Film poster and trailer

Jumanji is an action and comedy film. The film uses dramatic irony to establish the characters. They make the jock become Kevin Hart, a small and weak character. They make the nerd become Dwayne 'The  Rock' Johnson, a masculine and buff character. Penultimately, they make the 'ugly' girl become  Karen Gillian, an attractive badass. They make the stuck up girl into Jack Black, a "Fat middle aged man". In the trailer, they use close ups when a tense situation is occurring, like the snake lunging out at Jack Black. The long shots are used when trying to show big action scenes. They used them when the stampede was chasing the characters. They also used it when the helicopter was flying away from the stampede.

The Godfather is an old time film about the Italian mafia. From the poster, you can see the bold and distinct colour of black and white used. These colours could be used to lead to a felling of ambiguity and mystery. The title has a hand with ventriloquist puppet strings over it. the reason behind this could be to show the power of the Italian mafia, with the country under their control like a ventriloquist has his puppets under control. This gives off a vibe from the film that is will be focusing on the empire of the mafia. The strings could also be alluding to the power the godfather has over the mafia. Godfather is the term used to describe the head honcho of the mafia, the man who controls all of the background politicking and actions committed by the mafia. The man in a suit could be the aforementioned godfather.  The man in the suit has his eyes hollowed out and his facial expression blank, making him a hard character to read. The fact that they are using a close up on the man shows he is of relevance. Become  Karen Gillian, an attractive badass. They make the stuck up girl into Jack Black, a "Fat middle aged man". In the trailer, they use close ups when a tense situation is occurring, like the snake lunging out at Jack Black. The long shots are used when trying to show big action scenes. They used them when the stampede was chasing the characters. They also used it when the helicopter was flying away from the stampede.

Adverts

In this print screen advert made by the WWF, you can see a white tree painted onto an oil drum all across the screen. The white tree shows the purity of the tree and how precious and important trees are to human kind. The black oil drum represents a dark and cruel backdrop to the trees and shows the effect cutting down trees would have on the world. The fact thats the barrels are placed in a domino pattern is key to the adverts main message. The idea that if we begin to cut trees for resources, this will create a domino effect and will lead to bleak skies, as shown in the print advert here. This is a die shot and includes the message that "Toxic chemical substances are slightly changing the world". This message is an under exaggeration of the actual effect toxic chemical substances are having on the world and how we view it. This is a key example of a hard sell advert.

In this moving advert made by Hyundai, Kevin Hart plays a dad who greets his daughters date and gives him his car for the night. Little did he know the dad would haunt him the entire night using the tracker. The advert uses close ups to show the anger of the dad as he intimidates the date into stopping him getting close to his daughter. it uses light comedy and bright lights to show the humour of the Ad and the main purpose of the Ad, the car and how useful it can be to all groups. The use of close ups when the date is attempting to have a good time and when the dad is preventing this shows the comedic value of the advert. The ad rarely uses mid shots, but when it does its mainly to advertise the car and in the helicopter scene. This is an example of a soft selling advert

Kendrick Lamar's "Swimming Pools"

Kendrick Lamar's "Swimming pools"

In this video, Kendrick Lamar focuses on the topic of drinking, and the effects and influences of it. Kendrick addresses the psychological connection between peer pressure and alcoholism. The song provides an introspective take on social pressure. The video is made in a thematic style.

 In the 1st 40 seconds of the video, iconography is already shown. The image of the bottle of alcohol smashing against the floor and then being reversed so it comes back into shape shows a very creative message. In the 1st verse of the song, Kendrick breaks down the reasons some people drink and how much of an effect it has on people. This relates to the general idea of peer pressure. The image of  Kendrick being slumped in a chat with bottles of half fill alcohol around him is symbolic as the lyrics talk about how he grew up around alcohol with his granddad and how some people like how it feels and want to kill their sorrows. This gives iconography of what message he is trying to spread and exemplify.

 In the 2nd verse, Kendrick talks in a different tone, and refers to himself pin the third person. This voice is meant to represent his conscience taking over his mind and body. It leads him into a false sense of caution as it merges with Kendrick's regular voice midway into the verse, signifying the alcohol taking effect. As soon as the vodka hits him, he beings to see others differently. He sees the love in another girls eyes, he sees the the felling catching up to him, yet his "friends" criticise him or "babysitting only 2 or 3 shots", pressuring him to get more drunk.

