Tuesday, 5 December 2017


2) Re-read this Waterloo Road Wikipedia entry and write down the number of seasons and episodes broadcast and the channels they have appeared on.

Waterloo road has 10 seasons with 200 episodes and it has been going of for 9 years set in Rochdale, England. It was played on BBC One and BBC Three. In the 10th season, the show was based in Greenock, Scotland.

3) How does Waterloo Road meet the key conventions of TV Drama: ensemble cast? Stock characters? Story arcs? Episodic narratives? Enigma and tension? Realism?


This programme meet’s the key conventions of TV Drama . There is a range of characters in Waterloo road.  The programme focuses on the lives’ of school children, parent’s & their teacher’s. It follow’s character’s as they go on with their day to day life within a school setting.  The programme has episodic narrative, episode’s follow on each time to create a story arc. Majority of the time we see enigma, tension & a sense of realism portrayed. Waterloo road has followed the key conventions of a school setting accurately. It also has a range of cliff-hangers that could potentially make viewers anticipate the next episodes. 


4) Write down three storylines (or narratives) from Waterloo Road - note which season the storyline appeared in. They can be from the first episode above or from the clips below:


Lenny's Dilemma Series 10 In this episode we see Lenny has concerns over a teacher with a student. Lenny seeks advice from his peers.  They all confuse one another, with their opinions. Justin is in a dilemma as he doesn’t know what to do. I personally enjoyed  the episode as it has a load of tension and dramatic scenery.

Justin Snaps Series 10: This episode show’s a teacher confront Justin over text message’s she has found on her phone. Justin wants to get back with the teacher’s daughter but she does not approve as she is aware her daughter was abused by Justin. We see the end of the shot Justin lunge’s at the teacher. This provides the audience with suspense & tension as we see Justin’s temper escalate.

5) Why might audiences have enjoyed Waterloo Road?

People may enjoy Waterloo road because of the amount of cliffhangers and interesting story lines there are in 10 seasons. It is even more interesting on how big characters end up with a terminal illness in the show and the setting changes to Scotland can make a wider audience not just in England but around the UK.

Doctor Who

1) Re-watch these extracts from the classic Doctor Who episode 'Blink' when the Doctor was played by David Tennant during series' 2-4:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=cwdbLu_x0gY

Thursday, 7 September 2017

1) Creative Concept - contains really interesting, unique ideas or visuals that are not necessarily related to the song. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cXDgFwE13g

This song that I am reviewing is called "First of the year" by Skrillex. The music video presents a man and a little girl. The little girl seems to have powers and the mans role is playing as a sex offender. The sex offender follows the little girl into a underground basement. The sex offender approaches the little girl and the little girl uses her powers against him. The sex offender knocks out and ends up in a room filled with dolls. The sex offender raises his hand and black demon hands grabs his face. He wakes up on the floor and dials 911. The little girl then seems to be possessed and attacks the sex offender. At the end, the little girl severely injures the sex offender by her possessive power from her hands.

2) Narrative - a video that has a clear storyline - usually related to the lyrics. This lends a film-like quality to the music video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlyXNRrsk4A

This song that I am also reviewing is called 'Last Friday night' by Katy Perry. The narrative of this music video is a young girl played by Katy Perry who is called by other students "A nerd" or "a loser". This girl hosts a party and a girl changes her looks into making her look somewhat attractive that the popular people start approaching her. They have a party in the house by playing games and eating etc... She then wakes up with a man a built up man in her bed and seems to be a bit hungover from the part on the Friday night. Her parents come home and seems they are alright about it and mention "We invented Fridays". At the end people have second thoughts about Katy Perry being a 'Nerd' and think she is quite cool and not a 'loser'. This song also features Rebecca Black which could attract viewers to watch more of Katy Perry's songs.

3) Performance Element- This is when the music video focuses on a performance from the artist - usually lip-synching and co-ordinated dance moves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyaI4-5849w

The performance element of the song wild Thoughts is produced by Dj Khaled and Rihanna. Rihanna mostly does the vocals and DJ Khalid does the tune. It gets the audience to maybe dance or sing along with the song as the song is very successful. The performers dance to the music and that makes the viewers want to join in as the tune is very successful. The co-ordinated dance moves in this music video is exceptional and very successful that it could get viewers to join in or dance to the music video. The tune can also make the viewers into the song as it has that hard quick beat to it and the guitar solo.

4) Camerawork (use of camera shots and camera movements) and interesting editing (number of shots, how they are cut together)

https://vimeo.com/55760829

The camerawork in the song 'Walk Of The Earth' - By Red Hands is exceptional as it goes backwards, has bits of time lapses and the effects on the music video would get the viewers to watch more of their work. The effects on this music video is exceptional by the smoke passing by and quick time lapses go by and the people have new instruments like a drum (Drum set), Guitars etc... This could make the viewers way into it by the camerawork and the singing.


