Showing posts with label General. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General. Show all posts
Saturday, 9 January 2016
Tuesday, 7 April 2015
Radios
The invention of the radio
Who? When? Where? Why?
There is a debate about who invented the radio regarding two men: Guglielmo Marconi and Nikola Tesla.
It is most commonly said that the radio was invented in 1895 by an Italian man named Guglielmo Marconi at the age of 21. Whilst experimenting in his parents attic, he invented what he called "the wireless telegraph" and the instrument he used to transmit Morse code via radio waves became known as the radio. Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American scientist and in 1884 he emigrated to the U.S. It was here he invented a device which was essential to sending and receiving radio waves and it was known as the induction coil or the Tesla coil. However, as he was preparing to send a radio signal approximately 50 miles to West Point, N.Y, a fire destroyed his lab in 1895. This means there are still debates regarding who invented the radio depending on the person and the different evidence they have read about.
Guglielmo Marconi
Nikola Tesla
Case study example: KISS FM
Kiss FM is a UK radio station which broadcasts on FM and National DAB and it plays at a frequency of 100.0 MHz in London. It is owned by Bauer Radio which is a UK-based radio division of the Bauer Media Group that is divisible in two main groups: The Bauer City&National Portfolios and Passion. The first air date of Kiss FM was 1 September, 1990 but it first began in the October of 1985 as a pirate radio station. According to the internet site, Hoovers, Kiss FM makes $2.3 in revenue.
Kiss FM is clearly a popular radio station because it has been listed number eight in the top ten radio stations with the most listeners. It has 4.9 million listeners every week which seems much less when compared to the top radio station, BBC Radio 2 which has 15.3 million listeners every week. The genre of music that Kiss FM plays is hip hop, R&B, urban and electronic dance music so it is likely to attract young people who are enjoy listening to these genres and an audience of elderly people are less likely to enjoy it. The Bauer Media Group quotes: "Dedicated to music and lifestyle, KISS is designed to unite listeners around their passions. KISS audiences are characterised by the emotional connection they make with the music, presenters and everyday life. A mobile audience, reseach shows they use every platform available to engage, from FM and DAB, online, social media, mobile and TV, creating unique and powerful ways for advertisers to emotionally engage with listeners." Personally, I do not listen to KISS FM as it genre of music does not appeal to me and I would rather listen to X fm as I prefer indie/alternative rock music.
Kiss FM make money through advertisements, special events, celebrity endorsement by having celebrities host a show and by call ins or competitions which cause people to spend their money.
Who? When? Where? Why?
There is a debate about who invented the radio regarding two men: Guglielmo Marconi and Nikola Tesla.
It is most commonly said that the radio was invented in 1895 by an Italian man named Guglielmo Marconi at the age of 21. Whilst experimenting in his parents attic, he invented what he called "the wireless telegraph" and the instrument he used to transmit Morse code via radio waves became known as the radio. Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American scientist and in 1884 he emigrated to the U.S. It was here he invented a device which was essential to sending and receiving radio waves and it was known as the induction coil or the Tesla coil. However, as he was preparing to send a radio signal approximately 50 miles to West Point, N.Y, a fire destroyed his lab in 1895. This means there are still debates regarding who invented the radio depending on the person and the different evidence they have read about.
Guglielmo Marconi Nikola TeslaCase study example: KISS FM
Kiss FM is a UK radio station which broadcasts on FM and National DAB and it plays at a frequency of 100.0 MHz in London. It is owned by Bauer Radio which is a UK-based radio division of the Bauer Media Group that is divisible in two main groups: The Bauer City&National Portfolios and Passion. The first air date of Kiss FM was 1 September, 1990 but it first began in the October of 1985 as a pirate radio station. According to the internet site, Hoovers, Kiss FM makes $2.3 in revenue.
Kiss FM is clearly a popular radio station because it has been listed number eight in the top ten radio stations with the most listeners. It has 4.9 million listeners every week which seems much less when compared to the top radio station, BBC Radio 2 which has 15.3 million listeners every week. The genre of music that Kiss FM plays is hip hop, R&B, urban and electronic dance music so it is likely to attract young people who are enjoy listening to these genres and an audience of elderly people are less likely to enjoy it. The Bauer Media Group quotes: "Dedicated to music and lifestyle, KISS is designed to unite listeners around their passions. KISS audiences are characterised by the emotional connection they make with the music, presenters and everyday life. A mobile audience, reseach shows they use every platform available to engage, from FM and DAB, online, social media, mobile and TV, creating unique and powerful ways for advertisers to emotionally engage with listeners." Personally, I do not listen to KISS FM as it genre of music does not appeal to me and I would rather listen to X fm as I prefer indie/alternative rock music.
Kiss FM make money through advertisements, special events, celebrity endorsement by having celebrities host a show and by call ins or competitions which cause people to spend their money.
Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Album Cover Analysis- Lady Gaga
This is the cover for Lady Gaga's debut album called 'The Fame'. It was released on August 19, 2008 through Interscope Records and Gaga produced it alongside Redone, Martin Kierszenbaum and Rob Fusari. Personally, I really like this album cover because it is meaningful and visually pleasing which means it would stand out in a store and therefore attract different audiences. The album has proved very popular and as of March 2015, it has sold 4.6 million copies in the United States alone. Based on this cover, I believe the audience for Lady Gaga is females between the ages of 15-30 because the overall feel to the cover is quite ' girly and glamorous' so they may be able to relate to that compared to a male audience who may not show any interest.
The deeper meaning of this album cover is made clear by the use of visual codes. She is wearing large, diamond sunglasses that cover the top half of her face and a hood which covers most of her hair. I believe this represents how she is hiding her identity because she is revealing very little about herself which provokes a sense of secrecy and mystery. This therefore represents her as an anonymous character and the audience can only find out more about her if they listen to the songs on her album which are likely to contain enigma codes which give away aspects of her personality. Additionally, this links into the title of her album 'The Fame' because celebrities often cover their eyes with sunglasses when surrounded by the press in order to protect their privacy and this could furthermore show that Lady Gaga has chosen to re-present herself as a well-established artist in her first album to attract a broader audience and possibly so people will take her more seriously.
The main image consists of an extreme close up of Lady Gaga's face to make it clear that she is the artist and the main text of the cover says 'LADY GAGA' in a font that is much larger than the actual title which is almost hidden in the corner of the sunglasses. I think this has purposely been done because this is her first album so people may not recognise who she is purely by the main image so by having this text, her name is emphasised meaning the audience are more than likely to understand which artist the album is for. Although this cover is reasonably simple for an artist like Lady Gaga, the sunglasses she is wearing are still quite peculiar and are unlikely to be seen on the average person so they are hinting at what is to be expected of her songs and it represents her as unique and having originality. Lastly, I believe Lady Gaga is being represented as 'perfect' because her facial features have very clearly been airbrushed to give the illusion of flawless skin which gives her audience the false idea of what it is to be beautiful and they may aspire to be like her for the wrong reasons.
This is the cover for Lady Gaga's second most recent album called 'Artpop'. It was released on November 6, 2013 through Streamline and Interscope Records and Gaga produced it alongside many people including Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair, will.i.am and David Guetta. I think this cover is successful at showing Lady Gaga's personality in comparison to her first cover because it is very expressive and we are able to see her full body as opposed to a close up of her face. I also believe the audience is different when looking at this cover and I think it will attract both males and females ranging from 15-30 because Lady Gaga has been sexualised as she is being shown practically naked which is likely to attract men as well as those who are already fans of her music because they will buy the album to support her.
In this cover, bright colours such as pink and blue have been used and these are stereotypical colours that represent females and males which hints at her mixed target audience. Also, these colours generally have positive connotations so could be a reflection of the upbeat, pop music that plays in her album so she is giving her audience an idea of what to expect. The background image is creative looking which links to the title 'Artpop' as we can see an 'explosion' of art due to the image being split up into different sections. Lady Gaga is the only aspect to the cover that is not broken up which immediately draws our attention to her and she gains full focus from her audience.
There are definitely contrasting representations of Gaga in this cover when compared to 'The Fame'. In 'The Fame', she is completely hiding her identity and she reveals hardly anything about herself which leaves the audience curious which is a clever way of drawing them in. In this cover, she appears to be very comfortable with revealing a lot of her body which represents her as having a lot of self-confidence and the fact she is using direct address by staring straight into the camera suggests that she is speaking out to her audience by saying "I am proud of who I am". This is the preferred reading that the producers would have intended the audience to have when responding to the cover. However, the people who created and produced this cover are very likely to be a part of our dominant ideology (white, straight, middle-aged, middle-class, male) so would have designed it for them which could be the reason she is being portrayed as a sexual object for the entertainment of men and it is almost as if her strength and independence has been taken away in order for her to be 'gawked' at (in my opinion) so this is therefore the oppositional reading.
There is a similar representation in this cover that has been developed from her first album and this is how Lady Gaga is being represented as almost too perfect. Again, her body has been airbrushed and manipulated which gives the audience an illusion of a 'barbie doll' like figure which is unrealistic and fake looking. Although this may just be Gaga's personality and the way she chooses to portray herself, I still believe this is a negative representation as it again could manipulate the audiences views on what perfection is and it just follows the stereotypes of females in the media which include sexualisation and just being there 'to look pretty'.