In the hook of the song, Kendrick's friends question his manhood and ability to drink. they tempt him show him "how to turn it up a notch". They then tell him to get a pool full of liquor and dive in. 2-3 shots isn't enough to make you a man so they use a metaphor to tell him to drink more than his body can handle.

Representation of age

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqqej9T2gqI- Link to trailer of Friday the 13th (1980)

List of age Stereotypes: Young people; Criminal, Naive, violent, Sex driven, Social Media, Status, Popularity, Sport, Lack of forward thinking, Instant Gratification, No interest in society, No respect for elders, Distracted

Older people; Fear of the young, Slow, Bitter, Racist, Wise, Conservative, No sex, isolated, Nostalgic, Relish in the past, Poor health, Senile, Unconcerned with appearance/fashion, Old fashioned.

Friday the 13th is a horror franchise that focuses on teens visiting camp crystal lake. In this blog i will be looking at the 1st instalment of the franchise and look into how it represents age in media. The franchise represents young people as rude, naive, sex driven and oblivious. They show this by the counsellors of the lake running upstairs to have sex while the kids they are meant to be looking after are unattended to. They also show a scene where 2 teens are having sex, the main reason they went to the lake for. This links to the stereotype that young people are only interested in sex are is their main drive at that age. This would make the audience feel as if the teens have no care and no ambitions, this thought would especially be placed in the minds of older people, the main demographic for this movie as younger people would not have been allowed to watch films or this graphic content at the time.

The franchise represents older people as bitter, relish in the past, fear of the young, cold hearted. They show this through the character of Pamela Voorhees. Pamela is an old lady who is very old and bitter and is the main killer of the film. She goes around and kills the teens and counsellors of camp crystal lake because of her relishing in the past. Her son, Jason, died by drowning when the counsellors were meant to be looking after him. Instead of doing the task they were set, they were having sex in another area. 

Representation of politics in media

This image represents all different front pages of newspapers in regard to Brexit. The front pages show the different views of left wing and right wing newspapers, and how other countries may react to the news. From the image, I can see that the right wing papers such as Daily Mail, The Sun and The Times, show celebration to the news that Brexit won. The main advocate of Brexit, Nigel Farage, can be seen smiling and celebrating the news. In contrast,  left wing papers such as the Guardian and The Financial Times, can be seen  showing distress and  dismay over the decision. They feel as if we are stepping into dangerous waters and we should have not taken this to a referendum as people don't know how much of an impact this has.

Half term advertising campaign

My Campaign 

Name: Biss
Slogan of brand: "Puts the smooth in smoothie"

USP: All natural sugars, one of your 5 a day, Code for study page on website

Ideas: Main focus being on education and the stress of it. Overloading work taking a toll on people and how they operate mentally. We want the product to attract Kids still in education as that is the main demographic. The reason we decided on the name Biss is because we wanted to make funny references during the campaign. Lines like "Buy a can of biss today" show the comedic value we want to provide. We also want to use other interesting facts about our product to make it stand out above others. Our products main goal it to provide energy for every day tasks, mainly for homework and to help keep stress levels down.

Words that link to our product: Biss, Education, Stress, Teenager, Chill, Cold, Jokes, Comedy, Entertainment, Energy, Joy, Youth.




In this image, I took 5 oranges and place then in a pyramid style format. I took a picture on a white background and cropped out edges using photoshop. I used the oranges because they represent our 5 of  a day guarantee. We want to give off an image that our product is kid friendly and although it may be a smoothie, it is healthy for the body.

In this image, we went around the department to shoot the image. We used our subject (David) to walk into a room with a sad face looking stressed. The main reason behind this is because we wanted to show off the sad effect school has on the body. We used photoshop to crop out the parts of the page we didn't use. We also used photoshop to make the image black and white to add a more sad and upsetting image.

8 Questions on advertising

8 Questions on advertising 

1- 

Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline- (Maybelline)

Simples- (CompareTheMarket)

Fly the "friendly" skies- (Untied Airlines)

Eat Fresh- (Subway)

Snap! Crackle! Pop!- (Rice Krispies)

2- Human for animals-- "Seal"

An example of an advertiser using shock tactics recently is Seal. This ad takes a seal and shows it killing a baby. This is shocking because its gore that you would not to expect to see from an ad. It makes you think about hunting for other animals and wonder how seals would feel once they get hunted.

