TV DRAMA - BLACK MIRROR

 

 

I will be screening this episode on Classroom if you prefer to watch that way.

Available on Netflix .

Clip details: Black Mirror (season 3, episode 4, ‘San Junipero’, 2016 dir. Harris) 

Clip duration: 5:00 

Start point: 00:32 

End Point: 05:32

 

Paper 2 Media Texts and Contexts For examination from 2021 

MARK SCHEME Maximum mark 50

Analyse how the extract from Black Mirror constructs meaning, including the specific representations of individuals/groups/events/ places, through the following technical elements: 

• camera shots, angles, movement and composition 

• sound 

• mise-en-scène 

• editing

You should focus on how the extract constructs meaning, which could include: 

the ways in which a sense of time and place is produced through 1980s period detail – visual and auditory; 

the establishment of enigmas (the time limit, the ‘Quagmire’; Yorkie’s reaction to the car crash on screen); 

the establishment of character (particularly Yorkie and Kelly); 

the positioning of Yorkie as the central character through camera movement; 

the use of non- diegetic sound to produce mood; 

the mixing of diegetic sound to create focus on narrative elements; 

the creation of character information through costume and mise-en-scène; 

the use of dialogue to convey or withhold information.

 

INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS

Individual Short Presentations – 11th February 2021

 

This session will be conducted as 'flipped learning'. At 2:10, you log into Classroom and read your task. You have most of period 6 to prepare your individual presentation and upload the written work to today's Classroom. Just before the start of period 7 at 2.50, turn on your mike and camera when it is your turn to present. Tom starts, explains his task, presents, then tells the class who he is handing over to. 

Fia goes next and so on, with each person introducing and handing over to the next. You must have your camera on while you explain.

 

Thomas

1.Explain the reference in the film title Bend It Like Beckham.  Give a brief account of the film’s narrative, including the Bhamra family’s ethnicity and religion, and how / why the parents try to ensure that their daughters conform to tradition.

Explain the ways in which the film’s heroine Jess (Jesminder) tries to “bend” established cultural and gender roles. If you can, Link your comments on how the children are made to dress to Judith Butler (see yesterday’s blog post).

 

Fia

2.East Is East is a 1999 British comedy-drama film written by Ayub Khan-Din and directed by Damien O'Donnell. It is set in Salford, Lancashire (now Greater Manchester) in 1971, in a mixed-ethnicity British household headed by Pakistani father George and an English mother Ella.

Read up on the film. Explain the ways in which the father believes that his children are becoming too ‘Westernised’ and increasingly see themselves as British, rejecting Pakistani dress, food, religion and living. Give specific examples of the behaviour of the one daughter Meenah, and the son Tariq. Link your comments on how the children are made to dress to Judith Butler (see yesterday’s blog post).

 

Charlotte

3.In his book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959)  Erving Goffman

uses the metaphor of theatrical production to offer a way of understanding human interaction and behaviour. He argues that social life is a "performance" carried out by "teams" of participants in three places: "front stage," "back stage," and "off stage." Backstage behaviour is what we do when no-one is looking or when we are not trying to pretend. Front stage behaviour is when we are ‘performing’ in public for other people. This applies to the behaviour of the family in East Is East  Watch the trailer. and explain how Goffman’s ideas of ‘performing’ a role for outsiders applies.

 

 

Sam

4. East Is East is a 1999 British comedy-drama film written by Ayub Khan-Din and directed by Damien O'Donnell. It is set in Salford, Lancashire (now Greater Manchester) in 1971, in a mixed-ethnicity British household headed by Pakistani father George and an English mother Ella. Watch the trailer.

Read up on the film. Explain the reference in the film title: where does it come from and what does it mean for the film?

