Amy: The Girl Behind The Name

Amy directed by Asif Kapadia is a 2015 British documentary film that follows the life and death of British singer Amy Winehouse. It shows who Amy truly was as a person vs how the media portrayed her. She was presented through home videos with a voice over of different people who knew and spent time with her. They described her as a person and also in some parts how others treated her.

This film could be used as a case study because it covers a variety of different representations. It incorporates the representations of gender, issues and age. Gender is a strong representation in the film with a strong theme of dependency arising. Amy depends on men in her life mainly because of her lack of a relationship with her father, this has caused her to become needy towards other males. She further becomes heartbroken when going through a break up which destroys her further. 

The music industry was took a huge impact on both her rise and fall in the industry. Without the music producers in the industry Amy wouldn't have made it in the industry but that is so for all music artists who all need someone already in the industry to help them join. But the industry was also one of the biggest reasons for her fall and destruction because of how much they were asking from her. They tried to change Amy into something she wasn't, she only wanted to be herself something which the industry wouldn't allow her to do. They would also try to rush her into creating albums etc. something she planned to take her time with.

I think the audience responded to Amy well because she was so natural, and was easy to relate to as she was like any other girl expect she had a strong talent in singing. Also because she didn't try to make herself out to be someone she wasn't she appealed to the audience further because she was down to earth. She was quite like Adele who doesn't change her self because of what people want to see. 

Technology took a huge impact on Amy allowing her to get further recognition within the media. The use of TV interviews showed the audience the real Amy. But with things such as radio her songs were played allowing her popularity to rise. However the heighten of technology in this century has enabled more listeners to her music with social media and music streaming such as Spotify. But this was unavailable when she was alive so she was unfortunately unable to use these services. 

Overall I enjoyed the film and thought the way it was put together was very creative and different to the majority of documentaries. The use of home videos allows the audience to see Amy behind the camera rather than who they tried to make her. 

Kingsman and Skyfall Comparison

Kingsman: The Secret Service is a 2014 action comedy directed by Matthew Vaughn and written by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn and Skyfall is a 2012 action thriller film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Neal Purvis, it is the 23^rd instalment of the Bond series. These films have many similar and different themes and conventions throughout but both come under the same sub-genre of spy movie but are portrayed quite differently. Kingsman is about a spy organisation that recruits an unrefined street kid into the agency’s training program, Skyfall on the other hand follows the narrative of most James Bond films; Bond must track down and destroy the threat after M’s past comes back to haunt her.

The most noticeable difference is the way the spy’s are portrayed in these films. In Skyfall the film has a very serious tone following the typical conventions of a classic spy film whereas Kingsman has a tone that it a lot more relaxed with conventions of comedy featured, however Kingsman may also be seen more as a spoof of spy movies as a lot of the typical features e.g. a mastermind villain is made fun of and shown as a joke. Also a feature of mise-en-scene used similarly in both is costume. The agents in both films are shown to wear suits, which is shown to be a feature of superiority. This links into the theme of masculinity as only the men in the films are shown to wear suits. Masculinity is a strong theme in both films.

Masculinity is a strong theme because both of the protagonists are males and the villains both of which are trying to save or change the world. Masculinity is more so shown throughout Skyfall rather than Kingsman which does show masculinity but the males are far from being the only ones able to fight and defend themselves. In Kingsman some stereotypical traits of masculinity are put into the female characters as well as the males. Both Bond (Daniel Craig) and Harry Hart (Colin Firth) are shown to represent the dominant ideology, white, middle class, middle aged, straight males.

Valentine played by Samuel L Jackson (the evil genius) has an assistant Gazelle (Sofia Boutella) who is not only female but is also disabled with blades for legs which is incredibly useful when trying to take over the world. Gazelle features in the only big fight scene between two people, she faces the protagonist Eggsy (Taron Egerton). She is shown to be incredibly strong and difficult to beat with her unbelievable skills in martial arts, and although defeated she fights very well in order to protect Valentine, this is certainly unusual for an action film; the female protects the male so here Vaughn has played on gender stereotypes and decides to make the female the protector. The representation of Gazelle also shows disability in a positive light implying the can do things just as well as someone with no disabilities. Also during the Kingsman training Eggsy meets fellow trainee Roxy (Sophie Cookson) who although against all males but one comes out on top and is chosen to be the new Lancelot. In Skyfall the one woman who was out on the field Eve (Naomie Harris) makes a fatal mistake presumably killing 007 in the beginning, by the end of the film she has given up on wanting to be on the field and instead stays in the office to work by line said by Bond “If it helps, I feel a lot safer” this shows how females are seen as incapable and in this particular film a danger in this line of work.