The deeper meaning of this album cover is made clear by the use of visual codes. She is wearing large, diamond sunglasses that cover the top half of her face and a hood which covers most of her hair. I believe this represents how she is hiding her identity because she is revealing very little about herself which provokes a sense of secrecy and mystery. This therefore represents her as an anonymous character and the audience can only find out more about her if they listen to the songs on her album which are likely to contain enigma codes which give away aspects of her personality. Additionally, this links into the title of her album 'The Fame' because celebrities often cover their eyes with sunglasses when surrounded by the press in order to protect their privacy and this could furthermore show that Lady Gaga has chosen to re-present herself as a well-established artist in her first album to attract a broader audience and possibly so people will take her more seriously.
The main image consists of an extreme close up of Lady Gaga's face to make it clear that she is the artist and the main text of the cover says 'LADY GAGA' in a font that is much larger than the actual title which is almost hidden in the corner of the sunglasses. I think this has purposely been done because this is her first album so people may not recognise who she is purely by the main image so by having this text, her name is emphasised meaning the audience are more than likely to understand which artist the album is for. Although this cover is reasonably simple for an artist like Lady Gaga, the sunglasses she is wearing are still quite peculiar and are unlikely to be seen on the average person so they are hinting at what is to be expected of her songs and it represents her as unique and having originality. Lastly, I believe Lady Gaga is being represented as 'perfect' because her facial features have very clearly been airbrushed to give the illusion of flawless skin which gives her audience the false idea of what it is to be beautiful and they may aspire to be like her for the wrong reasons.
This is the cover for Lady Gaga's second most recent album called 'Artpop'. It was released on November 6, 2013 through Streamline and Interscope Records and Gaga produced it alongside many people including Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair, will.i.am and David Guetta. I think this cover is successful at showing Lady Gaga's personality in comparison to her first cover because it is very expressive and we are able to see her full body as opposed to a close up of her face. I also believe the audience is different when looking at this cover and I think it will attract both males and females ranging from 15-30 because Lady Gaga has been sexualised as she is being shown practically naked which is likely to attract men as well as those who are already fans of her music because they will buy the album to support her.
In this cover, bright colours such as pink and blue have been used and these are stereotypical colours that represent females and males which hints at her mixed target audience. Also, these colours generally have positive connotations so could be a reflection of the upbeat, pop music that plays in her album so she is giving her audience an idea of what to expect. The background image is creative looking which links to the title 'Artpop' as we can see an 'explosion' of art due to the image being split up into different sections. Lady Gaga is the only aspect to the cover that is not broken up which immediately draws our attention to her and she gains full focus from her audience.
There are definitely contrasting representations of Gaga in this cover when compared to 'The Fame'. In 'The Fame', she is completely hiding her identity and she reveals hardly anything about herself which leaves the audience curious which is a clever way of drawing them in. In this cover, she appears to be very comfortable with revealing a lot of her body which represents her as having a lot of self-confidence and the fact she is using direct address by staring straight into the camera suggests that she is speaking out to her audience by saying "I am proud of who I am". This is the preferred reading that the producers would have intended the audience to have when responding to the cover. However, the people who created and produced this cover are very likely to be a part of our dominant ideology (white, straight, middle-aged, middle-class, male) so would have designed it for them which could be the reason she is being portrayed as a sexual object for the entertainment of men and it is almost as if her strength and independence has been taken away in order for her to be 'gawked' at (in my opinion) so this is therefore the oppositional reading.
There is a similar representation in this cover that has been developed from her first album and this is how Lady Gaga is being represented as almost too perfect. Again, her body has been airbrushed and manipulated which gives the audience an illusion of a 'barbie doll' like figure which is unrealistic and fake looking. Although this may just be Gaga's personality and the way she chooses to portray herself, I still believe this is a negative representation as it again could manipulate the audiences views on what perfection is and it just follows the stereotypes of females in the media which include sexualisation and just being there 'to look pretty'.
Sunday, 15 March 2015
The Games Industry Essay
The video games industry involves the design, development, marketing and sales of video games. Thousands of people across the world are employed in the industry and there is a wide variety of jobs available which I am going to be talking about, along with many other topics, in this essay.
The games industry first began in 1971, when an arcade game
named Computer Space was released by Nutting
Associates however, it did not prove very popular as people found it too
complicated to grasp quickly. The
first commercially successful game was the arcade game Pong, which was released
in the November of 1972 by Atari, Inc. Pong was a two-player tennis game which
had a very simple concept involving hitting the ball back and forth across the
screen using the paddle and the person playing could either go against the
computer or another person. The graphics
were also basic and they consisted of two sticks for the paddle style tennis
rackets and a square for the ball; the screen was black with everything else
was white and the players scores were shown at the top of the screen. Despite
its simplicity, it was still hugely popular as it was something people had
never seen before and it sold to about 12,000 arcade units. In 1975, Atari
released a home edition of Pong which proved even more popular and sold 150,000
units. The game itself was a key milestone for the games industry because it
was a representation of how successful the industry could be and it resulted in
the format for Pong being copied by many other companies.
The first home video game console was called The Magnavox
Odyssey and it was released in August, 1972 by a man named Ralph H. Baer. Ralph
had the idea in 1951 but he was instructed by his bosses to work on a different
project however, this did not put him off and in 1966, he re-visited the idea
and developed it and by 1968, he had completed a working prototype
(sample/model). This prototype was known as the Brown Box and it was a major
milestone for the game industry because it was from this point onwards that it really
developed and it is thanks to Baer that the industry is what it is today. He
quoted when receiving the Game Developers Choice Pioneer Award in 2008: “Had I
listened to all those people… who were telling me to stop the nonsense or
making comments like ‘are you still screwing around with that stuff’ we might
not all be here today”. I agree with what he has said because today, the game
industry is huge and it is making billions each year. For example, in 2013, the
worldwide revenue was $70.4 billion and it 2014, it was $75.2 billion. It is
constantly increasing and in 2015, it is predicted to be $80.5 billion so from
these statistics, we can see that it is increasing by about $5 billion each
year. I looked at some more video game statistics online and I discovered that the
game industry made twice the amount of money than the film industry did in 2013
(the film industry made $35.9 billion) which shocked me as I did not expect the
difference to be so large and like the game industry, the film industry is
still extremely strong and in high demand from a very wide variety of
audiences.
There are thousands of people worldwide who are employed in the game industry and in the UK, there were 19 thousand employed individuals in 2013 which is a reasonably large increase compared to in 2011, when there were 13 thousand employed individuals. There are many different job sectors within the games industry and these include: game designers, game developers, game publishers and game testers. Game designers create the rules, goals and challenges within a game that will meet its desired audience’s expectations; they must apply design and aesthetics for different purposes including entertainment and education. Game developers have the task of creating the game and it is split into individual tasks such as: programmers, artists, musicians and writers. Game publishers are responsible for funding and managing the development of games and they additionally have to take control of the marketing, sales and manufacturing of the game. Game testers have to test a variety of games in order to make sure they are of a high quality so they have to look for issues of the game, e.g. bugs, and recent studies show that game testing is both financially and emotionally unrewarding.
There are a variety of game genres within the industry
including: action, action-adventure, adventure, simulation, sports,
survival-horror and shooter. Every game will have its own individual narrative
and representations depending on its genre, here are a few examples: action-adventure
is a hybrid genre which combines both problem-solving and reflexes to appeal to
a broader audience compared to pure action or pure adventure games. An example
of an action-adventure game is Grand Theft Auto V, published by Rockstar Games
and set in the fictional state of San Andreas and based around crime. The
player must complete a series of heists, swapping between three protagonists-
Michael, Franklin and Trevor. The game is classified as an 18 due to violence,
profanity, sex and offensive remarks however, it attracts people below this age
due to word-of-mouth. I personally think the game attracts males aged 15-25 as
they will be able to relate to the characters and they will be used to the conventions
of violent games so can purely use the game for entertainment. I do not think
Rockstar intended for the game to attract females because there are only
negative representations of women either as strippers and prostitutes or as
housewives which may put a female audience off. Survival-horror games make
strong use of horror themes which aim to scare the audience and provide them
with a thrilling experience and they focus on the survival of the character. An
example of a survival-horror game is The Last of Us, published by Sony Computer
Entertainment. The narrative is set in a post-apocalyptic world and the player
controls the male protagonist, Joel who leads the female protagonist, Ellie
across the US to protect her from hostile humans and zombies. I believe the
target audience is both males and females aged 12-25 as they are likely to
understand the narrative and both genders will have a protagonist to relate to.
However, I still feel there is a negative representation of females and age in
this game because both protagonists are young, which portrays younger people as
stronger and more capable than older people. Joel leads Ellie which is a
representation of male dominance and it presents the idea that woman need to
rely on men and that they are incapable of doing anything for themselves.
This video sums up The Last Of Us really well as it gives us an insight into the narrative and into the main protagonists. Even in this short clip, we can still see a slightly negative representation of woman as is a number of times in which Joel is carrying Ellie, so it protecting her therefore is bringing across the idea that females need someone to look after them.
