main stream and niche programs

The X factor is a very popular reality television program that is shown on a saturday evening at 7 pm on itv. There is not very many programs on at this time on saturdays so the majority of england watches it. when watching the audience will get entertainment and escapism out of watching it as it is very easy watching and due to the full range of songs which are featured on it it also allows the audience to hear popular mainstream songs in a different way also many of the acts on the show will get a make over before the live shows making them more visually appealing. An example of this would be in last years x factor james arther first audition he had very scruffy clothes, glasses, un shaven and un groomed but he was made over to make him more sexualised for the women audience to take more notice of him and want to vote for him to win. The other main gratification the audience will get from this show would be social integration as there are many features through out the show which allows people to talk about the show on popular/mainstream social networking sites such as twitter. Examples of this is during the show hastags will appear on the screen for the audience to use on twitter to link all there tweets together and over all links back to the xfactor. As the show is a reality show and uses 'real' people so the audience can relate also the show will uses many shots of the audience in the studio which will have the same reactions as you so you will feel as though you are there as well. As this show to win you are either voted in to keep or voted out and that is determined by the audience at home there fore this gives the audience a uses and they are the ones are in control. there is a very high production value for the x-factor which means it appeals to the mass audience.

La Ink is a program showen on tlc through out the weekdays normally the new series would be shown at 11am. This means it will have a niche audience as many people are either at school or work through out the day and only if the took a keen interest in tattoos or wanted to get one they would watch it later on demand or they would record the show. The show is just specific to tattoos so it would not interest a wider audience but they little audience that does watch it would get a gratification of information as they can get many different design types and ideas to aid them in making a choice of a tattoo they wish to have. As the majority of people who watch the show will have tattoos they can personally identify with the clients in the show they share their emotions and fears of getting their first tattoos. TLC is a channel that specifies in american based television shows and only TV which have sky will be able to access these type of channels also there is not very much advertising for the show, for example shows like xfator will have weeks of advertisements not just on the telly but also on billboards and magazines but la ink does not get this type advertisement maybe one advert on the telly on that specific channel a day. Therefore not many people will get to hear about the show so it can not get a wider audience and remain being niche    

James Bond

We can apply Mulvey's theory of the male gaze to a clip of james bond, the first shot we see is a panning shot over the scenery then he focuses his view on the sea where hallie berry emerges the camera only focuses on her and does no avert the eye line until she has fully left the water. but we are still very much focused on her body even when she turns away. Through out the whole shot bond is in control and is dominant character as he the one who first makes interaction. Also he is stood for the whole shot with a cigar in his mouth which shows that he is masculine and it also give the female audience a bit of gratification. When the two are talking he averts his eyes to look away from her to a group of men who are surrounded but girls and money and these girls are being very objectified, as bond is the main dominance in this clip it also makes berry look as it shows her that he is not like those men over there and even though he took gratification from her coming out of the water he doesn't not just see her as a sexual object, he actually engages in conversation with her and wants to know more about her. Even tough this clip is mainly focused on her bogy and her image then her as a person she is very much more of an active character as she does interact and the camera does focus more on her face and her talking then her body.

American Beauty

in a short clip of american beauty if we apply the male gaze theory we see it  feature through out at first it is very subtle with just a few camera shots but as the clip it goes on to be a more noticeable. When the girls first get up to dance the camera is in a high angle shot so it looks down upon the girls are your eyes are automatically drawn to the girls legs and as they start to dance that is where your main focus is. Through out the dance routine the daughter is in the centre and should be the main focus but when the dance goes in to a formation and the blonde girl becomes the centre this is when kevin spacey's character takes notice of her, once this happens we are seeing the girl through his eyes and we know this as the camera focuses on his eyes and his eye view alone.the lightings starts to fade out as does everyone else in the scene so there is a single spot light on her and she is the main focus as there is nothing else distracting from her. when the rest are the actors are still in shit the camera does a zoom shot from mid shot to close up which focuses on his eyes it then reverts back to normal and does the same thing to the girl this signifies that only the man and girl are focusing on each other this makes the audience only focus them too as well. toward the end of the clip there is a long shot of just the man in the audience this is in the mans imagination again this shows that the scene is from the males point of view.
The representations in this clip are very stereotypical for example the blonde girl is scene to be the head cheerleader as she is the focus of the shot and she is wearing a cheerleaders out fit with the pleated skirt this is very sterotypical of an american high school also she is seen to be a dumb blond as at the start of the scene when she is talking to her friend she is just sat there playing with her hair not really taking notice of what the other girl is saying to her. The daughter in the clip is a stereotypical moody teenager as she looks miserable in every scene she is in she has a downer about her especially how she talks about her parents and she is ungrateful that they want to support her and encourager her in something that she has tried really hard at. The man in the scene is middle age maybe having a midlife crises as he gets sexual gratification fro looking at his daughters friend that would be many years younger then he is      also he talks about how he wished he was at home as he was missing a james bond marathon this is a very mainly film and this could be an escapism for him and as he is having a midlife crises he sees himself as james bond this is why he fantasises about a much younger girl as he thinks that she wants him and has a chance.