However the theme of masculinity in women is also contradicted in some cases as in both films particularly Skyfall the women are sexualised. Bond is shown in a few scene to be having sexual relations with different women. The first woman he left as soon as he heard MI6 were in danger and quickly moved on to a new woman as soon as he was put onto a new mission all while still flirting with Eve. The film never shows you what happen to these women except Eve which shows how women are sexual objects to the men for when they want to be entertained. The one scene in Kingsman is the end scene when Eggsy approaches a kidnapped princess to have anal sex after she says “If you save the world, we can do it in the asshole”, the end shot of the film is a shot of the Princess’s arse which was surprising and inappropriate since throughout the film all the females are shown in a positive light so it was quite disappointing to see them change the tone so quickly. 

Fruitvale Station Analysis

Fruitvale Station is a 2013 American Social realism, Drama, biography film written and directed by Ryan Coogler. Fruitvale station is the true story of Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan), a 22 year old Bay Area resident. With previous convictions Grant vows to change for the new year, he plans to be a better partner to his girlfriend Sophina (Melonie Diaz), a better son to his mother Wanda (Octavia Spencer) and being a better father to his 4 year old daughter T (Tatiana) played by Ariana Neal. The story follows his journey throughout the day and night of the 31^st December 2013 until his final fatal encounter with police officers at Fruitvale Bart Station would cause the entire nation to be witnesses to the story of Oscar Grant. The film had a small budget of £592,000 and made an amazing £11.4m in the box office.

This film comes under the genres of social realism, drama and biography due to different conventions used. I can tell its social realism because the film follows a man from a lower class background, you can see this is the mise-en-scene and location of the character’s environment. When it shows inside the house you can see in to most other rooms when the camera is standing in one which shows the size of the house. It’s also social realism because it’s realistic, there’re no car chases or multiple explosions instead to gives you an insight into how many people live their lives. The simple fact that it exhibits real life situations if a clear convention of a Drama film and its obvious biography comes in to the genre as soon as the film says “based on a true story.”

One major theme shown predominantly in the last few scenes is police brutality. This theme is similar to other films I have seen such as Mathieu Kassovitz’s 1995 film La Haine and Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do The Right Thing. The main similarity between these films is not just police brutality but the representation of race within this brutality. The police are shown to be predominantly against different races and treat them differently than if they were Caucasian. They’re a lot more understanding towards white people and see all other races as trouble makers. In the scene set at Fruitvale Station when the police are grabbing the “troublemakers” they only took Grant and his group they didn’t take the group of white males who actually started the fight which emphasises they were treated differently because they didn’t look like everyone else. This film gave me a true and deeper insight into these events. This film used the representation of events to shows us what really happened so we wouldn’t just have to listen to the mixed and mostly biased media tell us Grant was “dangerous” like they have with the recent murders of young black Americans. The film portrayed Grant to be this loving family man who wanted to set his wrong doings right which generated more sympathy and sadness within me as I watched the brutal event unfold and happen to an innocent man.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this film it was heart breaking but incredibly intriguing. The acting was great and caused me to become more emotional. This film made me realise just how much power the police have over the citizens of their town or city and it portrays to you how much they really “care” for these citizens. Justice never seems to be fully served to the police with the officer being charged for first degree murder but being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, being sentenced for a minor 2 years yet still only serving 11 months. I felt I experienced what his family did due to the truly devastating story but also the great acting. I would highly recommend this film. 

Misfits and Black Mirror

Misfits created and written by Howard Overman and Black Mirror created by Charlie Brooker have both their similarities and differences. Both of these shows are produced by channel 4. They are both in the sci-fi genre and show a dystopian future in a different way.  They both have a target audience of young adults but Black Mirror focuses more on the changing of the world and Misfits focuses on how we can be changed.