This video sums up The Last Of Us really well as it gives us an insight into the narrative and into the main protagonists. Even in this short clip, we can still see a slightly negative representation of woman as is a number of times in which Joel is carrying Ellie, so it protecting her therefore is bringing across the idea that females need someone to look after them.
Audiences are one of the most important things producers have to consider when designing games because they will have to live up to their expectations in order to be successful when it comes to sales and marketing. I looked at some audience statistics online and this is what I discovered. The amount of female gamers is increasing and in 2014, 47% of gamers in the US were women and this has risen from 2012 in which it was 42%. I believe the game industry needs to take more notice of this because currently, there are not enough female protagonists for women to relate to and it is even quite rare to be able to play as a female character. I also discovered that the older generation are playing more and more games and currently, 29% of gamers are over the age of 50. Here are some very interesting statistics I found about the average UK gamer: the average age is 35, most are male and play for almost three hours a day, they have fights with their partner over their gaming hobby twice a week and 15% say they have broken up with their partner over the amount of time spent gaming.
In conclusion, the game industry is clearly a massive
success which will continue to grow and develop, especially with a wider
variety of audiences showing an interest in different games. It is incredible
to see how it has grown since 1971 regarding both technology and the game
concepts and the statistics I have found out are both informative and shocking.
Thursday, 26 February 2015
Award Ceremonies
What are award ceremonies and what are they for?
Award ceremonies are formal events in which prizes are awarded to those who have demonstrated a high achievement in a particular field, for example: the film industry. Award ceremonies aim to give people, and their work, across different media fields more recognition and respect for what they have accomplished and therefore they are promoting them. I am going to be discussing three different award ceremonies which are: The Oscars, The Golden Globe Awards and The Brit Awards.
The Oscars (2015)
The Oscars 2015 took place on February 22 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The ceremony was directed by Hamish Hamilton, produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan and hosted by Neil Patrick Harris (actor). The Oscars present awards to the film industry only, covering 24 different categories which were presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. These categories include: Best Directing, Best Cinematography, Best Actor and Best Actress.
Best Directing: Alejandro G. Inarritu- Birdman
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki- Birdman
Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne- The Theory of Everything
Best Actress: Julianne Moore- Still Alice
Best Film Editing: Tom Cross- Whiplash
Best Original Song: John Legend and Common- 'Glory' from Selma
Best Animated Feature Film: Don Hall, Chris Williams and Roy Conli- Big Hero 6
Many films were nominated to win an award and the most popular films were: Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel (9 nominations), The Imitation Game (8 nominations), American Sniper and Boyhood (6 nominations) and Foxcatcher, Interstellar, The Theory of Everything and Whiplash (5 nominations). Even if a nominee does not win an award, they will still gain recognition which is good for going further with their career and they are likely to be given more opportunities to work on big films. Additionally, there were performers throughout the ceremony including: Common and John Legend who performed 'Glory' from Selma and Rita Ora who performed 'Grateful' from Beyond the Lights.
The Golden Globe Awards (2015)
The Golden Globe Awards 2015 took place on January 11 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The ceremony was produced by Dick Clark Productions along with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and it was hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Awards were presented for the best in film and American television of 2014. The film categories included: Best Motion Picture, Best Performance in a Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Animated Feature Film and Best Foreign Language Film.
Best Motion Picture (drama): Boyhood (musical or comedy): The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Performance (drama): Eddie Redmayne- The Theory of Everything and Julianne Moore- Still Alice
Best Performance (musical or comedy): Michael Keaton- Birdman and Amy Adams- Big Eyes
Best Director: Richard Linklater- Boyhood
Best Screenplay: Birdman
Best Original Score: Johann Johannsson- The Theory of Everything
Best Original Song: John Legend and Common- 'Glory' from Selma
Best Animated Feature Film: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Best Foreign Language Film: Leviathan (Russia)
The Television categories:
Best Series (drama): The Affair (musical or comedy): Transparent
Best Performance in a TV Series (drama): Kevin Spacey- House of Cards and Ruth Wilson- The Affair
Best Performance in a TV Series (musical or comedy): Jeffrey Tambor- Transparent and Gina Rodriguez- Jane the Virgin
Best Performance in a Miniseries or Television Film: Billy Bob Thornton- Fargo and Maggie Gyllenhaal- The Honourable Woman
Best Supporting Performance: Matt Bomer- The Normal Heart and Joanne Froggatt- Downton Abbey
Best Miniseries or Television Film: Fargo
The most popular film nominations were Birdman (7 nominations), Boyhood and The Imitation Game (5 nominations) and Gone Girl, Selma, The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Theory of Everything (4 nominations). The most popular television nominations were Fargo (5 nominations), True Detective (4 nominations), House of Cards, Oliver Kitteridge, Orange Is The New Black, The Affair, The Good Wife and The Normal Heart (3 nominations). The presenters included Colin Firth who introduced The Imitation Game and Channing Tatum who introduced Foxcatcher.
The Brit Awards (2015)
The Brit Awards 2015 took place on February 25 at the O2 Arena in London. The ceremony was hosted by Ant and Dec and ITV provided television coverage whilst BBC provided radio coverage. Awards were presented for pop music under a variety of categories including: British Male and Female Solo Artist, International Group and British Single of the Year.
British Male Solo Artist: Ed Sheeran
British Female Solo Artist: Paloma Faith
British Group: Royal Blood
International Group: Foo Fighters
British Breakthrough Act: Sam Smith
Critics' Choice: James Bay
MasterCard British Album of the Year: Ed Sheeran- X
British Single of the Year: Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars- Uptown Funk
International Male Solo Artist: Pharrell Williams
International Female Solo Artist: Taylor Swift
British Producer of the Year: Paul Epworth
British Video: One Direction- You & I
BRITs Global Success: Sam Smith
There were a variety of performers throughout the ceremony including: Taylor Swift- Blank Space and Madonna- Living for Love. Madonna was the last performance of the night and at near the beginning, she fell down a flight of stairs due to a problem with her costume however, she quickly continued with her performance as normal. There were also many presenters including: Lewis Hamilton and Ellie Goulding who presented the International Female Solo Artist and John Bishop who presented the International Group.
Award ceremonies are formal events in which prizes are awarded to those who have demonstrated a high achievement in a particular field, for example: the film industry. Award ceremonies aim to give people, and their work, across different media fields more recognition and respect for what they have accomplished and therefore they are promoting them. I am going to be discussing three different award ceremonies which are: The Oscars, The Golden Globe Awards and The Brit Awards.
The Oscars (2015)
The Oscars 2015 took place on February 22 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The ceremony was directed by Hamish Hamilton, produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan and hosted by Neil Patrick Harris (actor). The Oscars present awards to the film industry only, covering 24 different categories which were presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. These categories include: Best Directing, Best Cinematography, Best Actor and Best Actress.
Best Directing: Alejandro G. Inarritu- Birdman
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki- Birdman
Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne- The Theory of Everything
Best Actress: Julianne Moore- Still Alice
Best Film Editing: Tom Cross- Whiplash
Best Original Song: John Legend and Common- 'Glory' from Selma
Best Animated Feature Film: Don Hall, Chris Williams and Roy Conli- Big Hero 6
Many films were nominated to win an award and the most popular films were: Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel (9 nominations), The Imitation Game (8 nominations), American Sniper and Boyhood (6 nominations) and Foxcatcher, Interstellar, The Theory of Everything and Whiplash (5 nominations). Even if a nominee does not win an award, they will still gain recognition which is good for going further with their career and they are likely to be given more opportunities to work on big films. Additionally, there were performers throughout the ceremony including: Common and John Legend who performed 'Glory' from Selma and Rita Ora who performed 'Grateful' from Beyond the Lights.
The Golden Globe Awards (2015)
The Golden Globe Awards 2015 took place on January 11 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The ceremony was produced by Dick Clark Productions along with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and it was hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Awards were presented for the best in film and American television of 2014. The film categories included: Best Motion Picture, Best Performance in a Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Animated Feature Film and Best Foreign Language Film.
Best Motion Picture (drama): Boyhood (musical or comedy): The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Performance (drama): Eddie Redmayne- The Theory of Everything and Julianne Moore- Still Alice
Best Performance (musical or comedy): Michael Keaton- Birdman and Amy Adams- Big Eyes
Best Director: Richard Linklater- Boyhood
Best Screenplay: Birdman
Best Original Score: Johann Johannsson- The Theory of Everything
Best Original Song: John Legend and Common- 'Glory' from Selma
Best Animated Feature Film: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Best Foreign Language Film: Leviathan (Russia)
The Television categories:
Best Series (drama): The Affair (musical or comedy): Transparent
Best Performance in a TV Series (drama): Kevin Spacey- House of Cards and Ruth Wilson- The Affair
Best Performance in a TV Series (musical or comedy): Jeffrey Tambor- Transparent and Gina Rodriguez- Jane the Virgin
Best Performance in a Miniseries or Television Film: Billy Bob Thornton- Fargo and Maggie Gyllenhaal- The Honourable Woman
Best Supporting Performance: Matt Bomer- The Normal Heart and Joanne Froggatt- Downton Abbey
Best Miniseries or Television Film: Fargo
The most popular film nominations were Birdman (7 nominations), Boyhood and The Imitation Game (5 nominations) and Gone Girl, Selma, The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Theory of Everything (4 nominations). The most popular television nominations were Fargo (5 nominations), True Detective (4 nominations), House of Cards, Oliver Kitteridge, Orange Is The New Black, The Affair, The Good Wife and The Normal Heart (3 nominations). The presenters included Colin Firth who introduced The Imitation Game and Channing Tatum who introduced Foxcatcher.