5) Mise-en-scene: everything you can see in the video - setting, costume, props and characters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I


The music video that I would also be reviewing is "Bad Romance" - By Lady GaGa. The setting in this music video is in a white room that is well architectured with many people in the room. The people in this music video has very strange looking costumes with parts of gold and metal and leather full-on suits with spikes on the top. The props in this music video are very related to a hint of torture and some are not. The props made for torture are like a massive jug of water poured into the victims mouth trying to drown the victim. The characters in this music video is mostly lady GaGa wearing different costumes. There are also men with a chin straps made out of gold sitting on a chair with a glass of water while watching Lady Gaga dance in front of them.



6) Visual Effects and clever editing- This is when the music video features amazing special effects such as CGI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbGs_qK2PQA

The visual effects of the song 'Rap God' - By Eminem has an exceptional amount of effects in this music video from teleportation to disco sort of lights across the screen. There are also effects put in in the background while he is rapping. For example: Moving lights and colourful lights flickering everywhere and portals that the rapper jumps into and ends up in the other portal. The rapper also raps so fast its like a machine and that really could shock the viewers so much they would want to watch more of his work. 

Thursday, 22 June 2017

Waterloo Road
2) Read this Waterloo Road Wikipedia entry and write down the number of seasons and episodes broadcast and the channels they have appeared on.

In 2014, it was confirmed that series 10 of Waterloo Road would be the last series ever. The first episode was first shown on the channel BBC One on march 2006 and the last episode of Waterloo Road in 2015 was shown on BBC Three. The amount of episodes there were was 200 episodes and 9 years exactly.

3) How does Waterloo Road meet the key conventions of TV Drama?

Waterloo Road meets the key conventions by introducing the school as an unloved, rough school that students take for granted. There is one specific setting in Waterloo Road that is in almost every episode and that setting is the school. They're are many plotwists and Cliffhangers in Waterloo Road such as a person dying of cancer towards the end of series 10 and that could make the audience feels very upset that a very good character has left and the audience could be very sad that a very successful TV show is close to its finale.

4) Write down three storylines (or narratives) from Waterloo Road - note which season the storyline appeared in. They can be from the first episode above or from another season if you wish.

The story line of Waterloo Road is about an unorganised school with students that take the school for granted. The deputy head teacher joins and tries to make a change to the school and try to get the students into learning so they can achieve better in the future. There was a student who seems to be very sassy that  joins the school and her introduction is by her putting on lipstick, her father tells her to take it off and she does it by kissing a boy. That introduction shows the audience that the girl could be potentially trouble.

5) Why might audiences have enjoyed Waterloo Road?

The audience may have enjoyed Waterloo Road because the story line of the shows is quite interesting and there are a lot of cliffhangers from each episode and makes them want to know what would happen next so they would stay tunes for the next episode coming.

Doctor Who

1) Read the opening of this Wikipedia entry for Doctor Who and make notes on why the show is so popular.

Doctor Who is very popular because the Doctor and his companion has many adventures across time and space and meet aliens that try invading places etc... And that makes the audience into it (especially if they are into science fiction programmes or people who are into action or people who are into horror.

2) Now read this Wikipedia entry for the episode above - 'Blink'. Why is 'Blink' considered to be one of the best Doctor Who episodes ever?

The reason why 'Blink' happens to be the best episode on doctor who is because the Doctor seems to be powerless and seems to be stuck in the year '1969' and he relays on a person who has the 'TARDIS' key. It could be popular because it is a first appearance from a very powerful alien named 'The weeping angels' that is trying to use the TARDIS (The doctors time machine) to potentially take over the world and use the power to 'Switch of the sun'. 

3) List the key conventions of TV Drama that you can find in Doctor Who

The one specific setting on Doctor Who is the Time machine named the TARDIS. The introduction to the episode 'Blink' is a girl named 'Sally Sparrow' that investigates an abandoned house and tears up wallpaper that has her name on it written by 'The Doctor'. The plotwists/ cliffhangers of Doctor Who is that he can regenerate (Change) faces and that usually is because its the actors time to stop being the Doctor and make a new actor by becoming a doctor. That could make the audience excited because they could look forward to see how the new doctor is and if he is a very good actor and very excited to meet new aliens. There could also be an appearance from a very old actor the has played in Doctor Who in recent years that can get the so called 'Whovians' to become excited.

4) Write down three storylines (or narratives) from Doctor Who - note which season the storyline appeared in. They can be from the earlier episodes (such as 'Blink' above) or from the most recent series if you wish.