3-Dasani advert

This advert demonstrates Maslow's hierarchy or needs. This is because it takes water, a need according to the list at the to, and makes it seem life altering, which it is. It expresses the idea that water is important and you need it to survive. Water is something people will always want and thirst for and this as shows this idea perfectly.






4- Females normally seen as rulers of a domestic kingdom- Asda Christmas advert
Males seen as tough and masculine in most adverts. Men are connoted to more masculine adverts like car adverts and aftershave adverts. The nerdy males are normally used as the person who needs a specific advert to increase their appeal to other people and the way how other people conceive them.

5- Intertextuality in an advert

This advert shows intertexulaity  n a more darker term as it relates what seems to be a image based off a I-era American war propaganda poster  to a vogue magazine cover with Micheal Jordan. This link was made in an attempt to call out Vogue on a seemingly racist advert that plays with the idea of sensitivity.






6- Different uses of music in an advert
Music can be used in adverts for many different reasons. It could be used as a background to keep the video upbeat and energetic. It could also be used as background music to add a sad and depressing tone to a video in another attempt to convey emotion. It could be used to promote and album and the music on said album. it could also be used as an anecdote in the advert and is almost a running joke within the advert.

7-

Cross platform advertising

Cross platform advertising

Cross platform advertising is simply defined as advertising spanning over multiple media types. E:G: TV, Twitter and so on. There has been a sudden rise in cross platform advertising. This is mainly because more potential customers spend more time on the internet rather than watching TV. An example of a cross platform advertisement would be from Milka chocolate. There campaign idea was to take the last square of a chocolate bar and share it with someone. The results turned out amazing as people form around the world were sending each other small packages of kindness and gave Milka some very good publicity. With this sudden rise, more companies are using more than one method of advertising to try and improve their overall sales, shifting TV ads as a secondary advertisement area

Ad Campaign

Metro Ad Campaign: Dumb ways to die

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw

This Ad campaign was made in an attempt to build awareness  for safety around trains. The main idea behind making the Ad was to show varying dumb ways to die. This was done to show that death in and around trains would have to be because of dumb and careless behavior.  The Ad was made in the form of a creative music video. They chose this creative approach because they didn't want gore or negative imagery that would offend someone. They also didn't want to tug at heart strings and make people cry. The main reason behind taking this approach to the Ad was to attract their main audience: Primarily youth. The Ad has proved so popular because its different. It gets stuck in your head and brings awareness to the common misconception that trains aren't safe because of the people controlling it, not the people on it. The main criticism of the Ad was that parents thought they took a overly childish direction with the Ad, leading to parents showing their kids the video. They thought the gore of the video was above and beyond what a kid should see. The overall message of the Ad is that dumb deaths happen all the time, and deaths near train stations are exactly the same. Don't automatically shift blame onto the Metro, look at the glass half full. See it from the other side.

Representation of gender in media

 Representation of gender in media

Men and women are presented in media using many different forms. In this post, I will be looking at how men and women are presented in music videos and in adverts.

Blurred Lines- Robin Thicke (Alpha Male)

In this video, the women shown are younger while the men are shown as older. This gives off the idea that the older men are taking advantage of the women. Visual codes are used to show the difference in representation. The women are shown to have next to no clothes on. They also have plastic wrapped around their waist. This presents them as vulnerable and provocative, making them look like sex objects to the men, who are wearing suits and shades.  The women are wearing white clothing. White is associated with purity which is a contrast to the actions of the women in the video. The men wear black suits which is associated with wealth and success.  The video uses close ups often. In these close ups, the women normally stare down the camera, almost giving off a sexual vibe. In contrast to this, the men stare down the camera while wearing shades and while the women are looking directly at them. This makes it seem as if the men are showing off and saying “wouldn’t you want to be me?”  The audio of the video also show the differing representation of genders in media. The women have one sound/word throughout the entire video, being “Meow”. This presents them as silent and disposable as they have nothing to say. One of the main controversial lines in the video the men say is “I know you want it”. This line gives off an uncomfortable felling, almost a line based on rape. I say this because the woman has no say throughout and accepts the connotation.