The Brit Awards (2015)
The Brit Awards 2015 took place on February 25 at the O2 Arena in London. The ceremony was hosted by Ant and Dec and ITV provided television coverage whilst BBC provided radio coverage. Awards were presented for pop music under a variety of categories including: British Male and Female Solo Artist, International Group and British Single of the Year.
British Male Solo Artist: Ed Sheeran
British Female Solo Artist: Paloma Faith
British Group: Royal Blood
International Group: Foo Fighters
British Breakthrough Act: Sam Smith
Critics' Choice: James Bay
MasterCard British Album of the Year: Ed Sheeran- X
British Single of the Year: Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars- Uptown Funk
International Male Solo Artist: Pharrell Williams
International Female Solo Artist: Taylor Swift
British Producer of the Year: Paul Epworth
British Video: One Direction- You & I
BRITs Global Success: Sam Smith
There were a variety of performers throughout the ceremony including: Taylor Swift- Blank Space and Madonna- Living for Love. Madonna was the last performance of the night and at near the beginning, she fell down a flight of stairs due to a problem with her costume however, she quickly continued with her performance as normal. There were also many presenters including: Lewis Hamilton and Ellie Goulding who presented the International Female Solo Artist and John Bishop who presented the International Group.
Sunday, 15 February 2015
Video Games and Radio Stations
Video Games
5 video games: Grand Theft Auto V, FIFA 15, LittleBigPlanet 3, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and The Last of Us
Grand Theft Auto V
Developer: Rockstar North
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Release date: 17th September 2013 (PS3 Xbox 360) then an enhanced version was released on the 18th November 2014 (PS4 Xbox one)
Genres: Action and adventure
Narrative: Three protagonists: Michael, Franklin and Trevor are criminals who "risk everything in a series of daring and dangerous heists that could set them up for life". It is set in the fictional state of San Andreas, which is based upon Southern California, in our current time period.
Representation: There is a negative representation of women because they are either shown as prostitutes, strippers or housewives and they are portrayed as incapable and weak as they are never show handling weapons and there are constant sexist remarks throughout the game.
Iconography: There are guns, knifes, vicious dogs and police cars/sirens which are typical of a crime based game which represents how GTA is violent as the characters are constantly 'breaking the law'.
Target audience and popularity: Those above the age of 18 however, the game mainly attracts males from the ages of 15-25 as they are likely to enjoy the violence within it and the criminal based narrative will appeal to them. The game has a huge popularity and within 24 hours of its release, it made more than $800 million in worldwide revenue.
FIFA 15
Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release date: 26th September 2014 in the UK for a variety of consoles including PS4 and Xbox 1
Genres: Sports and football simulation
Representation: There are no female players in the game, only males which makes it clear that the game is aimed at males. There are no negative representations and the game features a variety of football teams across different ethnicities.
Iconography: Football kits, footballs, playing fields, referees etc show that the developers tried to make the game as life-like as possible in order to create a realistic experience for those playing the game.
Target audience and popularity: The audience is mainly from the ages 8-22 and those who are fans of sports, football in particular. It has proved very popular and has good reviews, for example: GameRankings provided FIFA 15 with an average rating of 81.57% for the PS4 version. However, some users have complained that their version of the game suffers from lagging and general gameplay bugs.
LittleBigPlanet 3
Developer: Sumo Digital
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Release date: It was released worldwide through the November and December of 2014 for the PlayStation 3 and 4.
Genre: Puzzle-platformer
Narrative: The narrative is set in a fictional world and it revolves around three new protagonists: Oddsock, Toggle and Swoop who all have their own unique traits and abilities and along with the original character, SackBoy, they have to prevent a creator called 'Newton' from destroying their creative paradise. The characters are all animated and extremely fictional.
Target audience and popularity: The game targets a younger audience, both male and female, from the ages of 7 plus and it may also attract adults who enjoy creative concepts like those in LittleBigPlanet. It has received fairly good reviews and GameRankings gave it a score of 80.78% and it was given a 7/10 from Eurogamer.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Developer: Sledgehammer games (Microsoft, PS4, Xbox 1) and High Moon Studios (PS3 Xbox 360)
Publisher: Activision
Release date: November 4th, 2014
Genre: First-person shooter
Narrative: The single player story follows private Jack Mitchell of the United States Marine Corps and it focuses on his interaction with a private military corporation, Atlas. He has to complete a variety of missions and the player has the option of using different weapons including Rifles, Shotguns, Machine guns, Pistols and more.
Representation: Although the protagonist, Mitchell is male, there is still a strong female character within the game. Her name is Ilona and she is a part of the Atlas organization. She is presented as the highest skilled marksman in that organization and she is also portrayed as one of the smartest and most talented field agents. It is quite rare to see a positive representation of women in games like COD and the game goes to show that women can play a strong role in a 'military power fantasy' world and it is not just men who display importance.
Target audience and popularity: The target audience is around 10 plus and although the game has been rated an 18, I think it targets people below that age because they are likely to have experienced other first-person shooting games so will be familiar with the violence and probably mature enough to understand not to repeat the behaviour they see in the game in real life. The game has a high popularity and GameRankings awarded it 83.50% for the PS4 version and it was given an 8/10 from GameSpot.
The Last of Us
Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Release date: 14th June 2013 (PS3) 1st August 2014- UK (PS4)
Genres: Action-adventure and survival horror
Narrative: It is based in a post-apocalyptic world and set in the United States. It follows a male and female protagonist, Joel and Ellie in which the player controls Joel who escorts Ellie across the US. The player uses a variety of weapons including: Rifles, Shotguns and Flame Throwers in order to defend himself and Ellie from hostile humans and zombies who have been 'infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus'.
Representation: There is a good gender balance within The Last of Us and there is not an unfair representation of males or females. We see the dominant ideology come through within the game as both protagonists are white, straight and fairly young and this applys to most of the games I have spoken about which represents a race inequality.
Iconography: The overall mise-en-scene of the game is realistic as to what a 'post-apocalyptic' world would look like based on peoples perceptions of what it should look like- torn down, isolated atmosphere, lack of supplies etc, The actual supernatural creatures within the game (zombies) fit in with the genre of survival horror as they are gory looking so symbolise the violence within the game and possibly the idea that certain parts may be scary,
Target audience and popularity: I believe the target audience is those aged 12- 25 as they are likely to understand the post-apocalyptic themed narrative and may have had experience with similar games or even TV shows such as The Walking Dead. I also think it is aimed at males and females due to there being a male and female protagonist, making the game relateable for everyone. The game received very high ratings, GameRankings gave it 95% (PS3) and 96% (PS4) and it was given a 10/10 from Eurogamer.
Radio Stations
5 radio stations: Capital FM, Classic FM, Xfm, Heart, BBC Radio 4
Capital FM
Broadcast area: United Kingdom
Owners: Global Radio and Communicorp
Genres: Speech and music based
Target audience and popularity: It targets people in the age group of 14-34, those who enjoy popular, mainly pop music and those who are fans of the presenters on the show. It is very popular and has 7.1 million listeners.
Type of music it plays: Capital is constantly updating its playlist with up-to-date music which is popular among its target audience. For example: 'Don't' by Ed Sheeran and 'Love Me Like You Do' by Ellie Goulding are often played. I noticed that Capital often repeats a series of songs every two hours which means I do not listen to it for a long period of time as it gets very repetitive and I feel that at times, it lacks originality.
Other features of the station: The presenters of the Capital breakfast show are Dave Berry and Lisa Snowdon. Other presenters include: Will Cozens, Greg Burns and Marvin Humes. They have phone-ins for audience interactivity, competitions again for more involvement with their audience, outside broadcasts, live concerts including 'The Summertime Ball' and the very popular 'Vodafone Big Top 40'.
Classic FM
Broadcast area: United Kingdom
Owner: Global Radio
Genres: Speech and music based
Target audience and popularity: Classic FM targets an older, possibly more sophisticated audience ranging from 35 plus. It will also attract fans of classical music and of the presenters on the station. It has 5.6 million listeners every week, 70% of whom are in the ABC1 bracket.
Type of music it plays: The station plays a wide range of classical music and it has increased the popularity of classical music by providing a refreshing approach to it and it has been claimed that Classic FM has influenced the music choices of other radio stations such as BBC radio 3. The current head of music is Sam Jackson and a variety of old and new pieces of music are played, including tracks from films and video games. For example: Lord of the Rings- The Council of Elrond.
Other features of the station: Classic FM has many presenters including: Alexander Armstrong, Charlotte Green and Nick Bailey. The presenters each have their own scheduled time slot in order to appeal to different audiences at different times of the day, for example: Charlotte Green has a 'culture club' on Sunday's from 3-5pm in which she speaks to special guests from the world of the arts.
