Character Types

For Mrs Francis, we were told to search for a British Film and write about the types of characters that appeared in the film.

Theorist Valdimir Propp looked at the characters in stories, and stated there were eight basic characters in the traditional narrative that we can transpose to film.

According to Propp, the characters are:

• The hero - the seeker, the major protagonist
  
• The false hero - tries to trick the hero or audience
  
• The donor - helps the hero with extra information
• The princess - the prize and possibly the victim or target of the villain
• The father - gives out an award at the end of the quest
• The helper - gives the hero information to help them complete the task
• The dispatcher - sends the hero out on his quest

When put into pairs, we were not sure which film to choose at first, as there are so many to choose from. We looked on a website for a list of British Films, and chose The Golden Compass, as this has a big cast therefore we were sure that we could find one character for each one of Propp's characters.

The Golden Compass

• The Hero - Lyra, as she seeks to begin an amazing adventure in a battle to save her friend, and other missing children.
• The False Hero - Mrs Coulter and the Jordan's vice-chancellor secretly give Lyra a magic golden compass capable of revealing the truth. When Lyra finds out that Mrs Coulter is the leader of the Gobblers, she escapes from her house.
• The Donor - With the help of Lorek Byrnison, Lyra goes ahead of the Gyptians to a village, where she finds Tony Makarios and learns that the Gobblers are cutting children's demons away from them.
• The Princess - Roger Parslow, the Jordan College kitchen boy, who is Lyra's good friend and playmate. Lyra believes he has been stolen by the Gobblers.
• Billy Costa - Ma Costa's son, who appears to have been taken by the Gobblers.
• The Father - We could not find such a character.
• The Helper - Master of Jordan, the ranking scholar of Jordan College, who feels responsible for raising and protecting Lyra.
• The Dispatcher - no one, Lyra goes herself to find her friends and is not sent by anyone.

I enjoyed this task very much, as it was interesting to see how Propp's theory is actually true, and i will certainly not be watching another film without looking out for each of these character types!

Working Title Films and Film4

For Mrs Francis, we were told to use the structure, identified by Todorov ( Equilibrium, Disturbance and Resolution) to explore the following British Films in terms of narrative and structure:

Billy Elliot

Bridget Jones's Diary

The same applied to Film 4:

This is England

Brick Lane

Billy Elliot:

A young boy succeeds in his quest to become a ballet dancer.

Instead of going to Boxing lessons, he goes to ballet classes.

Father does not know

Ballet teacher notices his potential and tries to get him an audition at the Royal Ballet School.

The father disagrees when asked for permission, then re-considers.

At the end, it shows Billy aged 20, performing in Swan Lake.

Billy Elliot uses:

Equilibrium - we see Billy in his day to day life, hobbies and friends etc.

Disturbance - his dad does not agree with Ballet and there is a mining strike which his father is involved in, e.g. his dad is seen in a coach that is being thrown at with eggs.

Resolution - his son accepts that his son is good at ballet and at the end we see his dad come to watch Billy in Swan Lake.

Bridget Jones's Diary:

A detailed account of a 30 year old singly womans life on a hunt to find a husband.

Bridget Jones is an assistant at a London book publisher.

Feeling time pass her by, Daniel Cleaver, her boss starts flirting with her, she plunges straight in.

An affair ensues and she is head over heels.

She also keeps running into Mark Darcy, a barrister who has known her since a young child.

At the end, Bridget must make a decision, Daniel or Mark?

Bridget Jones's Diaet uses: 

Equilibrium - we see her in her day to day life, the narrative through her diary therefore we get a first hand account.

Disturbance - she is with Daniel who she then finds out is having an affair, therefore she has to deal with the break up.

Resolution - Bridget learns from her mistakes of bad men and chooses the more sensible option, Mark Darcy.

This is England:

Displays a young boys trauma of being brainwashed by the skinhead culture. Set in 1983.

Shaun is 12 and a bit of a loner, growing up with his mum in a grim costal town, his dad was killed fighting in the Falklands War.

On his way home from school, he runs into a group of skinheads, who against the expectations, turn out to be friendly and take him under their wing.

Soon, Shaun discovers parties, girls and snappy dressing, and finds some rold models in Woody, Milky and the rest of the gang.

