One of the first characters we are shown is also the main antagonist 'Ms Gillyflower', who is the evil character who tries to spread the leech virus.

We are also told in the narrative a main setting called 'sweetville' which is a caged of town area where all the good, sweet and perfect people go to get brainwashed instead of getting put in a red leech liquid called 'the crimson horror'. I feel that the narrative of this episode and the idea of 'sweetville' reminded me a lot and has connotations of Hitler and how he wanted the perfect 'aryan race' in concentration camps.

I feel that the Mise-en-scene of this doctor who episode was very conventional because of the use of a past time location and the use of aliens and creatures. In doctor who episodes it is very rarely that you see the narrative mainly set in present time and or no use of time travelling because the tardis/time travelling are two main factors of this series and without these in episodes it would make the show less conventional as a sci-fi and not appeal to the fan base/audiences. The use of costumes in this episode have been used very well because of how they change costumes, hair etc when they go to different era's/dimensions.

The representation of women in the episode differs a lot through characters and is overall very balanced out so that the characters appeal to the audience and so that negative stereotypes are not shown. The main female character, clara, even though she is a companion and follower of the doctor she has a big impact on the decisions they make together as a team and is also shown in this episode as much more violent, outgoing and sometimes a bit more masculine than the doctor because of the actions and decisions she does. E.g she tries to fight of the army of brainwashed people by violence and also uses a chair to break a machine instead of the doctor using his sonic screwdriver. She is also shown as a very independent character and someone that stands up for her rights, because when clara saves the doctor, the doctor quickly kisses her and clara then slaps him. The representation of genders changes a lot throughout the whole of the doctor who seasons and episodes because of the different doctors and companions they use. In this series the actor playing the doctor is Matt Smith who is represented throughout the series and this episode as a very fast paced, smart, funny and romantic character. The companion in this series is clara who is being played by Jenna-Louise Coleman.         

Research into TV and Genre (lesson 2)

Cop/Detective - DCI Banks  

DCI Banks, ITV1, review by Gerard O'Donovan 10 Oct 2012 (Reviewing the first episode of the new series of DCI Banks). "There was one standout moment in tonight’s opening episode of a new series of DCI Banks (ITV1) when Stephen Tompkinson, in the role of North Yorkshire major crimes detective Alan Banks, called round to his wealthy brother’s house and found a Porsche 911 in the garage. Slipping into the leathery embrace of the driver’s seat Banks forgot himself for a moment, gripped the steering wheel and emitted a low, throaty growl"........ Link for rest of review.

Cop/ Detective - Murder, She Wrote


Natalie Haynes's review on the character Jessica Fletcher (Main detective character in Murder, She Wrote) "The Murder, She Wrote character manages to stumble across 264 episodes' worth of crime scenes – and solve every one of them"

Sci-Fi

Stargate: Universe


Guardian - Anna Pickard Review
"You're probably aware of Stargate. There are several films, TV series, animated series, novels – you might have watched and read them all. Or you might just have watched them go by in the distance and thought they probably weren't for you. As with a lot of genre TV, people who like it tend to really, really, like it – while people who haven't ever sat and watched anything branded "Stargate" will assume they're too late to the party to bother and not watch it...."


Star Trek - The Next Generation


Phelim O'Neill review - Guardian
"It was a show that few predicted would last one season, let alone seven. Trying to recapture the glory of a long cancelled sci-fi series from the 60s seemed like hubris; replacing William Shatner's virile Captain Kirk with balding, 47-year-old Yorkshire man Patrick Stewart, described by the LA Times as an "unknown British Shakespearean actor" appeared sheer insanity. But, after a few shaky seasons of variable quality, it worked, equalling the bottled lightning of the original and in many ways surpassing it"

Research into TV Industry (Lesson 1)

The top five major TV channels in the UK are BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. 

BBC One's main audience is the majority of the British public. The BBC show a whole range of different TV genres such as Drama's, Comedies, Documentaries, current affairs, news, entertainment and factual to reach a big majority of the British public. ITV has a variety of channels that include different content for different audiences. ITV shows a variety of genres of shows just like the BBC including the biggest entertainment events, to original drama, major sport, landmark factual series and independent news, ITV2 targets 16-34s with a range of entertainment programming, ITV 3 is a Drama based programme which targets older audiences, ITV4 is a sport entertainment channel targeted at a male audience and CITV is for a young child audience. Channel 4 Is a channel that is targeted at a young adult audience aged 18-30 along with its over channels which include E4, More4, Film4 and 4Music. Channel five is targeted at two audiences for difference times in the day. Early mornings consist of kids TV aimed at 3-11 year olds and throughout the day and evenings the audience changes to aim more at a much older audience around 25+.

BBC one is the UK's most watch channel and showcases Britain's most talented, popular and most loved programmes. The BBC try to reach a wide audience by trying to show a variety of channels and genres to entertain, educate and inform. BBC 1 shows genres such as drama, entertainment (talent shows etc), comedy, specialist factual, documentaries, featured series, news and current affairs. BBC say on there website that they try to reach the whole of the British public and show a bit of everything to keep people watching and to make everyone come together and share the greatest TV moments.  