Xfm
Broadcast area: United Kingdom
Owner: Global radio
Genres: Music and speech based
Target audience and popularity: Xfm targets an older audience ranging from 15 plus who enjoy alternative music from a variety of 'indie' bands and singers. It will also appeal to those who are fans of the DJ's and those who listen to Xfm may be fans of gigs and live events. Xfm has 941,000 listeners each week, 67% of whom are in the ABC1 bracket.
Type of music it plays: Xfm plays alternative music, most of which is indie rock. The bands and singers featured include: Imagine Dragons, Ben Howard, Milky Chance and Foo Fighters. Songs played include: 'I bet my life', 'Keep Your Head Up', 'Stolen Dance' and 'Congregation'. Personally, I really enjoy listening to this radio station as I like the genres of music it plays and they play bands and artists that I am a fan of.
Other features of the station: They have a variety of presenters including: Matt Dyson, Jo Good and Ian Camfield. They are involved in festivals such as Benicassim and they have competitions such as to win concert tickets. Also, they have shows such as 'The Xfm Breakfast Show' in which Jon Holmes hosts from 6am-10am every weekday and he plays music, has special guests etc.
Heart
Broadcast area: United Kingdom
Owner: Global Radio
Genres: Music and speech based
Target audience and popularity: Heart targets an audience between the ages of 25-44, 59% of which are female. It has 9 million listeners every week and these listeners are likely to enjoy a variety of music genres and also may be fans of the DJs.
Type of music it plays: Heart plays both new and updated music and older songs in order to attract and appeal to a wider range of people. Newer songs it has played include: 'Thinking Out Loud' by Ed Sheeran and 'Uptown Funk' by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars. Older songs it has played include ones from the band 'Abba'.
Other features of the station: There are many DJ's for heart including: Toby Anstis, Mark Wright and Emma Bunton. They have phone-ins, competitions and weekly shows such as: 'The Wind Down With Jenny Francis' from 10pm-1am Sunday to Thursday in which she plays relaxing, wind down music. There is also the Vodafone Big Top 40 with Marvin Humes on Sundays 4-7pm and 'All 80's with Jason Donovan' every Sunday from 7pm.
BBC Radio 4
Broadcast area: United Kingdom
Owner: BBC
Genre: Speech based
Target audience and popularity: BBC Radio 4 targets the older demographic, those who are sophisticated and like factual information and discussions on serious or important topics. The station has 10.9 million listeners a week who are most likely to mainly consist of the ABC1 bracket and the purpose of the radio station is to inform, educate and entertain them.
Features of the station: Unlike the other radio stations I have discussed, Radio 4 is not music-based and is primarily speech based. The different aspects to this station include: in-depth news, current affairs, drama, readings, discussions, comedy, factual and magazine programmes. The typical schedule for Radio 4 is as follows (taken from wikipedia) "Book of the Week at 09:45, Woman's Hour at 10:00, You and Yours at 12:00, The World at One and a repeat of the previous day's The Archers at 14:00, the Afternoon Drama at 14:15. At 17:00 another current affairs programme, PM, is broadcast. At 18:30 there is a regular comedy 'slot', The Archers at 19:00, Front Row at 19:15 and a repeat of 15 Minute Drama at 19:45. The World Tonight airs at 22:00, followed by Book at Bedtime at 22:45. At weekends the schedule is different, with 'fixtures' at various times".
5 video games: Grand Theft Auto V, FIFA 15, LittleBigPlanet 3, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and The Last of Us
Grand Theft Auto V
Developer: Rockstar North
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Release date: 17th September 2013 (PS3 Xbox 360) then an enhanced version was released on the 18th November 2014 (PS4 Xbox one)
Genres: Action and adventure
Narrative: Three protagonists: Michael, Franklin and Trevor are criminals who "risk everything in a series of daring and dangerous heists that could set them up for life". It is set in the fictional state of San Andreas, which is based upon Southern California, in our current time period.
Representation: There is a negative representation of women because they are either shown as prostitutes, strippers or housewives and they are portrayed as incapable and weak as they are never show handling weapons and there are constant sexist remarks throughout the game.
Iconography: There are guns, knifes, vicious dogs and police cars/sirens which are typical of a crime based game which represents how GTA is violent as the characters are constantly 'breaking the law'.
Target audience and popularity: Those above the age of 18 however, the game mainly attracts males from the ages of 15-25 as they are likely to enjoy the violence within it and the criminal based narrative will appeal to them. The game has a huge popularity and within 24 hours of its release, it made more than $800 million in worldwide revenue.
FIFA 15
Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release date: 26th September 2014 in the UK for a variety of consoles including PS4 and Xbox 1
Genres: Sports and football simulation
Representation: There are no female players in the game, only males which makes it clear that the game is aimed at males. There are no negative representations and the game features a variety of football teams across different ethnicities.
Iconography: Football kits, footballs, playing fields, referees etc show that the developers tried to make the game as life-like as possible in order to create a realistic experience for those playing the game.
Target audience and popularity: The audience is mainly from the ages 8-22 and those who are fans of sports, football in particular. It has proved very popular and has good reviews, for example: GameRankings provided FIFA 15 with an average rating of 81.57% for the PS4 version. However, some users have complained that their version of the game suffers from lagging and general gameplay bugs.
LittleBigPlanet 3
Developer: Sumo Digital
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Release date: It was released worldwide through the November and December of 2014 for the PlayStation 3 and 4.
Genre: Puzzle-platformer
Narrative: The narrative is set in a fictional world and it revolves around three new protagonists: Oddsock, Toggle and Swoop who all have their own unique traits and abilities and along with the original character, SackBoy, they have to prevent a creator called 'Newton' from destroying their creative paradise. The characters are all animated and extremely fictional.
Target audience and popularity: The game targets a younger audience, both male and female, from the ages of 7 plus and it may also attract adults who enjoy creative concepts like those in LittleBigPlanet. It has received fairly good reviews and GameRankings gave it a score of 80.78% and it was given a 7/10 from Eurogamer.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Developer: Sledgehammer games (Microsoft, PS4, Xbox 1) and High Moon Studios (PS3 Xbox 360)
Publisher: Activision
Release date: November 4th, 2014
Genre: First-person shooter
Narrative: The single player story follows private Jack Mitchell of the United States Marine Corps and it focuses on his interaction with a private military corporation, Atlas. He has to complete a variety of missions and the player has the option of using different weapons including Rifles, Shotguns, Machine guns, Pistols and more.
Representation: Although the protagonist, Mitchell is male, there is still a strong female character within the game. Her name is Ilona and she is a part of the Atlas organization. She is presented as the highest skilled marksman in that organization and she is also portrayed as one of the smartest and most talented field agents. It is quite rare to see a positive representation of women in games like COD and the game goes to show that women can play a strong role in a 'military power fantasy' world and it is not just men who display importance.
Target audience and popularity: The target audience is around 10 plus and although the game has been rated an 18, I think it targets people below that age because they are likely to have experienced other first-person shooting games so will be familiar with the violence and probably mature enough to understand not to repeat the behaviour they see in the game in real life. The game has a high popularity and GameRankings awarded it 83.50% for the PS4 version and it was given an 8/10 from GameSpot.
The Last of Us
Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Release date: 14th June 2013 (PS3) 1st August 2014- UK (PS4)
Genres: Action-adventure and survival horror
Narrative: It is based in a post-apocalyptic world and set in the United States. It follows a male and female protagonist, Joel and Ellie in which the player controls Joel who escorts Ellie across the US. The player uses a variety of weapons including: Rifles, Shotguns and Flame Throwers in order to defend himself and Ellie from hostile humans and zombies who have been 'infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus'.
Representation: There is a good gender balance within The Last of Us and there is not an unfair representation of males or females. We see the dominant ideology come through within the game as both protagonists are white, straight and fairly young and this applys to most of the games I have spoken about which represents a race inequality.
Iconography: The overall mise-en-scene of the game is realistic as to what a 'post-apocalyptic' world would look like based on peoples perceptions of what it should look like- torn down, isolated atmosphere, lack of supplies etc, The actual supernatural creatures within the game (zombies) fit in with the genre of survival horror as they are gory looking so symbolise the violence within the game and possibly the idea that certain parts may be scary,
Target audience and popularity: I believe the target audience is those aged 12- 25 as they are likely to understand the post-apocalyptic themed narrative and may have had experience with similar games or even TV shows such as The Walking Dead. I also think it is aimed at males and females due to there being a male and female protagonist, making the game relateable for everyone. The game received very high ratings, GameRankings gave it 95% (PS3) and 96% (PS4) and it was given a 10/10 from Eurogamer.
Radio Stations
5 radio stations: Capital FM, Classic FM, Xfm, Heart, BBC Radio 4
Capital FM
Broadcast area: United Kingdom
Owners: Global Radio and Communicorp
Genres: Speech and music based
Target audience and popularity: It targets people in the age group of 14-34, those who enjoy popular, mainly pop music and those who are fans of the presenters on the show. It is very popular and has 7.1 million listeners.
