The British Films Catalogue gave a brief synopsis of the film:
http://www.britfilms.com/britishfilms/catalogue/browse/?id=D5D44D52142ac27CCFrUjP5A688E
I also found an article on The Guardian website which scripted through an interview between Ronan Bennett and the editor for The Guardian (Alan Rusbridger) about the making of The Hamburg Cell:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2005/may/30/hayfilmfestival2005.guardianhayfestival
Tuesday 9 November 2010
How do the media represent Islam?
This website contains forums of people talking about Islam http://forums.islamicawakening.com/
I have then found 3 other websites with other representations of Islam.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/
http://www.politicalislam.com/
The third website I found had a list of Islamic Terror Attacks over the past 2 months with dates and numbers of deaths and wonded included:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
I have then found 3 other websites with other representations of Islam.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/
http://www.politicalislam.com/
The third website I found had a list of Islamic Terror Attacks over the past 2 months with dates and numbers of deaths and wonded included:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
Thursday 21 October 2010
Analyse the ways in which the media represents women in Britain
This essay will focus on the representation of women in Britain using contemporary British film as a case study. The texts I have chosen to look at are “Fish Tank” and “Wasp” by Andrea Arnold and also “A Way of Life” by Amma Asante. I will be considering feminist theories of gender and Althusser’s theory of interpellation in my answer.
Historically women were seen as wives, prospective wives or married lovers. They were judged to have held back the men’s ambition and drive. Examples of women playing this role can be seen in “A Kind of Loving” and “Saturday Night, Sunday Morning”. However in the 90’s the women started a breakthrough with women such as Gurinder Chadha and Sally Potter capturing a sense of time, place and identity in a changing Britain.
New realism is a contemporary movement in British film. Directors such as Andrea Arnold aim to produce “a more truthful” cinema. We may assume that a more truthful representation of women is a particular goal. Arnold has used the rules of Dogme95 (“The Vows of Chastity”) developed with Danish director Lars Von Trier to achieve this. Her representations are shaped by location shooting, diegetic sound and music, handheld cameras, colour film and natural light, a lack of superficial action, a contemporary setting, a refusal of genre conventions and a use of 35mm film. It is important to consider these when studying women in British film.
The film “Wasp” uses the rules from the vows of chastity to help show British women as trapped. Examples of how they have used this to good effect can be seen right from the very start when the mum is dragging her kids down the dark staircase. Immediately we see they are wearing dirty clothes and are all very skinny suggesting that the mother may struggle to feed her children. The steps are concrete with metal railings and the only light on the stairwell is natural light through the small windows on every floor making it feel very similar to a prison. This feeling is emphasised at the end of the shot when the camera locks onto the medium shot image of a metal gate. The scene was filmed using a handheld camera making the shot slightly shaky. It also only used the light that was at the location without adding any artificial lighting and there was only diegetic sound so we hear in detail the voices and the sound of their footsteps.
In “Fish Tank” we also see them represent women as trapped, however in this film it shows how Mia the daughter is trapped more than the mother. We see near the end of the film Conor asking Mia to show him the dance that she has practised. Mia uncomfortably agrees to do it and Conor stares at her whilst she dances. Male gaze is very dominant here and it could be argued that women will try to define themselves according to what they feel men want. This will then make women trapped as they will always be trying to impress men.
In the films I have watched we see women as failed carers. In “Wasp” the mother (Zoe) struggles to care for her children as she leaves them outside a pub whilst she flirts inside with a guy (Dave) who she likes. Zoe does not tell the man she is with about the kids as she feels scared that he will push her away if he finds out. She could also only afford a packet of crisps and a drink for them to share between each other as she needed enough money to buy Dave a drink. This shows how she is embarrassed of her children and chooses her private life over the safety and health of her children waiting in the cold.
We also see in “Fish Tank” how Mia’s mum Joanne does not show any care towards her daughter as she is violent towards Mia when she does something wrong or not to her liking. We see this when Zoe is holding a house party and Mia lets some of the guests in, for this she is grabbed by the arm and pushed brutally towards the stairs. This again shows how women are embarrassed of people they like seeing their children.
However we do see another side to these single mothers. In “Fish Tank” we have a very emotional scene just before Mia leaves home where they all dance slowly and in harmony together. This scene showed a small connection between the family which we hadn’t seen before showing one of the good habits Mia had picked up from her mum. In “Wasp” we also feel sympathetic towards Zoe as she is very upset about how she left her kids outside alone. We can also see she does care for them very much but obviously struggles to have a social life. From both of these texts we can see how single mothers find it hard to have a social life and look after their children at the same time, which sometimes makes them do drastic things to try and get their own time.