Black Mirror shows how technology can run the future and change it usually for the worst where as in Misfits they use a supernatural element by giving the group of protagonist’s super powers. Misfits isn’t set in the future but it defiantly shows a strong theme of Dystopia. Both Misfits and Black Mirror show strong connotations on how the world has a lack of control and order to create an unimaginable world. However Misfits can also come under the sub genre of black Comedy.

Due to Misfits being a hybrid-genre of sci-fi comedy the producer has opened up a lot more pathways that the TV show can take in order to be a lot more interesting. Misfits follows the narrative of a group of young offenders on community service that after a strange storm learn they now have a superpower. Although superpowers are very unrealistic the show adds a great sense of realism due to the portrayal of the characters. This show has a big representation of youth; the five main characters who happen to be teenagers are all on community service which certainly doesn’t portray teenagers in a good light. The youth are depicted in a worse light when they start committing terrible crimes even if they do it unintentionally.  Kelly is one of the protagonists and possibly the biggest stereotyped character; she is portrayed as lower class with bad language, lots of makeup and not much dignity. Kelly reminds me of a character in the film Fish Tank called Mia where she is portrayed in exactly the same way but you can see Mia is of a low social class which made me realise how Kelly was shown in the same way.

Black Mirror however follows a narrative in a dystopian future especially the second episode which surrounds the use of technology and how it will affect us in the future. The first episode surrounds the British prime minister being blackmailed into bestiality in order to save a princess’s life. This episode shows a representation of class and how much power they have. If the person he had to save wasn’t someone who belonged to a family of such great power maybe she would’ve been considered not worth saving, also the prime minister who is also upper class is who the blackmail was aimed at. Someone of such high status is more likely to attract attention. He has power over whether the princess died or lived but she had power over whether he was publicly embarrassed or deemed as a killer. They both have great power against one another although unintentionally. So this shows how Misfits and Black Mirror have the theme of power in both although very different types of power. However in the second episode we saw how the future would change at the speed technology is growing; soon our lives will be ruled by technology, the technology would be in charge of us and decide how we live our lives.

In conclusion both TV shows present themselves similarly by using similar themes. However how they both follow the conventions of the sci-fi genre is very different with one showing the birth of the supernatural and the other showing a new life for humans under the rule of technology. 

Album Cover Analysis - Nicki Minaj

Pink Friday is the debut studio album by American recording artist Nicki Minaj, released on November 19, 2010, by Young Money,Cash Money and Universal Motown. It features guest vocals from Eminem, Rhianna, Drake, Will.i.am, Kanye West and Natasha Bedingfield. Pink Friday debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 selling 375,000 copies in its first week. It ultimately reached number one and spent 73 consecutive weeks on the chart. As of February 2015, it has sold 1,930,000 copies in the United States alone. Nicki Minaj did however release her first mixtape on July 5th, 2007 called Playtime is over. She was originally signed with Young Money Entertainment and Dirty Money Entertainment. 

Based on the album cover I would say that the audience is young females, aged from 16 - 25. The colour pink is often linked to girls so it therefore comes across as very feminine. The colour of the album cover also however links to the name of the album 'Pink Friday'. The colours make me presume that Nicki Minaj is very feminine however she looks quite airbrushed in this photo and she looks quite like a doll/Barbie. This perhaps signifies how society sees her as fake, so she is showing herself how the media would usually see her. She is wearing a bright pink wig and lipstick, this tone is brighter than the rest. This would put the attention on her face rather than the rest of the image.

The writing on the album cover is quite subtle as it is very small. However because it's directly at the bottom away from the images at the top it is noticed easily. Also although the colour is a light grey it still stands out against the background also at the bottom. The word 'Pink' is written in the colour pink and is the only word to be a separate colour, it is the same shade and the image above. The colour pink has connotations with innocence so perhaps the word pink is highlighted to show that like a doll she is innocent.

The PinkPrint is Nicki Minaj's latest album. It was released on December 12, 2014, by Young Money, Cash Money and Republic Records. Minaj co-executively produced the album alongside Birdman, Lil Wayne and Ronald Williams. It was recognized as Minaj's strongest project to date, and was ranked as one of the best albums of 2014 by several publications. It debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 244,000 copies. In February 2015, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for sales exceeding 500,000. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number 22 on the UK Albums Chart.

