Representation of Gender

Firstly the representation of gender is shown through Mise-en scene. The costume of the worn by the main female character comes across very masculine as she is wearing trousers and a leather jacket whereas the other female character in the clip is wearing a silk, red dress showing feminine characteristics as she looks classy and expensive, whereas the other women is portrayed to not care about her appearance which is expected for a feminine female. The male character is wearing a suit which portrays him to be masculine as it signifies he is of a higher class or has more power. The setting of the clip looking like a space ship is very much masculine as space is associated with men. The decor of the location used is very plain and simple suggests that its masculine as a feminine decor would be very colourful, pretty and vibrant. The props used throughout such as the doctors pen shows masculinity because it represents power and shows that the male character is in control, however this could also show a feminine side because without the pen the male character would have no power, leaving him weak and powerless. The body language of the male character in a suit at the beginning of the clip comes across very confident, as this is a masculine characteristic he is portrayed to be masculine. The body language of the female character comes across both masculine and feminine in different parts of the clip. For example: when she starts to laugh at the male character in the suit she is portrayed to be masculine because she is coming across brave which is associated with masculine men. Whereas when she is told to kneel down by the male character she comes across feminine because she does at she's told. Throughout the clip personal distance is used between the characters, therefore this could suggest that the characters are not masculine enough to create intimate distance.  

Representations of gender is shown through camera work. There is a low angle which is looking down on the male character, this allows the audience to see his venerability, meaning he is subordinate which is normally stereotypically portrayed through female characters as it is a feminine characteristic. An extreme close up on the female character is used during the flashback to show her struggle and fear, portraying her as feminine. However there is also a medium close up used on the female character which contrast with the extreme close up because in the close up she is shown to be confronting the male character, showing braveness and fearlessness and also power, therefore showing her to be dominate. The establishing shot  at the very start of the clip allows the audience to see the setting, where the action will take place, during this establishing shot the male character is at a higher level than everyone else, due to him standing on a higher platform, looking down at everyone else. There is also a close up of the doctor in a cage, this strongly portrays him to have feminine characteristics due to the fact he is be controlled by the other male character, the doctor being in a cage represents him to be powerless.

The shot of earth can seen to be lacking in verisimilitude as it doesn't show a believable world and is not what we would steroetypically assume the earth looks like.

The representation of gender is also shown through sound. Throughout the clip diegetic, non-diegetic, asynchronous and synchronous sounds are used. The diegetic and synchronous sound used in the clip is the dialogue/speech. The deep, loud voices portray the characters as masculine, whereas the quite, sweet voices portray the characters as feminine. Also through the characters speech you can hear when they become scared or unsettled which shows a feminine side. There are a number of non-diegetic and asynchronous sounds used. For example the background music throughout the clip which changes when the atmosphere becomes tense. The exaggeration of the footsteps in the clip creates a masculine feel as it also creates a tense atmosphere, meaning something is about to happen. The sound effects used such as the ticking clock creates suspense for the audience and also the laugh which shows masculinity as it is a women laughing which shows she is brave in this situation. 

Representations of gender has been shown through the use of editing. Eye-line matches are used a number of times. For example at the very beginning of the clip there is a eye-line match between the women and the man in the suit. During this eye-line match the man is shown to be masculine as he is portrayed as dominate. A flashback is also shown in the clip which uses the montage editing technique. During this flashback the women is portrayed to have a masculine role because she controlling the way people are thinking about the doctor. However just before this flashback there is a cross dissolve of the women shown to be struggling. This shows her feminine side because the stereotypical women cannot cope in tough situations. Straight cuts are also used to show one scene and then another one at a quick pace to keep the viewers attention. While the women is telling the story there is a shot reverse shot used while in conversation. The women is portrayed to be dominate as everyone is listening to her she becomes masculine. 

Terminology
Realism - do the different techniques used make these piece realistic?
Verisimilitude - the construction of a believable world, bearing resemblance to real world
Stereotypes - how people are expected to be or represented in larger groupsDenotation ( or denotes) - the meaning of something eg we could see that from the empty bottles they had been drinking.Connotation ( or connotes) - the implication of that meaning eg they are all alcoholics and will die due to lover failure!

How your experiences of media consumption illustrates wider patterns and trends?

Audiences are continuously changing the way they want to consume a film. This is due to the growing technology within Production, Distribution and Exhibition. My own experiences can be seen to illustrate wider patterns and trends.