 

Tallulah

5. For Judith Butler Butler, gender is 'performative', like a theatre script that is repeatedly performed to a social audience, of acts associated with male or female. For Butler, gender is not innate, but "a series of acts which are renewed, revised, and consolidated through time". This suggests that performances of woman are compelled and enforced by historical social practice. For example, in films like East is East and Bend It Like Beckham, young Asian women are required by their parents to dress in particular ways that count as 'female' or 'suitable'. Apply Butler to the film Yasmin.

 

Jessica

6. Explain the term ‘warrior women’ and how it might apply to Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in Aliens (1986). 

 

Finn

7. ‘Robotic 'service' figures tend to be constructed as compliant females.’ Research at least one example and explain how far this is true.

 

Matt

8. Films that fail the Bechdel Test. Pick one of these examples and explain its representation of women.

 

Preesha

9. Films that pass the Bechdel Test . Pick one of these examples and explain its representation of women.

 

Ben

10. Angela McRobbie and Post-Feminist Icon Theory. Use yesterday’s the class blog post to re-read about Angela McRobbie. Explain in what way Lara Croft could be identified as a post-feminist icon.

 

Ellie

11. Angela McRobbie and Post-Feminist Icon Theory. Use yesterday’s the class blog post to re-read about Angela McRobbie. Explain in what way Rihanna could be identified as a post-feminist icon.

 

Laura

12. Explain the term ‘warrior women’ and how it might apply to examples such as Avatar with the CGI alien Neytiri (2009, James Cameron), Lara Croft Tomb Raider (2001), Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000, Ang Lee), Mei in The House Of Flying Daggers (2004, Yimou Zhang), Mulan (2020, Niki Caro), Captain Marvell (2019) and similar films like Captain America, Wonder Woman. 

 

Millie

13. How do slasher films tend to represent women and what is the ‘final girl’ concept? Use at least one example to explain.

LIFE IN A DAY

LIFE IN A DAY

POWER & THE MEDIA: IDENTITY and GENDER

POWER & THE MEDIA: IDENTITY and GENDER

We are preparing for the 'Power' exam question. Your final essay may consider three topics. Today's lesson on how women are represented therefore may give you a third to a half of your final exam answer.

You will write a short essay on power and gender as part of this topic in answer to the exam question: "The media construct identity." How far do you agree with this view?

• define how women are represented and the media's power to shape perceptions about identity
• give an account of three to four theorists with media examples
• The Bechdel Test 
• Films that fail the Bechdel Test
• Films that pass the Bechdel Test
  
• Carol Clover – last girl theory: useful if analysing representation in horror films but mainly the sub genre of slasher horror. These are often aimed at catering for male audiences.
• Angela McRobbie – post feminist icon theory 
• Laura Mulvey – male gaze/female gaze: the female form is objectified in a range of media. 
• Tessa Perkins – stereotyping has elements of truth and are based on repeated representations, both in society and within the media. 
• Judith Butler – queer theory. Gender is not the result of nature but is socially constructed through media and culture. 
• brief conclusion that relates to the exam question

In our lesson on gender, we will use these resources:

• Laura Mulvey – male gaze/female gaze. Although Mulvey herself has rejected the male gaze theory in recent years there are still strong arguments suggesting the female form is still objectified in a range of media. Can we subvert the theory and suggest male performers/actors are objectified? Video here
  