Type of music it plays: Capital is constantly updating its playlist with up-to-date music which is popular among its target audience. For example: 'Don't' by Ed Sheeran and 'Love Me Like You Do' by Ellie Goulding are often played. I noticed that Capital often repeats a series of songs every two hours which means I do not listen to it for a long period of time as it gets very repetitive and I feel that at times, it lacks originality.
Other features of the station: The presenters of the Capital breakfast show are Dave Berry and Lisa Snowdon. Other presenters include: Will Cozens, Greg Burns and Marvin Humes. They have phone-ins for audience interactivity, competitions again for more involvement with their audience, outside broadcasts, live concerts including 'The Summertime Ball' and the very popular 'Vodafone Big Top 40'.
Classic FM
Broadcast area: United Kingdom
Owner: Global Radio
Genres: Speech and music based
Target audience and popularity: Classic FM targets an older, possibly more sophisticated audience ranging from 35 plus. It will also attract fans of classical music and of the presenters on the station. It has 5.6 million listeners every week, 70% of whom are in the ABC1 bracket.
Type of music it plays: The station plays a wide range of classical music and it has increased the popularity of classical music by providing a refreshing approach to it and it has been claimed that Classic FM has influenced the music choices of other radio stations such as BBC radio 3. The current head of music is Sam Jackson and a variety of old and new pieces of music are played, including tracks from films and video games. For example: Lord of the Rings- The Council of Elrond.
Other features of the station: Classic FM has many presenters including: Alexander Armstrong, Charlotte Green and Nick Bailey. The presenters each have their own scheduled time slot in order to appeal to different audiences at different times of the day, for example: Charlotte Green has a 'culture club' on Sunday's from 3-5pm in which she speaks to special guests from the world of the arts.
Xfm
Broadcast area: United Kingdom
Owner: Global radio
Genres: Music and speech based
Target audience and popularity: Xfm targets an older audience ranging from 15 plus who enjoy alternative music from a variety of 'indie' bands and singers. It will also appeal to those who are fans of the DJ's and those who listen to Xfm may be fans of gigs and live events. Xfm has 941,000 listeners each week, 67% of whom are in the ABC1 bracket.
Type of music it plays: Xfm plays alternative music, most of which is indie rock. The bands and singers featured include: Imagine Dragons, Ben Howard, Milky Chance and Foo Fighters. Songs played include: 'I bet my life', 'Keep Your Head Up', 'Stolen Dance' and 'Congregation'. Personally, I really enjoy listening to this radio station as I like the genres of music it plays and they play bands and artists that I am a fan of.
Other features of the station: They have a variety of presenters including: Matt Dyson, Jo Good and Ian Camfield. They are involved in festivals such as Benicassim and they have competitions such as to win concert tickets. Also, they have shows such as 'The Xfm Breakfast Show' in which Jon Holmes hosts from 6am-10am every weekday and he plays music, has special guests etc.
Heart
Broadcast area: United Kingdom
Owner: Global Radio
Genres: Music and speech based
Target audience and popularity: Heart targets an audience between the ages of 25-44, 59% of which are female. It has 9 million listeners every week and these listeners are likely to enjoy a variety of music genres and also may be fans of the DJs.
Type of music it plays: Heart plays both new and updated music and older songs in order to attract and appeal to a wider range of people. Newer songs it has played include: 'Thinking Out Loud' by Ed Sheeran and 'Uptown Funk' by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars. Older songs it has played include ones from the band 'Abba'.
Other features of the station: There are many DJ's for heart including: Toby Anstis, Mark Wright and Emma Bunton. They have phone-ins, competitions and weekly shows such as: 'The Wind Down With Jenny Francis' from 10pm-1am Sunday to Thursday in which she plays relaxing, wind down music. There is also the Vodafone Big Top 40 with Marvin Humes on Sundays 4-7pm and 'All 80's with Jason Donovan' every Sunday from 7pm.
BBC Radio 4
Broadcast area: United Kingdom
Owner: BBC
Genre: Speech based
Target audience and popularity: BBC Radio 4 targets the older demographic, those who are sophisticated and like factual information and discussions on serious or important topics. The station has 10.9 million listeners a week who are most likely to mainly consist of the ABC1 bracket and the purpose of the radio station is to inform, educate and entertain them.
Features of the station: Unlike the other radio stations I have discussed, Radio 4 is not music-based and is primarily speech based. The different aspects to this station include: in-depth news, current affairs, drama, readings, discussions, comedy, factual and magazine programmes. The typical schedule for Radio 4 is as follows (taken from wikipedia) "Book of the Week at 09:45, Woman's Hour at 10:00, You and Yours at 12:00, The World at One and a repeat of the previous day's The Archers at 14:00, the Afternoon Drama at 14:15. At 17:00 another current affairs programme, PM, is broadcast. At 18:30 there is a regular comedy 'slot', The Archers at 19:00, Front Row at 19:15 and a repeat of 15 Minute Drama at 19:45. The World Tonight airs at 22:00, followed by Book at Bedtime at 22:45. At weekends the schedule is different, with 'fixtures' at various times".
Monday, 12 January 2015
Visual And Technical Codes
Music video: Clean Bandit- Rather Be
Narrative: The
music video is about a young woman who falls in love with the song ‘Rather Be’
and becomes obsessed with it. She begins hallucinating and everywhere she goes,
she thinks she can see the members of Clean Bandit which shows how much she has
grown to like them and how they influence her day-to-day life. The video follows the daily routine of the Woman and we see her waking up in the morning, going to the fish market, travelling on the train and this makes the video much more relatable for the audience. There is a single narrative strand in this music video because it follows the story of this one woman and it is told through a linear narrative which helps to make the video easy to understand. In a way, action codes have been used because after the first minute or so, we begin to understand that normal people or things the woman sees in her daily life turn into members of the band and the audience knows that is going to occur after a significant action takes place.
Visual codes: At
the beginning of the video, the colours are very bright and a lot of the scenes are set in the daytime to
symbolise how happy the band make her and listening to ‘Rather Be’ brightens up
her day. As the video develops, her hallucinations become worse and the colours
are dull and much darker to represent how the hallucinations are starting to
have a negative impact on her life and are uncontrollable. The video was
clearly set and filmed in Japan because there are many scenes in a fish market
in which Japanese food is being sold and at the very beginning, there are shots
of a koi pond. There is use of the bands logo throughout the music video which
makes it more personal to Clean Bandit and it helps to promote them.
Technical
codes/audio: During the music video and especially towards the end, there
are many close-ups of the girl to show an expression of panic and confusion on
her face; this could be to show that she does not understand why she is having
hallucinations and she is frightened and concerned by them. At times, slow
motion camera is used when the girl sees the band members to make it clear that
she is hallucinating and not seeing straight and we are possibly seeing things
from her point of view which help the audience to understand how she is
feeling. The song ‘Rather Be’ is very upbeat and happy sounding which could be
to represent how listening to the song makes the girl feel positive and it
should have that effect on the audience as well.
Magazine cover: Vogue
Narrative: The magazine is informing the audience on how they can improve their looks and it has quite a girly theme to it because words and phrases are used such as: 'princess' and 'dress-up'. Enigma codes are embedded throughout the different sections of text on this cover because each section does not give much of the article away and they are used to draw the audience in and they are more likely to buy the magazine to read about and understand the context surrounding each sub-heading.
Visual codes: In the masthead, the title is large and bold in order to make it stand out and attract people’s attention; it would be easily noticed in a shop and is very eye-catching so may be hard to miss. The font used is the same as the other vogue magazines which means it is easily recognisable. The colour of the title is pink, as well as most of the text on the front cover, which shows that the magazine is designed for females because the colour pink represents feminism so a male audience would probably not be attracted to the magazine. Popular celebrities are used as the main image on vogue magazines and in this particular one, Lana Del Rey has been used who is a very well-known singer who a lot of females will know or recognise meaning they may be more likely to buy the magazine than if there was a celebrity they did not know as the main image. These visual codes make me think that the audience for vogue magazine is females aged 15-30 as it is clear that the content will appeal to people ranging from those ages and the celebrities on the front look like they are all younger than the age of 30 so older females may not be attracted to the magazine.
Visual codes: In the masthead, the title is large and bold in order to make it stand out and attract people’s attention; it would be easily noticed in a shop and is very eye-catching so may be hard to miss. The font used is the same as the other vogue magazines which means it is easily recognisable. The colour of the title is pink, as well as most of the text on the front cover, which shows that the magazine is designed for females because the colour pink represents feminism so a male audience would probably not be attracted to the magazine. Popular celebrities are used as the main image on vogue magazines and in this particular one, Lana Del Rey has been used who is a very well-known singer who a lot of females will know or recognise meaning they may be more likely to buy the magazine than if there was a celebrity they did not know as the main image. These visual codes make me think that the audience for vogue magazine is females aged 15-30 as it is clear that the content will appeal to people ranging from those ages and the celebrities on the front look like they are all younger than the age of 30 so older females may not be attracted to the magazine.
Film poster: Birdman
Visual codes: The
main subject of the film poster is a man in the direct centre, he is looking
very stern which suggests that the film is going to have a serious tone to it.