The production stage of making a film is effected by the changing ways to want to consume a film. First a large amount of audiences, including me, prefer to costume film in the cinema. The production companies would therefore make their films in 3D as many people will only be able to costume this at the cinema opposed to home cinema or download. However some audiences prefer to costume film via download, youtube and on demand. This means that the production company can film digitally which saves time and money. However this can lose the production company money as the audiences may be watching the film illegally therefore they are not paying to consume it. Going back to filming digitally, this can be seen as more consistent that filming on film as it the quality does not change no matter how many times it is costumed whereas with film the quality becomes worst. Another way in which the production stage is effected by the audience consumption is the need to make the film bigger and better. When people go to the cinema they want to have the best experience for their money. Therefore this means that the production company will need a big budget to compete with other leading films. For example 'Skyfall' was released in 2012 along with 'The Tempest' and the remake of "The rocky horror show' however due to "Skyfall' having special effect and a famous cast they did much better than the other film making $88,364,714 where as 'The rocky horror show' only made $211,243.

The changing ways to consume film had also effected the Distribution stage. Firstly the way in which the film is marketed is changed to suit where the audience will see it. For example if the audiences are consuming films in various ways the distribution companies will 360 degree marketing to ensure that the film is advertised on all levels in viewing the film. When films are viewed on video on demand websites, adverts for the website are also a way of advertising the actual film itself. For example on the Netflix advert shows clips of film such as 'transformers' and '21 jump street'.  When looking at the exchange stage of a film, audiences are able to pre book cinema tickets as from experience their is risk of being unable to see the film as it may already be fully booked. Therefore this showing the exhibitors adapting to the increase in the use of internet to help with the large amount of audiences consuming films in cinema.

When looking at how the Exhibition stage of a film is effected by the changing ways to consume a film.

Fish Tank Case study - Local and national audiences

Fish Tank Case study - Cross Media Convergence and Synergy from taylorcockley

Ill Manors Case study- cross media convergence and synergy

Ill Manors Case study- Local and National Audiences from taylorcockley

case study

Black swan case study from taylorcockley

case study

The inbetweeners case study from taylorcockley

Section B-Institution and Audiences Review

Case Study

Background Information

'Fox Searchlight Pictures' is the parent company to '20th Century Fox' which is part of the 'Fox Entertainment Group(a subsidiary of News Corporation)

News corporation is owned by Rupert and is the 2nd largest conglomerate in the world.It is also a mass media multinational company. Their assets are worth over $56 billion.

Although Fox searchlight Pictures are owned by a global mass market corporation, they focus on British films, horror films, dramedy and non-English language films.

Concentration of media ownership

This is the process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organisation control increasing shares of the mass media.

Research demonstrates that the media industry is already highly concentrated and dominated by a very small number of companies.

The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the US as of 2012.This is along with News Corporation, Time Warner and  Viacom ranking in second, third and fourth. 

News Corp Controversy

They are known for being a biased media organisation. They had previously given donations to the right wing American political parties.

They also had a controversial surrounding with their news outlets after hacking was used by one of their journalists.  

Unlike the BBC, News Corp have subsidiaries which promote the leaders ethos and have an agenda mcuh like other propaganda.

Cross-Media Convergence and Synergy
 Production:
To be part of a conglomerate means  that the money for production is available for Searchlight- Bigger budgets can help to attract bigger stars and they will be able to have the newest technologies for special effects and actually shooting the film.
Film are most commonly developed by a smaller production company.
FSP can pick up a film that has already been developed and has a lot of potential.
This means working with other companies through synergistic horizontal integration

Marketing and Distribution
FSP sometime only distributes the film however when FSP markets and distributes a film they have the financial backing of major conglomerate therefore they adapt their budgets according on how well the film does in the first few weeks at the box office.
On the other hand, if films fail at the box office the loss that the FSP takes can be absorbed by News Corp.

360 Degree Marketing

• Online and Offline tools
• Above the line and Below the line marketing

Black swan

• Teaser trailer, multiple trailers and featurettes on TV and online
• Horizontal Integration- Fox Searchlight Pictures, Cross Creek Pictures, Protozoa and Phoenix Pictures
• Released by a parent company therefore it had a larger distribution network
• Cross media promotion(below the line strategies)- a way of working in synergy with other companies for the benefit of both- Magazines, reviews and audience 2.0
• Audience 2.0- Comments of FSP's own YouTube channel with over 21 million views of the trailer to date. This mean that the film can go viral on social networking.
•  It had a Premiere, Press conference, three famous stars included, an academy award nominee and a huge french star
• There was controversy due to the lesbien scene as well as self harm.
• It had a well known director
• All of its mass marketing meant that it was impossible to avoid not knowing about the film. 

FSP Successes

• Slumdog millionaire(Academy award for best film)
• Juno
• 127 Hours
• Little Miss Sunshine
• The Full Monty(3.5 million to 257 million)
• Beast of the southern wild
• Napoleon Dynamite (400,00 to 46 million)
• 500 Days of summer
• 28 Days later(5 million to 28 million)
• Black swan(13 million to 329 million)