Handling the complexities of masculinity, violence and race with sensitivity and lightness of touch.

This is England uses:

Equilibrium - showing his life and the culture of the skin heads.

Disturbance - the gang breaking up

Resolution - None

Brick Lane

Brick Lane is the story of Nazneen, a young Bangladeshi woman who is put into an arranged marriage with Chanu Ahmed.

A loveless marriage with the middle aged Chanu, she feels her soul is quietly dying.

Her sister Hasina, meanwhile, continues to live a carefree life back in Bangladesh.

Nazneen struggles to accept her lifestyle, until the hot headed young, Karim comes knocking at her door.

The novel ends with a surprise trip for Nazneen. Nazneen's daughters and Razia take her to an ice skating rink for the first time where she will be free to skate, even in her Sari.

Brick Lane uses:

Equilibrium - shows the life of a young Bangladeshi woman, and a typical life, e.g. arranged marriage.

Disturbance - Nazneen has to live with Chanu, but she has to survive in a whole new culture.

Resolution - they get the money.

Filming Task

When i first heard about the filming task, i thought it was going to be great fun, and easy to come up with.

Then after the first lesson, i realised it isnt all that easy. 

There are so many aspects to worry about.

Most people, i found, tended to go for the horror/suspense genre.

However, my group didnt want to do the same as everyone else and thought that to do such genre could be extremely embarassing, if it didnt look real.

After watching endless clips on YouTube, discussing what we were going to do, and after much discussion, we came up with an idea, and to be honest, thanks to Liv, a very good one :) 

Here are some of the YouTube videos we watched to give us an idea:

Bad Influences

Facebook's great, dont get me wrong, but lately i have been hating it just a teeny bit.

Two main reasons really;

1) It dominates my life, its been said by everyone and although i said i would changed, surprise

 surprise, i haven't. Addicted.

2) The news recently "Facebook killer sentenced to life in prison". A man names Wayne

Forrester was sentenced to life in prison at the old Bailey on the 18th October, due to the fact that he felt devestated and humiliated when his wife changed her profile to "single" on the networking site only four days after he moved out of their marital home. Emma Forrester was stabbed to death in a violent attack with a meat cleaver and a kitchen knife in the early hours of February 18th. After the couple decided about their split, Emma left their marital home and left. Four days later she posted messages on Facebook telling everyone that she had left her husband and was looking to meet other men. Understandably, this is true, she rightly changed her relationship status, no harm in doing that...she thought.

He felt devestated about how quickly she had changed her status and was humiliated about what she had done to him.

The day before the murder took place, Forrester rang Emma's parents to complain about her Facebook entry which, he said made her "look like a fool". Later, Emma rang her parents telling them she was going to bed, and bolting the front door.

He beat her, tore out her hair, and repeatedly stabbed her in the head and neck.

Neighbours were woken up by her screams. They found him sitting outside the house covered in blood, then called the police.

Not only is this story shocking beyond belief, but extremely worrying. 

If Facebook did not exist, this poor woman would still be alive. The man who could do this must care, so much about what happens on Facebook, that he can now read into every detail. When all it was was simply an innocent relationship status change, that turned into a jealous death. I have posted previous blogs about how bad Facebook is getting, but i think this proves that Facebook is no longer a social networking site, but a vicious, and upsetting reason for distress and harm. 

Media diary, 2nd October - 7th October

Don't worry Mr V.S, i have been keeping track!

2/10/08

Well, had a really boring day today media wise, nothing but the good old T.V, was practically forced to watch it when babysitting, as there is simply nothing interesting to do! Nothing particularly interesting was on, except Dana - the 8 year old annorexic. We were told to watch this for Sociology, and i really enjoyed it. I couldnt help but ask myself why was this 8 year old girl obsessed with being skinny? Was it to do with the media and the stereotypical "skinny" image that we are being faced with everyday on TV and magazines?

3/10/08

Watched a powerpoint presentation in Business Studies today (im amazed at how many minutes of the lessons teachers choose to teach us via the media!)

Watched Sex and the City in the evening, listened to some music after school with Susie, while she did a bit of dancing. Picture to prove it! 

