Notes on Spooks- How cultural identity is represented in spooks?

• Mainly, upper class- shown through their clothing, luxurious houses
• Age- characters aged 30s, 40s, 50s
• Ethnicity- mainly white characters, some Asian characters
• Gender- mainly male characters, portrays a patriarchal society as top positions are dominated by men
• Modern technology- mobile phones, computers etc
• Political- relates to the upper class who are more politically involved
• Props- Guns are used to indicate danger
• Authority

How has the Internet changed our notion of collective identity?

The Internet has been around since the 90s,but since the year 2000,it has hugely changed the world we live in. Nowadays, many people depend on the Internet for communication, entertainment, socialising using blogs etc & many other things such as shopping online. There are arguments put forward that the Internet is very beneficial, but it can be seen as causing alienation in our community. As many people depend on the Internet in their daily lives, this results in less interaction & socialisation between people in our society. However,the Internet provides lots of communication methods which include blogs, social networking websites such as facebook, twitter etc, emails, file sharing sites, citizen journalism etc. therefore, the rise & improvement of communication methods has led to better & easier ways to communicate with people living in different nations.The Internet can be viewed as having a positive as well as a negative effect on the user.

Before the invention of the Internet there were very little methods of communication. During the 1970s, radios, telephone, letters, telegrams, CB radio were the most popular communication methods. Morse code, smoke signals were also used in the 70s. There was little change in the 1980s: mobile phones & fax were introduced. 1990s, brought a variety of different communication methods which included email, Internet, text message, MMS, Internet chat room, bulletin board, news group, web conferences, web pages & video conference. It was only in the year 2000, when these methods of communicating actually became popular especially the Internet.

Web 1.0, 'the old media' was controlled by oligopolies (one person) which required the capital to fund creations. The producers controlled choice & gate keepers controlled limited distribution In virtually every media market there are stop players that control 80% of the distribution.Whereas, 'the new media' web 2.0 is commonly associated with web applications which facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user centred design. Examples of web 2.0 include web based communities, web applications, social networking sites, video sharing sites, wiki, blogs etc. A web 2.0 allows it's users to interact with others or to change website content in contrast to non- interactive websites were users are limited to passive viewing of information that is provided to them. Web 2.0 is controlled by the prod users( prod users who also use the media), they can also control choices. Content creation is easy & cheap, so anybody can do it. Compared to web 1.0, this new media has a friction free distribution which allows anyone to post an RSS feed. Web 2.0, gives the user the power to question media.

In Mark Prensky's article- Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, he argues that today's generation (Digital Natives) who have grown up in the digital world are very different compared to the older generation ( Digital Immigrants). He believes that the Internet has changed their collective identity. The writer argues that those who are not born into the digital world have become fascinated by & adopted many or most aspects of the new technology & always will be compared to the digital natives. This clearly shows how the Internet has changed the older generations collective identity.

In conclusion,the Internet has changed our notion of collective identity. In the last 10 years the Internet has changed the way we communicate. But it has caused alienation in our society. Web 2.0 has opened even more opportunities for the user which puts the digital immigrants in a disadvantage as the digital natives are way ahead in terms of knowledge about new technology who see it as a part of their daily lives.

Digital natives, Digital Immigrants-Mark Prensky

This article by Mark Prensky explains reasons why there has been a decline of education in the US. he believes that "singularity"- (an event which changes things so fundamentally that there is absolutely no going back) is the arrival & rapid dissemination of digital technology in the last decades of the 20th century.

He also mentions that today's student represent the first generation to grow up with this technology & how their entire lives are surrounded by & using computers, videogames, music player etc. He describes these "new students" as "Digital Natives" & that they are all "native speakers" of the digital language of computers, video games & the internet.