Due to the lack of care received from their parents we see the elder children in both films trying to take care of the younger ones. In “Fish Tank” Mia is obviously somebody Tyler (her sister) looks up to as she follows her around and asks her questions. However Mia is not a good role model for Tyler as she buys beer and cigarettes for her to have and also swears at her a lot. However we do see at the end that they do care for each other as Tyler is upset about her big sister leaving. However in “Wasp” we see a much younger girl trying to act as the responsible adult, though she is far too young to understand how to take care of 3 children including a baby. Eventually in the end we see her pick up other people’s fast-food left-overs off the floor to try and feed her brother and sisters.
Both these films explore and challenge the traditional representations of female identity. By seeing women in men’s magazines we see them treated as sex objects that are trying to look as good as they can so they can impress men. Though in the films I watched the women selected are purposely chosen not to look as though they were fashion models, instead they were meant to look like the sorts of people you would expect to see living in council blocks. For example when they were casting for the lead actress in “MorvernCallar” the director purposely chose someone she thought looked like they could work in a supermarket and who looked bit bored in their picture. This allows us as the audience to focus more on the plot of the film and also allows us to connect their lives with ones similar in real life. However we do see in “Wasp” a male gaze when Zoe walks into the crowded pub where all the men stare at her. We can also tell by the amount she has dressed up that she is trying to look good for Dave. This is a stereotypical tradition that women feel the need to make themselves look and act how they think men would like to see them. We see this in the other films as well, for example in “Fish Tank” when Mia dances for Conor to his favourite song and eventually lures him into having sex with her. We also see how Joanne is all over Conor at the party flirting with him.
It is important that British films continue to use new realism as it will present a more realistic world which will give people more courage to go out and act themselves. This is due to the fact the media is very influential in the way people act in their day-to-day lives. The “Vows of chastity” rules have helped with this as they almost force the director into making their film more realistic. If this trend were to continue across the different media platforms then we may see women start to be represented less like objects and more equally to the men. However I do not feel men’s magazines would easily be persuaded to stop representing women in the way they do now as their sales are based on men wanting to see women in this way, though if peoples views on women were changed over time then perhaps trends would change and sales would drop for the magazines causing them to find a bigger market to aim at.
Historically women were seen as wives, prospective wives or married lovers. They were judged to have held back the men’s ambition and drive. Examples of women playing this role can be seen in “A Kind of Loving” and “Saturday Night, Sunday Morning”. However in the 90’s the women started a breakthrough with women such as Gurinder Chadha and Sally Potter capturing a sense of time, place and identity in a changing Britain.
New realism is a contemporary movement in British film. Directors such as Andrea Arnold aim to produce “a more truthful” cinema. We may assume that a more truthful representation of women is a particular goal. Arnold has used the rules of Dogme95 (“The Vows of Chastity”) developed with Danish director Lars Von Trier to achieve this. Her representations are shaped by location shooting, diegetic sound and music, handheld cameras, colour film and natural light, a lack of superficial action, a contemporary setting, a refusal of genre conventions and a use of 35mm film. It is important to consider these when studying women in British film.
The film “Wasp” uses the rules from the vows of chastity to help show British women as trapped. Examples of how they have used this to good effect can be seen right from the very start when the mum is dragging her kids down the dark staircase. Immediately we see they are wearing dirty clothes and are all very skinny suggesting that the mother may struggle to feed her children. The steps are concrete with metal railings and the only light on the stairwell is natural light through the small windows on every floor making it feel very similar to a prison. This feeling is emphasised at the end of the shot when the camera locks onto the medium shot image of a metal gate. The scene was filmed using a handheld camera making the shot slightly shaky. It also only used the light that was at the location without adding any artificial lighting and there was only diegetic sound so we hear in detail the voices and the sound of their footsteps.
In “Fish Tank” we also see them represent women as trapped, however in this film it shows how Mia the daughter is trapped more than the mother. We see near the end of the film Conor asking Mia to show him the dance that she has practised. Mia uncomfortably agrees to do it and Conor stares at her whilst she dances. Male gaze is very dominant here and it could be argued that women will try to define themselves according to what they feel men want. This will then make women trapped as they will always be trying to impress men.
In the films I have watched we see women as failed carers. In “Wasp” the mother (Zoe) struggles to care for her children as she leaves them outside a pub whilst she flirts inside with a guy (Dave) who she likes. Zoe does not tell the man she is with about the kids as she feels scared that he will push her away if he finds out. She could also only afford a packet of crisps and a drink for them to share between each other as she needed enough money to buy Dave a drink. This shows how she is embarrassed of her children and chooses her private life over the safety and health of her children waiting in the cold.