Draft of my first paragraphy

How far do contrasting genres rely upon different narrative structures?

The main narrative theories im going to apply to my two chosen films are, stauss,prop and tororov, these have key characteristics which are very distinctive and can be identified easily. The first film I am going to allays is the black cauldron; it is a 1985 Disney film all about bravery and defeating evil. the genre of this film is fantasy but it also has traces of horror, the conventions of these genres that show in the film are low key lighting and dragging out the scenes which can been seen as horror also the non diegetic sounds change to increase the tension in the film especially in scenes when the 'villain' appears on the screen. Many of the scenes have mist which is a very iconic part of very olden horror films. The conventions of the fantasy film are the opposite to the horror aspects, they is high key lighting to make the audience feel at ease and that nothing bad is going to happen. Again the music changes through out the scenes that are seen to be fantasy and the music is more upbeat and relax the audience and instead of them expecting what’s about to happen the audience just enjoys and watches it. More conventions of this is their are fairies and aspects of magic which is a key element of fantasy films. The second film I’m going to analyse and compare to the black cauldron is going to be batman the dark knight raises the most recent film in the batman trilogy. All three of the batman films fit well with all three theories especially Strauss because through out the whole film the binary opposition of good /evil, rich/poor is a key theme through out all. The genre of this film is a thriller/ action film conventions of horror films are as followed, it mainly uses panning and tracking shots the first shot that was used in the film was a panning shot not focusing on any one just setting the scene. it also uses a lot of high and log angle shows this always shows the audience who controls the scene and can make the audience fell important/the focus or can make them feel threatened and vulnerable. There are many jump cuts between scenes as this gives the scene of fast movement and its unpredictable what can happen. Conventions of an action film are fighting, through al the whole film/trilogy of batman these is a lot of fighting. A key location of an action film is in a big city and batman fits this perfectly as the whole film is set in the fictional city Gotham.

CSI

What are the dominant ideologies in a specific CSI clip.

Firstly all people in the scene are American so right away we have the patriotic ideology, we can tell the people are American because how they act, the clothes they wear (official FBI jackets) but more simply just by the accent they have. Another ideology could be male dominance because even though the women come across as equals and just as knowledgeable as the men, ( the woman remembers a neckless of a missing persons case from 2 years ago) they have the same role title and do the same job, there are still more men in the scene then women and the two women shown are seen to be equal as there isn't enough of them we can not conclude that the scene is being equal. When the forensic man and woman first step out of the car the woman speaks first but when they are talking to the sheriff he aims the conversation at the man and when it comes to introductions the forensic man introduces both himself and the woman. when they are in the Pitt with the bodies the man is seen doing the most work, the most demanding for, as he is breaking us the hard rocky ground where as the woman is just using her had to scrape off a bit of rubble. All of the bodies they have found are female this shows that women are defenceless and can not defend themselves in a life and death situations.

the place Beyond the pines

Gender representation

The male representation of this film is mainly as a sexual symbol, especially at the beginning of the trailer, the first shot that is seen is an extreme close you of ryan goslings chest and it focused on this defined abs. The following shots on from this include him with his top off or with a vest which shows of his muscular arms. Also with ryan and Bradley coopers shots there are a lot of close ups of their faces to show that they are attractive and in control. The men seen in the trailer are very manly men who are very buff and physically fit and in all scenes they are the ones in control as only two women are shown through out the whole clip so the town they are in is a very male dominating town. ryan character is represented as a hard man who's is potentially dangerous and doesn't obey by any ones but his rules, we get this impression from his vast amount of tattoos (especially the ones on his face) also how he is  always armed the first shot we see of him is him holding/ playing with a knife.
  The female representation is completely different to the males, both of the women shown have children so they are automatically represented as maternal and caring also they are very much controlled by the males and depend up on them, we see this when eva mendes' character found it difficult to raise her child alone and vulnerable we also see her getting married to a man who can help her and support her. this trailer also shows the women as being easily influenced by men an example of this would be how Eva's character takes the money from ryan's even though it is obvious it is stolen as ran is a kind of gangster who doesn't obey by the rules.

