Shameless: sexuality and regional identity!

How are regional identity and sexuality represented in the open sequence of Shameless ep.1?

In the opening sequence we see the Gallagher family and their neighbours on a normal day. The stereotypes for sexuality and regional identity all feature in the clip.

All of the Gallagher family and their neighbours appear to be from the north of England. We can tell this from the stereotypical things done to show this, for example: they all talk with the same strong accent, they all live on a council estate which implies they are poor and unemployed and they all seen to be quite rough. They behave in a very laddish way, even the female characters, of talking about sex, insulting people and being irresponsible. An example of this laddish, rough behaviour in the clip is when Fiona and Veronica are thrown out of the club with Steve and Veronica says to the bouncer "you fat twat". This is very un-lady like and you wouldn't expect a young lady to say that. Another stereotype of the northern characters is when Frank is brought home and is paralytic from how much he has had to drink.

The more southern sounding character is Steve, his accent contrasts with the others. He has stereotypical southern qualities such as having a good job and therefore being able to afford a nice car, also he wears smarter clothes than all the other characters seen, which not only indicates that he takes pride in his appearance and wants to impress but that he has more money too. However when Steve defends the girls' honours he acts very irresponsibly by punching a bouncer in the face and then exposes himself to the bouncer, which is more of a common northerner thing to do.

The sexuality of the characters, especially the straight ones, is also very stereotypical. For example Karen and Fiona both come across as being stereotypical slutty girls who give out sex as payment, in Karen's case or sleep with someone they have only just met. All the characters seem to be quite obsessed with sex. Lip for example accepts it as a payment and then he brags about it to his brother, which shows he considers it to be almost a contest. 

The gay character Ian, however, does not conform to stereotypical views. There are no signs like his looks, voice or personality that shown him to be gay as he is very ashamed of his sexuality and hides it, especially from his brothers. This fear shows that he knows his brothers homophobic towards him as stereotypically straight men are. Ian only has one quality a stereotypical gay person would, that he likes Kylie who is a gay icon.

Throughout the clip the theme tune continuously appears. This music is very repetitive, which helps to indicate that this is just an average day on the estate. However is does play when a pinnacle moment is happening, to focus the audience on the event. Another piece of music that appears is when Steve and Fiona kiss there is a piano tune which would be linked to love, this shows that this moment is the beginning of their love.

Video Prelim!

Our group prelim film, The Shock..

Paul Video Blogs!

Why make vlogs?
-Give an insight into the plot and genre of the film
-A teaser for the audience
-Entertain existing fans of Pegg and Frost
-Gives an incentive to watch the film
-Documents production



How does it promote the film?
-Helps attract the target audience
-Shows the same humour that will be in the film, so if you find them funny you will probably like the film
-Can interact with the cast (asking questions)
-Features main actors which may be an incentive to watch the film

How will it promote the film?
-Extras on the DVD (an incentive to by the DVD)

Max Fischer!

Is Max Fischer a Stereotypical Teenager?

Max Fischer, the lead character of Rushmore is clearly shown not to be an average teen. The montage scene has many examples of this.

For example Max's choose of clothing. In every activity he wears his school uniform, which he seems to have adapted to include a blazer and tie. This shows his uniqueness as none of the other boys wear such a formal uniform. Even when he is fencing, he is the team captain, Max is still wearing his chinos with the rest of his fencing clothing whilst the other team members have the proper protective trousers. He also wears his school uniform in the bombardment game. Another strange item that Max always wears is a red beret, which is a very unusual item for a teenager to wear. The fact he is always in his uniform and hardly ever has the correct attire for his activities poses the question 'does Max have any money to buy these clothes?'.

Another example of Max's unstereotypical behaviour is how he is in or has actually founded or is the president of so many groups.  These groups are mainly very bizarre activities, such as stamp and coin collecting which is a very unusual hobby that no typical teenagers do. Another example is bee keeping, which Max also wears his uniform for instead of protective keeping clothes, this is also a very unusual hobby. It also seems like Max is the only one or one of two in these strange groups. Being in all these groups we see that Max obviously has no time on his hands and that he doesn't try hard to socialise, it seems that he gains his social life from his hobbies and no one really enjoys his company.

One thing about Max that seems stereotypical is that he tries extremely hard to fit in with people by joining a variety of different clubs. This and his clothing choose seems like he is quite attention seeking and almost self centered. We see this in the school group he has named after his-self, 'The Max Fischer Players', in the montage he is center of the group and wears his uniform which makes him stand out. An group shown in the montage that shows he is self centered is his evolvement in the model UN, in this group he represents Russia. I think as Russia is a super power it shows that he thinks of himself as a super power in the school. Also he tries to improve himself and others opinions of him, especially to his older role models.

All of these elements of Max indicate that he might have an obsessive condition, as he always likes to be in control and the center of attention.

Compare How Hot Fuzz and This is England target a British Audience!

Compare How Hot Fuzz and This is England Appeal to a British Audience

Prelim Magazine Evaluation

Our first prelim task was to create an example of a school magazine front cover and contents page, both pages had to be produced in Photoshop to reflect some knowledge of the basics in this program. The front cover had to include a mast head, a mid-shot photography, and appropriate and positioned text.  