Those who are not born into the digital world,(the "older generation") have become fascinated by & adopted many or most aspects of the new technology are, and always will be compared to the digital natives. Mark decribes them as " Digital Immigrants".

according to the writer,one of the problem faced by these digital immigrants is that as they speak an outdated language, they are struggling to teach a population who speaks an entirely different language. Digital Natives are used to receiving information very fast & are likely to parallel process & multi-task. But digital Immigrants typically have very little appreciation of thse new skills that the Natives have acquired & perfected through years of interaction & practice.

When it comes to dealing with this problem he considers both methodology and content. He mentions that today's teachers have to learn to communicate in the language and style of their students. this means going faster, less step by step & more in parallal and randomness.

Second, is the content:
"Legacy Content" which includes reading, writing, arithmetic, logical thinking, understanding the writings & ideas of the past etc: a more "traditional curriculum".

"Future Content" is to large extent digital & tecnological. while it includes software, hardware, robotics, nanotechnology etc. It also includes ethnics, politics, socilogy etc. Future content is increasengly popular & extremly interesting to today's students.

Finally, the writer mentions that if digital immigrants educators really want to reach digital natives- i.e, all their students- they will have to change.

The Internet & Collective Identity

Ways in which we communicated in 1970s, 1980s, 1990s & now.

1970s

• Telephone
• Letter
• Telegram
• CB Radio
• Morse Code
• Smoke Signals
• Telex

1980s

• Mobile Phones
• Fax

1990s

• Internet
• Internet Chat Room
• Text Message
• MMS
• Bulletin Board
• News Group
• Web conference
• Video Conference
• Web pages

2000s

• Social Network
• Video Phones
• Blogs
• Wiki
• Twitter
• File sharing websites
• Online Gaming
• 3G
• Virtual Worlds

Moral Panic ( 7/10/09 Lesson)

Stretch & Challenge Unit
Moral Panic:

• Abstract concept used to make sense of 'irrational public hysteria'
• Public & academic debate on moral panic works on the assumption that the media plays a significant role in determing the characterics of moral panic
• Signifies complex processes that shape public perspections of a perceived threat to the moral code of society

Processual Model

• Attends to process of a moral panic
• 7 defined stages ( Stanley Cohen "Folk Devils & Moral Panic 1973)
• Emergence: When a form of behaviour becomes perceived as a threat
• Media Inventory: explaination of threat is manipulated by media ( distortion, exaggeration)
• Moral entrepreneurs: groups pr organisation speak out & offer solution
• Experts: Socially accrediated experts ( government, police) who diagnose solution
• Coping & resolution: reaction of the media, moral entrepreneur & experts lead to legal reform
• Fading away: the condition disappears, submerges or deteriotes & become more visible
• Legacy: a moral panic can have long lasting effect or create big changes in social policy, the law or society's view itself

Attributionsl Model: Erich Goode & Nachman

• Ben Yehuda's study 'Moral Panics: The social construction of deviance (1994)
• Claims those working in the media, political institutions & the legal system. Impact on moral panics through 'claims making'
• 5 elements or criteria distinguish attributes of moral panic
• Concern: a heightened level of concern, measurable through opinion, polls etc
• Hostility:Increased hostility to a group or category seen as 'enemy' to respectable soceity (folk devil)
• Consensus: a substantial segment of society agrees that the threat is real & caused by 'wrongdoers'
• Disproportionality: the reaction by the public is out of proportion to the actual harm
• Volatility: the idea that moral panics are volatile by nature, erupt quickly but also often subside quietly. Each episode cannot be sustained for long
  

Political Britain & the media (30/09/09 lesson)

Ideologies-(1789)

• French Revolution- Enligment
• French revolution got rid of the royal family & aristocracy was killed. this was done to bring equality, liberty & fraternity ( brotherhood)

Enlightment- light of knowledge- freedom of thought. This fed into Britain in terms of ideology. Enlightment in Britain brought in the subjcet of Scientific Rationalism Vs Religional belief. Scientific Rationalism were about scientific reasons behind everthing. Erasmus Darwin- Grandon of Charles wrote 'Orgin of Species' which was the theory of evolution. Whereas religional belief was arejection of religion (atheism).