There is a much smaller superhero on top of the man’s head which implies that
the man may be a superhero as well as his normal self. The superhero has large wings which links to the title of ‘Birdman’ and
therefore informs the audience that the man’s superpower is flying so gives us
more of an insight into the film. The title is quite small in size, the font is
basic and it has been coloured white meaning that more attention is on the
image of the protagonist and this may have been done to emphasize his
importance and to ensure that he is centre of attention. Additionally, the title
is all in capital letters expect for the letter ‘I’ which could represent how
the film revolves around that one protagonist only and it is about his goals
and development as a character. The poster uses subtle colours such as pale
blue and brown which suggests that the film is mainly aimed at males because
personally, it does not appeal to me as the dull colours do not attract my
attention. I therefore believe that the audience is males ranging from 15-25 as
they are the age group that tend to enjoy superhero films however I also
believe that some adults enjoy films of that genre but it depends mainly on
personal taste.
Technical codes: The
poster has a mature, cartoon feel to it because it has been edited using a
poster effect and I believe that this has been purposely done to make the
poster look like it is from a comic book which makes the genres of action,
adventure and superhero very clear. This furthermore shows how the intended audience
is also superhero and comic book fans who may enjoy films such as Batman and
Spiderman.
Film trailer: 22 Jump Street
Narrative: The
two protagonists, Schmidt and Jenko are police-officers whose mission is to go
undercover at a college in order to find the dealer for a new drug called ‘WhyPhy’. The producer tells the story by introducing a number of narrative strands. Firstly at the beginning, the audience understand that the two protagonists are a part of a community called Jump Street which leads on to the second narrative strand which is how they are going to be going undercover at a college. The remainder of the trailer makes a strong use of enigma codes and we see very small sections of certain scenes which only leaves the audience guessing as they are not yet aware of the context that surrounds it. This is a clever technique because the audience will have to watch the film in order to understand these enigma codes so it is a good way of promoting the film to attract a larger amount of people.
Visual codes: Bright
colours are used throughout the whole trailer and the majority of the scenes
are set in the daytime which helps to create an upbeat atmosphere which is
relaxed and happy which informs the audience that the main genre is comedy. We often see the
two protagonists holding guns which make it clear that they are police-officers
who are on a mission and it informs the audience that there will be violence throughout
the film showing that it will also cover the genre of action. The visual codes,
technical codes and audio make me believe that the intended audience for 22
Jump Street is teenagers, male and female, ranging from the ages 15-21 because
it features well-known actors that teenagers are likely to know and the genre
of comedy often greatly appeals to that age group.
Wednesday, 19 November 2014
Todorov's Narrative Theory
Todorov's narrative theory consists of five stages which define the common structure within a narrative.
1. Equilibrium (balance)
2. Disruption of equilibrium
3. Recognition of disruption of equilibrium
4. Repair of disruption of equilibrium
5. Return of equilibrium.
An example of a film that follows this narrative structure is: Step Brothers, directed by Adam Mckay.
1. Equilibrium: At the beginning of the film, Brennan lives with his mother Nancy and Dale lives with his father Robert. Both Brennan and Dale are very happy with their lifestyles because they are extremely reliant on their parents so barely do anything for themselves.
2. Disruption: When Nancy and Robert meet and make the decision to get married, Brennan and Dale become step brothers and are forced to live together and have to share Dale's room which neither of them are pleased about. The men do not get on at all and they are constantly having arguments especially regarding Dale's most prized possession, his drum set. Their life is now very unsettled therefore the equilibrium has been disrupted.
3. Recognition: About half way through the film, Brennan and Dale realise that they have a lot in common and they end up becoming best friends. They begin to understand that their previous arguments were not worthwhile so they put their conflicts aside.
4. Repair: The men attempt to repair the disruption of the equilibrium by each going their own ways and getting separate jobs after finding out Nancy and Robert split up. However, doing this breaks up the family to an even greater extent so Brennan organizes a sales party for the company he works at, in which Dale is also involved in, and invites both Nancy and Robert in the attempt to bring the family back together.
5. Return: At the end of the film, the equilibrium has been restored because Brennan and Dale form an entertainment company together which is very successful and Nancy and Robert get back together again. The four protagonists now live a more peaceful and happy live now the disruption of the equilibrium has been removed.
1. Equilibrium (balance)
2. Disruption of equilibrium
3. Recognition of disruption of equilibrium
4. Repair of disruption of equilibrium
5. Return of equilibrium.
An example of a film that follows this narrative structure is: Step Brothers, directed by Adam Mckay.
1. Equilibrium: At the beginning of the film, Brennan lives with his mother Nancy and Dale lives with his father Robert. Both Brennan and Dale are very happy with their lifestyles because they are extremely reliant on their parents so barely do anything for themselves.
2. Disruption: When Nancy and Robert meet and make the decision to get married, Brennan and Dale become step brothers and are forced to live together and have to share Dale's room which neither of them are pleased about. The men do not get on at all and they are constantly having arguments especially regarding Dale's most prized possession, his drum set. Their life is now very unsettled therefore the equilibrium has been disrupted.
3. Recognition: About half way through the film, Brennan and Dale realise that they have a lot in common and they end up becoming best friends. They begin to understand that their previous arguments were not worthwhile so they put their conflicts aside.
4. Repair: The men attempt to repair the disruption of the equilibrium by each going their own ways and getting separate jobs after finding out Nancy and Robert split up. However, doing this breaks up the family to an even greater extent so Brennan organizes a sales party for the company he works at, in which Dale is also involved in, and invites both Nancy and Robert in the attempt to bring the family back together.
5. Return: At the end of the film, the equilibrium has been restored because Brennan and Dale form an entertainment company together which is very successful and Nancy and Robert get back together again. The four protagonists now live a more peaceful and happy live now the disruption of the equilibrium has been removed.
Christmas, Consumerism And The Role Of The Media
Christmas advertisements are
constructed, despite how cute, heart-warming and harmless they appear to be.
The companies want to draw in the weak and easily influenced audiences and
persuade them to buy the product that they are advertising. However, some companies
are very smart and discretely advertise a product without the audience
realising what they are doing, meaning they are being 'sucked in' therefore may
end up unintentionally buying the product, resulting in audience consumption
being very high. The majority of advertisements including ones based on the
theme of Christmas follow an audience theory known as the hypodermic needle
theory because the media assume that the audience are empty vessels who know
nothing so are easily manipulated by the media itself. This theory is displayed
in Christmas advertisements because the audience are tricked into believing
that in order to have a ‘fulfilled’ Christmas, they must buy the product being
advertised. Christmas advertisements such as John Lewis, Sainsbury’s and Boots
follow many of the points I have brought across.
The John Lewis Christmas
advertisement 2014:
John Lewis are very well known for
their annual Christmas advertisements and this year was no exception. The 2014
advertisement is about a young boy who has a pet penguin named ‘Monty’. As the
advert develops, we discover than Monty is lonely and is in need of a female
penguin to keep him company which he predictably receives at the very end. John
Lewis has purposely used a young boy and a baby penguin because they know the
audience will find them exceptionally cute therefore will be drawn in to watch
the rest of the advertisement. The themes of love, happiness and friendship are
displayed throughout and these are themes that many people associate with
Christmas, causing them to relate more with the advertisement. John Lewis, as
usual, have used an emotional but catchy song in the background that they know
will stick in peoples head therefore meaning that every time they hear or think
about that particular song, they will remember the John Lewis advert and the
product being advertised within it, which is this case is Monty the penguin.
The advertisement is over two
minutes long which means that John Lewis must have spent a lot of money on
producing it and they would not have done that unless they knew Monty the
penguin was going to provide them with a high profit. It has been evidenced
that John Lewis created the toy versions of Monty and Mabel before the
advertisement which proves that they knew the penguins were going to be very
popular with their audience and would sell out in stores quickly; a very smart
and cunning move made by the company.
The Sainsbury’s Christmas advertisement
2014:
Personally, the Sainsbury’s Christmas
advertisement is my favourite because it focuses on the First World War
therefore is very emotional and genuine. It is about the soldiers on the front
line during the first Christmas of WW1 (1914) and how both the British and
German soldiers came together for that one day. Themes such as giving, remembrance
and friendship are expressed in the advertisement because at the end, a British
and German soldier exchange a chocolate bar for a shortbread biscuit which represents
how Christmas is for giving and being kind to one another.
Sainsbury’s were very clever and
brought out this advertisement soon after Remembrance Day and also because it
has been one hundred years since the start of World War One. This means the advertisement
relates to what is happening now resulting in more people watching it and
feeling engaged with the themes and messages within it. However, the chocolate
bar which is shown towards the end is being sold in Sainsbury’s stores meaning
that although one of the main purposes of this advertisement is to raise
awareness and remembrance for WW1, they still aim for members of their audience
to buy the chocolate bar after watching the advertisement due to being influenced
and emotionally affected by it.
The Boots Christmas advertisement
2014:
The Boots advertisement focuses on
a Mother who could not be home for Christmas with her family due to her working
hours. However on Boxing Day, her family all get up at around midnight to go to
the Mothers house in order to surprise her when she arrives home from work.