Before we created our magazines we had to sketch out the initial ideas and create a colour scheme. The colour scheme I chose was light blue, navy and white (shown in colour in the sketches). I chose these colours because they go well together. My magazine was aimed at an audience of 14-18 year olds and targeted as a general interest magazine. For my contents page I kept a minimalist feel so that the reader could focus on the articles, which I chose in order to appeal to the general interests of most students.

The picture I took for the front cover was of someone holding their GCSE results and looking upset because of their grades. I chose this image because it reflects the main article of the magazine "How are your results". For this image I edited the background out of Photoshop using the magic rubber tool, this was to improve the look of the picture and help the text to stand out on the front page.

American Beauty, The Dining Room Scene!

What we learn about the Burnham family..

-They are all very distant                                     -Repetitive lives (the music is always the same)

-Family photos:                                                   -Father and daughter used to be close

 Happy once?                                   

 Show traditional family hierarchy

The Mise-en-Scene..

-The roses are the centerpiece of the table

-Table positions: the daughter is sat in the middle suggesting she is holding the family together

-Muted colours reflect the dullness of their life

-Red roses in the center of the table

 Blue walls in the dining room

 White kitchen

-Red, White and Blue: repeating motif

Camera Work..

-A long shot/establishing shot is used at the beginning of the scene to help introduce what's happening at that moment

-The camera very slowly moves into the conversation: 

 This focuses our attention to the conversation

 Suggests we are spying

Music..

-The music Caroline repeatedly plays is Bali Hai from South Pacific (old fashioned):
  Gives the idea she is also trapped but in the past
  Shows that she is in complete control
-The non-diegetic sound reflects the feelings or actions of the characters:
  When Lester and Jane are talking about how they used to be close the music reflects that they are upset
  When the boy is focused on the music sounds creepy which reflects the creepiness of what he's doing

Hot Fuzz and This is England Contrast!

Film Comparison

This is England Research!

 Warp Films.. -Warp Films is the sister company of Warp Records and was set up in 1999 with money funded by NESTA. The company was originally based in Sheffield but now has an office in London.
-In 2008 plans were announced for the collaboration of Warp Films and Madman Entertainment.
-Warp has now produced a total of 23 films.

Shane Meadows..
-Meadows, a self taught film maker, was born in 1972 in Uttoxetor, Staffordshire which explains the location choices for his films. He left school before achieving any GCSE's and went to Nottingham.
-In 1994 he volunteered at Intermedia Film and Video in Nottingham in exchange for free use of camcorders and editing software. With this equiptment he was able to make a huge amount of short films with the help of his friends. They set up a film festival to show Meadows' films called 'Six of the Best', which is where he was first noticed for his film 'Where's My Money, Ronnie?'.
- Since then he has directed 12 films, which have won many awards including the BAFTA for Best British Film for 'This is England'.

Prelim Magazine Task

This is my school magazine front cover and contents page.

Hot Fuzz targets a British Audience

How Does Hot Fuzz Target a British Audience

American Beauty!

Lester Burnham: played by Kevin Spacey 

Character: -Pessimistic                       -Regretful and disappointed in life 

                   -Controlled by his wife      -Given up

                   -Submissive                      -Bored and lazy         

                   -Mundane voice

Family: -Seem Typical/Cliche              

             -The mum acts like the father stereotypically would

             -Burnham Family Hierarchy 

              1. Mother

              2. Daughter

              3. Father 

Trapped: -In many scenes Lester looks like he is behind prison bars:

                 1. For example when he is looking out of his window the bars cover his face 

                 2. Also when his image is reflected in the computer screen the data appears across his face

               -Trapped by his wife        

               -Only let out to go to work

               -In the shadows when in bed, like he's hidden away 

Colour: -Red, White and Blue repetitive motif, which links to america

             -Natural/bland colours reflect Lester's image as he seems to be boring and bland

             -Also it helps the colour motif to stand out

Music: - Repetitive, as the tune is repetitive it reflects Lester's life  

            -Awkward/Uncomfortable sounding                      

            -Music fits the visuals       

The Man

My first impression of this man was that he was poor, homeless and scruff, his beard and hair indicate this as they look very unkept. After looking for a minute I noticed that he was posing which indicates that he is proud of how he looks.

In fact the man isn't homeless or poor, the picture was on The Sartorialist webpage. It was taken outside the Ralph Lauren flag ship store on Lexington Avenue in New York where he works. On closer inspection you notice the patches in his trousers aren't scruffy to cover rips but placed neatly and the folds on the bottoms are clearly very neatly folded. His shoes are also not the shoes of a homeless person as they are not dirty or damaged in any way.

Hello, my name is Sarah..

Academic
-GCSE results: I got 10 GCSEs with a B in English language.
-AS Course: Media, English Language, IT and Psychology

Media Interests
-PHOTOGRAPHY!
-Films: Comedy films, Tim Burton Films, Romeo + Juliet,  The Labyrinth and Pixar animation films
-TV: Comedy shows, The Mighty Boosh, The IT Crowd, The Big Bang Theory, Heroes, Miami Ink, The Clangers
-Music: Rock, Indie and Alternative ( Blink 182, Klaxons, Bring Me the Horizon, The Beach Boys, Kasabian, Lostprophets)
-Magazines: Music and photography magazines
-Internet: Photography and shopping
-Games: SSX and Kingdom Hearts

I am studying media because I am very interested in the media industry and finding out more about the areas within it.