• Carol Clover: the representation of the last girl model in slasher films has evolved. First depicted as a hopeless damsel in distress who is bombarded with all sorts of dread and insurmountable fear and  panic at first, the moment she is drawn face to face with her attacker, since she then appears tough as a male as she fights against the attacker with a weapon in her hand in her hopes of survival. Examples of slasher films that utilize the ‘final girl’ concept are Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006, Scott Glosserman),  the 1997 film Alien Resurrection (1997, Jean-Pierre Jeunet), Urban Legend  (1998, Jamie Blanks). You may have newer examples?
• Angela McRobbie: McRobbie concluded from analysing constructions of gender in magazines that the media socialise us into gender roles: masculinity tends to be equated with power and aggression whilst femininity is represented in traditional roles, often as weak or subservient. These stereotypes perpetuate social ideas about gender. However, her Post Feminist Icon Theory suggests that female characters can also be determined, strong, independent and in control but also utilise their sexuality. “Lara Croft, Lady Gaga and Madonna, for example, could be identified as post-feminist icons as they exhibit the stereotypical characteristics of both the male and female – strength, courage, control and logic but also are willing to be sexualized for the male gaze. This control element of their own representation is crucial in understanding the theory”. In Rihanna's tv advert for Reb'l Fleur she has control over her representation: both knowing and innocent, Rihanna explores both sides of her nature in a visual palindrome.
• Digital technology has enabled the representation of the warrior woman in film: examples include Avatar with the CGI alien Neytiri (2009, James Cameron), Lara Croft Tomb Raider (2001), Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000, Ang Lee), Mei in The House Of Flying Daggers (2004, Yimou Zhang), Mulan (2020, Niki Caro), Captain Marvell (2019) and similar films like Captain America, Wonder Woman. 
• Robotic 'service' figures tend to be constructed as compliant females: Mia the synth in the popular tv series Humans (2015-18), Arisa in Better Than Us (2018, Netflix), Ava in Ex Machina (2014)
• The director of Avatar, James Cameron, is a notable figure in the screen history of the warrior woman because his previous films include two memorable examples: Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) in The Teminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), and Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in Aliens (1986). 
• Judith Butler – Gender is not the result of nature but is socially constructed through media and culture. This theory challenges the assumption that there is a binary divide between gay and heterosexual suggesting in mainstream media heterosexuality is represented as normal. For Butler, gender is 'performative', like a theatre script that is repeatedly performed to a social audience, of acts associated with male or female. For Butler, gender is not innate, but "a series of acts which are renewed, revised, and consolidated through time". This suggests that performances of woman are compelled and enforced by historical social practice. For example, in films like East is East and Bend It Like Beckham, young Asian women are required by their parents to dress in particular ways that count as 'female' or 'suitable' (Jasminder may not wear football shorts, Meenah must wear a sari for visitors).
• Advertisements as gender scripts The conviction that advertisements are gender scripts is best summed up by Goodman (2002): ‘Because the media are the main information source about social processes and images and self-presentation, women are likely to attend to and use media images as guides for their attitudes and behaviours’. Many commentators position advertising as a powerful socialising agent among women, and, in particular, young women. In perhaps the seminal article in the field, Angela McRobbie (1978) studied Jackie! magazine and isolated a number of ‘codes of femininity’ centred on romance, domestic life, fashion and beauty used to indoctrinate young girls. Content analyses also suggest that a variety of subtle cues are used to tell young girls what might be considered suitably ‘feminine’ characteristics.

 

WATCH THE PRESENTATION ON THE BECHDEL TEST HERE

 

If you wish to read further, there is a downloadable pdf: 

WOMEN IN ADVERTISING: REPRESENTATIONS, REPERCUSSIONS, RESPONSES 

© Mercury Publications 

The representation of women in advertising has been the subject of discussion and debate for over four decades, with advertisers standing accused of utilising inappropriate and degrading stereotypes. This is currently a matter of prime concern in Ireland. The Equality Authority has recently issued a call for a background paper on the issue. This initiative has been welcomed by the National Women’s Council of Ireland. However, it has been dismissed as unnecessary by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) and by the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI). This paper explores these issues and, in an effort to represent diverse views, draws upon discussion and empirical evidence from gender studies, consumer research, media studies and advertising studies. The paper highlights the fact that polarised views regarding the repercussions of gender representations are based upon understandings of how advertising impacts its audiences. Specifically, do advertisements operate as gender scripts or, alternatively, is gender textually mediated? The paper concludes with a number of recommendations for the advertising industry. 

Maurice Patterson, Lisa O’Malley & Vicky Story

MEDIA & POWER: ESSAY PRACTICE

'The media construct identity.' What do you understand by this view and how far do you agree?