3/10/08

Had to watch my brother play football for an hour and a half, whilst standing in the cold! Luckily i had my iPod with me, kept me from going insane! Good songs at the moment include: Sex on fire - Kings of Leon

Cookie Jar - Gym Class Heros

Breathe Me - Sia 

4/10/08

House music practice..didn't get very far! House song: Shine - Take That

I used to like the song...until i heard us singing it! 

Rest of the day spent doing homework, which included Facebook and Msn.

iTunes was playing constantly, new good song: Paper Planes - M.I.A, purely due to C.K's dancing in Media Studies.

5/10/08

Had to make our own movies in Media Studies, didnt go as well as hoped!

It is actually surprisingly tricky to take just a simple shot!

Didnt get much work after school, just as well seeing as i babysat in the evening, not much on T.V, the people i babysat for only had channels 1-5! Hell when you're used to having the thousands of channels available on Sky! :(

6/10/08

The usual really, listened to iPod when walking from boys school to shootersway, made the walk go a lot quicker!

Facebook, MySpace (less and less now, Facebook is becoming more popular!), Msn, iTunes.

7/10/08

English - Othello

7pm - 11 pm Media Diary, Media Homework, Facebook and Msn

Sony

Sony has approximately 95 companies, including;

Sony Broadband Entertainment Inc.

*     Sony Electronics

*     Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications

*     Sony Pictures Inc

 

Sony was originally called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company); Sony’s roots go back over half a centaury to 1946 when Masru Ibuka and Akio Morita founded it. Ibuka and Morita were global thinkers, they realised the need for a global brand, which crossed cultural, and language borders in order to expand the business in the US and later in Europe. Although the name of the company was not officially changed to Sony Corporation until 1958, the first Sony branded product was the TR-55 transistor radio, which went on sale in 1955.

Sony’s UK history began in 1968 when Sony UK was founded in London. Six years later Sony became the first major Japanese company to open a factory in the UK.

Sony was awarded the prestigious Queen’s Award for Export on four occasions throughout the 80’s and 90’s.

 

Sony has many companies, and I have chosen two to talk about.

My first one is Sony Ericsson.

Everyone’s heard of them, its impossible not to. They’re everywhere. People on the streets, for example according to statistics, 1 in 4 phones are a Sony Ericsson. No wonder they have adverts everywhere. They’re catchy and colourful, directed at youths, mainly. Sony Ericsson was founded in 2001. The name officially came from the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation, and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to make mobile phones, put the two together and you get Sony Ericsson. They decided to reach out onto this level because they believed it could be a new market niche, and combined the two expertises to create a successful mobile phones company. The main rivals for Sony Ericsson are mainly Motorola, however when LG brought out the LG Viewety, Sony Ericsson’s market share dropped from 9.4% to 7.9%. One of the reasons Sony Ericsson has been so popular, is probably because it knows what their customers want. They don’t want to be walking along holding a iPod in one hand and a phone in the other, Sony Ericsson was quick to spot this and created a Walkman phone in 2005.

Sony Playstation

 

The Playstation was first introduced in 1995, and was Sony’s first half a billion dollar video game industry. In 1998, the Playstation was named the best selling product in Sony’s entire corporation. Everyone has heard of the Playstation, again, its so hard not too. 2 in 5 14-17year-old boy has a Playstation. These are pretty high statistics. Since launching, Sony Playstation has only grown in numbers, and products. They have done from Playstation, Playstation 2, Slimeline Playstation 2, Playstation Portable then finally Playstation.

Facebook Anonymous

I knew it was about time to write a new post. 

And i tried to think of something REALLY interesting to write...

Eventually i came up with "whats WRONG with the media"

There are plenty of reasons for good things about the media, spreading news etc..

But the media can also have bad and un-desired effects too.

We can never say no to a good TV programme, whatever it may be. But when do we know when to say 'enough'?

Reading through fellow classmates Media Diaries, i was amazed to see the hours that they spend using the media. Is this time necessary, or are we discarding other things for the media?

Facebook, starts of with a simple exploration of your friends on the site and suddenly you're logging in every half an hour to see if any of your friends have made updates, changed relationship status, or posted new videos, without even realising it. and soon a simple social networking account slowly turns into a media addiction.