The Place Beyond the Pines - Official Trailer [HD]

analysis of sleepy hallow

we can apply the theory of propp to the film sleepy hallow, the villain is the older witch woman, the way she is talking to the girl about how she wants to cause death and destruction how she talks about how many people her herself has already killed and how she has manipulated peoples opinion of her. Also he was wearing al black which is a key connotation of a villain especially in older films which this is. This film also has another villain the head less rider as he is moving very fast and there’s a juncture position of when he is shown rather then when the witch is shown. also when both villains are in a shot with other actors they are seen in high angle/ low angle shots this makes the other actor feel intimidated and in less control as they have to look up at the villain and it also gives the sense of danger and intimidation. The hero of this clip is Johnny depps character as though out the beginning of the clip he is seen riding very fast through the wood to save the girl then when he arrives he is the one in control trying to get the children to safety. The princess in the clip is the little girl as she is the one who needs to be rescued and is helpless to saving her self.

In this clip there are many examples of binary opposition such as the obvious good verse evil, the heedless rider/which against Johnny depp and the children. There is also the light/dark all the shots in the beginning in the windmill are relatively light compared to the dark misty wood the headsman is riding through. there is the opposition of dead and alive, the headsmen is clearly dead due to the fact he doesn't have a head and Johnny depps character is alive as they are fearing and escaping death. Another would be old/young as the children are very young where as the headless man and the witch and the children are the representations of young

Analysis of james bond sky fall

we can apply Propp's theory to sky fall, the princes would be the girl who is tied up with the shot glass on her head as she is the one who is need of a hero and needs saving, the hero that would be saving her would be bond as he is unwilling to fire the gun in case he hits the girl ad he tries to save her. The blonde man is seen as the villain as he is the one who ties the girl up and wants to cause havoc and death. Another theory that links in to propp is strause's ideas of binary opposes, in this scene we have the representation of good verses evil
We can also apply todorov as there is equilibrium when the scene stars as the two men are walking up to where the tied up girl is, once the girl gets shot and killed this creates disequilibrium and the only way to reinstate it is for bond to get justice. Through out this scene we are overloaded with many enigma codes such as, who is the girl, is she just random or does she mean a lot to bond? Why is she tied up and why does she have to be killed surely bond would be in distress if he knew her and she was tied up with out having to kill her? The genre of this clip is action we can tell this by the usage of long shots to give us an idea of the scenery also the close up clips of the actors faces as they are very serious and there expression can give a lot of insight to the genre of the clip. also there is a lot of fighting which is very iconic to stereotypical action films again to link in with the fighting all the men in the scene are carrying guns, so even before the fighting starts we can tell this clip is going to be hostile and there are going to be many casualties and even deaths

thriller

Conventions Of Thriller Films from bobsled

action

Conventions of action films from simsimma

Genre of my chosen texts

The black cauldron genre is fantasy how ever it also has traces of horror, the conventions of these genres that show in the film are low key lighting and dragging out the scenes which can been seen as horror also the non diegetic sounds change to increase the tension in the film especially in scenes when the 'villain' appears on the screen. many of the scenes have mist which is a very iconic part of very olden horror films. The conventions of the fantasy film are the opposite to the horror aspects, they is high key lighting to make the audience feel at ease and that nothing bad is going to happen. again the music changes through out the scenes that are seen to be fantasy and the music is more upbeat and relaxes the audience and instead of them expecting whats about to happen the audience just enjoys and watches it. morse conventions of this is their are fairies and aspects of magic which is a key element of fantasy films.

the dark knight rises genre is a thriller/ action film conventions of horror films are as followed, it mainly uses panning and tracking shots the first shot that was used in the film was a panning shot not focusing on any one just setting the scene. it also uses a lot of high and log angle shows this always shows the the audience who controls the scene and can make the audience fell important/the focus or can make them feel threatened and vulnerable. there are many jump cuts between scenes as this gives the scene of fast movement and its unpredictable what can happen. conventions of an action film is fighting, through al the whole film/trilogy of batman these is a lot of fighting. a key location of an action film is in a big city and batman fits this perfectly as the whole film is set in the fictional city gotham.