Module 5 Blog - Independent Study: September 2008

Monday 29 September 2008

Information On Alfonso Cuaron (director of children of men)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0190859/ - Imdb website
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/alfonso_cuaron/ - Rotten Tomatoes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_Cuar%C3%B3n - wikipedia
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/tv_film/newsid_3758000/3758101.stm - cbbc article
http://www.cinematical.com/2006/12/25/interview-children-ofmen-director-alfonso-cuaron/ - interview on children of men
http://www.bafta.org/learning/webcasts/a-life-in-pictures-alfonso-cuaron,370,BA.html -british films academy

Friday 26 September 2008

Ao3.2 - Comparing and accounting for similarities and differences - i feel that this is the most important to me as i feel that alot of my answers for my question can be related to the comparisons that I do, however I feel that I can do it pretty well but it could be of better quality.

Ao3.1 - Issues/debates/theories - i am already showing a good sign of knowledge of theorists, however it could be further expanded upon. I think that I may have a problem relating the theorists with the issues and debates, however so far it is going well.

Ao2 - Wider Context - wider context is important because it shows how all your work affects SHEP (social, historical, economical, political). so far though I think that I have developed a wide knowledge and understanding, however it still could be worked on.

Ao1 - Key concepts - i feel that even though we had learnt these last I need to brush up on them, however I do not feel that is the most important thing because I already know quite alot of it.

A05 - Research - I already have alot of research, may be as we move on it could be improved, but not right now.

Thursday 25 September 2008

Self Evaluation For Presentation

WWW
I interacted with the class
started with a joke to keep audience entertained
detailed research on topics -Apocalypse -Theories -Main Text
good use of images to sumarise the topic in each slide
good selection for youtube clip that I asked the class to analyse
added my own personal views/feelings into the presentation
Presented Handouts for the class

EBI
just put a little information into each slide, as I had to much content within terms of written information
Add other more relivant information, such as information on the director, as well as include Auteur theory in my theories slide
don't have such a long winded question that leaves audience confused

TARGETS
gather information on director and auteur theory
cut down on the amount of written information within one slide
change the question to something that is not long winded, something more simple

Tuesday 23 September 2008

Books

Film Genre - Rick Altman

One of the particular sections that I picked out from the book is from the reception approach to genre with comparison to semantic section.

like reception study, a semantic/syntactic/pragmatic approach refuses determinacy to textual structures taken alone, but in addition it acknowledges the difficulty of extracting those textual structures from the institutions and social habits that frame them and lend the apperance of making meaning on their own. My perception of this extract is that it backs up the idea that the text is based around the social issues that are going on around the time, therefore it is a factor in which effects the perception that a person gets out of a text, therefore effecting their actions/beliefs/motives.

An Introduction To Film Studies (third Edition) - Jill Nelmes

Audience study,even though concerned with large collections of people, is now less likely to generalise than is spectator studies; it is concerned rather with local and specific that may explain audience behaviour.

From the earilest studies of film audiences it is clear that the routine methods of social science could tell us a great deal. in these audience studies and in many others like them since the 1910s, what we have are deductions made from the collectionof quantifiable information - information about, for example, frequence of visits to the cinema and genre preferences. (this contrasts with the inductive approach of spectatorshi, which starts with a theory and then projects it onto the object of study - the person in front of the movie screen.) For me this extract means that by studying the amount of times a spectator comes and views a certain movie genre is a means to answering the question of the behaviour of the movies audience, therefore proving that the idea the audience watch apocolptice films for the purposes of recreation or Entertainment (linking to the uses and gratifications theory). However the last sentences project the idea that apocolyptic films of the future are used as warnings to the audience of possible future events, trying to effect attitudes and beliefs as well as motives within its audience.

ONline Reviews for Children Of Men

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/114077/children.of.men - Film - The Guardian
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/children_of_men/ - rotten tomatoes
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206634/news?year=2006 - Imdb

Phillip French (the guardian website) - 'What the narrative demands, and what Cuaron provides, is moral ambiguity and a teasing hopefulness that suggests the possibility of redemption.' This quote is important to my independent study as it works in backing up the idea that in this day and age humans are looking for some kind of way in which we can redeem our wrongful and reckless care of the earth. However it also supports the idea that the audience is mainly identifying with the film, by seeing the effects within the film they are affected moral which will therefore effect their actions and beliefs.

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times (Rotten tomatoes website) - 'the film serves as a cautionary warning. The only thing we will have to fear in the future, we learn, is the past itself. Our past. Ourselves.' This quote serves as reiterating the idea that apocalyptic films of the future serve as setting a warning to its audiences, this being that the actions that we have now are damaging the environment. So it is ultimately saying that the main perception gained from this film is that the film serves as a means to change or alter these actions in order to create a better environment for the future generation.