In series 10 in Doctor Who, we find out a new companion named 'Bill' take works as a dinner lady serving chips in a university. The Doctor and bill becomes friends and start to do adventures across time and space and they also do adventures back in time like the roman times or they do adventures out in space like a space ship. Bills as a character is very interesting in the sense that she asks a lot of questions to the doctor.


5) What audience pleasures are provided by Doctor Who?

The audience (some called the whovians) has something to look forward to every year including Christmas time. Trailers get released and it get the audience 'Hyped' for the new series release. 








Thursday, 15 June 2017

Waterloo Road:
The narrative of the clip shows the audience that the school is uncontrolled and the students misbehave and do actions that are not legal by drinking alcohol, drug dealing and smoking cigarettes. The show introduces a girl named Gabriella and her character type is sassy and thinks she is better than everybody else. Her entrance in the show is by putting on lipstick and kissing a student to take the lipstick off.
The Character  type in Waterloo road is that the students are described as rough and aggressive school that is very uncontrolled and lazy teacher are found in the show by not giving the students commands.
The Iconography on the programme Waterloo road introduces the school as a Teenage drama. 

Thursday, 27 April 2017

Propp:

The character 'James Bond' is played by Daniel Craig. James Bond is presented as a hero in the film the way how he stops bad things from happening or stops a villains plan from happening. James Bond is full of action and that makes the audience feel that James Bond knows what he is doing. There is another thing about James Bond, he usually flirts with girls and there are some sexual scenes in the film and that could attract many people who are into romance. The character 'Q' is a donor the way how he directs James Bond where to go and what tasks he has to do. This shows he is a donor because he is helping out an agent. Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a villain in James Bond Spectre who tries to kill James Bond and sets up traps if Bond tried to put a stop to it. 

Barthes: Enigma and action codes:

Within the first 20 seconds of the trailer, we see that James Bond aiming a weapon at someone (0:11) and this demonstrates to the audience that there would be action and gunfights in the movie. Another action code is when James Bond is seen in a car chase at (0:35), this further supports the idea that the movie will have several action scenes. Some of the enigma codes include "What happens to the victim?", "How does James Bond save the victim?" and "What does James Bond do to defeat the villain?". These enigma codes makes the potential audience feel excited for the movie release.


equilibrium


An equilibrium in the James Bond Spectre trailer is showing a normal life in London and a festival in Mexico. A disequilibrium is when there is gunfights and explosions in building.

















Thursday, 20 April 2017

Spectre

  • How are men represented in the trailer? Is this representation conforming to other representations of men in action films? Why?
  • Men in this film are represented as the people who do all of the action whilst the females do very little when it comes to action. 'Confronting a villain is a mans job' according to most action films like Fast & furious, The James Bond franchise etc... This is showing the audience that the male actors are heroic and saviours.
  • How are females represented? What message might this send to the audience?
  • Females are represented as the people who do very little action, gun fights, fist fights etc... This is showing the audience that the female roles don't do as much as the male roles of the film.

Thursday, 30 March 2017

1) What typical features (conventions) of a film poster have you used? How do they help to make the poster effective in attracting an audience? (Key conventions include title, release date, institutional information, reviews, a central image etc.)

In my film poster I have used:


  1. A title,"The Hackers"
  2. A Tagline "The Secret Service". 
  3. Release Date - 10th June 2017
  4. Credits
  5. Reviews
  6. Institutional Logo
  7. Cast names
  8. Age rating
  9. Central image

The title can attract my target audience (people who are into Crime and Action films) because it instantly demonstrates to the audience that this film will be about hacking and will definitely have action/ violence in the film.

The release date for this film can make the audience (who are into action films) feel very excited and have something to look forward to.

The reviews of this film show the audience that the movie is getting great star ratings from a professional aspect (from Empire magazine and Total Film magazine). This will help appeal to my target audience because they are trusted reviews.

The institutional logo (Universal) is a very popular international company that made made a lot of films (E.T, Back to the future, Minions, Despicable me, Jurassic park, Jaws ETC...)

2) What is the genre of your film? How would your target audience know this from design of your poster? E.g. Colour scheme, font choice, mise-en-scene (props, costume, character, setting).

The genre of my film is an Action/Thriller. The target audience would know that this film is an Action/Thriller because the film poster has coding in the central image and the title also shows.

3) What institutional information have you used to try and sell the film and how does this appeal to the audience? E.g. 'From the Producers of...' / Star power / Directors / Reviews

The producers of the film would put the institution logo to attract the audience that likes Universal or Paramount and if it says "in the makers of", it would attract viewers into watching the film if they had a favourite movie made by a director that was in the making of this film.

4) Where are there examples of synergy between your storyboard and trailer? (Synergy is the link or interaction between two different media texts)

I have used