Sure, Facebook is great, its cheaper than sending a text, quicker and more fun. But i often find myself sitting on Facebook, bored. Getting off Facebook doesn't seem to enter my mind. I just wait for it to get interesting again. 

Recently ive found myself realising that Facebook, is actually controlling me. 

Depressing, yes?

Why am i so obsessed with sitting there, until something happens, when i could be downstairs, talking to my Mum, Dad, Sister or Brother. Who, would actually be more interesting!

I am still trying to work out why it is so obsessive, is it the news feeds? The down right annoying facebook chat? The nosiness of it all? Or simply that its something to do?

I'm sure many of my class may have tweeked their media diaries, to make themselves look less of a Facebook addict. But they know what i'm talking about.

Thur media diary and rant about tv advertising!

Thursday 25th September

Its only 5.19 but already, i am on the usual, Msn, Facebook, iTunes and Blogger

Will update when i know what else i decide to spend my time with the media doing :)

Sitting here watching Friends at 5.30, previously recorded from the God which is Sky +

What Mr vS said today made me think, i have no intention of watching any of the adverts that will come up in the breaks, why should i when i have the power to make my viewing quicker. 

Traditionally, advertisers show off their new product on 30 second television advert known as "TV spots". But ad executives and corporate marketers are now concerned about the negative impact of ad-skipping decices and are shifting their ad budgets to alternative media such as radio and magazines. A wise choice, in my opinion.

I am a advert hater, i find them frustrating and dont quite get how people would want to advertise their product on television. 

Do you think that when the break of Eastenders or Friends or Ugly Betty (my personal hate, for the amount of breaks are during the hour its on) that people sit there, for the whole three minutes without getting up to either go to the toilet, check for mail, make a cup of tea or snack...

I don't think so, i find it impossible to sit there for the whole three minutes without getting down right bored. 

I think advertising on TV channels such as BBC1 BBC2 ITV Channel 4 and 5 would be fine, as these channels are viewed by people who only have these channels and do not have the option of missing all of the dreary, and simply infuriating adverts.

There are some adverts, i admit that are worth viewing, such as the Citeron car and the Cadburys Dairy Milk, these have had numerous hits on YouTube but i doubt that whenever someone Sky+ a programme and that came on in the adverts that they would stop fast forwarding just to watch the advert.

Should adverts just stop appearing on Television and appear in more worth while places, or will advertisment companys continue to believe that anyone actually takes notice to their million pound advert.

Juno Review

Narrative Text 

Main character – Juno MacGuff

Brief synopsis of the plot:

Starting with a cartoon version of Juno walking into a drug store, Juno then takes a pregnancy test to discover it is positive. On her walk home we get an introduction to her life, the music that is played gives a sense of calm about the situation. The central theme of the story is a chair, which is initially where the baby is conceived, by the two parents, Juno and her high school boyfriend, Bleaker. Juno then panics, and calls up her best friend, Leah. Leah suggests getting an abortion, which Juno agrees on. When entering Women Now, an abortion clinic, Juno panics and realises that the idea she has decided to go with, is the wrong one. So we then see her running out of the clinic, for me this is the point in the story when we begin to see Juno grow up.  Whilst dealing with all these problems, there is still the problem of telling her parents, surprisingly, they take it well, saying they had expected it, a moral boost for Juno I’m sure! Looking in the Pennysaver with Leah, she stumbles upon a couple that is desperate for a baby, Mark and Vanessa.  Juno and her father Mac visit the hopeful couple who live in the suburbs, although surprised by Juno’s random attitude, Mark develops a friendly liking for Juno, and the two quickly bond over a shared love of grunge music and horror films. While Vanessa is the uptight one, who is left to all the decisions, and ultimately, the one who wants the baby. Over time, Mark realises that Vanessa is too complicated for him, therefore a huge argument occurs between the contrasting two. Juno, whilst present at the time of argument, leaves, angry that the un-born child’s parents are potentially going to separate. Juno drives away, only to return leaving a note on the doorstep which at first the viewer does not know of the message. As the movie and pregnancy develops, we see Juno turn into a loving, more caring person.  The final scene is of Juno giving birth, and Vanessa holding the baby in its room, it ends with a chair in which Vanessa sits with her new baby boy. On the wall, hung behind her is a picture frame with the note Juno left Vanessa that evening, saying “Vanessa, I’m still in if you are”.