Manohla Dargis in the New York Times observes (IMBD website)- that Cuarón's film "is a gratifying sign that big studios are still occasionally in the business of making ambitious, intelligent work that speaks to adults." Once again this backs up the point that however unrealistic the film is it will effect the actions within its audience, in this quote it is suggesting that the level of ambiguity is the reason for the words that are spoken to the audience.

MIGRAIN ANALYSIS OF CHILDREN OF MEN PIG SEQUENCE

M -

I -

G -

R -

A -

I -

N -

Friday 19 September 2008

Apocalyptic films website of peoples views

http://www.cracked.com/article_15067_surviving-end-world-what-weve-learned-from-movies.html

Tuesday 16 September 2008

Soundtrack to Children Of Men

"Ruby Tuesday"
"Running the World"
"The Court of the Crimson King"
"Bring on the Lucie"
"Hush"
"Witness (One Hope)"
"Life in a Glass House"
"Omgyjya Switch7"
"Arbeit Macht Frei"
"Anti War Dub"
"Wait"
"Sleepy Shores"
"Propaganda & Bells and Zed Music"
"Tomorrow Never Knows"
"Male Thijs Loud Scream Sample"
"Opa Opa"
"Money Honey"
"Alexander's Feast"
"Spirit of Pageantry"
"Elizabethan Serenade (Where the Gentle Avon Flows)"
"Backward"
"Indian Stomp"
"There Is an Ocean"
"Kindertotenlieder: Nun will die Sonn' so hell aufgeh'n"
"Total State Machine"
"Lila"
"War Dub"
"Sakana"
"Of! Of! Of!"
"Allegro from Symphony No. 10"
"Andante Assai from Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor Opus 63"
"Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1959-1961)"
Taken from this website - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206634/soundtrack
Some Of These trakcs are posted on my music player on the top right of this blog.

Monday 15 September 2008

Making Of Children Of Men

Children of Men website

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2006/sep/22/juliannemoore.thriller - Reviews of the movie Children Of Men on the Media guardian website.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/reviews/2006/childrenofmen.html - Children Of Men in relation to Christianity.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2006/09/18/children_of_men_2006_review.shtml - Review of Children Of Men on the bbc website.

Article on Children of Men in the guardian website

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2006/sep/22/juliannemoore.thriller

Thursday 11 September 2008

Independance Day Film On Youtube

Book on Uses And Gratifications

http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=sB8sLJSqsHoC&oi=fnd&pg=PA181&dq=Books+On+Uses+and+gratifications+theory+-media&ots=FchABgnNic&sig=OTaX_78e_lBzmJhmkqTOyZjoer8

Presentation for ideas on Independant study

Slide 1:
Ideas

•My idea is focusing on genre
•I will be looking at films that are scary
•I will also be looking at the morals or messages that the films are trying to get out
•By focusing on the types of films that are aimed at targeting your fears I will be able to analyse the how the events in the films affect the motives of the audience

Slide 2:
Possible films

•The possible films that I will be looking at are the following:
ØThe day after tomorrow (2004)
ØIndependence day (1996)
ØResident Evil (2002)
ØChildren of men (2006)
•I will be looking at many more films, however as you can tell these films are mainly environmental/sci-fi films.
•These films all focuses on the major deaths of human kind, in other words raising awareness of future events of mass death.

Slide 3:
Possible questions

1.How do messages/morals effect the minds and beliefs of its audiences in films that attack your fears?
2.How do horror (or Zombie) films attack your mind? And how do they do this in comparison to what message they are trying to get out?

Presentation

Slide 1:
Apocalypse

•According to wikipedia the definition of apocalypse is - a term applied to the disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden from the majority of humankind. Today the term is often used to refer to the end of the world.
•Apocalyptic films are designed around targeting the fears of its audience, which may be found as quite entertaining. However my aim is to discuss whether watching these types of films affect the attitudes of its audience, for example watching a film that brings on the end of the world because of global warming, would it make the person that is consuming the film want to become more environmentally friendly in order to prevent things like global warming?