Ideologies- Karl Marx

• He developed Marxism which is the ownership of capital or means of production
• He argued that those who own the means of production control the society.
• This creates superstructure- has all the power & miney
• Base- no power & money

Ideologies- Whigs (Liberal) & Tories ( British Government in Victorian era)

• These people were mainly land owners, factory owners or members of the aristocracy
• By the end of the 19th century, there were three government
• Liberal- who were influenced by economists such as Adam Smith- Free economy/marker (no regulation)
• Conservaties- believed in pragmatism ( protection of old values)
• Labour- Supports rights for the working class. they want the state to control more & bring equality.

16/09/09 lesson on Media Case study

Collective Identity is a social gropu that is constructed or that we form.
Britishness- What er sre born into/migrate into
Social grouping: eg Chav, emo,memo,skaters

Transpotting

• Representation of working class Glaswegion- ethnicity/class
• Heroine users
• Individual images within this
• Funded by C49institution) values
• This film higlights social issues, mediates (glamouries)
• Social problems- Heroine addictions HIV/AIDS
• Mediates (puts sirector's spin on)
• Disenfranchised(powerless)- no money

Recent Films- What version of Britishness is being represented?

'This is England'

• Collective Identity of the past (1980s)- political era
• Northern Working class men
• 'Skin Heads'
• White supremises

Bridget Jones

• Representation of middle class women ( set around mid 30s)
• Popular with female audience aged 25 & over
• Explores issues within women 'being single', 'overweight'
• Easy to relate

Kidulthood

• Working class representation of young people from London
• Negative & exaggerate view of young people
• Very Socially aware- Observant of class & ethnicity within young people

Identify how Sense an Sensibility and Four Weddings and a Funeral represent aspects of Bristish society past and present.

Sense & sensibility both represent British society. The main difference between these films is the timeline. Sense an sensibility is a historic film which was first publisged as a novel by Jane Austen in 1811 whereas Four Weddings & a funeral is a postmodernist film about marriage which was released in the year 1994. One of the main difference in this film is the timeline as Sense & sensibility was set around the 19th century whereas four weddings & a funeral was set in the 90s. Both have similarities such as the same actor(Hugh Grant), both represent the middle class but in four weddings & a funeral we see a different representation of the middle class as the society changed.

In sense & sensibility we see a very patriarchal society where men are the dominant figure. after the death of Marianne Dashwood's father all the wealth is inherited bu the next male decedent by the law. this clearly shows the gender difference where women are in a disadvantage. whereas in four weddings & a funeral we see a change in tradition in terms of class & gender roles. The meaning of middle class are different in both films. In sense & sensibility we see middle class people as being very rich land owners who have servants & maids. On the other hand, in Four weddings & a Funereal we see a completely different representation. Middle class people tend to have jobs such as lawyer, doctors etc. In sense & sensibility marriage is taken very seriously, this is the opportunity for women to leave their home, a sense of freedom.whereas in Four weddings & a funeral we see a very post modernist view of marriage. marriage is not taken seriously & seen as valueless.These two films clearly show a transition in the way how British society has changed.

Comparison of Slumdog Millionarie & Somers town

Slumdog Millionaire
Cast:
Dev Patel: Jamal K MaliK

Fredia Pinto: Latika

This film is directed by Danny Boyle & Loveleen Tandan( co-director:India). Slumdog millionaire is a film about an Indian boy who grew up in the slums & becomes a contestant on the Indian Version of "Who wants to be a millionaire?" . He is arrested in suspicion of cheating while being interrogated. Events from his life history are shown which explains how he knows all the answers. Therefore, slumdog millionaire is not entirely seen as a British film as it set & filmed in India . Also, the film was an adaptation of a novel written by Vikas Swarup. Slumdog millionaire was distributed by Pathe Pictures international, Fox searched light pictures who teamed up with Warner Bros.