 

How the character is shown:

Juno MacGuff played by Ellen Page, is a quirky and precocious teenager, who is quickly asked to grow up as she discovers she is pregnant. As we expect a normal 16 year old would react, scared and hapless, we are surprised to see Juno handle the situation with maturity and responsibility. At first, Juno is seen as a strange, yet delicate character. As the story goes on and we see her love for her baby, Bleaker and Mark develop, we see she has a sensitive, gentle side. We see her to be quite strong, and uncaring, however as her pregnancy goes on she starts to show affection. The viewer quickly develops a relationship with Juno, and has a soft spot for her to understand how she must be feeling.

 

How the character contributes towards the narrative:

As Juno is the main character, most events are viewed from her opinion. This was probably done as Juno is pregnant, so by having the narrative from any other person would not be useful as we would not be able to see pregnancy from her point of view, which in effect is the most important one. The story is told from her perspective, therefore we are crammed with views about sex, adoption, and boyfriends, and as this is mainly a teenager movie, this makes the narrative, coming from Juno, very important. 

Grade: 70 / 100

Thank you for getting your work in so quickly, Hannah.  You have captured the film well.  The synopsis veered towards making observations on the narrative, rather than simply retelling the facts.  However, the exploration of Juno's representation is very sound.  You have clearly seen that the director is challenging the audience to question the stereotypes of teenage behaviour.  Also, you have made the distinction between representation and narrative, which is not always easy.  Well done

Media Diary

Media Diary

Our homework for this week was to create a media diary to see how much of our lives are dominated by the media. By completing my media diary i can see that most of my evenings are ruled by the media in in way or another.

Thursday

6pm – 9pm

Facebook, i went on this for the whole three hours, on and off, to check if i had any new posts, i was not constantly on it but it was always up on the dock

YouTube, i went on YouTube to see a video that someone had told me about, this lasted 15 minutes

iTunes, i was listening to itunes the whole three hours. The kind of music i listened to was Katy Perry, Kings of Leon, Basshunter as these are my favourite songs at the moment.

9.30-10.15pm

TV- Friends, for half an hour

BBC News, for 15 minutes

Friday

5pm-7.30pm

iTunes, i listened to iTunes the whole two and a half hours i was on the computer. Songs i listened to: Katy Perry, Rihanna, Coldplay, Basshunter, Ne-Yo, Chris Brown.

Facebook, i only went on facebook for the first and laft 15 minutes to check if i had any mail

Msn, i was on Msn the whole time, however at different intervals i was seen as Away/Busy

8pm-10pm

TV- Friends for an hour

BBC News for half an hour

American Pie 2 for half an hour

I don't usually watch this much T.V, however i was babysitting therefore had limited access to the internet.

Saturday

12pm – 1pm

Msn, i only went on to check my emails then signed out again

Facebook, i was on this the whole hour

iTunes, i went on for the whole hour, and mainly listened to the songs in the Top Ten this week.

8pm-10pm

Facebook, i only went on this for half an hour

Msn, i was on Msn for the whole two hours but appearing Busy or Away for most of the time

Sunday

1pm-3pm

iTunes, iTunes was only rumming for half an hour to buy songs

Msn, i did go on Msn for the two hours

Monday

7pm-8pm

Facebook, running the whole time

iTunes running the whole time, on shuffle, therefore i cannot remember all the songs i listened to.

Tuesday

6.30pm-9pm

YouTube, i went on YouTube to watch a music video, 3 or 4 minutes

Facebook, on for the first hour

Msn, on for the whole time but again, sometimes i was Away or Busy

iTunes, running all the time

Wednesday

Had loads of work today :( so time on Msn and Facebook, and the all new Blogger was limited.

Went on iTunes for the time i was doing work, the only thing that makes writing essays bearable.

Finished at 8, and went to watch TV. Sat down to watch Friends, always comforting.

Then logged onto Msn and Facebook to read my millions of emails... :/

Total Media Consumption : 5 hours