The BBC (British broadcasting company) was created in 1922 and is the largest broadcasting company in the world. BBC is very different to other TV channels through the way it earns its revenue because the BBC earns money in the UK through TV licensing, government funds and also other commercial businesses that the BBC run. Within the UK everyone who owns a TV gets charged annual TV license. A percentage of this fee gets paid to BBC to fund their channels and the amount of this fee gets decided by the British government and parliament each year which is normally around %50 with other small percentages getting paid to commercial channels such as ITV and also radio. Each household in the UK that owns and watches TV gets charged around £145 each year. Last year the BBC got paid around £3.6million in license fees, £269.7million from government grants, £1.1million from commercial businesses and also £75million from other income such as over seas broadcasting. From earning £5,102.3 million last year this is the reason why BBC do not show adverts on their channels to gain advertisement revenue just like commercial TV channels do.

When looking at the TV schedule for 10/15/2013 I looked at the 5 main channels in the UK,  BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV 1, Channel 4 and also Channel 5. I noticed that in the early hours of the day around the times 6am-9am, channel 5 was the main channel to show kids programs such as: 'Bananas in Pyjamas' and 'Fireman Sam'. Channel 4 also show kids programs in the morning such as 'The Hoobs'. However this was only on at 6am - 7am, a much shorter time than channel 5. Throughout the day channel 4 then shows programs aiming at different audiences such as older people and mothers who look after there younger children. Cooking, property and quiz shows are shown such as 'A Place in the Sun: Home or Away', 'Countdown' and 'Gordon Ramsey's Home Cooking' is shown to appeal to the older and mother audiences.

In the morning the BBC have their 'Breakfast' show which runs for 3hours starting at 6am every morning. BBC Breakfast is aimed at the British public, mainly working adults that leave for work at around 8-9 and want to know about news, business, sport, culture etc. After their breakfast programme, the BBC then show a Bunch of different British shows about housing, lifestyle, British problems etc. such as 'Fake Britain', 'Bargain Hunt' and 'Real Rescues'. BBC 2 is quite similar to BBC1 with its daytime TV but tends to show more quiz shows and some comedy shows other than focusing on British problems like BBC1 does. I feel that BBC are trying to reach a much older intelligent audience by showing quiz shows such as 'The Weakest Link' and 'Mastermind'. And  older adult comedies such as 'Allo 'Allo!' and 'Are You Being Served'. BBC1 and 2 programmes on in the daytime are a lot of the time repeats that have been aired before on the BBC.   

 

ITV1 is quite different to all the other TV programmes because of how mainly all they show is a bunch of different chat shows with sometimes the occasional news between programmes. The main chat shows they show are; 'Lorraine', 'This Morning' and 'Loose Women'. The chat shows are a lot of the time aimed at women because they are trying to entertain and appeal to the mother audience.        

At around 6pm is when all the channels start to change and shows less daytime TV and start to show much more of a variety of channels such as news, soaps, comedy, Entertainment, sport etc. because of how they are trying to appeal to a wider range of audiences.

Shaun of the Dead clip Analysis and Self Reflection

This is a quick analysis of an extract from the zombie comedy horror 'shaun of the dead'. When planning out script for the analysis we had some problems and felt that we could've done this much quicker if we created our script much quicker. Firstly we worried about the length of our analysis and felt that we would go over 1:45mins. I felt that this put us of balance when recording because we felt the need to slightly rush our speech. We also were trying to match some of our speech with parts in the visual extract however we felt that this wouldn't work unless we put more detail and time into planning our script. Even though we only had a short period of time to record this I felt that we did ok but could do much better if we improve of some of our personal skills such as maybe time managment and group work.  

Reflecting and Reviewing: First A2 Lessons.

In the first three lessons of A2 media we started of by first filling out a skills assessment sheet and discussing how these skills could help us in media A2. We also started assessing and marking our selves from one to four on each skill to see what we need to improve on. I found this task helpful but also quite tricky because I feel that I need to improve on how to self reflect myself. I learnt from this task that I feel I need to improve on Independent research, redrafting work and also try out library resources to help with revision. We then started discussing in pairs and as a class about what we felt about our previous exam grades and coursework grades and how we could've improved them. I felt that I was very happy getting a B for my Exam but was very disappointed in getting a C for my coursework and felt that I could've improved on; planning, filming much more, should've created a much more detailed storyboard with script and should've got props much earlier. I feel that these first lessons about self reflecting our work really helped because now I know what I need to improve on and really focus on during A2 coursework and revision. 

Start of A2 Media: Quick Analysis of a Media text Extract

 This is one of the teaser trailers for the channel 4 series 2 of Top Boy. Top boy is a British crime-fiction drama which started with its first broadcast of series one in late 2011. I chose this trailer out of the many that were on youtube because I really liked how the main character Dushane (Ashley Walters) talks about gangs and how he represents gangs differently to other people in the society. Gang culture and crime is the main focus of this series and I really like how this teaser trailer is fully focused on this subject and is different from the other more action packed trailers.