Somers Town
Somers town was distributed by 'Film Movement' & directed by Shane Meadows. This film was funded by EuroStar. This film is about 2 boys, both newcomers in London, forge an unlikely friendship over the course of summer. The boys are both infatuated with the same girl & pass their day bickering over which one of them she loves the most. A black & white study of a social environment in London.

New blog

I have created a new blog for our practical project for examiners & teachers to see how we have developed as a group. So, my new blog will have all my practical work & i'll use this blog to post my work that i have done at class or for homework.

Representing Contemoprary Britain

This article considers the ways in which British Cinema has represented the perspectives& experiences of those dwelling in contemporary Britain. This article has detailed information on sexuality, class, men, women & ethnicity.

Sexuality: Although sexual desires is a persistent theme in british cinema, it is usually dealt in a manner that is 'over flippant'.Whereas, other films that push the boundry of sexual frankness such as The Principles of Lust(2003) sexual desire is potrayed as fundamentally self- destructive or seen as wrong.

Class: A poll carried put by the Guardian newspaper in 2007 shows that 'ten years of Labour rule has apparently failed to create a classless society'. Films such as Atonement are constructed upon problematic relationahips between characters postioned differently on the social scale. Notingham Hill also positions its middle class characters with in an area of the capital economy commonly associate with ethnic & social diversity.

Men: British films are still dominated by narrative of male experience. but there has been non-masculine 'performance' as part of the stragery of improvement. Films such as The Full Monty, Billy Elliot show the impact of these types of films in society. Films such as Goodbye Charlie Bright(2001), The Football Factory & the buissness have proven to be more capable for giving the message about the contemporary pressure upon working class men than the films of other 'respectable' socially commited directors. In family films such as Harry Potter series, Strombreaker(2006) etc, young actors act as young heroes targetting audience in saving the world.

Women: Male dominated films far outnumber those told from the female perspective. Historic films such as Elizabeth & Charlotte Gray have been praised & celebrated for the role played by women.Recurring Scenarios of men dominated films have occassionally been answerd by 'female equivalents'. E.g the narrative of collective male endeavour is echoed by stories of self-empowerment in school for seduction, calender girls etc.Whereas, Beautiful creatures(2000)& High heels& low lives(2001) offer a glossily femanist spin on the buddy' movie, the ganster film & the caper movie. There has been an increse in the no of female directors entering the british film industry who could possible change the face of British films.

Ethnicity: British films have failed to represent all ethnic minorities. Its only after year 2000 that british films have focused on other ethnic minorities. in recent years,British Asian narrative films, characters have been most successful in british cinema such as Bend It Like Beckham, East is East etc.

Media, Pleasure & Identity

The Meaning of Meaningless
There is a theory on diasporic audience & studies which 'explores how dispersed global audiences use media to maintain connections with distant radical, ethnic, religion or national homelands'. Socialogical escapism refers to forensic use of media to dissect social importance.The writer says ' what it would feel like to live in a world where we could be whatever we wanted to be' to explain this terminology. On the other hand, psychological escapism refers to aspects of the personality largerly affceted by the social setting.The writer concludes that watching moreTV has a effect on the interset you have in what life means.
Healey& Ross's(2000) show exploration of older television viewers show how such audiences indeed 'use' media to articulate what it means to be vennerable.In conclusion, this article shows how people use media such as TV to escape from the 'real world'.

Observer Film Quarterly- Richard Curtis

This article is about the film maker Richard Curtis & how his films such as Four Weddings are somehow related to politics. This article also shows his success as a film maker with movies such as Four weddings(1994), Mr Bean (1997), Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones(2001) & Love Actually(2003).
Four Weddings (1994) was seen as an optimistic & insatiable film which brought a new approach to his films.It was a very different british film as it was neither a 'kitchen sink drama' or 'carry-on smutty'.The movie had rich, educated middle class characters. This movie was released just after the death of John Smith from New Labour which created a new mood in britain, a sense that things will get better.But his recent film The Boat That Rocked was seen as 'College skit & big-budget disasters by the film reviewers but once again Curtis captires the political Zeitgeist.