This album again uses the colour associated widely with females; Pink. This suggests that the audience is young females again aged from 16-25. The finger print looks like it has been created from some sort of makeup I would guess that the makeup is nail varnish because it is worn on your nails which are linked to your hands to the finger print is close to it. The finger print is probably Nicki Minaj's and I think this has been done to show that she knows her identity. Everyone has their own unique fingerprint so this cover shows she finally found who she is and wants to be and this is represented through the fingerprint. 

The cover is very simple and uses the colours white and pink like her first album cover did. They link in that the both use the word pink in the name to show the femininity of the product. I think that they contrast because the first cover shows her as a doll unsure about her identity and making herself look how society would want her to look but now she has found her identity and has decided who she is. I think the second cover is also trying to how that people are finally accepting her for who she really is and she is now allowed to be herself without the result of so much controversy. 

Computer Games Industry

When Was It Started? 
The first recorded game that was created was by A.S Douglas in 1952. He created a graphical version of Tic-Tac-Toe. However The official digital video game industry began in 1971 with the release of the arcade game, Computer Space. The following year, Atari, Inc. released the first commercially successful video game, Pong, the original arcade version of which sold over 19,000 arcade cabinets. 

Since then computer/video games have allowed us to become submersed in our own versions of reality (simulation games e.g. The Sims) and to entertain us throughout out everyday lives. Hundreds of genres (Action, Horror, First person shooter, sports etc.) and consoles have emerged allowing us to try different methods of playing from the Playstation controller to the Xbox Kinect that doesn't need a controller to be 'controlled'.

By Who? Where?

Computer Space is a video arcade game released in 1971 by Nutting Associates, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who would later found Atari Inc.

How big is it?

The worldwide the game industry in 2007 was valued at $44.9 billion. This number was expected to grow 9.1% annually to $48.9 in 2011 and $68 billion in 2012, making it the fastest-growing component of the international media sector. 

What were the key milestones for the industry? 

The first key milestone was in 1971 when the introduction of video games were shared with the home market with the release of the early video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey. 

The Magnavox Odyssey

However, both the arcade and home markets would be dominated by Pong clones, which flooded the market and led to the video game crash of 1977. The crash eventually came to an end with the success of Taito's Space Invaders, released in 1978, sparking a renaissance for the video game industry and paving the way for the golden age of video arcade games.pace Invaders would go on to sell over 360,000 arcade cabinets worldwide, and by 1982, generate a revenue of $2 billion in quarters, equivalent to $4.6 billion in 2011.

Narrative, Representations and audience.

All video games have different narratives, contain different representations of the characters and have a variety of different target audiences.  
One example of a video game's narrative, representation and audience is GTA 5. Gta 5's narrative surrounds 3 men and tells their story through their life of crime. 

Many representations of different people are shown. One representation is of race. One thing that I have noticed after playing the game is that any black people are all shown to be criminals. If you enter the downtown neighborhood all characters are black and usually attempt to shoot you. Where as the white people tend to live in the rich neighborhood.
No religions are shown throughout the game and only one disabled person is met who tends to be cranky, mean and never leaves the house, just as some stereotypes of disability states. 
The women in the game are also shown in a negative light. Although not a character in the game the woman on the poster is shown wearing a bikini and another is shown leaning over a car. The women both seem to be shown as sexual object for men meaning that the target audience is most likely young adult males. By using these female character's it would attract more men to the game. These things have been created because of the dominant ideology, White, Middle Class, Middle Aged, Straight men. This is also who the game is predominantly aimed at.

Another game is The Last Of Us. In this game the narrative is to survive the apocalypse and to lead a young girl to safety.

In this game the protagonist is a White male called Joel and one of his main goals is to protect a young girl named Ellie. Throughout the game Joel is the only playable character and sets out to get this young girl to safety. As Joel is constantly protecting a girl it makes men seem more powerful and strong as if one of their main abilities is too protect whereas the women seem helpless and weak. The young girl is seen as the 'damsel in distress'. No religions, disabilities, or race are shown in this game. The vast majority of characters are white and any characters of another race do not have a developed story line so their representation is unknown. This is again down to the dominant ideology. Due to the protagonist being male the target audience is most likely men. 