We also see in “Fish Tank” how Mia’s mum Joanne does not show any care towards her daughter as she is violent towards Mia when she does something wrong or not to her liking. We see this when Zoe is holding a house party and Mia lets some of the guests in, for this she is grabbed by the arm and pushed brutally towards the stairs. This again shows how women are embarrassed of people they like seeing their children.
However we do see another side to these single mothers. In “Fish Tank” we have a very emotional scene just before Mia leaves home where they all dance slowly and in harmony together. This scene showed a small connection between the family which we hadn’t seen before showing one of the good habits Mia had picked up from her mum. In “Wasp” we also feel sympathetic towards Zoe as she is very upset about how she left her kids outside alone. We can also see she does care for them very much but obviously struggles to have a social life. From both of these texts we can see how single mothers find it hard to have a social life and look after their children at the same time, which sometimes makes them do drastic things to try and get their own time.
Due to the lack of care received from their parents we see the elder children in both films trying to take care of the younger ones. In “Fish Tank” Mia is obviously somebody Tyler (her sister) looks up to as she follows her around and asks her questions. However Mia is not a good role model for Tyler as she buys beer and cigarettes for her to have and also swears at her a lot. However we do see at the end that they do care for each other as Tyler is upset about her big sister leaving. However in “Wasp” we see a much younger girl trying to act as the responsible adult, though she is far too young to understand how to take care of 3 children including a baby. Eventually in the end we see her pick up other people’s fast-food left-overs off the floor to try and feed her brother and sisters.
Both these films explore and challenge the traditional representations of female identity. By seeing women in men’s magazines we see them treated as sex objects that are trying to look as good as they can so they can impress men. Though in the films I watched the women selected are purposely chosen not to look as though they were fashion models, instead they were meant to look like the sorts of people you would expect to see living in council blocks. For example when they were casting for the lead actress in “MorvernCallar” the director purposely chose someone she thought looked like they could work in a supermarket and who looked bit bored in their picture. This allows us as the audience to focus more on the plot of the film and also allows us to connect their lives with ones similar in real life. However we do see in “Wasp” a male gaze when Zoe walks into the crowded pub where all the men stare at her. We can also tell by the amount she has dressed up that she is trying to look good for Dave. This is a stereotypical tradition that women feel the need to make themselves look and act how they think men would like to see them. We see this in the other films as well, for example in “Fish Tank” when Mia dances for Conor to his favourite song and eventually lures him into having sex with her. We also see how Joanne is all over Conor at the party flirting with him.
It is important that British films continue to use new realism as it will present a more realistic world which will give people more courage to go out and act themselves. This is due to the fact the media is very influential in the way people act in their day-to-day lives. The “Vows of chastity” rules have helped with this as they almost force the director into making their film more realistic. If this trend were to continue across the different media platforms then we may see women start to be represented less like objects and more equally to the men. However I do not feel men’s magazines would easily be persuaded to stop representing women in the way they do now as their sales are based on men wanting to see women in this way, though if peoples views on women were changed over time then perhaps trends would change and sales would drop for the magazines causing them to find a bigger market to aim at.
Monday 9 August 2010
Inception trailer
The trailer creates tension through explosions, guns and the suggestion that an "idea" is bigger than we could ever imagine. The credibility of the plot is helped by the reputation of Leonardo DiCaprio, the previous work of the director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight) and the three big production companies behind it (Warner Bros, Legendary Pictures and Syncopy).
The use of a fog horn throughout and the music getting faster towards the end helps build the tension aswell with a girl shouting "WAKE ME UP!" desperatly at the end to leave the audience thinking.
It then leaves the date of release and website at the end so people can find out more if they want.
Wednesday 4 August 2010
Difference between trailers and teaser-trailers
A teaser-trailer will be shown long before the film is released to inform people that it is coming. The idea of them is to get people interested in the film and not the plot of it. They do not use footage from the actual film and its aim is to tease you (as suggested in the title). They are usually 30 seconds to 1 minute in length and will give a release date and a website so that people can track the development of the film online.
This is different to a trailer which will be shown about a month before the film is released. It will be much more specific giving the audience an outline of the story and introducing the main characters. Shots from the film will be used to give the audience a sneak preview. They tend to be around 2 minutes in length which is long enough for the film company to entice you to come and watch their film. It will also say a release date and a website at the end.
This is different to a trailer which will be shown about a month before the film is released. It will be much more specific giving the audience an outline of the story and introducing the main characters. Shots from the film will be used to give the audience a sneak preview. They tend to be around 2 minutes in length which is long enough for the film company to entice you to come and watch their film. It will also say a release date and a website at the end.
Thursday 15 July 2010
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