Cover work

Folk Devil: Folk Devil is a person or group of people who are potrayed by the media as being deviant & outsiders. They are also blamed for socail problems & crimes.

Moral Panic: Moral Panic is the intense feeling expressed in a population about a specific group of people who appear ro be a threat to the social order.

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY presentation

Happy-Go-Lucky

View more presentations from Iksha.

British Film Industry

"1950s"

• The damn Busters (1955)
• Most Films in the 1950s were war based
• There were fixed class structure during the 1950s
• Films mainly focused on masculinity & had conventional heroes

"New Wave"

• Saturday Night & Sunday Morning
• Strong Sense of a North- South Divide
• Most films were set aganist an industrial backdrop
• These films were also known as 'Kitchen Sink' Dramas
• Female characters marginalized & sterotyped
• Directors were trained as documentary makers before moving into mainstream cinema

"Swinging London"

• The Italian Job (1969)
• Most films are optimistic
• These films tend to be intersted in youth cultural fashion
• Class structure are more fluid
• Anti- hero (Michael caine in The Italian Job)

"1970s: Post Hays Code"

• Get Carter (1971)
• These fils are more graphic depictions of sex & violence
• These hfils also have a strong sense of North-South Divide
• Most fils are amoral & gritty

Hays Code

Hays code are a set of industry censorship guidelines which governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968.
Hays code were the first attempt at introducing film censorship in the US through laying down a series of guidelines to film producers.
Nakedness, suggestive dances, homosexuality & cruelty to children were some of the things prohibited.

The code was abandoned in 1967 & in 1968 it was replaced by the rating system that we now have. Nobody under 18 years of age is allowed into an R-rated movie (unless accompanied by an adult).

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

What is the version of 'Britishness' being presented in the film?

Saturday Night, Sunday morning (1960) is a 'new wave film' which represents working class community, a more realistic view of Britain at the time. This film rejrcts certain domainat moral values of the time for example Arthur having an affair with Brenda. This film is shocking to some extent as it lacks moral values of the society. However, it is a very realistic film as it represents 'the common people' of the society.

Saturday Night, Sunday morning is set in a very typical industrial setting & explores different views of the family. Arthur played by Albert Finney is seen as a anti- hero rather than a traditional hero.

Working Title Film

Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in London.In 1982 Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe founded this company. Universal studios & BBC films are the pareant company.

Working Tile Films

Billy Elliot
Atonement
The Boat That Rocked

Four Weddings & A Funeral
About a boy
Love Actually

Mr. Bean's Holiday
Shaun of the dead
Wimbledon

Michael Caine

Michael Caine was in South London on March 14th 1933. He began his career in poverty and went on to become one of the most prolific and durable of film stars. He has appeared in more than 100 films.He left school at the age of 16 & found the nearest job to hollywood.AT the age of 18 Michael joined the Queen Royal Regimeny & served in Germany and Korea.


Michael Caine responded to an advertisement for an assiatant manager, which led him roles at the Carfax Theatre. After several minor roles, Caine came into the public eye as the upper-class British army officer in the 1964 film Zulu. Zulu was closely followed by two of his best-known roles: the spy Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File (1965), and the woman-chasing title character in Alfie (1966).


In 2008 he reprised his role as Alfred in Christopher Nolan's critically acclaimed Batman sequel, The Dark Knight.

What is a Teaser Trailer?

A teaser trailer is a very short trailer (usually less than a minute) used to advertise an upcoming movie, game or television series which offers a quick glance at an upcoming film.

A teaser trailer is usually released before the film is released. The full trailer is usually released after filming is complete, and a few months before the film is due to be released.

Examples of teaser trailers for popular films are Harry Potter films, spider man films etc.

Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-ONoKXSKtk

Ice Age 3 Teaser Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwI_hy8AMmo

British Films

A2 COURSE

Icons that represent Britain

Evaluation

Our task for the final film was to create a two minute opening scene of a film of any genre. Our two minute introduction shows Imogen a typical sex, drugs and rock and roll girl, partying late and being rebellious. But her lifestyle soon catches up with her when her best friend becomes infected by a mutated STI which turns her into a psychotic cannibal. The genre of this film is thriller/ horror. We have used the two minute clip to show the daily routine if Imogen. By doing this we are build up tension. One of the conventions of a thriller genre is that there are extraordinary events happening in ordinary situations like the scene were there is a crucial report of an outbreak of infectious psychotic cannibals. Imogen completely ignores this report and carries on her daily routine. By now the audience are prepared for what might happen to Imogen. Another typical convention of thriller genre is the mise-en-scene, for this clip I have used a ordinary house. As this film is about a typical teenager we have made sure that the mise- en- scene fits the profile of this character.


In this film, we are representing young people are around the age of 16-25 yrs old. In this film we have tried to show that by being careless & irresponsible it can lead to dreadful consequences. "In 2007 report, 397,990 new sexually transmitted infection diagnoses at GUM clinics in Great Britain showed an increase of 63% in 1998. This report shows that sexually transmitted disease are a very big issues in the UK. Sexually transmitted disease doesn’t only occur to teenagers but many different people but in this video we are trying to spread a message to teenagers about this horrible disease. Our audience for this film is mainly teenagers& young people around the age of 15- 25 yrs old.
At first, I struggled a lot with the Mac; the more I used it the easier I felt while editing my film. The Mac was very useful as we were able to do a voiceover (the news report), we were also able to put our own music on the Macs and then on our films. We were also able to add credits on our films and reduce the sound effects in the film for example when Imogen was going up stairs the footsteps were very loud so we turned down the volume & improved our video.


Looking back at the preliminary task I have learnt that we have to be much more organised before filming. When I did my preliminary task we didn’t focus that much on our shots as we were told what shots to use in our film. I also learnt that part of making a good film is to make sure that the editing is very good. In my preliminary task we didn’t focus & spent too much time on editing. So, on our final piece we spent much more time editing than filming.


We had to show our film in the class and everyone had to analyse each others videos. When we did this the feed back was to turn the volume down on the news report. My classmate made comments such as ‘fix some sound’, ‘radio report was good which caused tension’. In general, my class thought that I had used a variety of shot distances as appropriate, edited my film well so that the meaning is apparent to the viewer, used sounds with images and editing appropriately for the task, selected mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting objects and setting. After the analysis of the videos I made some changes to my video, I thought that the credits were quite fast so we decreased the speed of the credits as well as turning down the volume. We also added our own music at the end of the film. Overall, I am very pleased with my film; I think that the music and the editing have made the film more effective.

Rebellion of the dead final version

The end of editing

The deadline of the project is tommorow, and we have nearly finished editing. We are still working on the music & sound effect for the film.

Representation in TV Drama

Today, we looked at the reprsenetation in Hustle. We looked at the sterotypes, conventions & Genre of the drama. I will have to study British TV drama and apply the concept and theroies in as much relevance and depth as possible t an unseen extract for my media examination.

Finding the right music

Today we're searching for music to put over the radio scene
the audioproductionnetwork.com website. Our teacher suggested that thhis website will be very useful for the film. One of the advantage of using this website is that this website has load of un-copyrighted music which we can add to our film.

Editing

As the deadline is coming near we have started editing our video. It is very tricky and annoying to get the video right but its going well better than i thought. We have loads of deleted scenes and we're not to sure if we should add them.

Filming

Me and my group began filming on the 14th of December. We chose to use my house as the set and added to it using props relating to Mise en Scene in order to create the right feel for student housing. We felt that with full commitment we could complete the filming in one day, especially as we had to begin early in the morning in order to make most of the sunlight. We had trouble with the camera as we were missing a part of the tripod, however we still managed to complete shooting after about 3 hours. Overall we feel the production went well despite the faulty camera and misjudgements with the type of shot, for example, overestimating the space available leading us to restrain from a long-shot to a mid-shot in some scenes. We then uploaded the film to the Macs.