Imagine that you are answering this exam question. There are different approaches to such a wide topic: you may be more interested in gender and identity, in ethnicity and identity, or areas in between. With only half an hour in the exam to write your response, you can practise writing about different areas and decide your subject matter when you eventually see the exam question - but there won't be a choice of question, so it is good to be prepared with a range of material.

Copy / paste the following into a Word document and upload it as an assignment into Google Classroom for Friday 5 February.

1. Define the term 'representation' as it relates to people, places and ideas. Refer to Stuart Hall, stereotyping and which groups have the power to stereotype and assign identities.

2. Next, straight to the topic. Today we will start with a focus on ethnicity and identity, which we have so far analysed in class as 'Orientalism'. In this second paragraph, introduce Edward Said and the concept of Orientalism. Explain why Said argues that Orientalism is a way of controlling representations of the East; explain the ways in which these historical representations are negative.

Said argues: Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient—dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.

3. This next paragraph is on Hollywood representations of Arab identity. We give examples of Hollywood films in which the sense of Islam is a threatening Other - with Muslims depicted as fanatical, violent, lustful, irrational. In this paragraph, start with

American Sniper

4. In what way are representations stereotyped in Iron Man (2008)? And in Aladdin and Back to the Future ? Read with me

5. Why might Yasmin (Kenneth Glenaan, 2004) and  Four Lions (Christopher Morris, 2010) offer alternative, more sympathetic, representations of Muslim identity, post 9/11?  

Kenneth Glenaan writes: "What we wanted to do is a positive portrayal of British Muslim experience, post 9/11, as a way of almost putting your fist through this notion of Islamophobia that's grown up since." 

Christopher Morris on Four Lions:

 

 

FILM REGULATION: ESSAY PRACTICE

Look at this lesson again (from 13 January 2021). Imagine that you have been set an exam essay along these lines, so write these as your titles and aim to make what you say relate to them: 

"How and why has the regulation of film changed over time?" or

"Changes in society have been reflected by changes in film regulation."

1. Give a very brief account of who regulates film now and what film classification means.

2. Write a paragraph explaining why in the 1930s, the BBFC refused to certify films that (for example) ‘portrayed British officers and forces in disgraceful, reprehensible or equivocal light’ or contained ‘realistic representations’ of the horrors of war’ and even ‘the presentation of objectionable propaganda’.

3. Write a third paragraph introducing Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein,1925) and explain why it was refused certification at first.

4. Write the next paragraph giving an account of why the 12A certificate was introduced - because parents and the industry asked for it. The BBFC explain on their site "For many years parents told us that they wanted to make the decision themselves, and that they were the best judge of whether their 10 or 11 year old would enjoy a 12 film. The BBFC researched this idea and decided to introduce a new certificate for cinemas which allowed parents to choose. They called it 12A with the A standing for 'Advisory' or 'Accompanied'."

5. In this paragraph, compose a topic sentence that refers to the fact that although social attitudes had changed, the 12A certificate was not a simple solution to a problem. Introduce your first case study The Dark Knight as an example of how contentious the 12A certificate proved. Explain the public's complaints and the BBFC's response.

6. Give a second 12A film case study The Woman In Black, explaining audience responses and the BBFC's reasons for classifying it as 12A. 

7. The BBFC aim to give adults the right to choose what they watch, within the law. Yet explain why Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999) caused 'moral panics' even though it was classified 18.

8. In this paragraph, complete this topic sentence: "Over time, society's attitudes to film violence has changed. The public has perhaps become desensitized. This is reflected in the public's attitude to Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrik,1971).

9. The ways in which we consume film nowadays makes regulation increasingly problematic as people claim the right to express themselves freely. (Use this as a topic sentence to write the next paragraph, which is a brief reference to how everyone can access film online so that it is difficult to regulate what audiences actually watch).