Opening Paragraphs - Representation and audience questions

Representation: 
Opening paragraph relevant to the representation of gender

The media is the most persuasive and most powerful influence that changed how we perceive men and women. Both Men and Women are represented differently throughout a range of media texts, whether it's a magazine or a video all forms of media communicate images of both gender's in an unrealistic way. I will talk about three different ways that gender is represented or how its represented. Firstly the media is constructed to institute messages into our minds by encoding their own beliefs into the media texts. Secondly the media sets high expectations for both men and women so causes both the struggle with body image and lastly women are often under-represented which falsely implies that men are more powerful which may be partly down to the dominant ideology.

Audience:
Opening paragraph relevant to a question about audience.

Explore, with examples, how audiences may respond differently to the same media text?
The aim of all media texts is to target a specific audience, however audiences don't all act the same way, audiences are made up of individuals who respond differently to the same media texts due to a range of factors. Some factors are Gender, age, ethnicity, culture and experiences. It can also be dependent on their upbringing. However audiences may also react differently due to their uses and gratifications. Audiences may be attracted to media texts due to the attempt to find their own personal identity, to find out information, or for entertainment.

Representation of Age in the Media

Some Stereotypical characteristics of teenagers are that they are immature, lazy, careless and self-entitled. They also tend to be linked to gang culture, drugs and drink.

Whereas some stereotypical characteristics of elderly people are grumpy, slow. Weak and hard-of-hearing.

During May 2006 a content analysis of 2130 news items across the main television channels was conducted.  They found that young people were mainly represented as a violent threat to society. It seemed that the media only delivers a one dimensional picture of youth, one that encourages fear rather than understanding. For example the Croydon riots fuelled the teenage gang stereotype as it is said most people involved in the riots were teenagers

Middle aged people are usually seen as quite uptight and stressed, and revolved around work.

Upper Class and Middle class elderly people are often portrayed in television and film as occupying high status roles such as world leaders, business executives and judges.

Age is represented in Mrs Brown Boys through different characters. Grandad brown is shown to be weak and constantly complaining, he is usually pictured to be lying down on  chair sleeping as if he has no energy, where as young Buster Brady is represented as stupid and as if he’s never going to achieve anything.

Gogglebox

What is it about?

Gogglebox is a ‘reality’ show that features families watching tv and sharing their opinions. The show ranges through many different families of different ages, gender and ethnicity’s and listens to their opinions on show that are aired. The show travels to the families houses and records their comments. 

Where is it filmed?

Gogglebox is filmed in the houses of the people featured, it travels from Brighton to Essex and a range of other places.

Do I like it?

I do like the show because although it is constructed and some people may play up to the cameras slightly to make themselves more interesting, it’s still good to here other peoples opinions on topics, TV shows and news stories.

Representation

The show features many different ethnicities, ages, sexualities, and classes and shows both genders, however these people are not represented to be that different from one another, as their opinions are not completely different.  This shows that we don’t all think completely different just because we look different. It represents everyone to be modern day families.

Audience

The show has a very wide audience because of the wide range of people featured in the show. The show caters for people of all ages and races as so many different people would be able to easier relate. It’s not a show that only shows one race and gender, they make sure everyone is able to understand or relate in some way. It targets families, most likely those with teenagers because it's post watershed and may contain swearing.

Message

The message of the show if that we aren't all as different as we think we are. When you watch it you might agree with one of the opinions put across by the elderly couple Leon and June and that just goes to show that you might have a 40 year age gap but that doesn't mean you don’t share the same opinions about a story on the news. It rules out the thought that only people of the same age and ethnicity think and feel the same things, it shows a wider range of similarities.

Production values

Gogglebox is filmed using a stationery camera that stays in the rooms with the families watching television. They use close ups to give you a greater feeling of the emotions that the people are giving as they give opinions and when they hear other people’s opinions. When these close up are used it is obvious that editing has been used because they want to show that particular person’s face. They may zoom in to do this or they may have other cameras in the room filming everything in close ups ready to edit in later. It does seem staged because their all their living rooms are so clean and sometimes they come across as it they are acting for the cameras.

Representation of gender in the media

Representation of Race in the Media