Asda Christmas Advert (Domestic Kingdom)

In this video, the women and men are shown to be of a similar age because they are married. At the beginning of the video, the couple go tree shopping. The husband finds a tree he likes and suggests to buy it. The woman shrugs this suggestion off as if it was a silly suggestion and picks up a different tree. This presents the husband as domestically clueless. When they get home, the wife gives directions to the husband as to where to place the tree in the house. This presents his role as a heavy loader who helps do the heavy moving of items. The man rolls his eyes at this. This presents the man as frustrated that he has no say. From this point until the end of the video, the wife cooks, cleans shops, washes up, takes care of the kids and makes decisions. This presents the women as a leader of the domestic world. This also presents the wife as hard working and overloaded with work while the husband is presented as lazy as he doesn’t help during this. The wife is shown to bottle feed the baby, which raises the question of why the husband couldn’t do that? The wife is only presented with one break: a cup of tea and a biscuit. This again links to an overloading of work. At the end of the video, after the Christmas dinner was served/eaten, the husband asks “What’s for tea?” This line should have come off as comical satire but came off as lazy from the husband as they cut the video off right as he said that.

Big Bang Theory (Nerds)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3-hOigoxHs

In this video, The narrator describes the theory of "Adorkable Misogyny". This is the idea that nerds are presented as sexual, innocent, and almost isolated members or the community. He describes them as persistent in most of their goals. These characters are almost always white. They normally freeze up when encountered by girls, and are antisocial. This idea is spread throughout big bang theory in almost every episode. However, they never get condemned for their actions because of their adorable innocence. This gives them to freedom to make any jokes that are sometimes racist and sexist. They try to play off these ideas as apart of their natural character. An example of this is how Sheldon has next to no filter when it comes to talking to other people. He has bold opinions and isn't afraid to say them, offensive or not. This type of idea is a mainstay in comedy. This representation of men is seen in almost all types of media today. The general nerd is always in contrast with jocks. The manliness of jocks makes them seem almost a superior being compared to the nerd.

Inbetweeners Movie trailer (Lads)

In the Inbetweeners movie trailer, the slogan "the british are coming" is exemplified. These 4 men are the representation of Britain in their eyes. They are there to "drink, have sex, drink, and have more sex". This  is shown by the screenshot to the left, where they have Pussy Patrol T-shirts on. Throughout the trailer, the 4 men each attempt to get girls. The 3 "lads" fail, while the one "nerd" succeeds. This is shown by the nerd being the only one to have been ask to have sex with, while the other 3 were punished for their treatment of women. They treated women as if they were sex objects, only their to have sex with. However, the "nerd" treats them with compassion and has a care for them. The nerd speaks to a girl on a sun bed and says he's a virgin. Rather than the girl laughing him off, the girl finds it cute. This is almost any nerds dream. A girl who wouldn't judge them for being failures in the past and only looks at them as they are now. The idea that lads are only meant to drink have sex and avoid relationships is punished by the movie, and rightfully so.

Dear Future Husband Case Study

Meghan Trainor- Dear Future Husband Case Study

In dear future husband, there is a slight focus on using technical codes to convey a message in the video. To start, they use camera shots to show the amount of effort that Meghan Trainor put into her makeup for the video. To do this, extreme close ups are used often on her face. They use high camera angles throughout the video as a staple, not much meaning behind it but a way to show the content of the video from a normal angle.  They use editing to make fast transitions between the camera shots. This is used to keep the pace and flow of the video going. They also use editing to add massive red signs that say “FAIL” whenever a man can’t show a quality she wants from them.

In dear future husband, there is a huge focus on using visual codes to convey a message in the video. Meghan is shown to be wearing a red and white checker skirt during the video. This is used to create a link to the 1950’s, where women didn’t have the power to pick and choose men like Meghan does in this video. This is a contextual link that creates a strong message that women have the power to pick and choose their partner, just like men. This message is strengthened by her almost outlandish expectations of men. She wants them to be strong, romantic, caring and so on. She is almost asking for the perfect man which is hard to come by. The colours used in the video are very old fashioned and reminiscent of a past time period. The audio in this video contradicts the visuals heavily. She says that she doesn’t know how to cook, clean and work 9-5 just like you. This idea that she isn’t very good at the listed actions is contradicted by the fact that she is shown in different scenes doing the actions she says she is bad at. She is shown on the floor with a sponge and a bucket of dirty water, at the stove cooking a meal and so on. However, as the video goes on, she shows that the claim of her being bad at the listed actions is far from a lie. She dances on the floor and uses dirty water to “wipe” the floor and burns the food she was cooking before. The final point I want to make is in reference to the ending of the video. Of all the men she shows in the video, she picks the one who shows up to the house with a pizza. This is interesting because beforehand when one of the men made her a nicely plated meal, she refused it. This shows that she’s just like you. She just wants to enjoy herself.