10. Finally, explain that theorists like Lunt and Livingstone  draw attention to the ways in which media policy is formulated and how the claims of ‘citizen’ and ‘consumer’ can conflict: the traditional distinction is that citizens are involved with politics and consumers are attached to popular culture. For Livingstone and Lunt, all media producers are led by financial considerations and the global nature of contemporary media production and distribution has weakened the UK's control over regulating content.

 

 

CRR 3: SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Today and tomorrow you are making a start on your CCR tasks. To keep this orderly, please create 4 PAGES labelled CCR1, CCR2, CCR3, CCR4. Each refers to the bullet points below (look down). Keeping your work in Pages will help you organise as you do each bit by bit, and will enable me to check easily to guide you. After creating the Pages, check each box to make them visible.

Deadline for completion: Thursday 11 February

At the top of each Page, write out the task in full exactly as you see it below.

For example

CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION 3: How did your production skills develop throughout the project?

You will use different platforms to present each but before you get to that stage, you need to think and gather your facts / evidence. We are starting now as it is possible to do a great deal of these tasks before completing the actual filming.

Today, please start with CCR3. There are polished final answers below, but to start with, you will need to gather your evidence. 

You will use an infographic layout for this, like PIKTOCHART. 

When you have written out your wording, then paste it into your chosen infographic layout with the images to illustrate it.

CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION 3: How did your production skills develop throughout the project?

Use PIKTOCHART for this presentation to present the response to:

Your title could be:MY PRODUCTION SKILLS DEVELOPMENT 

The order to approach this is chronological ( = what you did first) so the work flow is Preliminary Exercises, Research, Planning, Construction, then Evaluation. We can at the moment cover part way into Construction (as we have done some filming and perhaps a bit of editing). WE will complete this task later but break the back of it now.

The question asks for specific, detailed evidence of what you have learned how to do, using critical reflection in your expression and creativity in your presentation.

Start with your Preliminary Exercises: what did you set out to achieve and how did you show what you had learned? You have 4 separate topics here: the exercise on camera angles & shot types; the 'on the set' post; the continuity exercise; the 'table top' exercise, which was a proper film opening practice complete with live action filming, editing in titles and credits, and laying down a soundtrack.

• Camerawork (shot types / angles and what they are used to draw attention to, like CUs, ECUs), 
• using equipment (identify it), bubbling the tripod
• lighting exercises
• filming and editing an opening sequence (genre conventions; rostrum shots; adding title; adding credits; selecting soundtrack; adjusting sound levels and adding spot sounds); creating a sense of enigma
• filming and editing a continuity sequence (establishing shot, two-shot, shot-reverse shot, motivated edit, point of view shot); editing to create pace

RESEARCH What did you learn about the importance of researching genre and audience? How did your planning skills develop? Did you collate work using platforms like Piktochart, Scoopit? Did you create an audience questionnaire and then collate the results?

PLANNING Did you use iMovie to hot-seat characters, with scripts prepared for interviews?

CONTRUCTION When cameraman, what techniques did you use and improve?

When editing, what techniques did you use? Did feedback make you look critically at the sequence order and pace of your editing?

What lighting issues did you encounter when filming? Did you learn to learn to adjust levels when editing?

When recording sound, what challenges did you encounter that you had to solve?

Did you make props using PhotoShop for your production?

Did you make videos or sound files to use in your film?

Did you design a Production Company ident? How did you make it and what new skills did you use? You may have used FinalCut, StopMotion, Giffy.

EVALUATION During the reflective process of your Creative Critical Reflections, what new platforms did you use, such as infographics like Piktochart, slide presentations like Slideshare, Visme, Canva?

 

Below are some examples from previous students.

 https://thomashmediaclaremont.blogspot.com/p/3.html

 https://morvenalevel.blogspot.com/p/3-creative-critical-reflection.html

http://sm1648.blogspot.com/p/3-creative-critical-reflection.html

https://cg1626.blogspot.com/p/c-c-r-3.html 

https://nf1623.blogspot.com/p/creative-critical-reflection-3.html 

https://charliesciemedia.blogspot.com/p/creative-critical-refection.html