This narrative explores the themes of family, generosity, love, togetherness
and the idea of the Mother completing the family. Boots chose a very realistic
topic to work upon meaning the audience will find the advertisement relatable, especially
if they have a family member who works demanding hours such as night shifts as
a nurse resulting in them not being at home for Christmas. There was a good use
of Mise-En-Scene throughout, for example, the snow was used because it is one
of the many symbols of Christmas so really helps to set the scene.
Although products from boots are
being advertised throughout, it is done in a more discrete manner and I
personally do not feel persuaded to go and buy a product from boots that I saw
in the advertisement because it mainly made me just think about the importance
of family during Christmas Time.
Thursday, 16 October 2014
1YA Magazine
Our task was to produce a magazine in groups and we were given a week to make it. The members of our group were Romilly, Fran, Caitlin, Jonnie, Kairo, Shafik and myself. These were our individual roles:
Editors: Romilly and I
Front cover: Romilly and Fran
Contents page: Fran
Advertisements: Fran
Film article: Caitlin
Sports article: Jonnie
Fashion article: Kairo
Technology/games article: Shafik
Health article: Myself
Before we designed our magazine, we looked through a variety of magazines such as Woman's Health to gain information on different layouts, article types and front covers. By doing this, we also felt more prepared and inspired.
The front cover was designed on Photoshop and I believe it was very successful due to the bright colours and unique style used which makes it eye-catching and visual. We decided to name the magazine '1YA' because that is part of the Coulsdon College postcode so it makes it more personal to us and it links in with our target audience which are people aged 16-19 and this is the age range of students studying at the College. All of the articles were made on Microsoft Word and I feel that they were all very well written and we have covered a wide range of topics with our choice of articles.
My particular tasks were to write two articles based on the theme of health and to help with the editing of the magazine. I chose to write about sexual health for the first article and nutritious recipes for the second article because these are topics that interest our target audience and are what many 16-19 year old's look for in a health article. For the sexual health article, I used the NHS website as my source to insure that my facts were correct and to gain the numbers for different helplines that I could use. For the food article I mainly wrote the recipes from personal experience however I used some recipe books for information about ingredient amounts. I chose to use recipes that were very simple as well as healthy because it is aimed at students who are unlikely to have the time to make complex meals. Overall, I am very pleased with my health articles because they are informative, easy to read and relevant to our target audience. My role when it came to editing was to read over everyone's articles to make sure there were no spelling errors or general mistakes and also to insure they looked similar and did not have a completely different layout to one another.
Here, you can see that I have used colours that have connotations of 'sexual health' such as pink and red and I think this is important because it gives the audience a clearer idea on what the article is going to be about just by looking at the colours.
I have separated my article into columns to make it simple to read and each section is on a different topic. For example, the health and advice section is separate from the alcohol and sex section. By doing this, the reader can easily find what they are looking for within the article.
I believe that the header for this article is simple but effective because there is not too much writing and the image of the fruit adds vibrancy and lets the audience know that the topic is going to be food.
I decided to do a recipe for breakfast, lunch and dinner because it provides more of a variety for the audience and it is quite unique because I had not seen this idea being used in any of the magazines I looked at. I insured that I included vegetarian options and also a picture of each meal so the reader gets a deeper insight into the recipe.
The magazine evaluation:
What went well?
Each article fitted in well with one another and after editing them together, the layouts were similar which helped to create a theme within our magazine. Also, each article had images, making them appealing to look at and colourful which links in with our bright front page. The overall feel to our magazine was very professional and looking at other magazines before designing ours definitely helped us to achieve that. Everyone in my group worked well together as a team, meaning that everyone knew what tasks they had to do, resulting in us completing the magazine to a high quality.
What would I improve if we were to do it again?
If we were given longer than a week to make our magazine, I feel it could have been much better as there would be a greater amount of content and advertisements which in turn would make the magazine look more 'complete'. We would also have enough time to add more articles such as ones based on music or gossip which would make '1YA' appeal to a larger number of people within our target audience.
Editors: Romilly and I
Front cover: Romilly and Fran
Contents page: Fran
Advertisements: Fran
Film article: Caitlin
Sports article: Jonnie
Fashion article: Kairo
Technology/games article: Shafik
Health article: Myself
Before we designed our magazine, we looked through a variety of magazines such as Woman's Health to gain information on different layouts, article types and front covers. By doing this, we also felt more prepared and inspired.
The front cover was designed on Photoshop and I believe it was very successful due to the bright colours and unique style used which makes it eye-catching and visual. We decided to name the magazine '1YA' because that is part of the Coulsdon College postcode so it makes it more personal to us and it links in with our target audience which are people aged 16-19 and this is the age range of students studying at the College. All of the articles were made on Microsoft Word and I feel that they were all very well written and we have covered a wide range of topics with our choice of articles.
My particular tasks were to write two articles based on the theme of health and to help with the editing of the magazine. I chose to write about sexual health for the first article and nutritious recipes for the second article because these are topics that interest our target audience and are what many 16-19 year old's look for in a health article. For the sexual health article, I used the NHS website as my source to insure that my facts were correct and to gain the numbers for different helplines that I could use. For the food article I mainly wrote the recipes from personal experience however I used some recipe books for information about ingredient amounts. I chose to use recipes that were very simple as well as healthy because it is aimed at students who are unlikely to have the time to make complex meals. Overall, I am very pleased with my health articles because they are informative, easy to read and relevant to our target audience. My role when it came to editing was to read over everyone's articles to make sure there were no spelling errors or general mistakes and also to insure they looked similar and did not have a completely different layout to one another.
Here, you can see that I have used colours that have connotations of 'sexual health' such as pink and red and I think this is important because it gives the audience a clearer idea on what the article is going to be about just by looking at the colours.
I have separated my article into columns to make it simple to read and each section is on a different topic. For example, the health and advice section is separate from the alcohol and sex section. By doing this, the reader can easily find what they are looking for within the article.
I believe that the header for this article is simple but effective because there is not too much writing and the image of the fruit adds vibrancy and lets the audience know that the topic is going to be food.
I decided to do a recipe for breakfast, lunch and dinner because it provides more of a variety for the audience and it is quite unique because I had not seen this idea being used in any of the magazines I looked at. I insured that I included vegetarian options and also a picture of each meal so the reader gets a deeper insight into the recipe.
The magazine evaluation:
What went well?
Each article fitted in well with one another and after editing them together, the layouts were similar which helped to create a theme within our magazine. Also, each article had images, making them appealing to look at and colourful which links in with our bright front page. The overall feel to our magazine was very professional and looking at other magazines before designing ours definitely helped us to achieve that. Everyone in my group worked well together as a team, meaning that everyone knew what tasks they had to do, resulting in us completing the magazine to a high quality.
What would I improve if we were to do it again?
If we were given longer than a week to make our magazine, I feel it could have been much better as there would be a greater amount of content and advertisements which in turn would make the magazine look more 'complete'. We would also have enough time to add more articles such as ones based on music or gossip which would make '1YA' appeal to a larger number of people within our target audience.
Tuesday, 30 September 2014
Wednesday, 24 September 2014
Monday, 22 September 2014
'About Me' Evaluation
I filmed my short video using the Nikon D7000 and set it up on a tripod so there was no movement. I decided to use this camera because it is of a high quality so it made my video look more professional.
What went well?
Overall, I believe that my video was very successful because I covered a wide range of topics in a short space of time. I spoke clearly and the sound was not too quite or too loud, making it easy to take in the information without struggling to hear what was being said. Throughout the video, I made good eye contact helping me to come across as more confident in front of a camera. Also, I thought carefully about my background as I wanted to make it personal to me. For that reason, I put my Penny Skateboard on the shelves behind me as it is something I use frequently, as well as the books because I enjoy reading. I used a Nikon D7000 instead of a phone to emphasise my passion for cameras and to show that photography is one of my main hobbies.
What would I improve?
If I had the opportunity to film this video again, there are a few changes I would make. Firstly I would try to talk a bit slower as I feel as if I rushed a few parts of the video, resulting in it being slightly shorter in length. I would also add background music to make it more creative and personalised. This way, the video would be more interesting to watch because there would be more to it rather than me just talking to a camera with no background noise.
Overall, I believe that my video was very successful because I covered a wide range of topics in a short space of time. I spoke clearly and the sound was not too quite or too loud, making it easy to take in the information without struggling to hear what was being said. Throughout the video, I made good eye contact helping me to come across as more confident in front of a camera. Also, I thought carefully about my background as I wanted to make it personal to me. For that reason, I put my Penny Skateboard on the shelves behind me as it is something I use frequently, as well as the books because I enjoy reading. I used a Nikon D7000 instead of a phone to emphasise my passion for cameras and to show that photography is one of my main hobbies.
What would I improve?
If I had the opportunity to film this video again, there are a few changes I would make. Firstly I would try to talk a bit slower as I feel as if I rushed a few parts of the video, resulting in it being slightly shorter in length. I would also add background music to make it more creative and personalised. This way, the video would be more interesting to watch because there would be more to it rather than me just talking to a camera with no background noise.
Saturday, 13 September 2014
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