Slide 2 :
Films

•The following films are the popular apocalyptic/sci-fi films of the 21st century:
•The Day After Tomorrow (2004) - The Day After Tomorrow is an apocalyptic science-fiction film that depicts the effects of global warming.
•Children of Men (2006) - is a dystopian (a creation of a nightmare world) sci-fi film, the film is set in the future(2027) of the united kingdom the film explores a grim world in which two decades of global human infertility have left humanity with less than a century to survive.
•I Am Legend (2007) - is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi film, It is the third feature film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 'I am Legend'. Will Smith plays virologist Robert Neville, who is immune to a vicious man-made virus originally created to cure cancer. He works to create a cure while living in Manhattan in 2012, a city inhabited by animalistic victims of the virus.
•War Of The Worlds (2005) - a sci-fi disaster film, It is one of four film adaptations of the novel. The film focuses on the attack of America by Aliens.
•I-Robot (2004) – sci-fi film set in the year 2035, Robots carry out the everyday tasks that humans would do, however something goes wrong and the robots start killing all the humans.
•Constantine (2005) - John Constantine is the exorcist who has been to Hell and back, and whose soul is sentenced to hell. He has been deporting demons to get on good terms with God, yet God wants self-sacrifice. After the mysterious suicide of her twin sister, detective Angela Dodson goes out in search of the truth. Together, Constantine and Angela battle the demons on Earth.
•Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)/Resident Evil (2002)/Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2005) – a trilogy that contains a leak of a virus which kills everyone, yet they came back to life, and fed on those who were not infected.
•Dawn Of The Dead (2004) – another flesh eating zombie film.
•28 Weeks Later (2007) – another virus spreading film that kills all humankind.

Slide 3:
Theories

•The reception theory can be used to explain the idea of the affect that consuming a type of media has on an audience.
•Reception theory argues that contextual factors, more than textual ones, influence the way the spectator views the film or television program. In short, reception theory places the viewer in context, taking into account all of the various factors that might influence how she or he will read and create meaning from the text.
•Another theory that answers my question is the uses and gratifications theory, the uses and gratifications theory is The basic theme of uses and gratifications is the idea that people use the media to get specific gratifications. The main idea of the Uses and Gratifications model is that people are not helpless victims of all powerful media, but use media to fulfill their various needs. Looking in particularly at these ideas - Inform and educate — the audience gain an understanding of the world around them by consuming a media text, for example print and broadcast news.
Entertain - consumed purely for entertainment purposes, meaning that text need not have any other gratifications.
Social interaction — People create personal relationships with the characters in a media text. Potentially this could become dangerous if people do not question the reality of such texts. It also creates a common ground for conversation in people's every day lives.

Slide 4
Children Of Men

The text that I shall be using to mainly refer to in my independent study will be Children Of Men (2006), the text that we had to analyse in the as exams.
Brief Summary
In 2027, as humankind faces the likelihood of its own extinction, a disillusioned government agent agrees to help transport and protect a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea where her child's birth may help scientists to save the future of mankind.
Information
Ødirector is Alfonso Cuarón
ØGenre – dystopian/sci-fi
ØIt is an adaption from the novel
ØSet In the United Kingdom of 2027
ØChildren of Men grossed $69,612,678 worldwide, with $35,552,383 of the revenue generated in the United States.
ØIt was released by Universal Pictures and Strike Entertainment
ØThe films tagline is ‘No children, No Future, No hope’
Within the film
Sound - Cuarón uses sound and music to bring the fictional world of social unrest and infertility to life, by using a creative yet restrained combination of rock, pop, hip-hop and classical music, as well as The mundane sounds of traffic, barking dogs, and advertisements. the film makes use of silence and sound effects such as the firing of automatic weapons, and loudspeakers directing the movement of "fugees"
Children Of Men is important to my independent study as it is a film that looks at the world at a crisis because women are not giving birth any more. I shall look at this film in order to determine whether the disaster of women not giving birth affects the attitudes and morals of its audience.

Tuesday 9 September 2008

War Of The Worlds On Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D7A2850A8FC509E9

The Day After Tomorow Movie On Youtube

Uses and gratifications theory

Uses and gratifications, is not a single approach but a body of approaches developed out of empirical studies beginning in the mid 20th century. It is one of many audience theories recognised in the media.
The basic theme of uses and gratifications is the idea that people use the media to get specific gratifications. This is in opposition to the Hypodermic Syringe model that claims consumers have no say in how the media influences them. The main idea of the Uses and Gratifications model is that people are not helpless victims of all powerful media, but use media to fulfill their various needs. These needs serve as motivations for using media.
Jay G. Blumler and Elihu Katz devised their uses and gratifications model in 1974 to highlight five areas of gratification in media texts for audiences. These include:
Escape — Some media texts allow the user to escape from reality. For example, video games.
Social interaction — People create personal relationships with the characters in a media text. Potentially this could become dangerous if people do not question the reality of such texts. It also creates a common ground for conversation in people's every day lives.
identify — People often identify a part of themselves in a media text, either through character or circumstance. For example, hair style trends stemming from a magazine feature. This can go a long way in people's ideologies.
Inform and educate — the audience gain an understanding of the world around them by consuming a media text, for example print and broadcast news.
Entertain - consumed purely for entertainment purposes, meaning that text need not have any other gratifications.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uses_and_gratifications"

Also look at: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/usegrat.html
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Communication_Theory/Uses_and_Gratifications
http://www.mediaknowall.com/alevkeyconcepts/audience.html